Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 20:03:21 +0300 Reply-To: Rapier Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Rapier Subject: In The Dark V of VII IN THE DARK (c) by Marko Lidman PART V 1704, At sea, somewhere on a way to England Francis Carrera woke up and instantly saw that he hadn't been under for too long. The cannon was still smoking and the other ship was still on surface. He got up quickly and examined himself already subconsciously knowing he wouldn't find any wounds, silently he gave a prayer to God thanking him for this gift, promising to himself that he would find time later to give a more decent prayer. The fight had almost ended, the remaining pirates generally giving up and throwing down their weapons. At first it seemed that Francis was the only one to see that the ship was sinking but then a few men emerged from the ships hold carrying the gargo to the pirate-ship. Apparently the captain had given orders to abandon the ship. Francis jumped back to the ship he had travelled thus far and ran to his cabin to collect his sack. Jack Shepherd was already there collecting his, a little more numerous, packs. Jacks eyes showed clearly that he was relieved to see Francis alive. "Franc, thank God you are alive!" Jack exclaimed. "Well, I already did, but I'm going to do it again when we get out of here." "I saw the explosion. I thought you were a goner, are you really okay?" "Hey, stop that, I am all right. You just take care of your stuff. Give me that bag," Francis took Jack's bag and took it and his own to their new ship. He saw that the safeboats were filled with food and goods and some men were furiously rowing them farther away from the sinking ship. Other men carried their own part in to the other ship. Despite the hurrying and efficient men much of the gargo had to be left behind but at least the most valuable goods were saved. Francis and Jack managed to get all of their stuff with them. -------------------- The most of the next week was spent in cleaning up the dirty ship and inventorying all the saved gargo plus the gargo pirates had plundered before attacking them. In the end the captain looked quite happy with all of it although he had lost his beloved ship. At the end of the week captain invited both Francis and Jack to eat with him in his new cabin. As the men stepped in to the aftercabin they were surprised by the luxury. The cabin was clearly the only part of the ship that hadn't needed any cleaning or repairing. "Hello, good fellows. Come here to sit in my new table." The captain invited seeming quite happy. Both men sat on the table looking curiously around. "It seems that the former captain, who Francis shot, liked to live in luxury," the captain gleamed "It surely seems so. Who do you think he was?" Francis asked. "I don't know. The men we caught knew only his name and nothing else. In fact they seemed quite scared of him." "He DID look like a guy who could inspire fear," Francis said shuddering a little as he remembered those eyes. "Yes he did. When he attacked me I knew I was losing the second I saw his eyes. They were a kind of hypnotising. I'm sure glad you stopped him." "Permanently," Jack added, his mouth full of meat. "Yes! Truly." The captain laughed. As they ate, Francis looked around a bit more closely. There were even a bookshelf in one corner. 'That man was rich enough to store his books in an environment like this, I really would like to see his home,' the old burglars instincts were kicking back in and Francis suppressed them forcefully. After they had all finished their eating, the captain started speaking. "I know I've not introduced myself to you and it is because I tell my name only to the people I respect, the others can just call me captain. Let me introduce myself, I am Thomas Blackburn. Private merchant of the roaming seas!" Thomas laughed again, clearly for the wine he had been drinking from the aftercabin's private storage. "I must thank you for defending my ship and defeating the pirates. It was mainly for your skills that saved us even this well." "Well, Mr. Blackburn, we were really defending ourselves too. It was not like we were just thinking about you or the general good," Jack said. "That's unessential, you did save my crew! And do call me Thomas. I'd like to let you know that anytime you need help you can turn to me. But for now I ask you to choose something from this room as a gift to yourselves. There is so much riches around I don't really feel comfortable in here so make your choice." "Well, thank you," Jack said and rose from the table walking to the side tables to examine the goods. "Hey, Thomas, you don't know what you are promising. Some of these items are enough to pay for a new ship!" Francis laughed. "Really, I don't need that many ships! Go on and pick something." Francis laughed as he moved to the bookshelf and inspected it. It was showing clearly to a trained eye. Perfect place to hide something on a ship where sailors could not read and thus didn't pay any attention to the bookshelves either. He moved the books of from the second highest shelf and opened the secret locker he found behind them. He heard the captain gasp as he took out a jewelled transparent box full of gems of all sizes and styles, well, he could not really hide his own amazement either. "May I take this?" he asked the captain innocently. "Oh my... OH MY! Bring it here. Let me see it!" They all gasped as Francis opened the box and took out handful of gems rolling them in his hand as the sunlight played with all the colours of a rainbow on the surfaces of them. "Well, now you can buy a fleet of ships, how does it feel?" Jack asked the captain, chuckling. "This is incredible! These must be worth a fortune!" Blackburn said, still gasping. "I gather you will not let me choose these, then?" "Francis Carrera, I said you can choose something from this room, NOT some things. You can still pick any ONE item you want." "I'll take this jewelled little case then, you can pour your gems somewhere else." "It's a deal. What will you choose, Jack?" "I don't really know, you've got so many fancy items here it's hard to just pick something up and go..." Jack trailed as he walked around the aftercabin finally choosing a lovely necklace. "There's one girl I know who will be quite happy to see me and I think this is something I'd like to give her." "It's yours to give. Now, I presume you want to get some sleep before morning so I let you go. We can talk more later," he said, eagerly toying with the jewels. "That we will do. Come on Franc, let's go under the deck." Francis and Jack left the captain alone with his gems. Francis kept his treasure under his cloak, so none of the sailors would get any ideas, Jack noticed this and did the same. As they had reached their cabin and bolted the door behind them, they took out their prizes. "Franc, why did you take that box instead of some big gems I could see there?" "Jack, you can see how this transparent stuff refracts the light, what do you think of it?" "Well, I remember seeing something like that at my friends house... He said it was some skilled glass-cutter who had made it. It too had some jewels attached to the sides of it. "The thing you saw was propably a crystal case, but would you believe that this box is cut from a big diamond?" "Diamond? You must be kidding. It would be worth a fortune!" "It is. You can see the difference in the refracted light. This is a much more valuable object than the gems that were inside it." "Wow! Well, how about this necklace I got, is this worth something?" "Let me see... Yes, this is also quite a piece. You can definitely be happy with this thing; you could have picked something a lot worse." "We must hide them well until we hit the shoreline of England and get them somewhere for better safekeeping. Let's do that and go to sleep, this day has really worn me out." -------------------- Blood! Blood filling his lungs and flowing down his chest and back. The guards rapier red with blood on Francis's side. Coughing blood he fell down in a ditch on a vineyard and lost his consciousness.... He woke up again, now in perfect health, dry blood flaking off from his skin.... Suddenly he felt a sharp pain. He looked down and saw a rapier sticking out from his chest.... Eyes! Eyes were so dark.... and overwhelming.... Rapier, his own, aimed at him. Lord Daumier swung the rapier laughing menacingly, hitting his own man instead of Francis.... Empty room, with bodies lying on floor. Lord Daumier and two guards. Suddenly Daumier moves and stands up.... NO! NO!.... Lord Daumier's daughter sleeping in her bed. So beautiful. She opens her eyes to reveal flashing yellow eyes, her mouth saying words that erupt the world on fire!....Eyes again, lessening in power.... NOOOOOO! Francis woke up sweating and panting furiously. Trying to remember what he had seen. Lord Daumier alive? No, that is not possible. What were those eyes? The mysterious captain he had shot? Francis stood up and dressed up quickly. Some fresh air should help. He stepped to the door and unbol... 'What is this? Who has unbolted this door?' Francis looked at Jack who was still sleeping soundly. 'No, he hasn't moved all night...' He opened the door and walked to the deck. The night was cool and dark, only things lighting up the boat were some lanterns here and there. Some sailors were still on the deck, making sure nothing went wrong during the dark hours. No one seemed like a likely suspect and Francis concluded that Jack must have been out and about sometime earlier. Francis stood at the railing looking at the dark sea, trying to clear his thoughts, listening to sailors working around him. For over a year he had succeeded in his attempt not to think about anything that had happened to him. He had buried these disturbing thoughts deep in his mind, but the nightmare he had just had had awaken some of those thoughts. Partly he still believed in godly intervention but evidence started to imply that something else was aloof. In his dream he had seen lord Daumier stand up, apparently recovering just like Francis himself had recovered that night so long ago... What did it mean? Was it just some of his inner fears, shoving itself in his nightmare, or was it something else entirely? Was it possible that lord Daumier was still alive? The strange feeling was there again. The feeling he had felt when he had been dragged to lord Daumier and... When he had seen the pirate- captain! That was it! Francis turned around to find out who it was this time, but saw no-one who could have been the source of this feeling. Were the ghosts of the men he had killed haunting him? Francis tried to ignore the feeling, but it didn't go away. Then for a moment he thought he saw the eyes of the pirate-captain in the air before him and soon after the feeling went away. Later, Francis blamed his tiredness and melancholic state of mind for his vision and once again forced the disturbing thoughts deep in the back of his mind. -------------------- Thank you for your comments, but I could still do with more!! Some people might not have got responses to their messages, 'cause of certain 'flick' in my system (over 300 messages got out of my grasp by themselves... 8) ). Now that I've been in the entrance exams I mentioned earlier, I might REALLY find time to actually write the sequel to this story.. As always, ALL comments and suggestions are wellcome!! So start writing to: * The secret of a warm heart is a fireplace | __ (just throw it in to the flames...) |/ \ Check out my WWW-page for a cool gif of a rapier O[&%&%&%<====>================================================- \_____/|\__/ Dedicated Amiga-user now and in the future | -Rapier (malidman@kauhajoki.fi) * (http://kauhajoki.fi/~malidman/) =========================================================================