Chapter 5

Exactly one week had passed since Artemis had entered the Fool’s current and they had been making steady progress. The crew’s morale was still hanging high, no doubt because of the new girl walking around the deck, but one night, the tides began slowing down.

Yeng manned the ship, her shirt unbuttoned despite her wounds being almost completely scarred, she called out, “Princess,” both Sunder and Kiya looked over to her, “Sorry, Sunder. Come over here.”

“What is it?” he asked, leaving Kiya with the rest of the crew. They would take a look at her whenever they could, but as long as Yeng was on the ship, no one would even dare to touch her.

“Don’t worry, but we just started slowing down, and by that, I mean we’re only moving because the wind is still kicking.”

Sunder took a long second to look over his men. “So, is this it?”

“Might be.” Yeng leaned her head against Artemis’s wheel, looking at the worn-down wooden boards. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what to do right now. I was really hoping we could just luck our way out of this... We should have just taken your mother’s route.”

The ship quickly began dragging through the waves as the wind died down, not falling unnoticed by the experienced crew. A minute of silence was shared between the pair before Sunder slammed his fist on the railings in front of the wheel. “We’re about halfway through the current, right?”

“Just about, why?”

Sunder looked back at his crew, all standing around a single lantern, their spirits not wavering only due to Kiya’s bubbly personality. “I hope you’re not the jealous type.”

“Careful with whatever you’re saying next.”

“If the current decides to stop, then we have no other choice but to wait it out.”

Yeng finally raised her head, a small red mark from the wood imprinted on her forehead, “Wait, do you mean-”

“We’re rowing.”

“What does she have to do with that?”

“I don’t mean to go that far, I only expect her to give our men some… encouragement, raise their morale.” Yeng’s eyes growled at Sunder as she twisted her hands around the wheel, creaking the wood and the small metal joints in it, “It wouldn’t be anything they hadn’t seen when we recruited her, don’t worry. Rowing against a current is hard enough as it is, it would help to have some sort of encouragement.”

“And what if the current decides to last an entire week this way as it did for us? We barely have enough food to last that long, not counting the week we still have left to actually reach our next stop!”

“I checked with Ang-Shi, he said this is known for having several ghost ships floating around, we only need to stay put long enough to find one. After that, we grab whatever supplies it has and tie ourselves to it, an anchor that big should keep us still until the current shifts.”

“I guess it’s either that or death, right?”

“Unless you have any other ideas, yeah.”

Yeng took a moment to think, but the moment she felt the wheel twist from her hands, ready to turn the ship around by itself, she had an answer. “Fine. Just let me talk to Kiya first.”

“She already accepted, the rest of the crew too, I just needed to check if you were on board for her to do that. I managed to buy a couple of paddles on our last stop too, a little expensive, but I guess they ended up being worth it.”

Yeng chuckled, breaking into a larger laugh. “You really take after your mother, don’t you?”

“People sometimes forget who my parents are, I have big shoes to fill.”

“There’s a lot of things in your life you still need to fill,” Yeng grabbed him and pushed him up to the wheel before walking over to Kiya and the crew. “But first, let’s get them rowing, we might keep this pace for another day if we’re lucky.”

And so their nights began, filled with screams of encouragement and hard work. While half of the crew slept in preparation for their morning rowing, the other half began their first shift, being pushed on by Kiya. They had been going at a decent pace, with the current not having fully stopped, but as the sun began to rise and both halves of the crew switched, the sea stopped playing nice.

“We’re barely keeping ourselves still,” said Yeng, bags already in her eyes from rowing all night. “we’re going to start moving backward before noon.”

“Drop the anchor!” ordered Sunder, already running to do it himself, with all other hands on deck busy rowing.

“What are you doing?” she screamed, her voice visibly hoarse. “That isn’t going to lock us down, we don’t have enough chain for it to hit the ground.”

“It’s something else that the sea has to drag. Keep up your pace, men, it won’t be long before we find something!”

“You can do it, boys, I believe in you!” While the men were losing their grip and the burning sun began taking its toll, Kiya kept jumping up and down, checking the morale of each man and bringing food and drinks to everyone.

“Kiya,” said Sunder, “don’t you want to rest a little? You’ve been running around non-stop since last night.”

“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m fine,” she said, giving him a half-hearted smile and wink, despite her eyes begging to close for just a couple of hours.

“If you pass out, Yeng is going to throw me overboard, I want you sleeping before nightfall, you hear me?”

“Yes, captain!”

As the exhausted crew rejoiced to see the sun set, they began switching positions, the other half mourning that Kiya had fallen asleep and couldn’t cheer them on. As the slower tides of the night passed by, Sunder grabbed his spyglass after seeing something in the distance, nearly unmoving, simply drifting through the waves.

“A ghost ship!” he screamed, startling Yeng, who was close to falling asleep “Everyone pick up the pace, we can’t lose it!” Despite his pleas, his crew could do barely more than stay still as the current grew faster and faster, nearly lobbing the unmanned ship against them through the tides. “All right everyone, leave the paddles. Half of you grab some leftover rope, the rest, get ready to jump.”

Most of their rope had been stored in the middle of the ship, removed from everything besides their sails in preparation for a wayward ship, this was their only chance. With no one to fight against the force of the sea, their ship quickly began to be pushed backward. The waves began moving erratically as the ghost ship approached them. A large crash tried its best to knock Artemis off-balance, nearly throwing Yeng to the floor, and with the fear of death pushing them beyond their limits, Sunder and half of the crew jumped over to the other ship, cracking the wood beneath them with each small movement. This ship could barely hold itself together, and no one knew if it would survive this impact. While everyone that stayed in Artemis hurried to tie their ropes to the vessel, Sunder and Lieh began climbing the sails, attempting to cut them down as fast as possible. They managed to stop its acceleration, but the crash had still sent the two ships into a spin, and with each rotation it was getting harder for Yeng to keep them steady, now handling two ships with a single wheel.

“Yeng!” amidst the bashing of wood and crashing of waves, Hui’s scream managed to reach her ears. Standing at the ghost ship’s wheel, he tried his best to help her keep balance.

“Follow the waves! Keep up their rhythm until they stop!” Hui could barely hear half of what she said, but it was enough to have him start swinging the wheel left and right. It was hard to keep themselves synchronized, but with time, they were able to flow along the waves, crashing their hull back at them, and eventually easing the current’s chaotic pattern.

The men stayed frozen, in awe of how everyone had survived, of how the ships didn’t sink, this worked almost too well. “Well shit.” said En-Lai, looking up at the two above him, standing on the fragments of the cut-up sails, “Guess I owe you a drink Lieh.”

Unfortunately, they were barely afforded any time to celebrate, as the sea kept up its strong push. Despite their doubled size, they were still but a small rock being kicked by the giantess that is the ocean, and once more Artemis began being pushed back, although at a somewhat slower pace.

“Everyone back to the paddles!” screamed Ang-Shi, “Sunder, help me with the anchor!” With no time to argue over hierarchy, Sunder nodded and ran up to help him stop the ships.

With a second anchor on the sea and the crew once more rowing, they quickly halted the movement, and even managed to break past the current at some points, getting them back to where they were when the ships crashed together.

“I can’t believe we did it,” sighed Sunder in relief, “you can go back to rowing while I scour what is left in the ship.”

“I’m pretty sure they can handle themselves, for now at least, give this old man some time to breathe and let me help you look around.”

“All right, just because all of this somehow worked out. Come on.”

As Sunder began making his way down the stairs into the lower chambers, Ang-Shi was quick to pick up two medals by the edge of the ship - each depicting a circle standing on top of an upright hook, both joined by a small line - and throwing them into the sea.

As Sunder delved into the dark chambers of the ghost ship, he could see by the lack of dust that not long had passed since this vessel had lost its crew, yet it was completely empty. There were no signs that an attack had occurred, but Sunder had yet to find a body anywhere.

“Have you found anything?” Ang-Shi asked, nearly tripping in his dash up to him.

“No… But something is not right. This is empty, completely empty. Like someone raided it, but then we would at least find the bodies of the old crew. This is suspicious.”

“They probably failed on their way to Egypt and decided death by sharks would be preferred to starvation. Not many other reasons for people to try and cross this current. We aren’t the first ones to know of the elements, and we surely wouldn’t be the first ones stupid enough to go look for them.”

“Stupid,” Sunder chuckled, “that is a strong opinion for someone who heeds my mother’s every word.”

“It’s the fact she’s not the one scavenging through a ghost ship that doesn’t make her stupid.”

“It looks like someone is asking to stay on this ship after we leave…”

“I give it five years until you manage to threaten someone like your father, but you’re still too soft. Stop trying to puff your chest and pretending to be someone you’re not.” Sunder was left with nothing to say back, simply heading into the captain’s chamber. “Fuckin’ amateurs,” whispered Ang-Shi as he pulled out a knife from his belt, going up to a wall and scratching off that same symbol from before.

Sunder was once again greeted with an empty room, nothing besides the wooden floor was left. ‘How is this possible?’ he wondered to himself, looking around for any hint as to what happened on this ship. Circling the room, he felt the floor creak in a familiar way. Taking more care in his steps, it wasn’t long before he ran up to the leftmost corner of the room. He knelt down and punched the floor, cracking the wooden board with little force. ‘The exact same place.’ Sunder then pushed the board aside, revealing a small compartment with a single rolled-up piece of paper.

“What was that noise?” Ang-Shi ran up to the room with an unnerving urgency. “Did you find anything?” his eyes spelled fear, but Sunder was too preoccupied with his discovery to realize that.

“A letter.” He began unrolling it, reading its contents aloud. “This was so much more than a failure. I am not sure why I am still writing this, as everything we have will be thrown out into the sea by the end of the day, but I want to at least dream this will reach you. Our journey there was simple, but inside the library… We barely got through the damned entrance. Maybe it was the heat, but we got lost in there for gods know how long. By the time the walls began closing, five men survived, the rest were lucky to not have entered yet. I know we should have heard that group, the fear in that woman’s eyes was real. I know these are not excuses, we agreed to this knowing very well that returning alive would be nothing short of a miracle, but still, I expected our deaths would be more glorious than this. I am sorry Jia, I hope she is taking care of you, and I hope that in return I have somehow helped your son on his coming journey. Farewell…” Sunder sighed. He turned the paper, allowing Ang-Shi to read the last word, next to the same symbol he had been trying to hide.

“Rhea…” the old man’s mind raced as he tried thinking of the most suitable way to answer whatever Sunder was about to ask. “Those-”

“I know what this is.” Ang-Shi could barely make out what Sunder’s mood was, but he seemed relieved. “I already knew she had sent scouts before we left, there was no way she would have sent me otherwise.” he sat down on the floor, anchoring one of his hands over a raised knee, “You know, she never even let me even leave the house without a guard until about a year before this trip. Every time my father and I went out to train, I could always hear the sound of a third horse following us. She always had her eye on me. Still has, really.” looking up at Ang-Shi, he nearly choked before brushing it out with a forced cough. “I know she’s probably just trying to protect me, but this… She’s always one step ahead of everything, almost makes it seem like I could have stayed home, the elements would find their way to my father regardless of what I’m doing.”

Ang-Shi sat down next to the boy, taking the letter from his hands, and ripping it up. “Your mother’s only human, we are fragile little things throughout all our lives.” he pulled down the collar of his shirt, revealing a deep scar on his chest that ran diagonally from end to end, “As long as she has a say in it, she will try her best to make sure you never get a scar you regret. If your father knew how to pilot a ship, he would have done this voyage by himself long ago, but your mother never let him run away from his responsibilities. He has a kingdom to protect, along with its people, and his family. She’s let you partake in this journey because she trusts you, she trusts that you’ll keep looking up to your father so you can return, ready to one day fill the space he will leave in the world.” with a slight huff of pain he got himself up, leveraging himself on Sunder’s shoulder. “Nevertheless, she can’t control your choices, but the best she can do is make sure you live through them.” Ang-Shi then walked up the stairs, returning to the crew.

Sunder was alone, looking upon the sacrifices his mother made for him, the lives lost because of him. He left the room, a sudden and heavy burden pressing down on him. Going up to the deck he stood on its edge, looking at his men killing themselves to keep the ships from moving. He glanced down for a second at the water before returning to his ship, but something caught his gaze, fortuitously reflected by the moon’s light. Two small medals floated near the ship’s hull, they weren’t that big, but their shape was familiar enough for Sunder to know what they had inscribed in them.

“No wonder he was in such a hurry to help me search.” he chuckled to himself with a tired smile as he turned back.

A small walk up to their ship and Sunder reached Artemis’ wheel, where Yeng was attempting to sleep while keeping a steady hold on the ship’s direction. “What’d you find?” she mumbled, barely audible.

“Go to sleep.”

“No.”

“Kiya!” Sunder waved.

“I’ve been telling her that since we hit the ship,” she said, running up to them. “But she’s being stubborn.”

“I’ll go to sleep when the current changes.”

“You’re just being stupid.” Sunder wasn’t done with his sentence before Yeng was once again snoring.

With a short sigh, he sauntered up to the ship’s bow. Looking over at the stream hitting full force against them, it was hard to imagine how the wood stood up to so much abuse. As Sunder was lost in his thoughts, his eyes following the sea lines flowing against him, he noticed how the sea seemed to push and pull in every direction, and for some moments, it did. The motion of the waves soothed him, and it appeared that as he calmed down, so did the waves soften, seemingly dancing with his heartbeat. Eventually, the waves stopped moving completely, before changing direction. Sunder was knocked out of his trance as the ship itself began moving, forward.

“We’re moving…” he mumbled to himself.

“WE’RE MOVING!” screamed Kiya at the top of her lungs, waking everyone, and prompting Yeng to immediately drop to the floor, already snoring before she had even hit the wood.

Sunder and the rest of his men were moving faster than ever before, opening back their sails and cutting off the ghost ship from them. “Raise the anchor! Hui, get on the wheel! Kiya, take care of Yeng!” Sunder’s orders boomed over the chaos that was getting Artemis to move again. As their extra weight parted ways with them, they began speeding up, moving not only with the current on their side but with a sudden help from the breeze too.

“If this wind dies then everyone is gonna start blowing on these sails because we are not staying another week on this current!” Hui’s words for the first time were not taken as a joke, as everyone else now shared his animosity for this section of the ocean.

For five days, everyone held their breath, maneuvering Artemis as precisely as possible, in fear of getting stuck again. A few hours before the sun rose for the last time from below the ocean, the few crewmates still awake finally put their eyes on land, their last stop before Egypt.