Last Voyage of the Hellbreaker

Seawater, that black all-consuming giant, it can consume a thousand feet of ship as easily as a man in these parts. Crushing waves that wash the filth and loose cargo from dirty decks just to regurgitate it on some far off shore for some poor farmer to find and think they’re going to be rich.

“She’s angry tonight, Sir” a middle-aged man with a long dark beard spoke.

“Aye she is Henry, but no worry we’ll be tucked into the rock within the hour” an older gray haired man wearing a captain’s hat stated.

Henry gazed out to the West, watching the heavy winds begin to pick the sea up, swirling it into choppy harsh waves with the ease of a man waving a spoon through a cup of fresh tea. Three months aboard the Hellbreaker had everyone stir crazy, and an hour more would feel like an eternity after what they had been through to get to the rock. They had set sail with a crew of three dozen, as well as a squad of six inquisitors, and a special guest they were told not to ask about. They would be arriving at a little less than three quarters strength after the pirate attack that took ten men and an inquisitor right before the ice storm that had stripped the flesh off two crew members.

“Captain Garvis, report” a raspy voice sounded from behind the two men.

“An hour or so, Beatrice” Garvis responded casually without turning around.

The tall red cloaked women nodded, her oily black hair hanging down around her face like the tendrils of the very monsters they had been passing over the last three months. When she had first stepped foot on the deck the captain himself had shivered, but after being stuck in cramped quarters for so long she no longer bothered anyone much. The crew still scurried to avoid getting in her way, and rumors of witch burning made their rounds but that’s all they had become.

“Very good, Captain” she responded, stepping forward to stand next to him.

“The voyage, were you pleased with it?” Garvis asked while trying to hide a small smirk.

“Its no Capital ship, but it is far cleaner than the filth of the oil barges” she responded casually, brushing a large lock out of her eyes.

“Why on earth would you be on an oil barge?” Henry questioned without thinking.

Beatrice turned her head slowly to look into the eyes of the younger man, a small smirk creasing her red lips. A shiver crawled down his spine at this, those dark pools digging into his soul, if malice and vengeance could take physical form that is what they would look like.

“Heresy does not confine itself to the halls of kings, nor does it often bother residing in the home of the farmer or coal miner” she stated, never taking that penetrating gaze off Henry.

“I’m sure the boy would love to hear about it” Garvis said with a chuckle, pulling his thick blue trench coat around his thick body.

Henry looked to the captain stunned; he had done his best to avoid the inquisitors like anyone else the past months and had no intentions of mingling for too long when they were this close to their destination. Beatrice could read him like a book, letting out a raspy chuckle as she studied him for a moment longer than he would have liked. The tall women walked to the railing and leaned up against it, letting her hair fall back away from her face to catch the winds that were ripping across the sea.

“We live in a proper time now Henry, there’s food for all, coal and oil, cloth and leather, it is very difficult for the forces of the pit to get their claws around a society that does not struggle, does not resent its masters, does not look to wage wars on its neighbors” the inquisitor stated in a low tone before relaxing back into the railing and placing her elbows up onto it.

“The pirates?” Henry questioned.

“Common thieves and cut throats” She answered.

“What was on that oil barge?” He asked, the curiosity growing in his mind.

She gazed out to the sea once again before she spoke next, one hand instinctively reaching to her throat and rubbing it gently. For the first time Henry noticed how pretty she must have been, years ago before her face had been scared and the decades had chiseled the lines around her eyes and mouth. He looked down at his beat up leather boots for a moment so as not to stare at her, becoming aware of the light rain that had begun coming down to find its way into the seams and pin holes, his socks growing damp.

“You cannot submerge a witch in water boy, that old tale is true, they turn to ash” she stated, pausing for a moment, “you can however bathe them in whale oil”.

“They had barrels of witches” Henry said, his heart sinking for a moment.

“Aye, they cannot hide in plane sight as they once did, as I told you a happy society has no need to resort to witchcraft, they burn them on their own these days” Beatrice responded, glancing at the captain as he began packing tobacco into a long pipe.

She stared at him with that same piercing gaze as he did so, the rain spattering down into the bowl of the pipe causing him to curse. Lightning began to crack loudly above them as they approached the rock, the light off the match Garvis had lit standing out brightly in the darkening air around them.

“My voice was not always this way Henry, oil, it burns hot and dark, and there is nowhere to go a thousand miles from land” the inquisitor stated, never taking her eyes off Garvis.

Garvis chuckled.

“Its too late now you old hag” the captain stated in a low triumphant tone.

The three turned their attention to the approaching mass of land, a rocky shore covered in docks populated with hundreds of vessels, rocking back and forth in the angry sea waters. Thousands of torches illuminated the land, the streets, the tops of buildings, as if the lord himself had come to place his holly feet upon the shores. Garvis was laughing now, as Henry turned his attention, looking back and forth between the two, awe and confusion smeared across his face.

“Aye it might be, Henry, I weigh your soul worthy of approaching the gates beside me” Beatrice said, defeated now, lacking the professionalism she had terrified the crew with for all those long months.

There was fire and smoke, heat and pain, the screams of men, the stink of burning fat and blood.

A moment later Henry found himself in a warm light that made his very soul feel whole. As if he had never been cold and wet, sad or unsure.

Beatrice wrapped her bony fingers around his and stepped forward.