Voyage of Slaves

35

ONE WEEK LATER. SAILING SOUTH SOU’EAST, THROUGH THE STRAIT OF OTRANTO TO THE IONIAN SEA.

COOLING BREEZES SOOTHED THE midday heat, bringing relief to the crew of the Blue Turtle. Kostas Krimboti fussed like a mother hen around the four bearers who were carrying Ben and Ned on a stretcher.

“Babiko, Yanni, hold your end up a bit. We don’t want them sliding off into the sea. Herakles, Fotis, slow down, it’s not a race. Mind those stairs, steady now!”

Under their captain’s directions, they deposited the stretcher carefully on the fo’c’sle deck. Kostas waved his arms at them.

“Well, don’t stand there gawping, go and get fresh water. Bring honey and grapes, too. Yanni, fetch me some of Mother Carmella’s special medicine, they might need to sleep some more yet. Jump to it!”

Kostas sat down beside his two charges, shielding Ben’s eyes from the sun and murmuring, “This fresh air will do you good, boy, sleep on if you want to. Ah, Ned, old friend, I see you’re back with us at last. Amico, get away from him, you little rogue, leave the poor fellow’s tail alone!”

Ned opened his eyes, whining softly. “Ooh, this confounded leg, it feels like a floorboard. Ouch, that hurts!”

Kostas stroked the black Labrador’s head gently. “Try not to move your back leg, that splint will stick into you, be still. Good boy!”

The dog’s thoughts reached Ben. The boy’s eyelids fluttered, then he stared dazedly up at Kostas. “Thirsty. . . . Can’t move my arm. . . . Ned?”

The Greek’s gold-coin teeth flashed in the sunlight. “Thank you, Father! Thank you, Sisters of Santa Filomena, for your prayers, and thank heaven for listening to the prayers of a wayward sinner like me. Mother Carmella, thank you for your wonderful magic medicine which kept this poor boy alive!” Ben’s strange, clouded eyes came fully open. “Kostas Krimboti, what are you doing here? Where am I?”

The puppy, Amico, jumped on Ben licking his face. “Leave him alone, you savage. Hohoho!” Kostas perched the little dog on his shoulder like a parrot. He cradled Ben’s head against his elbow. “Babiko, hurry up with that water, he’s awake!”

Holding a goblet up to Ben’s lips, Kostas allowed him to drink sparingly, “Relax, my friend, all you have to do is rest, you’ll soon get well. Where else would you be, but aboard my lovely old Blue Turtle, bound for my homeland, Greece!”

Ben stared down at his bandaged chest, and the sling which held his right arm. He felt confused. “The convent. . . . What happened?”

The Greek captain laid him back down, placing the water bowl close to Ned’s face. “Questions, questions. Be grateful you’re alive, boy.”

Ned’s thoughts flashed urgently into Ben’s mind. “Don’t ask, it’s all in the past, Ben. Kostas is right, just be grateful you’re alive!”

The boy ignored his dog’s pleas. Levering himself up on his good arm, he gritted his teeth. “What happened? Tell me, I must know!”

Amico was worrying at his master’s curly red hair. Kostas lifted the puppy down to the deck and sent him off to play elsewhere.

“Alright, my friend, I’ll tell you as much as I know. When we arrived in the bay below Santa Filomena, I sighted the Sea Djinn anchored there. Well, we boarded the vessel, and captured her. The slavers were attacking the convent, so I found a path up the cliff, and led my crew up there. We charged them from the rear, with the help of your friends—the German giant, the two clowns and Sansone the big hound. What a battle it was, no slavers were left to tell the tale, take my word. Those who didn’t fall to our guns and blades fell from the cliff.

“You were found on the upstairs verandah, stabbed by a sword. Mother Carmella tended you—at first she thought you would die, you had lost so much blood, Ben. But the Mother Superior is a wise and clever doctor. She nursed you through it, keeping you asleep with her own special medicine. Your dog was found by Herakles, hanging on to the rocks amid the water. Ned’s leg was broken, but my friend Mother Carmella treated him, too. I went back aboard the Sea Djinn. Yanni and I turned her own cannons into the hold. We blew out the keel and sank her. You look tired, Ben, try and rest.”

The boy’s good hand shot out. He gripped the Greek’s arm, yelling, “Serafina! Where’s Serafina!”

Kostas seized Ben’s hand, nodding to Yanni. Though he tried to struggle, the boy could not resist. Babiko and Herakles held his head as Yanni poured the Mother Superior’s medicine into his mouth. Kostas Krimboti nodded. “That’s enough, Yanni, he’ll be asleep soon. Leave him now, I’ll speak with him again tomorrow. Sleep, Ben, sleep. . . .”

With his eyes blinking groggily, Ben heard Ned’s words filtering into his mind. “You’ll remember sooner or later, mate, so I’ll tell you. We fell through the verandah rail, Misurata, the Scar-face, Serafina and me. I was the only one who lived through it all. Both the slavers were killed as they hit the rocks, and it’s hard for me to say, but we lost Serafina, too. I pulled her from the sea, and held on to her through the night. Herakles found us both as dawn was breaking. You were unconscious, there was no way I could let you know. Our poor beautiful girl is gone, but I hung on to her, the Dutchman did not take her. Can you hear me, Ben?”

From the realms of merciful slumber, the boy replied, “My faithful Ned, I can hear you. Where is she now?”

Crawling to Ben’s side, Ned placed his cheek against the boy’s arm. “She rests in the grounds of Santa Filomena, in the shade of an almond tree. The troupe and the Sisters laid her there in peace. It was a simple ceremony. The Rizzolis wanted to take us both with them to Vicenza, in Italy. Kostas gave them gold to buy a dairy farm there. I think our friends will be happy with their new life. But Mother Carmella and Kostas both agreed that you and I should not go along with the troupe, too many painful memories for us there. I lay at Serafina’s graveside, watching them go off in their old battered cart, with Poppea pulling it. I knew that we would be going with Kostas, because that night I heard the angel’s message. ‘Now the Dark Angel has fallen, you must go from here.’ So, here we are, back at sea once more.”

The dog’s thoughts faded from Ben’s mind as his thoughts drifted back. He recalled Serafina as she spoke to him that last afternoon they were together.

“I will never forget you. If you go I will stay here forever!”

Did she know what was going to happen?

Through the enveloping darkness, a soft light began to shine. It grew until it filled the boy’s whole being. There was the angel, tall and imposing. The celestial vision had placed both hands upon the shoulders of a girl. It was Serafina! Ben spoke her name loud.

“Serafina.”

The soft, gentle eyes smiled at him. “I will always be with you. Do not grieve, I will wait until you join me one day. Be at peace.”

A calmness descended upon Ben, a tranquility of spirit he had never known before.

From cloudless azure vaults the great, golden eye of the sun shone down on the sea below. It saw the ship, a small, blue-sailed, weather-beaten craft. On the fo’c’sle deck, a boy and his dog lay sleeping, side by side. Orphans of the seas, bound through the years to only the Lord knows where. Waiting for the angel’s command. Always waiting.