The Children of Black Annis Read online

  Suddenly there's a loud bang, and the entire boat seems to lurch to one side. My heart begins to race, and as I look over at the door, the boat seems to be buffeted again; this time, there's a loud crashing sound, as if the wooden hull of the boat itself has been torn asunder.

  "What's wrong?" Clara asks with fear in her voice.

  With no time to answer, I run naked back up to the deck. To my shock, I find that we're in the midst of a huge and growing tempest, a storm the likes of which I do not think I have ever seen. Harsh winds whirl around the boat, and the black sea is whipped up with huge waves that threaten to tower over the vessel. The sky above is churning with black and gray clouds, and rain lashes down. The scene is almost biblical, with such a tempest as I do not think any man can ever have seen before. This is all my fault: I spent so long below deck with Clara, indulging in carnal pleasures, that God has reached down to punish me. I stumble over towards the wheel, but the boat rocks in the angry waters and I am thrown to the floor.

  "Are you okay?" Clara shouts, rushing out naked from below. Her nakedness, which had earlier been so tempting, is now a reminder of the weakness that has brought me to such a point. She helps me up, but at that moment rain begins to fall with such intensity that it's almost impossible to hear each other's voices.

  "Go back inside!" I shout.

  "I'll help you!" she shouts back.

  I shake my head. "It's too dangerous for you to be up here!" I tell her, though in truth I really just want to get her out of my sight.

  "It's too dangerous for me not to help you!" she shouts back. "You need me!"

  The boat lurches again. I don't have time to argue with her, so I get to my feet and hurry up to the wheel, which is turning first one way and then the other. Looking out across the boat, I see the sails in tatters, and all around us the sea has been whipped up into huge waves. The sky is molten black, churning above us with the full force of God's anger. My heart sinks as I realize that this is just punishment, for Clara and I have insulted the sea by ignoring its dangers while we frolicked below decks.

  "This is my fault," I say out loud as I wrestle with the wheel, trying to turn it. In truth, though, I know that it is too late to do much. We are at God's mercy, and only he can decide whether we will survive this journey. He can choose to overturn this boat, to break her up with one huge wave, or he can choose to let us off with a warning and eventually deliver us from this danger.

  "What's wrong?" Clara shouts, coming up to join me at the wheel.

  "There's nothing I can do!" I shout back. I look at her naked body, and whereas once I was filled with passion, now I feel nothing but regret. "Put some clothes on!" I shout at her. "Go back below the deck."

  She stares at me for a moment as rain pours down on us. "What?" she shouts.

  I grab her by the arms and shake her, hoping to force some sense into her mind. "This is God's punishment!" I shout. "He saw what we were doing, and he knew that he must show us the full force of our errors! He has reached down to show us the full force of his anger and our only hope of survival is to let him see that we are in awe of his power!"

  She continues to stare at me, and then she starts laughing.

  "What's so funny?" I shout back at her.

  "I never knew you were a religious man!" she shouts. "All this talk of God. You're like a child, worrying that his wet nurse will come in and tell him to put away his toys!"

  At that moment, God strikes at us again, tossing the boat over the crest of a huge wave and then slamming us down with such anger that water pours over the sides and onto the deck. I look across in horror and see that part of the side decking is coming loose. The Port Horizon was a strong boat, once, but now it's old and ill-prepared for such a storm. We're in danger of breaking apart.

  "We must pray," I say, looking up at the black sky. "It is the only way we might show that we deserve to be saved."

  Clara laughs again.

  "This is not funny!" I shout at her.

  "No," she says. "But you are."

  For a moment, I am filled with the most terrible anger, and I turn to Clara in a rage. I try to hold myself back, but I am too weak and I slap her around the face with such force that she slips backwards on the wet deck and lands hard on the top of the steps. She tumbles onto the deck below.

  Running down, I kneel beside her. "Clara!" I shout. "Are you okay?"

  She looks up at me, fear in her eyes.

  "I should never have struck you!" I shout at her, but at that moment a huge wave comes over the side and slams into us. I am sent crashing across the deck, and I only just manage to hold onto one of the ropes in order to avoid being washed overboard. I desperately look across the boat, trying to find Clara, but there is no sign of her. I look back over my shoulder. If she has been washed overboard, there is no hope and she must be lost. Would God be so cruel? We made a mistake, but was it one that must result in death?

  "Joseph!" Clara shouts. Her voice sounds small and insignificant against the roar of the storm and the hiss of the rain, and at first I can't work out where she is. Suddenly, though, I spot her huddled next to the wheel, clinging on for dear life. It's a miraculous sight. "What should I do?" she asks, her hands gripping the wheel as lightning flashes across the sky. For a moment, I am struck by the sight of this beautiful, naked woman desperately trying to steer the ship in such a storm.

  I run across the deck and reach her, taking the wheel from her hands. "You must get below deck," I shout. "We must pray."

  "You want to ask God to stop this storm?" she asks. "The same God who started it in the first place?"

  "I want to ask for his forgiveness," I shout.

  "And then what?" she shouts. "If we live, shall we turn our backs on one another? Am I now to be a shamed woman?"

  I turn to answer her, but we hit another huge wave and it's all I can do to hang onto the wheel with one hand while grabbing her arm with another. As the wave washes over us, she is almost pulled away, but I am able to keep my grip and save her.

  "Listen to me!" I shout. "We must pray!"

  She stares at me, and something seems to change in her eyes. "Fine!" she shouts. "I'll pray with you!"

  "Hold the wheel with one hand!" I shout, and she does as I tell her. Clinging onto the wheel, we both get down on our knees. "Our Father!" I shout as the boat rocks on the stormy waves. "Forgive us for -"

  Another massive wave strikes us, and a huge cracking sound rises up from the front of the boat.

  "What was that?" Clara shouts, looking terrified.

  I can see no damage, but we must be in considerable danger of sinking. "Pray with me!" I shout. "Repeat what I say. Our Father!" I wait for her to repeat my words. "Pray with me!" I scream at her. "Repeat my words! Our Father!"

  "Our Father!" she shouts.

  "Forgive us for our weaknesses!" I shout.

  "Forgive us for our weaknesses!" she repeats.

  "Spare us for surrendering to temptation!" I shout.

  "Spare us for surrendering to temptation!" she repeats.

  "And deliver us -" Suddenly I sense something terribly wrong with the way the boat is moving. I look up and see that we are rising up on the crest of the biggest wave yet.

  "And deliver us!" Clara shouts.

  "Dear God..." I say as I see the boat begin to come down towards the black ocean.

  "I'm sorry!" Clara shouts.

  I turn to her and see in her eyes that she believes we are about to die. I cannot say that she is wrong. She leans close and kisses me, and though I try to force her off, she lets go of the wheel and instead wraps her arms around me, pressing her wet and naked body against mine.

  And then it happens.

  The boat smashes into the ocean. All around us, I hear the crashing sound of wood straining under the pressure. As our kiss continues, a flood of water slams into us and washes us away from the wheel. For just a moment, we are suspended in water, locked together in our embrace. But then we slam into the mast and our embrace is broke
n. I reach out to grab Clara, and for a moment I have her hand in mine. We are both wet, though, and the force of the storm is brutal, and our hands slip apart and I see her being swept away. She screams with absolute terror as she vanishes from view, and I am smashed against another mast before the water sweeps me the length of the boat and finally dashes me against the wood. The force of the impact is enough to knock me unconscious, and my last thought is that from this point I am surely to be delivered into the waiting arms of Death himself.

  Jess

  Today.

  I wake up in darkness, and immediately I realize that something's wrong. The last thing I remember is standing on Tower Bridge as the wall of water hit, and now I'm dry and in an unfamiliar bed. I stare at the blackness that surrounds me, trying to work out where I am, and then suddenly something completely unexpected happens: the whole room seems to move a little, as if I'm on a boat, and there's a loud, distant creaking sound.

  I stand up and find that I'm still dressed, and my clothes are dry. Again, the room pitches a little and distant wooden beams seem to groan under the weight of the boat's movement. I reach out and feel a wall in front of me, and then I spot a sliver of light on the other side of the room. Stumbling over, careful not to bump into anything, I find that there's a small gap in the ceiling; I look through, but all I can see is a dark gray sky with thick black clouds moving slowly along. It's raining outside, and a drop of water comes down through the hole and lands straight in my eye. I wipe it away, and at that moment there's the sound of footsteps above me and someone walks straight over the room.

  I grope around in the darkness and eventually I find a door handle. Opening it, I come through into another room. This time there's moonlight, shining down through a hatch in the ceiling. I step towards a ladder that seems to lead up onto the main deck, but then I pause and look back.

  "Duncan!" I whisper.

  Silence. No reply. Plus, if Duncan was asleep down here, I'm pretty sure I'd have heard his usual snoring by now.

  Carefully, I climb the ladder, trying to make as little noise as possible. Soon I'm able to stick my head up and look around. It's the deck of a boat, alright, but I can't see much because there's a huge mast blocking the way. Deciding that I need to know more about where I am, I climb all the way out and find myself staring out across a vast, stormy ocean. There's no land anywhere in sight, and the dark sea looks cold and deadly. All around, on the boat and out on the ocean, a thin rainstorm falls.

  "Faster!" shouts a voice from somewhere else on the boat. I turn, but I can't see anyone. The voice was old and cracked, like someone who's been chain-smoking cigarettes for a couple of thousand years. Creeping towards the mast, I'm torn between going back down so I can come up with a plan, and just wandering straight across the boat and coming face to face with whoever that voice belonged to. Duncan would undoubtedly go and start talking, so I figure my best option is to do the opposite and go back below deck.

  "It's impossible," I hear Duncan say in the distance.

  "Faster!" the voice repeats.

  "She'll fall apart," Duncan insists, sounding a little frustrated. "She'll literally break in two, and then what are you going to do?"

  Figuring I need to find out where Duncan is and what's going on, I creep past the mast and finally I spot him. He's up at the other end of the boat, holding a large wheel that seems to be guiding us through the storm. Nearby, an old man wearing a black robe is pacing the deck, looking agitated.

  "Faster!" the old man shouts again.

  "How?" Duncan shouts back at him. "There are no winds! There's just the void, pulling us along. If I try to go faster, the hull won't survive and we'll fall into the void!"

  "Faster!" the old man insists.

  "You're not listening to me!" Duncan says, and at that moment he glances up and spots me. "Jess! Get over here! Maybe he'll listen to you!"

  I walk across the deck of the boat, not wanting to get too close in case the old man turns out to be dangerous. It's kind of strange to see the way Duncan is arguing with him, but the old man seems determined to keep the boat moving ahead.

  "Where are we?" I ask.

  "Jess," says Duncan, "meet the Mariner. Mariner, this is Jess."

  The old man looks at me. His face is ancient, with deep wrinkles and tired, baggy eyes. He looks like he's hundreds of years old. "You are Duncan's friend," he says.

  "Kind of," I reply.

  "Anna," he says slowly.

  "No!" I say, turning to Duncan. "That's the second time someone's said that!"

  Duncan shrugs.

  "How did we get here?" I ask, looking out across the boat as we push on through the storm, "and where is here?"

  "We got here," says Duncan, sounding annoyed, "because the Mariner specifically came looking for us and scooped us up. And here is... the space between realms. The Mariner sails between dimensions."

  I stare out at the water, finding it hard to really work out what's happened. It's as if this Mariner guy just washed us off the bridge and brought us here. "Are we trapped?" I ask.

  "Kind of," says Duncan. "Until he decides to let us go, anyway."

  I turn to him. "We'll just leave. Can't we just refuse to be here and go back home?"

  Duncan raises his right arm to show me that he's been chained to the wheel.

  "Switch!" I say. "Change into your wolf form. You'll be able to slip out."

  "He's already thought of that," Duncan replies, a look of total defeat in his eyes. After a pause, he switches to his wolf form and I see that not only is one of his arms still chained to the wheel, but there's a manacle slammed tightly around his tail. He switches back to his human form. "Like I said," he continues sadly, "we can't leave until he decides to let us go."

  "The girl can leave," the Mariner says. "I have no need of her."

  "No way," I say. "I'm not leaving without Duncan."

  "That is your choice," the Mariner replies, "but you should know that Duncan will perhaps be here with me for many centuries."

  "Maybe," I say. "Maybe not. Why Duncan? What's so special about him?"

  "Quite a lot, actually," Duncan says, seeming a little annoyed.

  "Why did you come and take him?" I ask the Mariner.

  "He must finish what he started."

  Duncan sighs. "The Mariner is under the entirely mistaken impression that I'm in some way responsible for his predicament. He thinks that if I hadn't encouraged him in certain matters many years ago, things wouldn't have ended up like this."

  "I would have been dead by now," says the Mariner slowly, "and happy."

  "Well then there's a bright side, isn't there?" Duncan says. "You're alive! Isn't that great? I mean, you should maybe get a hobby or something. All this sailing about between inter-dimensional voids must get a bit samey after a while."

  "I must find her," the Mariner says.

  "I know, I know," Duncan replies, sighing. "I just think that maybe you're going a bit overboard, if you'll pardon the expression. If you look for something long enough, and you don't find it, maybe it's not there to be found after all."

  The Mariner steps slowly towards him. "You will not leave this place until she has been found," he says. "I have searched for over a century. She will be found." Turning, he walks away, going to the side of the ship and looking out across the vast black ocean.

  "Is she out there?" I ask, stepping close to Duncan. "Is he ever going to find her?"

  "No idea," Duncan replies, "but I don't want to hang around to find out." He tries to pull the chains off his arm, but it's no use: he's held tightly in place."

  I grab the chain and try to get it loose. "Why does he blame you for all of this?" I ask, straining to part the metal.

  "I told him to go after Clara if he wanted her. He took my advice a little too far. It's the classic love story, really. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy is too scared to approach girl. Girl approaches boy. Boy takes girl out sailing. Girl comes onto boy. Boy and girl bump uglies. G
irl gets swept overboard in storm. Boy blames himself and spends the rest of eternity searching for her. It's like Romeo and Juliet, really, but much more tragic."

  I drop the chains. "I can't get these off," I say. "Where's the key?"

  "I'm not sure there is one," Duncan says, a hint of bitterness in his voice. He pauses. "You heard what he said, Jess. He's willing to let you go back to our world. There's no point in your staying here just because I'm trapped. You can go back and have a full life. I won't die. I'll still be here. And we're werewolves. We can live for hundreds, even thousands of years. I'll be bound to get out of this eventually, and I can come and look you up."

  "No way," I say. "I'm leaving, but not without you."

  "It's not possible," Duncan insists. "The only way out of this is for him to realize he has to stop his search, or for him to find Clara, and I don't think either of those things are going to happen any time soon."

  "I'm not leaving you here," I say. "Not now. Not ever. It's just not going to happen, so stop trying to get me to leave."

  "Why?" Duncan asks. "Why are you willing to spend the rest of your life here, just because I'm stuck here?"

  I pause. "I just am," I say, deciding to keep things simple. "I just am," I repeat.

  "Change course!" the Mariner shouts. "I want to search the shores of Karamoon!"

  Duncan sighs. "Bit of a long shot, don't you think? She won't be there. She -" Suddenly the wheel starts to spin by itself. Duncan takes a step back. "Yeah yeah," he mutters. "Like there's any chance she's in Karamoon. And then where? We're gonna end up sailing into the mouth of Maletoth himself at this rate."

  As Duncan puts his hands back on the wheel, the boat slowly starts to turn to the right, but once we're on our new course it's hard to see that much is different. There's no land anywhere, and one patch of sea looks pretty much the same as another. But in the distance, the sky is blacker than ever and the waves look higher. Lightning arcs across the sky, and it seems as if the Mariner is sending us headed straight into a storm.