Peter looked at the Duegelsteiner he was fighting. He seemed like a newer recruit, closer to Peter’s age than an actual adult.
“I-I don’t want to fight you,” the soldier stuttered out.
Peter unarmed the soldier quickly with his club and reassured him. “Oh, no, I’m not going to kill you,” he promised, “We’re better than that. You’re just going to have a nice long sleep.” Peter knocked the soldier out, feeling slightly guilty. “And probably a big bump on your head when you wake up.”
Peter looked across the ship and saw a Dueglesteiner looking over the railing, his boot up on it. What was he doing?
When the Dueglesteiner reached over the edge and lifted up Helen, Peter understood.
He tried to make his way across the ship but was caught off guard by another soldier. He fought that one rather quickly as well, but not quickly enough.
When Peter looked over at where Helen and that Dueglesteiner had been before, they were gone.
“Helen?” he called.
Looking over at the Dueglesteiner’s ship Peter saw Helen’s unconscious form on the Dueglesteiner’s shoulder.
‘No. No, no, no, no.’ Peter thought.
“Helen!” Peter shouted over the edge of the ship, and the soldier who held her turned around with a smile. “Come and get her, ginger.”
Peter turned around and saw his other friends had defeated the soldiers.
“Where’s Helen?” Richard asked, panicked.
Peter pointed to the Dueglesteiner’s ship, and Helen wasn’t there anymore. “They took her,” he explained, just as concerned as Richard was.
“No,” Richard said, walking over to the edge of the ship. “No, no, no, no!” Richard banged his fist down on the railing, then hung his head, disappointed.
Then Richard lifted his head, turning to Peter. His eyes flared with anger.
“Why didn’t you protect her?” Richard boomed, storming over to Peter, and pushing him into one of the masts. “Why didn’t you go after her?”
“Richard!” Alice shouted, running over to him. “Stop this right now. We must not fight amongst ourselves. Let’s think of a plan to get her back.”
As soon as she said it, the Dueglesteiner’s ship began to pull away, headed South.
Richard walked over to the railing, cursing under his breath. Then he shouted the same curse into the wind, and put his hands in his hair, beginning to pull some of it out.
“Richard, Richard stop this,” Luke said, walking over to him. “Richard, the longer we stay here thinking about what we’ve done wrong, the less time we have to free Helen. Now let’s all calm down and think.”
“It’s no use,” Ruby said.
Richard turned around, glaring at Ruby. “What. Did you just say?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“I said it’s no use,” Ruby said, sheathing her sword. “The Dueglesteiners are already headed back to Dueglestein and even if we get on that ship we’ll still be outnumbered and in Dueglestein’s naval territory. There’s no hope,” she said, sighing.
“No,” Richard answered, “No, no, there’s always hope!”
“Vat do you mean?” Adalene asked, “Zere’s no vay ve can vin zis battle.”
“We’ve faced worse odds,” Richard argued, “And we never, never, leave anyone behind. That’s what Helen would do. She’d do that for every single one of us right now. So why shouldn’t we?”
“Because you’ll get us all killed!” Ruby shouted, “And I for one don’t want to die today.”
“You were more than ready to fight them when they first showed up,” Luke muttered.
“That was before they had one of us in their possession. If they haven’t already killed Helen they will soon and all of us with her.” Ruby shook her head. “It’s hopeless,”
“Zey von’t kill her,” Adalene said quietly.
“What?” Richard asked, trying to hang onto any thread of hope.
“Zey von’t kill any of you for zat matter. Zey need you alive, at least until ze time is right.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Peter asked, leaning on the mast.
“It means zey need you alive for something important,” Adalene answered, once again cryptic.
“Would you mind explaining to us what important thing that will be?” Alice asked.
“Vould you believe me?” Adalene shot back, the sarcasm clear in her voice.
“Weirder things have happened to us,” Luke shrugged.
Adalene sighed. “Zey vant to sacrifice you.”
“I stand corrected,” Luke said, clapping his hands, “Now that’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to us.”
“Why would they sacrifice us?” Alice was carving something into the railing of The Bowen.
“For zeir leader,”
“And who would that be? Or will you respond all cryptic again?” Peter was starting to get annoyed.
“I cannot say yet, for I myself do not know,” Adalene responded, messing with the hilts of her swords.
“Great,” Richard sighed, “We now know why they won’t kill us but we don’t know to whom we’ll be sacrificed for and we’re still not saving Helen!” Richard cursed again.
“Language,” Luke muttered.
“You are not my mother,” Richard muttered back.
“Enough,” Alice said, becoming irate, “All of you would you just stop fighting? It’s like ever since Skylar died everything’s been falling apart!”
“She’s not dead!” Luke shouted, then quieted down, surprised by his outburst. “She’s not dead, I know it.”
Peter looked at Luke, an earnest look on his face. “Luke, I hate to burst your hope bubble, but nobody could’ve survived that fall. Not even Skylar.”
“No, no. I will not lose hope! Helen said for me to be hopeful, so I am. Because the moment you give up on somebody, that’s the moment you give up on yourself.”
Peter sighed, sad he had to tell Luke this. “Having hope on a dead person being alive will get you nowhere, Luke, trust me, I know. Because when you find out they’re really dead, really gone, it will crush you. It’ll make you feel like you’ve lost everything. False hope gets you nowhere, Luke, nowhere.”
Peter thought back to the morning after the house fire, when Peter walked up to the house, and searched through its charred remains for something, anything. All he found was the burnt remains of his parents and it broke him.
“Look, this is a great heart-to-heart,” Ruby interrupted, “But if you want to save Helen, it’d be better to do it now than two hours from now as you share sob stories.”
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