Chapter 364

Chapter 364: Sneaking Away

Martha disappeared, as if she had never existed in the first place.

Yet the warm touch still lingered at his temple, and the faint lemon scent still hung around his nose. It seemed she had never come, yet also had never left.

Lawrence felt his fingers tremble. He lowered his head. It took several tries for him to screw the tiny cap back onto the bottle. Then he spent a long time putting it back into the inner pocket of his coat. His heart pounded wildly. Even when he faced a great storm, his heart had never beaten like this.

Reason came late, like waking from a long dream. He realized that just now he had brushed past madness and had almost sunk into a lasting state of delusion. For a captain who had drifted on the Boundless Sea for most of his life, once he fell into such a state, he would never regain his sanity. Yet at this moment he felt neither relief at having survived nor fear from facing that madness.

He only felt a distant sadness and regret.

And this distant sadness and regret were a warning. They meant that deep in his heart he no longer resisted the “madness” itself.

Lawrence drew in a deep breath and tried to throw all those thoughts that tangled around his mind out of his head. He glanced to the side. The White Oak lay under his feet, and a whole ship of people were waiting for him to take them back to Pland.

This was not the time to fall into madness.

The old captain sighed and said: “I really should retire…” He slowly started toward the stairs in front of him. But after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped, his face turning a bit grim.

He remembered the scene from when “Martha” had appeared just now. He knew such “memories” were dangerous and might make her appear again, yet he could not help thinking about them. He had suddenly realized that some of the things “Martha” had said to him were very hard to ignore:

In his memory, Martha’s voice sounded again: “Lawrence, be careful. You have come to the middle of the sea…”

Her voice went on: “If I were you, I would not have any extra questions now. I would leave here at once… Your guard is down…”

Lawrence repeated these two sentences in his heart without thinking. He knew very well that what had just happened was only a hallucination born from broken memories and shaken perception. Even so, he could not help taking those two sentences as some kind of warning. Martha might not exist, but had he sensed some danger deep in his intuition? Were these two sentences his own subconscious trying to warn him?

The old captain looked around and carefully checked the White Oak again. Everything he saw looked normal. Then he lifted his head and looked at the nearby city-state of Frostholm.

Frostholm also looked normal. The nearby Harbor district seemed quiet and peaceful. Lights had already begun to shine in the city blocks not far away. Farther out, a high sea cliff looked down over the ocean, its outline hard and strong under the dim sky.

But a faint sense of wrongness rose in him, unstoppable like a tide climbing in his heart. With that feeling came a soft sound of waves by his ear. It overlapped with the real waves around the White Oak. At first he did not tell them apart, but soon he realized that this sound rang directly inside his mind.

The sound of waves… was it a warning? Was the blessing of the storm Goddess Gamona taking effect?!

Lawrence’s eyes hardened. He at once gave up the idea of going ashore and spun around, rushing toward the bridge. The cold night wind howled past his ears, cutting at his nerves like a blade.

The First Mate on duty at the bridge saw Lawrence appear so suddenly and looked shocked. He rose from his chair, hurried over, and said: “Captain? Weren’t you going ashore…”

Lawrence spoke quickly: “The situation has changed. I feel something is very wrong… How long have we been docked here? Has anyone slipped ashore?”

The First Mate answered at once: “No. You already ordered everyone to stay on the ship. They have all been behaving. Also, we have been docked here for several hours.”

Lawrence nodded quickly: “Good, no one went ashore. Fire up the steam core. We are leaving this Harbor.”

The First Mate froze for a moment and said: “Huh… what? Leave this Harbor? We just…”

Lawrence cut him off: “Something is wrong with this place. I can’t explain it, but I have a very bad feeling. Remember when the Stargazing Room had a problem earlier? And before that, when we could not contact Frostholm? From that time on, everyone’s guard has been dropping. Something… is affecting all of us.”

He spoke fast, and at the same time he knew how abnormal his order was. Aside from the faint wrong feeling in his gut, he had no proof that his command was right. The White Oak had just finished a long voyage. Both the crew and the machinery needed repairs and rest. In such a situation, his order to leave port was almost nonsense.

Besides, leaving port had to be coordinated with the Harbor authorities. Reigniting the steam core without reporting it was a serious violation. He would have to bear the consequences of his decision.

But the fierce sense of alarm thumped in his heart, and the sound of waves in his mind grew louder and louder. The blessing of Gamona warned him not to keep in contact with the Harbor, not even to say a single extra word.

The First Mate fixed his gaze on the captain in front of him. After nearly half a minute, he suddenly stood straight and said loudly: “Yes, Captain!”

On a ship, the captain’s word was law.

A captain who lost his mind could take the whole crew to their grave. But with much higher odds, an experienced captain could save everyone on board from danger.

The order quickly spread through the ship. The confused sailors were pushed to move, and soon their trained reflexes had them ready to set sail again.

Fresh Boiling Gold catalyst was inserted into the steam core. A deep mechanical vibration woke in the depths of the White Oak. The sailors quietly loosened the mooring lines along the rail and pulled the gangplank back onto the deck. Lawrence stood on the bridge, watching the movements on the pier through the wide glass windows.

Some figures moved about on the pier. Under the dim light of the gas lamps, their shapes looked vague and unreal. A few loading vehicles drove past a little farther away, leaving long, heavy shadows on the road.

They seemed not to notice at all that a ship had reignited its steam core in the darkness, and nothing suddenly appeared to block the White Oak as it quietly prepared to leave.

Things were already better than he had imagined. In Lawrence’s worst fears, he had even worried that at the very moment the steam core flared back to life, hundreds or thousands of sea monster tentacles would suddenly rise from the waters around them and drag the White Oak straight under.

Lawrence quickly spoke to the First Mate beside him: “Keep the lights under control. Do not sound the steam whistle.” He stepped up to the helm and took the wheel with his own hands. “I will steer myself. Keep the boiler at high pressure and be ready to overload at any time.”

The First Mate answered: “Yes, Captain.”

Though doubts still lay in their hearts, everyone on the ship carried out the old captain’s orders without hesitation. Lawrence could feel the steel giant under his feet slowly starting to move.

The whole ship kept its lights under strict control. The propellers below the water began to turn. The White Oak slowly pulled away from the Harbor, and the churning of the water grew louder. Everyone grew tense, and every gaze turned toward the city-state beside them, now wrapped in night.

Lawrence felt sweat in his palms.

But the city showed no sign of any Anomaly. Even though the White Oak’s movements could no longer be hidden, no one came to check on them.

He glanced at the radio console beside him. The telegraph machine was as silent as death.

In theory, the Harbor authority should have sent an urgent message by now. The Harbor official on duty would be demanding to know why the White Oak was leaving port so suddenly. But nothing happened.

This instead strengthened Lawrence’s resolve and made him believe his judgment was right.

There really was something wrong with this place!

The power of the steam core rose a level. The propellers spun faster and faster. The White Oak left the dock area at growing speed. Open sea appeared in front of the bridge, the surface glittering with faint waves of light.

Lawrence took a deep breath and gripped the wheel hard: “Bring her to full speed!”

…

A gust of Ashen Wind swept across the courtyard and took shape in the front hall of the great Cathedral. Agatha stepped out of the Ashen Wind. She hurried through the porch and the main hall and came to the “Meditation Hall” where the city-state’s Bishop Ivan stayed.

The statue of the God of Death Bartok stood quietly at the far end of the hall. A dark coffin lay on the platform at the statue’s feet, its lid standing open. Bishop Ivan, who usually rested in that coffin, stood beside it now and looked up toward Agatha.

This Bishop looked like a mummy, his whole body wrapped in bandages with only one eye showing. Today he wore a black robe edged with gold and held a tin staff in his hand. As Agatha came closer, he spoke first: “I have already heard about what happened on Dagger Island.”

Agatha nodded and said: “I can see you plan to chair the meeting yourself. Can your body handle it?”

Bishop Ivan raised his hand. Pale gray mist seemed to drift slowly from the gaps in his bandages.

He said: “As long as either the body or the will can hold on, that is enough.”