The Elder Origins (2 page)

2

Early Spring 1347

Miles from North American Shores

Madison was led down the hall by Jamison’s hand. The walls around her were far too close for comfort. As if the cramped room they shared was not enough for her to feel uncomfortable, trying to balance between the rocking walls was enough to make her panic. Her legs felt unsteady as she walked. It was as if she had forgotten how to
properly place one foot in front of another.

             
“I am telling you with complete confidence, getting outside of that room will do you better than anything in the world,” he said to her.

             
“I don’t think visualizing how isolated we have become will indeed aid me in any way,” she responded.

             
“Yes, it shall. You will see.”

             
A harsh light struck her eyes as he opened the door to the outside and led her up the small staircase to the deck. Her eyes adjusted soon enough, but probably sooner than she would have liked. The sight before her was the one she had been dreading for weeks. Men stood all around her, moving about, making sure the lines were straight and cleaning the wooden surface. She knew that her presence was preferred below decks as they had not taken kindly to the few women who had been brought aboard the ship. She looked down at the wood beneath her feet so she wouldn’t be immediately forced to gaze out from the side that Jamison was leading her towards. His grip on her arm was dragging her along, yet again. The room she occupied had become her own private sanctuary, as dreary as it was and as secluded as she had been during these long weeks, it felt better to her than being outside.

             
“I would have been perfectly fine through the duration of our journey in the room. I don’t need to see this,” she said in a soft voice.

             
“Stop this instant. The view is too beautiful for you not to witness it.”

             
He brought her to the deck’s edge and she slowly lifted her head. He took his arm around her shoulders and waited in anticipation as she saw the expanse of water that surrounded them. The colors within the sky as the sun set and the shimmery lights that cascaded on the water were indeed as he had described them. They were stunning. But the knowledge that no one was around for miles, and that they could be swept away to the darkness beneath them at any moment did little to help her to enjoy the beauty of the sight before her. Jamison merely took her silence as a moment of awe.

             
“You see now, do you not? It is as if God placed it here just to comfort us,” he spoke into her ear. “He knows we are journeying toward a land of great mystery.  You must have faith now that we are safe. God would not have willed such a beautiful sight if our journey had not been blessed by his grace.”

             
Madison wished that she had his faith. As beautiful as the sky was, her mind drifted to the impending nightfall. She knew Jamison wanted her to see the sky after dark. He would probably wake her from her slumber to come gaze upon the stars with him. He described the night sky as she had never seen it, with tints of blue and purple, and more stars than one could possibly behold. He had said that the night sky on the sea is unlike the night sky anywhere else in the world. It held mysteries that man has been desperate to uncover for centuries. But she did not want to see it. She could see it in its glory once they arrived to where ever it was they were going. She did not know how Jamison could be so confident that they were blessed in their journey. How could sailing blind by night be blessed? She trusted that the men in charge had a greater knowledge of the ocean’s power than she did. But all their faith was within a god she had never felt the presence of. She looked to Jamison with faith and trusted in him. All she had ever known through their small chapel and their visits to hear the word of God given every week was the sense that she was always committing sins. She had always felt as though her mistakes taught her more of life and how to be kind to others. And those she was meant to follow in guiding her to better faith only made her feel like she was failing. Her sins in the eyes of the men giving sermons were inevitably damning her soul for eternity. She hoped against hope that they only helped to show her a better way to live. But on these waters, she did not feel as though her brother’s will to move forward was toward finding a better way. All she felt was the darkness that would likely await them.

Jamison repeatedly told her that God had c
learly meant for them to have a peaceful existence, yet they had to find their own way. He claimed he knew it the moment God had granted him a sister, and that she would be his guiding light.  She knew of no other brother in the world who had been so accommodating and doting upon a younger sibling. And she was grateful for it as most brothers would not see the use in educating and teaching a young woman, particularly one not of noble stature. Yet his faith told him that the land they were headed toward would be one of great prosperity and truth. He placed everything they had built into the hands of this one ship and the others that followed surrounding them nearby. She only knew how to place her faith within him, and that he knew what was best for her. But nothing about the expanse of sea surrounding them gave her comfort.

The air around them was too quiet even with all the men working behind them. The sea was too calm, yet rocky, and the sky was too broad. Any force that lay ahead of them could propel their lives any way it chose. And these forces lingered on her subconscious more
than any words of comfort Jamison could give her. Dark forces lived beneath the water’s depth. She knew her brother would not understand this. And she hoped he would never have to.

*
**

Madison awoke that night hours before dawn with an agonizing pain in her stiff neck. The walls around her appeared closer and closer together each morning. The only way to make things appear even blacker was to shut her eyes. The darkness imitated what she knew lay beneath her feet below the waters the ship floated upon.

Finally deciding that fresh air was the only way to find any solace this one night, she felt around herself for the edge of the bed and crawled off the thin layer of feathered bedding below her.

             
Her feet found the cold surface of wood, but her shoes were almost impossible to feel out. She elected to go without them and pushed the door open next to her bed, leading herself once again up those fateful steps to the decks above. With each step she felt as though she were walking towards some unknown precipice. The gentle breeze swept across her face, and she sighed some relief. The moon lit up the deck and revealed all the men who slept on board the decks at night. She walked through them trying her best not to wake anyone, glad for the little light that the moon provided. She gracefully placed her hands upon the edge of deck just above the bow and squeezed the wood beneath her fingers as though it may give way under her hands. A few weeks ago she would not have dared to bring herself to the ship’s edge by herself, but the feeling of darkness within that room, which before had felt like the only place aboard the ship that she could call her own, had become unbearable. She knew if she were merely caught out in the open in her night robes and bare feet that she would be chastised by her brother. But after all, he had suggested that she witness the night sky at some point.

She gazed out into the expanse of ocean before her. The stars were indeed incredible at this time of nig
ht. And the light of the moon laid a gentle glaze over the water, making its depths appear blue. Only a few clouds streaked across the sky before her, just barely out of reach from the stars above.

             
She had no true idea of what drew her to come out alone without her brother there to hold her hand. Left with nothing but fear before, she now felt that she needed to see the darkness for herself. Something was drawing her attention forward, compelling her to see what lay ahead.

             
From the corner of her eye, she spotted what looked like a black spot on the horizon.  She was not even sure of what it could be upon first seeing it. She turned her attention to the man resting in his seat above her on the higher deck in the back of the ship. He was meant to look out for anything sinister in nature, but his eyes were closed, his face worn with exhaustion and his mouth hanging partially open. Madison looked back to the spot on the horizon. The frigid air suddenly struck her and sent a chill down her tender skin leaving small bumps along her arms and legs. She could only imagine it was land. It had to be. Men had been speaking days prior of hearing birds singing off from the distance and faint traces of branches and leaves had begun to linger in waters beneath them. At the beginning of their journey she would have reveled in the thought of her feet touching solid ground again for the first time in weeks. Part of her never expected to see land again.

Their journey across the ocean had struck such rumors amongst the ship’s crew that there was nothing to be found in these ocea
ns but death and eternal length of the sea. But the sight of land did not calm her as it should have. And her shivers from cold were not due to the gentle breeze that struck her slender frame. This land was not one of peace as her brother had expected they would find. And the clouds in the sky now looked more like dark curtains attempting to cover something one was not meant to witness.

             
She could almost hear the excitement that would break through her brother’s voice once he heard the news that land had been sighted when dawn approached. He would undoubtedly bring her atop the ship’s decks again to experience the excitement firsthand. Madison turned and discreetly made her way back to her room and threw the sheet back on top of herself, grabbing it in her tightly clenched fists. She had no desire to see this land again. It would only bring hope to the eyes of the crewmen and her brother. She knew inside not to trust the cries of joy…not to let them fool her into believing that this land would be good to her brother. She continued to sense the darkness beneath her and now which lay ahead. But she dared not voice any of her suspicions, knowing that they would be regarded as a woman’s delusions of danger around every corner. Jamison already told her that she worried enough to embody multiple women’s fears rather than just her own.

             
She closed her eyes and tried to let sleep take over the sense of dread. All she could see beneath her eyes was darkness again. The darkness of the room, the darkness of the sea beneath her, and now the dark curtain of clouds that engulfed the land they would soon encounter. Danger lurked all around them, and she knew she was the only one there who could sense it so clearly.

*
**

             
Jamison gently rocked his sister’s shoulder awake. She had managed to fall back asleep quicker than she thought she would. Her drowsy eyes met the only source of calm she knew within her current surroundings when she saw Jamison looking down on her.

             
“Come now. Come. Wake yourself and dress quickly. There is much to see,” he said smiling.

             
“What is it?” said Madison. It took her a moment to remember that Jamison had not yet seen the sight of land as she already had.

             
“Land, my dear. We have finally found land. It is beautiful. You must come see for yourself. And no arguing this time. They will be sending crew to the shores soon to prepare for our departure from the ship.”

             
“Are they certain that it is safe? We don’t know what inhabits these lands?” she said.

             
Jamison smiled and brought his hand behind her head, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Stop this incessant worry. They will be fine, as will we. Today we start our new life.” With that he opened the door behind him and left their small room.

             
Madison breathed in slowly and removed her blankets, reaching below for her shoes. This time she managed to find them and slip them on without having to graze her hands along the floor of the room. She dressed with haste, but not with the quickness her brother probably imagined she might have. Granted she had already seen this land, she did not feel the need to hurry.

             
As she stood upon the deck again, she saw the land in a way that she had not expected. It was large now and clear in view, no longer a small blackened space with twilight surrounding it. It was large and rocky with sands beneath the cliffs above. Trees lined the green and grassy moss that fell over the length of the black and grey crags. Sheets of white caressed the bottom where the waters crashed into their firm exterior. The sun hit her back and warmed the soft blue cloth that touched her pale skin. Her mind was slightly more at ease feeling warmth on her body rather than the chill she had felt the previous night. The air around her that had once felt so condemning had a glimmer of hope in it. But she sensed that her newly found optimism was only hope for Jamison’s disappointment not being realized.

             
She went to the bow and placed her hands to one side. Jamison took his arm around her shoulders and leaned her to him for comfort. His warmth with the sun behind her forced any sense of cold to abandon her. Even the spray of the sea as waters splattered slightly aboard their small ship didn’t give her chills. She could feel Jamison’s warmth permeating around her, not just in physical form, but spiritually. He wanted her happiness here as much as she wanted her own suspicions to be wrong.