Sanctuary

“Captain Charles Vane will be victorious!” The boy cheered as he held up a large toy ship finely made from wood. His Father looked to him, and frowned, as they played joyously in the boy's room. A large King-size bed, fine linen sheets, filled with wooden horses and dolls made from cotton. Some moonlight shone from a large balcony that opened to a beach of water that met with the chaotic sea.

“Charles Vane is a brute Edward, you know this.” His Father told him. Edward was taken a little back.

“He travels the sea, he wins battles.” Edward retorted as he held the toy ship above him and shook it in the air.  

“But there is more to being a man than winning battles. A man must look after what is their responsibility. A man must be decent to good god-fearing people.” He looked into his sons’ eyes hoping that he was listening.

The boy kept swaying the ship around in the air, the sounds of the waves echoed slightly from the sea.

“It's bedtime, my young lord.” The father muttered, taking the ships from his son.

“Are we going to sail the sea again Father?” Edward asked, as his father walked to the door.

“We are here for a reason my boy. We must protect each other from men…” The father turned around and looked at his son again.

“… Men like Charles Vane. They are after us because the King asked Your father to look after some things. Something important to England.” He explained and opened the door.

“The men who sing in the garden?” Edward called in a whisper as he knew he was being rather cheeky.

His father chuckled ever so slightly and then simply shook his head before opening the door.

On the other side, Edward watched his mother and Father talk in hushed voices.

He quickly clambered out of bed and tiptoed closer to the door. He looked to his mother, who wore a long gown of yellow, her cleavage quite open, White cheeks, and rosy, red lips the color of blood. His father wore a long navy coat, and a plain white shirt with frills at the neck and around the collar.

As he got closer his father shut the boy's door. An inch of space was at the top and bottom of the door, that sound and air often drifted through.

“I know it is tonight Haymitch.” His mother whispered.

Edward could hear his father Haymitch sigh and imagined him rolling his eyes as he sometimes did when talking to Edwards's Mother.

“Yes, it is. I know what you’re going to say. It's barbaric, it's unnecessary, but you don’t know this woman. You don’t know those people or this island.

There was a silence, and Edward wondered if his parents knew what he had been up to. If they knew that he often snuck past the guards and spoke to the people in the garden.

“It's just so close to Edward, I can't begin to describe how wrong it feels.” His Mother muttered.

“I know, but this is to protect him, to protect you too. If we do this a few more times, these people will become allies and before long we’ll be off this island.” Haymitch whispered.

“This is for the King, not us…How about just coming with me, you can see that we can work with these people out here. If we keep them pleased, they are not to be feared.” His Father explained.

Edward raised his eyebrow and had an idea.

He put his leather boots on and crept out to the small balcony. He pushed himself through the white rails of the balcony onto the roof and crawled quickly over it, to look down upon a large garden, hanging flowers everywhere, white polished staircases that lead to a stone courtyard. With benches and wooden walkways. A single guard held onto a musket and looked past the courtyard to a large cage of singing men. The men were dirty, tired, and wore torn clothes, at least thirty of them were pushed together in the cage, but alas they sang heatedly.

“What will we do with a drunken sailor, what will we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning!” The guard watched them blankly, his hands holding tightly onto his musket.

Edward looked over the garden and spotted two more guards standing by the back gates of the house. He crept quickly over the roof and lowered his body to a wooden walkway. He scanned around himself and stayed crouched. Edward was skipping over the pearl-white wooden walkway when he heard footsteps walking towards him, so he pushed into a bush as he recognized the voice of his father and mother again.

“She’s arrived,” Haymitch muttered.

“We should place a guard in front of Edwards's room.” His mother noted. Edward trembled slightly as fear fevered in his body.

“Her rage only extends to those in the cage.” His Father muttered. Their voices trailed off and Edward wondered why anyone would be angry with them.

He pushed himself out of the bush and crawled onto a grass path that had faded from footfall. Edward kept his body small and glued himself near bushes and trees. Large birds flapped through the trees. large mosquitos tempted to sting him, as Edward snuck through the garden. He turned a corner and saw the cage fifty feet ahead of him. In front of the cage a large hole at least fifteen feet deep, that wasn’t there the last time Edward visited them.

He put his head up slightly and scanned around the area. Still, the only guard near the cage of slaves was the one watching them. Edward got on his hands and knees and crawled past the deep hole, wondering what it was for. He looked up and smiled as he saw his friend Chike. A large man wearing the remains of a white tunic, that looked more like a white net. Pink scars across some of the man's chest and arms. The man scowled slightly and shook his head a little to Edward.

Edward crawled next to the cage, most of the thirty men inside looked at him and chuckled slightly.

“ Little lord.” One of them whispered. A couple of the others in the cage kept singing.

“We're home'ard bound across the blue sea,

Good-bye fare-you-well, we wish you well,

We're home'ard bound to the old counterie,

Goodbye fare-you-well, we're home'ard bound!”

Edward looked up to the one he was most fond of.

“Hello, Chike.” And smiled up at him.

“Not tonight little lord. I think your father is going to visit us.” Chike’s thick voice muttered as he shook his head sternly.

“But it's been two days, and I’m good at not being caught.”

“It's too dangerous child. You don’t understand how much your father would hate seeing you talk to us.”

Edward looked up to his friend's eyes and wondered what he meant by that before they heard voices coming their way. Edward pushed quickly into the cage. Chike tried to hold him out of the cage, but Edward muttered quickly.

“I'll get in trouble, and maybe if they see me with you all, it would be worse for you,” Edward whispered, pushing slightly further into the crowd of caged men, Chike allowed it. Most looked at him and gave a slightly bewildered smirk as Edward pushed in and disappeared from the outside as some of the men including Chike circled him.  Edwards's nose wrinkled at the stench, but he didn’t want to be rude, so he held his mouth and nose.

Edwards's Father was at the front, with another guard holding onto a musket. Next to him was a woman, dressed in a ratty dress that someone fifty years earlier might have gotten married in. The white veil was half-holed, a vast hat that cast a shadow over the women. As she looked at the cage it was difficult not to notice a red jewel in place of one of her eyes. Haymitch trembled slightly at the women as she inspected the caged men. Behind her three men with blades at their sides, glaring at the British soldiers with muskets.

“Indeed, I recognize a few of them. These are the ones,” she muttered; her voice floated through the air like a chill.

“So this is sufficient?” Haymitch asked.

The lady held out one of her obscenely long fingernails. At the end of her nails, a silver chain hung with the skull of a crow chained.

The lady slowly drifted the skull from left to right. She whispered some unrecognizable words and closed her eyes. The wind seemed to pick up and blow with a certain ticklish cold as everyone stood silent.

“The island is pleased with this offering. These men abandoned their homeland in search of their own greed and lust. They shall be returned to the earth that they betrayed.” The lady echoed. The men in the cage grumbled, and a few spat near the ground where the lady was standing. Chike pulled on Edwards's shoulders as he tried to get a peer at the lady. Chike pushed him behind him and whispered “Go… now.” Edward stepped back a little, but he had the anger in the lady's voice. He grabbed onto Chike’s hand.

“If you come with me.”

 Chike tutted his teeth and shook his head.

The lady stretched her fingertip and felt the air between them. She smiled as her nose seemed to pick up an unusual stench. Her rubied eye caught the moonlight and glowed for a fraction of a second.

“What do you want with my lord's island?” She muttered softly to Haymitch.

Haymitch beads of sweat glistened under the stars.

“Protection from pirates. Protection from anyone who might come after the crown?” he announced.

“Are thee a King of some land?” She turned to him; her eyes closed as she felt what was around her and listened to the guards' low murmur of chitter-chatter. She smelt deeply the coconut trees and the sea air.

“No of course not. I am simply a protector of England, the crown, and civility.” Haymitch responded trying to control his annoyance.

“Above all else?”

“I would give my life for my King.”

“So, your treasure for your King of England, is that what you need protecting?”  

“Along with the people here?” Haymitch took back and whispered a little.

The lady opened her one normal eye and got closer to him. “All of the people here?” she whispered peering at the guards with muskets dotted around the estate.

“Well…most of them,” Haymitch admitted, hoping the others hadn’t heard.

The lady nodded smirking between her rotting teeth.

“Then it is just, then it is worthy of our lord. You bring those that don’t belong, those thieving, raping, sneakin' sorts to this place of worship and decide to pay its most mighty price.” She pledged powerfully into the sky.

Haymitch thought about her words for a moment before nodding, his veins pounded, sweat dripped from his nose.

Haymitch held onto his wife’s hand and made sure she stayed. “Stay with me.” He asked her.

Guards in long red coats that dusted the ground, thick black leather boots, and tricorne hats shoveled wood and tinder into the hole quickly.

“What is going to happen?” Edward asked aloud.

Chike shook his head.

“Little lord, you must go now. This is serious.” The other men in the cage had their feet planted to the cage, as they realized what was about to happen some of them tried to break the thick wooden cage or cling onto it for their dear life.

Sparks cast into the hole and It blazed a flame. The lady smelled it, ran her fingers over her body, and looked to the sky.

“Does thou please thy wonderous and mighty?!” she screamed.

The flame danced a second before turning blue for a couple of seconds before returning to its usual orange.

The most joyous smile erupted over the lady's lips. She wriggled her body as if her heart had just begun beating for the first time.

Her people marched quickly to the back of the cage.

The men inside started beating against the wooden bars of the cage. Chike grabbed Edwards's hand and started pushing and pulling against the other men, anything to yank them from the side of the cage, desperately tried to find any kind of hole for Edward to pass through. The other men mostly ignored him, but continued trying to rip the cage open, they yelled and screamed, and some cried as they felt the heat rise.

“Get out little lord, now!” Chike screamed louder than the rest.

Haymitch heard Chike’s voice and wondered what he could mean. He peered into the cage and tried to see the faces of everyone in the cage. He saw a flash of a clean white tunic, and a body that seemed much too small for anyone that should be in the cage.

The island's people pushed the cage further toward the flaming pit. The natives smacked at the padlock keeping the cage shut, so the door sprung open. As it started to bend upwards those inside screamed desperately. Most grasping onto the bars of the cage or each other.

“Wait… Wait!” Haymitch called. The cage tipped over and everyone inside almost instantly fell into the blaze.

Haymitch and his wife saw the beaten and almost naked bodies of the men they were willing to sacrifice, followed by the white tunic, and the auburn hair of their son. A glimpse of his chubby cheeks for a moment before the fire started to engulf him.

“No, no, no Edward!” The screams of the mother could be heard throughout the entire island.

Haymitch immediately strode forward and was about to jump in the fire itself.

The island's people grabbed his shoulders, and they put a couple of cutlasses to his and his wife's throat, but Haymitch continued to wrestle for his son.

“The island should not take more than what satisfies it.” The woman whispered across the pit of fire, but Haymitch could hear her like she was right next to him.

Screams erupted as flesh was turned to ash. Haymitch writhed and wriggled for the body near the edge of the pit, the one he knew the name of. The one just out of reach of him. His wife wept desperately as she laid her hand out to the flaming pit.

When there were no voices, no more shouts or screams heard coming from the pit, all that could be heard was the lick of flames searing the final pieces of flesh. Dark clouds bellowed into the sky. Haymitch kneeled staring at the collection of bones that was much smaller than the others. The lady strutted, her stained gown floating through some ash, she grasped some playfully in the air. The lady softly massaged her fingers over Haymitch’s cheek, her nail making a tiny cut near his lip.

“For those that pay the ultimate sacrifice, they may call this island home for as long as they live.”

And she was gone, as were the other natives of the island as if they were smoke that had dispersed into the sky. Haymitch and his wife knelt still sobbing, they cried until they couldn’t any longer. Their guards watched them with their muskets by their side, unsure of what they had just seen.

Haymitch closed his eyes and felt the breeze, it seemed more powerful than before, and he heard the sea. The chaos of the waves crashed with more ferocity. He could feel, see, and taste more intensely than ever before. The wind rubbed on him like it was something he could reach out and grab. It played music into his ear, a soft melody of percussion, It was quiet and slow at first but sped up into a booming voice that sounded like it could spit thunder.

“You my child have a new crown to protect!”