Rain ran down the governor general’s long nose and off his pointed chin. It flew off his eyelids when he blinked. The guard captain could barely keep up.
‘Wait here,’ demanded the governor general, as they reached the entrance to the passenger cabins.
‘Sir, I don’t –’
‘Wait here! I’ll call if you’re required.’
Drecht pressed his lips tight, exchanging uncertain looks with Eggert, before taking a place on the opposite side of the red door. Straightening his breastplate formally, the governor general stepped inside and swung it shut behind him. Drecht quickly manoeuvred his sword sheath into the gap, preventing the door from closing fully. He couldn’t see what was happening inside, but at least he’d be able to hear.
The governor general rapped on a cabin.
No answer came.
The governor general knocked again, then cleared his throat. ‘It’s Jan Haan,’ he said, in the deferential tone of somebody with rugs to sell. ‘You’ve been waiting for me.’
The door creaked open into gloom, revealing a figure seated in the corner. Its face was hidden behind a bloom of candlelight, but as he entered the cabin, it pushed it away with a long finger, revealing itself.
‘Ah,’ said the governor general sorrowfully. ‘I was right then.’
The door slammed shut behind him.
In the ocean’s darkness, the Eighth Lantern opened its eye.
61
Still guarding the door to the passenger cabins, Drecht stared at the Eighth Lantern off the starboard quarter of the ship, desperation growing within him. He’d lost battles before. He’d been overwhelmed and forced to retreat, but never had he so singularly failed to comprehend the scale of his enemy, its intent or the terms of surrender.
How was he supposed to protect the governor general from something that could appear and vanish at will, speak without a voice, slaughter at distance and pluck things out of locked rooms without leaving a trace?
Isaack Larme came clattering up the stairs and through the red door into the passenger cabins, emerging with Captain Crauwels a few minutes later. The captain had obviously been asleep, for he was just dressed in his breeches. It was the first time Drecht could remember him being dishevelled.
The two of them went to the taffrail a few paces away.
‘Even we don’t know where we are,’ cursed Crauwels, staring at it. ‘How did it find us?’
‘Governor General wanted us to train cannon on it if it appeared again,’ replied Isaack Larme.
‘It’s too far away, and it has the wind gauge,’ said Crauwels irritably, glancing at the flag flying above them. ‘Even if they didn’t, our sails are still in tatters. We can’t manoeuvre, which means we can’t fight. Not even sure what we’d be fighting.’
‘What are your orders, Captain?’
‘All hands on deck and armed,’ he said. ‘Until then, we watch.’
Governor General Jan Haan appeared from the passenger cabins after two hours, and silently returned to his own cabin. Guard Captain Drecht took his usual position outside, lit his pipe and waited. After a few minutes, weeping sounded through the door.
62
They weren’t boarded that night, or the next, although the Eighth Lantern appeared again. Both times, it disappeared before dawn.
Over the next two days, the sails were repaired and the Saardam made seaworthy. In a bid to sight land and take a bearing, Crauwels ordered they sail in arcs, covering the widest area possible.
Where there should have been fresh hope, there was only new fear.
From the second they’d left Batavia, they’d been damned and damned and damned again, and now everybody was waiting to see what catastrophe would come next. The governor general had locked himself in his cabin, refusing to come out. Arent was laid low with fever. Vos was dead. The predikant was dead. The leper stalked the cargo hold freely, and the ship was only barely afloat. Each night, Old Tom whispered to the sailors of unholy miracles. Two had been performed and one remained. Anybody who had not bargained with him when it was revealed would be slaughtered by his other followers. That was his promise.
For most, the temptation was overwhelming. Safe passage for somebody else’s blood was too fine a deal to pass up, certainly better than they’d ever received from the Company.
Every morning, there were more charms hanging from the rigging. They tinkled in the wind, discarded. They served no purpose any more. The crew had already shaken hands with the devil they were meant to keep at bay.
63
Arent writhed in his bunk, murmuring. Sara placed a hand over his heart, listening to it thump furiously in his chest. She’d only recently returned from her husband’s cabin and had been dismayed to find Arent in exactly the same state she’d left him in.
It wasn’t clear whether he’d caught the fever from his knife fight with Wyck, or working the bilge pumps during the storm, but his life hung in the balance. Sara heard wagers had been placed among the sailors and musketeers. The odds were against him. For all his strength, they’d seen men similarly struck down after a battle, and they knew what it meant. What was shattered could be sawn off and bad blood ran clean eventually, but what couldn’t be seen couldn’t be healed. More men died murmuring than screaming.
For the last three days, she’d tried everything she could to break this fever and there was nothing left, except patience and prayer.
‘I’ve had rations sent to Sammy,’ she said, knowing he’d like that. ‘The musketeer guarding his door, Thyman I think his name is, offered to walk with him at night, so he’s had his exercise. I spoke with him briefly last night. He misses you. He wanted to come up here and tend you himself, my husband be damned. I talked him out of it. I said you’d not thank me for letting him die while you were bedridden. It was hard for him to accept. He loves you a great deal.’ She swallowed, annoyed by how difficult this was. ‘I suspect he’s not the only one.’
She watched his face for any twitch, a suggestion of recognition.
‘He tried to comfort me,’ she continued, seeing nothing. ‘He told me you’d been into the dark before and found your way back.’ Sara put her lips to his ear. ‘He said you’d called for God, and he hadn’t come. He said you believed there was nothing waiting. No God or devil, no saints or sinners. He’s in awe of you. He said you’re remarkable because you choose to do good, rather than because you’re afraid of what’s waiting if you don’t, like most people.’ She struggled for words. ‘I don’t believe heaven is empty. I think God is waiting for you, but so am I.’ Her hand pressed fearfully against his chest. ‘I’m waiting for you here, on a blighted boat, stalked by a devil I can’t stop alone. I need you to wake up and help me, Arent. I need you.’
Something heavy splashed into the water outside, startling Sara, whose hand leapt away from his chest.
Going to his porthole, she looked outside. A few ripples showed on the ocean’s surface, but there was no indication of what had caused them.
The sea was keeping her secrets, as usual.
From behind her, Arent said hoarsely, ‘Can’t people see I’m trying to sleep.’
64
Under the great cabin’s swaying lantern, the diners prodded listlessly at their food.
Many of the seats were empty. The governor general had barely been seen out of his cabin since Vos’s death. They’d heard him holler for Drecht as they took their places, but he’d gone quiet now.