Jack’s stomach knotted and the tension made her fists clench and her chest hurt. The sea had opened up before them as far as could be seen. It should have been serene.
Instead there was the roar of the ship above, a thunderous sound that seemed to press down on them all, a sound that would have made another person run. Jack wasn’t just some other person and what was ahead meant everything in the world to her. Riddick. Shazza. Even Theo. Her family.
Duncan had stayed on the deck of the Moorglade and scoured the forest for any trace of the people that he had spotted amidst the mist-shrouded trees. He too had strained to listen to the sound of the drop ship; like Riddick, it was a familiar sound to him. He also knew from experience that it was just one. If there had been more, the sound would be deafening, literally.
One ship. Duncan sorted the matter in a military fashion. Tactically, one ship was not a threat, and Duncan knew that the ship out in the atmosphere was no threat either. If it strayed into the atmosphere, it too would be pulled down, as his ship had been.
A militia force of unknown size and intent out in the forest concerned him more so he had stayed out on the deck and watched the trees through narrowed eyes. Like Jack, Duncan had taken note of the sea that opened up in front of him which meant that the forest too would end.
Duncan looked over to Johns and had the younger man run inside to Jack with very precise instructions about how she was to pilot the ship. Duncan thought for a moment that Jack may not listen to him but quickly pushed it out of his mind. Jack may only be twelve but she was competent, not some brat. Duncan made a hum of appreciation low in his throat as he felt the ship pull beneath him. Jack had done as asked and the ship slid gracefully over the water between the oppressive cover of the forest and the causeway, to put the Moorglade between their friends and harm.
Joanne stood at the rail close to Duncan, silent and visibly shaken. She had nodded, a tiny movement, when Duncan had told her that if she was too afraid, to just drop to the deck and stay down but she hadn’t moved and she still held the weapon with determination.
He had watched her from the corner of his eye when the firing started and knew that she was terrified but she didn’t drop. Joanne had even taken out a few of the militiamen as they had run across the open ground for the causeway. If they had reached the safety of the low walls there they could have escaped but Joanne took them down. Duncan had shot and killed things for most of his life and he knew that Joanne never had, which only made his esteem for her grow.
Jack watched as the tiny drop ship rested against the roof for a moment and then rose again shortly after. She could only imagine what had happened in that time. The drop ship ascended quickly and a deathly silence fell over them all.
All Jack could see was Riddick with Shazza held behind him, and Theo; nothing else existed for her and she made way for the causeway without further thought. There was a stone slip low to the water with a set of stairs that wound their way up to the causeway and Jack couldn’t escape the thought that the Moorglade had come home.
Jack darted from the bridge the moment the ship’s keel came to rest. Stopped by Duncan, who fastened an arm around her waist. Instantly furious, she struggled, to no avail, and neither Joanne nor Johns came to her aid. What really annoyed her was that Duncan didn’t even look at her when he did it; he just stared off down the causeway. It wasn’t until Jack saw that Riddick did the same thing that she clued in.
It was still dangerous and no matter how much Jack wanted to be back with her family, both Riddick and Duncan wouldn’t let her move until it was safe to do so. Theo did the same, Jack saw; all of them watched out for her. Jack stopped her struggles but Duncan didn’t ease up, not until Riddick had closed the distance and extended his hand to help Jack over the edge of the causeway.
Nothing else existed for Riddick either once his hand touched Jack’s. He pulled the young girl up easily without a thought or a care as to who watched him. Riddick let go of Shazza, not that he could keep Shazza back once she saw Jack anyway. His arms wrapped around Jack and crushed her to his chest.
For a few moments nothing else existed for either of them. Jack couldn’t move even if she had wanted to and Riddick wasn’t about to let her go. He inhaled in deeply; everything that was good in the world was in that smell. His Jack.
There was something in her scent, something submerged underneath that stirred in his nostrils. Riddick breathed her scent in again. Blood. He squeezed her harder, his body enveloped hers, the heady scent of her aroused a very different emotion in him than he had ever felt, or even expected. Riddick had accepted that he loved Jack, but this was different. His Jack.
Riddick pulled his head back away from the warm skin of Jack’s neck, but didn’t let her go. With her pinned by one arm, Riddick stroked fingertips over the stubble of her head and down the side of her face. Jack couldn’t see his eyes behind the goggles but there was no way to deny the intensity of his expression, the gentleness of his touch. He couldn’t hide it from her; he couldn’t hide it from anyone, and everyone that was there watched the exchange in silence. There was a time when such an intense gaze from a man would have frightened her but there was nothing bad in it, not from Riddick. He loved her.
Shazza loved her too. Jack was once again pinned between them both, enveloped and secure. Thousands of things raced through Jack’s mind; smartass comments and flip remarks, but she choked on them and just grinned up hugely at Riddick, before she turned her head to look back at Shazza.
Riddick had the same radiant smile on his face as he looked past Jack’s shoulder, at Shazza, and Shazza couldn’t help but answer it, and press against Jack and Riddick even more firmly. It was wonderful to have Jack back.
He let out a deep sigh as he lowered Jack to the ground and turned to the Underhills as they crossed the distance. Jacob Underhill stepped away from his father as they neared, his eyes on Jack. Shazza could feel the sepulchral growl from Riddick right through the skin of his back where her hand rested.
David Underhill spoke to Riddick but it was doubtful how much Riddick really heard so intent was he on Jack and Jacob. David would take about half his men and go after the rogue villagers that had escaped into the forest when the firefight began in earnest, the rest would remain to defend the keep.
All Riddick heard was Jacob Underhill as he chatted with Jack about things that were probably perfectly innocent. It was when Jacob asked how old Jack was that Riddick tensed considerably under Shazza’s hand. Enough so that Shazza let go of Jack to link her arm through Riddick’s.
‘By the laws.’
Jack paid no attention to all the warnings in Riddick’s demeanor but continued to chat with Jacob. Shazza understood. Jack had no other company her own age; Anna, even when she got older, could never come close to Jack, not for the things Jack needed. And would need as she got older. Shazza had thought of that immediately when she had set eyes on Jacob Underhill in the forest. But what Shazza knew and what Riddick was prepared to accept were two very different things.
“I turn thirteen in”, Jack counted on her fingers; it wasn’t something she thought of often, “in about two weeks….”
Riddick stepped forwards, despite the arm that held him back and took hold of Jack’s arm. David Underhill intervened before his son could say anything else and told Jacob to get the antelope ready for the hunt in the forest. A single look was enough to silence the dissent that was apparent.
Shazza squeezed Riddick’s arm firmly, enough to pull his attention from Jacob’s departing figure. Begrudgingly, Riddick also let go of Jack. Shazza, her arm around the young girl’s shoulders, walked a few steps off towards the edge of the causeway where Theo had his hand extended towards Joanne.
Silent as a stone, Riddick brooded, his hard glare now directed at David Underhill. Another man would have flinched, slunk away. “Thirteen, by the laws here, is old enough to choose.” Underhill left out what that choice could entail; his own son was accepted as a man of the village at thirteen.
Riddick pulled his glare off Underhill to look over at Shazza and Jack as they held each other before he turned back to Underhill, his voice like two stones ground together. “But not yet.” There was no room for argument; until Jack turned thirteen, she was Riddick’s. She would be after that as well, laws or no laws, but no one was to touch her, or even think about it, before then.
“Until then.” Underhill dipped his head in a small bow before he turned to join the rest of his men and they made their way back to the forest. A contingent of militia remained along the causeway.
“Anna!” Joanne’s sharp cry had everyone left on the causeway turn towards the Moorglade. Anna had flitted past her mother and now teetered on the edge of the bow of the ship. Theo reached out farther and caught her easily as the young girl flung herself into his extended arms. Johns held Joanne back before she could jump across the distance as well.
Theo picked up Anna and held her to his chest much as Riddick had done earlier with Jack. He was surprised at how good that felt; her skinny arms around his neck before she squirmed to be let down. Theo bit the inside of his lip at her high-pitched calls to ‘Uncle Riddick’. No matter how many times he heard it, he could never really get used to it.
Joanne stood in the bow of the Moorglade and looked across the distance at Theo. She didn’t breathe as she had watched Riddick hold Jack, the depth of what he felt so plain to anyone that watched. To see Anna held by Theo had the same reaction on her.
Johns held her hand as she climbed to the rail of the Moorglade and like Anna before her, Joanne trusted that Theo would catch her before she fell. Theo’s strong arms pulled her overboard and onto the causeway. She clung to him and breathed in the smell of his sweat, her eyes closed. He wasn’t about to let her go either. Anna made to scamper closer to her mother but Riddick reached down and held the girl’s hand before she could get between them.
His leg was cramped and on fire; he had been on it too long but Duncan wouldn’t miss this for anything and he made his way up to the front of the ship to stand next to Johns.
“Maybe we shouldn’t…”
Duncan cut Johns off with a smile. He didn’t smile often, not a real smile anyway. Occasionally he would smirk at something or smile to put a woman at ease as with Bishop’s secretaries, but he didn’t just smile. “I can’t stay on the ship. I have to see this through, to see everything.”
Johns nodded and helped Duncan walk to the prow of the ship, before he caught Theo’s eye. Riddick and Theo quickly stepped over to the railing to help Duncan over the edge. Nobody said anything when Duncan leaned his weight heavily into them as he stood on the causeway, his eyes shut tightly against the pain that nearly dropped him. When this was done he would rest properly. But now he just needed to stand a minute.
When Duncan was strong enough to stand on his own, Theo and Riddick stepped back, but Johns wouldn’t leave and stayed at Duncan’s side. Duncan didn’t mind and let Johns take some of his weight as they turned, as one, to the ruin of Sunhillow before them.
Of course it was Jack that stepped forward first, not to enter, just to rest her hand on the wood as though she had to prove that it was real. Riddick turned to Shazza and took her free hand; the other still held the spear banner. Theo took a step towards Jack and then, as one, the rest moved forward to push open the broken wooden doors.
Copyright © may 2007 xxxevilgrinxxx