Across The Sea by Eric Marier

hacked up by the whole crew
on deck.
    Francis fell back to sleep.
    He dreamed that he was standing
on a grassy bluff overlooking the Langer River from high above. He
saw the back of a black-haired, young man, sitting cross-legged
near the cliff’s edge. He recognized this young man. It was his
older brother Michael.
    “Is it true what Father said
last night?” Francis asked, stopping beside his brother. “That
heroes aren’t real? That they’re silly?”
    “He…” Michael began, looking up
at Francis. “He just meant it in a different way than you
understood.” He smiled. The spark in his blue eyes flashed
again.
    “He meant that the characters
in the books you read,” Michael continued, “and everything that
happens to them, are just part of some writer’s imagination.”
    “Was there ever a Robert of
Dreighton?” Francis asked, disappointed.
    Michael smiled again. “Of
course there was. Robert of Dreighton was an esteemed captain. And
a talented explorer. He was even also sometimes considered a hero.
I’ve met scores of people while working out at sea who’ve told me
tales.”
    “The same as in the books?”
    “No. Quite different
actually.”
    “How?” Francis did not like
hearing that the stories were ‘quite different’. He sat down next
to his brother.
    “Well,” his brother began to
explain. “Most... didn’t have much actual battle, or swordplay.
They were adventures that, likely, no writer thought exciting
enough to put down on paper.”
    “Like what?” Francis asked.
    “Well, there is one story...
and it’s one that I really like. It takes place on an island. Some
faraway island where Dreighton and five of his men were camped. On
the first night, as per his usual custom, Dreighton went off to
search on his own.”
    “For treasure?”
    “Oh yes. Dreighton always
searched new islands alone before he involved any of his crew.”
    “What kind of treasure was he
looking for?”
    “A chest, chock full of gold
artefacts, buried at the height of the Roman Empire. The King of
England was obsessed with Ancient Rome and he charged Dreighton
with finding the treasure at all cost. Dreighton, on that first
night, dug where he suspected the treasure was, and found it. When
he walked back toward the camp, he heard voices just up ahead,
speaking Spanish. What Dreighton didn’t know was that a Spanish
crew was also on the island, searching for exactly the same
treasure. Dreighton hid behind a grouping of rocks and spied more
than thirty Spanish sailors, all of them armed, holding his five
men captive. Dreighton was unprepared. There was only two other men
left with him, and they were on his ship which was hidden in a
small bay. And these two weren’t exactly the fighting kind.
Dreighton made a decision. He knew that His Majesty would want him
to quietly row away and set sail, leaving his five men behind, but
making off, all the same, with the Ancient Roman treasure.”
    “What did he do?”
    “Dreighton rowed back toward
his ship. He thought that if he offered the treasure in exchange
for his men, there was a chance that the Spanish might refuse his
offer and torture his men until Dreighton, himself, presented them
with the treasure.
    “Once aboard his ship,
Dreighton ordered his two crew to wait until he had rowed back to
the island and then to sail away and not come back for two days.
When the Spanish saw Dreighton’s ship set off on the horizon, they
truly believed Dreighton had abandoned his men. They questioned
their prisoners about what they knew of the treasure and its
whereabouts, while Dreighton stole into their camp and left behind
a note. The note read that the treasure was still on the island,
and that it would be offered to them if the Spanish agreed to
certain conditions. The Spanish captain ordered his men to comb the
island for the note’s mysterious author. Surely it couldn’t be
Robert of Dreighton, but if it was, capturing and bringing the
Englishman home to Admiral