Captain Bonifast awoke well before dawn and stood upon the deck of the Maelstrom, waiting. He wanted to see how many ships of his ragtag fleet had abandoned him during the night when they would not be seen. Ethan walked up to the captain as he stood looking out over the Azure Sea in the early morning sun.
To both of their surprise, all of the ships were still with them as near as they could count. “Well, lad, how bout that!” said the captain, greatly relieved. “I suppose our prayers got through last night after all.” Bonifast grinned from ear to ear as he watched the fleet, intact, bobbing upon the gentle waves of the Azure.
Ethan recalled the angel he had seen the night before, following their time in prayer. He nodded in agreement. “I think you must be right, Captain,” he said, smiling. Ethan had rested well in the peace he had received at the angel’s appearing.
“Where’s Gideon?” Ethan asked as he searched for his friend.
“He’s up there on the bowsprit,” Bonifast said. “I think I may have actually found someone crazier than myself.”
Ethan followed the captain’s extended index finger as he pointed out Gideon. He stood on a beam extending off the front of the ship. Rigging from the foremast ran down to it. Below the bowsprit lay nothing but water. Gideon stood there perfectly balanced upon it.
He performed a system of fighting maneuvers with an imagined sparring opponent. As Ethan watched him, he noticed also that Gideon had blindfolded himself. The bowsprit bobbed up and down with the rhythm of the sea, yet Gideon never faltered as he sparred with the wind.
Ethan thought for a moment he might call out to his friend, but the thought of startling the priest, and him losing his balance, falling into the water, and being instantly crushed by the speeding bow of the ship, stopped him.
“You’d better get dressed,” Bonifast said. “And get something to eat from Cook. We’ll attack the harbor at Emmanuel within three hours time.
A question popped into Ethan’s mind. It was an odd question to ask an ex-pirate and a captain under the command of a king, but Ethan asked it anyway. “Are you afraid?”
Captain Bonifast gave him a thoughtful look, then looked out over the fleet sailing beside and behind the Maelstrom. “You see this armada, Ethan? This fighting force is only as capable as Shaddai makes it. I learned many years ago that it’s not what I can do in battle, but what he will do in the battle. And because I’m not trusting in my ability, but Shaddai’s, I have no need to fear. Even if we meet death in a few hours, I can leave the world, knowing that I did my best to serve him. There’s a peace in that knowledge, Ethan-a peace that passes all understanding.”
Bonifast’s words of faith encouraged Ethan’s heart, causing him to like the man even more. Even though Levi Bonifast was not as old as Ethan’s father had been, there were still like qualities between them.
Ethan did as the captain told him. He went to get dressed and find something to eat. He was going to need his strength for the coming battle. If he had his guess, this battle might require the special talents that Shaddai had bestowed upon him.
Before Captain Bonifast had given the order to let every scrap of sail fly to the wind, and before the mouth of the harbor had come into sight, Ethan saw them-a cloud of demons so dense it looked like a thunderstorm brewing over the bay. “They know we’re coming, Captain!” Ethan yelled over the wind.
“Aye that may be, lad, but we’re going in fighting anyway,” he called back. Levi Bonifast had that wild look in his eyes again, the same Ethan remembered upon first meeting the man in Tilley Town’s jail. It was the same look the captain had worn while pulling off the escape from the gallows, simultaneously blowing up Mordred’s ammunition depot. If there was a look Ethan hoped to see, going into this battle, it was that look!
Gideon was dressed in his priestly robes with two cutlasses held in the crimson sash around his waist. He had managed to find a bow and quiver jam-packed with arrows from the ship’s armory. Ethan knew Gideon could do some serious damage with whatever weapon happened to find its way into his capable hands, but the bow would give him deadly distance.
He had a pot of black pitch burning next to him. He stuck arrows into the deck around him, building a deadly nest in preparation for the battle. Images of a fiery hail of arrows careening through the air into the sails of Mordred’s ships danced in Ethan’s mind, bringing a smile to his face.
Ethan looked back to the sky where the vortex of spirits churned above Emmanuel Bay. This battle is going to get very ugly, he thought. Then a brilliant light, like the sun breaking through clouds, shone down upon Ethan.
When he looked up, Ethan saw an entire legion of angelic beings like the one he had seen the night before. They flew in formation high above King Stephen’s fleet. Each one of the heavenly warriors held a large broadsword in their right hand. Wings of purest white carried them through the spiritual ether.
No one onboard the ships saw the heavenly host, except Ethan. He looked back at the cloud of demons swirling in the sky over the bay. “Perhaps not so black a day as I supposed,” he said, smiling.
The naval piers came into view, stretching out into the water. Dozens of tall sailing ships sat moored there. Others started to come away from the piers where they had been docked. King Stephen’s fleet had definitely been spotted now. High above the bay, perched upon the white granite cliffs, stood the palace of the king and the city of Emmanuel. This would be their final target.
Captain Bonifast had prepared especially for this initial run at the harbor. The Maelstrom and the other ships started into the bay with the beach, piers, and Mordred’s ships to their starboard side. Bonifast had as many of his guns as possible lined up on the starboard side so he could shoot at the enemy ships like fish in a barrel.
The stage was set. Angels soared in the ether above, ready to attack the demons swarming over the harbor. The ships of King Stephen’s fleet ran full speed to get within firing range. And some of Mordred’s ships were leaving dock in a scrambled attempt to take on the rebel armada while others remained moored to the piers.
The Maelstrom charged ahead of the other ships. Bonifast beamed as he surveyed his quarry-birds caught sleeping in their nests. “FIRE!” he screamed. This word was one of the last Ethan heard during the firefight that ensued.