text: I sprinted over to Lachlann. He lay face down next to a small pile of rocks at the bottom of the cliff. I reached down and pulled on his shoulder, rolling him over. I recoiled. My stomach wretched and I felt vomit in the back of my throat. Even though I only saw him for a beat, the image was already etched in my mind, carved like the great granite cliffs beside me so that no erosion could ever remove it. He had landed on the corner of his face, just next to the left temple. The area of skull that met the rock shattered on impact, breaking apart the eye socket. Nothing remained of his eye. Behind him the rocks were crimson, thick splatters of blood splashed against the rocks like flecks of paint from a carelessly flung brush. I slowly turned back to where he lay. “Is he...” I didn’t want to finish the sentence. Alessia decided I didn’t have to. “Yes.” My arms jolted and seized, as I felt the concoction of grief boiling in the back of my throat. “There must be something we can do.” “He’s already gone, Ferdinand.” Alessia grabbed both my shoulders, holding eye contact and keeping me still. I turned my head away from her. “Surely we can do something for him.” Alessia grabbed my head and pulled it back to face hers. “He’s gone, Ferdinand.” “We can bury him,” Kurbani said. “Like he deserves.” “I can... I’ll lift him...” I couldn’t find any words. Alessia tightened her grip on my shoulders. “Kurbani and I will take him back to the boat. You wanna be of use, go help Xander. Find Sannaz.” She paused waiting for me to react, but I failed to fully process the instructions. “Go.” I ran back up the hill, the view blurry, Lachlann’s broken face smeared across my vision. There was also a small voice in the back of my mind running over everything I said and what could’ve been said differently; what might’ve saved Lachlann’s life. In that moment, his life had been entrusted in my hands. And I failed him. By the time I reached the summit the red embers of the sky had been snuffed out, trodden down to a black star-filled ash. I turned and headed south west, where we had seen Sannaz leave. Nothing seemed distinct in the nighttime. Flickering distant trees could be a torso - a branch, an arm. The shapeless wall at the edge of the town could mask a body for hours until the light came again. I scanned every direction for something that looked unnatural, something more than vegetation. I saw a figure walking towards me, but the frame wasn’t that of Sannaz. “Xander,” I called out. He noticed and walked towards me with slow trudging footsteps. “Lost him,” he said as his features came into view. “Could be anywhere by now.” He rested, his hands on his thighs. “Lachlann?” I shook my head. I refused to say the words. “Shit. Poor man.” “Kurbani and Alessia are taking him back to the boat.” I looked around at our surroundings, making sure that nothing moved. “We won’t find him tonight. And leave it much longer we’re more likely to find a northern soldier.” “He was there, Xander.” I pointed to the darkness. “We were this close.” “Trust me when I say we will find him and I will kill him.” Xander’s promise of revenge seemed to contain a new wrath. “But it’s not going to be tonight.” There was another explosion in the distance, the first one for a few minutes. I turned to the noise as the shockwave rippled my shirt. “We need to get back to the boat.” I shook my head as we spoke, denying my own instruction to give up the hunt. We jogged together back down the slope towards the harbour, both of us refusing to say anything more. Lachlann was dead. Sannaz had escaped. We had lost another life, and gained nothing. There was a growing hollow sensation at the core of my stomach. Not pain, not rage, not angst just, a void - a vacuum sucking energy and warmth from everything around it, until I would be left as a husk. As we reached the water I could see the great Deer Drum ship ahead of us forty metres out. It dwarfed every other boat on the island, looking almost like a caricature next to the small fishing vessels. I stepped up onto the wall and turned left. “Where do you think you’re going?” Xander asked. “The rowboat?” I examined the waterfront, looking for where I’d tied it. “How do you think Alessia and Kay got back?” I turned back to Xander. “So we’re stuck?” Xander huffed and pulled his shirt off over his wide shoulders and dropped it to the ground below. “You can swim can’t you?” He walked to the wall’s edge and dived head first into the water. He disappeared for a few seconds before resurfacing, going straight into an effortful but inefficient crawl. I scanned the seafront once more for a rowboat. From the town I could see people running down the winding path. Some carried a few precious belongings. Others had small children clasped to their hip. Others just ran, abandoning all they had known. But all of them were heading for the water. I stripped off my shirt and dived into the sea, feeling myself engulfed in the salty waters of Granite Vowhorn. As the water rushed over my skin, pooling around my nose, eyes and ears, I wondered how much that hole inside me weighed. Would I just sink to the bottom of the harbour and disappear among the dark waters? For the briefest moment, there was quiet. The world was peaceful. Serene. All the chaos and violence and horror was a problem for the world above. I swam beneath the surface, comforted by the embrace of the water around me, taking long breast strokes until my lungs demanded relief. My head hit the air. The distant sound of burning buildings and people shouting returned. The turmoil was still there. Through tired instinct, I stretched out my arms, and began pulling my hands through the water. No part of me was consciously focused on those strokes, the numbness had reached my head, and there it remained until my hands hit metal. I shuffled along until I found a section of rope netting draped as a ladder down the side of the boat. I climbed, pulled myself over the top and hit the floor, lying on my back panting with exhaustion. “Here.” I turned to see Kurbani throw a towel and one of Xander’s shirts down beside me. I dried myself as the rest of the islanders prepared the boat to leave. “We got enough room to turn?” “Just.” “Drop the foresail.” “Dropping the foresail.” The commands went back and forth. “Where’s Alessia?” I asked as Kurbani passed me. She turned as she walked, hurrying to the rear of the ship. “Gone back to her boat. Said she’d meet us a mile or two out.” I picked the shirt off the floor as Xander passed me. He hit me on the arm, the wet skin making a slapping noise and leaving a slight sting. “You okay?” I nodded, giving a half-truth. I pulled the shirt on. It was at least two sizes too big, but it would do for now. In front I could see Xander, leaning over the side of the boat, looking back to the town. “Raise the anchor,” Eir called out. I heard someone turn a capstan, and the great chain begin to lift. “Wait. Drop the anchor!” Xander called out. “What?” “Drop the anchor. Do it. Now.” Xander walked over towards the chain, prepared to kick it down himself if necessary. “Why?” “Look.” He pointed to the harbour. I ran to where Xander had been and leaned over. People had fled the town until they ran out of land. And when they had to keep fleeing, they did so, jumping into the seas, nowhere else to go. Xander sprinted down the boat and called out to Eir at the helm. “How many can we hold, at least till the next island?” “I mean, we have sixty rooms.” “If we all squeeze. How many?” Eir took a deep breath. “If we sail straight there, we’ve got enough food and water for a couple hundred.” Xander turned slowly, making sure every islander had eye contact for at least one syllable. “Then that’s how many we take. This is Deer Drum. These people are fleeing. We rescue them.” Around the boat, people nodded. “Eir, we may have to go quickly when we’re ready so prepare.” Xander pointed as he gave instructions. “Kurbani you keep count of those coming on board. Sirad, stay by the anchor. Lift it as soon as we hit two hundred. Everyone else, help.” I looked over to see a group of Southerners who had sprinted around the harbour and were now standing opposite me, looking out across the water. We waved to them, beckoning them to us. One by one, they jumped in, deciding to risk the waters rather than stay on their home. The sea quickly became a frenzy of thrashing limbs, the flat water of the cove turned to foam as bodies collided in their rush to escape. The mass of heads, arms and legs moved towards us till they began climbing the netting. As the swarm reached us, we outstretched our arms and pulled them over the final metre. One evacuee at a time, we took them aboard and offered them safety. Each one was greeted and taken somewhere below deck, out of the action and into the dry. We kept going. Pulling men, women, boys, girls, babies, from the water and onto the boat until there was no one left. Everyone who had fled was either in our boat or jumped aboard one of the fishing vessels. “That’s the last of them!” Xander shouted. “Let’s get out of here.” I looked back at the empty harbour. Who knew how many were still in that town hiding, or already found. But there was no one left calling out for help. Those whose pleas we saw, we had answered. We unleashed the sails and the winds kicked us away from the island. I was spent. I leaned back against one of the masts, sliding down the great wooden beam, until every inch of me was pressed against wood. Xander walked over. He leaned down and smacked me on the shoulder, then held his hand there. He had a wide grin on his face. I understood why. And I smiled back. Many people would have died when the Southern town was invaded. Some of them would’ve been soldiers, others just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was more destruction, more death, more loss. But for that hour, as we pulled the tired, frightened evacuees from the water, we stood against it all. We were in the right place at the right time. Across the other side of the boat I could see Novak sitting in the corner, holding Lachlann’s guitar. He looked down at the instrument in his lap, still as big as he was. With all the commotion, no one had checked on Lachlann’s musical mentee. I pulled myself up and slowly walked over to him. I knew I had to speak to him, but even as I arrived, I had no idea what I would say. “Can I sit with you?” He suddenly jolted his head to me, seemingly unaware of my approach. After a second he nodded. I shimmied around the guitar and sat down so that the neck stretched across me. I looked at the frets and the points on the strings where fingers had worn away at the wire. I could see stained wood, a million fingerprints leaving their oily trace on Lachlann’s favourite chords until the grain lightened. “They said...” Novak chose his words carefully, negating the reality. “Lachlann’s not coming back.” “Yes. I’m sorry.” I grimaced. “Just like everyone else.” There was a pang in my chest thinking at all the loss the boy had suffered on Deer Drum. “Did the same people get Lachlann?” Novak asked, turning to me. “Yes.” Novak glanced back to the guitar. “What do you think they’ll do with this?” “I think you should keep it.” Though I had no grounds to say it, it felt perfectly correct. “He would’ve wanted you to have it.” We both watched as a mixture of islanders and evacuees trudged back-and-forth in front of us, shoes trampling over what remained of Xander’s vegetable garden. “Lachlann’s been... was good to me.” Novak’s eyes remained fixed on the passers by. “He liked you. He wanted to spend time with you.” I tried to offer what comforting platitudes I could as I stared at Novak’s face, trying to see his reaction. “I liked spending time with him too.” “I’ll always remember the songs he played for us,” I smiled. Novak lifted up the guitar slightly, looking at it. “I’m going to keep playing, become as good as he was. Continue what he did.” “That’s...” I paused, a genuine smile crossing my lips. “That is exactly what he would want.” “You think?” He turned to me, sensing the shift in my tone. “That’s what we should all do. Try and be a bit more like Lachlann.” Novak rotated the guitar and placed his hands against the strings. “Can I play you the tune he taught me?” I grinned at the hint of energy in Novak’s voice. Novak nervously placed his fingers in the right positions, counted the beats in his head, and began strumming. I leaned my head back against the side of the ship, listening to the melody. The music continued. -------------------------------- We met up with Alessia two hours or so out to sea. Granite Vowhorn was nothing but a silhouette. A distant set of lights, impossible to distinguish between town and fire. Xander, Kurbani, Alessia and I sat on the deck of Alessia’s boat, pulling a few crates round into a circle. The rest stayed behind, helping organise the evacuees: handing out whatever blankets they could find, or finding a space of floor on which to sleep. “Where will you go?” Alessia asked. Xander sighed. “Amnia Garman is the nearest place. Drop off the refugees there. Then, back to Talin Barier.” “Talin?” “Yeah. For Lachlann.” Xander pointed a thumb to Kurbani. “We took him back to his room - he’s the only one with his own place tonight.” She let out a small chuckle despite the watery film to her eyes. “There were some letters on the side from his sister. That’s where he was from. Originally. She still lives there in those slums. It’s not good news, but... she should decide what to do.” “Why did he never tell us?” I squinted. Kurbani shrugged her shoulders. “Sometimes when you come from not a lot it’s easier to reinvent yourself I guess. I imagine there’s a lot we’ll never know. All we get to know is who he became. A friend.” We sat around in that circle and shared stories. We cried. We laughed. We frowned, and we smiled, until we had said what needed to be said; until his good life was spoken to the ocean. Finally, Kurbani stood up. “We should get going, but I think there’s only one way we should end this.” I looked up. “How?” She closed her eyes and sang. Her voice found a perfect contralto tone. Soft, melodic, and sombre. My friends, come along. Don’t you hear the fond song? The sweet notes where the nightingale flows? For to hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale. We all quietly sang the final two lines. As she sings in the valley below, As she sings in the valley below. We all remained in silence, letting the last notes resonate and hum against the wood, until their energy was gone. Kurbani walked over and embraced us both, holding us tight. “Stay safe out there.” “We will,” Alessia replied. We said goodbye, and untied the boats. Deer Drum left once more, filled with a new set of evacuees, and drifted off into the night. I sat back down on the crate next to Alessia. The boat floated aimlessly in the sea, slowly rising and falling over the waves. We were quiet, just listening to the sound of the ocean. The creaking of the old wood. The sloshing of water against the hull. The wind whistling in the loose sail. I thought for a moment of old idioms people would say when someone died on Kadear. “They’ve gone to a better place,” “They live on in your memories,” “They’re at peace now.” My mind was stuck on that last one. It angered me. If it were true, then Sannaz was right. Death is the best outcome, and we should all embrace its swift arrival. No. Lachlann wasn’t at peace. He just wasn’t there any more. A path of writing songs, or laughing with friends, of travelling the Archipelago. All the endless possibilities of the future, the love he might meet, the family he might raise, the fame he might find. Whatever eventualities awaited him, whether they were world-altering or merely mundane were snuffed out. All the potential in the world was reduced to one absolute certainty. The exactness of nothing. To rebel against that, wasn’t to say Lachlann was at peace, and it wasn’t to sit around quietly mourning. No doubt grief was coming for me, but as I sat there, in the peaceful ocean night I thought back to Novak’s simple plan to keep playing. And so I would too. Live double the life, go on twice as many adventures, share twice as many jokes with friends, bring twice as much happiness, and feel twice as much love. That was the rebellion. To reclaim what was lost. My reflection was interrupted by Alessia. “How you holding up?” “A bit better. We did a good thing helping those people on Granite Vowhorn. But, I know when I lay down tonight, I’m going to think back to Lachlann.” I stared off into the black void of the ocean and the distant outline of the Deer Drum boat. “I’m going to think every night. Think on what I said. And what I could’ve said to save him.” “Nothing.” Alessia said. “You heard Sannaz. He is killing because he believes it’s right. Even if you gave him everything he wanted he would’ve pushed Lachlann off that cliff.” My face twitched, but the doubtful frown remained. She shuffled to one side and grabbed my hands, holding them in hers. “Honestly, if anyone is smart enough and stupid enough and can speak well enough to stop a murderer with just words, it would be you. But the truth is, Lachlann was dead as soon as Sannaz laid eyes on him.” I nodded. Alessia let go of my hands, letting them fall into my lap. “When you think of that conversation, what you should be thinking is what we can use *now*. What did he say that can help us find him.” “There was nothing, Alessia. Just nonsense.” I bowed my head “Think.” She leaned down, making sure she stayed in my eye line. “He must’ve said something.” I took a deep breath and pulled my shoulders back. I stared up at the sky, and tried reliving the conversation. “He spoke about some site. He’s trying to find a place that he thinks we know. Somewhere, tied to the Archipelago’s birth, that he wants to find.” “Okay. So we find that before he does.” Alessia nodded. “There was all that stuff about why killing was for the greater good.” My head shivered with the memory. “He said he’d heard about us, me specifically. That he’d heard about why I was travelling the Archipelago.” Alessia shuffled back on her crate, rolling her head from side to side. “Okay, so he’s been asking after us.” “There was one thing.” I looked forward, peering into my memory. “What?” “He said he’d tried to find out more about me. Said he’d followed me and even visited... Pomafauc Reset?” I shook my head. “I’ve never even heard of that place.” Alessia quickly averted her eyes, her mouth slightly open. “Uh. You have.” I stared at her, waiting for a response. “What?” “I heard about it on those trading missions.” She spoke hesitantly, choosing each word. “It’s undergone some changes. So it altered its name. It used to be different.” “Alessia,” I said, a hint of irritation. “What did it used to be called?” She grimaced. “Kadear Coalfields.” # END OF BOOK TWO \ Book three of The Archipelago will begin the 3rd March 2022.