By: Lillabeth B.
"Bring
Hermione Harriet Everlark."
The
silence in the bridge was deafening. The first thing that happened was that
Madeline Hinny wrapped her arms around her friend Hermione. The second was that
Donald Rumpey placed his hand tenderly on Maddie's tense shoulder, which
softened as she turned to him, blushing bright red. Third, the captain turned
to the Lady and opened his mouth, before thinking better of it.
Finally,
Duke Francis Everlark burst into the room, befuddled and mystified. "What
was--" He trailed off when he saw the tableau before him: Hermione in the
center, turning towards him, shocked; Maddie grasping Hermy's arm, cowering;
Don with his arm around Madeline's shoulders, looking confused and unsure; and
the captain standing tall, defiant and proud.
The
Duke's face hardened. "I see how it is," he began, pacing between the
frozen figures. "I've been triple crossed. Crossed by my daughter, crossed
by my captain..." He walked to the window and looked out at the fortress.
"...And crossed by my wife. From the moment she left, Harriet knew this
day would come. No matter what happened, I would at some point be forced to
have you on this ship. And no matter what happened, you would find your way to
the observation deck, as I have no doubt you have, and you would feel the wind
accept you. And you would perhaps even manipulate it. Then you would become
like your mother, unwilling to stay in one place, unable to be tied down,
flighty and crazed.
Hermy,
unable to hold her silence, took a step towards her father. "Now, wait
just a-"
"No!" Francis marched to
his daughter. "No, you wait! You listen!"
"Father, I've been waiting and
listening for 13 years! I've been waiting for my entire life! I'm ready to feel
the cool air on my face, to see cities and forests and deserts and the
sky!"
"Hermione,
if you give yourself up to those people, you can never return to your normal
life. Once you've been down there and seen what they have to show you,
everything will change. I will never speak to you again."
"
Why would I ever want to return to this life?" Hermy had gone far past angry
and made the leap to rage. "You locked me up in my own home! You shipped
me around the world with my breaths of fresh air few and far between! Why would
I ever want to come back to this terrible existence?"
The
Duke was silent for a moment. "I was simply trying to protect you. Once
you've been down there, you'll see why." And with that, Duke Francis
Everlark strode out of the room, leaving Hermy panting angrily.
Maddie
walked tentatively up to her friend. "Hermy...?"
The Lady sighed. "He got me worked
up again... He's good at that." Maddie smiled, happy to have her friend
back and then remembered what was going on.
"So, are you going down there?
Are you giving yourself up to them?"
"Well, I am going down there,"
Hermy turned back towards the room. "But I'm certainly not giving myself
up to them."
Don
walked over to them. "The only question is, how are we gonna get you down
there? And how do we get you to stay there? Won't you just fall through the
clouds?"
"The only thing she needs to do
to get down there is an open hatch," the captain assured him, “The wind
will do the rest." Don and Maddie appeared skeptical, but Hermy shook her
head.
"Put your minds at ease,
friends," she assured them. "I have confidence in the captain, and I
have confidence in myself.
"Confidence that may kill
you," Don added, and the Lady of Brightbrook laughed. "But confidence
that won't."
The captain interrupted them.
"Alright, cut the small talk, your Highness, we have a real problem."
Hermione nodded. "Just tell me
where a hatch is.
Find out what happens next in the final
installment of The Unexpected Radical Adventures of Lady Hermione Everlark and
Her Abnormally Small and Consistently Quirky Crew! Here is chapter 6.
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