Page 35 of A Mutual Accord

CHAPTER 34

T he Baltic Sea - 1722

The battered merchant ship was tossed on the waves in the dark waters off of the Prussian coast. The storm had struck without warning, sneaking up on the merchant vessel in the night. There were few passengers, mostly crewmen who ran about shouting, throwing each other lines, and attempting to control the ship in the violent waters.

One of the passengers, a man dressed all in black, emerged from the lower decks and made his way to the middle of the deck. The captain shouted at the passenger to return to his quarters, but the man lowered himself to the floor and sat cross legged in the middle of the deck. He placed his hands flat upon the deck on each side of him, and stared up into the sky, not moving, not speaking.

Slowly, the ship ceased its violent rocking. The captain and crew looked about them, amazed at the savagery of the storm raging about them, the roughness of the waters, yet the waters immediately around the ship were calm, and the vessel itself bobbed tranquilly. The rain still fell, and the lightning and thunder crashed about them, but the ship remained unharmed.

The crew stood and watched for nearly four hours in the pouring rain, as the man in black sat calmly with his palms against the deck. When the storm finally moved on, the man in black rose, and without saying a word, returned below decks. The men could not agree whether they had the honour of travelling with a sorcerer or a saint, but they docked with the tide, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when their strange passenger disembarked.