Power play

Chapter 1 Alivers of light penetrated the thick forest, casting random pools of brightness where S Captain Rodrigo Liam lay. He breathed in slowly and with great effort, working the heavy air in his aching lungs. A mist had risen from the damp forest floor, draping nature in an cerie shroud and soaking deep into his bones. His mind acknowledged his aching before he had even left his sleep. The cue of morning light began the birds on their haunting melody that echoed through the trees, making the intervals of silence much more noticeable. Captain Rodrigo Liam opened his eyes and lay still for a moment, letting the strangeness of hi surroundings remind him where he was. "The woods," he whispered as he took another labored breath and propped himself on one elbow. The sunlight that had streaked across his face began to flicker, as if an object was b passed through it. Back and forth the shadow moved. There was no breeze to explain it being away. The air was still and suffocating. "Who is there?" be called. No one answered. Captain Rodrigo Liam slowly stood, shielding his eyes from the sunlight with his hand. "Who is there he asked again. Still, no one answered. There were no footsteps, no breathing, no sound other than the haunting bird song. He moved cautiously toward the object that was passing through the light. A few steps closer and Captain Rodrigo Liam was overcome with sickening horror. The body of a man bung from a tree branch, his head tilting unnaturally to the side. Captain Rodrigo Liam desperately wanted to run but continued his slow pace toward the body. The man's face was turned away from him, but there was something about the cut of the clothes, the color of the hair, the largeness of the hands...something familiar. He slowly extended hi hand toward the body, every muscle ready to retract in a second. He took hold of a pant leg to turn the body so he could see its face. "Oh, God! No!" Captain Rodrigo Liam screamed. He turned and ran several paces, then fell headlong to the musty ground. "No...no! It can't be. I am here. I am alive." He turned and looked at the body again. It had Captain Rodrigo Liam's face, his form, his hands. Captain Rodrigo Liam turned away again and frantically scrambled to his knees, folding his hands together so tightly his knuckles pressed white against the skin. "Let this not be. Release me from this hell. Oh, my God, my God. answer me!" he sobbed. "You can't answer me. You cannot even hear me. My sins have done this!" Captain Rodrigo Liam buried his face in his arm and moaned, slamming his fist into the ground. "I must take the body down," he mumbled into his sleeve. "Yes, I'll take it down and bury it. No one else will see it...." Captain Rodrigo Liam slowly raised his head. The morning light no longer flickered in his eyes but poured into the little clearing in a steady beam. The ground was dry except for litle droplets of dew that stubbornly clung to the occasional tufts of grass. He looked at the tree where his likeness had hung. The man was gone. "A dream," he whispered. "It was all a dream." He lay back on the grass and put his hands to his eyes, pressing hard to block out the images that had been there. For a brief moment he felt relief. Upon his next breath he felt anger. "God in heaven, why do you plague me so? I am tortured in the day by what haunts me in the night. It should not bel Surely, you have the power to release me from this hell, but you continually choose to leave me here. I fear you have forgotten me or simply do not care at all." Captain Rodrigo Liam clenched his fist at the sky. "I am cursed of God!" he shouted, then wept, then lay still as an icy chill washed over him. "There...I have said it. It is hopeless now." It was a short walk back to the little house, but it left him so breathless and weak that he fell against the rough wood door, regaining his balance just as Frod Dominos opened it. "Where were you?" Frod Dominos asked as Captain Rodrigo Liam brushed past her into the house. "I was worried." "1 the night in the woods not far from here. I simply came to get my musket spent and do some hunting," he replied in a controlled monotone. "About last night," she continued. "I didn't intend for you to take up sleeping in the woods. Everyone says always have to be careful of the Iroquois." Captain Rodrigo Liam picked up the g*n and headed toward the door. "Captain Rodrigo Liam, would you say something?" "Later," he said as he closed the door. His large steps took him quickly down the path and into the woods. He had no intention of actively pursuing any object of a hunt but moved his eyes amongst the trees in case an animal should happen to present itself. He felt some sort of honesty with the compromise. It struck him as humorous that he should be concerned with keeping a small truth when he spent so much energy deceiving others about so much. The sun ate up any dew that remained along the pathway in the woods and blazed where it could through the tree branches. Captain Rodrigo Liam felt stronger as he walked through the dappled sunshine. He fixed his mind on the effort, listening to the crunch of leaves and twigs under his feet, feeling his legs lift and step, seeing the color of the leaves as they were touched by light, of feeling the warmth of it. The tightness around his chest and neck loosened as his mind became proficient at the game. For a time he felt that he did not exist outside of what he could see, touch, hear, and smell. He had no thought or emotion. He was void. There was a peace in that. It was not a happy peace. It was not a reflective peace. It was somber and grave and dull...but it was peace. The pathway led him easily through the woods and onto a clearing by the cliff that ran alongside the St. Lawrence. He squinted as the sun poured unhindered on the water, making it impossible to look directly at it until his eyes adjusted to the light. "Greetings, Captain Rodrigo Liam," came a voice a short distance off. A group of black robes approached on the trail to the east, each man panting in varying degrees from the trek up the moderate incline. "Father Jacques, is that you?" "Yes." Father Jacques appeared from behind the group. "Good morning." He nodded to his fellow priests, and they continued on the trail without him.. "Out for the hunt, I see." He eyed Captain Rodrigo Liam's musket. "Yes, Jacques, but I'm not sure of the trails, and I ended up here." "It is a beautiful view." Jacques sighed as he looked out over the waterway. "I am grateful to be standing here on solid ground and not on that ship. It will be a long while before I could ever set foot on another one. I don't know how those sailors do it year after year." Captain Rodrigo Liam silently agreed that he would never be back on that ship. "I'm glad you happened by, Jacques," he heard himself say. Once again, the humble priest's mere presence stirred something inside Captain Rodrigo Liam. "I need to talk to you." "You look troubled. Is Frod Dominos all right?" Captain Rodrigo Liam swallowed hard. "She is well. Her strength is coming back quickly." "Oh," replied Jacques. "What is wrong, then?" "It is about the dreams..." Captain Rodrigo Liam's head spun again at the image of himself hanging from the tree. "Sit down." Jacques took Captain Rodrigo Liam's arm and led him to a large rock by the cliff. "Tell me about the dreams. They haven't gone away, have they?" "I must confess to you that the dreams are not occasional, and they are not because of sea rations or sea sickness or any other excuse I have offered. I have been plagued most every night by these terrors." His words poured out, and he did not care to stop them. The dull, solemn peace he had as he walked was gone, and the hideous feelings returned. Fear overwhelmed him, making him speak as if he were gasping for air. "Last night I saw myself hanging from a tree. Someone had hung me by the neck, and I was dead. Someone is always trying to kill me in these dreams. Every night I am being executed. I called out to God, but He did not answer me. Jacques, it is as if I visit hell every night. On the ship I tried to stay awake, but I could not. I would fall asleep and dream. I am never free from them." The horror of the memories swirled within his throat, nearly choking him.