LOSING SIGHT OF SHORE

by Alatary

"Land Ho!"

The two words any sailor craves more than anything in this world. A sound sweeter than any wine, more desirable than any woman.
My hands clamp around the wheel until my knuckles turn white when the shape of a large rock cuts through the rolling fog.

The sun wouldn't rise for at least an hour according to our calculations but the dim light of dawn already revealed a steep coastline straight ahead. Rocks standing like walls in the ocean, taller than any building.

The sailors on deck started to scatter around trying to get a peek at this little slice of salvation after 43 days on the sea.

"Belay the ropes, furl the sails, drop the anchor," a bouldering voice commands beside me. The captain's voice.

"Christopher," I sighed, "why heave the ship? The waters are deep enough for the Niña to sails a bit closer, that would make it easier for the rafts to-"

"Do as I say, señor de la Cosa." The captain cuts in. The way he undermined my authority made my blood boil, "don't be so stubborn! We'll need to access the land."

"No one will leave the ships without my permission!" Christopher snaps back. walking down the main deck, slipping away to his own cabin.

"Pedro, take the wheel," I ordered the Morish boy beside me. With a sigh of frustration, I followed our captain to his cabin, making sure I closed the door before letting my anger explode.
"Have you lost your mind! This is the first land we spot in a month and you want to lay adrift?"

"Just follow my orders," the captain mumbled back, his deep sunken face looking grimmer in the dark shadows of the cabin.

"Columbus!" I pound my fist on his desk to get his attention, "You might be captain of this expedition, but even with the blessing of his Majesty I will not let you order me around on my ship."

Just then the owners of our two caravel ships enter the cabin. Two young aristocratic lads from Palos, known as the Pinzón brothers. "Captain, is something wrong?" Martín, the youngest of the two, asks curiously.

"No," Columbus answers bluntly.

Vicente exchanges a confused look with his brother, "so why are we laying adrift?"

"Pinzóns', take a seat." Columbus shifts to me, "Juan," he motioned for me to sit beside his desk. The pine desk was littered with maps, notebooks and several letters. He pushed them all aside, "Do you know where we are?"

Vincente picked up one of the maps and mumbled some coordinates he must have calculated from our last stop. "If I read the maps correctly we must be around the most southern point of Africa, so we're probably at the Cape of Good Hope."

Columbus nodded, "Exactly! And who runs this port?"

"The Dutch," Martín answered wide-eyed. Sharing Martín's confusion I think of the only logical reason Columbus doesn't want to go into the harbour. "You really think they will attack once they see Spanish ships? They might be protestant scum but they're not stupid, Christopher. A ship without provisions is income to them, regardless of its flag."

Columbus' lips curl up in a content moment of silence before his concerned frown overtook his expression again. "It's not an attack that has me worried. We still have something far more valuable in our hold which cannot leave this ship."

Martín urges the captain on, "and that is?"

"This!" Columbus takes a map out of the drawer of the desk. Unlike the maps we used to navigate the oceans, this one was tattered and dyed yellow by time. it wouldn't even stay flat when Columbus lay it out before us. "According to this map, there is an entire continent of undiscovered land. An island bigger than China and a location which will guarantee direct trade with all of India."

"Isn't that the map you got from that strange man on the Canary islands?" I say with morbid realisation.

"It most certainly is."

"And you believe it, you idiota!" My anger was boiling over at this point. How could I have trusted this man with navigation on this expedition? How could I have let our childhood friendship cloud my vision and with it bring my entire crew in danger? All because Christopher suddenly got this map from some drunk.