The Gift of Fire
Look, look, the sea phantom smiles
Youngling girl falls prey to his wiles
Chai was one of the throng of children in the port - motherless and fatherless, bareheaded and barefooted, unwashed and unread. Skipping down the docks, they wove their way through the honest tradesmen and crafty merchants, picking pockets and cutting purses. In the spring, when the tides were easy and the ships came in, there were plenty of pickings to go about. In the winter, when the frigid cold and black tides kept sailing folk by hearth and bed, the children turned to squabbling over pennies and hard crusts of bread.
There was only one ship that continued sailing, through rain and shine and snow and gale. The Black Phantom. The ship was a beauty that drew equal parts admiration and jealousy, the crew was a motley lot that drew equal parts fear and respect.
Chai had heard all the rumours, as every child in the port knew. The crew of the Black Phantom could tame the seas and ride the waves. The crew of the Black Phantom could call forth lightning and silence the thunder. The crew of the Black Phantom had met the sea phantom and lived to tell the tale. The crew of the Black Phantom were led by the sea phantom himself. The crew of the Black Phantom would accept any urchin boy who turned up on their deck, and he would be fed and clothed at no price.
It was the last rumour, more than any other, that drew Chai to the deck of the Black Phantom on that fateful winter’s day, when the biting wind froze his bones through his ragged shirt and his stomach growled with empty longing.
Boys for the sea phantom’s stake
One to give and one to take
Though the waves rose high as a man and the wind was strong enough to lift a tree, the Black Phantom cut through the tides as smoothly as butter. They sailed for hours, further from the port than Chai had ever been in his life, further than he had ever thought the world could stretch. Wide-eyed, he ran from starboard to port and stern to bow, giggling and chasing the other boys. There were six of them in total - warm at last, satisfied with the ship cook’s offering of fish stew, excited for the unknown adventure to come.
It was near evening when the ship slowed down, and Chai saw that they were approaching a rocky isle with an uncanny lack of life - no lichen or moss, no swooping gulls, no fish or crabs. Just an eerie black silence. All the boys, sensing this, dropped their games and fell equally silent before the sight.
“Ye’ll see now, who the phantom’ll take and who he’ll return.” One of the crew smiled, revealing crooked yellow teeth.
With well-honed efficiency, the boys were trussed up in pairs, tied up so tightly their skin showed white and purple blotches beneath the rough ropes.
“Sea Phantom!” The crew shouted as the first pair were tossed overboard into the sea. “One to give and one to take, one to give and one to take!”
The shouting grew into a rhythmic chant, and seemed to meld together with the ebb and flow of the tides and the back-and-forth sway of the ship.
“One to give and one to take, one to give and one to take!”
The surface of the water slowly broke, and a figure began to rise.
“One to give and one to take, one to give and one to take!”
One of the boys was rising from the sea. As if he were a phantom himself, he began to walk towards the ship, his footsteps treading the water as easily as if it were hard flooring. He seemed as if he were in a dazed trance. The crew began to cheer and roar and stamp their feet.
“One to give and one to take, one to give and one to take!”
The boy reached the ship and stepped aboard, still wearing the same blank expression on his face. With a wave of his hand, the boy drew a large wave from the sea and sent it crashing on the other side of the ship.
He had been given the power of the seas.
Of the other boy, there was no sign.
From whence the sea phantom’s sire
Comes endowed with gift of fire
Chai’s heart was hammering in his chest as he and another boy, the last pair, were tied together. He closed his eyes, trying not to think about what it would be like to be the one who was taken. He wondered how the sea phantom decided.
He gasped with shock as he hit the cold water, and then choked and sputtered as the water filled his nostrils and lungs. There was no time to think, no time to cry out. He felt as if he were being dragged to the depths, lower and lower.
It was a heavy feeling, to sink.
And it was a weightless feeling, to rise.
Chai blinked his eyes as seawater trailed off his head and his shoulders, and realised that the sky was bright and the ship was in front of him. Tentatively, he took a step forward, not daring to look down. The surface of the sea held. He took another step, and another step, until he reached the Black Phantom.
Elation thrilled through him as he reached the ship’s deck. He had been given mastery of the seas. He was a member of the crew now. He raised his hand, as he had seen the other boys do, and waited for the answering wave.
But no tide rose, no lightning struck, no harkening came from the sea beneath the hull. Instead, there was a growing warmth at the tips of his fingers, a rising crisp and crackling sound, a distinct smell of something burning.
Fire. He had summoned fire.