by C S Vass
None of it was supposed to happen this way. They had reached their goal, arrived at Unduyo. The Sages were supposed to be there waiting to tell them what to do. They should have spent this last week inside the castle’s fortified stone walls swapping stories and clinking glasses with the other Shigata. Now the Sages were kidnapped, Unduyo’s stone walls were rubble, and the only person willing to clink glasses with Godwin had been insulted and berated so many times that he wouldn’t be surprised if Robert simply declined to return to him come the morning.
“Lord Shigata?”
The mousy voice caught Godwin off-guard. He looked over his beer and saw a teenage girl with straw-blonde hair and a spattering of freckles across her cheeks.
“I’m no lord,” Godwin said. “I’m also in no mood of company.”
The girl’s pale face reddened. “I’m sorry to intrude, sir, but…I have desperate need of you.”
Godwin sighed. “I leave town in the morning. I’m not accepting assignments. Find someone else.”
“Please sir…” She swallowed, and placing two shaking hands on the table took a seat. “There is no one else. After the tragedy at the castle, I mean…”
Godwin sighed. Before he could interrupt, she cleared her throat and continued. “It should be a simple matter for one such as you,” she said. “It shan’t take long. A mere haunting, sir.”
“If it’s so mere, then why don’t you have a local monk take care of it?”
“Well,” the girl’s face reddened even more. “My father doesn’t have a very good relationship with the temple.”
“I see. Your father sent you then?”
She nodded. Firelight reflected in her sharp green eyes.
“Tell your father to leave a glass of wine for the ghost every night. Should be enough to keep things on friendly terms.”
“Please lord,” the girl squealed, grabbing Godwin’s arm with both hands. “It’s no joke! It’s a true haunting. We’re fearful if we don’t take care of it, the spirit may eat us.”
Godwin rolled his eyes. “Let’s say I come take a look with you. What do I get in return?”
“We’ve no gold or silver, sir,” the girl said.
“The Shigata don’t work for free.”
“Of course not. Perhaps…well…”
“I also don’t accept that kind of payment.”
The girl’s face erupted into a violent shade of red. “I’m not that kind of woman!” she barked, more fiercely than Godwin would have expected. “I was going to say that I saw you at the docks. You’re trying to get those pirates to sail you to Saebyl.”
“You’ve been spying on me.”
“I had no choice! As I’ve said, we’ve no coin to pay you with. But we may be able to do you something better. My father, he can get those pirates to sail with you to Saebyl by morning. That is, if you’ll agree to help us.”
Godwin snorted. “Who exactly is your father that he can get a group of scoundrels to set sail at will?”
“Markus Jantos.”
Godwin placed his beer down. “You lie.”
“I wouldn’t lie, especially not about that.”
Godwin found his fingers drumming involuntarily on the wooden table while he stared at the girl in disbelief. Markus Jantos was a freedom fighter from the East. Beloved by peasants, he worked for ten long years to uncover some of the most gruesome aspects of Emperor Julius Hercinium’s extensive network of torture facilities. Fearful that his execution would lead to rebellion, the Emperor decided to banish Jantos to the West, where he became something of an obscure legend.
“Those pirates are easterners, just like my father,” the girl pressed. “They bring us food and other supplies. He has their respect. If he asks them to make haste for you, they’ll see you all the way up the Shield safely.”
Godwin considered carefully. The girl’s claim was just absurd enough to be true. Who would lie about such a thing? Especially to a Shigata. After all, she must know that Godwin was likely to become a bigger threat than any ghost if he discovered he’d been duped.
“Very well,” Godwin said as he drained the remainder of his beer. “Let’s go pay a visit to your father and see what we can do about this spirit.”
Godwin followed the girl, who introduced herself as Lyra, into the chilly evening. He shrugged his black fur cloak close to his neck. The night was young, but the sun set early in winter on Black Wolf. They moved through Meno’s emptying streets, past the rows of stone houses, to the outskirts of town where the buildings were constructed from cheap wood.
Godwin touched the pommel of his sword. Meno, he knew, would become an incredibly dangerous place soon. After the sun warriors destroyed Unduyo, Lord Wolfbane immediately set himself to shoring up the city’s defenses. All the same without protection from the Shigata, the demons of the Blood Wood and the Jagjaw Mountains would be drawn to Meno like moths to a flame.
“Tell me about this spirit,” Godwin said as they continued on.
“What would you like to know?” Lyra asked.
Godwin spat on the ground. “How long has it been there? Is it malevolent? When does it come out? Anything you can tell me would be helpful.”
“Oh, well…yes, it’s quite scary. It’s been here for about a week.”
“You must have terrible luck,” Godwin said. “You encounter a spirit just as soon as the Shigata are dispersed. What else?”
“Well,” Lyra continued as she pushed her hair from her eyes. “It makes all sorts of ghastly noises. Its body is translucent, like looking at dusty glass. We don’t know what to do.”
“Have you spoken with the spirit?”
“Heavens, no,” Lyra said, aghast. “It’s far too terrible for us to approach. If we get near when it’s out, it sets the walls to shaking and makes us scramble for fear! Will you really be able to get rid of it?”
At last they reached a lonely house with a straw roof that sat at the edge of the woods. A fire glowed in the window, and smoke drifted in a ghostly pillar from the chimney towards the heavens.
“Come on,” Lyra said. “My father is inside.”
They entered the house, and Godwin was immediately warmed by the fire from a large hearth dug into the ground. At a table clutching a bottle of what smelled like strong liquor sat a man with a thick mustache and fierce green eyes.
“I take it that you’re Markus Jantos,” Godwin said.
The man grunted. “So yeh were able to get help after all,” he snorted to his daughter. “Aye, I’m Markus Jantos. Who the hell are you? I don’t see a thrygta. Tell me the little slut didn’t bring an ordinary oaf to help with this.”
Godwin’s eyes narrowed. Markus’s voice was throaty, and his speech slightly slurred. It was the voice of a drunk who had some skill in hiding his inebriation. So much for the glorious freedom fighter.
“He’s a Shigata,” Lyra said soothingly as she approached her father. “He’s going to help us.”
“And how the bloody hell is he going to do that?”
Godwin stayed by the door and eyed the drunk from across the room. There would be hell to pay if Lyra lied to him about getting help with the pirates. He just wasn’t sure who would end up paying that debt.
“Are you mute, boy?”
Godwin took a step forward, his black braid of hair swinging behind his head like a pendulum. Markus Jantos eyed him fearfully as Godwin approached. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
Godwin reached inside his cloak while Jantos fumbled backwards, trying to get away. When Godwin was inches from the scrambling Tarsurian, he pulled out a pouch and emptied it into the hearth. A whoosh of smoke filled the room.
“What the hell was that?” Jantos barked.
“Kava leaves,” Godwin said softly. “This should help us sort out our little spirit problem. That is why I’m here, is it not?”
Eyes glowering, Jantos nodded.
“Good. Now both of you leave. The spirit will be here soon. Kava leaves carry a lit
tle molecule called dihydrokavain that will soothe its anger, but in the amount I’m burning it you might find yourselves overwhelmed by the anxiolytic. I wouldn’t want to remove one spirit just to create two more.”
Lyra didn’t need to be told twice, but her father stood frozen.
“Tick-tock,” Godwin smiled. An eery blue mist was settling over the room. The girl hadn’t been lying. A spirit was certainly on the way.
“Damn it all to hell! You had best not cause a ruckus in here. Hurry with the task. It’s bloody freezing outside.” Without a second glance, Jantos ran out of the hut.
Godwin breathed in deeply, letting the relaxing effects of the kava wash over him. In truth they were in no danger from the relatively mild chemicals of the kava plant. He just didn’t want to deal with more than one problem at a time.
Godwin sat on his knees and waited. His hands were placed in the folds of his cloak, the left empty, the right gripping a thin chain of silver. The blue mist wafted over the floor. Though the girl said that the spirit was malevolent, Godwin knew the tendency of people to attribute negative characteristics to ghosts regardless of what was true. Especially if the spirit in question was in pain.
At last she appeared. A translucent woman with long wispy hair knotted with blood. She hovered inches off the ground while the light that animated her body flickered like a dying flame.
“Who are you?” Godwin asked.
The woman’s face contorted terribly as she gnashed her teeth and shrieked. A piercing noise like a dagger scraping against steel filled Godwin’s ears. He dodged just in time as a mutated ghostly hand, part human but with fierce claws, shot for his head.
The Shigata was prepared. Godwin dodged skillfully. As soon as the blow passed him by, he whipped out the silver chain causing it to wrap tightly around the wrist of the apparition. Where the silver touched her translucent body, it hissed and burned as smoke rose from it.
The ghost screamed, writhing horrifically in pain.
“Settle yourself,” Godwin said as he pulled the spirit to the floor. She looked at him with pure hatred. “Who are you? Speak!” The firelight from the hearth glowed eerily through the ghost’s pale body.
“Just another secret from your own castle,” she spat. “Something you Shigata no doubt thought would be buried and forgotten until the end of time.”
Godwin had not expected that.
Grimacing, he pressed her. “What are you talking about?”
“I was a dairy-maid living on this island three-hundred years ago,” the spirit spat. “I was pursued relentlessly by a young Shigata in training. Despite my continuous denials, he never relented. Then came the day when he was to earn his silver thrygta. He made me one last proposal. When I denied him again, he killed me, and buried my bones in the walls of that horrid castle.”
Godwin chewed his tongue. The tale unnerved him more than he cared to admit. He felt his grip on the chain slacken, which the spirit immediately took advantage of. Slipping her wrist free, she slashed at Godwin once more tearing through his cloak and leather jerkin with the intention of piercing his heart in one fatal blow.
The moment her claws touched Godwin’s skin, she recoiled, howling in pain. Godwin swung the chain again, this time wrapping it around the apparition’s neck.
“How? Why?” she choked. Then, looking at him, she wailed.
Godwin’s armor had done him no good, but unlike most Shigata who carried their silver thrygta’s on their weapons, rings, or necklaces, Godwin’s was tattooed directly over his heart with liquid silver ink. The dragon-in-chains marking over his heart didn’t have so much as a scratch.
“I’ll pretend you didn’t do that,” Godwin grunted, his hand tight around the chain. “So you had a bad run in with a dirtbag Shigata all those years ago. That might even explain why you have it in for me. But why are you harassing these people?” He loosened his grip enough to let the spirit speak, but stayed ready to strangle the ghost if she attacked again.
“They’re filthy foreigners. Easterners roosting on our soil. I’ll not tolerate it!”
“You don’t have a choice anymore,” Godwin said. “Your day is up. The time when your voice counted was three-hundred years ago. I think it’s time to let go.”
“Ha!” The spirit shrieked. “My voice never counted. Whether it’s the farmers, the lords, or the Shigata, a woman gets nothing but contempt. The moment she fights against it she gets an axe in her back and is buried in the walls.”
Godwin frowned. This spirit must have been struggling terribly over the centuries, stewing in her own rage while helplessly sealed in the dark walls of the magic castle.
“I could send you on your way by force,” Godwin said to her. “But I’d rather not. Perhaps there’s another way. A better way. One where you can choose your fate.”
The woman’s face darkened even more. Haunched over with that wild light in her eyes, she looked more demon than spirit. “Don’t make me laugh. I know what kind of false choices you men speak of. You act nice and pretend, but if I don’t give the answer you want it’s back to bloodshed.”
“You cannot stay in this realm,” Godwin admitted. “Perhaps there’s something I can do for you. A small gesture to begin to make amends.”
The spirit observed him carefully. “I can’t say I don’t enjoy watching you humble yourself before me,” she said. “Remove this chain from my neck, and I might answer.”
To his own surprise, Godwin obliged. “If you move to attack me, then I’ll destroy you,” he warned her. It was no bluff. If he used the silver chain to destroy the woman’s spirit, there would be no next realm for her. She would simply cease to be.
The spirit nodded, looking almost tempted by the prospect to test him. Her eyes closed for several long moments while plumes of smoke drifted over the room. The burning kava continued to soothe Godwin’s mind and body alike.
“The girl,” the spirit said at last. “Lyra. She’s like me. She lives under the boot of her tyrant father. Slay him, and I will willingly leave this realm.”
Godwin shook his head. “I will not go into a man’s house and murder him.”
“I knew it!” the spirit shouted. “In the end you support your own. The men lift up the men and the women wallow and die in their fields, birthing beds, and yes Shigata, even in your very own castle. I wonder. Did you hear my screams at night while you slept in your fortress safe and sound? Well the world is changing. Not so very safe anymore, is it?”
“You’d simply sentence the girl to death,” Godwin replied. “She’s unwed. Without her father to provide bread and milk, what would become of her?”
The spirit seemed to consider that carefully. She massaged her neck where the silver chain had burned her. Slowly, a wide creeping smile spread across her face.
Godwin sighed. He had seen that look several times before on the face of his fellow Shigata Yaura. It never meant anything good for him.
The spirit laughed. “Very well. The father may live. I think we can come to some other suitable arrangements.”
Chapter 2
Ocean spray roiled and foamed underneath Divinity. The sun shone in a pure blue sky bathing the white landscape and white waters with pale light. The large, single-masted cog drifted speedily up the South Shield towards Saebyl.
“Gods, it’s so cold my prick is likely to freeze off if I take it out to piss,” Robert moaned. The easterner had taken to complaining about the winds and the chill the moment they had boarded the ship. It was starting to get annoying, and they had only been onboard for a few hours.
“A good thing, too,” Godwin said as he eyed several serving women feeding Captain Raijen and his crew from trays of meat and cheese on the upper deck. The pirates had convinced the unfortunate lasses that life at sea would treat them better than the beasts and demons that would soon descend upon Black Wolf without Unduyo there. “The less inclined you are to take your prick out the less chance we have of finding ourselves in trouble with this lot.”
“Trouble? I have no idea what you mean.” Robert shuddered in his furs. “What I wouldn’t give for a nice warm cider. All I have is this.” He removed a flask and tilting it back took a long drag.
“Enough of that,” Godwin snapped as he took the flask from Robert. The Shigata knew all too well the tendency for men to drink away the long, boring days at sea. “The Dark Sea is dangerous in winter. We’ll need our wits about us should anything happen. Storms are common, and there are demons in these waters.”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Robert asked, taking the flask back.
Godwin grimaced. “Why do you even carry those two short swords on your back?”
“These? They’re my good luck charms. I hardly ever use them. Not anymore, anyway.”
Godwin scoffed. “You really shouldn’t carry swords if you’re not able to use them.”
“Ho! Good Fortune! Look at that!” Raijen yelled and pointed across the ship towards the Dark Sea. Turning, Godwin saw the massive grey body of a whale flop into the water.
“Wow!” Lyra said. “Would you look at that!” Godwin hadn’t even heard the girl come next to him.
Robert shifted uncomfortably. He had not understood why exactly they were traveling with a seventeen-year-old across the world without her father’s permission. Godwin had tried to explain that it was best for everyone, and Lyra was only too willing to accompany them.
It was a tricky process getting Lyra onboard the ship. Once he spoke with the spirit, Godwin had to have Markus Jantos convince the pirates to set sail with him. Afterwards he had to sneak back and propose to Lyra that she could come with them. The girl was all too eager to accept. Only then did the spirit truly depart.
The plan seemed to go off without a hitch, but still…there was a nagging feeling in the back of Godwin’s head that not all was as well as it seemed. Given the timing of things, it would not be terribly difficult for Markus to figure out where his daughter had gone. Still, what could he do about it? The man was living in exile and poverty.
