by Eric Vall
Chapter One
I squared my shoulders and then rolled my neck as I made my way down the tight space of the hall. Every few steps the ship would rise and fall with the mighty waves, but I didn’t stumble or react to the movement. It had been nearly two weeks since we’d left Tintagal and headed for the chain of Islands of Canarta. My minions and I traveled on a large wooden trade ship on its way to the islands, it was big, but nothing compared to the hulking breakers we’d been on before. Most of the voyage had been easy, and my women enjoyed being out at sea together once again, though this trip was much longer. I could tell from their faces that they were ready to be back on dry land, mostly Carmedy who hated being near the endless water.
The chill in the air receded the first week into the trip, and my women discarded their coats and packed them away with their belongings. The heat on the open water wasn’t as unbearable as in Valasara, but it was still hot when the sun hit its peak. The sailors on the ship had warned us that once we arrived in Canarta and headed straight for Nekoka, the heat would spike but I doubted it’d be anything compared to the desert. A few of the sailors onboard were cat-folk like Carmedy and Haruhi and looking at them made me long for the quiet and shy librarian. The bond I’d created with her was strong, and even now, I could feel her heartbeat in the distance. The last time I’d seen her was bittersweet, I’d saved her from the Holy Band, and we’d made love in the aisles of the library, but then I’d had to hurry away back to my other minions. Coming to Nekoka would be the first time we were reunited as a whole since on Machstein. So much had changed since then, I was the leader of not only the whole island but had added Tintagal to the nations under my control.
The last time my minions had seen the sage, she’d been in a bar called the Purple Conch, and at that time, Haruhi was pretty hostile with us. I hadn’t chosen her as my minion then; it’d happened down the road as the librarian developed feelings for me. Before I took the white-eared cat in as my own, I asked the rest of my minions how they felt about it, and they’d agreed that it’d be best that the sage join us in our travels. Haruhi was the only one of my minions who knew my true name, the name given to me while in the heavens, and I cherished her for that. She was the first one who shared part of my past that I wasn’t willing to give away just yet.
However, I couldn’t say that we were just going to Nekoka for Haruhi, we were on the trail of the sorcerer, Tuzakeur. With Morrigan’s vision, we knew that the wizard would be on the island in the highest hills for a short period and that’s where we’d take him for the final time. The sorcerer searched for the Qianlong, a creature we weren’t even sure existed and had only heard about from Morrigan’s dream. Carmedy told us the folklore about the Canartian dragons and how it was believed that two nations of dragons lived on the two largest of the islands. The Qianlong, the blue dragon that Morrigan had seen in her dreams, held another one of the pieces of the sacred items. We’d follow after the bastard sorcerer and take the sacred item from the dragon if it was the last thing we did.
I hadn’t found a regent in Tintagal to take over in my stead, but since the territory became part of Tamarisch, there wasn’t much use for a regent there. The people of Tintagal were apprehensive about being added to the great nation of Tamarisch but accepted it under my rule. Tamarisch flourished under my power, and they’d already witnessed it. Once I brought the trade route to them, Tintagal would grow and become better than ever. The Tintagal citizens were upset by the death of their leader but like the city of Kanashimi, came to accept me because they knew deep in their hearts that Baudouin was corrupt and evil. Like Machstein, Tintagal was hard to access, and many traders didn’t come up into the northern regions often, but I would change that once I spoke to Makar.
Once we’d settled everything in Tintagal, we decided it would be best to move on to Canarta. Of course, Carmedy was excited to visit her home island, but the rest of my minions were impatient to be reunited with their newest sister. I’d never been to Canarta, hadn’t even known the island existed while in the heavens and only knew of it because of the petite alchemist. I was excited too, but I had other things on my mind than seeing Carmedy’s home and my other minion. Rana was antsy, and I could tell her nerves were getting worse with each passing day. The Qianlong had the fifth piece of the sacred items, and that meant we only had two more until the sorcerer gave back her family. The fox and I talked extensively about what the combined object could create once all the pieces were brought together. Morrigan had told us that the piece that the Qianlong had was some sort of staff, and we knew for sure that when the items came together, they’d create a weapon. We were unsure what type of weapon but what we did know was that we were going to use it against Tuzakeur the first chance we got.
I’d just come from the quarters we rented for the duration of the trip and headed towards the deck. My women were still cuddled up and sleeping in the huge bed in our cabin, and I didn’t want to wake them. The mornings on the ship were the hottest, but the heat didn’t bother me as I mounted the stairs up to the deck. The bright morning sunlight assaulted my eyes, and I lifted a hand to shield them as I squinted. The deck was busy with cat-men and humans alike, and they barely raised their heads to me as I passed. I could see the captain’s turned back as he stood at the helm; he was a portly little fellow with a long red beard and a laugh that vibrated up from his round belly. He was kind to my women and me, and from the way he shouted at his men, he kept a tight ship.
I stood by the wooden railing and looked out over the water. The sea here was a brilliant turquoise and clear enough to see down to the white sandy floor. Though Carmedy hated the water, the cat would often climb up into the rigging and look down at all of the swimming fishes with a hungry expression. The salty breeze brushed past me and blew my long brown hair off my shoulders. I still wore my holy armor, and luckily, it didn’t make me hotter in this heat.
“Good Mornin’, Master!” one of the cat-men called to me as he slung a coil of rope over his shoulder and gave me a curt wave. “Your ladies not awake yet?”
“Good Morning, Miguel. No, not yet,” I chuckled as I returned the gesture. “Sleeping off the delicious food from last night, I believe.”
We’d gotten pretty familiar with the crew, but Miguel was the one who warmed up to us the most. He looked to be in his early twenties if that. His face was boyish and smooth though pretty tanned from long days out in the hot sun. The ears that poked out of his sandy blonde hair were a lighter blonde and soft looking. He came over to me with the coil of rope still over his shoulder and looked out over the water with me. His large eyes were a deep, chocolate brown, and when I glanced at his face, he had a smattering of freckles across his cheeks. Compared to the rest of the men on the ship, Miguel looked like a little kid and kind of acted like one too. Every time he’d see us, whether it be alone or in a group, he’d immediately come up and speak to us, almost like a lost puppy.
“Aye, the food on this ship is always good, but there may be a problem with dinner tonight…” Miguel trailed off as he gave me a sheepish smile and scratched at his left ear.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I turned and looked into his face with knit brows.
“Well, Cook got kind of angry last night…because uh, Carmedy ordered so many desserts then went into the kitchen demanding for him to cook faster.” The cat-boy told me as he looked into my eyes earnestly. “Well, Cook said that he’s not cooking dinner tonight, he’s taking the night off and…its Carmedy’s responsibility.”
I blinked at him slowly, processing the words that just came out of his mouth. For a second, I hoped that he’d stop me and say all of it was a joke, but it never came. Miguel stared at me seriously as silence stretched on between us. I wanted to laugh, Carmedy may ha
ve loved food, but the feline was a horrendous cook. The few times that she’d tried, it ended badly, and my other minions had to take over for her. The petite woman was talented as an alchemist and could whip up potions on the fly, but when it came to cooking, she was terrible.
“Miguel,” I started in a careful tone as I stared down at the young boy. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”
“Yeah, pretty serious. You can talk to Cook if you want, but he’s pretty darn mad right now. Hasn’t come out of his room all day.” Miguel nodded as he bit his lip.
Carmedy always ate a lot, more than the rest of us combined, and we hadn’t seen the altercation, but the man inside the kitchen started yelling and throwing pots and pans. Carmedy scurried out of the kitchen with her tail between two hands and a wide smirk on her lips. The black cat may have been a little drunk from the ale served to us but whatever she’d said to the cook had upset him greatly.
“Is there any way that someone else could take over the job?” I questioned as I cupped my chin, but the young cat-man vehemently shook his head.
“No, the rest of us can barely boil water, it’d be best if you and Carmedy did it… or another one of your women,” the cat-boy sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “We ain’t got anyone else to make us dinner; if we go without tonight, we may not be able to work tomorrow.”
“Insolence,” I growled under my breath as my hands curled into fists.
“What was that, Master?” Miguel asked as his sandy colored ears twitched and swiveled towards me.
“I’m absolutely astounded by his insolence,” I said as I rolled my head back and cracked my neck twice. “A grown man, who’s worked on a ship full of rowdy seamen for what I can assume is most of his life, can’t take some playful ribbing from one of my sweetest minions? It’s asinine, ridiculous to think that he would refuse to do his job.”
“I…uh…” Miguel stuttered as he looked around the deck nervously then glanced back at me.
“Tell me, Miguel, where is the room that this coward has holed himself away in?” I questioned as I took a threatening step toward him, and the cat-man scurried away frightened.
“D-down in the crew’s quarters, his door has a knife literally buried in the wood, its hard not to miss.” The cat-man stammered as I glared down at him.
I spun on my heel and headed toward the crew’s quarters. The sailor’s living area was separate from the passenger’s and in a completely different part of the ship, but I found the stairs quickly. My boots hit the stairs heavily, and a few stray sailors darted out of my way in fear. The hallway was small and tighter than ours, and the metal of my armor brushed against the wooden walls. The cook’s room was at the end of the hall, and I could see the cleaver buried in the door before I came close. I stood outside of it for a moment and let my annoyance build to such a point that it was akin to rage. I’d informed the men on this ship exactly who and what I was when I chartered them and that I expected a level of respect for myself and my women. The cook had blatantly ignored all the things he’d been told, and now he would pay for it with blood. This man had not only disrespected me but one of my women which was an unforgivable offense.
I listened carefully to the sounds of the cook moving around behind the door and the thoughts that bounced around his head for a moment. He was blissfully unaware of what was about to happen to him, and it gave me a sickening sense of joy. I summoned all of my dark power around me, condensed it into a thick cloud as I brought my hands up in front of me then slammed my palms out. My force hit the door with an earsplitting crack in the small space around me, and from inside, the cook screamed in terror.
Time slowed as the flimsy door first cracked, and then splintered as my dark power moved over it in a massive wave. The cracks worked their way outward all the way up to the doorframe then blew inward into the room. I stepped over the broken pieces of wood into the cook’s room and turned to face him. This was my first time seeing him except for the flashes of him I’d seen through the kitchen’s opening and closing door during dinner. He was a mouse of a man, not large enough to make boisterous demands, especially from a person like me.
The cook opened his mouth, but the only sounds that escaped his lips were choked off squeaks and moans as I came closer. He was short, around the same height as Carmedy and completely bald. His hairless head shone in the morning light that came through the small porthole. He wore striped long-underwear that were entirely too big for his slight frame and his bare feet smacked against the floor as he pushed himself farther away from me.
My armor clanked menacingly as I crossed my arms over my chest and glared down at him. He knew exactly who I was; I was a presence to be reckoned with everywhere I went, there was no way he didn’t know. The cook gulped loudly as he took in my huge form, then threw himself to the floor with his clasped hands raised.
“Please, sir!” He cried out in a warbling voice as his hand shook. “I’m sorry that I’ve slighted you, please, take whatever you like from my room!”
I didn’t speak. I had no desire to talk to this lowly creature, especially when he was begging for his life on his hands and knees. If he had been a real man, then he would’ve stood up to me. I had no use for a man like this, and my left hand slammed down as I gripped him by the scruff of the neck. The cook screamed in a high pitched tone as I dragged him from his room and back down the hall toward the stairs.
More sailors came out of their rooms to see what the commotion was about and followed after us as I took a tighter grip on him and hauled him up the steep stairs. The bright sunlight burned my eyes as we resurfaced on the deck, and I pulled him behind me, kicking and screaming. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied my four minions in a group, and all of their heads turned at the sound of the man’s voice. Carmedy grabbed at her black tail anxiously, but a smile crept over Rana’s face as she saw my savagery.
“Please! Please, sir, I’ll do whatever you want!” the cook screamed, and I glanced down at his pained face as I brought his struggling form closer to the wooden railing. “Please! Spare my life! I didn’t mean to offend you!”
I ignored his cries, let go of the scruff of his neck, and grabbed him by his thin throat. The cook struggled for breath as I lifted him over my head, and then looked out over the railing as an idea popped into my head. I lifted him higher with my inhuman strength and held him out over the churning azure water. The cook’s legs kicked out madly as he realized what I was doing, and sputtering sounds escaped his chapped lips. I pressed my lips into a hard line as I squeezed his throat, and his noises reached a fever pitch as I fully shut off his air supply. His yellowish skin paled then turned a violet as he struggled and failed to breathe. Each step he took closer to death only fed my anger, and I wouldn’t be satisfied until he was dead.
“Master!” Carmedy shrieked as she raced over and grabbed at my arm. “What are you doing? Stop!”
I ripped my eyes away from the dying cook to look down at my feline minion, and her emerald eyes pleaded with me.
“This man insulted not only me but you too, I will not stand to have someone slight my women. I cannot allow him to live.” I snarled, and the petite alchemist drew back as her eyes went back and forth between the cook and me.
“W-what did he do? Did he call me a ninnyhammer? I’ve been called that a few times before, it doesn’t hurt my feelings anymore!” Carmedy cried, and my nose wrinkled at the strange word as I glanced over at the feline.
“This insolent fool thought he wasn’t going to work because of what happened last night,” I uttered in a tight voice as I glared into the eyes of the cook.
“What happened last night? Did I do something bad?” the feline asked innocently, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her about what happened, but someone else did.
“Well, you did get super drunk,” Rana chuckled as she came over and leaned against Carmedy’s shoulder. “Then you flounced into the kitchen and demanded him to make three different types of pies in fifteen minutes.”
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“I didn’t!” the alchemist gasped.
“You certainly did.” Morrigan nodded as she peeked over the feline’s shoulders.
“Master put him down! You can’t kill him because of that!” Carmedy cried as she grabbed onto the arm holding the cook and tugged on it feverishly. “What I did wasn’t nice!”
“It matters not if you weren’t ‘nice,’ Carmedy. I am the Master of all things; he should have taken the order from one of my women and done as he was asked.” I tightened my grip on the cook’s throat and felt his windpipe nearly give way under my strength.
“Please stop!” Carmedy screamed as she pulled at me again, and I turned my full attention towards her.
Upon meeting them, I’d quickly realized that the petite cat hated violence, she had been raised as a pacifist on an island that didn’t believe in fighting or hurting others. I’d trained her to be a warrior, and sometimes it seemed as if she enjoyed battle, but in moments like these, her true self came out in desperation. Carmedy wholeheartedly believed in justice and didn’t like when others were hurt for no reason. I couldn’t have those around me disrespecting and disobeying my rule. I wouldn’t allow others to force my women to do anything they didn’t want to do, especially this insolent man who thought he could bully Carmedy into cooking for the whole crew. No, never, not while I was here and in control, I had to make him learn not to mess with one of the strongest gods on earth.
“Why should I? What good would it do to have this audacious creature living on the same earth as you? I will tell you, nothing; he doesn’t deserve to live or breath the same air as any of you.” I growled, and Carmedy’s face hardened as her paws tightened on my arm then suddenly dropped away.
“It’s not fair!” the feline muttered as she fiddled with her paws. “He may have said something wrong, but that doesn’t make him a bad person! He makes delicious food! Hey! I have an idea! How about instead of killing him, you make me his boss! That’ll teach him!”
