Blood Moon (Blood Rain Book 2)

by Nancy Gray

  “I don’t either, but I know he’s coming from that direction. The only reason I know at all is because one of Beryl’s people saw it and decided to warn us. They said that some of their people have gone missing that got too close to the ship.”

  Mercy shielded the moonlight from her eye but still couldn’t see anything.

  “When do you think they’ll be on us?”

  Pyron shrugged. “I don’t know. All we can do is try to prepare and then wait to see. My guess is that he’s waiting to attack when we’re most vulnerable. I didn’t want to tell you. It does no good to worry.”

  “Honestly, right now I’m more worried that you’re still upset at me. I’m so sorry about what happened earlier. It was my fault.”

  Pyron shook his head. “Mercy, it wasn’t just your fault. Honestly, despite your age, you’re still one of the most level headed and responsible people I’ve met. You sacrificed everything to help your people.”

  “Well, I wasn’t very responsible today, was I?”

  “Did you learn anything from it?”

  Mercy frowned. “Yes. More than I ever wanted to know.”

  “Then it wasn’t all for nothing, at least. It was unrealistic of me to think that you wouldn’t occasionally do something reckless. Everyone does, and it’s part of growing up.”

  “Are you really only twenty one? You act a lot older. Not as old as Mirilee suggested, but you don’t seem to be so close to our age.”

  “I had to grow up too fast. I’ve been training for my position since I was ten.”

  Mercy gasped. “That’s so young.”

  Mercy felt Pyron trying to hide his emotions. She could tell that he didn’t want to talk about it. He turned slightly away from her. Mercy decided not to press the issue.

  “Well, you were right about one thing, your people do look out for your own. I’m just glad that you were looking out for me today too.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad I was too. I was too hard on you mostly for selfish reasons.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. Dr. Appius said he was going to find out why you were hiding me, this could be really bad for you. Is there anything we can do to help?”

  Pyron sighed. “I’m not worried about Appius’ threat. The dictator already knows that there’s bitter blood between us. He won’t take anything Appius says too seriously. It’s just that today was the first time in a very long time that I’ve felt like putting the welfare of someone else over my duties to the dictator.”

  “I put you in such a bad position.”

  Pyron turned towards her again. “You couldn’t have known it would happen. It just brought back some bad memories, and I took it out on you – all of you. Please, pass my apologies on to the others.”

  “There’s nothing that you need to be sorry for. I brought you something. It was a charm that belonged to my mother.” Mercy blushed as she handed the snake necklace to him and continued, “The rubies kind of reminded me of your eyes.”

  Pyron smiled warmly. It occurred to her that it was one of the few times she had ever seen him genuinely smile, and it lit up his features in a way that made him seem years younger.

  “Thank you. I love it, Mercy. I like snakes. I had a pet one when I was a boy. But are you sure you want to give this to me? If it belonged to your mother, I’m not sure that I should accept it.”

  “I’m sure. I made one for all of my closest friends. I thought it might kind of bring us closer together and maybe smooth things over after today.”

  “That was very thoughtful of you, and I love it.”

  Mercy reached out and hugged him. He fervently returned the hug and immediately put the necklace on. The aged, silvery metal was just a little darker than his gray skin, and it seemed a perfect match for him.

  She said, “Thank you for saving me.”

  “There’s no need to thank me, Mercy. I’m glad you came out here. I wanted to tell you something that I thought you might like to know.”

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  “While I was getting the paperwork done to get you out of the prison cell, I checked up on the report from the spies that were sent to your village.”

  “Really? They already checked on it? What happened?”

  Pyron beamed and said, “They were overwhelmed by the savagery of your people. They said that they didn’t see one wounded person except for an invalid that the chieftain said was dropped from the canopy as punishment for murder.”

  Mercy smiled. “My Father really is a clever man, isn’t he? He even used what Erebus did to Green Arrow to his advantage. That makes me feel so much better! Knowing that the plan worked makes the scars on my back worth it!”

  Pyron frowned. “But it won’t make the emotional ones go away, will it? I’m sorry that my people put you in that position.”

  Mercy shivered at the look in Pyron’s eyes. He was slowly leaning forward, as though he was thinking of kissing her. He was feeling the same feelings that he did when she hugged him before she left Concord. There was the same lonely desire – the feeling of someone starved for human contact – only this time the baby bird that had fallen from the nest was full grown. And he was ready to do something to remedy his situation.

  Before Mercy could even decide if she wanted to let him kiss her, or if that was even his intention at all, the moment was interrupted by a blood-curdling shriek. Mercy recognized Mirilee’s animalistic, gutteral screams, but she could hardly believe it. Mirilee, the person that was not afraid of anything, sounded as though she was terror-stricken. Instantly, both she and Pyron bolted in the direction of the women’s quarters.

  8

  When they entered, Mirilee was thrashing around so hard in her hammock that the bolts that attached it to the walls were creaking and groaning under the strain. Garnet was trying to hold the hammock steady, while Incenda was trying to shake her awake. Still, despite the fact her shoulders were being shaken, Mirilee wasn’t waking up and her screaming became earsplitting. Her eyes were open, but they were vacant. They stared off into the distance and occasionally rolled upward or around as though she was looking at something that wasn’t there. It made Mercy wonder if she was asleep or if she was having some sort of seizure.

  Incenda said in a desperate voice, “I think she’s still asleep, but we just can’t wake her up. We’ve been shaking her and shouting her name. I don’t know what to do!”

  Pyron rushed out, saying, “I’ll get a bucket of water.”

  As soon as Pyron left, Kylas and Erebus ran into the room.

  Kylas snapped, “Stop shaking her! That isn’t going to help. She can’t wake up right now. She’s having a vision.”

  Garnet scoffed, “What sort of vision? It sounds more like she’s having a nightmare to me. Shake her harder, Incenda.”

  Kylas brushed past them and picked Mirilee up out of the hammock, holding her tightly and tenderly brushing the hair from her face. He whispered soothing things that Mercy couldn’t hear into her ear, in the same fashion that he had whispered to the riding animals that he tended at the encampment. After only a minute or two of Kylas’ comforting words, Mirilee stopped screaming, but she was still shaking and whimpering, looking off into space.

  Beryl came to the door. “I heard screams. What’s going on? Is that Mirilee?”

  Mercy noticed a few of the other sailors looking over his shoulder with a mixture of morbid curiosity and concern.

  Mercy whispered to him, “Kylas says she’s having a vision. Could you get the rest of them out of here? Tell them that she’s having a seizure or something. I feel bad enough for her without her becoming a spectacle.”

  Beryl nodded and started whispering to the other sailors.

  They began to disperse, but Mercy heard the second mate say, “She’s one of my people. I know what’s going on here. She’s gifted, isn’t she? She isn’t just having a seizure, she’s having a vision! I would like to know what she’s seeing.”

  He cast one more concerned look in Mirilee’s directio
n and then headed outside with the others.

  Pyron appeared at the door with the bucket, but put it down when he saw Mirilee in Kylas’ arms. “Does this happen to her often, Kylas?”

  “No. Mirilee doesn’t have visions often but when she does they’re almost always bad and if nothing is done, they usually come true.”

  Garnet raised an eyebrow, “She can see the future? Can she control it?”

  There was a greedy glint in her eyes that Mercy didn’t like. It was the same sort of expression that Dr. Appius gave his test subjects. It wasn’t the type of look that someone gave another human being, but the sort of look that someone gave a particularly useful animal.

  Erebus said, “I don’t think that she can control the ability. In fact, I think Kylas can handle this better than we can. Let’s give them some privacy. When Mirilee is ready, she’ll let us know what she’s seen.”

  Kylas nodded. “Thank you, Erebus. I think that would be best.”

  Everyone went to the upper deck to wait. Mercy found herself beginning to pace. She wanted to be in the room with Mirilee, but she knew that Erebus was right. Mercy had been through enough traumatic situations to know that being crowded by people wouldn’t help. Mirilee would want to see someone that she trusted and cared about, and Mercy had the impression that Kylas had seen her through similar situations in the past. But it didn’t make her feel any less helpless as she paced the deck and waited.

  The thought of waiting made her glance in the direction that Pyron said The Knave would be coming from, but there was still no sign of the ship. She knew that Mirilee’s cries probably carried over the waves for a great distance. It made her wonder if he would try to attack them, knowing that they were distracted. Pyron seemed to be thinking the same thing, staring in that direction as well. The waves were silent and there was no sign of any unusual movement.

  After about ten minutes of waiting, they saw Kylas walking up the stairs. He was very pale and looked as though he was exhausted. There was only one emotion that he was feeling that Mercy could tell, and that was overwhelming worry. It was so prominent that it felt as though his presence changed the entire atmosphere of the upper deck, making Mercy claustrophobic. The realization that she couldn’t simply walk away from it made the ship seem even more like a prison, but Mercy tried to appear as strong as possible. Kylas and Mirilee didn’t need to think that she was affected by their fears.

  “Mirilee wants to see Pyron, Beryl, Mercy, and Erebus. If everyone else would please just wait here, I think she would appreciate it.”

  Incenda looked disappointed and Garnet just looked sour. Still, they nodded and remained on the deck while everyone else filed in the direction of the women’s’ sleeping quarters.

  Mirilee was drinking from a flask when they entered the room. Her hands were shaking so badly that Mercy was surprised that she managed to keep from spilling it. Whatever she was drinking smelled very strong. She was still staring into space, but the life was back in her eyes. She glanced in their direction and visibly tried to calm herself. Her hands began to shake less, and she took one more long gulp from the flask of liquor before closing it. She took a few deep breaths and then attempted a feeble smile, motioning for them to sit on the hammocks in front of her.

  “You’ll want to sit down. Trust me.”

  “I believe you,” Mercy said and took the hammock closest to Mirilee.

  Kylas put a hand on Mirilee’s shoulder. “Go on, Mirilee. I think everyone needs to hear this.”

  Mirilee took a deep breath, “I told you that I sometimes have visions. Well, I had a really bad one. I asked Kylas to tell you to come down here before it gets too foggy for me to remember everything.”

  Erebus nodded. “Well, take your time. If whatever you saw made you, especially you, that scared then it must’ve really been bad.”

  Mirilee said with a bitter smile, “Yeah, it was bad. Keep in mind, sometimes what I see is kind of scattered and doesn’t always make sense. And if it’s interpreted wrong, it can make things worse.”

  Kylas shook his head, “Don’t be so modest, Mirilee. Most of the time your visions help people avoid dangerous situations.”

  “I’m not so sure about this one.”

  Mercy felt overwhelming curiosity from Pyron as he said, “Just tell us what you saw, and leave the interpretations to us.”

  “It started with visions of a horrific war. There were burning cities and I think one of them was Crevane and one of them was Mercy’s village.”

  Mercy felt an oppressive fear that made her want to be sick. Pyron seemed to be feeling the same thing, but his expression was the same mask he always wore when he didn’t want others to see his emotions.

  “There were battles between the various types of beast men, but there were also regular people fighting against them. Everything was so disjointed. I’m not sure what happened first. At one point, I thought I saw Pyron’s people fighting against Mercy’s. There was so much death everywhere that I just don’t know how to describe it. It was terrifying!”

  Mirilee swallowed hard, clearly trying to fight off tears. Everyone waited patiently until she was ready to continue.

  “Then, I saw some sort of ritual, with some sort of creatures chanting. They were moving in unison around this big, complicated pattern that looked like it had been painted in blood. They weren’t like any of the beast men that I’ve ever seen. They had strange, bulging bodies with rows and rows of teeth and soulless, black eyes. Some of them looked wolf-like too, but the ones with the wide mouths of teeth were the ones chanting.”

  Beryl’s eyes got wide. “They sound like Waterbloods! Oh no!”

  Pyron shot Beryl a look and put a finger to his lips. Beryl nodded in understanding and quickly became silent.

  Erebus was beginning to look pale as well, especially when he heard the word “Waterbloods.” He was trembling, and Mercy instinctively reached out to hold his hand. He jumped slightly when she touched him, like a child after hearing a scary story by a campfire, but he smiled awkwardly and didn’t remove his hand from hers.

  “Then we were in the North, and I saw Erebus and Beryl trying to kill each other. It was like they suddenly hated each other. They were doing things that I can’t even describe. It was like watching two dangerous forces clashing together and shattering everything around them.”

  Erebus spoke up, “I wouldn’t do that. Beryl and I don’t always see eye to eye, but we aren’t enemies either.”

  Beryl nodded. “I agree. There’s no reason why we would hurt each other.”

  Even though Beryl sounded confident on the outside, Mercy could feel his uncertainty on the inside. It made her feel as though she was invading his privacy. She could see why her father had chosen the name “Stealer of Secrets,” instead of “Mind of Mercy.” She couldn’t read the physical signs of a lie like Dr. Appius, but she could feel it when someone wasn’t being truthful. Beryl thought that there was some reason that Erebus might fight him. It probably had something to do with his conversation with Captain Morrissey. When they reached the North, Beryl was going to reveal some kind of huge secret.

  It made Mercy remember Captain Morrissey’s warning to him. “Even the Shadow Weaver? He won’t like what he sees.”

  Mirilee said with a frustrated shout, “I’m just telling you what I saw! I can’t help what the visions are! Do you want to hear the rest or not?”

  Kylas put his hands on her shoulders. “Yes. You should be ashamed of yourselves, making her feel bad about her visions. The entire point of telling you is so that you can try to avoid making them happen.”

  Beryl glanced away from her. “I’m sorry, Mirilee. Please, continue.”

  “I was looking up at the snow, but I saw a black snowflake, or at least I thought it was black. I reached up and touched it, and when it melted on my finger, it turned out it was red. It was like the blood rain, only it was a bloody snow storm. Then I had the entire vision again only from the bloody snowflake onward. I think that the bl
oody snow is the first sign of the bad things that are going to happen and probably the cause of it. I’m not sure what we can do to stop it.”

  Pyron leaned against the wall and rubbed his temples as he said, “Well, then the logical thing to do would be to move on to something we can control. How will we stop Beryl and Erebus from fighting?”

  Beryl said a little too quickly, “Maybe we should make a blood pact and swear not to fight each other.”

  Mercy noticed that Erebus was glancing at Beryl’s chest and then at his neck. He could read blood the way that she could read emotions.

  “No. I can tell just by the way your heart is racing that you’re hiding something from me that you think will make me angry enough to fight you. I suggest you go ahead and say it before it can escalate into a fight later.”

  Beryl clinched his jaw. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t say it in front of humans, but I’m sure that you could tell me if we left the room. Come on. Let’s go ahead and talk this out.”

  “No. I can’t even tell you alone. You’ll have to see it. There’s no other way.”

  Erebus took a threatening step forward. “I’m starting to want to fight you right now.”

  Beryl’s jaw clenched tighter, and his hands balled into fists. “I’ll gladly fight you if it means that you’ll wait to find out.”

  Mercy shouted, “STOP IT!”

  They both looked at her in shock at the same time.

  “This isn’t helping! Getting mad at each other will just make the vision come true whether it’s here or at the North. I don’t want that to happen, and I think that deep down both of you know that it would be a bad idea for us to stop trusting each other. What we’re trying to do is too important for that.”

  Beryl and Erebus glanced at one another and Erebus held out his hand, saying, “No blood pact for now, but how about we just promise to try to hold our tempers? Does that seem like a good start to you?”

  Beryl nodded and shook Erebus’ hand saying, “I promise that I’ll try not to fight you.”

  Erebus rolled his eyes. “I’ll try to expect the worst so that I don’t feel the need to fight you when we get there.”