I followed him through the streets and stayed in the shadows as he walked along the docks and went out to a cluster of piers. A rundown inn was there and the man went inside. I followed, using the darkness to hide me. Some men walked past me and didn’t notice and I followed behind them as they went inside.
The inn was a mess, contrary to where I stayed with Kandarian. Vomit stench stung my nostrils and men were crowded so tightly in the tavern that they didn’t even notice as I pushed them out of the way to keep the man I was after in my sights. He walked upstairs and I waited a few moments. I felt a hand on my breast and I grabbed the fingers and twisted. They snapped and the hand withdrew and I made my way up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a long hallway but the man wasn’t there. I walked into the hall and stopped. I raised my hand just as the blow came and I caught his fist and flipped over his arm and was on the other side of him. I kicked into his leg and he thrust with his knee and knocked back my foot. I struck four successive blows with my fist into his body; three landed on his arms and the last into his ribs before I swept out his legs. He grunted as I impacted against his ankles and I knew they were injured. I jumped and came down with my heel into one and he groaned. I did it again and he spun and kicked me in the stomach, which sent me back far enough that he got to his feet.
“You’re no maiden.”
I rushed at him and struck his face. I hit him again and again and flipped backward, coming up with my foot and bashing it into his jaw. He flew back and I bounced off the wall and sailed at him with my fists in front of me to pound against his head. He ducked and I hit the wall. He came up and grabbed me around my waist and flung me to the ground. I swept at his ankles again and he jumped back.
We both were still a moment and I rose to my feet. “You will not harm her.”
“Who?”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
“Oh? The Lady? The prissy one, right? I care nothing for her.”
“Liar, you were going to kill her that night.”
“I’ve never once killed a woman and I won’t. I was only there for information.”
“What information?”
“That’s my business.”
I was quiet a moment. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I have reasons and they are my own.”
“As are mine. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like a little sleep before we leave.”
I stepped to the side. He walked past me and went into a door and shut it behind him. I stood there and waited for him to come back out, but the door stayed shut, so I left. A mercenary perhaps, or a former well-trained soldier. But not an assassin. He fought with a type of honor that assassins did not have. We were trained for efficiency and no other consideration.
I went out to the streets and down to the pier and watched the moonlight reflect off the black water. During the day it was the bluest thing I had ever seen. Now, with a simple shift of light, it was the blackest.
“The prince is looking for you,” a gruff voice said behind me.
I looked and saw the striking frame of Gorb. He was wearing his armor, which he never removed, and stood behind me. I began walking away when he sidestepped and stood before me.
“I don’t trust you,” he said. “When I don’t trust someone they usually end up dead.”
“Good to know.”
“Who are you?”
“I am a simple maiden.”
He scoffed. “And I’m the queen.”
I brushed past him and left the pier and went to the inn. The tavern was crowded with guards again and I wondered if that’s all men did: get drunk and chase women. I went past them to my room and no sooner had I lain down the door burst open and Kandarian stood there with his arm around a young girl.
“Aysta!” he said excited. “Aysta you must join me and … what was your name, dear?”
“Calis.”
“Calis! You must join me and Calis. We were just about to go nude into the sea.”
“Whatever you wish, My Prince.”
“Excellent.”
I followed them out and they could barely stand. We went to the pier and they jumped in with their clothes, laughing and kissing. Kandarian ripped off her shirt and then her pants and they began making love, if you could call it that, there in the water.
“Join us!”
I removed my clothing and entered the water. I swam out to them and Kandarian grabbed me and attempted to enter me. I reached my arms around him and jerked my thumb into the cluster of nerves at the base of his spine and he instantly fainted. I kept him afloat and pulled him back to shore, the young girl following us.
“Leave,” I said.
“But the prince said that tomorrow I could—”
“I just saved your life. Go now before I change my mind.”
She looked at me a moment and then walked away.
“The sea will not take my glory,” I whispered. I lifted his arms and began dragging him back. I had far worse things ready for him than a mere drowning. Still, the temptation to hurt him was too great. As I reached down to him, my hand as a claw aimed for his heart, I heard footsteps behind me and saw Gorb.
He pushed me out of the way and placed Kandarian on his shoulder, grunting at me before walking back to the inn.
SLESH OF ULRIK
My legs ached as I rose from bed in the morning. The girl was tough, tougher than anyone I had ever fought. She was highly trained and I knew of only two places she could receive such training: she was either a Royal Guard, or she was a Shade.
She wore no armor, and I had heard of only one woman who had ever become a Royal Guard, but no one had known she was a woman until she had completed the training. She was killed in the first battle she fought, stabbed through the stomach. Many said by other Royal Guards.
That left the Shades. If the Shades were involved, death would be coming and on a large scale. One of the men here must have been her target but I couldn’t guess as to who. The Shades killed everyone from kings to peasants if they thought it benefited the long term stability of the civilized world. They shaped empires and epochs and no one knew anything about them other than they existed.
I stepped outside the inn and found the ships loaded and deckhands looking them over, making sure we had enough supplies to last. No one knew how long it could take to get to the Darklands because it was not a straight sail. The Savage Sea would throw about any vessel and some had gone so far off course they starved before finding land. It was a treacherous journey that only a few had made.
I went to the ship and was told to load the last of the wooden crates that contained weapons: nicely oiled swords and shields and bows, long arrows with spear tips and the pilus, a short sword with lion-hair trim used for stabbing from behind a shield into the chest, throat and mouth. I climbed the ramp onto the ship and loaded them below deck. It was hard labor but I was used to hard labor. In my youth, that was all I did.
Wasn’t much left to load, and when everything was completed and a final check was done, it was time to sail.
I saw the prince and his little procession as they waved to the people and he gave a speech about what he was going to bring back, that it was time to tame the Darklands, to get it under the rule of the Empire. The crowd cheered and clapped and he waved to them as he entered his ship, which happened to be the largest and most decorated.
Mine was a small one at the back. I loaded with Tel and his men and we rowed away from the piers and were well out to sea when the sails went up. The wind was strong in the sails but half of us remained on the oars; the others were ordered here and there, just busy work to impress on us that we were here to take orders.
As we got farther to sea and the wind picked up even more, most of the men sat on the oars but didn’t row. They chatted about women back home. Some of them spoke of children and what they would buy them on the way back. They were cheerful and full of optimism and I felt so
rry for them.
We ate a grain biscuit and had just a speck of water. The men kept talking about how surprisingly calm the Savage Sea actually was. I knew this sea and knew it was fickle. In a short time, this boat would be thrown about like a child’s toy and some of us would die.
The day dragged on and I watched the other ships, especially Kandarian’s. He had the most guards on that ship, somewhere around sixty I had heard; the other ships only had one or two at a time.
By the time land was no longer visible, the sea began to churn. Farther out, the sunlight faded and you could see the storms on the horizon. A general nervousness now settled on the men. They were starting to realize for the first time that they could actually lose their lives out here. For some, that meant something, but for others it was of no consequence; there was nothing else they could do and this way they could at least have meals and lodging for a while.
When the weather did turn, it was amazing how quickly it happened. One moment the sun was bright on our faces and warming our hands, and the next the sky had torn open and was gushing water. The sky became darker and gray, and the waves climbed higher and higher, to the point where our ships were moving up and down so fast that many of the men began to vomit in the aisle or over the transom. Water splashed into the ship in torrents with each wave that crashed into us.
It happened so quickly we couldn’t get the sails down in time and one of them ripped up and flew away on the wind like a bird. We managed to get the other two down with great hardship and locked them away and then got on the oars. It was pointless of course but the Royal Guards who were in charge of each ship insisted we do something. I could tell they had no experience at sea. They would panic and slap one of the men or pull out their swords and threaten them, then a wave would crash into the ship and tilt us to the side and they would fall to their knees and grip the deck like they were holding on to their mother’s tit.
And this wasn’t even the worse of it. The sea was just beginning to have its fun with us.
AYSTA
I couldn’t believe how quickly the weather attacked us. I was with Kandarian but he was below deck vomiting so I sat and watched the men trying to rein in the sails and tie up ropes and latches to keep them from flying away. The sky had become a pure gray dotted with black, and the rain fell so furiously I could hear some of the men saying that it actually hurt.
It was such for a full day and a full night. When I thought of night at sea, I saw still waters with the moon lighting it on fire, the sorrowful songs of the birdwhales filling the air. But there was no beauty and no dignity that night. It was as violent as the day and even more deadly as you could only see by lantern light, and the thought of small flames running about a wooden ship was discomforting.
In the morning I rose from a restless sleep in my cabin and went out on the deck. The ship was tossing about so much that it was difficult to even stand in one place so I went down below deck back to the cabins. The ship was filled with them. Meant to hold a crew of over a hundred, the cabins were to be shared three to a one.
As I walked I could hear a quiet sobbing coming from somewhere. The fact that I could hear it at all was a testament to the engineering of the Yulians: any other ship would have been leaking and the wood groaning so loudly you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself speak. Not so on this ship. Though it still tilted violently from side-to-side, the ship was quiet and the wood itself made hardly a whisper.
I followed the sobbing. A cabin on the port side was open and I looked in and saw Chloe. I sat with her. Her flesh appeared green and the stench of vomit filled the room. I noticed a bucket next to her and I opened the cabin viewport and threw it out.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“The prince,” she said, wiping away her tears. “He saw me with Lady Margaret and requested I be here. But I’ve never been on a ship, Aysta. I feel so sick.”
“You need to center yourself. Stand up … now put your feet apart just slightly. Good. Close your eyes. Feel the ship’s movements. It is not random. It moves in a pattern. From one side to the next. Do you feel that?”
“Yes.”
“Now adjust your body to it. Take pressure off of one foot only to place it on the other and back in a slow rhythm. Easy … easy … do you feel it?”
“Yes.”
“Your balance is much better. You see, you don’t try and have the ship adjust to you, you adjust to the waves. See each wave in your mind coming toward you, rising and then falling again. Do it with each foot in rhythm. Inhale deeply through the nose and exhale out of the mouth. Easy … easy … good. Straighten your back. Ensure that your neck is in line with your spine, which is in line with your trunk and your legs. Does that feel better?”
“Yes, I don’t feel as sick.”
“Good. Practice that. And you must do something for me, Chloe. You have to stay out of the prince’s way. Do not approach him, and if he’s coming anywhere near you, hide.”
“Why? He seems very nice. He even said he would like to take me back to see my family sometime, and that he would buy me the finest clothes when we reach Zeries.”
“He’s a liar, and he’s dangerous. You must stay away from him. Promise me.”
She was quiet. “I promise.”
The ship suddenly lurched to the side so violently we flew off our feet. I hit the wall with both heels and rebounded, but Chloe slammed into it with her back and head and groaned as she lost consciousness. I lifted her and placed her underneath the cot, immobilizing her with as many pillows as I could, before running for the deck.
The ship seemed to be spinning. I had to hold on to a railing or else I would have been thrown to the floor.
Suddenly, a roar tore through the air. It was deep and I could feel it in my feet. It was coming from underneath the ship.
I got to the deck and, though there was still light in the sky, the waters were black. The waves came high, higher than the ship. We would sit atop the waves like a twig in a gushing river. I could not see Kandarian but I saw Gorb standing at the bow of the ship, and I walked to him. He was staring out over the water.
“A gorgon,” I said.
“They don’t exist.”
“Maybe someone should tell it.”
I watched the churning black water with the foamy white tips. I could see nothing and the ship was still a moment before it began to rise. It rose high into the air and I realized we were not touching the water before we crashed back down and a torrent slammed into us. I grabbed the railing and held tight as I was submerged, then the ship burst out of the sea, nearly vertical, and crashed back down.
Men were screaming and many were frantically rowing as if they could fight the waves.
Before us, the water roiled in a swirling whirlpool as the ship was knocked backward and nearly tipped over into the sea. Another rumble and a boom as the water gave way to a beast only found in the nightmares of men.
Its flesh was gray and it had the general shape of a man but with the head of a dreadful fiend, teeth broken and yellow. Only one eye sat in its head; the rest was mouth and teeth. It belted another roar that shook the timbers of the ship.
It spun and grabbed one of the other ships and lifted it like a feather and threw it back as the ship capsized. The men were in the icy water and frantically grabbing at anything to keep afloat. The gorgon lifted one in between its claws and dropped him into its black mouth and the man was gone, blood spattered on the creature’s lips.
I reached under my robes to my blade. Gorb ran underneath to the lower decks and returned with a crossbow, large and made of steel.
“Aim for the eye,” I shouted.
I leapt to the railing of the ship. The gorgon was close enough that when it turned our way and knocked our ship with his claw, I leapt onto the flesh of its arm. It was as slick as it looked, like a smooth stone, and I clambered up its arm.
Roaring, it clawed at me and I flipped underneath the arm and it tore away its own flesh, writhing in pain.
I had to embed my blade in its rubbery flesh and hang on as I was flung about. When it calmed, it turned its attention to another ship and I climbed and continued up its arm. Hardly noticing me, it overturned another ship and took two men and tore them in half and ate each half whole, biting down twice to break the bones.
I was at its shoulder and I leapt into the air as it turned to me, its eye full of primal fury. I sliced down with my blade, struck the middle of the fleshy pink underneath the eye, and then pulled up, slicing through eye flesh like stew meat.
It shrieked such an awful scream that I had to cover my ears as bits of goopy jelly and blood blew over me. Spinning around, it crashed its fist into the ship and tore it in half. It was wild with pain and striking at anything near. It hit the last ship and then lifted it in the air, breaking it over its head as it tried to keep its eye open, blood pouring out and mixing with rain.
Feeling for me, it clawed its own face, tearing away skin and scales to get at me. It struck me so hard I flew into the air and fell, slamming backward into the sea, losing consciousness and feeling the cold closing around me like the grave.
2
I saw my father’s face. He stood before me and his arms were outstretched and he took me and lifted me into the air and spun me. I was a child, laughing as the warm breeze blew over me and the scent of baking apples with honeyed almonds filled the air and my mother called to us that supper was prepared.
My sister was there and she was busy with her studies. She wanted to be an apothecary because she thought that the human body was a miracle, a gift given to us by the gods, and that we had only begun to understand it.
Then they started to wither away. First their skin fell off and then their muscles shrank to nothing. Black husks stood around me; their bones crumbled and turned to dust. Weeping, I tried to grab them but they slipped through my fingers. Blood came out of my eyes then and I ran out of the house screaming and then there was only sunlight on my face and it was so bright it blinded me.
Empire of War - An Epic Fantasy (The Empire of War Trilogy Book 1) Page 12
