The Stolen Princess

by Kristen Gupton

  They stopped beside the ship Keiran had led them to, marveling at its size.

  “If you’re not one of my crew or lumpers here to get this damn load finished, kindly move along, then!”

  The two men turned to find a sailor, about their age, sitting on a crate. He was slicing sections from a piece of fruit with a brutal looking knife, before popping them in his mouth.

  Keiran needed a lead of some sort, and this man seemed as good a starting point as any. “My apologies. We’re in need of passage to the north.”

  Dassion slid from the crate, tossing the remainder of his lunch out into the water. He stowed his knife before wiping his hands on his pants. He eyed the strangers. They were dressed far nicer than most of those who milled about the docks.

  “I can appreciate that, and I am going to Minar,” Dassion said, putting his hands on his hips, “but this is a cargo ship, gentlemen! You’d find the accommodations lacking. Should be a passenger ship here in a day or two. So I’ve heard, anyway. Unreliable with schedules, aren’t they?”

  “We’re not particularly demanding,” Keiran replied, smiling. The man’s lilting coastal accent amused him. “We can pay quite well.”

  “Friend, my last passenger caused me more trouble than I care to think about!” Dassion pointed back in the direction they’d come from. “I was on one of those last summer, and you wouldn’t believe what we went through. Of course, I didn’t know I had a passenger on that trip. Still, cargo is safer than passengers, thank you! It doesn’t murder half of your crew in the night. Not that you look the sort, but you can’t blame me for being a little weary now, can you? I won’t take my eyes off my ship for a second these days.”

  Keiran quirked a brow as Dassion turned to walk off. “Takrah! You were going to Takrah when that happened.”

  The captain scuffed his boots to a stop, slowly looking back over his shoulder. “Gossip travels fast on the water, doesn’t it?”

  “Not gossip, but your personal account.” Keiran sincerely hoped this was the man Mari had described to him. He looked the part, anyway. Aside from Jerris, he was one of very few redheads he’d ever seen.

  Dassion’s face screwed up. He didn’t remember these strangers, and he’d not made a habit of discussing the particulars of the event since it had occurred. “Personal account? I’m afraid I don’t know you, do I?”

  “The royal courier, Mari. Tiny, little thing,” Keiran said, holding his hand up to the middle of his chest to indicate her petite stature.

  The sailor switched his gaze between the man and the other he’d arrived with. He remembered the courier quite well. She’d bought him a few drinks to get him through the story after his arrival and interrogation in Takrah. “How would you have gotten the story from the king’s courier, then?”

  Keiran and Jerris briefly exchanged glances before the vampire turned to Dassion again. If he announced outright who he was, Dassion would surely forbid him from boarding the ship. The sailor had suffered an ordeal at the hands of an alleged vampire, and surely he wouldn’t tolerate being near another one.

  Keiran lifted his hands slightly, giving up another smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not a madman coming along and claiming to be the king or the like. I do live in the castle, however. That’s the only reason I overheard the story.”

  “Live in the castle?” The outfits they wore suddenly made more sense to Dassion. This man was a member of the court, and the other was a royal guard. “No, sorry. Sadoris told me it was a vampire on my ship. I want nothing to do with another.”

  “The king is a vampire, but I assure you, I’m not,” Keiran said, pleading. The man’s concern wasn’t unjustified, but he thought he might break through it. “I’m not whatever was on your ship. Please, Dassion… Your name is Dassion, correct?”

  He gave a meek nod, brow furrowing. “It is, and you? You haven’t even told me your name. That doesn’t seem right since you know mine, does it?”

  He sighed and dredged up the horrible alias Jerris had burdened him with years before. “Saoirse.”

  One of Dassion’s brows rose, and he tried to force back a smile, but it broke through. “Ah, maybe it’s different for you mountain types, but out here, that’s not a man’s name!”

  Keiran’s jaw tensed, and he flashed Jerris a seething glare. “I assure you, I hate my name. I suppose he who named me had a bit of a sense of humor, or was simply a moron.”

  Jerris stifled a laugh, causing him to snort instead.

  Dassion shook his head, his laughing trailing off as he saw Keiran’s demeanor and mood change. “Sorry for it, I suppose.”

  “Good, now, back to the matter at hand. Dassion, I’ve been tasked with a very important mission. Even if you can’t get me north, do you know of another ship that can?” Keiran asked.

  “Like I said, passenger ship’s due in a day or two.”

  “We can’t wait that long,” Keiran said.

  “I’m very sorry, gentlemen, but I have this last load of steel I need to get delivered for the season.” Dassion slowly took a step backward, shaking his head. “The small pittance I’d get for giving you two a ride wouldn’t be worth the hassle, and it won’t make the payment I owe to my brother for this ship.”

  Keiran reached down and unhooked his coin bag from his belt. “How much do you owe your brother?”

  Dassion’s eyes fixed on the swinging leather pouch. He didn’t really want to take them, but he stopped and snorted. Whatever was in the bag, there seemed to be a lot of it.

  “Right, unless you’ve got enough to cover the whole of what I owe for this beast, kindly be on your way,” Dassion said, “and tell that sweet little courier hello for me, would you?”

  * * *

  “You just bought a damn boat,” Jerris muttered as they frog marched Baden down the dock toward the awaiting ship. “You fooled him into thinking you’re not a vampire, but you’re actually putting two on the poor man’s ship!”

  “He doesn’t need to know what Baden is, anymore than he needed to know who I was,” Keiran replied, tugging his bound nephew along.

  “Can you both quit talking as though I’m not here?” Baden asked, weakly trying to shrug off the two men.

  Jerris paid him no mind. “He’ll see he’s bound, and he’s going to ask questions.”

  “I think he was too dumbstruck by having his ship paid off to care who we bring with us,” Keiran said, tightening his grip on Baden’s upper arm to stop his struggling.

  “You two will pay with your lives for all of this!” Baden yelped as Keiran’s fingers dug into his bicep.

  Jerris shook his head. “I hope he doesn’t turn us away.”

  “After the look on his face when we counted out eighteen full gold gildens to him?” Keiran smiled to himself. “I thought we were going to have to pick him up off the deck.”

  Kayla headed up the group, and she glanced back over her shoulder to silence them as they neared the ship and the captain. “Boys, quiet. Let me take care of this part.”

  Dassion’s brows rose as he inspected Kayla before offering her a deep bow. “I’m Captain Dassion Agrine. They didn’t tell me a lady was in their company.”

  She considered him briefly, her expression stoic. “Kayla Sipesh.”

  Dassion was confused, and peeked around her toward Keiran. “Sipesh?”

  “Aye,” he said with a nod. “The old king, like any man in his position, had a number of mistresses. There were, naturally, some children produced. She and I are siblings. Turis Lee, rest his soul, did see to it we were going to be taken care of in perpetuity, you understand.”

  Kayla flashed her brother a heated glare, not liking her new identity as a royal bastard. She couldn’t counter him, though, without confusing Dassion further.

  Dassion didn’t tend to keep up on politics or the affairs of the royal family. Still, there was the issue of the bound man behind her. “And him, then? You said nothing about a prisoner!”

  Kayla gave a sad smile as she glanced back
toward her son. “Oh, that is my poor, dear child Baden. I’m afraid he suffered a terrible fall from his horse and was struck in the head. It made him completely mad. That’s why we’re traveling. There is a healer in Minar who might be able to help him regain his senses.”

  “I’m not mad!” Baden protested, trying to jerk free from his captors again. “You lying old hag!”

  Dassion met Kayla’s gaze. “How long ago was he hurt, eh?”

  She shook her head and averted her eyes to the dock. “It was a full ten years ago, sadly. I’m sure you can understand how having a member of the royal family in such a way needs to be kept quiet. It makes the populace uneasy to hear of these matters. I’m certain you are a man of honor and tact, though, whom I can trust.”

  The sailor gave a slow nod, looking around her at Baden again. “It would be a personal and private matter for any family. Is he… is he dangerous, though? Given the chains and all?”

  She forced a quiet laugh and leaned in closer toward Dassion. “Dangerous? Not to others. We have to keep him bound to stop him from harming himself. The poor boy thinks he’s a vampire like the king, and he has delusions he can fly, too. We simply don’t want him to hurl himself off the nearest ledge and destroy what’s left of his mind.”

  “I am a vampire! I will slaughter the lot of you!” Baden’s face went red with outrage.

  “As though a vampire could be so easily kept in chains,” Keiran snorted. “The poor lad.”

  Dassion had been paid too well to back out now. Besides, there was something about Kayla he liked immediately. “I sympathize with your situation, Lady Sipesh. I will see you get to Minar, so he can get the help he needs. I know my crew and I can be discrete.”

  She reached out and placed a hand against Dassion’s cheek, giving him her best smile. “I do appreciate it, Captain. It means the world to me as a mother.”

  “Please, go onboard and make yourselves comfortable.” He motioned toward the gangplank, his face going red at her light touch. “The loading will be completed shortly and we can be underway.”

  Kayla pulled her hand away and looked back at her brother, giving him a hidden, wicked grin.

  He nodded back to her in approval. She was good, and she was most definitely his sister.

  * * *

  Thana opened her eyes a crack, seeing the room still dark. The baby was sound asleep, swaddled in his blanket and curled up against her stomach. She felt Keiran shift slightly behind her, and she scooted back enough to make contact with him.

  …but Keiran wasn’t home.

  Her eyes opened wide, goose bumps racing across her skin. There was something solid behind her, and she was temporarily too horrified to move. She feared doing so would cause whoever, or whatever, it was to grab her or the baby.

  Athan drank up her fear, listening as she tried to keep her breathing quiet. He smiled up at the ceiling, wondering how long she would hold out before trying to run or scream.

  Thana slowly put her right arm over the baby, scooping him closer to her body. She slid her left arm beneath him as well, until she felt she had a firm enough grip on him.

  She gave a quick, silent prayer before kicking away the blanket and rolling off of the bed, landing on her feet and turning toward the intruder. Thana managed to do so with enough grace that the baby barely stirred.

  Athan slowly sat up, frowning. “I was just getting comfortable.”

  “You old bastard!” Thana held Zach close to her chest, backing away. “How dare you get into my bed!”

  “You didn’t seem too worried for the first two hours I was there,” he said.

  “You aren’t welcome here!” As terrifying as it was to be alone with Athan, at least she knew what she was facing. Her fear abated enough to allow her to collect her thoughts. “All right, Lord Vercilla, what do you want?”

  He exhaled and moved up and off the bed. “Well, my dear girl, I seem to be missing something. Perhaps you can help me find it.”

  “I have nothing of yours,” she said.

  “You do have things I wouldn’t mind having, actually, but this isn’t the time for that.” Athan moved a few steps closer, the bed no longer between them. “I’m afraid something is going on here I don’t quite understand. My son, Baden, came out here to do a little reconnaissance. Would you happen to know where he may have gotten off to?”

  Thana knew the door wasn’t too far behind her. She wondered if she could get to it and escape into the hallway before he reached her.

  Even without reading her mind, he could see her intent. “You know you’d never make it if I didn’t want you to. Now, you may find what I’m about to do…unsettling.”

  Thana turned her head to cry out for the guards, but her chest seized, and she couldn’t push out the air to form any sound. Her fear returned, her body starting to tremble. She tried to move, the sensation of suffocation sending her into a panic, but her entire body was paralyzed.

  “We don’t want to upset that baby now, do we?” Athan stepped right up to her. He reached out with his left hand and pulled back the blanket from Zach’s face. “As I’d suspected, you make beautiful children.”

  The tightening sensation in her chest and the terror of asphyxiation made her heart pound in her temples. She feared losing consciousness and dropping the baby to the stone floor, but her arms were locked into place.

  Athan watched silently for several seconds. The horror coursing through her as she continued to suffocate brought a pleasing tension into him. He gave out a low growl and licked his lips. “Oh, what I could do to you, Thana. There would be nothing you could do to stop me, either.”

  A tear broke loose from the corner of her eye, white noise beginning to fill her ears. She screamed out in her mind for Keiran, but her body refused to budge to her will.

  “I think I have your undivided attention, now.” Athan flashed a smile and waved a hand at her as he took a step back.

  Thana pulled in a sharp gasp, falling painfully to her knees. Her instincts solely focused on drawing in air and not dropping her son. Zach wriggled in her arms and grunted, but he didn’t cry.

  The vampire crouched down before her. Thana’s mind was completely unguarded as she stared down at her son, continuing to pant for air. He searched through her thoughts at will.

  Though Thana hadn’t actually seen Baden, he’d been there. Keiran had brought him to the castle, along with someone else…

  Athan jumped to his feet, his eyes widening. “Kayla was here?”

  Thana tipped her head back and glared up at him. “Here and left. You are too late.”

  He wrangled his initial shock in, and pried into her mind again. Whatever had taken place, Thana hadn’t been a direct part of it, but she had argued with Keiran over it.

  Athan slowly nodded and gave a single laugh. “I see. He escorted her north. Thank you, Thana. You have been most helpful. I’ll see myself out.”

  Though her legs where unsteady and weak, Thana managed to rise to her feet. Blood had soaked through her nightgown from her knees, both badly skinned from her collapse. She hurled a curse at Athan, but before the words left her lips, he’d vanished from sight.

  The silence in the room after his departure was unbearable. Thana backed from where she stood until she reached the door. Only then did she turn her back to the room and flee down the corridor as fast as her injured legs could carry her.

  She reached the door to Kanan’s room in the soldier’s barracks and pounded on it furiously, giving no mind to the hour.

  The old man took several seconds to awake. He watched Corina get up and move toward the door. “What’s all this about?”

  Corina glanced back at him and shrugged before going over and opening the door. “Thana? What’s wrong?”

  The young queen glanced over her shoulder as she pushed her way into the room. Her body still shook from her encounter with Athan, her usual dark complexion nearly grey in her fright. “Athan… Athan was here!”

  Kanan threw off the blan
kets and rose up. “Where is he?”

  “Gone, he’s gone,” Thana said, shaking her head. “Corina, please take Zach, I feel like I’ll drop him.”

  She closed the door and hurried over, taking the baby into her well-practiced arms. “Are you all right? What did he do? Kanan, light the lamps!”

  Thana shook her head again and went to sit in a chair, not sure she’d be able to stand much longer. “He came here looking for Baden. He pulled it out of my mind, there was nothing I could do.”

  Kanan got two of the lamps hanging from the low ceiling lit, their glow slowly filling the room. Afterward, he went closer to her, seeing the red on her nightgown. “You’re hurt, Thana. What did he do to you?”

  “I fell,” she said, looking down at her ruined gown. “I couldn’t breathe or move, then when I could, I collapsed. It was awful! I was so afraid I’d drop Zach.”

  “I’ve seen him freeze people up to keep them from moving before.” Corina gently rocked the baby in her arms, looking him over. “Did he touch the child? He seems to be all right.”

  “No, he didn’t harm the baby, thank God,” Thana said. “I don’t know how I managed to keep my hold on him, but I did. If he’d been hurt…”

  “He’s fine,” Corina said gently, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

  “I’m going to go alert the guards and have the castle searched.” Kanan went over and pulled a robe from a hook on the wall.

  Thana leveled her gaze at him, her eyes still wild. “Please don’t leave! Either of you! Please stay with me. I can’t bear the thought of being away from the two of you right now.”

  Kanan looked at Corina. While his sense of duty urged him to do one thing, Thana’s pleas cut through him and made him hesitate.

  Corina gave her husband a frown. “If Athan only wanted to know something, and he managed to find it, then he’s already long gone.”

  The guard tossed his robe onto the bed before reaching up and smoothing back his long silver hair. “Point taken, I’ll stay.”

  “He knows Kayla was here, too! What if he catches them?” Thana asked, pulling up her gown enough to look at her badly bruised knees. “They’re certainly too far away for us to get any warning to.”