Fractured Families (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga Book 2)

by Jason Paul Rice

  My son was going to kill me? I was going to kill my husband? What kind of family is this? Maybe this is true love and I should be only with Ali-Samuel. It feels right in my heart.

  The two stood in silence as the rain almost stopped. Emilia looked out over the choppy emerald waters still thinking about Ali-Ster. Then it hit.

  Tersen. That weasel got his claws into my son, I’d bet. He couldn’t turn Elisa so he went after Ali-Ster or maybe he got to both of them. That has to be it. I wonder what he promised him to turn on family.

  “Tersen,” Emilia blurted out. “What of him?” Ali-Samuel asked with lowered eyes.

  “I believe he may have gotten to Ali-Ster,” Emilia said.

  “That was the first weasel that appeared in my eyes.”

  He used the word weasel too. It is true love. All the signs are there.

  Emilia’s emotions were scattered all over as she began her new life. She could never go back to Donegal now. She realized this fact as she ducked a wave that splashed onto the deck. She thought rumors that she and Ali-Samuel had killed the king were probably being spread everywhere faster than purple fire. Her care-free castle lifestyle had just been shed like a snake’s skin and she could never put it back on. She had felt more danger and excitement in the past few days than the whole of her life so far and while she had enjoyed it, the former queen wondered at what cost it would come. Emilia would probably never see the two people who were the biggest part of her life. She tried to push these thoughts aside and look ahead, but couldn’t.

  “Do you think Elisa was in on it?” Emilia asked. “Possibly. Look, I still don’t know who we can trust,” he peered around the deck, “once we get to a safe place you will understand that everything will be fine and we will one day have revenge,” Ali-Samuel flashed a crusty smile.

  Emilia began to feel sick. She never really travelled much by sea and the rocking of the boat started to get to her. Images of her late husband appeared in her head. Not recent ones, but from when she first met the king in Burkeville, along with thoughts about their wedding day. She had hated the man for the past dozen years but she kept thinking about him. Visions of the bloody, dead King appeared before her, and her stomach turned again.

  Ali-Ster is the one who changed the plan at the last moment. It all adds up even more now. My son wanted me dead. That is why Ali-Samuel is acting so strange. He knows our lives are in severe danger and he must concentrate on that right now. That has to be it.

  Emilia hoped she’d just figured everything out, but she had thought the same the previous day after several other revelations. A very quiet couple of days concluded with the ship docking in Androsi. Of the few things Ali-Samuel talked to her about, he told her that they must move fast in Androsi. Ali-Samuel cut his own hair short to avoid detection. Ali-Ster could have men everywhere looking for them. The former queen’s pulse quickened as they walked along the docks. She saw Ali-Samuel look around to assess the situation and she replicated the action. She located the creepy-looking old man again. His face looked oddly familiar. Ali-Samuel pulled the black cloak closer to his blue eyes and lowered his head while holding Emilia by her upper arm.

  He seemed to be following the old man up to the next vessel. They waited in line and Emilia whispered, “I think I may have found a man my son has sent. The older man ahead with the big scar on his face.”

  “Worry not, my love. The old man won’t do anything and I have an eye on him too,” he said and quickly looked behind them.

  Emilia’s heart jumped again. The danger greatly excited her. It used to take drugs and dozens of men to make her feel this way. She started to wonder if she could handle this much danger.

  I will prove the massive strength a tiny woman can have.

  Maybe she could handle the danger. She peered around once more before they boarded the small ship and moved back onto the Sea of Green to embark on an exhilarating, unknown course.

  A-ELISA

  Why did I run? I was THE QUEEN. Even if Queen Emilia and Ali-Samuel framed me, they would have been guilty of treason too. Nothing makes sense. It was finally my turn to stop being pushed around. I finally had the power to have MY voice heard for once. I was going to show everyone who Elisa Burke really is. I’m not the silent wallflower without an opinion everyone seems to think. I’m not the speak-when-spoken-to little girl everyone sees. Now my chance to be queen is over. They probably instantly married Ali-Varis to some wench who is going to take MY throne, MY crown. I was so close.

  Images of the throne room were still clear in her mind as they went down a moist trail. Telly and Elisa shared a feisty brown mare and Sir Anderley rode a black stallion. A third white horse carried a big mass that was slung over the animal’s back. Anderley had covered the object with a blanket but it had the most fetid and biting stench Elisa had ever encountered. It had progressively grown more pungent as the trip wore on and every step the horse took sent a puff that seemed to head straight for her nostrils. She had her suspicions about the cargo but didn’t want Anderley to confirm it in front of Telly. Her poor sister had been uprooted from two of the safest castles in Donegal and reduced to begging for shelter from the Ellsworth family. High Lord Ichibod Ellsworth hated the Burkes and Wamhoffs, so even if they made it there, they weren’t guaranteed shelter. Lord Ellsworth had a stern, if not cruel, reputation throughout the land that stretched to Arigold. Elisa had always studied the noble families of Donegal with Count Bidwell at the behest of her mother. She knew all the family symbols and where their loyalties lay along with general characteristics or reputations of the families.

  They had made it through Cloverfoot and Elisa became more relaxed. High Lord Tersen Wamhoff ruled over Cloverfoot and she knew if his guards caught them it would spell death. She looked ahead at the winding dirt trail that ran through the light forest. The tree cover kept the sun’s heat bearable but some intense rays still made it through.

  They tried to avoid cities and towns without getting too far off the beaten path. They had a long trip to the Ellsworth castle in Lightview. It lay very close to the Sea of Green, just inland off the steep coast. They were currently in the district of Powers Run, ruled by High Lord Jerion Nanbert. Elisa had overheard council members talking about how Lord Nanbert was a bigger mughugger than her father. The woods along the trail all looked like the tray of assorted olives she had seen at the meeting in the royal flower garden with Ali-Samuel, the Queen and Ali-Ster. The briny treats ranged in color from the light green of some leaves to dark black like the soil. The sky darkened as the sun retreated behind a huge charcoal cloud. The drab green and brown seemed to repeat, over and over.

  She thought about her father, but the eighteen-year-old wasn’t sure why. Her wrinkled, stained yellow dress started to moisten as raindrops began falling. She looked up to see the looming dark clouds and heard a man’s voice, “It must be our lucky day, uh boys.”

  She looked ahead to see four men rapidly approaching through the brush. She didn’t recognize the markings of allegiance on the men.

  “We are only passing through,” Anderley spoke for them.

  “Simple enough then, you got four people. She’ll be twenty coppers and that’s quite a deal,” the big man told Sir Anderley. Every man stood much taller than Anderley and wore a coat of arms with a crescent moon in the center and two stars on either side. Each man had a different color background and they looked mean to Elisa. She knew they were in trouble because nobody had thought to grab any coin before they fled Falconhurst. Elisa only had time to get Telly before guards started filing into the castle.

  “We have no money,” Anderley told them.

  “Well, what have ya got on that mare over there? Is that what’s stinkin’ up our woods?” the red man asked.

  Anderley firmed his throat, “Gentlemen, I am a member of the King’s Guard, stand down and let us pass.”

  The gold man spoke, “You don’t look much like the Guard. Where’s yer precious pin? And what king are ya guarding? Far as we k
now, King Ali-Stanley’s dead. And we stopped following king’s orders anyway.”

  “What lord do you answer to, Lord Nanbert?” Anderley demanded. “Funny thing is our knees hurt real bad and we don’t like kneeling to no lords either,” the silver man laughed.

  “So you are marauders?” Anderley asked.

  “Such a harsh word, don’t you think? A marauder would have already killed you three and raided the corpses. We prefer to be called the Night Men of Merit. You get what you deserve and don’t brag about it, quite a novel concept, I know,” the blue man smugly said. He spoke much better than the other men and seemed to be the brains of the operation. The four men, who looked to be in their mid-thirties, began to get angry.

  “Now, you can pay our toll or we can take it,” the red man warned.

  “My father will kill all of you, you should know,” said Anderley as he dismounted and walked toward the men.

  “Who’s yer daddy, little boy?” the silver man asked. “High Lord Ichibod Ellsworth.”

  Stern looks turned even more intense as the blue man spoke, “Ooh, you just sounded the wrong name, sweetheart. Look at you with your pretty little ponytail. You say Kings Guard and Lord Ellsworth and we’re supposed to shit ourselves. Ichibod Ellsworth is the eunuch who hanged a thousand men in one day. I do know that name. Your daddy killed half my family that day.” The red man interrupted, “We shoulda knew with that pretty long hair. I think we should geld him like his daddy.”

  “What did I tell you about thinking? Resist the urge, mate. You can do what you want. I’m not touching another man’s privates. Your father…he hung me brother, me uncle and, of course, me mum. All over some apples. He needed to send a message to some thieves and he used our families to make sure no one would think about stealing from Lord Ichibod Ellsworth. There were more people killed along the borderlands than apples stolen. Hanley, Murray, how many family members did you lose that day?”

  “Four,” said the gold man. “Eight,” stated the red man.

  Elisa became extremely frightened now. Her drenched dress had become extremely uncomfortable but she really worried about being raped and killed.

  “I grieve for your losses, this sword should cover our expense,” Anderley said as he tapped it.

  The gold man came closer to see. Sir Anderley ripped the sword from the scabbard and shoved it through the boiled leather covering the gold man’s breast and into his chest. As he dropped, the other men drew. The three men spread out on the wide trail and Anderley lunged at the silver man in the middle but was blocked. He quickly pivoted around and dodged a hefty swing from the red man.

  Elisa thought about taking off. She could spur the horse and be gone but Elisa didn’t even know exactly where they were. The trapped young woman realized she wouldn’t make it very far. She held Telly tight as the brawl raged on. Anderley blocked the blue man’s swing and instinctively ducked. The red man wildly jabbed for Anderley but unintentionally sent his sword through the blue man’s neck. The dying man spit a red mist into his ally’s face and eyes before falling. Anderley wasted no time. He spun and came up with his sword tip entering the red man’s fat chin and exiting through the back of his head. Anderley used his smaller size to his advantage utilizing uppercut-style swings with his great sword.

  Suddenly, something pulled Elisa from the horse and she fell on her torso. Pain shot through her entire body and then resettled in her right shoulder. She looked up to see the silver man holding Telly. He pressed a knife blade to the fourteen-year-old girl’s throat, moving the skin. Tears streamed down Telly’s face and the panicked look in her eyes shattered Elisa’s heart.

  “I didn’t know a man of merit would threaten a young girl with a knife. It’s quite unbecoming of your organization,” Anderley said.

  The silver man talked back, “You forced this. Now throw down yer weapon or I’ll open her throat. It’s yer choice.”

  “I yield. I shall sheath my sword,” Anderley put his sword back in its scabbard.

  “No, throw the sword on the ground. I’m not fallin’ for no more of yer dishonorable trickery. Do it now or she bleeds. She looks like a bleeder,” the silver man warned.

  “Don’t hurt her. I am not used to yielding as you can see,” Anderley said with his hands raised.

  Anderley went to lay his sword down when his hand shifted like the simultaneous lightning strike from above to something next to the sword handle on his belt. In one motion, Anderley flicked his wrist from the hip and a projectile scorched through the air. The Man of Merit dropped the blade from Telly’s neck and fell forward, splashing blood on Telly as they crashed into the wet earth. Elisa ran up and pulled her sister from under the dead man. Anderley lifted the man’s head by the hair and located the small metal disc with spiked edges firmly planted in the silver man’s gushing geyser of a neck. Elisa recognized it as the disc he was practicing with on the night of the king’s murder. The surge of blood settled down gradually until a slow, steady stream flowed lightly from the wound. Anderley dug the disc of death out of the dead man’s throat and wiped it off before attaching it back to his belt.

  Elisa hoped the rain would continue to wash the blood from Telly’s clothes. Her dress had become soaked with the silver man’s blood before Elisa got her loose. She stopped hugging Telly for a moment and kneeled down. She threw up from the smells and the fact that she had never seen anyone killed before. She had seen heads on spikes outside the castles but not up close and personal like this. The new smell of death coupled with the stench from the putrefying slab over the third horse became too much for Elisa. As she looked down, the increasing rain started to wash the blood into her view. She threw up again. The saturated soil couldn’t absorb the liquid of life as she moved over to an unblemished area. Anderley looked over Telly and other than scratches and shock, deemed her no worse for wear. Elisa went back to her sobbing little sister.

  I cannot believe Anderley was capable of that. After hearing him pining over the Queen, well former queen, I was certain that I was going to die on this ugly old trail.

  Elisa was happy to escape with everyone still alive but her worries grew. She knew about Lord Ichibod Ellsworth’s stern reputation but she never knew he had hanged a thousand people in one day over some apples. Elisa Burke started to think finding sanctuary at the Ellsworth Castle wasn’t going to be an option. She racked her brain for a second option but realized she didn’t have any allies. The group got back on the horses and continued the journey to Lightview. Elisa could feel Telly’s heart thumping from behind and shared her sister’s trepidation. The natural noises of the woods kept Elisa’s eyes nervously surveying the mixed olive landscape looking for more marauders.

  BREHAN

  The Salty Dragon coasted along the waves as the sun rapidly retreated toward the horizon. A long, streaking cloud covered Brehan’s view of the purple sky. Seagulls shrieked an off-key song from above as they circled the moving vessel.

  The pirateers had stopped at a few ports to trade and sell some of the goods. Kopar told Brehan, “We’re only a few hours away from Shant Island. Just wait until you see some proper sea swords. I’ll buy you a nice one.” “I think not, my friend. I’ve trained my entire life with swords like this,” said Brehan as he tapped the grip of Dragon-Bite.

  The pirateers had allowed him to keep his sword but all the men strongly encouraged him to exchange it for something more practical. The crew had no idea how important Dragon-Bite was to Sir Brehan. It had been handed to him by Duke Colbert on the day of his knighthood ceremony and meant more to him than anything in the world.

  The pirateers’ swords were thin and flimsy from what Brehan had seen. Instead of a cross-guard, a chalice-shaped hand guard of molded steel protected the holder. The wooden grips were interwoven with gold and silver thread in a pattern of diamonds. Some of the hand-guards were gold gilded and some blades had tiny inscriptions running along them. Almost every sword had a simple round pommel covered with gold. The blades were straight but
very thin compared to Brehan’s longsword. He swore he would never use these toothpicks that looked to be more for fancy decoration than functioning weapons. The pirateers told him the light weight of the swords was perfect for sea battles where speed and stamina is essential. Brehan stood along the starboard on a windy evening. He heard Bluebeard, “Well, well, well, what do I see here? Gimme the spy glass, mate.”

  Brehan had noticed that Bluebeard constantly talked in an excited manner. Sir Brehan thought it was to make the crew think his words were important.

  “We got a cargo ship, sailing the flag of Livingstone. Let’s take it before we go home. We can take another year off if it turns into a nice heist. Gather round,” he screamed even louder than normal.

  The men surrounded Bluebeard, who spoke, “There’s a cargo vessel with Livingstone colors, I say we take it.”

  The men seemed to be divided. Some just wanted to get home but Bluebeard wanted to find out if the pirateers’ greed would win over as it usually did.

  “I didn’t know everyone started shitting out gold. Let’s put ‘er to a vote,” announced Bluebeard. “All in favor?”

  The cry of aye came across some of the pirateers with their hands in the air. Brehan and Kopar’s hands remained at their sides but avarice prevailed. Bluebeard counted, “That’s twelve. On we go.”

  “Let me see the spy glass, captain,” one of the pirateers requested.

  “I’ll let ye see it when I smash yer eyes with it,” the captain lambasted him as he moved to the wheel to adjust course. The rudder creaked as he spun the wheel left and stuffed the spy glass in his baggy pants.

  “You need to always be ready with sharpened weapon. Just in case you don’t remember the vows. You were pretty drunk when you took them,” Kopar reminded Brehan. “You never know what can happen on the high seas of adventure.”