by Joe Jackson
“Then we are free to join you?” Sherman asked.
Erijinkor nodded. “Gather your things, I believe Captain Galdur wants the ship to set sail at midmorning,” he said. “Has anyone seen Jori-an since we landed?”
“She has a home on the next island over,” Elleraus said. “She has family there that she was visiting. I am sure she will be back in time to set sail.”
“I had no doubts about that,” the blue-eyed male said with a grunting laugh. “If anything, she’d be setting sail without us, not the other way around. You all know what I expect. Go thank your hosts and be back on the ship within the next hour.”
His siblings all rose and made their way from the home, as did Sherman and Katarina. Eryn nudged Sonja and the two lagged behind with Kari. Kari looked to the other two women curiously as they followed her toward Dowain and Saisha’s home. After a few moments, Kari stopped and turned to face them in the street, wondering what they wanted.
“So?” Eryn asked.
“So, what?” Kari returned.
“How was it?” the half-brys woman prompted with a smile.
Kari couldn’t believe it; how did Eryn find everything out so easily? She folded her arms across her chest and tried to take up a stern posture, but the smirk on Eryn’s face made it nearly impossible. “It was amazing,” Kari said at last.
“What was amazing?” Sonja asked, confused.
“She had sex with your brother,” Eryn told her.
“Wait, what?” the scarlet-haired woman blurted. She looked back and forth between her two friends. “With who??”
“Grakin,” Eryn said.
Sonja fixed Kari with a wide-eyed stare. “You and Grakin had sex?” she asked, putting a hand to the end of her snout. “Oh my, that’s…that’s amazing.” She looked around suddenly to make sure no one else was around. “Oh, you’ll have to give me all the details when we’re back on the ship! How did this happen?”
Kari waved her two friends away. “I’ll tell you about it later,” she said. “See you down on the beach.” She tried to ignore the giggles of the two women as they turned and headed the other way, but she had to smile, thankful that at least two of her friends didn’t share Erik’s feelings. She returned to Dowain and Saisha’s home, thanked her hosts for their hospitality, and promised to stop by and see their new child if the timing worked out. After gathering her things, she headed down to the beach to join her companions.
Already the Tesconis siblings were being ferried across to the ship by the sailors and their rowboat, and as the women stood waiting, Kari turned and looked over the island again. It was wondrous and beautiful just as its people seemed to be, and she offered a silent prayer to Zalkar, asking him to watch over and protect the shattered folk. She hoped that the return trip would give her time to return for a night or two, and turned away to board the rowboat and get her journey underway once more.
Chapter VI – Dedication
Kari spent most of the morning and afternoon sitting at the rear of the ship, watching the Salkorum islands disappear over the horizon. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d left something behind on the island, but at the same time she knew it was nothing tangible. She had left all of her belongings on the ship during their visit, so she had no doubts that what she felt was more of an emotional loss. It was Grakin, she realized: everything felt right when she was with him, but since Erik had interrupted them on the beach, everything felt wrong. A part of her was wondering what she had missed out on for not having given herself to Kris Jir’tana the way she had with Grakin, and she felt she was already betraying Grakin’s trust by thinking about another man.
As night fell and the first of the three moons rose over the eastern horizon, she stared across endless water to a far point where the islands had dropped out of sight. She wanted to turn the ship around, return to the island, and forget the responsibilities that sat on her shoulders. She wanted to take Grakin by the hand – his impending doom be damned – and make a life for herself. For the first time Kari understood just how emotionally tired she was, and how it was compounding the physical fatigue that had plagued her since the war began.
She let out a sigh and looked up to the crimson gaze of Eryn as the half-brys woman laid a hand on her shoulder and sat beside her at the rail. Eryn handed Kari a flask, and she took a long draw from it without even asking what it contained. Thankfully it wasn’t the same acidic tequila the women had shared earlier in the trip: it was some mixture of coconut and rum. It was strong but had a decidedly sweet quality to it, and Kari took a second swig before handing it back to her friend.
Eryn didn’t speak, and Kari realized that was what she liked most about the half-brys woman: Eryn simply didn’t feel the need to fill an enjoyable silence with worthless banter. She could see that Kari was sorting through something in her mind, and was content to simply lend a physical presence without the prying that normally went with it. Kari had never been one to make friends easily, and so she was amazed at how likable most of her traveling companions turned out to be. The fact that one of the nicest was an assassin struck her as comically ironic.
Kari studied her companion for a few minutes, wondering if the assassin had ever thought about settling down with Aeligos. Eryn had already mentioned that she never wanted into the life she led, so Kari had to wonder why she had continued to pursue it after her father’s demise. Kari remembered Sonja saying that Aeligos and Eryn weren’t mates, which likely meant neither of them had any intention of having children with the other or getting formally married in the human tradition. But that left Kari with little doubt as to how she really felt about Grakin.
After a few minutes of being stared at, the half-brys woman cocked an eyebrow and offered another drink. “Go ahead,” the assassin said when Kari took another sip from the flask. Kari was confused, and the half-brys woman continued, “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why you’re sitting back here alone.”
Eryn looked back over her shoulder, apparently to see who else was around. When she turned back to Kari, she said, “Go invite Grakin to your bed. No one is going to say anything, and anyone who does is probably best ignored anyway.”
Kari looked back to the horizon and took another sip from the flask before handing it back to her companion. She sighed, began to speak, but then she closed her mouth: she wasn’t really sure what to say. Her feelings were jumbled, but it went beyond even Grakin or their wonderful lovemaking. Everything had been jumbled since she was returned by Trigonh’s favor. There were things in her past that were slowly returning to the surface of her thoughts, and at times she was having difficulty keeping everything chronologically sorted. “Life is cruel,” she blurted after a few more introspective moments, and her declaration drew no protest from her companion. “The gods must really hate me for some reason.”
Eryn patted her shoulder and gave it a squeeze of comfort. “What happened?” she asked. “Or is this just about having died?”
Kari shook her head and laid it on the railing as it seemed to become very heavy. She nearly laughed at herself: she was a drinker, but she’d had too much of the deceptively sweet alcohol too quickly, which was made worse by the fact that she hadn’t eaten since the morning meal. She waved a hand and the motion looked as weird as it felt, so she closed her eyes. “That’s the center of it,” she said slowly to make sure the right words were coming forth. “But it’s more than that.”
“Did something bad happen with Grakin?” Eryn asked.
“No, no,” Kari said, sitting up at attention. She waved away the half-brys woman’s question. “I’m not sure how to even explain it. I’ve just been so confused since coming back, and I don’t even know why or what about. Everything just seems unreal, like being in a dream, and a lot of it is just the world being different…I’m in a different time, a different place, and all of the people I used to know are dead and gone. Well, except for that overgrown, flea-bitten mongrel that brought me back.”
“Such gratitude,�
� Eryn said with a brief smile.
Kari shook her head. “I spent my life fighting for Zalkar’s ideals, but I have to be honest, I felt and still feel betrayed that he just let me die,” she said, looking back out over the water. She laid her head down on her folded hands atop the railing and let out a long sigh. “I don’t know how long I can stay dedicated to this way of life. I never thought about it before since I knew I was going to die, and the War was all I thought about after I was brought back, but I want a mate, I think I want to have children, settle down somewhere. I can’t live the rest of my life on the road like this.”
“So don’t,” the half-brys woman said with a shrug. “You can rest assured that when I’m done with this way of life, I’ll be walking away from it without a second thought.”
Kari beheld her curiously. “What do you mean, when you’re done with it?” she asked, shaking her head to try to keep it clear. The jarring motion didn’t help, and in fact seemed to multiply the effects of the alcohol.
“I can’t really say too much,” Eryn said, “but this isn’t a life you can just walk away from unless you’re very sure that it won’t follow you. It’s something you have to plan and build towards for a long time before the way to freedom becomes clear.” She shook her head. “But in your case, why don’t you just complete this mission, and then tell your superiors you’re taking some time to make a family? Then take Grakin by the hand and go have some babies with him.”
Kari shook her head again. “The gods hate me,” she said. “I’ve gotten two chances at life: first I died young, and now I’ve fallen in love with a dying man.”
Eryn’s face dropped. “Grakin’s dying?” she asked quietly.
Kari tensed up and put a hand to the end of her snout. She cursed in the back of her mind: she was sure Eryn would’ve figured out Grakin’s secret, just as she figured out everyone else’s. “I wasn’t supposed to say. Gods, please don’t tell his siblings! He asked me to let him,” Kari said. She tried to keep her emotions contained. Betraying Grakin’s trust was something she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself for if Eryn let it slip to his siblings. But Eryn nodded her agreement and squeezed Kari’s shoulder gently. “He has Dracon’s Bane, like I did.”
The assassin swore under her breath, her gaze swinging out over the water, and she shook her head. “How long does he have?” she asked.
Kari felt like she sobered up quickly as their conversation turned serious. “I died when I was twenty-seven,” she said. “But half-guardians are a lot tougher; maybe he has a lot longer than I did? Maybe he’ll even survive it…hard to know, since I thought it was something only terra-dracons could get.”
“He must have picked up the recessive gene from one parent or the other,” Eryn said, but she didn’t bother to explain exactly what that meant. “I’m sorry, Kari.”
“For what?”
“That is pretty horrible,” Eryn said. “When I saw you two in the water and on the beach, you looked very good together. I thought maybe you’d gotten lucky running into him.”
Kari steeled herself. “I did get lucky meeting him,” she said. She sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry you had to listen to me whine, Eryn. You’re right, I did get lucky and I shouldn’t be crying about what I’ve been given. All we can do is make the best of what we’re dealt, and considering I’ve been given a second life, I guess I shouldn’t complain.”
The half-brys woman smiled, leaned over, and kissed Kari on the side of the snout, which surprised her. “That’s the girl I met two weeks ago,” Eryn said, and something flashed in her eyes that Kari didn’t quite recognize. “I know from experience: it’s not easy to always be strong. Don’t be afraid to cry or be weak; just work to make sure that what makes you cry or what makes you weak also makes you stronger in the end.”
“Good advice,” Kari said, surprised as she considered the source.
“Good, then maybe you’ll listen to my other advice,” Eryn said with a grin. “They’re planning to give Grakin’s cabin to Katarina and put him in a hammock. You should ask for one of the larger cabins, maybe Jori-an’s, and share it with Grakin. She’s seterra-rir, I think she would understand.”
Kari shook her head in disbelief. “You talk about these things like they’re simple,” she said. “Like I could really just ask to sleep with Grakin in front of his siblings?”
“Things are only complicated if you make them that way,” the half-brys woman said, cutting off Kari’s train of thought. “You and Grakin enjoyed having sex, and who knows, maybe you two will actually become mates. To hell with what everyone else thinks, you’ve got to do what makes you two happy, and not worry about what his siblings think.” She held her hand up to further stifle any reply. “I know ‘normal rir’ are supposed to be different, but if you enjoy the sex, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“It’s not that,” Kari said. “I honestly don’t care what any of them think of me. As long as they trust me enough to get this mission done, that’s all that really matters. I’m more worried about what they think of their brother. I’m not interested in making his life any tougher, given what he’s been through – and what he has to look forward to.”
Eryn slapped Kari’s rump, shocking her. “What he has to look forward to is making love to you on that sandy beach back there,” the half-brys said evenly, gesturing toward the horizon. “Maybe having the joy of raising a little boy or girl, or both, before his time here is done. He has to look forward to waking up beside this beautiful woman every morning, fighting by her side in the afternoon, and making love to her at night. Just because he’s going to die doesn’t mean that dying is all he has to look forward to.”
Kari thought about it for a minute and wondered why she’d never had that perspective in her prior life. “What about you and Aeligos?” she asked at length. “What do you two have to look forward to?”
Eryn grimaced, clearly not expecting Kari to turn things around on her so easily when she was tipsy. “I don’t know,” she answered. “He doesn’t seem to understand that I was forced into the life I lead, and that to me, it’s just a means to an end. I don’t intend to kill people for a living for the rest of my life, but I have obligations I have to satisfy before I can break away. After that, honestly…I want to have his children, move to a nice place in Latalex, maybe open up an archery school or something. But sometimes he’s just such an ass…”
Kari was intrigued. Everything she’d seen and heard suggested Eryn and Aeligos would never be much more than lovers. Something else stuck in her mind, though. “Well he certainly has a nice ass,” Kari joked. “I’ve gotten to put my hands on it enough times while he’s been teaching me that grappling technique of his.”
Eryn laughed aloud. “Doesn’t he?” she said. “Anyway, you can learn a lot from him about grappling; he’s practically a master of it already. And if he tickles your fancy, I won’t take offense if you two end up in bed together.”
Kari wasn’t expecting that, but she waved off the comment. “Not interested,” she said. “I like him, but I don’t really see him that way – and not just because he’s yours. And from the amount of self-control he shows when he’s on top of me or between my legs, I’m guessing he’s not really interested in me anyway.”
“He’s just very professional,” the assassin said. “I’m sure he has eyes for you, but he’s not going to insult you by getting aroused while you trust him to train you. And I can’t say I blame him: you’d probably tear his arms off if he did.”
“Sounds like an interesting conversation,” Sonja said. She approached with a smile. “Dinner is about to be served in the captain’s quarters, and he wanted to discuss cabin assignments due to our new guests.”
“We can talk more later,” Eryn said. She offered Kari one last drink from the flask before they departed, but Kari declined. They rose and shared a short hug, then followed Sonja to the captain’s quarters.
*~*~*~*
Dinner was a wonderful assortment of roaste
d meats and steamed vegetables, and the air was almost festive as the Silver Blades and their companions welcomed the two newcomers to share their first dinner with the group. Captain Galdur spent most of the mealtime giving his new passengers an in-depth explanation of what to expect while aboard his vessel, as well as a good description of where everything on board could be found. To Kari, it was quite a gesture coming from the captain, as any of his subordinate officers or crewmen could’ve and probably would’ve been given the responsibility under normal circumstances.
The meal lasted for well over an hour, and everyone simply took their time, still relaxed and unhurried after their stay on the slow-paced island the night before. As the servants brought fresh cold wine and sweets for the group, Jori-an joined them, and she looked as content as Kari had seen her during the trip. She took a seat at the far end of the table from Captain Galdur, folded her arms before her and waited for the captain to begin the discussion she had been invited to take part in.
After introducing his new passengers to his first mate, Captain Galdur took a sip of his wine, cleared his throat and brought the conversation to the topic at hand. “Now, as I’m sure you’re familiar with after your arrival on board, the rules of my ship give guest cabins to women first,” he said, eyeing Grakin. “As we now have the lovely Katarina aboard, you’ll be required to surrender your cabin so she may have one. Do you feel well enough to sleep in a hammock?”
“Yes, that will not be a problem,” Grakin said. “As I had said, the bed was simply better for my evening meditations, but I have found that this ship is more than accommodating when it comes to quiet places for me to pray.”
Captain Galdur nodded to Grakin’s words. Kari glanced at Jori-an briefly, then sat forward in her chair and leaned her arms on the table. “I actually have a question,” she said. “I know it might be a bit forward of me, but I understand the officer cabins are quite a bit larger than the ones we’ve been assigned to?”
