He had been fighting off demons? "Three? Really? I didn't even notice."
"I'm a fast worker against these lesser demons. I wouldn't want to worry you by calling attention to your attackers every time it happens."
"That's unsettling. But thank you, Zeriel. Thank you for keeping me safe."
Zeriel bowed. "It is my solemn and most important duty, Master."
"You've been calling me that a lot more recently. Why?"
"Because I have a very deep respect for you, Jay. It feels like the correct thing to call you, even if we are friends. Remember that I serve you, not the other way around."
Jaylen smiled. "You're a good friend."
"I hope I am. I truly do."
On the other side of the canal, Jaylen spotted something that made his stomach turn. A group of elves and pale-skinned Northerners were chained together by their ankles, clothed in only cloths tied around their waists, and forced to lay the heavy stones along the canal to create a new road. They were obviously not accustomed to the blazing heat and mage-glow that turned their pale skin red. Their shoulders, faces, and chests were covered in blisters and peeling skin. Their taskmasters shouted orders at them, snapping short whips against their calves, and taunting them with water that the prisoners tried to not look at, even though they desperately needed it to quell their dehydration.
Zeriel must have noticed Jaylen's concern. "Prisoners. They were thieves and murderers from Vilyron who were taken as slaves by the pirates when the country fell to Wolfekin."
"They're killing them."
"Nah, just making them wish they were dead. It's common practice here. The thieves and those convicted of lesser crimes will be given rest sooner than the murderers, but they will be taken care of. Their guards will ensure that each one pays for their crimes by serving their sentence. Ten years hard labor for multiple thefts, thirty for murder."
"Ten years straight of this awful abuse for stealing?" Jaylen asked, disturbed by the cruelty of the guards.
"Why do you think we are keeping our young thief under guard at every moment back on the ship? Liam would die if he was forced to work in these conditions. And yes, they still want him to pay for his crimes. One sight of the brands on his face will make any guard here relentless in pursuing him to add him to their work crew."
A flash of justice sprung to life in his chest. "But Liam is fourteen!"
"That doesn't matter. Much against popular belief, crime against pirates and in pirate-controlled areas in severely punished. There is an unspoken rule here. You can steal, plunder, and ransack anything you want as long as it's not against your fellow pirates. Most of the prisoners have more than likely committed crimes against the pirates and citizens of this island as well as their crimes in Vilyron."
"We must protect Liam at all costs."
"Trevor and Nimiel have been assigned the sole task of guarding him every minute of the day and night. Remember that he also has his dragon. Even as an angel, I do not want to be on the wrong side of a dragon's wrath. As his mate, Liam means more than life itself to Karix. Without Liam, Karix cannot reproduce. And he has been waiting for thousands of years to find the correct man to be his mate. He will die to protect Liam."
Jaylen looked down at the street below his feet as he passed the group of groaning overworked prisoners. "And what about my crimes?"
"Against the church? The overwhelming majority of the pirates couldn't care less about Sola or any religion. Have you been convicted of theft or murder?"
"No."
"Then you have nothing to worry about."
"Jaylen Corrifus!"
Jaylen froze. An icy fear coursed through his veins as his heart temporarily stopped. He realized that he had clenched his eyes shut, but when he opened them, he wanted them closed again. The large muscled taskmaster was walking straight towards him with the brutal short whip pointed angrily at him.
In a flash of shiny ebony feathers, Zeriel landed in front of Jaylen with his wings outstretched to protect him. "Stand down, Taskmaster. If you want to lay a finger on my Master, you will have to defeat me first."
The taskmaster grinned a broad smile, flashing a set of all golden teeth. His piercing sandy eyes stood out against his darkly tanned skin and black shaved hair. "You can hide behind your fallen angel all you want, boy. But you belong on my prisoner work crew, sweating and bleeding for your crimes. Do not think for one foolish moment that certain important people on this island have forgotten the murder you committed five years ago."
Jaylen's fist tightened. "That had nothing to do with you people."
"No? Then I suppose your lover hasn't told you about Captain Iryn?"
"No!" Jaylen tried to push past Zeriel to get to the taskmaster, but the angel held him back forcefully. "You're lying!"
"Oh, but I'm not. The sea is in your blood, Jaylen. No matter how many times you lie to yourself and try to cover it up, the truth will be revealed in time. And when that time ultimately comes, I have a set of shackles and a sound lashing prepared just for you. It's thirty years of hard labor slavery for murder of a common person. That doubles for a captain. We all loved her, but you took her from us far too early. I personally begged her to leave you with Doran and escape to never look back, but she just wouldn't have that. She stayed with that abusive drunkard because she loved you too much. We always thought that Doran would be the one to lose control and hurt her, but imagine our surprise once we went to Ilyan and investigated the scene of the crime. We knew. The only reason we haven't arrested you and brought you to justice in front of the Pirate Tribunal is our lack of solid evidence. But I'm sure we would be able to extract a confession under certain . . . conditions."
Zeriel's glare could have cracked stone. "My Master is no murderer. I do not know this Captain Iryn and I can assure you that Jaylen doesn't either."
Jaylen sighed. "Iryn was my mother's surname."
"What?"
"Corina Iryn. I remember now. I read that once in the records at the temple in Ilyan."
"Jaylen did not kill his mother. Besides, there is no record of Corina ever being involved with pirates."
The taskmaster's golden teeth glinted in the mage-glow as he grinned darkly at Jaylen. "Oh, she was more than involved. She was our leader. Captain Corina Iryn was our liaison between us and the Central Alliance Trading Company that controls the slave, sugarcane, and tea routes across the Sea of Avarn and the Abyssal Gulf. Corina had managed to draft treaties that secured us pirates unheard of freedoms if we didn't touch the trading company's goods or ships. We had it made. It was perfect to be granted immunity by Wolfekin's most powerful trading company. But with her death, the treaty died as well. They only wanted to deal with her. Now we can't operate outside the Onyx Sea without the trading company's pirate hunter vessels hunting us down. We've lost two ships and one good captain since that treaty was dissolved. This is all your fault, Jaylen Corrifus."
* * *
Multicolored paper lanterns hung on strings between the buildings, their bright pinks, oranges, and greens dancing on the calm water's surface as the rising tide lapped against the pier. From inside the waterside shacks, lively fiddle music spilled out into the warm night air while the inhabitants danced, drank, and told wild tales of their lives on the ocean. Women carried their small children and infants who had fallen asleep in their arms as the older children gathered behind the buildings to play games by lantern light. Seagulls cried out in the humid air, swooping low to snatch up the scraps of stale bread from the baker's son who taunted them with an entire basket.
Zeriel took a drink from the flask then set it down beside him on the dock. "It's time to tell me the truth, Jaylen. Tell me you didn't do what you've been accused of doing to your mother. Tell me that you're innocent. I have to hear it."
"Do you want to hear that or do you want the truth?"
"Jaylen . . ."
Jaylen let his nearly untouched sandwich fall into the water below his feet. "It's true. I'm a murderer. I killed my
mother. I killed her on purpose with the full intent to do so. She was hurting so badly, crying every night and pleading with Sola for death. She actually begged me to kill her. I was absolutely terrified, but I gave her what she wanted."
Zeriel tossed the crust from his sandwich into the air where it was snatched up by a voracious seagull. He sighed and leaned back on his hands as he stared off over the calm water in the harbor where the mage-glow began to fade. "I don't know what to say. Is it bad that I'm not sure if I'm more surprised that you killed your mother or that she was a pirate captain? Corina always seemed so calm and delicate, especially around you. She never spoke about the ocean or sailing. I guess becoming a mother made her want to leave that dangerous life behind."
"Do you hate me?"
"No. I don't hate you."
"Why not?" Jaylen asked. "Corina was your friend, wasn't she?"
"We were on good terms and I was troubled by her passing. Truth be told, I am relieved to know for sure how she died. I knew she hadn't been mentally stable for a long time, but the thought of her committing suicide was disturbing. I simply couldn't imagine her leaving you to fend for yourself. Corina loved you more than anything, Jaylen. After Doran killed your sister, Corina clung to you even more. You were her world, her life, and her only source of happiness."
The locals packed up their carts, rolled up their fishing nets, and started carrying their baskets of fruits down the streets towards their homes for the night. If only Jaylen could be completely lost in a day's work like they were. To have the security of knowing that after a night's sleep, he would wake up and do the same thing all over again. He wouldn't have to worry about what Carvael and Eternal Eclipse would do, if Finalis would take over, or anything like that. He envied their simple lives. Nothing about his life was simple.
Zeriel took Jaylen's hand and softly rubbed his fingers. "But no, I don't hate you, Jay. I can understand why a boy would do what you did. If I had been a better angel who wasn't busy serving a sentence of slavery for what I did to Doran, then I would have been able to stop the situation before it escalated to the point where you felt killing her was the only course of action you could take. It was a tragic event all around. You were as much of a victim of Doran's rage and perversions as your mother was. You mind was altered by years of constant abuse. You weren't able to form correct thoughts or evaluate things the way you needed to. On top of that you, were so young . . ."
"It sounds like you're scraping for answers, trying to justify what I did. Nothing can justify what I've done. Even if my mother forgave me, I will face punishment for my numerous egregious sins in time."
"Did she forgive you?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Jaylen asked. "She's dead, remember?"
"But you are at least on speaking terms with the seraph who guides the souls of the dead in Purgatory. Surely Jeremiah would tell you about your mother's time there if you asked respectfully."
He honestly hadn't even considered that as being a possibility. "I don't know if I want to know. Aren't interactions between souls and Jeremiah confidential anyway?"
"Don't know for sure. You won't know unless you ask." Without another word, Zeriel stood up and took off into the sky, leaving Jaylen alone with his thoughts.
Jaylen leaned back against the wall of a small fishing shack that was build into the pier where the red paint had long ago started to peel and crack from the constant abuse in the sea air. He watched a brown pelican dive down into the shallow water near the shore to scoop up his dinner. If only his life could be that simple. At sunset the next day, Jaylen would be married. And it terrified him. He wasn't terrified of Kato. He loved her. But there were so many unknowns, so many things that he had no clue about. It was the uncertainty that haunted him and turned every good thought of his future with Kato into the infinite nightmares of horrible possibilities.
He dangled his sand-covered leather boots off the end of the weather-worn pier and stared into the calm ebb and flow of the water. Even the sea seemed melancholic on this night. As Jaylen listened to the partiers enjoying themselves in the various shacks lining the beach, he couldn't help but feel separated from it all. Although he was a apart of this life, for better or worse, he would never be one of them. So he decided to stay there, away from it all, where he could be alone in his sea of thoughts.
Chapter 12
Kato did her best to keep her hands from trembling as she walked between the two groups of people, her bare feet sinking slightly into the fine white sand. Her long sheer full lace gown clung to her curves and mage-glow-kissed skin, her curly black hair was pinned in a bun on top of her head, and Zeriel had done her makeup, leaving nothing untouched. She had been skeptical at first, but it turned out that Zeriel knew exactly what he was doing from when he used to wear makeup in Heaven. Looking at him now, she didn't believe he used to be so different.
It was, without a doubt, the prettiest she had ever felt in her life. And what better reason to get all dressed up than for this? More importantly, Kato was dolled up for Jaylen. She wished all of their friends could have been in attendance, but Jeremiah, Brinx, and Trevor had too many issues to deal with between them. After all, this was about her and Jaylen . . . not bickering angels. Her heart was racing, pounding in her chest as she slowly walked through the floral-scented air where the bright mage-glow sparkled on the sand and pink hibiscus flowers. The turquoise water ahead glistened in the bay where seagulls and pelicans dove down to the calm water.
Below two coconut palms that had been wrapped in strings of clear glass beads and large orange hibiscus blossoms, Jaylen stood beside Zeriel. Jaylen wore a long white coat with silver buttons and cuffs, thigh-high boots, and a jeweled ceremonial longsword that rested on his hip. His normally messy blond hair was slicked back, showing off his vibrant blue eyes and his innocent features, high cheekbones, and pale pink lips. He looked even more nervous than Kato. But when she met eyes with him, he smiled.
It was a beautiful full smile that sent his perfectly-shaped pearly teeth glittering in the mage-glow. It had been so long since Kato saw him genuinely smile. But this smile was something else entirely. It was pure happiness, no current of doubt or lies underneath. In fact, from the look on Zeriel's face, it was the first time he had seen Jaylen this unequivocally joyful.
Once Kato reached the wet sand near the outgoing waves of low tide, she stood next to Jaylen and took his hand. They became lost in each other for a few seconds until Zeriel cleared his throat.
"Under the divine gaze of our holy goddess Sola, we have gathered here to join Jaylen Corrifus and Kato Vallen in the unbreakable bonds of a soul marriage. For those of you who aren't members of the church and who do not know what a soul marriage is, I will tell you the basics. Along with the normal marriage ceremony, Jaylen and Kato have agreed to be joined not only in body, but in soul as well. I will take one soul segment from both of them then fuse them together, essentially binding a part of their souls together eternally. Once bound in this manner, the soul segment cannot be reverted back to the two separate ones nor can it be destroyed except by Sola herself upon either of their deaths before their souls are given to the angels or demons. Now, we will begin. Kato, please say your vows to Jaylen."
Kato focused on Jaylen's eyes as she held his hand tightly. "Jaylen, I never thought I would find a man who understands me as well as you do. I honestly didn't think I would get married. But you changed all of that. When I'm with you, I don't worry about the future because I know you are all that I need. I don't care what lies ahead of us as long as we face it together. Over rough seas and through this endless night, I will be at your side."
"Lovely. Now your turn, Jaylen."
Jaylen's voice cracked as he spoke through his obvious nervousness. "Kato, we started out as slave and Master, but evolved into whatever crazy thing we have now can be called. Today, I exchange my collar for a ring, but I will never stop admiring you and learning from you. You are the most gorgeous and intelligent woman I know. Yo
u are sharp-witted, brave, and caring all at the same time. You can be harsh, but you do it to make me a better man. You complete me. No matter what I am or what is living inside of me, know that I will love you. Always."
* * *
All of Jaylen's affectionate yearnings and admiration culminated in this moment as he gazed into Kato's rum-colored eyes. He could do this. He could be a husband and live his life peacefully with this beautiful, caring woman forever at his side. He would be perfectly content to ride the waves across all of Aldexa's oceans to continents far and islands untouched as long as he was in her arms. None of the killing, the battles, or the future uncertainty mattered here. This was about Jaylen and Kato, two lonely souls brought together through hardship and war, but unified in an undying hope. Their marriage was a promise in a world where promises were fickle and fragile, but it was a promise nonetheless. And both of them needed every promise of a brighter future that they could get. It provided hope, if only temporarily.
Zeriel held up a glowing feather-like string that floated in the palm of his hand. "This is your soul segment from your amulet, Jaylen. You will be breaking your bond with Pegasa if we use this."
"Go ahead."
"I will replace it into your amulet once we are done. Carvael has all your others, so this was the only one I could get."
"It's fine."
"Very well. Kato, do I have your permission to extract a soul segment?" Zeriel asked.
"Yes."
Zeriel placed his hand against her chest. There was a brief pulse of white light then another soul segment joined Jaylen's. "The bond created by a soul marriage is not one that can ever be broken or forgotten. It will endure all wars, all conflicts, and some say even death itself. With the uniting of one of each of your soul segments, your two souls will be forever joined. Are you both in complete agreement that this is what you want?"
"Yes." They spoke in unison.
At once, the two soul segments floated up into the air above their heads where there was a surge of glittering light magic. Once the blinding light had faded, one soul segment remained. Larger, brighter, and glowing more intensely, the soul segment gave off a tangible softness like downy feathers or lamb's wool.
Angel of Darkness Books 6-10 Page 22
