“He hasn’t starved to death yet.” Micah slipped a walnut shell into her pocket, deciding they needed all the luck they could get right now.
“Your brother’s married to the Queen,” said Pip. “He’s hardly likely to starve to death.”
“Keep your voices down now,” said Raphael. “Sound travels across water.”
As the boat got closer, they saw it was only small, not the sort they were expecting at all. It had two large sails and what looked like a cabin underneath.
“That thing can’t hold more than half a dozen people at most,” said Griffen, peeking out from between the branches.
“We should have whispered for a bigger boat,” said Pip, keeping her voice low.
Micah tugged at her hair, her fingers getting caught in the knots. Her swim earlier may have made her clean but it’d done little to tame the wildness of her hair. Hopefully, it made her look fierce.
“We’ll figure something out,” said Azrael. “At the very least, this will give us an idea of the kind of people we’re dealing with.”
“We need to overpower them,” said Griffen, turning back to them. “And take their boat. It’s the only way. There’s nowhere to stow away on there. It’s too small.”
Micah realized he was right. The closer the boat got, the smaller it seemed. Large enough to hold them, but definitely not to hide them.
“I don’t like violence,” said Azrael, visibly shaking.
Micah shot her a sympathetic look. Overpowering someone would be difficult for her. Hopefully, it didn’t come to that.
“Let’s wait and see how many of them we’re dealing with,” said Micah, prepared to do what she had to do, but the thought filling her stomach with dread. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and there’ll only be one or two.”
“I have an idea,” said Raphael, shuffling about in the bag of elixirs he had slung over his shoulder. “I didn’t want to use this, but I brought it with me, just in case.”
He retrieved a small brown bottle and held it out for them to see.
“What is it?” asked Micah, her nose twitching as if she could smell it through the glass.
“It’s a sleeping elixir,” said Raphael. “Similar to one that was used on me as a child to kidnap me.”
“You were kidnapped?” Pip’s jaw fell open.
“It’s a long story,” said Raphael. “But I can tell you firsthand that it works. What if we wait to see how many men we’re dealing with and we put some on a cloth to hold over their noses and knock them out. By the time they wake up, we’ll have their boat and be halfway to Feldspar.”
“You’re a genius, Raph!” Micah clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing she’d forgotten to keep her voice down.
“Shhhh.” Griffen’s eyes widened and he pointed down the beach.
There were two people walking toward them. One tall and one short. A child?
Micah squinted to try to get a better look, then decided she’d have no choice but to wait until they got closer.
“Are they meeting the boat?” asked Raphael, his voice little more than a whisper.
Micah nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
They hunkered down behind the bushes, their eyes moving between the figures walking toward them and the boat, which was getting close to shore now.
The two figures got near enough for Micah to see that the taller one was a man. The shorter one was indeed a child. A boy with a rope tied around his waist, the other end held by the man.
It took all Micah’s will to stay quiet. Her blood was boiling. This boy was a prisoner! Memories of being held prisoner as a Whisperer flooded back to her. There was nothing worse than taking a person’s freedom. It was almost as bad as taking their life. Sometimes it could be even worse.
The boy was small, maybe only four years old. His face was dirty and streaked with tears and his brown hair was standing up in clumps. The man wore black trousers and a long black jacket with a strange black wide-brimmed hat sitting crookedly on his head.
He was sneering at the boy, pulling at the rope whenever his little legs slowed, jerking him forward.
“Ow!” the boy complained, only to receive a blow across the back of his head.
Every muscle in Micah’s body tensed as her rage built up in her stomach and threatened to explode.
Azrael put a hand on her arm and Micah looked across at her in surprise. Azrael was saying something under her breath as she held onto Micah and a wave a calm spread through her body, not enough to quell her anger, but enough to stop her from revealing her position and running down the beach to give that vile man a blow across the back of his head.
“Wait,” said Griffen, so quietly Micah barely heard him. He was squatting, perched on his feet ready to leap out if needed.
Pip had tears of her own running down her cheeks. No child deserved to be treated this way.
Another wave of rage raced down Micah’s spine as she realized this was likely how Lily had been treated when she’d been taken. And suddenly Raphael’s idea of a sleeping elixir didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. It was too kind. That man deserved to feel the pain he was inflicting on that small boy.
The man came to a stop several feet away from their hiding spot and waved to the approaching boat, confirming their suspicion that he was the cargo this boat had come to collect.
The boy sat down on the sand beside him and brought up his knees so he could rest his head on them.
He looked so tiny, curled up like that and Micah glanced at her companions who were all visibly distressed.
Raphael shook his head at Micah, no doubt sensing her strong desire to attack. As much as she didn’t want him to be right, he was. They didn’t know how many men were on that boat or what weapons they had. The best way to defeat these men and rescue the boy was to wait. They had to be smart about this, just like when Micah worked with Jeremiah and Rose to rescue the Whisperers. If they’d rushed in, their plan would never have worked.
The boat beached itself in the shallows and an anchor was thrown overboard to secure it to the sand.
Two men clambered off the boat and strode through the shallows toward the shoreline.
It was at this moment that the boy turned his head scanning the bushes as he searched for a way to escape while the men were distracted. His eyes landed on their hiding spot, his eyes widening to see five sets of eyes peering out at him.
Micah leaned out from behind the bushes and pressed her finger to her lips, locking eyes with the boy.
They stared at each other for a few moments as something passed between them. A silent conversation with an offer of trust.
The boy nodded ever so slightly and turned his face back to the ocean. Micah pulled back behind the bushes, feeling safe that their position wouldn’t be revealed.
“Only one child!” called one of the men as he stepped onto dry sand. “Hardly worth the trip.”
“That’s all I could get this time,” said the man holding the rope. “Damn parents holding onto them too tightly these days. Not this one, though. No parents left to hold onto him. Easy one to grab.”
Micah’s heart broke all over again. Once, she’d been a child with no parents left to hold onto her. No child should have to be responsible for their own survival like that.
Raphael tapped her on the leg to get her attention and held up three fingers, then pointed at the men.
She nodded.
Then Raphael pointed at himself, Griffen and then Micah, indicating the three of them were to be the ones to launch the attack.
Micah nodded again. There was no arguing with that. They needed their three strongest if they were going to succeed.
As Raphael readied the elixir by tipping it onto three pieces of cloth he’d removed from his bag, Pip got their attention by pointing to herself and Azrael and waving her hands above her head.
Realizing she was suggesting that they cause a distraction, Micah and Raphael nodded wildly. This would give them the opportunity to sneak
up behind them and place the cloths over their noses. Griffen was shaking his head, protecting his Princess as best he could, but the look on Pip’s face stilled his protests. She seemed determined to do her bit to help.
They waited until the three men were standing on the shore passing a flask around and Micah, Raphael, and Griffen walked slowly away from bushes, looping around to get themselves into a better position. Raphael stepped on a branch and the three men spun around when it cracked in half.
It was then that Azrael and Pip burst out from the bushes waving their arms.
“Help us!” said Pip.
“Wild boars!” added Azrael.
“Where?” The man with the rope hauled the boy roughly to his feet and Micah held steady, deciding this was the man she was going to target. Nothing would give her greater pleasure than sending him sinking to the sand. Perhaps she’d cover his face a little longer than was strictly necessary.
Pip and Azrael pointed in the opposite direction to where the others were hidden and the men braced themselves for a wild boar to run out onto the sand.
Micah looked at Raphael and Griffen, and Raphael nodded, sending them running as quickly and quietly as they could down the sand, while Pip and Azrael shrieked and hollered to hold the men’s attention.
Micah went straight for the man with the rope, reaching around him to hold the cloth to his face. His hand clamped down on hers and tried to pull it away, but what Micah lacked in strength, she made up for in determination and she managed to hold on.
The boy kicked at the man’s shins, and the man shrieked and kicked back at the boy, sending him flying to the sand.
In her peripheral vision, Micah could see Raphael had managed to subdue one of the other men and Griffen was laying the other down on the sand for his big sleep. But for some reason, the man at the other end of Micah’s hand wasn’t giving up. Something was wrong. Either she wasn’t doing it right, or the elixir wasn’t working on him.
The man broke free of her hold and turned around, grabbing Micah by the shoulders before pulling back one of his fists and aiming it directly at her face.
Micah ducked and spun around, landing her foot directly in the man’s groin with force.
Excitement surged through her as he howled and doubled over, and she went back for him, hoping to land another kick.
But just as her foot rose from the sand, she spotted something shiny in the man’s hand. He’d pulled a long knife from his belt as he’d righted himself and was ready for her.
She ducked again, knowing she didn’t have the time that she needed to escape his blade.
Just before it made contact with her, Griffen appeared behind him, twisted the knife from his hand and held it at his throat.
Micah fell back on the sand next to the boy, her heart beating faster than it ever had before and her breath coming in short gasps.
“What are you doing with the boy?” Griffen asked, still holding the blade to his throat.
The man squirmed and a trickle of blood ran down his neck into the rough fabric of his jacket.
“He’s for the King,” the man said.
“What does a King want with a boy?” asked Micah, leaping up from the sand.
“For the mines. He can fit in the tunnels.”
“Why not use your own children?” asked Griffen. “Why take from other kingdoms.”
“We don’t have enough.” The man wriggled and more blood spilled to his jacket.
“What happened to the Princess you took in The Sands of Naar?” asked Micah. “Is she in the mines?”
“I don’t know.” The man glared at Micah.
“You do know,” said Griffen.
The man reached for Griffen’s wrist, his movements sudden as he tried to wrench the knife from his hand.
Micah stumbled back as blood gushed from the man’s throat.
Griffen let go and the man fell to the sand, lying still as a red stream ran from his throat.
“You killed him,” said Pip, her eyes wide.
“I had to,” he said. “He’d have killed us all if we gave him the chance.”
“Some people are better off dead,” said Micah, not feeling in the least bit sorry for this awful man.
It was then that she looked down to see the boy had risen to his feet and looped one of his arms around her leg and was holding on tight.
She squatted down and undid the rope around his waist, cursing at how tightly it had been knotted. He had sores all around his middle from the friction.
“You’re safe now,” she said.
The boy nodded at her, his dark eyes full of trust and sorrow as tears streaked their way down his cheeks, making new trails in the dirt.
“Where are you from?” she asked.
“The Valley of the Blessed.”
Micah’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s where I live. I’ve never seen you before.”
The boy shrugged. There were a lot of people in the Valley. It wasn’t so unusual not to have seen someone before.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Gabe.”
She gasped. This couldn’t be a coincidence. It was Gabrielle who’d sent her on this quest to bring Lily home. And now this boy carried a variant of her name.
“Where are your parents?” she asked, reaching out to brush away his tears.
“They went cold and the man took them away. Then the other man came and took me.”
“Which man?”
“That one there.” He pointed at the corpse on the sand. “He was mean to me.”
“He was.” Micah swallowed. “But now that I’ve found you, I’m not going to let anyone ever be mean to you again.”
“Are you going to look after me?”
Now it was Micah’s turn to let her tears fall. “Yes, Gabe. I am.”
RAPHAEL
THE NOW
“Why didn’t your elixir work on him?” Griffen asked Raphael, pointing to the man bleeding out on the sand.
Raphael looked at the man’s two companions who were lying unconscious either side of him.
“I’m not sure,” said Raphael. “But if I had to guess, I’d say he has no sense of smell.”
“Is that a thing?” asked Pip. “I’ve never met anybody before who couldn’t smell.”
“I’ve only ever met one other,” said Raphael. “Elixirs didn’t work on him either.”
“Well, the knife seemed to do the job well enough,” said Azrael, her face pulled into a permanent grimace.
“Thanks for what you did, Griffen,” said Raphael. “It wasn’t pleasant but you saved us.”
Griffen gave a tight smile along with a nod. “Come on, let’s check out this boat.”
Raphael followed Griffen and Pip over to the boat, while Azrael went to Micah and Gabe to see the extent of their injuries.
“We need to pull down the sails,” said Griffen, wading into the water. “I’ve seen boats like this in the Bay. These grooves on the side are for oars.”
“Why couldn’t we just sail across?” Pip crossed her arms against the cool breeze that had picked up.
“Unless one of us knows how to sail, that’s going to be difficult,” said Griffen.
“He’s right,” said Raphael. “We could end up anywhere. Plus we’ll be easier to spot with those sails flapping about.”
“Wouldn’t they just assume we’re them?” Pip pointed to the three men on the sand.
“And what if they prepare to greet us?” Griffen shook his head, his eyes full of worry. “We need to arrive in secret. Preferably at night.”
“Surprise is the best weapon we have,” said Raphael, noticing that Griffen had tucked the knife into his belt. That wouldn’t hurt as a weapon, either.
“If we leave now, we can make a good start before nightfall.” Griffen went to Pip and gently lifted her from her feet, cradling her in his arms as he walked toward the boat. “If we row through the night, we can hopefully make it before sun-up.”
“Thank you, Griffe
n,” said Pip as he set her down. Her face was flushed and she turned away quickly to hide it.
Raphael was certain he’d never made anyone’s face flush like that before. It’d never bothered him, mainly because he’d never wanted to elicit that reaction from any of the women in his life. But Lily… would Lily feel that way when she met him? Because when he saw her in his visions, she managed to turn all his feelings on their head, swirl them into a ball and send them tumbling through his senses.
“Raphael,” called Griffen, motioning for him to climb aboard.
Raphael shook his head awake and climbed over the edge of the boat. It tipped with his weight, then steadied itself. They’d better hope the seas were calm. This thing would be torn apart if the waves picked up much strength.
“Will the boy come with us?” asked Pip.
“Well, we can’t leave him here,” said Raphael, doing his best to be polite.
“Poor thing,” said Pip, her eyes glued to Gabe, who was lying with his head in Micah’s lap while Azrael worked to heal him. “I was just worried we might be bringing him into even more danger.”
“I hope not,” said Raphael. “But I don’t like our chances of separating him from Micah and you try keeping her away from Feldspar. This whole quest was her idea.”
Pip nodded. “We can all watch over him. He looks the same age as one of my nieces. I can help with him.”
Griffen was busy working out how to pull down the sails, so Raphael detached an oar from the side panel of the boat and set it in one of the grooves. Balancing the weight of the smooth timber, he dipped it into the water. They’d have their work cut out for them to push this vessel through the water. They were all going to need to contribute, including Pip. Gabe could be let off, of course. One oar alone weighed more than that skinny boy.
But with a belly full of walnuts, washed down by the last of the tonic in their waterskins, they should have the strength to do this. Pip had been right to make sure they ate while they’d been waiting for the boat to approach.
Micah and Azrael were making their way over to the boat now. Micah was carrying Gabe in her arms, his skinny legs wrapped around her waist as he hugged her tightly around her neck. It didn’t look like he was ever going to let go. Although, it really didn’t seem like Micah cared. Anybody who didn’t know them would assume they were mother and son.
The Kingdoms of Evernow Box Set Page 100
