At mention of their master’s name, the men all grew stone-faced. One of them leaned toward the gap-toothed man and whispered, “If she’s a spy, Gendric will probably want an audience with her.”
The others muttered their agreement.
Their leader stroked his stubbly chin. “Not every day a spy comes ‘ere offering somethin’ for nothin’. What is it you want?”
Razja met his gaze. “That is for the lord’s ears and his alone.”
The gap-toothed man seemed to consider this. Then, finally, he turned and spat in the sand. “Fine,” he growled, giving each of them a steely look. “You can come in, but no funny business. One o’ you tries anything, and you’ll all be sleeping at the bottom of the bay. Got it?”
They nodded.
As the men began leading them up to the main stone structure, Camdyn picked up the rolls of cloth and slung them over his shoulder. The silk-wrapped steel did not so much as clink. When the pirates questioned the burden, Razja merely shrugged. “Might be that your lord wants my wares after all.”
The fools grumbled but did not protest.
Not the brightest of guards, Jasper noted, suppressing a smirk. I suppose I should be grateful for that.
The walls of the compound were constructed from pitted black stone overgrown with lichen, with slanted slate roofs and narrow windows fitted with iron bars. Up close, it looked like a fortress, but instead of knights it was populated with lazy pirates smoking Yralesian weeds. The great double doors yawned open as they approached, admitting them to a great hall that smelled of stale beer.
“Gendric has been unwell lately,” the gap-toothed man explained as he led them inside. “He hasn’t left his chamber in weeks. Seems a lot like the old captain, if you ask me. If you cause him any more ill, I’ll personally gut the lot of you.” He motioned to a winding staircase leading up to the second floor. “This way.”
They entered a dark hall lit by guttering candles. A smell like rot and decay permeated the air here. The other pirate lords live in villas on the cliffs. Why would this one dwell in a dismal place like this?
The answer came as soon as Jasper laid eyes on the man known as Gendric the Black. He sat on a high-backed seat at the end of the hall, surrounded by plates of half-eaten food buzzing with flies. It was dark in this chamber, but there was enough light for him to make out the man’s hollowed-out features. Gendric was thin and pallid, and wore disheveled clothing that looked to have not been washed in some time. His tawny hair hung lankly down his forehead, and his fingers clutched at the armrests of his chair as he whispered to himself like a madman.
A leather satchel was strung around his neck, hanging from a leather chord and resting against his chest.
“Gendric, you have visitors,” their escort barked without the least amount of humility in his voice. “They claim to have information on your rivals.”
If the pirate lord had heard him, he gave no indication. He continued muttering quietly to himself, fingers twitching like a man who had not slept in days.
The gap-toothed man grunted in annoyance, but otherwise did not respond. He waited impatiently for his master to respond on his own.
Jasper and his companions looked at each other uncertainly, unsure of how they should proceed. This miserable wretch was not what they had expected, and beside the handful of pirates in the chamber with them, the man seemed to be unguarded.
That must be the sapphire, Jasper thought, eyeing the satchel hanging from the man's neck. A quick cut with one of my blades and I’d have it free – then would could be done with this ridiculous quest.
Somehow, though, he felt uneasy about this whole thing. The man felt wrong to him, as if he was surrounded by a nimbus of dark energy.
“The time soon cometh,” the pirate lord whimpered, his voice a faint hiss echoing in the stone room. “...Judgment, long-awaited... the salvation of a thousand-thousand years is nigh at hand...”
“My lord Gendric,” Razja said in a strong, genteel voice. She stepped forward and cut a courtly bow. “We have come to offer you intelligence on the other pirate lords of this city. It should prove most valuable to your impressive organization.”
For an instant, lucidity entered Gendric’s feverish eyes. He stared hard at the Kaarnish mage, his expression now cold and discerning. “You are not the ones I was told to wait for. The voice... it speaks to me even now. You are not come to aid me in my duty to the Great One... you have come to rob me.”
Razja stiffened at the accusation. “Rob you? Ridiculous. We are but humble merchants come to strike a deal.”
Gendric did not seem to hear her. “The stone whispers to me,” he muttered, eyes glancing down at the leather satchel hanging from his neck. “It tells me things... things no living man should know.” Then, suddenly, he stood up and leveled a finger at them. “And now, it tells me that I must kill you. Guards!”
The rasping sound of steel being drawn rang out in the chamber. The guards, four of them in total, readied their weapons, including the gap-toothed man who now looked ready to cut them down where they stood.
Camdyn unfurled the bold of cloth from his shoulders and pulled out his bastard sword. Jasper grabbed his blades as well and gave them a twirl in his hands.
“Well, this has been fun,” he said with a smirk. “But now we’ll be taking that bauble around your neck, pirate.”
Gendric clutched at the satchel and staggered away from his chair. “Kill them!” he rasped. “Kill them, now!”
With that, he dashed off to a shadowed alcove at the rear of the chamber and disappeared behind a curtain. The four pirates descended on them, blades flashing.
Camdyn intercepted two of the lowlifes, while Jasper took the other two, allowing Razja to back away and ready her magical bracers. Metal clashed as the fight ensued, the ringing swords accompanied by curses and grunts of exertion.
Jasper deflected one of the pirate’s curved blades and ducked beneath another, trying desperately to end the fight quickly and give pursuit to that wretch Gendric. He lashed out and opened one of the men’s thighs from groin to knee, then thrusted at another, attempting to pierce him through the belly. His second attack missed, and he was forced to parry another attack as the wounded pirate fell to the floor screaming.
Camdyn used his brute strength to force his opponents back. He shoved one of the pirates to the ground and knocked the sword out of the other’s hand, disarming him and opening him up for attack.
Razja’s magical bolts began to fall upon them as they finished dispatching the guards, sparking and shimmering in the low light of the chamber as they struck cloth armor and bare flesh.
The last of the pirates died seconds later.
Swords wet with blood, Camdyn and Jasper raced to the back of the room with Razja close behind. They tore away the curtain and dove into the small corridor beyond. A trap door had been opened in the floor, revealing a black pit below. An escape tunnel, Jasper realized with consternation as he shared a look with his two companions.
“You should have let me come in alone. The fool would be dead, and we’d have the stone right now.”
Razja glared at him. “Are we really going to get into this now?”
He heaved an annoyed sigh and said, “I suppose not.” Then, he jumped down, determined to catch the strange pirate lord before he could get away.
Chapter Eight
They emerged from the tunnel and into a narrow alleyway between two decrepit buildings. Ahead, the alley let out in a crowded thoroughfare that looked to be some sort of market. A wide variety of people rushed this way and that, making the wide street look like a river of buyers and sellers.
The pirate was nowhere to be seen.
"Come on!" Jasper growled, urging his companions to follow him out into the street.
They came without hesitation, clearing the tunnel entrance and running at full speed through the alley. Together, the companions burst out in the market, jostling past people and scanning the crowd for any sign
of Gendric.
He has to be close, Jasper thought to himself as his eyes swept over the river of bodies. There’s no way he was able to out run us.
"There!" Razja cried, pointing a slender finger southward.
Jasper caught sight of a black and red tunic slipping through the throng.
He immediately jumped into action, bolting after the figure as he ran onto another street. Men cursed and women shrieked as he raced past, shoving past everyone who was foolish enough to get in his way. He didn't even look to see if Camdyn and Razja were following him. His eyes were transfixed on the prize ahead.
You’ve almost got him, Jasper thought, snaking his way through the crowd as quickly as he could. Just a few more feet.
He reached and grabbed for the man, pulling him hard to the ground and causing those around him to cry out. “Give us the Tear,” he snarled, grabbing a handful of his hair and yanking his head back. The eyes that looked up at him were not the haunted, sunken eyes of Gendric the Black, however. They were wide and fearful, and they also belonged to a woman.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she cried, eyes filling with tears. “Please, don’t hurt me!”
Damn it, he thought, releasing his grip on the street woman without so much as an apology. He turned his attention back onto the street ahead. He must have shed his cloak to provide a distraction.
His companions had not yet caught up with him, and ahead, he could see only the seething mass of bodies.
Cursing, he strode past the weeping woman and continued his pursuit, searching the sea of faces for anyone resembling the pirate lord. It was an impossible effort, though. There were simply too many people crammed together. The only thing he could do was simply press on and hope he happened upon the slippery wretch.
Jasper turned onto another street, completely unconcerned that he had left Camdyn and Razja behind. They would only slow me down. I don’t need them. I can do this myself.
Frustration quickly began to turn to anger, though, as his frenzied search continued to prove fruitless.
He was about to give up when he heard a scream coming from a nearby stand of shops.
Whirling, Jasper raced over to where he found a group of market-goers gasping in shock. They circled around an elderly man who lay on his back upon the ground, blood pouring from a grisly wound in his neck.
Jasper immediately looked up to see if he could catch a glimpse of the man’s murderer. There! he thought, noticing a man in dark clothing disappear into a nearby alleyway. He was pale and lanky, and matched the pirate lord’s profile perfectly.
He began his pursuit anew.
This alley led to another cross-section of streets that were just as crowded as the ones they had left. Fortunately, Jasper was able to keep Gendric in sight as he made his way through.
“Bloody madman,” he growled, pushing himself hard to catch up to his quarry. He had spent his entire life living in cities like this, and could thus anticipate the movements of the crowd. It flowed like a river of people, and he was like a fish swimming downstream. He moved with the current and was not obstructed by anything in his path, closing the gap between him and the fleeing pirate lord.
For the first time since they started this mad quest, Jasper was in his element.
His companions, on the other hand, were not so fortunate. They were completely lost in the bustling throngs – Camdyn being too large and clumsy to easily pass through and Razja being far too polite.
Again, Jasper reminded himself that he did not need the fools. He would singlehandedly end this adventure, then he would be able to move on and forget all of this had ever happened.
Gendric glanced over his shoulder. Upon seeing that Jasper was gaining on him, he darted into yet another alley, his speed and endurance belying his sickly demeanor.
Jasper ran through the alleyway after him, quickly closing the distance between him and the pirate lord. His feet flew over the cobbles, splashing through puddles with reckless abandon in an attempt to finally bring an end to this mad pursuit. When Gendric abruptly rounded a corner into another even narrower alley, Jasper nearly lost his footing in an attempt to correct.
Sputtering curses, he followed him into the gap – a space nearly too confining to run in – then realized that they had come to a dead end.
I have you, now, Jasper thought as he readied Vehemence for the killing blow. The brick wall loomed before them, and Gendric was but feet away.
With an otherworldly display of strength and speed, the pirate lord unexpectedly rounded on him and leveled a punch at his chest that sent him flying. Jasper thought he heard his own bones crack as flew backward, landing hard on the filthy ground without a breath in his lungs. Vehemence was gone, fallen from his grasp, but Vitriol still remained in his off-hand, held in nerveless fingers. In an instant, Gendric was on top of him, his sunken eyes alight with an otherworldly power.
“Foolish mortal,” he growled in a voice that was not entirely human. “You meddle with powers that you cannot comprehend.”
Gasping, Jasper tried to raise his remaining blade, but the pirate lord pressed his boot down on his wrist, forcing him to drop it. This was not the mewling wretch he had seen sitting in that darkened hall. This was something else entirely... a creature beyond even his abilities to defeat.
Desperate, he tried to grab for one of his many hidden knives, but again Gendric thwarted him, pinning his arms down with some dark power.
I always thought I’d die in a warm bed surrounded by beautiful women half my age, Jasper thought, resting his head back against the cold stone. I never thought I’d be killed in an alley by an insane dragon’s thrall. This is... humiliating.
Speaking in a language he did not understand, Gendric reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a thin silver blade. The metal was etched with glowing runes and the hilt was studded with tiny gems. He raised the dagger as if to plunge it into Jasper’s heart, and for a moment, an overwhelming sense of despair gripped the assassin, a feeling of helplessness that completely and utterly terrified him.
Then, in a brilliant flash of light, white energy pounded the pirate lord in the chest, causing him to scream and stagger backward.
Dazed, Jasper watched as the hulking form of Camdyn sped by his prone form, large sword held firmly in both hands. Razja strode into the alley after him, her fingers aglow with radiant light.
Gendric the Black shrieked in dismay as bolts of magic struck him from above while he attempted vainly to fend off the sellsword’s attacks with his puny dagger. Steel clashed once, then twice, but not a third time as Camdyn rammed the tip of his sword straight through the pirate lord’s belly. His shrieks cut off as the blade was pushed as deep as the crossguard, red metal extending out and through his back.
In a matter of seconds, his expression changed, shifting from feral rage to queasy shock as the darkness seemed to leave him. He let out a shuttering wheeze then collapsed, his lifeless body sliding off Camdyn’s blade and falling hard to the ground.
Jasper felt the magical restraints loosen and he shakily pushed himself to his feet, feeling equal parts relief and shame at having to be rescued by his companions. Clearing his throat, he picked up his blades and sheathed them before turning to regard the corpse with the others.
“Thanks for that,” he said gruffly, all too aware that his face was as pale as Gendric’s. “I... should have waited to engage him.”
“Don’t mention it,” Camdyn replied as he used the dead man’s coat to wipe the blood off his sword.
Razja crouched down and plucked the leather satchel from off his neck, her copper-bound wrists still glowing from the effects of her spell. Then, more hesitantly, she unclasped the top and revealed the large heart-shaped sapphire resting within.
“The final Tear,” she breathed, eyes glittering like the surface of the stone. “We’ve found it. Now, we must bring it back to the Wanderer.”
Part 2
Camdyn Taurus
Chapter Nine
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Camdyn thought he lost twenty pounds on the ship ride north.
Between the squalls and the near-constant rocking of the boat, it was a wonder he had managed to keep anything down at all. He spent most of his time hunched over the deck’s rail, spewing the contents of his stomach out into the sea in great, heaving gags which left his throat feeling raw. Now that his feet were finally back on land, he was considering turning away from the sword and spending the rest of his days praising the gods that he had not been born a sailor.
Today was a good day. The sun, which had found its way through the impenetrable blanket of clouds, was shining down on the northern reaches of the kingdom, illuminating a world that was various shades of emerald. It was cool without being cold, and the road stretched out before them, leading them away from the sea and toward the conclusion of their adventure.
Camdyn was looking forward to finally getting paid.
Even Jasper’s dour mood could not dampen his spirits. The petulant assassin rode several paces behind them on one of the horses they had purchased, lost in his own dark thoughts.
Camdyn ignored him, choosing instead to marvel as the forested hills around him and breathe the fresh, unsalted air. He sat astride a dappled gelding and had a hunk of black bread held in one fist. He was chewing happily now that he could finally eat again.
As soon as this strange job was over, he would be free to continue his journey north and find a new client to work for. Perhaps he could even find a comely woman and a place to settle down.
Things were finally starting to look up.
Razja rode beside him, pointing at various plants and animals and asking questions about them. He found her inquisitive nature refreshing, even if her Kaarnish heritage still put him on edge.
“And what is that called?” she asked, gesturing at a creature scurrying through the limbs of a nearby tree.
“That would be a squirrel,” Camdyn replied around a mouthful of bread. “Fierce beasts, those are. Rip the flesh clean off your bones.”
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