Page 5 of Light Up the Night

Chapter Three

Spoils of War

Keif

The man in front of me was as identical to Messiah as he was opposite. Their eyes were the same hazel hue, but Pariah’s appeared sinister and mocking.

I made a point of keeping Chalice in my sights until the boat set anchor again. It wasn’t a hard task, there weren’t too many places she could get off to.

Today, she was leaning against a barrel, captivated by the jagged map Pariah was drawing for her.

“You see, Your Excellence, just here...” He tried to shift toward her a bit while reaching out to point, but Chalice moved right along with him. Maintaining her personal space, she side-stepped and looked at the piece upside down.

“I see. The Forest Wilds connect with this… Tauran.”

“No. Well, yes, but not exactly. Your entrance will be at the bottom of the Forest Wilds, it turns into what the Tauranian’s call ‘Heritage Hills,’ a manor like place. It is the birthright of Prince Ryver Delucre.”

“One of Azaria’s mates?” Messiah asked. His face said he already knew, but he held firm until Pariah gave the nod.

“Her second, brother to the first,” Pariah mumbled before drawing the Iron Inlet above the Forest Wilds. “This is how she got in and stole your king. In their land, it is known as The Great Abyss. Rugged mountains that separate the Iron Inlet from Northern Tauran.”

I shook my head, still grappling with the fact that there was some world out there that we knew nothing about. The longer I stared at Pariah, the more I began to wonder if it wasn’t a set up. I didn’t think Messiah would do such a thing, but… he was a Krypt.

I faded off to sleep that night with Chalice tucked in my arms. I couldn’t stop contemplating the ‘what ifs’ of it all; even in my dreams, they haunted me.

“Be alert!” Messiah bellowed from the deck. My eyes snapped open, and I slid from the sofa without an ounce of grace. The sword was still sticking from its sheath on the dresser, so I snatched it on my way past and ran toward the excitement.

“What? What the fuck is it? Are we under attack?” Several large boats with dark flags lingered in the distance. Two were cargo ships, judging from their size and lack of weaponry. The other was a war ship. The thing had more cannons than I’d ever seen on a single vessel.

“Put the House Krypt banner up,” Chalice called, storming from the belly. She marched to the front of the ship and stared across the open water. She looked like a captain, but even more, the men scrambled to do her bidding, proving that they, too, acknowledged her position as such.

In no time at all, the ropes were zipping, and the purple House Krypt banner was hoisted up to flap in the breeze. The fanged skull emblem snapped now and again adding to the intimidating illusion that she was building.

“Half turn it so they can see the cannons and go around,” she called up to Messiah, who was steering.

My mind exploded. Patience was not one of my stronger virtues, so when our ship sailed past that long row of weapons that were manned and pointed directly at us, I was half hysterical inside. The urge to jump ship clashed with the reality of being in open waters.

“Drown or burn…” I bleakly mumbled to no one in particular.

“Not today,” Chalice quickly interjected, shooting a glance over her shoulder to me.

“We’re in the Soiled Sea? “I dumbly stated the obvious.

Fated Few, not the Soiled Sea.

“The edge of it,” Messiah answered without taking his eyes off the war ship. “We’ll be at the Forest Wilds by nightfall if we survive this.”

“Get them cannons ready!” Chalice shrieked over the crew. The wind whipped her hair about until she was spitting it out and batting it away.

“If we ready the cannons, they might think it an act of aggression,” I panicked aloud without meaning to.

“Then perhaps the smart ones will have time to jump,” Chalice said matter of factly before nodding her head and moving toward the side that faced the war ship. Her hands shook with adrenaline, but her honeyed hues were glistening with fight.

“Wh… why, why would we attack?” I asked over the sound of Messiah’s low throaty chuckle.

“Because the other two are slave ships,” he mused, taking his hat off and giving a gentleman’s wave to the other ships.

He motioned his hands as if telling our men to stand down and even wagged his finger at a few.

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