The Flames: Book 2 of the Feud Trilogy

by Kyle Prue

  “I’ve been asleep for five days?” Neil asked.

  “You’ve been asleep for four,” Serena said. “Which is why I’m owed some coin.”

  The man opened a drawer in his desk and tossed Serena a small sack. “I’m Alexander Tridenti,” he said. “If I end up liking you, you can call me Alex. Otherwise you probably won’t like me either and we’ll call each other whatever we want in secret.”

  Neil looked from him to Serena. “You two are…?”

  “Siblings. Yes,” Alexander said. He perpetually had the look of someone who was stifling a smirk. “Do you honestly not know anything about the Tridenti?”

  Neil tried to search his mind but found large gaps where knowledge usually waited. “I think I might have. At one point, but… I can’t remember much.”

  “Well, you were fished out of the ocean four days ago by Serena.” Alexander said. “We have no idea how you lived or where you came from. Apparently neither do you.”

  “Sorry,” Neil said. “I’m just getting random names and phrases.”

  Alexander leaned back in his chair and studied Neil. “Does one of those names sound like your own?” he asked.

  “He can’t remember,” Serena said.

  “So that means he get’s a guppy name,” Alexander said.

  Serena hopped once in excitement but was serious when she landed. Both of them were staring at Neil intently. “What’s a guppy name?” Neil asked.

  “Kids in the Tridenti family aren’t formally named until they’re around ten,” Alexander said. “That’s so we’re sure that the name fits with their personality. So we give them a placeholder name.”

  “He’s got really dark hair,” Serena said. “It’s almost pitch black. We could name him Pitch?”

  “Mamba?” Alexander suggested. “After the snake.”

  “That’s perfect!” Serena said with an experimental touch of Neil’s hair. “Are we taking him to Ocean’s Jaw?”

  “I don’t know,” Alexander said looking expectantly at Neil. “Are we?”

  Neil stared at them. “I don’t know what that is. I do remember something about Misty Hollow though. I think I was going to meet someone there.”

  Alexander glanced at Serena. “Is that on the mainland?”

  “I think so,” she said. “Bad news, Mamba.”

  “We can’t take you to the mainland. The Tridenti aren’t allowed,” Alexander said. “Best case scenario, you jump off and swim. Or you wait until we get to Ocean’s Jaw where we can give you a small ship.”

  Neil rubbed his forehead.

  “Where are we now?”

  “Tridenti ships patrol the sea looking for the Empire’s ships.” Alexander said. “We picked you up pretty far north, but now heading east toward home.”

  Neil didn’t know what most of those words meant. “I guess I’ll stay with you guys, then. I can’t even remember if Misty Hollow is where I’m supposed to be anyway.”

  “It’ll only take a few days for us to reach our stronghold,” Alexander said. “Until then you can stay in that room we’ve made up for you. I’ll have a crewman bring you some food.”

  Neil bowed nervously. Alexander and Serena laughed at him. “Why are you bowing?” Alexander asked.

  “I don’t know. Let’s blame it on the fact that I’m confused and don’t remember who I am.”

  Serena giggled. “That might be the first time anyone’s ever bowed to you,” she said to Alexander. “Maybe he’s a servant and is accustomed to bowing to his masters.”

  Alexander kicked his feet up onto the desk. “Well, maybe you’re in luck then. You are a free man. No need to bow. Good to have you along, Mamba. We can talk more once you’re fed.”

  There was something so charismatic about the two of them. They radiated happiness. “Also, is there any way I could trouble you for a shirt?” Neil asked.

  Alexander looked up from his papers. “Yeah, of course.” He looked at Serena. “Why doesn’t he have a shirt?”

  She blushed. “I forgot it?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Get the kid a shirt.”

  “Fine. Come with me.”

  Neil followed her back out into the expanses of the ship. Or the hull, Neil guessed. “By the way,” Serena said as she pointed to this iron cuff on Neil’s arm. “This was hooked onto your arm when you woke up. I wasn’t able to pry it off. It was causing you to bleed pretty heavily, but it looks like it’s stopped.”

  Neil stared at it. It was just a small iron bracelet. On the inside were a series of hooks and a latch to hook it on and off. A memory surged through Neil’s head. He’d stuck his hand into a small box and it had been stuck on him. He remembered the fear of it all, and quite possibly jumping through a window. He placed his hands on his temples in a desperate attempt to pull out more memories. “You okay, Mamba?” Serena asked.

  “Yeah,” Neil said. “I think this was hooked on my arm by someone very bad.”

  Serena grabbed it from him. “I’d guess so. These hooks are stuck in you.” She seemed to notice Neil’s discomfort. “I can cut it off you, given enough time.”

  “I think it did something special,” Neil said. “But I don’t want to lose my arm.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said mockingly.

  “About that shirt?” he said.

  She smiled. Her teeth were just as white as Alexander’s. “Everyone is so obsessed with this shirt.”

  Before Neil could reply, he felt the entire ship lurch. Muffled explosions could be heard above deck. The force of the next lurch knocked the two of them off their feet. “What…?” Neil started.

  “Someone’s trying to sink us,” Serena said as she bolted through the hallway, presumably toward a way to the main deck.

  Neil shook his head in amazement and followed as quickly as he could. Neil felt very confused by many things but of one thing he was certain. He was charging into battle.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  CONVOY

  LILLY CELERIUS

  Lilly always knew when she was dreaming. There was an eerie silence and calm that she never felt in the real world. She couldn’t feel the earth around her or use her powers to see through walls. It was like being a little girl again.

  She was seated at the head of her family’s dining room table and a delicious feast sat before her; everything from roasted pigs to trays of fruit and bottles upon bottles of red wine.

  Lilly’s eyes shifted around the table and she realized she was sitting with her brothers and the rest of her family.. Her father was seated closest to her, calmly cutting his portion of pork with a gold knife.

  “Father?” she asked.

  He kept staring forward. His posture was perfect, as was the Celerius way, but his eyes were dead. They never shifted or showed emotion. Blood poured from a gaping hole in his chest. “How does the new pony ride, Lilly?” Somehow she heard his voice without him ever opening his mouth.

  “It rides well, father,” she whispered frightfully.

  A laugh came from her other side. “Lilly hasn’t been riding,” her brother Thomas, said with a closed mouth and dead expression. “She’s too fast to get any real thrill out of riding horses anymore. She just runs around the fields on her own.” Thomas was doing his mind-reading tricks again.

  “I feel bad for you, Thomas.” Now her eldest brother, Anthony, was at the table. He was drinking wine, but his voice still resonated clearly through the air. The wine poured out of the wound in his chest. Or maybe it was blood. Lilly screamed. Anthony’s voice continued talking to Thomas. “Once you finally meet a woman, you’ll know exactly what she thinks of you right from the beginning. You’re going to be a lonely fellow, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe I’ll like what she thinks,” Thomas said.

  “Well I think you’re annoying.” Lilly gasped as she heard Edward’s voice.

  She hadn’t heard Edward’s voice in so long. There he was though, seated next to Thomas and swirling a bowl of soup with a spoon. There were red lipstick marks o
n his face and blood coming from inside his coat. It was running down his back freely. Or maybe it was wine. “You’re not a girl,” Thomas’s voice said to Edward.

  “Lilly, you’re a girl,” Edward’s voice said to Lilly. “Do you think other girls will find Thomas annoying?”

  Lilly was crying freely now. Despite this, she could still hear her own voice ringing through the dining room. “I think Thomas is going to have to learn some self control when he meets a woman.”

  “If he meets a woman,” Edward said, stifling a laugh.

  “Do you really want to talk about women, Edward?” Thomas asked. “Despite your constant fighting, I can feel the basic emotions. You feel like you’re in love, right this very instant.”

  “Something we should worry about, Tom?” Sir Celerius asked. His eyes shifted slightly. For a moment he almost looked alive, but he quickly descended back into his corpse like state. “A noble family I presume?”

  Suddenly Lilly felt a cold liquid dripping down her neck. She brought her hand to it and realized that, like her family, she was leaking wine or blood. She started screaming louder and louder, as if she knew she could wake herself from her dream if she were loud enough.

  Suddenly Lilly felt a kick to the back and her eyes snapped open. She was in the Imperial convoy where the Hyena had imprisoned her.

  “What happened?” Lilly said groggily.

  “You were screaming,” the Wolf said. “I’ve heard of your nightmares but that was, well… legitimately frightening. Are you okay?”

  Lilly shook her head. She was hyperventilating. The Wolf was chained up behind her and she couldn’t see him, but she was sure that he could hear her having a panic attack. “Focus on my voice, Lilly,” he said. “Feel the wood underneath your feet. Feel the chains digging into your wrists. This might not be a ton better, but this is what’s real. This is what’s happening. Not what’s creeping into your head.”

  Lilly tried to shake herself free of the dream world. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I think I’m all right now.”

  “Being a Celerius comes with quite the stigma,” the Wolf said.

  Lilly tried desperately to ignore him. After a horrific dream like that she certainly wasn’t ready for one of the Wolf’s speeches about inner power or whatever he was spewing now. She wanted to clasp her hands over her ears, but unfortunately they were chained to either side of the convoy. She felt like a scarecrow.

  “Wounds to our flesh heal so easily that the masses believe we don’t understand lasting pain. That we don’t understand what it’s like to burn from within.”

  “Do you have a solution?” she asked. She didn’t want to cry in front of her uncle.

  The Wolf shrugged as much as he could in his chains. “I’m just saying I understand you, Lilly.”

  She buried her face into her shoulder to wipe away the tears. When she was younger she always felt so strong. People would see her walk through the streets and gape at her in awe. She was a Celerius. She was honorable. Things couldn’t have changed more in the last few months; now she wept often and silently, and woke up screaming more nights than not. She could imagine her father’s voice in her head: “There’s nothing honorable about self-pity or weakness, Lilly.”

  “There’s a way out of this. If you want it,” the Wolf said. “Just as soon as you’re ready.”

  “The nightmares?” she asked.

  “One thing at a time, Lilly,” the Wolf said. “I meant escaping these chains.”

  Lilly lifted her arm and felt the cool steel pressing into her skin. “That’s a good start. How do you suppose we do that?”

  The Wolf was clearly becoming more hesitant about his plan. “You’re not going to like it.”

  She sniffled. “Try me.”

  “Would you say you’re partial to the bones in your hands?”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  TRIDENTI SHIP

  NEIL VAPROS

  Old instincts began to resurface as Neil climbed above deck. He knew he wanted to do something with his hands and he had an insatiable urge to be somewhere far across the deck. Serena was far ahead of him, though, and immediately upon entering the fray she cut down armored soldiers left and right. Neil tried to get a handle on what was occurring. There was a far bigger ship parallel to the one that they were on. Large hooks connected the two ships and armored soldiers were attacking dirty crewmen in a tight formation. They were being boarded.

  Alexander sprung out of the hatch that led to the hull with a large sword in tow. He charged into battle beside his sister and they began slicing through the formation in perfect synchronization. A meaty soldier made eye contact with Neil and pointed with his sword. “Vapros!” he accused angrily.

  That name sounded very familiar. The guard didn’t wait for a response. He plowed a few crewmen over and ran at Neil with his sword swinging. When the guard grew close, Neil instinctively ducked under it and rolled to safety. The guard turned around and kicked out viciously. Neil fell back onto the ground, but was able to dodge the sword that imbedded itself in the wooden ship beside him. He rolled slightly back and kicked straight upward with all of his force. He made direct contact with the soldier’s chin with enough power to knock him unconscious. The meaty guard’s unmoving body slammed into the deck and Neil jumped to his feet, gasping for air. Going four days without a meal was not a productive method of preserving energy.

  Even in his dazed state he could see soldiers on the enemy boat loading a cannon of some sort and wheeling it to face the Tridenti siblings. They aimed carefully. It didn’t seem like either of them was paying attention. “Serena!” Neil called just as the cannon was fired. “Alex!”

  Serena turned around and slipped out of the path of the cannonball. Alexander was not so lucky. It struck him right in the back and his body flew straight off the side of the boat. Neil’s jaw dropped. The enemy soldiers began cheering and raising their hands above their heads as a way of declaring victory. Neil studied Serena, but for some reason she didn’t seem particularly distraught by the slaughter of her brother. She turned around and faced her enemies with a small smile. They turned to see what she was smiling at and their hands fell almost in unison. The guards operating the cannon turned around to find their victim, Alexander Tridenti, standing on the deck of their ship. Although he was soaked, he showed no other signs of being affected by his run-in with the cannonball. He dispatched the guards quickly in one fluid motion. He raised his arms and cheered victoriously. His men joined him in his revelry.

  Another guard recognized Neil and took the moment’s distraction as an opportunity to decapitate him. Neil’s heart was racing so fast, it felt as though it would burst from his chest. Before the guard could slice him in half, Neil felt a bolt of energy fly from his hand. The smoky ball of fire knocked the soldier off his feet. He rolled around trying to extinguish the flames. Fiery pain seized Neil’s wrist where the cuff was. He stared at his hand for a moment and then channeled his energy once again. His hand ignited and the people on deck stared at him in awe. He shot the next fireball at the guard at the front of the formation. He skidded to the other end of the boat. Neil’s arm felt paralyzed with pain, but it was worth it to utilize his abilities. “Mamba!” Serena yelled. “This entire boat is made of wood! Let’s not throw fire around!”

  He lowered his hand, embarrassed.

  “Stop fooling around, Serena!” Alexander yelled as he leapt from the enemy ship back on to his own. “Finish this.”

  Serena planted her feet and clenched her fists. She began to breathe meditatively. A guard tried to swing at her while she was in this trance, but Alexander intercepted him and threw him off of the boat with one hand. Serena’s eyes opened and she began to sing. Neil was confused for a second. In the next he was on his knees. The entire world seemed brighter and calmer. It felt as if his entire body had been submerged in warm water. He collapsed to the ground and laid his cheek against the wooden deck as if he’d float away if not anchored to something that felt real.<
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  After a few moments of this paradise, his eyes flickered open. The warm airy feeling was gone and he was collapsed on the deck. The Tridenti kids had hogtied many soldiers and a few more were throwing their armor into the sea. “What happened?” Neil asked groggily. The pain in his arm was even gone.

  “You got a taste of my favorite song,” Serena said. She helped him up.

  “You two are…” Neil didn’t have a word.

  “Lightborns,” Alexander said. “And evidently you are too, Mamba. Not a servant, after all.”

  Neil looked at his hand again. “Yeah,” Neil said. “That’s surprising.”

  “Neil Vapros!” one of the hogtied guards screamed. “That boy is Neil Vapros and he will bring the Empire down on your heads!”

  “Neil Vapros,” Neil said. “That’s definitely it.”

  “Thanks, guy.” Alexander said to the guard. “I like Mamba better though,” he said to Neil.

  “You don’t understand!” the guard screamed. “The Imperial Doctor is after him. The entire Empire is after him! Every soldier in the land knows his face. Give him up and you might be spared.”

  Alexander approached the guard and grabbed him by the hair. “You might see Neil Vapros: fugitive of the empire, but we only see Mamba, our friend from the sea.” He dropped the guard. “If anyone from the Empire tries to touch him while he’s under our protection, they’ll have to deal with the wrath of Mama Tridenti.”

  The soldier’s eyes widened and he began blubbering an apology. “Take their ship and the prisoners back to the Ocean’s Jaw,” Serena said to a few crewmen. “Rip the ship for parts and put the men under lock and key. We’ll meet you there.” The men saluted her and hopped over to the other ship.

  “Anything else you men can tell us about our little friend Mamba? He’s looking for answers,” Alex roared to the hostages as they were being unloaded onto the other boat. “Anyone with anything helpful will receive twice as much food for their first month in our prison.”