Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35

by Galvin, Aaron

  Kellen followed them onward in search of Black Keerie before leaving the remains of Orphan Knoll behind. Yet even as he swam, Kellen could not help but to look back and down to the Selkie fighting pits, the door leading to the dungeon pits and all the dead within. He remembered all of the torches around the pits, a town of taverns and brothels, the clamor of steel on steel, the barked roars of those still fighting for their own life and the rest seeking to end all others.

  All were extinguished and quiet now.

  In their silent absence, Kellen found himself longing for the noises once more. Anything to shake the haunted memories in his head, the doubt plaguing him for the coming journey, and the ghosts that his prickling skin signaled were following him ever onward as he left the ruin of Orphan Knoll behind.

  3

  CHIDI

  Chidi’s gaze tracked with Marisa Bourgeois as the mystic Silkie approached the dock and The Lady Cat, the beloved boat owned by their former Selkie guide, Girard. Her spirit soared when spotting the young friend that she had left behind working upon the bow. “Allambee!” Chidi cried, waving to him as she ran for the docks to greet him.

  Allambee’s face lit up as he returned the gesture, though much more enthusiastically than Chidi had done for him. “Chidi!” he shouted. “Mr. Bryant!” His enthusiasm lessened when the final member of their party stopped shy of the gangplank to board. “Marisa . . .”

  “Hello, Allambee,” she softly replied.

  Allambee nodded, then turned his head back toward the ship’s cabin as another familiar face joined him on deck.

  Girard? Chidi’s brow wrinkled as she looked on the Selkie boat captain and coyote guide that had led them into Orphan Knoll before its destruction. He made it out alive?

  Seemingly none the worse for his own experience in Orphan Knoll, Girard clucked his tongue as Chidi and Bryant joined Marisa upon the dock. “Well, lookie there, son,” he said to Allambee. “Seems your friends made it back after all.”

  Bryant glared at him. “No thanks to you,” he replied. “Some guide you turned out to be. Tuck tailed and ran the second that trouble showed up. Just like any coyote I ever met down south.”

  Girard scoffed. “I took you down there to find a slave, cowboy. Not tangle with those krakens that showed up down in whatever is left of the Knoll. And if you’d have spent a little less time arguing with me after I learned your target had been sold on already, might be you all could have followed me on out instead of us losing each other in all the trouble that came after.”

  Bryant let that go. “You saw them too, then? The monsters?”

  “Have to be blind not to,” said Girard, before rubbing his nose with his Selkie sleeve. “And I don’t intend on ever going back, if that’s where the conversation is headed.” His gaze flickered to Marisa Bourgeois, then looked back to Chidi and Bryant. “And it seems you ended up rescuing a slave after all. Guess we can call that deal between us square. You folks can be on your way.”

  Chidi frowned. “The deal was to rescue my father.”

  “Well, your father wasn’t there, Miss,” said Girard. “And if I was you, I’d thank my lucky stars for that. If he had been, odds are your father would be dead by now with all the rest what got trapped in the Knoll.”

  No, he would’ve gotten out with us, just like Marisa did. Chidi thought, but did not say, her mind cuing on Girard’s mention of other being trapped. “How did you get out?” she asked the Selkie boat captain.

  “Elevator shaft on the opposite side from the spot we dropped in.” Girard sucked his teeth. “Think I might’ve been the last one up too. One of those beasts came for the elevator. Heard the sound below me and looked down in time to see its tentacles pinch the shaft beams closed like they were nothing but twigs. All that to say, I know that nothing and no one else got out that way. So, how’d you three make it back to shore?”

  Bryant spoke before Chidi could. “Why do you care? Think you might go back and pick at the remains of whatever them monsters left behind, coyote?”

  “Already said I wasn’t going back, cowboy,” said Girard. “Don’t think me or anyone else with a sane mind will ever chance going down to the Knoll again either. It’s just another outpost lost to the Salt now, along with all the other poor souls who were trapped inside. Even caverns can’t hold out against the pressure of Salt forever. Way I see it, the Knoll won’t be the last post to drown either, not if them monsters have anything to say about it.” He shrugged. “Anyway, happy to see you three made it out alive.”

  Are you happy? Chidi wondered, uncertain of how to take Girard’s tone. A moment later, she made up her mind that Girard was indeed thrilled to see them when he nudged Allambee toward the gangplank leading to the dock.

  “On your way, son,” he said to the young Kenyan. “My thanks again for looking after my boat, but your friends are alive and well. I recommend that you should all get back on Mr. Zymon’s plane and fly away from here. Head inland as far as I were able, if I were you.”

  Bryant snorted. “What about you? No plans to head inland, coyote?”

  “I’ve fished these waters all my life, cowboy,” said Girard. “I live and die by what the Salt provides. There’s nothing for me inland. My place is on this boat, or else going down with her if them krakens think to try and pull her down.”

  Chidi stepped to the edge of the plank, stopping Allambee before he started down it. “What about my father?” she demanded of Girard.

  The Selkie guide sighed. “Apologies, Miss, but I got no answers there for you. I never trusted that sorry slaver, Roland, or his lying words down in the Knoll. I did think he’d follow through for me though.”

  “Why?” Chidi asked. “If you never trusted him, then why did you think my father would be there?”

  “Said I didn’t trust Roland’s word, Miss,” Girard replied. “I did trust his greed. Paid him well to set your father aside ‘til I could come back with more. Roland was never one to turn down a fair bit of coin either. Still, if your father wasn’t there when we went to collect him, he weren’t there at all, Miss. You have my word on that. Take some comfort in it too when you relay the rest of what happened in the Knoll to Mr. Zymon for me.”

  Marisa strode forward, stopping beside Chidi. “We’re not going back to speak with Zymon Gorski,” she said to Girard. “Nor are we flying anywhere.”

  “Long walk back to the states,” Girard huffed. “But you do as you like, I suppose.”

  “Aye, that we will,” said Marisa, brushing Chidi aside and treading up the gangplank.

  Girard moved to stop her from boarding. “Where do you think you’re going, girl? I didn’t invite you on board.”

  “We’ll be going asea in your boat,” said Marisa. “And you’ll be taking us there, captain.”

  Girard crossed his arms. “Will I? And what makes you think I’m such a fool as to take my Lady Cat out across the Salt knowing as I do now with all them monsters lurking below, eh?”

  “Because as you have said for the slaver, Roland, I trust your greed also, Captain Girard,” said Marisa. “And it might be you find the rewards for transporting me and my companions is worth far more than dealing with traitorous Nomads and Merrow slavers.”

  “I doubt it,” said Girard. “What’s a Silkie got that the Salt Children don’t, eh?”

  “This,” said Marisa, grabbing hold of Girard’s bicep before he could react.

  The moment her thumb pressed against his bicep, Girard collapsed, taking a knee before her. His face reddened, veins popping along his neck, his body seemingly charged as if he had taken hold of an electric line that would not allow him to let go.

  Chidi stepped back upon the dock, her muscles stiffening in remembrance of when Marisa had done the same for her in the depths of Orphan Knoll. She recalled the vision of death and destruction given to her by the elusive, mystic runner. Watching Girard’s wide-eyed expression, his position rigid in Marisa’s grasp, Chidi wondered if he was being given the same vision as she had r
eceived.

  When Marisa released him, Girard fell away, blinking as one waking from a trance. “Right then,” he said finally, collecting himself off the deck and catching his breath. “No time to waste, eh?” he asked, already heading down the gangplank for the dock. “I-I’ll head into town for supplies and to call Mr. Zymon about having someone to look after his plane. Then, we’ll be off.”

  The Selkie captain continued on past Chidi and Bryant too, almost as if he did not see them standing upon the dock. Chidi watched Girard go at a near running pace to reach his van, jumping inside and firing up the engine, then screeching away toward the small, coastal town in the distance.

  Chidi exchanged an odd look with Bryant before he strode forward.

  “Bourgeois,” he called out. “What was that just now? What’d you show him?”

  “His heart’s desire, David,” said Marisa. “And how he might achieve it.” Her gaze snapped to Chidi. “Come aboard, my friends. Chidi and I have much work to do before we reach our destination . . . and the task set before us will require the extent of both our talents.”

  Chidi started forward, but was stopped by Bryant extending his arm to keep her from boarding.

  “This destination,” Bryant warily eyed Marisa. “Where is it? What’s this task you’re on about needing Chidi’s help with?”

  “Why, the destination is the Salt capital, New Pearlaya, of course,” she replied. “And we must reach it before the Other and his minions do. As for the task, come aboard and I shall tell you more. No doubt we should all prefer drier positions and warmth for the lengthier conversation to be had.”

  Drier? Chidi thought, scouring the overcast sky, but not feeling any hint of rain.

  Whatever his own thoughts on the matter, Bryant held his ground and kept Chidi with him. “Seems to me then that Girard had the right of it from the start,” he said to Marisa. “If time’s a factor, it’d be awfully faster to fly to wherever this capital is.”

  “Not with the storms we’re likely to encounter.” Marisa smiled in tandem with the thunder that followed. The sound rippled across the gloomy sky. The thunderclap was followed by several more booms to signal its arrival.

  Startled by the reverberating echoes, Chidi swallowed the lump in her throat as the rain began to fall upon them. In seconds, she was drenched by the torrential downpour that the storm unleashed. Brushing Bryant’s arm aside, Chidi threw on her Silkie hood and hastened up the gangplank to follow both Marisa and Allambee inside the captain’s quarters.

  The rain outside pinged against the ceiling and window glass as another wave of thunder and lightning announced their continued presence outside.

  Chidi shivered as Allambee huddled next to her. Both cringed at another booming and echoed reply from the storm.

  As for Marisa, the mystic Silkie stood at the captain’s wheel, her back turned toward Chidi, her gaze cast out the window upon the Salt and its white-crested, thrashing waves beyond.

  Bryant stumbled in behind Chidi, cursing as he reached for the door to close it behind him and shutter them inside. Muttering, Bryant shook off the wet that drenched his own suit and hood. “Anyone can look up at a cloudy sky and call the rain coming in . . .”

  Marisa turned back. Cocked an eyebrow. “You doubt me still, then?”

  Chidi looked between them, she having already given in to her former doubting of Marisa’s claims. In Bryant’s face, she estimated he would hold out a while longer, if only for the stubborn streak within him.

  Leering at Marisa, Bryant ignored her question in favor of jerking his thumb toward the storm outside. “You sure you wanna us all to go out in this mess, Bourgeois? Rough seas and all?”

  “It is not what I want,” said Marisa quietly. “It is what is required of us. Each of us here.” She said, nodding toward them each in turn.

  “Well, I think we’d all be better served to wait out the storm,” said Bryant.

  “Some storms last longer than others, my friend,” said Marisa.

  Chidi swallowed the lump in her throat. “What about this one?” she asked. “This storm?”

  Marisa smiled. “We will see the end to this smaller one, at least, before Girard returns and we set out.” Her smile faded as she looked out to the rough sea. “It is the storm brewing beneath the Salt that concerns me now.”

  “All the more reason to take Zymon’s plane and fly to New Pearlaya,” said Bryant. “Them monsters that took down the Knoll? I’m guessing they could capsize this boat even easier than that. Not even them kraken things can reach a plane in the sky though.”

  “We can’t fly to New Pearlaya,” said Chidi meekly. “The city is underwater. Tucked away in a cavern.”

  Bryant snorted. “Well, then we can’t really take this boat there either, can we? Least the plane would get us closer to whatever land is near enough for us to swim the rest of the way. Get us there faster too, no doubt.”

  “We’re taking the boat,” Marisa affirmed. “For our party is not yet complete.”

  “Party?” Bryant asked.

  Marisa nodded. “Another companion awaits us further asea,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, her eyes narrowing in such a way as to make Chidi wonder after what invisible sights only Marisa Bourgeois could see. “Aye,” Marisa continued. “Another companion . . . and one of the five pieces of two . . . both lingering and lost beneath the Salt.”

  “Come again?” Bryant asked. “The five pieces of what?”

  “The five pieces of two,” said Marisa. “Ancient gifts, long forgotten and hidden away.”

  Chidi shivered at the words. “What do you mean?” she asked Marisa. “What are these . . . pieces? What do they do?”

  Marisa went on, her brow furrowing as she looked on Chidi. “An answer not easily given or explained, for even I have long held my own doubts about the legendary, Ancient gifts left behind for us to puzzle over. In truth, I think keys might seem the more accurate naming of the five pieces, or so some of the fabled Salt stories have claimed them to be.”

  Bryant rolled his eyes. “Keys to what?”

  Marisa snorted. “Do the purpose of keys differ so much in your world than they do in mine, David Bryant?” She went on when he gave her no answer. “As best as I can tell, the five keys are but further clues of a greater riddle. A means to unlock answers to one of the greatest Salt mysteries of all.”

  “That being how you seem to know all these things?” Bryant asked.

  Marisa ignored him, her eyes gleamed as she glanced away from Bryant, then looked on to Chidi and Allambee instead. “Why did the Ancients retreat from this world? Why leave if knowing the Other and his minions lingered and might torment those of us left behind? Did the Ancients choose to abandon us willingly . . . or was their forsaking us part of a darker art from the monsters we have witnessed below? A curse placed upon Them by the Other, perhaps, before he too vanished into that other realm to collect his further strength . . . and all with the thought to rise at a later time with none of the Ancients’ collective might surviving to thwart the next attempt.”

  Chidi shivered. “You’re saying you think the monsters we saw below cursed the Ancients? Banished them into their primal forms, somehow?”

  “I know not for certain,” said Marisa. “But the Salt stories of old tell of the Wise Ones retreating from this world not long after the Sancul demise. Some say the Ancients left in favor of adopting their Salt forms in full. Others . . . other stories speak to a darker answer.” Marisa shook her head. “I have long sought and prayed for such answers to my questions, yet I have only ever been rewarded with further dreams and whispered, phantom words relaying such tales of the forgotten five pieces of two.”

  Bryant scoffed. “Maybe you oughta thought to ask just who it is giving you all these dreams then, Bourgeois. If they can show you such things and lead you onward, why not just give you the whole story in full?”

  “The deepest of answers to life are not easily given or explained, David Bryant,” said Maris
a. “For some mysteries, there are no answers. Nothing of black or white, right or wrong. Only further questions amid a sea of endless gray. Aye, a feeling that urges us onward in pursuit of explanation nonetheless. An inward quest, you might say,” Marisa approached Chidi slowly, reaching out and taking her by the hand, lifting it that she might inspect the Merrow ring upon her finger. “For oft times it is along the journey, my friends, that one discovers the answers to their questions lay with the unseen before them all along.”

  Chidi looked on the gift that the old Merrow, Wilda, had given her back at the Indianapolis Zoo. The band was crafted of silver, the lone adornment a plain, stone pebble. As she had done the night Wilda offered it to her, Chidi thought the ring as simple and unassuming as any other. Her spirit told her elsewise. “What is it?” she asked Marisa.

  “I cannot say for certain,” said Marisa, her tone belying the ease with which she spoke the words. “But I believe you wear one of the five keys upon your finger now, Chidi.”

  Bryant scoffed. “It’s just a ring,” he said. “And an ugly one at that.”

  It’s not. Chidi thought, her skin warming at his argument even as her mind raced back to the night the elderly Merrow had offered it to her. And Wilda knew it too . . .

  Marisa was uncaring of Bryant’s argument also, her gaze fixed on Chidi and the ring. “How did you come across this piece, Chidi?” she asked, her voice like one already knowing the answer, then confirming it before Chidi could reply. “An old and royal gift, I should think. One given you somewhat recently . . . offered to you by the best and purest of souls, yes? An elderly Merrow?”

  “Aye,” said Chidi, freeing her hand from Marisa’s grasp and stepping back. “But how would you know that?”

  Marisa chuckled through another booming echo of thunder outside the cabin. “You were not wearing it when we were last together in Crayfish Cavern,” she said in answer of Chidi’s question. “Did you never question why it was I did not free you to accompany Declan Dolan and I? Why I did not offer you the choice of which of us to journey alongside when he and I split after leaving you behind?”