The Deceit of Tongues (In the Eye of the Dragon Book 2)

by N M Zoltack

  Princess Vivian hardly felt like a princess. She hardly felt like a human. She was covered in grime and dirt. Somehow, her clothes had been ripped and torn. Her hair was a tangled knot. Her nails were scraped and bleeding from her trying to open barrels in the dark in a terrible attempted to find food. All she found were spices, spices, and more spices. Wherever the crew kept their food, it was not in the cargo area.

  But they did keep spiced rum down here. Vivian had never had rum before, but she overheard some of the revelry the crew members had after drinking it. They had rolled one of the barrels out and then hours later returned for a second. Their songs and dancing and shouts and laughter had Viviana wishing she could join them.

  Instead, she had managed to find an abandoned cup. She had no means to see if it were clean or not. After using her sleeve to wipe the cup’s interior, she plunged the cup into another barrel and drank. It burned slightly, the spice tangy, but she was thirsty and drank faster than she should have. With her empty stomach, the rum had gone straight to her head, and she ended up babbling to prayers to the Fates.

  The next morning or whenever it had been when she woke up, she had a terrible headache. To her surprise, drinking more of the rum helped her, but she did not drink enough to get drunk. Not until that night when she found herself talking to her brother. At one point, she might have even saw his shadow, with him holding a sword. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she sat between barrels, ready to fall asleep.

  Perhaps she did fall asleep because when she was next aware, there were shouts above the deck. Now, shouts weren’t uncommon. In fact, she heard yells and screams all day long and at night when they would have their fun.

  But intermingled with the shouts was the distinct clash of steel against steel. A fight. Someone was attacking the ship.

  “Who?”

  Abandoning the cup, Vivian made her way to the stairs and peeked above the cargo hold slotted door. From their coloring, she could just make out that the threat were Vincanans.

  The more she listened, the more she realized the Vincanans had the upper hand. She hesitated by the cargo door, uncertain what to do. Would they burn the ship? Surely, they would wish to see the cargo hold. She could not be discovered at any cost!

  A thud sounded directly overhead, and blood dripped down from the slots on the cargo door. Vivian suppressed a shriek and disappeared back into the darkness of the cargo hold. Frantic, she glanced around. There were several windows down here, but they were all firmly shut. There was no other exit than the cargo door, which would now be impossible to slid open unnoticed. The body would roll over or even fall. That would be certain to draw attention.

  “Burn the ship!” someone called, the words sharp and indifferent.

  No!

  If they were to burn the ship, it did not matter if the ship sank. Vivian located the thin metal lever the men used to open the barrels and slashed and hacked at the tallest part of the ship in the cargo hold. Eventually, wood began to chip away, but she could already smell the fire and smoke.

  Swifter now, she hacked at the wood. Eventually, a hole formed. Water gushed in, widening the hole slightly, and she continued to work at it until she might be able to squeeze through. The heat from the fire above seared through her, and she could not inhale a deep enough breath due to the smoke. She coughed, breathed in somewhat, and dove through the hole.

  Swiftly, she swam, but her body was fatigued. Her arms and legs did not wish to move for long. Luckily, the ship was a small one, and she did not have far to go to reach the surface.

  Disoriented and dazed, she sucked down air and tried to recover somewhat. The moon was high in the sky, the water calm despite the war-like nature of the burning ship. There, hardly more than a stone’s throw away, sat the opposing ship.

  Vivian saw hardly anyone on board it. They must still be in the process of setting the fire. No. Wait. Several were on the top deck, and she swam around to the other side of the ship. Thankfully, here it was less crowded.

  She found a long chain. The anchor had been dropped. To conserve some of her strength, she grabbed onto the chain and waited. Soon, enough, the men had returned to this ship, and the anchor was rising.

  The princess wrapped her legs around the chain as the anchor continued its ascent. As the men congratulated each other, she nearly panicked. What could she do?

  But the voices subsided slightly, and Vivian reached up and grabbed onto the ledge of the upper deck. Her arm muscles shook uncontrollably, but she lifted her head enough to see that no one was looking in her direction. She slipped onto the deck and hid behind some boxes. Somehow, she would have to find a way to hide, perhaps from one cargo hold to another.

  As she tried to ease her furiously beating heart, she overheard a few of the men talking.

  “Done with Tiapan,” one man was saying.

  “Did we really need to attack that ship?” another asked.

  “Have to listen to the captain. He said to, so we did. Besides, they aren’t with us.”

  With them? What were they talking about?

  “Now, we’re going home, though, right?” the second man asked.

  “Yes, now we return to Vincana.”

  Vivian gulped. She never should have left the monastery. No. She never should have fled the castle in the first place.

  But the man or woman who had killed her brother might still be lurking in the shadows. Vivian hoped her sister was safe. While she had not heard much word from the castle, she knew that such terrible news as her sister being murdered would have reached her. It was far better for the guards to be worried about keeping only one Rivera safe versus two.

  Still, I would like to return home myself.

  One day.

  But Vivian wasn’t sure when that might be. The voyage to Vincana would take weeks from here. All she could do was hope and pray to the Fates of Life and Peace that she would have both life and peace for a long while. She had dealt far too much with chaos and death.

  Shortly before dawn, Vivian was able to slid into their cargo hold. Thankfully, she did find some food to eat and even some water. It had been a long time since she had either slept or had a full belly. Now that she had eaten, she found herself a perfect hiding spot in the back corner and fell asleep.

  One day, she vowed to herself. One day, she would return to the castle and to her sister. One day.

  Epilogue

  Olympia Bai

  The dream came to Olympia as it had more and more often. The pain of losing her family. The fleeing from destruction and chaos. The desire not so much for vengeance but the burning need to right past wrongs.

  Ninos and Amosis and the others wished for her to lead them. Perhaps she would one day but not here. No. Olympia’s birthright was out there, waiting for her.

  Two queens were pretenders, and neither knew that another had a claim to the throne, a claim far stronger than either of theirs.

  As she had before, Olympia unearthed the box from beneath the sand. She removed the surcoat and traced her fingers along the plum tree and then the white six-pointed stars in the corners.

  She sighed, hugged the surcoat to her chest, and rubbed the soft material against her cheek.

  It was no longer time to hide any longer. The plum three and the white stars were the symbols of a house, her house.

  Dong Han had served her family since the time he had been born. His father had served them as had his father. When her parents had been murdered, Dong Han had not hesitated to slip the baby Olympia away. They had sailed as far from Atlan as they could to Xalac, and here, Olympia had stayed.

  Until now.

  She would not die here as Dong had. No.

  Dong had been a loyal servant to the Li family. Yes, Olympia was not Bai. She was Olympia Li. Precious few still living knew that the queen had even been pregnant. Perhaps fewer knew she had given birth to not one child but two.

  As far as Olympia knew, her twin was still alive. The two had been separate to better their chances of
survival and hiding.

  Now, it was time for Olympia to act. There was so much turmoil and deceit already. Perhaps the Lis could restore the peace and glory that had once been.

  Yes, it was time for her to return home and to find her twin. Then, all might be right in the world, not only for Tenoch, but for Xalac, Zola, Tiapan, and Vincana too.

  That day and for the rest of the week, Olympia squirreled away supplies and built herself a ship. Without telling any of the others her plans, she sailed away one night with only the stars and the moon to give witness to her trek.

  After all of this time, Olympia Li was going home.

  Author’s note

  I hope you enjoy learning more about the characters in The Deceit of Tongues. So much action and intrigue, more turmoil and lots of deceit. There’s far more deceit to come in the next installment, Keepers of the Flames!

  If you loved The Deceit of Tongues as much as I did writing it, please write a review. The more reviews, the more motivated I’ll be to release the next books faster!

  Until the next book,

  N. M. Zoltack

  Other Books By N. M. Zoltack

  In the Eye of the Dragon

  A Time of Turmoil

  The Deceit of Tongues

  Keepers of the Flames - available for preorder

  The Triumphant Return - coming soon

  When Claws and Swords Collide - coming soon

  The Might of Magic - coming soon

  Blood and Ashes - coming soon

  About the Author

  N. M. Zoltack loves epic fantasy more than life. Game of Thrones is amazing, and George RR Martin really needs to finish the last books. More than willing to talk theories and it’s up for debate which is better—the books or the show.

  For more information:

  Email nmzoltack@gmail.com