Stone Heart (The Cursed Seas Collection)

by Pauline Creeden

  “You feel that too, right?” Kane asked me.

  “The pulsing?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  I huffed. “I thought it was my adrenaline wearing off.”

  “No. It’s magic of some sort,” he said and stood.

  I sighed and stood as well. So much for our break.

  As we turned to walk deeper into the cave, I was surprised that despite how dark it was, I wasn’t scared or nervous here. There was a sense of contentment and peace here. Kane linked our fingers, so we didn’t get separated, and I followed closely behind him.

  The strange feeling continued to grow as we walked.

  We stepped out into sunlight. It was a circular clearing that looked like something had crashed through the cave and now a few plants grew around us, but most surprising of all was the wall made out of a strange rock I had never seen before. There, in the center sat a glowing blue stone. I blinked at it. My heart began racing again.

  This was it. The stone we had been searching for. We had finally found it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A sense of peace filled me as I stood before the strange wall staring at the blue stone. The blue didn’t remain stagnant, but different shades of light within the stone swirled. Even though I had no magic, I could tell this was the stone we had been searching for. Kane’s hand remained on the small of my back as I stepped closer to it. Using my knife, I pried the stone lose from the wall, and caught it in my hand. It felt warm, and a smile spread across my face as I held it. Finally. After all of the trials and near-death experiences, we had found the stone.

  Kane and my dreams could come true.

  We could build a house together. We could build a life together. Hiruko could come live with us. We could have a grove of trees and other plants and we wouldn’t have to worry about the oilines attacking us. The seas would be safe again.

  Kane and I would live in a world of peace and prosperity. One where we could have kids, if we wanted to.

  Tears burned in the corners of my eyes as I looked at the stone. A stone that would save us.

  Now no other siren or mage had to be sent after the stone. No more would be sent to die.

  “We found it,” I whispered.

  Kane touched the stone and a smile lit his face. “We did.”

  “It’s so small,” I whispered, cradling it in my palm.

  “Marvelous things come in small packages,” he said while gazing down at me, eyes soft.

  There was so much meaning in his words, I could read them in his eyes. I stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly on the lips. “With this, we might actually survive long enough to have families.”

  “A family,” Kane said and wrapped his arms around me. “You and I will have a family together.”

  He kissed me deeply, and I threw my arms around his neck, relishing the way his tongue danced with mine.

  “We have to go,” Kane said when he pulled back. “Your dad will be here soon, and I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  He was right. I tore a strip of my shirt off, wrapped the stone in it, and tucked it away in my backpack. Kane held out his hand, and I gripped it tightly as we headed out of the hidden grove. We ducked as we entered the cave that led out of the mountains, and the light at the other end nearly blinded me. Kane guided me out, but stopped so suddenly, I ran into his back.

  “What—” After rubbing my eyes with my hand, I saw what had caused him to stop.

  Pirates.

  There were at least twenty pirates surrounding the exit of the cave. One held Dad with his arms bound behind him and a gag in his mouth.

  “You’ve got somethin’ we want,” a pirate with a peg leg and rusty cutlass in his hand said.

  “Hygiene?” I smirked.

  “Give us the stone,” another pirate said. He had a patch over one eye and a skull and crossbones tattooed on his bald head.

  These pirates had the same rotting teeth as the others we’d encountered, and they looked at us with hunger in their eyes.

  “I don’t have a stone.” I shrugged and tried to cultivate a bored stance and expression.

  “We can feel it,” the peg leg pirate said.

  I reached for my knife, but the tip of a sharp dagger pressed into my chin, halting my movement.

  “Stand up, nice and slow,” a deep male voice said behind me. I nearly gagged at the stench of his foul breath.

  My eyes darted to Kane. He had a knife to his throat as well.

  Crap! How had they flanked us?

  “To camp!” one of the pirates in the crowd yelled.

  The pirate behind me pulled the dagger from my hand and pushed on my back. I stumbled forward a bit, and the blade he held slipped slightly against the skin on my neck causing it to sting. I hissed.

  “It’d be best if you watched your step, little one.” The pirate holding me chuckled, and I held my breath to avoid the rank odor.

  Another pirate jumped forward with ropes and tied both my hands together in front of me. Kane’s were tied behind his back. The pirate behind him looked younger and was in awe of the staff he now held. He played with it a moment as if the staff itself could hold magic, but the wooden rod did nothing special. He huffed and pushed on Kane’s back with it. Anger flared up within me, but I understood it was best if we cooperated right now. We could bide our time until we reached a better situation than one where a knife was held to our throats. There had to be a way to escape. If we could survive oilines and wolfcupines, we could escape stupid pirates.

  “Once we get to camp, I want them searched,” the bald pirate with the eye patch called over his shoulder.

  “Yes, Captain,” the pirate behind me said.

  I clenched my teeth. He was the captain? He did seem to have a bit more meat on his bones than the others. Was more muscled and had a commanding air about him. Those tattoos he had were bigger and more numerous than the ones I spotted on the other pirates as well.

  “When you find the stone, bring it and the girl to me,” the captain ordered.

  Way out front, there was a pirate holding Dad, too, but I lost sight of him as we trudged forward. We marched until my hands began to go numb in the ropes. I flexed them, trying to get circulation back into them, but there was little use. Half a day later, we made it to their base camp. I was pretty shocked they had traveled so far inland. I never thought pirates would venture this far in. I supposed if the treasure was worth enough, it warranted them leaving their ship to go after it.

  How had they found out we were going after the stone? How had they found us all the way here? It was impossible for them to have followed us, since we had been derailed by my near death and everything else.

  “What are you going to do with the stone anyway?” I asked.

  “Sell it,” the captain said.

  “Or destroy it,” Peg leg added with a nod and scratched his scruffy beard.

  The captain shrugged. “We still haven’t decided quite yet.”

  I glared at them. “Why destroy it?”

  “We enjoy the monsters and looting in the world now.” The captain sat on a boulder nearby. “If that stone fixes it all, there’ll be nothing left for us to do. Except rob people, but that don’t sound like much fun.”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I said, “You’re attempting to rob me right now.”

  He huffed a laugh. “I suppose I am, girl.”

  Around us, pirates bustled around their impressively large camp. There were about a dozen olive green tents, one of which was three times the size of the others with a large pole in the center. It was made of several shades of olive green as though it had been sown together with the fabric of smaller tents.

  The pirate holding me shoved my shoulder, making me sit down on a crate at the center of their camp. I looked up at him. He was younger, too, just like the pirate that had snuck up on Kane. Now that we were out of the shadows of the cave, I noticed that he had dried mud smeared over his skin. Was that how they’d ambushed us before. His ribs stuck out
from his torn shirt. It seemed that the younger the pirates were, the less they fed them. Somehow that made me feel the smallest bit of pity for them.

  They tied Dad and Kane up to a pole after patting their clothes for items. Then, they gagged Kane, while he glared at them. If looks could kill, they would have burst into ash.

  “Come ’ere, girl,” the pirate who had escorted Kane said. He pointed at the tent. “We’re going to search you in there.”

  Kane struggled against his restraints, his eyes full of fury. The gag muffled his cries.

  Resisting wouldn’t help me and might even do more harm than good. So, I stood. I needed to keep my eye out for an opportunity to escape. I could take solace in the fact they’d tied my hands in front of me. They likely perceived me as less of a threat than Kane. Their mistake.

  Two pirates dragged me into the tent, and before I could stop them, ripped my bag away from me. The ropes bit into my hands as they tightened and then one of my hands came loose. The pirate closest to me grabbed my arm as I reached for the bag and pushed me back.

  “No. You stay right there,” he ordered me.

  I stayed still and looked around, pulling my rope from my wrist. I was in a simple tent, and there were just a few pillows on the ground. In the center stood the pole which held up the tent material. It wasn’t very thick. Could I break it? Or knock it over?

  The pirate who had taken my bag opened it and began tossing my stuff out onto the ground.

  “Really? You can’t just set my stuff out neatly?” I complained and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “You sure we can’t kill her?” the pirate standing near me asked, scrubbing at his arm. The dried mud had to be pulling at his skin and making it itchy.

  “Captain said to bring her and the stone to him,” the pirate searching my bag reminded him.

  “Yeah, but he didn’t say she had to be alive,” the pirate near me growled.

  He wasn’t wrong, but I hoped he wouldn’t follow through with that suggestion.

  “Where is it?” the pirate searching my bag growled, digging around violently.

  He should have found it. It was just wrapped in a strip of my shirt in the bag. I hadn’t hidden it, but it could have fallen to the bottom when we were walking. I wasn’t going to offer to find it for him, though.

  Finally, he emptied the contents of the bag and dumped them on the ground. Then he glared at me. “Check her,” he growled.

  The pirate near me stepped closer. I backed up, heading towards the middle of the tent.

  “Hey, I’ve got nothing on me. Just this shirt and belt,” I told him, holding my hands out to ward him off.

  “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Personally, I prefer the hard way,” he said, leering at me.

  Ew.

  Two more steps back and I stood next to the pole. I had been right, it was small and it didn’t look like it had been secured well. I pretended to trip, slammed into the pole as hard as I could, and it fell over easily, collapsing the tent with it.

  “Hey!” the pirates yelled.

  I crawled on my hands and knees back towards where my bag had been. The pirates were moving around, but I couldn’t see them. I found my bag and shoved as much of my stuff back inside as I could, and then headed to the opposite side of the tent.

  I lifted the flap and a pair of boots greeted me.

  Caracas!

  “You should really teach your men how-to put up tents. That pole fell right over when I leaned on it,” I said as I stood and brushed myself off.

  The captain eyed me with his one good eye and stood with his hands on his hips. “I’ll have a word with my men.”

  I gripped the straps of my bag and asked, “So, where are we going?”

  His lip twitched, but I wasn’t sure if it was to hide a smile or a snarl. He pointed towards the pole Kane and Dad were tied to, and I obediently marched over.

  “You wench!” the pirate who had been nearest me when I’d knocked over the tent yelled and rushed towards me.

  The captain stepped between us. “Back down.”

  “She—”

  The captain put his hands on his hips and glared at the man.

  The man shrank back and turned away.

  “Now, hand over the stone,” the captain ordered me as he turned to face me.

  “I don’t have it,” I said with a shrug. “Ask the pirate who searched my bag.”

  His eyes narrowed, and he turned to look at the other pirate.

  “I searched her bag and couldn’t find it,” the pirate confirmed.

  “Did you search her?” the captain asked.

  “No, she knocked the tent on us before we could,” the pirate said scratching at the mud on his arm again.

  The captain turned toward me and smiled. “Well, looks like we have to do a search.”

  I patted myself down. “I don’t even have pockets or anything.”

  “You could be hiding it in your brassiere,” the captain said, lifting a brow.

  “I don’t wear one,” I told him and shrugged.

  A few of the pirates whistled and another hooted.

  “Strip,” the captain ordered me.

  Kane pulled against his restraints, his eyes blazing.

  I shrugged. “Okay.” Being naked wasn’t anything new to me. In fact, it would feel good to get out of the clothes for a bit.”

  I dropped my bag next to my feet, unbuckled the belt holding the shirt I’d borrowed from Kane the first day I met him, and then began tugging the shirt off. I hadn’t thought I would like clothes, but I felt attached to the shirt now. Still, I removed it and set it on top of my bag and belt.

  I stood, hands on my hips as I faced the captain, completely naked. “See? No stone,” I told him.

  He moved closer to me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Kane struggling in his restraints again.

  “I’ll need to check if you’re hiding it,” the captain said, his tongue darting out across his lips.

  Oh no! No way!

  I backed up, closer to Kane. “No. You keep your filthy hands to yourself.”

  A pirate behind me began approaching, looking to trap me between them.

  Suddenly, there was an explosion near Kane and Dad. The force of the blast knocked me to my knees, as well as the pirates around us.

  Kane scooped me up in his arms, grabbed my clothes and bag, and started running.

  “What—”

  “No one is touching you,” Kane growled.

  Dad ran beside us, casting glances over his shoulder. “They’re coming!”

  “What about your staff?” I asked Kane.

  “It’s on my back,” he said, and when I looked, it was indeed strapped across his back. “I snatched it before I grabbed you.”

  “You can move pretty fast when you want to,” I said, smirking.

  He smiled. “I just need the right motivation.”

  “Get them!” the pirate captain roared behind us.

  “I think you made him mad.”

  Kane chuckled. “I seem to have that effect on people.”

  “Do you have the stone?” Dad asked.

  “No,” I told him. “I don’t know where it is.”

  Kane was smirking, and that told me all I needed to know. He had it. How he had managed to get it from the time I put it in my bag to the time the pirates grabbed us was a mystery though.

  “I’ll have to circle back to find it,” Dad said.

  “They’ll catch you,” Kane said.

  Dad laughed. “I’m not so easy to catch. They caught me off guard last time. Take care of my girl,” Dad said. He smiled at me then veered to the left and disappeared into the trees.

  I waited several beats before asking in a whisper, “You have it, don’t you?”

  Kane nodded, smiling wide. “Yes, I do.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” he promised. “Let’s escape first.”

  “They’re not going to stop hunting u
s. We need to find where to put the stone.”

  “I imagine the stone’s resting place is where it all began,” Kane said. “Where the mages did the spells on the sirens all those years ago.”

  “The deadlands?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  He nodded. “The deadlands.”

  “I only have a couple fruits left,” I said. “That jerk pirate dumped all my stuff on the ground, and I didn’t recover all of it.”

  “We’ll have to forage on the way. And fill up our water,” Kane said, his breath came out in pants. “If the task was easy, it would have been done already.”

  “Right,” I grumbled.

  That didn’t mean I had to like it.

  I peered over Kane’s shoulder and for a long while, I didn’t see anything. “Put me down. I think we’re far enough away.”

  Kane nodded and set me down, so I could dress and walk beside him. We continued walking well into the night, but with no signs of the pirates still pursuing us, we opted to sleep up in the trees.

  We were going to have to go back to walking at night and sleeping during the day while in the deadlands. I frowned remembering how the sun cooked my skin.

  “We should grab some of that plant for sunburns before we leave, too,” I said.

  Kane chuckled. “Okay. I like that you’re thinking ahead.”

  “Just avoiding as much discomfort as I can,” I admitted.

  We sat on a tree limb high enough that no one could see us easily from the ground. I leaned against Kane, while he had his arms around my waist and we both had a rope tied around our middles.

  “Do you miss the water?” Kane asked softly as he rubbed his thumb over the hand he held.

  “Sometimes,” I admitted.

  “Are you really going to stay on land after this is over?”

  I turned sideways as much as I could and met his eyes. “Trying to get rid of me already?”

  He smirked. “Definitely not. If I had my way, you would stay by my side for the rest of our lives.”

  “You sure you want me to stick around?”

  He squeezed me and kissed my cheek. “One hundred percent.”

  “Good, because you’re stuck with me.” I kissed him lightly then turned around and leaned my head against his shoulder with my eyes closed.