by S. E. Smith
“How horrible! What did you do?” Tonya asked with sympathy for the boy he used to be.
Ashure smiled at the memories. “I learned how to survive. Soon I could pickpocket a coin or steal bread from unsuspecting merchants and be off with my bounty before anyone realized it was missing. I listened and learned from others. The world was my playground, and I was determined to enjoy every moment of it. I quickly learned that bartering led to more valuable items than I could steal and…” He grew quiet for a moment.
“And,“ she prodded.
He briefly looked down at her before he took a deep breath and continued. “I learned that kindness was not a weakness as my parents had told me. Eventually, I found myself on one of the Pirate King’s ships. Unfortunately, my reputation as a softy, and my father’s as an incompetent louse, had preceded me. The Quarter Master assigned me one horrible job after another, and I attacked each with bull-headed single-mindedness. I was determined to prove him and every other pirate wrong. I was not the product of my parents’ faults but of my own honor and strength,” he said with a shake of his head.
“How old were you when you first started there?” she probed.
“Eleven. I was very full of myself, and I made sure that everyone knew it,” he chuckled.
“Eleven! You were just a kid…” Tonya hissed in dismay before her voice faded.
“I didn’t realize I was one. However, I did realize that I was faster and could fit in places that larger men could not. I had no complaints. As I mentioned before, I was free, and that was all that mattered to me. The ships sailed from port to port, and on each one, I learned more until the day I finally found myself aboard the Sea Wasp,” he said, murmuring the ship’s name with reverence.
“The Sea Wasp?” she urged.
Ashure looked at her again and smiled. “It was the ultimate achievement to a nobody like me. I was aboard the Pirate King’s personal ship. It was the largest, fastest, and most luxurious of all the ships that sailed from the Isle of the Pirates, and only the best were given a position on it,” he boasted.
“Wow, that must have felt pretty good for you to have proved everyone wrong,” she reflected, fascinated with his tale.
“It would have been if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew it had been in error. Two letters had been left on my former Captain’s desk for prying eyes to see. One was a letter of discipline, the other the transfer to the Sea Wasp. The Captain had a small vision problem, and he’d filled out the forms backwards. So, instead of being sent to the brig, I was dispatched to the Sea Wasp. Either way, my former Captain was thrilled to be rid of me,” he said with a wink.
She gave him an exasperated look. “What did you do to irritate him so badly?” she asked.
“He had two very lovely daughters that I might have come to know rather intimately,” he confessed.
“Oh!” She snorted.
“I was a young lad of twenty by then. Alas, my former captain had friends in high places, and I was once again assigned the worst duties. I had learned enough magic over the years to help make the chores entertaining. I planned to enjoy the prestige of being on the Pirate King’s ship with none of the responsibilities, and for a while, I did. That lasted all of twenty years,” he said, his voice dropping on the last words.
“Did the Pirate King have a lovely daughter that you seduced?” she sardonically demanded.
“Nay, he had a lovely wife—as beautiful as she was delicate. She was from the Isle of the Monsters—a Sprite like my mother, but one with a gentle nature. Lady Amadeen knew that being away from her kind was dangerous to her health, but unlike my mother who didn’t mind leaving my father and me to return whenever she needed, Lady Amadeen loved Simon Black more than anything in the world, and she refused to be apart from him. I gave her a gift that helped her regain her health when I was nine. I was working on the docks on the Isle of the Giants, and the Sea Wasp had come to port. I knew that she was a Fairy the moment I saw her. I also knew that she was very ill.” He looked down at Tonya with a faint smile and continued. “She was carrying a basket of flowers. Being nine and wanting to impress a certain young lady who had caught my eye, I took a few of the flowers in exchange for a unicorn hair bracelet that I had appropriated during my travels,” he explained.
“Unicorn hair! You have unicorns in the Seven Kingdoms?” she exclaimed with awe.
He chuckled, nodded, and lifted a hand to tuck a stray dark hair behind her ear.
“Yes, there are unicorns. They are inherently shy and difficult to find. However, they are extraordinarily powerful and intelligent creatures. They have the ability to heal. The bracelet was given to me by a unicorn that I had befriended. Xyrie healed me when I was sick and gave me the hair as a gift when I left. I made a bracelet out of it, and then I saw the Lady Amadeen, who clearly needed it far more than I. Unbeknownst to me, someone observed my modest transaction,” he said as he turned and looked back out at the ocean.
“Who saw you?” she quietly inquired.
“Simon Black, Pirate King, and Lady Amadeen’s husband,” he replied.
He started walking again. He had answered most of her questions, but he wasn’t ready quite yet to share everything. The reactions of those who knew his secret in the Seven Kingdoms were enough to make him hesitate. How could he expect Tonya, a human with no magical skills, to accept the power that he now possessed?
She fell into step with him. The tide was out, and for the moment, the skies were clear. He could feel a storm building off the coast. It would be here later tonight.
When he didn’t continue, Tonya said, “When I was twelve, my parents were killed in a bomb blast while reporting on a Civil War overseas.”
“They were good parents to you?” he asked.
Tonya smiled and nodded. “The best. From the earliest moment that I can remember, they would take me with them. The world was my classroom. They covered humanitarian issues—the effects of climate change, war, drought, floods, and more on different societies. They also reported the good things that people could do for each other. I came down sick with the flu the day we were supposed to fly out. A neighbor volunteered to let me stay with her. They were only supposed to be gone for a couple of weeks,” she said.
Ashure paused when she stooped to pick up a pretty shell. She carefully brushed the sand off of it. She was silent as they began walking again.
“What happened when they didn’t come back? Did you go live with other family?” he pressed, wanting to know everything about her.
She shook her head. “There was no other family. My parents were only children. My dad was raised in foster care and had been on his own since he was sixteen. My mom’s dad had died and her mom had dementia and was living in a nursing home,” she explained.
He frowned. “What of this neighbor with whom you were staying? Did she care for you?” he inquired.
She released a short laugh. “Pricely wasn’t the motherly type. The day after my parent’s funeral, Child Services showed up. I didn’t come with money, and as Pricely so eloquently put it—she wasn’t a charity,” she replied.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
“The Robinsons, the Ramseys, the Adams, the Parsleys, two different Williams, then the Peters, Lances, and a few more that are best forgotten before I ended up with the Rollings. I started to lose count of the bedrooms that I’d slept in and the schools that I’d attended. It’s hard trying to be normal when you’ve never lived normal before. I didn’t fit in—until I met Max,” she confessed.
“Max—this is the man you spoke of earlier. The one that woke you up,” he said.
She nodded. “Max was a cop. He still is—but he’s a detective now. He never gave up on me. Max talked me into giving the Rollings a chance. I did—for him. When Mr. Rollings had a heart attack the night Decker almost killed me, it looked like I was headed for Juvie, so Max and Angela took me into their home. For the first time in my life, I had a normal family. They had Little Max, then Angie, but they
never treated me any differently than their own kids. It was nice,” she said, tossing the shell she had found back on the ground.
Ashure reached down and threaded his fingers through Tonya’s. Warmth and peace swept through him when she curled her fingers around his. They walked nearly a mile in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, but he never felt alone. For the first time in his life he felt—normal.
6
Seagulls squawked as they flew overhead. Tonya followed them with her eyes as the birds soared and landed near the edge of the water. She reluctantly pulled her hand free from Ashure’s grasp and brushed a loose strand of her hair back from her face.
“I’m going to bring you to someone who can help send you back home,” she blurted out.
“But—I’ve only arrived! Surely there is no rush,” he protested.
She looked down at the sand. “If you just disappeared, won’t someone back on your world be worried? I’m nobody here and there were people looking for me,” she pointed out.
Ashure shrugged. “My men are used to me disappearing and returning,” he responded.
“And they don’t worry about you? What if you are hurt or in danger or—or—I don’t know, sick or something?” she asked.
“I have been on my own since I was seven. I believe I can handle just about anything,” he dryly answered.
“Yeah, it looked like you were doing pretty good early this morning when you were on the floor eating a mop,” she retorted.
“That was a bit of a surprise,” he admitted with a grin.
She shook her head. “Still, this isn’t a good place for you to be. Our world is nothing like yours, Ashure. You can’t wiggle a finger and have the dishes clean themselves here. People in small towns like this are nosy. They want to know other people’s business. The sooner you return to your world, the better it will be for all of us,” she insisted.
“How do you know about my world?” he asked.
She glanced at him before she stopped and turned to face the ocean. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she stared out at the rolling waves. He stopped and faced her.
“I’m a reporter. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a person who investigates what’s going on in the local area and the world. It’s a lot harder now-a-days to break into the news field. I’ve been writing freelance for the last three years. I don’t make a lot of money from it, but it pays the bills—most of the time. I overheard Max talking to Angela about a couple of strange disappearances in Yachats and thought this could be the big break I was looking for. Getting a scoop on a case like this could open a lot of doors. It was frustrating because things felt weird from the beginning, but there was nothing I could put my finger on. Ross Galloway, a local fisherman, was the primary suspect in the disappearances of two women, Carly Tate and Jenny Ackerly, yet there was no proof that he’d murdered anyone. No proof that anyone had even been murdered, they were just gone,” she said, taking a deep breath as she remembered her frustration.
“Ross did not harm Carly and Jenny. Carly is happily married to Drago, the King of the Dragons, Jenny is with Orion, the Sea King, and Ross is with Princess Gem. He helped her save the Isle of the Elementals from an alien creature. They are doing well, and do not want to return here,” he told her.
She looked at him. “I knew about Carly and Jenny. Oh, and Mike because I met him briefly when he and Marina came to the village I landed in. I was still feeling pretty lousy, so I didn’t get to talk to him much. Ruth was a surprise. I didn’t know about Ross either. I’m still not sure what happened to Asahi Tanaka,” she said.
“I have not heard of this Asahi Tanaka,” he replied with a frown.
“He’s a CIA agent—that’s someone who works for the government. I thought it was strange that he would be interested in a missing person’s case. Usually the FBI takes care of those. I did a little more digging and discovered that the CIA also investigates UFO phenomena and aliens. He was with Ruth on the beach when we all disappeared,” she explained.
“Perhaps when we return we can search for him,” he suggested.
She turned and faced him. “Whoa, there is no ‘we’ in the return—only a ‘you’. I’ll admit that when I first returned I thought it would be neat to go back, but I’ve had time to think about it more. I mean, it was pretty cool seeing all the things that the people in the village could do once I felt better, but it would be totally ludicrous for me to think I could ever live there!” she said with a shake of her head.
He frowned. “You have only seen one small part of the Seven Kingdoms. Imagine if you were aboard the Sea Wasp. We could sail to each Isle and you would see wonders that you never imagined. Nali’s Thunderbirds are a sight to behold, and the underwater realm of the Sea King is as magnificent as the one above. The Dragons are a bit brutish, but the food there is amazing. The marketplace on the Isle of the Giants has everything you could imagine, and now that Koorgan has opened the Isle for trade again, I hope to do more business with them,” he said with a flourishing sweep of his arms.
“Are you listening to yourself? I’m human. I don’t belong in a magical world. How would I make a living? I don’t think the local newspaper is going to be that interested in sending me on a scoop when I don’t know what in the hell I’m talking about!” she retorted.
“You will not have to make a living. I will take care of you as my consort,” he declared.
Tonya stared at him for a few seconds, replaying what he had just said to make sure that it wasn’t a miscommunication due to a difference in languages. After repeating his last sentence for the fifth time, she decided that she heard him correctly and hadn’t misunderstood what he meant.
“Your consort,” she repeated. “You think that I’m supposed to just give up my life here to go to some fairy tale world and become your consort, your kept woman? That is what you are saying, correct?” she summarized.
He thought for a moment before he nodded and smiled. “Yes,” he said with a pleased expression.
She shook her head in disbelief. “You are unbelievable. Come on,” she abruptly ordered, turning back in the direction of the house.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
She shot him a glare over her shoulder. “To find Magna so I can send you home—alone,” she stated with an emphasis on the last word.
“I don’t want to see the Sea Witch,” he muttered, folding his arms across his chest.
“Seat belt, please. If you don’t put it on, the bell will keep ringing and drive us crazy,” Tonya replied, ignoring his statement.
“I am not ready to return. I want to see your world. It is new and interesting,” he added.
“You’re just going to have to trust me when I say that you don’t want to see most of it. It is loud, obnoxious, dangerous, and dirty,” she replied.
“It looks very nice to me,” he stubbornly said.
She glared at him. “We haven’t even made it out of the driveway. Besides, you can’t tell from Yachats how screwed up the rest of the world is,” she informed him.
“I have seen the unsavory side of life,” he retorted before pressing his lips together.
She was being extremely stubborn. He had tried to reason with her. He had tried giving her his smoldering sexy look. He had even tried bribery. Nothing had worked!
She refused to believe that having more humans in his world was a good thing. She thought his sexy look was indigestion, and it turned out offering her jewels and clothing only made things worse. The freezing tone of her reply ‘I am not for sale!’ still rang in his ears.
He drummed his fingers on the armrest of the vehicle. He had to figure out a way to convince her that he and his world would be perfect for her. Obviously, this was going to be a little more complicated than he had expected.
He stared out the window, absently watching several houses and buildings pass by before they entered a town. In many ways, it looked similar to a village back home—except for the clothing, transportation, buildi
ngs, and that everyone looked the same as everyone else. Okay, so there were a lot of differences, but nothing that he couldn’t help Tonya overcome.
“I don’t understand why you insist that we need Magna’s assistance. I did not need a witch’s help to get here, I am sure I won’t need one to return,” he said, twisting in his seat so he could face her.
Her insistence that they see Magna also did not sit well with him. It wasn’t that he was nervous about facing the Sea Witch alone. It was the memories of the atrocities that Magna had perpetrated—whether under her own free will or not—that still weighed on his mind. He didn’t like that Tonya would be defenseless against such powerful magic.
“I’d rather not take the chance. The sooner you go home, the less likely something will go wrong. Besides, I have plans for the weekend that don’t include you. There is no way I would leave you alone here and there is absolutely no way in hell that I’m going to drag you along with me. I can’t even imagine trying to explain you to Max!” she said.
“I would like to meet Max. It is obvious that you care a great deal about him, and I would like to meet the man who took you into his home,” he replied.
He grunted in surprise when he was suddenly thrust forward. He would have hit the dashboard if not for the restraining belt that Tonya had insisted he wear. Sitting back, he shot her a confused look.
She glared at him. “You do not want to meet Max. I do not want you to meet Max. He will ask a gazillion questions and want to know the answer to every single one of them. He has this—this weird way of pulling things out of you that you don’t want him to know. He can look at you, and it makes you squirm, and don’t even think about lying to him. There is no way I’m taking you to meet Max. You have to go home. That is all there is to it,” she stated with a shudder.
“You almost throw me into the front window to tell me that you are afraid to let me—Ashure Waves, King of the Pirates—meet Max, because he may ask questions?” he replied with an amused expression.