Blood Moon (Blood Rain Book 2)

by Nancy Gray

  “Watch it! Will you? What are you doing?”

  Mirilee grinned. “Shhh. We’re going to sneak out. The other sailors are either organizing the cargo or up on deck. We figured that if we wanted to get out without anyone noticing, now would be the time.”

  Mercy glanced at Erebus. “You’re going along with this? I thought you were too wounded to do anything like that.”

  Erebus said with an awkward expression, “Well, I’ve mostly healed up now.”

  He slowly unrolled the bandage around his arm. Mercy gasped in surprise. The long gashes that were gushing blood only a day ago appeared to be nothing more than deep scratches caused from a disgruntled houserender.

  “Let me guess. One of your abilities?”

  “All of our people heal quickly with access to enough blood.”

  “Well, either way, Pyron says it’s not safe and that we should stay in our quarters.”

  Kylas had a mad twinkle in his brown eyes. His light-blond hair was disheveled, like he had been running his hands through it repeatedly in frustration. Mercy figured that his time on the ship was already starting to get to him. Being a desert dweller, like Mirilee, meant that he was used to always moving from place to place. Being cooped up on the ship must’ve been maddening for both of them.

  Kylas snapped, “I don’t care what Pyron says. I need to get on solid ground. Besides, that city looks amazing.”

  Mercy raised an eyebrow. “If you’ll recall, your curiosity has gotten you into trouble before.”

  Erebus chuckled but Mirilee gave Mercy a dirty look. Kylas looked at the ground, and she felt his shame and anger as he glared at Erebus.

  She sighed. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. It’s just that I think Pyron might be right. My tribe has always said never to underestimate the Ashen People.”

  Mirilee stepped forward and put a hand on Mercy’s shoulder, saying in a conspiratorial whisper, “Well, you don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to. But think of it, Mercy – dry land. We’ll be sailing for a long time after we leave here. It might be your last chance for over a month to touch solid ground.”

  Mercy felt like sinking into one of the hammocks in despair. She hadn’t thought about the fact that the journey would take at least four weeks to sail around the mountain range, and they would be stuck on the ship the entire time. Her legs nearly buckled at the thought.

  Erebus glared at Mirilee. “Seriously, Mercy, don’t go if you don’t want to. If you decide to stay, I’ll stay with you so you have some company.”

  “And then you can be alone…”

  Erebus rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Mirilee, please?”

  “Only because you said please.”

  Mercy stammered, “A month of sailing? I’ll go insane! I’m going to be throwing up every single day for a month straight. I’ll waste away.”

  Mirilee said in an enticing whisper, “Dry, solid ground just a few feet away. It’s your choice.”

  “So, do you have a plan?”

  Kylas grinned widely. “That’s what we were discussing. Right now, the navigator and the cabin boy are in the lower deck checking inventory.”

  Mirilee said, “Maybe we should invite the cabin boy. Scrap, wasn’t it? He would probably love getting off this boat as much as we would.”

  Erebus shook his head. “Nah. He would rat us out just because he doesn’t have any fun so no one else can either. I’ve never seen a kid act so jaded.”

  Mercy nodded. “Besides, it’s one thing to put ourselves in danger, but he can’t be older than twelve.”

  Kylas began to pace. “Yes. This is going to be hard enough as it is. Anyway, the captain is in his cabin, Beryl is downstairs, and Pyron is about to leave. The cook is in the galley. The first mate is blind in one eye, and ironically, I think he’s keeping watch right now with the second mate. If we’re going to go, we need to do it soon while it’s just the first and second mate on deck.”

  Mercy asked, “But how are we going to slip past them?”

  Mirilee smiled wryly. “I found out that the second mate isn’t what you call the most upright of people. He’s also a desert nomad, like us, and has a secret hobby. He’s a glassblower. It’s the one thing he’s passionate about. I just so happen to have a small crate of raw glass from the Glass Dunes that I brought to Concord to trade but never got around to doing it.”

  Erebus grinned. “I see. So we bribe him. I like it. The second mate hardly knows us and Pyron doesn’t have him in his pocket. I’m sure he would look the other way.”

  Kylas continued to pace and nodded. “As for the first mate, he might be a little harder. He’s a bit of a grouchy old man, but he loves to tell stories especially about the Merfolk. He looks like he might be one of your people, Mercy, so we thought maybe you could get him started on a story to distract him.”

  Mercy frowned. She had only seen the first mate once or twice. She did remember that he had white hair that looked like it had a greenish tint at one point, and his dark skin looked similar to Mender of Spirit’s. But, his features looked a little mixed as well. He stared at her on the few times that she saw him which made her feel a little apprehensive.

  “But if I distract him, how am I supposed to escape?”

  Mirilee said, “Just listen to his story and nod a lot. And when the story is over, tell him that you’re going up to the upper deck to feel the breeze. Then, when he isn’t looking, you’ll jump in behind us.”

  “Jump in? I think I missed something.”

  Erebus looked embarrassed. “Well, the way we see it, the only way that we can get away from the ship without being seen is by jumping into the water and swimming up to the dock in between the other ships.”

  “Don’t you think that might be just a little conspicuous?”

  Kylas paused from his pacing and grinned. “Not necessarily. People fall in all the time. I’ve watched a few of the merchant ships, and some of the crewmen even jump in to get to the dock faster so they can start tying the lines ahead of time. We’ll look no different than any of the other sailors.”

  “I guess the worst that could happen would be that we get caught and have to go back to the ship. From what I’ve seen, Pyron has quite a reputation here, so he could probably get us out of any trouble we might get in.”

  Kylas clapped Mercy on the back and said, “I knew you’d come along! Alright, I’ll check and see if Pyron has left yet and make sure there isn’t a soldier onboard for the inspection. Once I wave at you guys, Mirilee and I go out first to try to bribe the second mate. Then, Erebus will meet up with us while Mercy approaches the first mate. Got it?”

  Everyone nodded. Kylas moved silently down the hallway. Within minutes he was back waving at them eagerly. Kylas and Mirilee went outside first.

  Mercy turned to Erebus. “I have a really bad feeling about this. I didn’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, but my instincts are screaming at me that we’re doing something really stupid.”

  “Well, stupid or not, it’ll be quite a memory! Since our mission is so dangerous anyway, I’d like to have one more memory of doing something else foolish with you.”

  Mercy elbowed him in the ribs, and he gently held her hand, squeezed it, and then walked up on deck to do his part. Mercy followed him, blinking against the midday light.

  Mercy looked up at Mirilee, Erebus, and Kylas. It seemed that bribing the second mate was the easiest part. He was holding the shards of desert glass up to the light and grinning from ear to ear, chatting in excitement with Mirilee and Kylas. The first mate was watching them, clearly trying to listen in, though he looked like he was too far away to hear anything.

  The first mate was an old man with a milky white eye, a grizzled beard, and always holding a flask. His dark brown skin looked as cracked and as dry as cured behemoth hide, and it contrasted sharply with his silvery white hair. When she got closer, she realized that his skin also had a grayish tinge to it as well, and his good eye was greenish in coloration and probably matched his
hair at one time. She realized that he was probably was a mixture of one of Mercy’s own people and one of the people of the Ashen capital. The first mate began to stare at her as she approached. She tried not to look uncomfortable.

  “You’re the first mate, aren’t you? I was wondering, how long do you think that we’ll be here?”

  The old man said, “Aye. The name is Ailfrius.”

  “They call me Mind of Mercy, but Mercy will do.”

  He took a swig of his flask. “That’s a lovely name, no sense in abbreviating it. I think we’ll probably be setting out around nightfall.”

  Mercy glanced up in the direction of the second mate. The group was still talking.

  “So, I hear that you know interesting stories.”

  Ailfrius’s good eye twinkled. “So I’ve been told. Was there one in particular that you wanted to hear?”

  “I heard you knew something about the Merpeople. Have you ever seen one?”

  Ailfrius shifted in the chair and leaned forward. “Yes, I’ve seen them and I’ve spoken to them. Don’t get your hopes up about doing the same, though. They’re very secretive. The closest that you’ll probably come is seeing that figurehead.”

  Mercy glanced at the figurehead. It was a very lifelike rendition of a one of the Merpeople, but she had never seen Beryl with a long fish-like tail instead of legs. The one time he changed appearance for her, his hands were webbed and she assumed his feet probably were as well, but his legs remained. She wondered if there were different types of Mermen, some with legs and some without. She suddenly found herself more interested in the story than creating an adequate distraction.

  “Are there different types? What do they look like?”

  “Well, their appearance is as varied as there are different types of fish in the sea. But they all usually have long fish tails.”

  Mercy glanced around, making sure that Beryl wasn’t above deck to overhear her. “But I’ve heard rumors that they can get out of the sea. I even heard that they sometimes marry people from the North. How can they do that if they can’t get up on land?”

  “Well, they can change shape. Surely, you knew that. They’re similar in that respect to those bat-like creatures in your forest. But they don’t like the heat very much.”

  Mercy asked, “How do you know so much about them?”

  “They saved my life once. When I was just a young sailor, I fell overboard during a storm. I thought I was a goner. The waves were pulling me farther and farther away from the boat and into the open ocean. Just keeping my head above the waves drained me of my strength. The water was freezing.”

  He paused, as though checking to make sure Mercy was still interested.

  Mercy asked quickly, “What happened?”

  “That’s when the mermen and mermaids found me. It was a group of them. They breathed air into my lungs. So, now I’m one of the few people who can say the he kissed a mermaid.”

  Mercy laughed and Ailfrius grinned.

  “When my head was back above the waves, I tried to convey my thanks, and they understood me. They told me that they sometimes follow ships from a distance. Sometimes, they even follow closely disguised as dolphins or whales, so that they can hear conversations.”

  Mercy gasped! Even though she knew that the beast men could camouflage their skin or change into any human appearance that they desired, she never dreamed that they could actually change form entirely. From what she learned in the Stealer Wing prison, it seemed that they could do real magic, so what they could do wasn’t limited to a simple natural gift.

  She couldn’t help but voice her disbelief. “They can shape-shift into animals? I thought that the beast men could only change their appearance slightly, to look more like people.”

  Ailfrius shrugged and leaned back as though thinking about what she said. “Well, I can only assume that they were telling me the truth. I’m always very careful not to harm dolphins now, and after I heard that I stopped being a whaler.”

  “They sound very different from the Blood Wings. Did you ever live in the forest village?”

  “Nope. Born and raised in Concord. But, my mother was one of the Forest Folk before she moved here. I swear that you look just like her, except for the hair. Hers was green. You have that red hair like a fox’s fur.”

  Mercy smiled slightly. Now that she was close enough to distinguish his emotions from those of the other sailors, she could tell why he stared at her. He felt almost a fatherly affection for her, and was bewildered at the resemblance between her features and those of his mother. It made her wonder if his mother actually was related to hers, a long lost sister or a close cousin, perhaps. It made her wish that she knew. She had never really gotten to know her mother.

  Mercy thought, “Maybe I should just stay here and talk to him. I don’t really want to go into the city anyway. There’s something about the idea sets me on edge.”

  Mercy suddenly thought about the night that she lost her mount, Nightsong, to renders. It was the very same night that she fled the village to start her search for the source of the blood rain. She tried to save him, but in the end it wasn’t enough. After everything that happened on her journey, she vowed on the Blood moon to become someone who could protect her friends. She had a feeling that the Blood moon would hold her to her promise.

  She resolved. “No, I have to go. If there’s going to be trouble, the others will need me to be there.”

  Ailfrius stretched and took another long sip from his flask. “Well, I’d say that you listened to an old man ramble long enough to be a decent distraction. Better be getting back to your friends before they drown down there waiting for ya.”

  A flush of embarrassment spread across Mercy’s cheeks, “How did you know? You weren’t even looking in that direction!”

  “I might be going blind, girl, but I’m not deaf. When someone starts to lose one of their senses, the others tend to step up and pick up the slack. How do you think that I end up on watch at all? I can hear the cat catching rats below deck, and I heard your friends diving into the water. Plus, second mate Lavirin talks loud when he’s excited. He hasn’t seen glass from the dunes in a very long time.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No offense taken. I’m going to assume that you all want to see the city and I can’t talk you out of it. Anyway, I tend to believe that the young have to make their own mistakes in order to learn anything.”

  Mercy frowned. “I don’t want you to get into any trouble because we snuck away on your watch, though.”

  Ailfrius shrugged. “Well, none of us here are jailers. You’re old enough to make your own choices, even the bad ones. Besides, Lavirin is the one that’ll catch hell for it. Taking a bribe and knowing full well that you kids are probably going to get into trouble should be enough to get him swabbing the deck for a full week. I think I’ll enjoy seeing that.”

  Mercy grinned. “It was nice talking to you, Ailfrius. Thank you.”

  “Nice meeting you, Mind of Mercy. Well, I’m just going to stare in this direction for awhile. It’d be a shame if I missed something important.”

  Mercy pretended to be glancing over her shoulder as she climbed up to the quarter deck.

  Lavirin whispered to her. “Make sure to put your hands together and straighten your body as you dive. You’ll make less of a splash that way. Good luck.”

  Mercy nodded and looked down. Erebus, Mirilee, and Kylas motioned to her to jump. She was glad that she wasn’t afraid of heights or of drowning. She quickly put her hands together and dove overboard, cutting the water like a heron diving for a fish.

  4

  “Cold!” Mercy said in a hissing whisper.

  Kylas grinned. “Don’t worry! When we get to the city, it’ll be warm enough for us to dry. We’re going to try to get on the dock between those two ships.”

  “How did I ever let you talk me into this? There are guards everywhere!”

  Mirilee chanted, “Dry land, just a few feet away.”

/>   “I somehow don’t think that the land is going to seem very dry now.”

  “Steady, unmoving land, then.”

  Erebus swam closer to Mercy. “It’s not too late. You could still get back into the ship.”

  Mercy shook her head. “I might as well go through with the plan now. We’re already almost to the dock.”

  Kylas went first and helped everyone onto the dock one by one. The two ships that they swam between to get to the dock were huge in comparison to The Serpent Queen, and there were so many sailors of different ethnicity that they blended in nicely. Still, Mercy didn’t see any of her kind on the docks. She saw one or two people that looked like forest dwellers remaining on the ships, and their expressions were somber. It was as though they were afraid to go into the city, and as far as she was concerned they probably had good reason.

  Mercy remembered her father’s warning the night she left the village, “Don’t trust the Ashen folk and don’t let them convince you to go anywhere near their capital. Also, above all, don’t let them know that you can understand their tongue. It would make you useful as a slave. Do you think they really care where their slaves come from, or that their people would know the difference? You need to stay sharp or you won’t make it back alive.”

  Mercy thought, “Well, he was wrong about Pyron. Hopefully, he was wrong about the rest of the Ashen people as well.”

  Erebus seemed to sense Mercy’s apprehension, because he reached out and gently held her hand. She gladly took it. The city seemed awe-inspiring on board the ship, but that view was nothing compared to actually walking among the buildings. Some of them looked as tall as trees. Even though they weren’t tall as the dwellings in Erebus’ colony, they were still just as impressive in a totally different way. The bat-like beast men had constructed their towers out of existing stone, and Mercy’s people constructed their homes in the branches of the tallest trees, trying to incorporate as much of the canopy into the design as possible. However, the Ashen people built buildings of red or black clay bricks that stood alone, separate from their landscape, almost defiantly so.