Blood Moon (Blood Rain Book 2)

by Nancy Gray

  “I threw myself into my work and plotted my revenge. I traded the love I had for my wife for loyalty to someone else.”

  Mercy sighed and leaned against the barrel harder. “Let me guess, the dictator.”

  “Yes. At least it temporarily got my mind off of my pain. I tried to forget that I felt anything at all. I guess my way wasn’t very healthy, but it worked for me. Everyone copes differently.”

  “Is it heartless that I never thought about taking my own life? I was sad, and lonely, but I didn’t think Wind Runner would want me to do that.”

  “No. If someone really loves you, they wouldn’t want you to give up. If Jonas had been thinking clearly, he probably would’ve realized the same thing. If anyone is to blame it’s me and the captain. We were all just so exhausted we didn’t notice what he was planning to do until it was too late.”

  “I guess it’s no one’s fault, except the traitors.”

  “Mercy, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”

  Mercy rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about our conversation the night of the storm is it? I’m really not in the mood for that right now.”

  “No. I think you can say we’re past that now. I know that you love Erebus, and I’m happy for you. I didn’t like or trust him at first, but he can’t help what he is.”

  Mercy glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “I never thought I would hear you say that.”

  He shrugged. “Well, while you were sleeping, I confronted him about your powers. He told me everything that he could, and I can see that he really does care about you. I think we finally understand one another.”

  Mercy tried to sense Pyron’s emotions. Oddly, it seemed that he was telling the truth. There was no bitterness or resentment hidden in the statement. It seemed that he was over his attraction to her, which was good, but it made her worry that it had something to do with her transformation. Somehow the thought of him revolted by what she was seemed worse than having to worry about his hidden feelings.

  Pyron chuckled. “You’re palm got sweaty. Is something on your mind?”

  “Well, I’m glad that we’re past that now, but it isn’t because of what I am, is it?”

  “Of course not. Mercy, you’re still a human being. Like I told you before, just because you have a new ability doesn’t make you a monster.”

  “Thank you for that. What was it you were going to tell me, then?”

  Pyron stood up. He was pacing behind her, a behavior that she had seen from him many times before when he was worried about something. His pacing made her feel his tension, and she almost wanted to tell him to stop, but she decided to let him take his time instead.

  Pyron asked, “Can we please move to the upper deck? I don’t want anyone to overhear us.”

  Mercy sighed. She thought about the noose and the bodies, but then she looked at the dark spot stained into the wood in front of her. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  24

  Pyron walked ahead of her, and Mercy stared at her feet most of the way. When they got to the upper deck, she was surprised to see that there wasn’t a noose, and if the bodies were above deck, at least they weren’t visible. The sun was setting, and there was a cold breeze that would make it difficult to hear a conversation. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply and somehow felt slightly better. The bracing, chilling air was enough to make her feel almost like she was free again instead of trapped on the ship. She thought, with a slight smile, that it seemed after all was said and done, she was finally over her seasickness.

  For a moment she forgot why she was so upset in the first place as she stared across the ocean towards the sunset. There was ice all around them, glittering in the warm colors of the sun, projecting rainbows of dazzling color across the water. There was also a thin layer of ice coating everything on the ship. She could see hammers and other discarded tools where the sailors had been trying to clear the ice off of the railings. It was one of the most amazing things that Mercy had ever seen. It made her wonder what seeing the North would actually be like and if the legends were true.

  She looked towards the forecastle and saw Captain Morrissey staring across the water. He had a look on his face as though he was concentrating deeply on something. She realized he was probably making sure that they weren’t getting too close to the ice. His emotions were completely blank, and Mercy knew he was using navigating the ship to keep his mind off of everything that happened as much as he was trying to keep them safe.

  Mercy said quietly, “We must be getting close.”

  Pyron nodded. “Yes. I’d say we only have a few more days and we’ll be seeing the mountains.”

  “I think I might kiss the ground.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “It should be fine, just as long as you don’t use your tongue.”

  Mercy elbowed him roughly in the rib.

  Pyron’s demeanor changed to somber again as he sighed. “I’ve been feeling conflicted lately. I’m starting to think that it’s wrong for me to serve the dictator. It’s the first time I’ve ever questioned his judgment since, well, since Nicomedes.”

  “Are you upset because you think he still won’t execute him for what he’s done?”

  “No. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to have to kill him before all of this is over anyway.”

  Pyron shifted from foot to foot for a moment, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and rubbing them as though he was cold. She could feel his nervous energy. Whatever he was going to tell her was something she wouldn’t like, and he knew it.

  Mercy chuckled, pretending to be amused. “Pyron, whatever you’re going to tell me can’t be that bad. Just go ahead and say it. I think after all we’ve been through I can take it.”

  Pyron’s glance told her otherwise, and it made her almost wish she hadn’t said anything.

  He sighed. “There’s something that I didn’t tell you or Beryl, or anyone else on this ship. My mission wasn’t just to bring Nicomedes to justice.”

  Mercy felt his guilt pushing against her like a cold wind. It made the blood drain from her face. Whatever he had been hiding was a dangerous secret. She could suddenly read his emotions almost as well as she could read those of Erebus, and it made her almost not want to hear what he was going to say. He felt that his secret would make her regret saving him. Depending on what the secret was, she couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t.

  He said in a rushed voice, “I was sent to find the source of the blood rain, like you, but I wasn’t just supposed to find the people responsible and stop them. Dictator Crevane wants that power for himself.”

  Mercy whirled around, just barely fighting away the urge to punch Pyron in the face. “You were going to tell the dictator how to cause the blood rain? Are you insane?”

  “I’m not insane, which is why I’m telling you this. I know what he’ll do if he learns how to use it. He’ll use it against the islanders to incite the Waterbloods into a killing frenzy. It would end the war more quickly that way.”

  “What a monstrous way to do it. When he’s finished with the islanders, he’ll probably do the same thing to my people.”

  “I know. I don’t want that to happen, Mercy. You’ve got to understand, being loyal to the dictator is all I’ve ever known. I’ve never agreed on his policies on slavery or your people. If I betray him, I’m as good as dead, but if I don’t I’ll be responsible for what he does with that power, and that will be much worse.”

  Mercy felt her hands balling into fists. It reminded her of how she nearly killed Pyron when she found out he planned to tell the dictator that her people were vulnerable after their conversation with Carmine. She was glad she wasn’t wearing her daggers. It seemed in only a few words he had gone from being one of her friends to being a traitor.

  “Yet you were going to go along with it anyway. You were going to do it, it’s why you’re here on this boat and it’s written all over your face right now. What you’re telling me is that I chose to save your life instead o
f Incenda’s but you were always going to betray me in the end. I chose poorly.”

  Mercy instantly regretted the words. Pyron swayed slightly as though what she said was a physical blow. He gripped the railing in front of him for support.

  Mercy glanced away from him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean that.”

  “Yes you did. And you’re right to hate me for it. I deserve to die for even considering following those orders. Incenda should be the one alive, but we can’t take back the choices we’ve made.”

  Mercy stared at the dark ocean water beneath her. She didn’t want to show Pyron the tears glistening on her cheeks.

  “I guess in some ways I did mean what I said, because I feel like you’ve tricked me into actually caring about you. That night after you told me about your wife I was so confused. I actually wondered if I should be with you instead of Erebus, and all this time you were planning to turn against me. How can you be so heartless?”

  “I’m not heartless. Why do you think I’m telling you about this now? I do care about you, and my wife would be ashamed of me. Last night, I was going to kill Nicomedes, despite what the dictator wanted. I didn’t just come here to follow his orders, Mercy. I did want revenge.”

  “Then why were you going to spare him in the first place?”

  “I knew that if I was going to fail any part of my mission, then I had to do everything else right. I’ve been thinking for a long time of omitting how to create the blood rain, if we figure out how to do it at all. I realized last night, that if I brought Nicomedes back alive then I couldn’t avenge my wife. Then, when the doctor was finished with him, the dictator would find out how Nicomedes got his powers anyway. In exchange he would spare him. He would probably even protect him from me. So I tried to kill him, but you saw how that turned out.”

  Mercy snapped, “But what now? What are you going to do?”

  Pyron glanced away for a moment. “I can wait and see what happens. More than likely, that magic will be too complex for a normal person to learn, or we’ll probably end up killing whoever tries to cast it before we can see how it’s done. If I never find out how to cast that magic, then the doctor can torture me all he wants and I can’t tell the dictator anything anyway.”

  Mercy cringed, thinking about the doctor. She stared at Pyron in disbelief for a moment, wondering how he could stand the thought of an interrogation at his hands. It also made her furious, thinking that the dictator would interrogate one of his own spies to make sure he was telling the truth. The more she heard about him, the more she hated Dictator Crevane.

  “Would Crevane kill you for failing?”

  “Not if I succeeded in every other aspect of the mission, but now that Nicomedes has escaped, I can’t go back to the capital. Last night I decided that I didn’t care what the dictator thought. I was going to avenge my wife. The dictator will kill me for my failure, but I’ll deal with Nicomedes my way.”

  “Then, don’t go back. If the dictator thinks that little of you, why return to him at all?”

  Pyron looked at the water lapping against the side of the ship. “Because I have nowhere else to go. I’ve been one of his spies for so long that I can’t really imagine doing anything else.”

  Mercy frowned, realizing she knew exactly what he meant. She would be going back to her village when everything was over. Even though she had been banished, she had a feeling that she would be welcomed back. After her brother told the story of how she rescued him, and her father told the Elders the truth about why she trusted Pyron and Erebus in the first place, they would understand. She might even be able to one day unite her people and the Blood Wings. Pyron wouldn’t be welcomed back and had nowhere else to go, but then from what she had seen, Pyron had a different dream.

  “Then, move to Concord. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it? Buy the lighthouse and become the lighthouse keeper. Change your face and your name. If you go back to the dictator now, then you are committing suicide, just like Jonas.”

  Pyron stared at the sunset for a moment. “I never thought of it that way. He might still try to kill me since he would expect me to settle down there, but he’ll definitely kill me if I go back. He doesn’t have much jurisdiction in Concord and I can make a pretty good disguise. I just assumed that one day I would die in his service. I thought it was how I wanted to die, but now I’m not so sure.”

  “It sounds like to me you were trying to commit suicide all along. You just didn’t realize it.”

  Pyron nodded. “By Petrum, you’re right! I’m such a fool. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard to find a reason to keep going.”

  Mercy sighed and put her hand over his reassuringly. He managed a weak smile in her direction for a moment, but he still wouldn’t meet her eyes. Despite how furious she was initially, she couldn’t stay angry with Pyron. He wasn’t lying to her. She could tell without even using her ability that he was being sincere. He really felt as though his wife was ashamed of him, and he didn’t intend to carry out his orders, even if it meant his death.

  “I’ve learned from working with the wounded that everyone has to have a reason to live or they just won’t. When I brought you back, what was your reason to live? Was it to avenge your wife?”

  Pyron chuckled. “It’s kind of embarrassing. I’m not sure I even heard what I thought I did, so I might’ve come back for no reason at all.”

  Mercy grinned. “Well, I promise I won’t tell anyone else, unless you really make me angry again.”

  “Well, I’m not hiding anything else that I think could make you that angry, so here it goes. I felt like I was too tired to go on, but then I heard Mirilee crying. I guess you could say it just sort of startled me. I’ve never heard her cry before.”

  Mercy rolled her eyes. “Are you saying you like Mirilee now?”

  Pyron looked away. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I just remember thinking at the time that I didn’t want her crying over me.”

  “Well, you and Mirilee could make an interesting match. Either way, you need to find someone else, Pyron. If you don’t go back to the capital, you could still settle down. I was under the impression that was what you really wanted.”

  “We’ll see. Whatever I decide to do, it seems that I’m not going to be able to go back.”

  Mercy fixed him with a hard stare. “But no matter what, you’re not going to tell the dictator how to create the blood rain, right? Would you be willing to blood promise on that?”

  Pyron stuck out his hand and pulled out his knife readying the blade over his palm. “Yes, right now.”

  Mercy smiled. “That’s all I needed to know.”

  “You’re not going to make me?”

  “You were the one who told me about this. If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known. So, I have to assume that you’re being honest. Besides, powers or not, I don’t want to be the kind of person that doesn’t trust anyone unless they’re under my thumb. Then I would be no better than the dictator.”

  Pyron smiled slightly and sighed. “I don’t deserve your trust. I kept this from you from the beginning.”

  “Well, we’re all in this together now. If I can’t trust the people that I’ve been with from the start, then we’re going to fail, and I don’t want to even imagine what will happen if we do.”

  Captain Morrissey called down from the forecastle, “Pyron, I can use your help. It’s time.”

  Mercy frowned. She hadn’t even noticed that the sun had set entirely and stars were glistening in the sky above her. Off in the distance she could see clouds on the horizon glowing with the last rays of daylight. Mercy understood then that Tolbert was being denied his last view of the sun. His death would be in the night, and from the look of the clouds, possibly during the rain. She thought about Incenda and Jonas and found that she believed he actually deserved even less.

  She thought, “Is that really what I think, or is it that the beast? I suppose it doesn’t matter. She’s a part of me. She always was, whether I want to
admit it or not. Tolbert has to be used as an example. It’s what my father would’ve done as well.”

  Pyron turned to her. “Mercy, I understand if you don’t want to be present for this. You probably need to get more rest anyway. I’m going to assist the captain with the preparations.”

  Mercy shook her head. “I didn’t want to be here at first, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to assist with the preparations, but I’ll be here when you’re ready to start.

  Pyron stared at her with disbelief and then nodded. Morrissey put a hand on her shoulder and then walked away with Pyron towards a pile of rope discussing something in hushed tones. Mercy didn’t want to hear it. She already knew that they were discussing where to hang him and how. She decided to take their advice and get some more sleep. They would wake her when the time was right. She would be there for Incenda and Jonas. It was the least she could do. And despite her experience in the capital, this would be a different sort of hanging. Tolbert wasn’t a war criminal; he was a traitor to his friends.

  25

  Tolbert was far more defiant than she expected. He stood on the chair, with the help of a leg brace. He was silent, with a slight smile on his face, while Morrissey fitted the noose on his neck. While he was frightened, he held himself with a self-important bearing that disgusted Mercy. Even though he was about to be hanged, he was treating the situation as though it was his show, and everyone was there to see him. He stared into the eyes of each and every person attending. Lavirin glared at him with disgust. Captain Morrissey wouldn’t even meet his gaze, as though it was beyond him to even acknowledge it.

  It took Mercy awhile to realize just how few of them were left. Scrap was still locked in the brig. The only loyal member of the crew that was still alive was Lavirin. Erebus stood behind Mercy with his hands on her shoulders. She was very cold, despite the warm fur coat she bought in Concord, so she cuddled a little closer to him. The rain was freezing and intermixed with flurries of snow and ice. Erebus was also staring directly into Tolbert’s eyes with rage. Even though Erebus’ eyes were red, Mercy could tell that his demon wasn’t in control. He was doing it to intimidate Tolbert, and from the sweat on his brow and the way he cut his eyes away from Erebus she could tell it was working.