by G. Bailey
“Everly, you have to pull her to you and help her. She will die otherwise. Those burns are bad, and they will become infected,” I hear a man’s voice in the distance. The voice is gruff and yet, I know it.
“I can’t get her!” Everly shouts back and her voice makes me open my eyes. I need to see if it’s her, my childhood best friend, my only friend. Yet, part of me doesn’t want to see her here, because I know what it means if she is. I blink them open to see a small hand desperately reaching for me.
“Everly?” I whisper in shock when I see her blonde hair, but the rest of her face is hidden in the shadows of the bars and darkness of the room.
“Cassy, you’re awake,” Everly says in relief, and her hand reaches closer, still stretching as far as she can. I hold in a scream as I reach for her hand and a sharp pain shoots through my arm.
“I’m going to pull you to me, but I need you to move closer,” Everly softly orders me, her words slow and kind.
“How are you here?” I ask, holding in the tears that threaten to fall when I see her lean down to my level for me to see her face. It’s messy, covered in dirt, but it doesn’t matter to me. I missed her so much. I take my time to look her over; her very thin frame and the hollowness of her cheeks takes away from her natural beauty, but her eyes still blaze that bright blue they always have. There is still some part of my friend Everly there, but it’s hidden. I have the feeling she isn’t the same friend I left on Onaya. She is older and life has done something to her. I guess I’m not the same person I was when we last spoke, either. Life has taken its toll on me, but not in the same way. I have a reason to fight, a reason to pull myself off this floor and try to get to Everly. I have my pirates, and for them, I can’t just stay on this floor and die.
I am stronger than this. Stronger than him.
“The king came to the island after you escaped. He took us, because he knew we kept you safe. He knew everything, and we couldn’t fight him,” Everly tells me quietly, her voice catching slightly.
“Us?” I ask.
“Cassandra, get to your friend so she can heal your arms,” I hear my father say from somewhere behind Everly.
“Father?” I ask, now remembering the voice from before. My father is here. The king must know everything about my life now.
“Just do it…please,” he asks me. The desperation in his voice is something I have never heard from my strong father. Throughout all the years and all the terrible things he did, he had never spoken to me like he just did. My father was always strong, stubborn like me, and yet this place has somehow taken that from him. Or was it me being here? His only daughter he thought he saved?
“I will,” I promise him, and then force myself to move. I pull myself up, screaming from the pain when I have to use a hand to get on my knees. My arms seem to hurt even more when I move them. I don’t even want to look at my burns as I use my knees to crawl towards Everly, who murmurs words of encouragement for every little step. When I get to the bars, she grabs my hand and gently pulls my arm through the bars while I cradle the other one.
“You can’t heal this, Ev,” I say, finally getting the courage to look at my arms. My skin is red and blistered from my wrists to my elbow, and there are horrible-looking black bits of skin. My clothes have burnt into my skin and the black bits have yellow pus coming out of them. I know these burns are bad enough to cause an infection that I will die from. There is no way to avoid it, except I don’t want to die, not yet. It’s funny how I didn’t used to mind the idea of dying, I had almost accepted it, but one ship full of pirates has given me something I want to live for.
“Do you trust me?” Everly asks me. I look up to her, seeing her blue eyes that remind me so much of Dante’s blue eyes that, for some reason, it gives me a tiny bit of relief. There’s comfort in just being around her, a memory of home, when it’s hard to think of anything other than pain.
“Yes,” I tell her, and I watch as she reaches into the front of her top and pulls out a small red pouch. She opens the pouch and inside is green powder. I watch in hope and shock as she picks a little bit up, sprinkles it all over the burns, and it instantly feels better. I rest my head on the bars, sighing as the cold powder relieves my arm.
“The other one,” Everly asks as she lets go of my healed arm. We swap arms slowly and she sprinkles the same powder on that arm. When both arms are not hurting so much, I look at them. I gently pull bits of clothing away and move the dust into the cracks where they were. Where the burns were visible before is now just raised skin with a green tint to it. It’s not pretty, but it doesn’t hurt. I can’t be upset about how bad my arms look when I’m so relieved that the pain is gone. My shirt falls off me, leaving me topless, and I hold a hand against my chest.
“Any good at fixing shirts?” I ask her, and she laughs.
“I have a small vest under this shirt I’m wearing, so you can have it,” Everly says, and seconds later, she pushes a blue top through the bars. I pull it over my head, seeing that it rolls all the way down to my wrists and hides the marks on my arms. It has laces in the middle and I quickly do them up before looking over at Everly. I keep my gaze locked on Everly as she moves closer and hugs me through the bars. I hold her arms tightly.
“How did you have that powder?” I ask her quietly.
“Not all the guards support the king. I can’t say much more, but I’ve had the powder for a while just in case things go bad in the games. I had to use some of it on a bite on my leg, and I’ve been keeping the rest safe,” she says. I look around at my little cage. I see a drain in the corner, which must be for going to the toilet based on the awful smell, but there is little else in here. I can’t bring myself to look at the fire near the door of the cage. Even the light and heat from it makes me take a deep breath and try to focus on Everly again.
“Games?” I ask her. She pulls away a little and I watch as she nods a head in the direction of her cage door. Huddled in the corner is Miss Drone, unlike I’ve ever seen her, and she isn’t awake. Her hair is burnt off the one side of her head and her shirt has clearly been burnt in places. There is blood all over her clothes and her right leg has green lines all over it, suggesting Everly has been healing her. I never had a relationship with Miss Drone, because she stayed professional and cold the whole time she looked after me, but she helped me escape. She kept me a secret and I know she believes in my kind. I would never wish the injuries she has on anyone, and I wish I could help her in some way. I look back at Everly’s tear-filled eyes as she shakes her head, and I know that she must not be in a good condition. I don’t want to know what goes on in these games, I have a feeling it’s nothing good.
“Miss Drone?” I whisper, my words echoing around the room ever so slightly.
“Mother isn’t well. The powder doesn’t work on injuries we cannot see and the game was -,” she stops talking. Her breath catches and I feel her shiver in fear. I move as close as I can to the bars, holding her hands tightly and wishing I could take away her memories. I wish I didn’t have to ask about what the games are, but I need to know everything.
“Ev?” I ask her.
“The games are horrible and happen every week. Someone always dies, at least one. The next one is in three days, and I know he is going to make a big deal out of it because you are here,” she whispers.
“What happens in the games? What happened to you?”
“I learnt to fight, I learnt what pain is, and if I didn’t have the guard who helps me, I would be dead, Cassandra.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” I reply.
“The games are always different. One time, he had his dragon hunt us. We were tied down in the maze and I had to listen as people burnt next to me. Another one was a long plank of wood over the cliff…,” she stops, clearing her throat and tilting her head, “he watched as we each led onto the plank and as we walked back. If you fell, no one would save you and the king’s laugh would be the last thing you would hear.”
“No…,” I
say, looking down at the ground.
After a pause, I hear my father say, “Tell me how you got here.”
“I left Onaya on the boat, but I crashed into a pirate ship and they rescued me. They looked after me and offered me safe passage,” I tell my father and Everly.
“For what in return?” my father asks sharply, the disappointment in his tone making me wonder if he knows me at all. I would never offer any part of myself to live. I would rather jump into the sea and I hate that he doesn’t think I’m strong enough for that.
“Nothing. They are good men, good pirates,” I say with warmness in my tone.
“You love one of them?” Everly asks me quietly, and I shake my head. Not just one, but I don’t know how to tell her that. How will it even work if I get to be with them all again? Will they share me, let me love them all and never argue? I guess I never thought of the long-term way we would deal with a relationship between us all.
“It doesn’t matter. Pirates won’t face the king for her. We are doomed,” my father mutters, but I still hear him.
“We need to come up with a way to escape,” I say, and my father laughs.
“This is the king’s court, the nightmare court. No one escapes unless they die,” he says and then goes silent. “Here, I didn’t eat my food. Pass it to her, Everly,” my father says, shocking me. Everly lets go of my hand to crawl across the cage to the other side, almost out of my view, before crawling back and handing me some bread. I don’t even look at it for more than a second before ripping it up and eating it all. It isn’t a lot, but I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.
“Thank you, Father,” I say, but he doesn’t reply to me. Everly rests her head against the bars. Her hand slides into mine and squeezes. She doesn’t have to tell me how scared she is, I can just tell.
“We won’t die. I won’t let that happen,” I say and look at Everly, who just shakes her head. I know nothing I can say to her will give her hope. I don’t even have hope myself.
“Was there a girl brought in before me? Her name is Livvy,” I ask.
“No, sorry. No one was brought in until you,” Everly tells me, and I lean back against the bars as sickness fills my stomach. He wouldn’t have killed her, I have to believe that.
“I missed you,” I tell Everly gently after a long pause between us.
“And I missed you. I thought about you every day, begging that you were free and having a good life, so that even if I died in here, it would be worth it,” she replies and looks over at me. “You look stronger, I can see it in your eyes. Tell me about these pirates and your life. I need something to have good dreams about,” she says.
“You look older, and sadder,” I tell her gently.
“You remember the handsome man I was in love with, who I still love?” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears once more.
“Yes, I remember you with him,” I say, thinking back to the dark-haired man I saw her dancing with at the party where I was seen for the first time. That party changed everything. I could never forget it.
“When the king came, he took your father first and found out that mother was coming to the house…so the guards came for us. Perry, he tried to fight against the guards to save me and my mother, but they killed him in front of me -,” she whispers, sobbing at the end so much it’s hard to understand her.
“Everly…I am so sorry,” I tell her, and she shakes her head.
“I will avenge him, Cassy. I will make his death right,” she says, and I don’t disbelieve her when her tear-filled eyes meet mine. The fun, full-of-life Everly I grew up with seems to be missing and there are shadows in her eyes now, shadows I wish I could erase. She is my best friend, like a sister to me, and I hate to see her like this. But then, I could never get over losing someone I love, I don’t know how to. I look over at Everly, to the cage where my father is, and finally to Miss Drone. The king put me in here with them for a reason. He kept them alive for a reason: to torment me.
“I will help you, always,” I reply.
“Now tell me about the pirates. I want to know everything,” Everly asks me, and I tell her everything I can about the only men who give me hope.
5
Hunter
“Well…Well…Well.” My father pauses to clap dramatically before continuing as I cross my arms and wait for him to get this bit out of the way. “The runaway son finally arrives. Did you bring your brother, too?” my father asks in a bored tone as he sits on his throne, but I know the bastard isn’t bored. I look over at Dante and Jacob at my sides, and they both give me a look of warning to think of Cassandra and not lose my temper. I can basically see it in their eyes. Cassandra, think of her. My little bird. I think she has been here a week, which isn’t long, but it’s too long in a place like this. Even the thought of him touching her, hurting her in any way, makes me want to drag him from that throne and punch him so hard he stops breathing. I take a deep breath, calming myself down by remembering that the guards said there hasn’t been a game played since the changed one arrived. That means she can’t be dead, or badly hurt. I have time to figure something out, something to save my little bird.
“I’m back, aren’t I?” I finally say, but my voice comes out sharper and angrier than I wanted.
“Where is Ryland?” my father demands this time, getting off his throne and walking over to me with slow steps. I wish I looked more like my mother, is my only thought when I see my father for the first time in years. His long black hair is exactly like mine, and we have the same eyes. People say I have the same darkness as him, the same mark on my soul that people fear. I don’t know how much of it is true, but I will never be him.
“With our mother. He wished to see her first,” I respond. He isn’t only seeing our mother, he is sorting out the guards that are watching the dungeons, making sure they can be trusted to keep Cassandra alive. We had friends when we left this place, and I hope they stuck around and didn’t leave. I doubt they would have, a lot of them have family on the islands that need the money my father pays them. Money that basically keeps them alive, barely putting food on their tables even when the royal bank is overflowing with money. The king doesn’t want to pay them right, which is why they are so ready to listen to the princes who slip them money in the night.
“Fine,” my father says, his jaw locked and frustration written all over his face. He hates when we go to see her, when anyone does who isn’t him. I used to think he did it out of love, that he couldn’t stand the idea of anyone accidentally hurting her, but the older I got, the more I realised that it was never about caring. My mother protects him by being alive, so he can’t risk her safety. She is the source of his power, his changed one. My mind pictures Cassandra, her soft brown hair that I want to hold in my hands as I press my lips to hers. I long to see her hazel eyes widen, and to finally tell her how I feel about her. I avoided it for as long as I could. The stubborn, defiant, but kind nature of her draws me in more than the need to protect her. I know what she might be to me, what I could be to her, and it’s old magic. The magic gods whisper about, the magic of soulmates, that the chosen of the changed ones are their soulmates. I could be her chosen. One of many, I presume.
“Where is my ship you stole?” the king finally asks me, his eyes looking over my face for any response. I just grin, expecting him to try to punch me, to right me without using his powers. I have burns on my back that prove my father cannot beat me in a fair fight; he always has to use his gift to win. He is no kind of man, let alone a king.
“It is my ship. It was made for me and I gave it to my grandsons…and their friends,” Laura says as she walks into the room, her stick banging against the floor with every step. I turn and glare at her, wishing she would stay out of this for the next couple weeks until we can leave. I never should have believed her when she said she would go with Ryland to see her daughter.
“Everything in this world belongs to me. You are not the queen anymore and you were hardly one to begin with.” He laughs a
t her and she taps her stick on the floor, raising her eyebrows at the man who destroyed everything for her. I sometimes think Laura is either the bravest or stupidest person I know, but I’m yet to decide which one.
“Are you going to kill me? If you’re not, I want to rest,” Laura says, ignoring his comment, and his hands light up with fire. The fire never burns him. While growing up, I was interested in his powers, but that changed when I realised how much he enjoyed using his powers to kill people, when I found out what he did to my mother to be able to get that power.
“Leave my throne room, NOW!” my father shouts at her, and she laughs before walking out, her stick clicking against the stone floors with every step. There’s an awkward silence as we wait for Laura to leave, and her large smile is the last thing I see before the doors are shut.
“As for you, you can stay, but you will not have the throne. That is for Ryland and I want him to come see me,” my father demands. I don’t react to his taunt, the taunt he has used to get a reaction out of me for years. I remember being told when I was ten that my brother was more commanding, that he was born two minutes earlier than I was, and that he would take the throne. I watched as my brother told my father everything he wanted to hear, did whatever he wanted him to do, but at night, my brother whispered plans of escaping to the sea. He never wanted the throne, the responsibility that would come with it. It’s a heavy burden for anyone to bear.
“As you wish, father,” I say with a smirk and a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“And change your disgusting clothes. You are not a pirate, you are a prince,” he reminds me of the title I hate using. I am a pirate, but I won’t argue with him when my only reason for being here is to get Cassandra and leave. The only reason I’m here is to do what a pirate does best, steal a treasure. I nod my head at Jacob and Dante, who follow me towards the doors of the room.
“One more thing, son,” I hear as I wait for the guards to open the doors. I turn back and stare at my father as he stands in the middle of the room.