Refrain

by Nathan Ravenwood

  Ansel looked up at him, confused. “What are you going to do?” he asked slowly.

  “Nothing of your concern,” Yilon said, turning to leave. His boots clicked on the cobbles. “If I ever see you again, Ansel, I'm throwing you in the deepest hole I can find.”

  No more hiding in the shadows. It was time for Yilon to begin to act on his own. Vann was still out there somewhere. His friend was still out there. And no matter what his father and MacAngus

  were going to send after him, Yilon would make sure that no harm came to Vann.

  He just had to find him first.

  Chapter One – Over the Seas

  Having lived his entire life in the landlocked nation of Papreon, Vann had never had the opportunity to see the ocean before save for artwork. Two days into the voyage from the shores of the Western Continent, he still hadn't gotten tired of looking at it.

  Of course, it wasn't the only thing he hadn't gotten tired of looking at.

  Janaza's soft lips teased and caressed his thick, throbbing shaft gently as her head bobbed between his legs. It had taken them a little while to find a suitable spot for their trysts, as much of the galleon they sailed on was occupied. However, after a bit of scouting, Rorzan had directed them to a small extension of the deck behind the ship, above the rudder. Judging by the polish stains on the red wood around them, it was likely used as a platform for whenever the ship was in port and the rudder needed cleaning.

  It was also secluded and quiet, which meant they could enjoy each other's company during the day when they were out of their cabin.

  Vann's fingers tangled in the orc's hair, nuding his hips against her face. She hummed and slurped at his manhood, her tongue lathing along his balls as she cupped and sucked on them gently. She slowed her ministrations, looking at up him from her position on her knees. Her golden eyes sparkled playfully as she planted a kiss on his cockhead. “Been eating a lot of citrus, have we?” she purred.

  Vann laughed, the sound breathy as he panted. “You noticed?”

  Janaza grinned. “Well, it's the only thing they have in the bloody galley to eat,” she said, her breath fanning along his groin.

  His fingers ran through her hair gently. “Is that really what you want to talk about?”

  Janaza grinned up at him, then went back to work with a loud, eager sucking noise that made Vann's knees buckle. He braced himself against the wall behind him, bucking his hips into the orc's mouth.

  It had been a two weeks since they'd started sleeping together, ever since that first night in the forest. They'd journeyed further east from the mountains, the terrain flattening and becoming milder in comparison to the chilly mountains. As they drew closer to civilization, their little group had become more careful, especially once they entered the port. They didn't know if Vann and Janaza had their faces plastered on wanted posters, and even if they didn't know exactly who she was, Arielle would draw attention almost immediately. There were few elves outside of their forest domain.

  For a week they'd holed up in a hotel in the seedier part of the port where the owner didn't ask too many questions, staying out of sight and out of trouble while Arielle and Rorzan went out at night to snoop around and find them a ship. They were the sneakier of the group, what with Arielle's catlike grace and Rorzan being a ghost. Vann was all too happy to stay in with Janaza, the two of them going at it enough that he wondered if they'd left cracks in the floor from pounding the bed into it over and over again. He'd learned many things about himself during that week, and much about the orc as well. Even now, two days out at sea, they still couldn't keep their hands off one another. No matter how exhausted Vann felt, he always had energy for Janaza. The delight he took in the orc's body was like nothing he'd ever experienced, and he craved her more and more. She was all too happy to accommodate his desires.

  His fingers tangled into her hair and he held on tight as his orgasm came in a rush, biting his lip as he groaned and spent himself in Janaza's mouth. She sucked greedily, her throat bobbing as she swallowed every drop of his seed.

  When he was finished, Vann let his weight rest on the wall as he came back to himself. The pleasure high made him giddy, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. The salty sea air flooded his senses, clearing them and bringing him back to the moment again. “Okay, that's three in the last two days... Phew!”

  Janaza licked her lips and rose, standing almost a foot taller than him. The breeze blew her ebon hair away from her neck and shoulders as she adjusted her top to make herself decent – one of her large, delicious tits had popped out in her eagerness to get at him. “Wuss,” she teased. “I'll improve your stamina yet.”

  “With how good you are?” Vann shot back, doing up his pants. “I'm lucky I last as long as I do already!”

  Janaza smiled smugly. “I'll take that as a compliment.” She put her hands on the wall beside Vann's head and leaned in close, touching her nose to his. “Which means you get another whenever you like.”

  Vann hummed and pushed his face against hers, rubbing noses with her before kissing her. He was amazed at how quick the turnaround had been for him to get comfortable with the idea of physical intimacy. Janaza had been patient, teaching him about sex and how to please her, and he felt no small amount of affection towards her for it. “I'll hold you to that,” he murmured.

  “Ghost is opening his eyes in three, two, one...”

  Rorzan had stuck his head through the wall near them, his eyes screwed shut. When neither of them told him to keep his eyes closed, he opened them. “Did I interrupt the party?” he asked.

  “Party's already over,” Janaza said.

  Rorzan snapped his fingers, the rest of his body sliding through the wall. There wasn't much of him – he was gone from the waist down, only a torso, arms, and a head. “Rats, I was hoping I could talk to you, promise to leave, then watch in secret.”

  “Don't be creepy,” Vann said.

  “Considering I am half a body, and am also a ghost, I think it's a little bit late for that, Vann,” Rorzan shot back. Another thing Vann was surprised he'd grown used to was Rorzan's biting snark, which he treated everyone to be they friend or foe. While it had rubbed him the wrong way before, Vann was starting to realize that it was just how Rorzan was.

  “How's the princess doing?” Janaza asked.

  “Not so good,” Rorzan said. “It's astounding how many colors elf vomit is.”

  Despite her assurances that she would be fine, ever since stepping aboard the galleon, Arielle had been miserable. She'd been entombed in crystal for almost three centuries, and as such was having to relearn to do many things that they took for granted like walking, running, and using magic. It also, evidently, had robbed her of her sea legs. Vann had only felt nauseous on the first day, and had been fine after. Arielle had spent most of the voyage so far heaving into a bucket.

  “Poor thing,” Janaza said.

  “She's a tough girl, she'll be okay,” Rorzan said. “She says she's got it mostly out of her system.”

  “Did you want something from us?” Vann asked.

  “No, only to interrupt your fun,” Rorzan said, his face innocent. Vann gave him a flat look. “Okay, okay, for real – I wanted to have a team meeting now that we're on our way. We've spent the past couple days playing sailor, which is fun, but I want to get some planning done for when we make land in a few days. Meet me in the cabin, I'll go make sure that Arielle's, erm... settled.” He phased back through the wall and was gone.

  Vann looked at Janaza, and she met his gaze. Then she grinned. “Time for one more?”

  “I'm not that quick!” Vann protested, giving her a playful shove. He might as well have tried to push a brick wall. Janaza laughed and opened the door, beckoning him through.

  The doorway opened into the back of a storeroom in the lower level of the ship, and they threaded their way through barrels of dried meats and tropical fruits before emerging onto the lower deck where the sleeping quarters were. Most of the cabins we
re locked tight, their occupants busy. Vann had realized early on that while the passengers were all there for specific reasons, many of them weren't inclined to discuss those reasons with random strangers. He'd mostly only talked to Janaza, Arielle or Rorzan since they'd boarded.

  About halfway down the hall was their cabin, and Vann made sure to knock before they entered. There were two beds within, one on either side with a small chest in between. Arielle occupied one, lying on her back with her eyes closed. Vann briefly wondered if she was asleep, then the elf cracked an eye open and looked at them. “Hello,” she said, then closed the eye again. “I can't stand to look at the room moving.”

  “You going to be okay?” Vann asked as Janaza sat down on their bed.

  “So long as I remain like this and nothing disturbs me for the next few hours,” the elf replied, shifting a little so she was more comfortable. The difference between when they'd found her and now was night and day. Then, she'd been a gaunt thing, trapped within magic crystals and forced to endure every waking moment of three hundred years unable to move while subsisting on her own magic to stay alive. Now, just a couple weeks later, she looked much less corpse-like. Actual food had put some meat back on her bones, her hair becoming lustrous and full again. There was a new shine in her eyes, and the surety with which she carried herself had made Vann do double-takes at her tantalizing figure. She'd swapped out the thin cotton shift she'd been wearing when they'd rescued her for some proper leathers, with a top that ended at her midriff and pushed up her breasts and some plain trousers that hugged her legs in all the right places.

  “Good, everyone's here,” Rorzan said as he flitted through the wall.

  “What did you want to talk about?” Vann asked, sitting down next to Janaza so their legs were touching. He heard the orc give a content hum.

  “Mostly what we're doing once we get to the East,” Rorzan said, hovering over Arielle's prone form. “I wanted to broach the subject again in regards to us maybe making something happen down south. Revolution, part two.”

  Vann looked towards the chest in between the beds. Contained within, carefully smuggled into the ship, was his guitar and Janaza's bass. Both were instruments of great power, tools that had let the three of them face over a score of men and walk away victorious. Both would also earn them summary execution in the Lordships, for to possess one was to violate the most severe of laws.

  According to Rorzan, things were different in the East. The Old Folk there cared little for the Lordships, and had once served as Rozan's allies in the first Rebellion in ages past. While his initial plan had been for Vann to flee to the East and simply hide there away from the Lords, at some point recently the ghost had hatched a mad plan to go East, raise a new army, then return to the West and liberate the southernmost Lordship of Ibanz from it's oppressive ruler. Though Vann wasn't exactly an encyclopedia of knowledge about the world, even he knew that Ibanz was, to use Rorzan's terminology, “a garbage pile.”

  “What's gotten into you about all this?” Vann asked the ghost.

  “Look, I'll admit, I've been kind of flying by the seat of my pants ever since you found me, Vann,” Rorzan said. He looked down. “Well, metaphorically at least. But after watching the way you handled yourself in the woods, I really think you, and you, Janaza, can make one hell of a difference.” He put his hands on his hips and looked the both of them in the eye. “Don't lie, the both of you know how crappy a world it can be for those who are different.”

  Vann folded his hands, rubbing his fingers together as he cast his mind back. In the aftermath of his accident, when he'd superheated glass much too fast and it had exploded in his face, he'd been treated with care, many hoping that the damage wouldn't be too extensive. However, when it had become clear that his Voice wasn't anywhere near where it needed to be, much of that support had faded. All of those who he'd once considered close turned their backs on him, with Yilon being the only exception. The Lord-to-be had promised he'd help find a way to fix Vann's voice. That had been over a decade ago, almost half his young life, and Yilon had turned up nothing. Had he really even been trying? Surely in over ten years he'd have come up with something.

  He shook his head. Yilon was his friend, but he was also a Lord's son. He had duties, and couldn't spend his entire life trying to find a solution to Vann's problem. Not that he needed to anymore – the guitar allowed him to perform magic like he hadn't been able to in a long time. He'd forgotten just how much of a rush it could be. What's more, he felt like it had actually made him stronger.

  “I don't know, Rorzan,” Vann said.

  “And that's fine!” the ghost said. “We're two days into a five-day trip across the ocean. You've got plenty of time to think about it.” Rorzan floated down so he was lying prone next to Arielle and put his hands behind his head. “All we have to do is lie low and be subtle until then. It'll be as easy as-”

  Just then, a loud thump sounded from below them, and the boat listed to the side, making Arielle roll out of her bunk with a yelp and an elvish curse. She picked herself up off the floor. “The hell was that?”

  Vann and Janaza looked at one another. “A really rough wave?” the orc ventured.

  Another thump came again, louder and more forceful than the first in the opposite direction, knocking Vann and Janaza to the floor this time. They braced themselves against the wood as the ship listed again. “I'm gonna go with no,” Vann said.

  Rorzan dove through the floor of the ship, just as a bell began to sound from the upper deck. Voices shouted, but they were too far away for Vann to make out the words over the sounds of the sea outside. He got to his feet, steadying himself against the rocking of the boat, and peered out the porthole in their cabin. A moment passed where he saw nothing, but then he caught a glimpse of something reflective flitting past beneath the waves.

  A heartbeat later, Rorzan popped up through the floor and clapped his hands together. “Okay, so,” he began, “Good news, bad news time. Bad news is there's at least half a dozen sea serpents down below us that are batting the keel to gauge our strength.”

  “And the good news?” Vann asked.

  “There are way worse beasties that could be attacking us right now, but are not,” Rorzan said. “The serpents are strong, but they're not that aggressive. Once they realize that they can't break the keel easily they'll probably just fuck off and-”

  With a rush of water a massive serpentine body burst from the waves outside their porthole, scales scraping against the wood as it's bulk slammed down on the deck above them. Vann heard cursing and yelling as several more loud thuds echoed through the galleon decks as the serpents settled their bulk on the upper deck.

  “Or not,” Rorzan said, staring wide-eyed at the mass of scaled muscle just outside their window. “Huh.”

  “Come on!” Janaza said, grabbing Vann's hand and hurrying out the door. Vann found his footing and ran after her, the pair of them doubling back along the two flights of stairs that would take them up to the main deck. They emerged into the afternoon sunlight, and were almost immediately flattened by a long length of serpent body that slid along the deck far quicker than they expected. Janaza jerked Vann back as the serpent's body smashed into the doorjamb of the deck stairwell.

  It retreated a moment later, and Vann was able to take in the full scope of what they were dealing with. Three massive sea serpents had draped their bodies along the deck of the ship, writhing and twisting as the crew tried to fight them off with whatever they could get their hands on – belaying pins, thick ropes, and what few blades were scattered among the passenger ship crew. He heard wood creaking. “They're trying to drag us down!”

  Janaza nodded. “What's gotten into them? I grew up watching these beasts from the shores of the islands. They never got close, they were too spooked by us.”

  “The reasons don't matter.” Arielle stomped up the stairs behind them, her face slightly green. In her hands she held Vann's guitar and Janaza's bass. “If we don't fight them off w
e're sunk. Literally.”

  “What happened to subtlety?” Vann asked.

  Rorzan popped out of the wall behind the elf. “Subtlety won't get us anywhere if we're at the bottom of the ocean!” he said. “Or even worse, inside the gullet of one of those things. Get to it, you three!”

  Vann took the guitar from Arielle and played a quick sequence of notes. With an almighty scraping noise the bottom edge of the instrument became sharp enough to split a leaf on the wind. He heard an identical noise as Janaza did the same thing to her bass. She hefted it over her shoulder, brushing her thick black hair over her shoulder. “Right then,” she said. “Let's get messy!” She let out a roar and charged the serpent nearest them.

  “Focus on them one at a time,” Rorzan said, his tone authoritative. “And work fast. I don't want to spend the rest of eternity stuck at the bottom of the sea!”

  Arielle Sang a high note, and her body became wreathed in a nexus of magical energy as she summoned her Omnichord. The magical instrument moved with her body as she hurried across the deck towards the serpent. “Everybody down!” she yelled, and the crew in front of her scattered. Her fingers brushed across the magical lines, and Vann heard a series of drums sound out. With each tone, a lightning bolt shot out from the nexus of energy to strike the serpent's hide. The beast roared and writhed along the deck, making Janaza scramble backwards to avoid it's coils rolling over her.

  Vann held the guitar low and made for a section of the beast's body that wasn't moving. Just like chopping wood, he thought, then swung the instrument's bladed edge in a wide arc. The keen edge parted the serpent's scales and hide easily, and a spray of black blood fountained out of the gash.

  “Black?” Rorzan said, floating low to examine the fluid. “That's not normal.”

  “What's not?” Vann asked, eyeing where he wanted to strike next.

  “Sea serpents bleed red just like everything... Vann, look out!”