A hundred yards to Pace’s right on the top of a heap of rubble stood his captain who faced panting Agent X.
In the center commander and Parime held each other fists. Parime struggled while commander didn’t break a sweat. Where had been the main building on the left of Pace, now fought Riss, lieutenant Mist and doctor Dukas. The old man used fire, ice, electricity and something invisible that smashed everything around. Was he so powerful? Or was it one of the tricks Mist had spoken of?
“What now?” Toggy asked. “We can’t join them. They aren’t humans.”
“At least, Silverbreath is done.”
“Who?”
“Never mind.”
“Their entire lives they have fought enemies that were stronger. It’s a miracle they’ve made it,’ doctor More muttered. “They don’t know when to quit.”
“Maybe we can’t do much now, but the next time we will be ready… NO!” Pace had dropped to his knees and a scream tore out of his throat leaving it raw.
Ines was dying.
He felt her agony, but this wasn’t the worst. Ines was losing her sanity. The torment was stripping away her senses. He couldn’t lose her, so he did the only thing that seemed possible. He reached to her and took away half of her suffering. Nothing could prepare him for the anguish. But his love prevailed, and the surroundings ceased to exist for him.
*
Pace
“Pace,” Toggy tugged his companion’s sleeve. “Wake up.” Pace cracked his eye open. Even as much hurt, but it wasn’t a time to relax, they had the battle to fight…
“This the end of you Pembroke!” doctor Dukas rasped as Riss shoved him toward the center of the yard, beneath the feet of captain Pembroke. Pace looked around but Agent X wasn’t anywhere in sight. Commander stood in the same spot, only this time he had Parime before him on her knees. What the hell happened after I’d passed out?
“The Government will chase you! They’ll use the Squadron Five. They’ll—”
“ENOUGH!” captain had roared, and he grabbed doctor Dukas, then with startling ease he lifted him up. “Your fate.”
“Kill him, Pembroke! Kill him for the sake of my father. This monster shouldn’t be allowed to live. What he does to people’s minds is atrocious,” Riss bellowed. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
Pembroke didn’t react to her words. He still held doctor in the air with one hand.
“Your fate… is sealed.” Pace felt terror radiating from Dukas and an imaginable power from captain. For a moment it dwarfed, even commander’s strength. It seems I misjudged him. Cap is right, I must learn to use my instincts more often. My logical thinking doesn’t look to run the show.
Pembroke dropped him on the ground.
“What do you mean my fate is sealed?” Dukas whimpered.
Towering above doctor, Pembroke answered.
“I can do much more than seeing someone’s fate. I can choose and seal the fate itself.” Pembroke’s hard voice made Pace and Toggy shiver. It wasn’t a tone Pace could imagine even commander Kinson was capable of.
“What?” doctor whined. “What did you do to me? What?”
“If you’ll ever again use your Gift on anyone, then the fate I chose for you, is a horrifying, prolonged death.”
“But that’s not possible! The Forbidden Gifts have no such power to do…”
“Who told you I’m using a Forbidden Gift?”
Doctor Dukas’s expression turned into a pure terror.
“What’s going on?” Pace asked.
Toggy shook his head, while doctor More only opened his mouth.
“Can’t be.” It came from Parime Dorado. “You can’t be one of them.”
“I’m not one of them,” Pembroke told her. “Parime Dorado. I’m a holder of the Cursed Gift of Fate.”
“But the price…”
“Yes, I paid the price. Terrible price.” Pembroke’s eyes went to Riss and lingered on her for long. Something was up again, and Pace didn’t know what. “I wish, there was another way, but this was the only path.”
“Impossible,” doctor Dukas muttered. “You cannot know about the Cursed Gifts… they don’t manifest in the Seven Seas, it means… you were born in the New Frontier. Who exactly are you, Pembroke?”
Captain looked down on him and hissed, “begone. Tell your lords that we’ll watch their hands and chastise them when they step out of line. Their cruel deeds won’t go unpunished.”
“You’re mad…”
“Begone,” Pembroke repeated, and the air crackled with charged electricity.
Doctor Dukas started crawling away, but Pembroke wasn’t finished with words.
“I’m sorry, Riss.”
“What are you talking about, captain?”
An overwhelming terror descended on Pace. It gripped his heart; stilled his muscles. Pace wanted to bellow. Warn someone; warn everyone. Something beyond terrible was about to happen. His instincts have never been so alert.
“Your father and I, we, tipped the balance of this world. But he’d known, it was the only choice we could make to save everyone. I’m sorry for—”
Two horns of darkness materialized out of captain’s chest so rapidly that Pace saw the only blur of a movement. A laugh sounded somewhere around them, and then he noticed Agent X carrying doctor Dukas in the sky.
“This time I got you good, Pembroke. Die!”
“NOOOOOOOO!” Riss’, Toggy’s, Mist’s and Pace’s voices filled the air with pain. Feelings, sharp as knives, bit at his heart.
Pembroke dropped to his knees. He was smiling as he died.
Captain was dead.
Captain. Dead. Impossible. I should warn… him.
Commander stood paralyzed, not trusting his muscles. Lieutenant’s mist tendrils erupted into the air after Agent X. But the silhouette of the murderers turned into a speck and escaped the rage of lieutenant.
*
Pace
They put captain’s body in the middle of the Horned Pony’s deck. Everyone except commander Kinson and Parime was crying. Pace didn’t even ask why they brought her aboard. According to Dukas, she was the daughter of a devil. Having her around must be a truly good idea.
“Why?” Riss asked. “Didn’t he know his own fate?”
“It was the only way he knew,” commander answered not looking at her. “All other choices led to the same end.”
“What are you talking, Kinson? What do you know? Was it some hoax? It can’t be true! He can’t leave us now.”
“This happened for real.”
“Did you know it?”
“No. I found an enchanted letter the moment I entered his quarter. It had been addressed to me. It explained his reasoning.”
“Reasoning? Killing himself is not reasoning… it’s madness.” Even without knowing the history between Riss and captain, it has become clear that she loved him. Now she must mourn him.
Chapter 33
Ines
Kimberlton sat back after Ines related him what had happened to her. He looked utterly shocked. Almost, like Hakima when it turned that Ines had survived the Last Birthday.
“It’s unbelievable that you fell to the fountain and was dragged to the Lowest Cave, but standing to a Lord? They kill on a whim for less than a wrong gaze… Ines.”
Ines grabbed the collar of his laboratory coat and shook him. No one had a right to kill other people and if these lords thought they could do as they pleased then they were up for a surprise. After the encounter with Lord Red, she vowed that she won’t stand down until these fuckers would learn to respect other people.
“He’ll regret ever crossing my path,” she had clenched her fists and lifted them in the direction she believed was the chamber of Lord Red.
“Wait a minute,” Kimberlton protested. Ines hoped he didn’t have a second thought now. “You can’t attack Lord Red. Escaping King’s Valley is one thing. They’ll put bounties on our heads and all, but for assaulting a Lord… they call it the Unforgivable Sin an
d send the Squadron Five after us. They’ll hunt us down eventually. Whoever is guilty of the Unforgivable Sin cannot find peace.”
“I’ll fight the Squadron Five, then.”
Kimberlton shook his head energetically. Ines began fearing that he might not be up to the task of leaving King’s Valley with this attitude. It’d be a disaster… a sudden sadness filled Ines. Grief, so powerful it squeezed her heart without mercy. Someone dear to Pace just died. Someone… she had a bad feeling about who it was.
“What’s happening?” Kimberlton asked with worry. He’s changed since the day she arrived. The new side of Kimberlton bloomed before her. A caring, sensitive man. Only if he could discard the fear of the fucking lords. “Ines, are you okay? What’s going on?”
Ines had blinked tears out of her eyes, then grabbed Kimberlton’s hand. They were oblivious that she was still half-naked and her robe was in tatters. As their bodies touched again a spark jumped between them. The space between Ines’ thighs throbbed with an unexpected sensation – yearning for sexual contact. What was happening to her? Pace just lost someone important and she was sexually excited? It made no sense – worse – it was horrible. Despite her feelings about this, lust expanded deeper inside her. She was turned on like this only once in her life, before the first night with Marus. Thinking of Pace didn’t help. Something told her that he wouldn’t feel jealous about it. Sharing a soul wasn’t the same as being in a relationship, was it? Her confusion grew as she sensed wetness soaking the robe between her legs. Kimberlton needed a moment to realize what was going on. At first, his cock stirred shily. The circumstances weren’t very romantic. Could she really go ahead with this?
Her body decided on its own.
“Take me here,” she whispered.
“What are you saying, Ines?” Kimberlton asked, a little taken aback, but the light of desire gleamed in his eyes. Ines didn’t wait for his reaction. Her hand shot and grabbed his crotch. There was a brief moment of resistance from him, but it melted away as her fingers prodded his rod. It has taken seconds to achieve his fullest potential. Kimberlton’s cock hardened, tautening the fabric of his laboratory coat and trousers. Ines spared no time. She unbuttoned the last three buttons and let the robe flow on the ground.
“Ines… why…” Kimberlton stuttered suddenly.
For a second Ines feared that the asshole lord had burned her skin, but she had no wounds or traces that her body was on fire. Could it be the effect of the depthless fountain? Perhaps.
She took her breasts between her hands and squeezed them. Kimberlton groaned. He battled with himself for some reason. Why did he hesitate? He has already shown his sexual interest in her. It was weird of him to back off now. Maybe she just needed to press him a little.
“Take it off.”
Whatever defenses he had raised, now crumbled before her. She smiled inside knowing the effect her perfect body had on people around.
The lab coat dropped to the floor, leaving the scientist in sleeveless shirt and trousers. His arms didn’t look fragile at all, as she suspected at the beginning. It looked like he has visited the gym quite regularly.
He had unzipped the trousers and jumped out of them. His raging erection showed his sizeable cock. Ines touched her sex and her fingers appeared glistening. With her, nude in front of him, Kimberlton seemed to grasp the urgency of the moment and stripped down at an impressive pace.
Ines smiled at naked Kimberlton. She liked how he shivered because of the storm of lust inside him. She could sense his emotions and now they were all centered on her.
They stepped forth at the same time. Their hands snaked ahead, and they embraced each other. Kimberlton hot rod had punched Ines in her lower abdomen, and she needed to readjust her position to push his cock between her thighs. It throbbed there with animalistic energy.
“Is… the other one okay with this?” Kimberlton asked struggling with the rage within his body. The content of his balls must be boiling at the moment. It wasn’t only him. Her every fiber screamed with yearning. A few days earlier she’d never considered him attractive and now she couldn’t wait to insert his cock inside her.
“My soul and heart belong to him, but this body is mine and I can do with it as I please,” Ines answered truthfully. She and Pace weren’t even a couple.
Kimberlton must have liked the answer because he raised her up and guided his sizzling rod into her. Sex wasn’t something new to her and yet it felt so. Emotions and desires exploded inside her head. She buried her face in his shoulder inhaling his true fragrance beneath the layers of the antiseptic odor. The fact that she could do so didn’t even startle her anymore. Her life has become a carousel. It was time to accept fate.
As Kimberlton’s cock entered her wet sex; the alarms began ringing.
Not fucking now!
Angry, Ines jumped off his stone-hard phallus. She glanced at smoldered clothes and decided to go naked.
“You can’t go like this,” Kimberlton stopped her, then handed her his lab coat. He took the trousers and shirt. He already fought the lust inside him. He was a man of control.
“It must be this lordly asshole himself.”
“But why now?” Kimberlton asked rhetorically.
“Or the man who came to collect me, I think his name was Gidd,” Ines gave Kimberlton a devious smile, which he turned into a frown. Obviously, he didn’t know what she’d done to the professor. Come to think of that. Didn’t I punch him in the face? “Shit, it can’t be him. I think I killed him. Accidently, of course.”
“You did what?” Kimberlton started shocked at the revelation. “You had touched him before falling to the fountain and he had died, then you touched me after, and I’m okay… you could kill me too!” Kimberlton gritted his teeth, but it wasn’t a real rage in his tone. More like temporary stupefaction.
“After I came out of the water. I felt different,” Ines feigned confidence, which worked on the scientist who nodded sheepishly. Bastard already quelled his cravings. She was pretty bad with that. She betted that her sex still seeped juice between her legs.
“We should go then. There is a stash of food, weapons, clothes and a hidden boat.”
“What about other prisoners?”
“It’s a good idea to let them out, but we can’t take any of these people with us.”
Ines bit her tongue. She suspected that the argument now would only hurt their chances to get out of this place. She wanted to free everyone, while Kimberlton wished for the opposite. There would be time for this discussion, once they got into safety. If that was even possible.
They rushed out of the empty room toward a long-bricked corridor. At the end of it stood a metal cage.
“What’s that?”
“Our way out of this cave.”
This made Ines uneasy. It seemed like there were no stairs out of here. What if they already waited for them up there?
“Not good. I’m afraid they can catch us.”
Kimberlton’s face hardened for a second. It was enough to boost Ines’ confidence. A hidden smirk flitted around her face and as soon as it appeared, it was gone.
Chapter 34
Pace
“What’s wrong with you?” Toggy asked Pace.
“I don’t know,” Pace answered looking at the ceiling, his hands behind his head. The ship swayed gently on the waves. “I just have been having strange sensations since Merkas.”
“Like we all,” Toggy said with a thick sadness in his voice. “Captain…”
“It’s not that,” Pace interrupted him a little harsher than he expected. How could he explain to his friend the feeling that even he didn’t understand? Whatever has been happening with his body, it had something to do with Ines. The Soul Entanglement was behind it. Toggy wouldn’t know a thing about it. Pace suspected that the only person who had possessed a sliver of comprehension was now gone from his life. Captain, why did you do it? Why did you choose death?
Pointless questions have bombarded Pace since th
e fateful moment.
“Anyway, I think she’s on the move.”
“On the move? Who? Where?”
“Ines. At the moment, she’s heading in our direction,” Pace jumped to his feet. He needed to speak with commander. “I have to go.”
It still could be a trap. After Agent X’s and Dukas’ escape, nothing could be certain.
“Where?”
“To see our new captain.”
*
Pace
Pace stopped before the captain’s quarter. It was a strange feeling knowing that captain Pembroke would never wait on the other side. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but before his knuckles touched the wood, commander-captain called him in.
“Close the door behind, will you?” A stern tone welcomed him. Pace was going to do so anyway.
“Commander… captain, we must speak—”
Kinson stopped him.
“Don’t address me as captain, please.” Please? Pace’s eyes widened because he hasn’t ever heard such a civilized word from this man’s mouth. “I’m commander Kinson. This is the title I’ll die with.”
Apart from the question, how the hell did he know that? Pace had a hundred more. In fact, they were ready to burst his head and flood the room. He would start with; why the pirate captain Parime Dorado was with them?
“Pace. Get back on earth. We have a duty ahead of us to fulfill. It’s not a moment to walk in the clouds.” Although Kinson put an effort to sound neutral, Pace didn’t take commander’s good mood for granted. Wait, what duty?
“I’m listening,” Pace said, but his thoughts longed to wander aimlessly.
“I think, it’ll be easier on you if you sit down. Pick the chair.”
Commander himself didn’t sit down. He embraced his usual stiff self, hands behind his back, chin slightly raised.
The chair turned out very comfortable and Pace immediately regretted it. He hasn’t slept since yesterday. Now, it felt as if he was sinking. He had to shake his head a couple of times to not drift away.
“We’re captain-less for now,” commander explained. “We’ll remain so for a few more weeks until I’ll decide it’s time.”
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