“Look, I know you are confused right now…”
“Don’t talk to me like that. You don’t know me!”
“No, you’re wrong, I do know you.”
He scooted closer. She scooted away, backing up against the pulsating black barrier that contained her.
“Spirea, through her I have seen you. Your incomparable strength, your determination, your focus, your savagery. You’re like a stalking panther, cool, methodical, remorseless. You’re the most amazing person I have ever met, like a beautiful predator, I’ve always thought so.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek. “But, I don’t want to be that way. I don’t want to be a monster. I just…I just wanted to be a normal girl, with a normal life.”
Tigera ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “All right, I won’t make you try. But you need to understand something. The power of the void is causing the afet to break down. You two are merging. Her thoughts and emotions are bleeding into you, and yours are bleeding into her. She’s becoming softer, more diplomatic, more generous. And that’s bad.”
“That’s bad?”
“It means the necklace will fail soon, and when it does, she’ll realize what I’ve been doing to her this whole time and kill me. I should have left already, but I had to wait until I could make her sleep deeply enough to sneak away. It took every drop of control I had left. My hold on her is slipping fast.”
Spirea sat there in shock at what she had just heard. Tigera carefully reached out and touched the pulsating barrier, finding to his relief that while she could not pass through it, he could.
“So, what will happen to me when the necklace fails?” she asked, her voice breaking.
He sighed. “In all honestly, I don’t know. I’m waaaay outside my territory here. Afets were never intended to be used this way, or for this long, and with the added complication of all this void magic and heritage curse…”
“Just tell me, okay?”
He breathed in deeply. “All right. In all likelihood, the original curse will take full effect, and your soul will be completely consumed.”
Her shoulder slumped and her eyes fell. “I see. So, it was all a waste. Instead of simply being destroyed, I instead existed through months of torture and torment, only to meet the same fate.”
There was something startling in her reaction. The natural response of all living things when faced with their death is denial and defiance. He could barely fathom what kind of life she had lived, what kinds of experiences had led her to the point where she would accept it so readily. Her eyes were so empty, so devoid of hope, he could not help but feel pity for this poor creature.
“When?” She asked quietly.
“It’s hard to tell, the necklace may…”
“WHEN?!”
He grew quiet. “You have until sunrise.”
“I see. So in the morning I die. There will be no evidence that I ever existed, and my body will belong to her.”
Tigera felt himself becoming uncomfortable. He wanted to leave. This was just supposed to be a job, an unusually dangerous job, and a job he was tricked into, but a job nonetheless. Now it was getting personal, very personal. And his gut told him that was dangerous.
Tigera grabbed his boots and began to put them on.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I have to leave. If I don’t, my life is forfeit.”
He moved to stand up, but felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked back and saw her holding the fabric of his shirt.
“Please don’t leave me,” she whispered.
“But…”
She looked up at him, her delicate eyes pleading. “Please.”
He could not help but feel sympathy for this poor creature. Like a wounded animal she felt to him, denied every comfort, every chance at having a normal life. Beaten and battered in a way that would have embittered and destroyed anyone else.
Abused animals quickly lose their ability to connect to others. They are stripped of everything save the instinct to survive. They become wild, lashing out and attacking everything, seeing all people as a threat. But, she was not like that. Not completely, anyway. After all she had been through, here she was, still reaching out, asking from another the one thing she had so desperately craved all her life, but never had never received:
A moment of kindness.
“I don’t care if it’s fake,” she said quietly. “I just want to feel warmth from another person, just once in my life. Just once, please.”
He could feel his resolve failing. “But, I’m just…”
“You don’t have to mean it. Just hold me, please. Just for a little while.”
He glanced at the window, towards escape and safety, but he could not make himself move.
“O-okay.”
“Thank you.”
He kicked his boots off and crawled back under the sheets. She snuggled up beside him, and he put his arms around her to embrace her.
Carefully, she set her cheek down on his chest. “When you leave me, could you give Athel a message for me?”
“I’m not sure where she is, or if she’s even alive.”
“If she is, will you tell her something for me?”
“What is it?”
“Tell her…tell her thank you for trying to save me. In the end, she was the only person who ever did. She was the closest thing I ever had…to a friend.”
Spirea placed her hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. She closed her eyes, and cried silently to herself.
He held her like she was his most precious thing. A thing to be protected, a thing to be cherished. As the Queen, she was this unstoppable force of nature, like a tidal wave of will, a terrible intelligence to be feared and respected. Now, so frail in his arms, Spirea felt very small and vulnerable, like she would shatter if he squeezed too hard.
Her tears were that of a young woman at the end of a very long and lonely journey. A life devoid of compassion, a life devoid of friendship, joy, or even peace. A young woman whose suffering had soaked in so deep that it had colored her soul, to the point that she could barely even imagine what it might feel like to trust somebody.
Her tears were so honest, so profound, so devoid of hope, that he found himself holding her tighter in his arms. He found within him stirring a sense of injustice, that one person should be called upon to suffer so far and away past the measure she deserved.
By the time she drifted off to sleep in his arms, he wasn’t sure he was faking it anymore.
* * *
The young woman sat under the exclusive cabana, overlooking a stunning, crystal clear volcanic lake. A rainbow of colors bordered the steaming clean waters, towels and bathing suits at the ready should she need them. Expensive foods were arrayed on fine china, the finest vintage of champagne bubbled in her crystal wine glass. Her tight-fitting dress was custom made by the finest seamstresses in all of Cocimbas, the hat she wore a haute couture original.
In every way, she was the very picture of youth, beauty, and wealth, save for two.
She was alone, and she was crying.
The woman wiped her eyes, smearing the flawless makeup she wore from her salon trip earlier in the day. She barely even noticed as a pair of young aristocrats came up, the size of their predatory hats only topped by the size of their predatory grins.
“Excuse me,” the taller one said, bowing on one leg as they were wont to do. “I am Sir Edginal Cumshaw, of the westerly Comshaws, and this is my cousin Awin.”
She made no response, or gave any indication that she had heard them at all.
“…I couldn’t help but notice such a lovely young lady with her own private pavilion without anyone to accompany her.”
He flashed his pearly white teeth in what he assumed was a dashing smile.
“I’m fine,” she answered blankly.
“I-uh, notice you are from Senndai,” the shorter one continued, adjusting his ascot. “I have met many of their royals, but I must admit to never meeting a beauty such as you. Which family are you associated with?”
She hung her head low, her coiffed green hair hiding her face. “Please leave me alone.”
The two looked at one another, offended.
“Now, see here…”
As Edginal leaned forward to seize her arm, the ground beneath them opened up into a swirling gateway of mist. With a yelp, they fell down into the portal, which snapped up straightaway, and then they were gone.
After seeing that, her waiter decided not to ask if she needed anything else, and wisely walked away.
Her eyes red and puffy with tears, Setsuna looked up at the scrumptious food. She hadn’t touched a morsel of it. She looked at the fizzing wine. She hadn’t drunk a sip.
The air near her table twisted and split, as if cut with a knife, and another portal opened up. Another Senndaisian stepped out, stretching in the midday sun.
“Well, well, here’s a sight I never thought to see,” he mused, gathering up his coattails and sitting in the chair opposite her. “The great Setsuna, Master of the Egress Guild, nursing a broken heart over some mundane nobody.”
“Nice to see you too, Captain Elymbor,” she said joylessly.
He pulled his chair closer and grabbed a handful of shrimp, tossing them down his gullet before chasing them down with her glass of wine.
“Help yourself, why doncha?”
“Thanks, I will,” he said, bits of food falling down onto his filthy shirt.
“How did you find me?”
“Mmm? Oh, it wasn’t that hard. Rumors of an insanely wealthy Senndaisian making any suitor who bothers her vanish spreads quickly through the circles I frequent. Actually, I was searching the north beaches for you just now when I sensed your gate.”
He stuffed a piece of cake in his mouth and cracked open a yellow eye. “Should we inform their families where you sent them?”
“Do what you want. You always do.”
He looked over at her suffering, and for a moment, his expression became softer.
“You know, you could probably go back to Senndai if you wanted to,” he explained. “The royal houses have been exiled after the recent debacle with the Stone Council. Everything is in chaos right now. No one is going to care about you losing an honor duel, then failing to make the man your husband.”
Setsuna sniffed. “What do you want?”
“A loan, actually.”
“A loan? With all the gold we helped you steal? What could you possibly need money for?”
He grabbed an orange and began peeling it. “Well, some of the old guildies and I bumped into each other, and we were thinking of buying a flying islet. Something to weather the coming storm, if you know what I mean.”
“You know that won’t accomplish anything. When the flight web fails, all those way stations will fall out of the sky like everything else. You’ll be buying yourself a few extra days at most.”
He gave an animalistic grin. “I never could beat you, could I?”
“That’s because you ruttin’ suck at lying.”
“All right, fine!” he said, throwing up his hands. “The guys and I just wanted one last hoorah before the end of the world, can you blame us?”
Setsuna furrowed her brow. “Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me you’re broke?”
He bit into the orange with his yellow teeth. “Broke as a cliff-lizard.”
Her mouth fell open. “How in the world did you manage to spend eighteen million tarries in just a few months?”
He shrugged. “Riotous living. That is why we became pirates, after all.”
“But that’s more money than some nations have.”
He snatched up her napkin and wiped his face with it. “Booze, women, wine, gambling, alcohol, you name it. I’ve been on a run that makes hedonism look like a book club.”
“You said alcohol three times.”
“And I have the headache to show for it. Now, come on, Setsuna, I know you, I know you’ve got something stashed away.”
He leaned forward to take her hand. “Can’t you help an old friend?”
“Don’t touch me, please,” she said, retracting her finely manicured hands.
He sneered. “Afraid some of the old feelings will resurface?”
“No, I’m afraid I’ll get a disease. You’re probably crawling with skin goblins.”
He grabbed her bottle of wine from the chiller and leaned back in his chair. “Ah, that’s my little Sawyn, always with a tongue like a blade.”
“Please don’t call me that.”
She wrapped her hands around herself, as if she were cold. “That is no longer your privilege. Not after what you did to me.”
“Oh, please! You knew exactly what you were doing.”
“I was a child!”
“You were my best girl, and you were proud of it.”
She slammed her fist on the table. “No, I thought you loved me! You used me!”
He took a fresh draught and leaned in close, his breath fogging up the china. “It stings, doesn’t it?” he asked hatefully. “All your feminine charms, all your confidence, the gifts you gave him, all the things you sacrificed just for him, the warmth you showed him, and you couldn’t even make a nobody like Privet fall in love with you.”
He leaned back, satisfied, watching her tremble.
“You’re pathetic, Sawyn. You’ve lost your edge. The old you would have chewed up a moss-head like him and spit him out without a second thought.”
She gritted her teeth, and when she looked up her demeanor changed. Now she was haughty and aloof. “HA! Shows what you know. I never loved Privet. I was just after his share of the gemstones.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really. He didn’t reject me, I left him. And I robbed him blind when I did.”
He leaned back and chewed on a toothpick. “And that was your plan all along?”
“Yes, it was cold, hard math, nothing else.”
“You see, I don’t buy for a second this tough-girl act you put on. You know why? Because I taught you how to do it.”
She reached out and flicked the toothpick out of his mouth. “You do recall that as Guild Master I am your superior, Captain?”
“You do recall the guild officially disbanded? It was part of the contract you signed with Queen Hazel Forsythia.”
“Pah, details.”
“You’re no pirate. You never were.”
“Tell that to the authorities.”
He smirked. “You will always be that scared little girl I found living in the gutter all those years ago.”
She looked at him defiantly. As he spoke, her façade began to weaken.
“I can still see it, Sawyn. It’s hiding just behind your eyes. The fear that life beat into you. The fear that if anyone knew who you really were, they’d use it to hurt you.”
“And what are you doing right now?”
With smug satisfaction, he pulled out a new toothpick. “I’m winning, of course.”
She reached into her purse and tossed him a bag of precious gemstones. “Just take it and leave,” she snarled. “The world’s ending anyway; they’re just rocks at this point.”
He picked up the bag, disappointed. “Is this all you have left? After nagging me about money?”
“If you don’t want it, then give it back.”
“No, I’ll take it. I’m just…disappointed. You’re usually such a spendthrift.”
She crossed her legs and looked away. “I lost a lot on real estate. You’d be shocked how much a mountain manor and heraldry title costs.”
He stood up and slapped his belly. “See, that’s why we always go
t along, you and I. With you, I never had to lie to get what I wanted out of you.”
He reached out to grab her chin. “You’ll always belong to me.”
She pulled away, pain in her green eyes.
Suddenly, the clouds above them began moving, as if some unseen hand were scraping about the sky, gathering the white puffy masses together, until they formed into a single image of a young man.
All the people of the island looked up in awe, but none so fully as Setsuna, for she recognized his face.
“Dwale!” she gasped.
“Um, can you all hear me?” he asked, fidgeting with his bandages. “Let me know if you can’t hear me.”
Captain Elymbor stood up. “Who’s this chucklehead?”
“Shhh,” Setsuna hushed.
Dwale thought for a moment. “Oh, I guess you can’t talk back to me, huh? Okay, if this is working, I should be sending this message to every island in Aetria at once, and I need you to listen to me, because this is very important.”
He held up the sketch that Ellie had drawn. “The Stone Council has betrayed us. Queen Sotol has absolutely no intention of freeing JaArian and Veritus. They are forcing us to build this huge tower on Madaringa. We don’t know what it’s for, but maybe you can…”
There was a loud bang from somewhere nearby, and Dwale snapped his head.
“There he is! Grab him!” came a dark voice.
Dwale panicked and pushed the schematics closer, allowing all to see them in full detail. “Hurry, write this down, memorize it, as much as you can. Whatever they intend for it, we cannot let them fin…”
Dwale was grabbed and yanked back. There were sounds of a struggle, and screaming, then the message cut off. The clouds dissipated, gradually returning to their former positions in the sky.
Setsuna covered her mouth. “Oh, no!”
* * *
The Dreadnaught flew silently, as if sailing on a sea of mist. The jagged rocks passed by, fading into crisp sharpness, then slowly fading away again. All was deathly silent. Even the sun seemed to burn colder here.
“I don’t understand,” Athel asked, looking around. “Where are they? They have always vigilantly defended their borders.”
Isle of Wysteria: Throne of Chains Page 21