Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3)

by Eric T Knight

  “Sir, I beg you!” the merchant cried. “I have the barrels, they are only delayed. If you must arrest someone, arrest me. Please!”

  Rouk leaned in close to his face. “You leave me no choice,” he snarled. He held up one hand. “Bind their hands and bring them.” He looked at Fen. “Do you have a problem with that order too, lieutenant?”

  Fen swallowed. He could feel the eyes of the frightened family on him. He’d told them they wouldn’t be arrested and now he’d shown himself to be a liar in their eyes. He wanted to resist—this wasn’t what soldiers were supposed to do!—but he also realized there was nothing he could do. It was like Ravin said, sometimes he would have to be patient.

  “No, sir,” he said.

  All of the family’s hands were bound behind them, then they started marching them to the prison. On the way Fen found himself wondering how things had gotten to this point. So many times during their talks the Fist had stressed that his rule was different from the last king’s. His was a rule of law, a law that applied equally to everyone. A law that protected ordinary citizens. Yet here they were, arresting women and children and hauling them off to prison. How had this happened?

  Was there any way to stop it or had it already gone too far?

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  By the end of the day Fen was more determined than ever to learn more about his power. He was convinced that everything bad that was happening could be traced to the arrival of the Ankharans. Nothing could be fixed until they were taken care of. He wasn’t sure what that meant. Would he really kill them in cold blood if he had the power to do so? He didn’t know. He wasn’t sure what he was capable of. He figured he would cross that stream once he got to it. Until then all he could do was prepare as best he could.

  He'd spent a lot of time wondering where his power had come from. It might have been given to him by a god, but there were no priests left in the city to ask. They had all fled or gone into hiding after what the Fist had done to the priest of Hentu. Their temples were all empty.

  He planned to go talk to the old healer, Horis, once his duties were over for the day. Maybe these Shapers that Horis had told him about were responsible. Maybe Horis would know something more. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing.

  It was a relief to march back into the castle at the end of the day. Fen was exhausted. They’d spent the whole day marching around the city, terrorizing one merchant after another. Fortunately, they hadn’t had to arrest any more families, though they had arrested one merchant who had no family, but still it was exhausting. Fen hated every moment of it. He hated taking orders from the little tyrant Rouk. He hating rousting frightened people out of their homes and threatening them. And he especially hated the looks he saw on the faces of everyday citizens, people who watched from a distance as they hauled people out of their homes so Rouk could shout at them. He remembered a time when the people of Samkara cheered their soldiers enthusiastically, when they looked at their army as heroes. Now he saw fear and suspicion. Was that how it would be from now on? It angered him. This wasn’t what he had signed up for. It felt wrong. It was wrong.

  Several times he vowed to bring this to the Fist personally at the end of the day, but by the time they marched into the castle he’d given up on that idea. He had no idea how the Fist would react, but he didn’t think it would go well. The Fist believed strongly in the chain of command. Jumping over it like that wouldn’t make him happy.

  Not only that, but it could turn many of the other soldiers against Fen. He already struggled with perceptions among them that he was the Fist’s pet, that he got special treatment that he didn’t deserve. If he took his problem with Rouk to the Fist and the Fist took Fen’s side, he would lose a great deal of their respect for good. It was difficult to lead men if they didn’t respect you.

  After dismissing the men, Rouk held Fen back.

  “I’ll be filing an official complaint against you, lieutenant. Failure to follow orders.”

  Fen had already decided it would do him no good to argue with the captain further. “Yes, sir,” he said, standing at attention, his gaze fixed in the distance.

  “Is that all you have to say?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’re not going to argue with me? Or run to the Fist about this?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You’ve risen fast. This could be the end of that. You might be busted back down to private.”

  “Yes, sir. I know that, sir.”

  Rouk stood there glaring into Fen’s eyes, his jaw clenched, his fists bunched at his sides. “I’ve been in this army for a long time. I know your kind. You rose fast because of who you know, and you think that makes you something special. That’s it, isn’t it?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You’re arguing with me again.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Get out of here. I can’t stand to look at you anymore.”

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  Fen went back to the barracks and sat down on his bed. It was strange, but not that long ago the threat Rouk had just made against him would have bothered him a great deal. He’d worked hard for his rank, and doubly hard since achieving it, to prove wrong those who whispered that he got it because of his relationship with the Fist.

  But now it suddenly didn’t seem all that important. His king was in danger. The nation was in danger. What was rank against that? If losing his rank, if being kicked out of the army completely, was the price of stopping whatever it was the Ankharans were up to, it was a small price indeed.

  He stretched out on the bed, planning on lying there only for a few minutes. It was unbelievable how tired he was. He found himself wondering what the Ankharans were up to. What was the pool of purple light? Why were they draining people’s lives into it? Were they feeding something? Where did that huge crab-thing come from anyway? Were there more of them?

  He was still thinking about all these things when he fell asleep.

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  He was awakened by the sound of loud voices. He groaned and rolled over onto his side.

  “Look what I found!” Noah said triumphantly. “It’s our fearless lieutenant, asleep in his bed! Is this what officers do when real soldiers are out working?”

  Fen felt something clothlike hitting him on the face. “Stop it,” he mumbled groggily, trying to wave whatever it was away. There was laughter and the cloth was draped over his face. A second later Fen was clawing at it.

  “Get that thing off me, it stinks!” he cried, throwing it across the room. Only then did he realize it was Noah’s tunic, soaked in sweat and badly stained.

  Noah was there, shirtless, doubled over in laughter. Behind him, Cowley, Lukas and Gage were laughing hard too. The brothers, Wallice and Eben, were grinning. Even Strout, who was usually irritated by the pranks and foolishness that often went on in the barracks, was chuckling.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Fen asked Noah. “Don’t you ever wash your clothes?”

  “It’s part of his fighting strategy,” Strout said. “He thinks the enemy will be so busy gagging he won’t be able to fight.”

  Noah snatched up the offending article of clothing and threw it at Strout. Strout caught it, opened the door, and threw it outside.

  “Hey, that’s my only shirt!” Noah yelled and ran outside to retrieve it.

  “Must be nice to lie around all day sleeping,” Cowley said, sitting down on his cot, which was next to Fen’s. “Is it too late to become an officer?”

  “Too late for you,” Fen grumbled. “Standards, you know.”

  “Well you missed a lot of fun,” Lukas said, flopping down on his cot. He was the squad’s corporal ever since Fen had been promoted to lieutenant. “I don’t think the ducklings have learned anything at all.” Ducklings was what the experienced soldiers called the new recruits. It was actually a compliment. Even ducklings could line up and follow a leader.

  “They’re the worst!” Noah cried, coming back into the barr
acks clutching his tunic. “The dumbest ever. They’re going to get us all killed the first day.”

  “In the first mock battle, when the horns blew ordering the new squads to wheel right and reform ranks, half turned right and half turned left,” Gage said. “It was a real mess. Took an hour to get them sorted out. You should have seen how angry the major was.”

  “His face turned purple. I’m not kidding,” Noah said, sitting down on his cot and pulling off one of his boots. A new foul odor filled the room when he did so.

  “Ugh,” Cowley said, putting his hand over his nose. “What do you have in there, a dead rat?”

  “It is a little…uh, what’s the word I’m looking for?” Noah said thoughtfully.

  “Rank,” offered Lukas.

  “Disgusting,” Gage said.

  “Repulsive,” Fen added.

  “Pungent. That’s a word, isn’t it?” Noah asked. He’d decided recently that if he was going to meet more girls he needed to know some fancier words to impress them, so he was often badgering Cowley to teach him some. Cowley had the biggest vocabulary of anyone they knew, and also the most luck with girls, and somehow Noah had come to equate the two.

  “It doesn’t work here,” Cowley assured him. “I’d go with revolting.”

  “I thought that meant rebellion or something.”

  “Any girl who smells your feet is definitely going to rebel.” Cowley turned back to Fen and slapped him on the knee. “Come on. Get up.”

  Fen lay back down instead. If anything he felt more tired than before. “Whatever it is, I’m not interested. I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Hear that?” Cowley asked the rest of them. “He says he’s not interested. What do the rest of you say?”

  A chorus of boos rained down on Fen, who buried his head in his arms and tried to block them out.

  “Can I get some help here?” Cowley asked.

  A few moments later Fen felt himself being hoisted into the air by a number of hands. He struggled, but they had a good hold on him. He was hauled outside and set on his feet. Eben, the younger of the two black-haired brothers, handed him his boots. Wallice, the older brother, handed him his shirt.

  “I don’t want to go. I’m tired,” Fen said, though he knew it was hopeless.

  “That’s okay,” Cowley replied. “You’ll get over it.”

  The rest of the squad was standing around with expectant looks on their faces, staring at Fen. “What is it?” Fen asked suspiciously.

  “I told the lads you were taking us all out to eat,” Cowley said. “Which means you’re paying.”

  “I’m not doing that,” Fen protested.

  “Of course you are. Don’t you know it’s good for morale? You care about our morale, don’t you?”

  “And you gotta spend all that officer’s pay on something don’t you?” Noah piped up. He was the shortest of them all, fierce and energetic. “What better than us? You wouldn’t even have that promotion if it wasn’t for us, making you look good all the time.”

  Fen could see that further resistance was useless. However, if he went along, maybe he could get this over with quickly and get back to bed. “All right. Let me get my purse out of my footlocker.”

  “No need,” Cowley said, holding it up. “I already got it for you.” He scowled at Noah, who was putting his shirt back on. “You’re not wearing that thing, are you?”

  “I already told you, I don’t have another one,” Noah said. “I lost my other shirt last week at the tavern.”

  “How’d you lose your shirt at the tavern?” Cowley asked, then held up his hand and shook his head. “No. Don’t tell me. I don’t really want to know.”

  “I had three pips,” Noah said. “There was no way I could lose.”

  “But you did,” Cowley said.

  “The other guy had four pips,” Noah said disgustedly. “Who’d’ve thought?”

  “Just don’t sit next to me,” Fen said.

  “You don’t mean that,” Noah said, throwing his arm around Fen’s shoulders. He had to stand up on his tiptoes to do so, as he was quite a lot shorter than Fen.

  Fen pushed him away. “Let’s get this over with.”

  While they were walking down the street, heading for a restaurant, Cowley fell back and walked beside Fen, who was bringing up the rear.

  “What happened last night?” Cowley asked.

  Surprised, Fen started, then shook his head. “Nothing. Why?”

  Cowley sighed loudly. “Do we have to do this?”

  “Do what? I’m telling you, nothing happened.”

  “That doesn’t work, you know. It never has. Why do you keep trying?”

  “Why am I friends with you?”

  “Because I keep you from being too boring. Now spill.”

  Fen thought quickly. He had to be careful. He felt relieved that Ravin knew his secret, but he wanted to keep it from everyone else still. Then he realized that he did have some news he could safely share with Cowley. “Ravin and I got back together.”

  Cowley grinned and slapped him on the back. “That’s what I like to hear! Whew, what a relief, am I right?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “You’ve been a right miserable bastard since you two split up, you know that? I could barely stand to be around you and I’m your best friend. The rest of them really hated you.”

  “I wasn’t that bad.”

  Cowley made a scoffing sound. “Trust me. It was worse than bad. You’re lucky any of us still speak to you.”

  “Go jump off a cliff, Cowley.”

  “Now, don’t get all sullen. I mean it in a nice way.”

  “Really? Because it didn’t sound nice.”

  “Seriously, though, I’m happy for you. For both of you. You fit well together. Better than Amma and I. I don’t know what it is with us. It always gets screwed up so fast.”

  “Maybe because you can’t help but flirt with every woman you see.”

  “Don’t be bitter because I have a gift,” Cowley said. “I can’t help who I am. You don’t want me to deprive the poor lasses of joy, do you? I have to spread Cowley wherever I go.”

  “You spread something, that’s for sure.”

  “So now what? Did you two pledge undying love? Was there any, you know?” Cowley asked with a wink and a leer.

  “You can’t stay out of the gutter for a minute, can you?” Fen said, feeling his face grow hot.

  “It’s more fun in the gutter.”

  “All we did was talk. All night long. That’s why I’m so tired today.”

  “All night long? Are you sure you didn’t bore her to death?”

  “I don’t know why I even bother talking to you.”

  “Who did Fen bore to death?” Noah asked, overhearing part of their conversation.

  “Hey, everybody!” Cowley yelled. “Fen and Ravin are officially sweethearts again!”

  Much hooting and ribbing followed his words. Fen punched Cowley in the side, hard enough to make him pay some for the teasing.

  When they were sitting in the restaurant, waiting for their food, Lukas leaned across the table and asked Fen, “What happened to the tower?”

  Fen froze a little, then said as casually as he could, “It fell down.”

  “Wait,” Noah said. “What? The tower fell down?”

  “You didn’t notice?” Strout said with a laugh. “What, have you been walking around with your eyes closed since we got back?”

  By way of answer Noah shot Strout a rude gesture.

  “I wish I could’ve seen that,” Lukas said. “It must’ve been something. Did you see it happen?”

  Again Fen hesitated, though only for a moment. “No. I was asleep.”

  “Were the Ankharans in there when it happened?” Gage asked.

  “No,” Fen said.

  “That’s too bad,” Noah said. “We coulda been done with them, just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

  Fen noticed Cowley staring at him skeptically. “What?�
�� he asked.

  “You didn’t see the tower fall,” Cowley said.

  “That’s what I said, didn’t I?”

  “You were just sleeping peacefully when it happened.”

  “What are you saying, Cowley?” Lukas asked, a confused look on his face.

  “I think Fen isn’t telling us everything,” Cowley said, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

  The others all looked at Fen then. “Did you go in there?” Lukas asked.

  “I thought you weren’t going to run off and tackle things alone again,” Gage said accusingly.

  “Yeah, you’re supposed to wait for your squad,” Noah said.

  “What makes you think I went in there?” Fen asked.

  “Because I know you,” Cowley said. “And it’s too much of a coincidence that the one night we’re gone the headquarters of the Ankharans just up and falls down, don’t you think? But I have to admit that I’m surprised. I thought after what happened on the black ship that you would’ve learned not to go it alone.”

  “I thought so too,” Lukas said. He was scowling at Fen. “You’re not acting much like a real leader would.” He looked personally offended.

  Fen thought fast. He knew there was no way he could convince them he didn’t go into the tower, but that didn’t mean he had to give up his secret. He decided to tell as much of the truth as he could. He leaned forward and motioned for the others to do the same. In a low voice he said, “They kidnapped Ravin.”

  “Who?” Noah asked.

  “The Ankharans, dummy,” Strout said. “Who else?”

  “I was going to bed when Amma came and told me she’d seen Ravin being carried into the tower.”

  “So you charged in alone,” Lukas said.

  “What else was I going to do? You were all gone.”

  “I don’t know, maybe get help from the hundreds of other soldiers all around you?”

  “And then what? Have some officer take over and maybe someone decides to wake up the Fist and time gets wasted and meanwhile who knows what’s happening to Ravin?”

  “Ease up on him, guys,” Cowley said. “It’s true love that has corrupted his thinking. He can’t help himself.”