Mason shook his head. “No. She won’t. Not for me. Not for anything.”
“You don’t know her like I do, because despite how much you care, you can’t walk through her mind. I can. I have. I’ve gone inside the rooms she keeps bolted, and I know what she’ll sacrifice for you. Her very soul.”
“You’re going to die.”
It was all Mason could think to say.
“We’re going to kill you.”
The mage laughed. “Oh, good times, Mason. Good times indeed. Now look, I didn’t just come up here to torture you with what’s to come for Ms. Riley, although that was part of the fun. Here, take this.”
Rendal pulled a small telescope from his robe’s pocket and handed it to Mason. “Look out there.”
Mason extended the telescope to its full length and pointed it in the direction Rendal indicated.
“See them?”
Mason did. A ship, but not Riley’s. There was a flag flying over it, a banner Mason didn’t understand.
“Them there’s pirates.” Rendal spoke in a fake country accent. “They comin’ to steal our gold and take our wimmen. Gonna to take our ship, too.” He laughed.
He dropped the accent. “I brought you up here so you can see what happens. They’re still a day or so away, but they’re heading right for us. Their ship is faster than ours, so even if I wanted to run, I couldn’t get away.” He looked at Mason. “You don’t know much about the seas, do you? Much like magic, you Prefects have never had much use for anything that’s not on land.”
Mason shook his head, still staring at the ship. They were coming for them, that was for sure. The flag was black, and the ship looked ruthless, like some long dead skeleton that wanted vengeance.
“The seas are a dangerous place if you don’t know what you’re doing. Harold, my head guard—he’s had a lot of experience on the ocean. And me… Well, you’ve seen what I’m capable of. But those pirates claim this part of the sea, and that means they are going to try and kill us, then rape any women aboard. Claiming rights is their way of trying to sound just.”
Mason put the telescope down, not wanting to look at the ship anymore. “What the hell does that have to do with me? If they’re coming to kill us and we’re going to die, why show it to me now?”
“We’re not going to die, Assistant Prefect. Goodness, no! Those men are cutthroats, though. They make their living… Hell, they exist by having no conscience. Indeed, few land dwellers would survive against the ocean’s deadliest creatures—and not all of them are below water. No, Mason, you’re here now so that in a day’s time, you can see what happens to those very, very dangerous men.”
Mason closed the telescope, not looking at the mage.
“Because before this is over, you’re going to tell Riley to join me. You’re going to see that it’s absolutely hopeless to do anything else. She can’t stand against me, and if she tries, you’ll die, and she’ll end up on my side anyway. So pay attention, Assistant Prefect. You’ll want to know the truth of all this when she gets here.”
Rendal put the Assistant Prefect back in his room, then retired to his own chambers.
“Harold, what’s the best guess as to when those pirates will be on us?”
Harold stood in the doorway. “Tomorrow afternoon, sir.”
“Good. I want to be very clear here, Harold, so that there are no mix-ups. I don’t want anyone to interfere when they arrive. Your orders are to let them board our ship, and even if they kill some of our men, you’re not to attack. Understand?”
“Yes, sir. I understand completely.”
Rendal nodded. He moved to the bar cabinet and pulled out a bottle of dark liquor. His quarters were well stocked, even if the rest of his crew’s weren’t. He poured himself a drink and took a sip, feeling the liquid burn all the way down.
“They’re on the way, Harold. Do you think they see it? How I’m making them repeat this pattern? That they keep having to come for me again and again?”
Harold shook his head. “I doubt it, sir. The more I realize how lost I was in this whole thing, the more I believe everyone must be lost as well. None can even try to catch up, because they’re simply too far behind.”
Rendal took another sip. “Now you see the truth, Harold. I knew you’d come around.” He smiled. Harold was a good man, even if he’d gotten a bit confused about the whole Riley situation. “This time we’ll battle on the sea, but I won’t take her with us. She’ll crack a little more, but she’s not going to break. Not yet. She’s strong, and even with Mason pitching in it’ll take more. But that’s fine, Harold. I’ve got time.”
He turned around and looked at his second-in-command.
“What New Perth didn’t understand when they kicked me out was that this isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. Riley doesn’t know that yet either. She thinks this next battle will end the war, but it’s only a stepping-stone to something higher, Harold. Pay attention this time, my friend. I don’t want to lose you again.”
The mage’s voice held no warmth even as he smiled at his head guard. He wanted him to understand only one message: you get no more chances.
Rendal stepped out on the expansive deck. He looked no more like a captain than a kangaroo did. He wore his robe, despite the sun blazing above.
Before him, a smaller ship floated in front of his larger one. It was parallel, and ladders had been extended from their deck to his.
“Ah, here we are,” he told Mason who stood on his right side.
“Do you ever get bored with your theatrics?”
“No, sir,” Rendal answered. “It’s the theatrics that give me the most fun. The more important question is, are you ready to see what I can do when your friends show up? Are you ready to see what’s going to happen to New Perth?”
“You do whatever you need to right now, Rendal, to make yourself feel powerful. Riley is coming, though, and when she gets here, you’re going to have a very different outlook on things, I think.”
“We’ll see, we’ll see.” Rendal stepped up to Harold, leaving the Assistant Prefect behind him. “How are our new friends doing?”
“You heard them from belowdecks?”
Rendal nodded. “Yes.” It’d been something less than pleasantries—a warning cannonball flying over the ship and disappearing into the ocean.
“Well, not much else so far. Took them a bit to line up with us, and now we’re just waiting for them to board.”
The deck was empty, all of the men below. Rendal knew they weren’t happy; many were actually terrified. He didn’t care.
A man stepped out of a hatch onto the deck of the pirate ship. He was dirty, with long stringy, black hair. He wore a bandanna and had a large scar across the left side of his face. He held a thin sword in his right hand and looked to have about nine different knives hanging from a belt around his waist.
“Aye, my name is Captain Grayskull, and this here is my ship. These here are my men.”
And as he spoke the last few words, some of the grimiest human beings Rendal had ever seen came up from belowdecks. They spread out around their captain, all wearing black and brown tattered clothing. Some were toothless, some had only one eye, some only one leg.
“They make mutants look healthy, don’t they, Harold?” Rendal laughed.
“Yes, sir. I’d say your assessment is correct.”
The pirates all held weapons, and more kept emerging.
“Now, I have the rights to this here water you’re floating on, and I didn’t receive me necessary paperwork to sign off on. That means you are sailing illegally in my waters.”
The pirates on the other deck laughed.
“So, without the paperwork,” the captain continued, “I’m afraid I’mma have to take possession of this ship and all the loot on it.”
“Aye!” someone shouted. “Need to take possession!”
The crew laughed again.
The captain still hadn’t moved from his ship. The ladders connecting the ships remained
empty.
Rendal decided to play dumb. “Where would I get the paperwork you speak of, Captain Grayskull?”
“Aye, the paperwork. Men, where would he get the paperwork? I can’t remember where I put it.”
“I think it might be up me ass!” someone shouted.
“No, no, you put it up Brett’s ass last night!”
The captain laughed along with his crew, but as his smile faded, their laughter died.
“I guess it’s up someone’s ass over here, from the sound of things. Either way, I didn’t get it in time, so I’m going to be comin’ aboard that ship, and then you all are gonna do what I say. You understand me?”
Rendal looked at Harold. “He’s making some serious demands, isn’t he?”
“Yes, sir. It would appear we should listen to them.”
“Aye, if you two are over there makin’ jokes, I suggest you stop. Now, before we board, how many men ya got?”
“How many would you say, Harold?”
“Besides us three?” Harold asked with a grin.
“Yes, besides us three.” Rendal didn’t take his eyes from the pirate captain as he joked with his second-in-command.
“Well, if we include the ones we got in chains, plus your private army, I’d have to put the number at five hundred or so.”
“Enough!” the captain screamed across the expanse. “Men, take them!”
“Mason, friend, pay attention.” Rendal’s voice carried to the Assistant Prefect’s ears.
The pirates rushed forward and climbed the ladders. Loud grunts and angry curses filled the air, but Rendal and Harold remained in place.
The bracelet on Rendal’s wrist lit, shining deep red for everyone to see. He closed his eyes, and the nanocytes in his blood latched onto those of the people wearing the necklaces. He could feel their bodies as if they were his own, the energy inside them now his to control.
Artino had explained how it worked to him. The amphoralds in his bracelet were charged with his energy, and he was using them to control others. Through the amphoralds, his nanocytes were focusing those inside his prisoners, their potential becoming his.
It was like mind control, but he only needed to tell the bracelet on his wrist what to do instead of fifty people at once. Rendal directed his will to the bracelet, and it sang that across the necklaces on his prisoners.
They were his to do with as he wished.
The first of the pirates reached his ship, but Rendal still didn’t move. The captain climbed his ladder carefully, slowly, even as those around him rushed up the others.
“Belowdecks, lads. That’s where we’ll find ‘em.”
“Indeed, it is,” Rendal whispered.
Two large hatches opened on the ship’s deck, basically holes with ladders leading down.
The pirates running across the deck skidded across the wood as they came to a stop.
“What the hell?”
Red eyes peered up from below. Fifty pairs of them.
“Captain!” one of the pirates shouted. “Captain, ya need to see this!”
Captain Grayskull landed on Rendal’s ship with a thud.
“What’s stoppin’ you?” he screamed. “Move outta the way!”
He shoved forward, pushing people out of the way. The two hatches in the deck were just in front of Rendal and Harold, separating them from the cutthroats holding knives, swords, and axes. None of their eyes were on Rendal, though.
They stared at these new people.
“What’s wrong with their eyes?”
Rendal smiled. “You see, Harold? Things are never as bad as they seem, are they?”
“No, sir. Not with you.”
“What the hell?” the captain asked. Having made his way to the doors, he was now looking down at the unmoving people.
Their faces were lax, their eyes calm, their pupils glowing red.
“Gentleman, this is part of my crew. Would you like to meet them?”
The captain glanced at Rendal. “What’s wrong with their eyes?”
“What on Earth do you mean?”
“You know damn well what I mean. Why are they red? And why are they wearing those necklaces? They’re glowin’ red too!”
“Would you like to see?”
“Don’t you move! Don’t you dare move! Men, seize ‘im!” the captain demanded.
The pirates didn’t move an inch. They all stood staring at their leader and this strange robed man, unsure what to do.
Rendal walked behind Harold and then headed to the rail, skirting both hatches and the group of pirates around them.
“That’s a good looking ship, Captain Grayskull. Fast too, huh? No way mine could have gotten away from it.”
“You listen to me right now, and you listen good. Don’t move another step ‘less you want me to pop your head off your neck like a zit on my ass, you understand?”
Rendal raised his hand next to his face and looked at the palm.
“I wonder…how’s a pirate to survive without a ship?” Rendal asked. The whole pirate crew stared at him now, their eyes distrusting and their hands tight on their weapons.
Rendal closed his hand slightly, his fingers shaking as if he suddenly held some immeasurably hard rock.
A loud groaning sound filled the open air. Wood creaking.
“NO!” the captain shouted, rushing back to the rail, knowing exactly where the noise came from.
“Harold,” Rendal called. “Start us moving at full speed. We don’t want to get sucked down with it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Harold, let’s make the pirates feel at home. How would they say such a thing?”
Harold smiled. “Aye aye, Captain.”
Harold disappeared down the ladder, the red-eyed army moving out of the way for him before shifting back into their spaces.
Rendal’s hand closed tighter, and things started popping on the other ship. Loud noises that sounded like explosions. Wood cracking and breaking.
“KILL HIM!” the captain shouted, pointing his sword at Rendal. The pirates’ trance broke. Whatever this mage was doing, he had to be stopped.
They rushed forward, and Rendal’s red bracelet shone over the entire deck.
It sounded like a cannon fired from the two hatches.
The men rushing toward Rendal were blindsided, but not by fire. Not by electricity. Not by anything that could hurt Rendal’s ship.
Instead, wind slammed into them and they flew through the air, knocking into each other, some skidding across the wooden deck. They hit the rail, cracking their ribs and arms and shoulders.
Shouts rang out.
More rushed forward, the wind not stopping them all. The ship had begun moving, the ladders pulling away from the pirate ship.
Rendal’s fist closed more, and the first true sounds of breaking came. Water was flooding in through the hull, and splintered wood burst from the ship’s sides, flying into the ocean. Water churned as the ladders fell between the two ships.
Some of the pirates rushed to the rail to view the ship that was being left behind.
Rendal’s soldiers were all on deck now, their eyes bright red.
A pirate was five feet from Rendal, his sword out and his face full of fury.
Rendal didn’t move, only closed his hand a bit tighter, the invisible rock crumbling.
The pirate stopped in his tracks as if he had run into a brick wall. His sword moved against his will, the point now facing his gut.
One of Rendal’s red-eyed soldiers stood behind him, face emotionless, hands at his sides.
The pirate plunged the sword into his own stomach, his blood spilling on the deck.
Rendal smiled and glanced across the ship at Mason.
“You see, Assistant Prefect?”
Rendal’s hand closed more, and the staff holding the pirates’ flag shattered and dropped shards of wood onto the broken deck.
The soldiers were tossing pirates over the rail, using a combination of wind and telekin
esis.
Screams and blood.
Rendal only smiled, his hand closing farther and more easily as the ship’s internal structure fell apart, the sea claiming it.
And then his hand was fully closed and the pirate ship was sinking.
Half his soldiers turned their attention to the ship’s sails.
A huge wind suddenly filled them. The ship had been moving before, but now it truly took off. The pirate ship continued going down behind them, but the water couldn’t suck Rendal’s ship down with it. They were too far away.
Rendal watched as Captain Grayskull was tossed over the rail. He screamed as he fell.
The mage turned from the rail and strode across the deck to where Mason stood. Painful yells still filled the air, but they were growing fewer and fewer.
Mason’s eyes didn’t hold the fear that Rendal had hoped for, but he cared little. Time was on his side.
“Are you seeing what I mean yet?”
He stood so that the two men were shoulder to shoulder, watching the melee play out in front of them. Another pirate was flung into the ocean, the screams ending as he hit the water.
“I see you’re a cruel man, mage or not. I know that if Riley is coming for me, she’s not bringing cruelty but justice. It’s going to be cold when it gets here, Rendal. At least as cold as the water you just tossed those men into.”
Chapter Three
Riley didn’t like being on a ship one bit. William had warned her, but she hadn’t listened—mainly because she didn’t have a choice. If Rendal was on the ocean, then Riley had to be on the ocean too.
She hadn’t known how much she would hate it, though.
Her stomach was in constant turmoil and her head felt like it was always swimming, her brain trying to stay above some waterline it hadn’t known about.
“Weaker both on land and on water.” William laughed and slapped his knee as Riley bent over the bucket at the side of her chair.
“I’ll show you weak—”
She tried to say something back to him, but the food she’d eaten an hour ago shot up her throat. She stared at the mess for a moment, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm before straightening.
Chasing Magic (Hand Of Justice Book 2) Page 2