by Leo Hull
Stewart had helped the women aboard and led them down to their pinned vulta, all budding with happiness, though Tristan had found Nessa’s amusement at it being his turn to get trapped under a larger person less than funny. At least when she’d shocked him unconscious, he hadn’t bled all over her.
Her teasing was playful, though, and his annoyance hadn’t lasted past the time it took to free him. Talek was dead and Annik saved, but Tristan didn’t have time to savor those accomplishments or even wash the gore from his body before Saeli city guards made their way to the Horizon, surrounding the ship and demanding Talek’s surrender. They seemed reluctant to attack, but more ships were headed into the harbor and Tristan worried about how they would react to the carnage, both here and in the ritual room.
He stared out at them, wondering when one would muster up the courage to get closer.
“You came,” Annik said, joining him on deck. Serana stood beside her, helping her to walk even though Annik likely didn’t need her.
“Of course, I did. How do you feel?” Tristan wrapped her in a hug which she returned.
“Hungry. I think I would eat raw eggs at this point.”
“Serana! You let her go hungry?” Tristan asked with a grin.
“She insisted on coming up here first! Said she’d starve herself if she didn’t get to talk with you,” Serana retorted, looking mortified. “Stewart said he would start the fires in the kitchen. Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Thank you, for everything.” Annik hugged the buxom woman, then moved to stand at the railing and look out at the harbor. There were dozens of boats full of Saeli guard in the waters around the Horizon. Thankfully none of the larger ships had approached yet, but this would likely change as Talek’s remaining forces surrendered. “They’re fighting still.”
Tristan looked to the docks where the fight dragged on. The city guard had Talek’s troops surrounded and seemed content to poke at them rather than risk a full-fledged battle.
“For now. Hopefully they hold out longer. I think it’s all that’s keeping the Saeli from sending a larger force out here after us.” On the deck behind them, Lydia and Nessa worked together to drag bodies to a section of the open railing, pushing them into the sea. Tristan listened to them talk and joke, unsure of what to say to Annik now that he’d saved her.
“Thank you,” Tristan finally decided on.
“Thank you?” Annik laughed. “I think that’s my line.”
“It can be both of ours. You wouldn’t have been in this mess if it wasn’t for me staying behind to sober up and losing my pack. But it’s not only that. I don’t think I’d be who I am now without these past weeks. I just hate that finding myself involved putting you and Nessa in danger. If I could go back and just stay drunk to keep you two safe, I would.”
“I wouldn’t.” Annik blushed, looking steadfastly out over the water. “Good steel requires a hot forge and strong blows, and we’re both safe now.” Annik quieted and the two stood in silence. “You seem to have collected two more Bound.”
“Not on purpose,” Tristan muttered, some part of him worrying about what Annik thought of him.
“Relax, they seem nice.” Annik turned to look at him, a gleeful glint in her eyes. “Although Serana seems to be under the impression that she needs my approval to stay bonded to you?”
“You can blame yourself and Nessa for that. You negotiated everything with Nessa and did such a good job that everyone expects you to keep doing it. As far as they’re concerned, you’ve got the final say on my Bound.”
“So, you’re going to keep them?” Annik turned to look at Nessa and Lydia, the two giggling about some shared joke.
“Keep them? They’re not pets.”
“That’s not an answer.” Annik pushed, a curious look on her face. “What are we going to do?”
Tristan sighed.
He’d been dreading this part for weeks, pushing away anything past his immediate goal of saving Nessa and Annik because thoughts of the future filled him with dread. That goal accomplished and the communication crystal recovered, he was at a crossroads between duty to his birthplace and brothers and sisters in arms, and his burgeoning love for three women. His hand brushed against Annik’s. Four women?
Tristan’s heart raced.
“The crystal has been going crazy, repeating the same demands but escalating. I haven’t checked it in days, but the last message I saw was that Commander Pierce and Gori were being sent at the head of a fleet.”
“Kenal is coming here?” Annik asked, worrying at her lip. Kenal Pierce had been involved in the founding of every major Aeolian colony over the past decade and was an ardent believer in Aeol’s expansion.
“Yes, and bringing that ass Gori too.” Tristan hesitated, not because he was afraid of the Corp coming for them, but because he was done running from himself.
His family, their company, the Corp, and Aeol itself all wanted something from him, but the goals of expanding business or empire seemed too petty after what he’d done here. For the first time in years, he had worked to accomplish something of worth to him.
A future here was uncertain. Saeli likely wouldn’t want him sticking around unless it was in a cell, but there were cities and lands to the west to explore and make a new life in. A life he wanted and could choose for himself.
Even if Nessa and Lydia and Serana decided to go in a different direction, Tristan couldn’t return to Aeol, couldn’t become another soldier slogging his life away so Aeol could add pins to their maps and pretend they spread civilization for anything but coin and power.
“I don’t want to go back. There is nothing worthy for me there, and I love Nessa.” Annik stayed quiet, staring ahead until Tristan couldn’t take the silence anymore. “I don’t want to leave you, either,” Tristan whispered, reaching out to take Annik’s hand. She flinched then clung to him tightly. “Stay with me. Stay with us.”
“Okay,” Annik said immediately, softly but with conviction as if she had only been waiting for him to ask.
Tristan’s heart soared and he pulled Annik into a hug. They stood face to face, their lips just inches apart. A playful grin flitted across Annik’s face, like a child venturing further away from home than allowed for the first time.
Annik pulled back. “But we’ll have time to talk about that later. Right now, we need to figure out how we’re going to get out of this.” She swept an arm across the harbor. “Somehow, I doubt Saeli is going to let us waltz out of here and despite the two of us spending months at sea, we have no idea how to sail, or the crew to man, a ship this big.”
“About that,” Stewart interjected. He squatted over the chest Tristan had hauled halfway across town. A body was still pinned beneath it. “The mast is just for decoration. Can you help me carry this thing?”
“What is it?”
“A way out of here for us all,” Stewart explained. Lydia and Nessa stood listening as well. “Look, I’ve already been enslaved by one faction looking to control this thing when all I wanted to do was learn and live my life. My knowledge cannot belong to any one city or group. I can get us away.”
“The Saeli aren’t slavers,” Nessa insisted, frowning.
“Not in so many words, but I reckon there are plenty that might as well be slaves. Trapped by circumstance or debt and pressed into a life they don’t want or deserve. I’m through with all that. At least let me show you. I’m still just one old man and you’ll still be free to leave and submit to their mercy if you want.”
Stewart spoke the truth about Saeli, as much as it pained Tristan to see Nessa struggle with the words. Aeol was no different and returning there meant surrendering his and Annik’s freedom to serve a country that saw them as tools first and people second. Tristan looked at Annik, startled to find her looking right back at him, waiting for guidance. It felt strange, in a pleasing way, to see her trusting his judgment. He still didn’t feel like he’d earned it, but was honored by her faith, nonetheless.
&nbs
p; “We will give it a try. I don’t want to fight again and I’m not sure what we would tell them that wouldn’t get us in trouble after what we’ve done today and last night.”
Tristan hefted the chest, his body protesting the effort. As he followed Stewart into the bowels of the ship, he could already smell Serana’s cooking. His mouth watered and behind him he heard Annik’s belly growling. At the very least, he hoped they had time to eat before the Saeli mustered the courage to approach them.
Stewart led them downwards to the center of the ship. There was a small room, locked behind a thick metal door that Stewart strained to swing open. Inside was a strange pedestal that rose from the floor and hung from the ceiling with a small gap between. There was a slot in the bottom that looked about the size of the chest.
Stewart gestured for Tristan to set the chest down on the floor, then pulled a key off a hook by the door. He unlocked the chest and slid the top off. It rattled to the ground and revealed a faintly glowing rod only a few inches in diameter and a foot or two long. The interior of the chest was solid metal, shaped to hold the rod perfectly.
“Hurry, it’s dangerous,” Stewart instructed, pointing to the slot in the pedestal.
“By the Fallen, maybe explain beforehand next time!” Tristan cursed, grunting as he rushed to place the opened chest in the slot that had clearly been made for it. The glow disappeared and something clicked once Tristan pushed it all the way in.
Stewart reached up and pulled on a groove in the dangling pedestal and it slid smoothly downwards until a seamless steel column connected the floor and ceiling.
The ship hummed, the very floor vibrating.
Lights clicked on, more natural in color than the harsh lighting that tracked their motion, but just as unnaturally still. The clatter of rushed footsteps preceded Serana as she burst into the room.
“What’s going on?” she asked, reaching for Lydia and clutching her.
“Our way out of here,” Stewart said with an eager grin. “Let me show you one of the wonders of the Albeder Sea.”
One floor up Stewart opened the door to an expansive room filled with a large table covered in maps. A pedestal with glowing crystals similar in appearance to the communication crystal sat at the head of the table. Stewart touched a few, and the walls of the room sprang to life with images of the outside world.
Tristan gasped then nearly fell as the ship surged forward, Stewart cackling in amusement at the reaction of his passengers and the Saeli sailors outside. The Horizon cut smoothly towards the mouth of the harbor and no Saeli ships followed in pursuit.
“Like I said, just tell me where you want to go,” Stewart said, grinning happily at their shocked expressions.
Tristan didn’t have a particular destination in mind, but as long as Annik and his Bound were along, any place far from Saeli or Aeol would do.
Maban, the Saeli representative, puffed his cheeks with frustration. Tristan stared the man down, unwilling to negotiate any further. Maban was relentless and slippery and Tristan was tired of the games.
“As I have explained repeatedly, the council will never agree to these,” Maban haughtily repeated. “Talek’s properties are forfeit and by rights this ship and all on it belong to Saeli. Our concession that you and your Bound go free should be enough considering the mayhem and damage you have all caused.”
Tristan rubbed his forehead, more exhausted from the hours arguing with this weasel than he had been after his fight with Talek. He sighed and stood from the small table on the deck of the Horizon. “You have a day to consider my offer before we blockade the harbor and sink any ship trying to enter or leave.”
“Y-you can’t do that!” Maban shrank into his chair, his confident demeanor evaporating. Everyone had seen the Horizon’s rapid, sailless transit.
“We can and we will. Nessa’s contract paid to Merouda, an equivalent sum paid to Nessa’s family, and a writ acknowledging our contributions to the eradication of Talek and absolving us of any claims related to our actions.”
“But the Horizon—”
“Is ours by salvage rights. Everything on the ship stays, but Talek’s things on land we won’t try to claim. One day.” Tristan turned away from the negotiator and ignored his sputtered protestations. Saeli had readily agreed to all but the demand to keep the Horizon and Tristan had spent the hottest part of the day in the sun talking in circles. He headed below deck as Stewart escorted the deflated visitor off the ship.
“Good job,” Annik said, from the doorway.
“I don’t think they’ll agree, and I feel a bit dirty threatening innocent ships.”
“They’ll cave. No ship can touch the Horizon, and we have the city’s most powerful Spark and Ground on our side. Besides, if they refuse, we can just ferry Lydia ashore one night and let her go to work.”
“I’m sure she’d like that,” Tristan said with a grin. “But I hope it doesn’t come to that. Are the others below? Is Nessa doing any better?”
“They’re in the bridge.” Annik hesitated. “Nessa still won’t talk about her parents, but you shouldn’t push her right now. Give her time. We have been through a lot, her more than most and she just found out her parents used her as a bargaining chip with Talek. She loves them still, but it’s going to take her a while to work through that.”
“I know the feeling. I think my father only saw opportunity when I became a Bolstered. He didn’t care about what was best for me, just how I could help the company.” Tristan sighed. “At least she’s safe and has the chance to think about these things.”
They fell into silence until they neared the bridge. The hall filled with the chatter of his Bound.
“…but it shouldn’t be on the map!” Lydia protested, her voice full of concern.
Tristan stood in the doorway, admiring the view. Lydia was crouched on the edge of the table, gesturing at the maps with her bare ass pointed right at the door. Nessa was beside her, leaned forward with her taut tanned legs stretched from her tip toes to the hem of her short skirt. Serana leaned across the table from the other side, her expansive cleavage hanging low and fighting a winning battle against her top.
“Pervert,” Annik muttered with a smile, elbowing him aside and drawing the attention of his Bound. Nessa and Serana grinned happily, but Lydia’s eyes flashed with concern. “What shouldn’t be on the map?”
“Viela, my hometown.” Lydia turned back to the map and frowned. “We shouldn’t be on any maps. We’re a small town hidden in wetlands with no reason for anyone outside the region to go there. I don’t like this.”
Tristan shared her concern. The Horizon was full of maps, notes, and communique, neatly organized but mostly incomprehensible. It wasn’t that they couldn’t read them, but there was just no meaning behind the gibberish. Nonsensical sentences ended unexpectedly or switched train of thought with no warning. Lydia insisted there was a code somewhere, something Stewart agreed with, but none of them could puzzle it out.
The only thing they could understand were the maps—dozens of them drawn with painstaking detail that covered the known and unknown regions of the Albeder Sea. Each map was marked with the rising triangle symbol of the Risen, but to what purpose no one knew. Talek and the Horizon had been in Saeli for decades, so the need for such maps wasn’t clear, but they had to be important.
“It’s probably nothing,” Nessa suggested and pointed at the region near Saeli. “They marked all the little fishing villages near Saeli and even the logging camps up in the mountains. There’s nothing special about those. They were just being thorough.”
“I guess.” Lydia sighed. “Sorry, I’m just being paranoid. How did the negotiations go? Did you ask about the new clothing for us?”
“Not yet,” Tristan groaned, rubbing his forehead. He’d completely forgotten about that request. “It might be too late for that to be part of these discussions but I’m sure we can find something to trade in the hold.”
“It’s okay. More important to take care of the
big stuff first.”
“All of that is uncertain too.” Tristan stared up at the ceiling wishing it was over, but then smiled. The headache of negotiations with Saeli was a minor inconvenience compared to what he had been through rescuing Nessa and Annik. The Horizon was finally clean, and he wanted to relax and celebrate. “But we’re all safe and together and I believe a certain someone said something about needing the rest of us to help fill a fryer with oil? Something about frying battered bread with gooey cheese in the middle?”
“Yes!” Serana straightened, a serious look on her face. “Tristan, Annik, can you two help me carry the barrel from the hold? It’s a big fryer and Stewart was concerned we might not be able to move the barrels with so few of us.”
“We moved that fat ass Talek all the way up to the deck, we’ll move a barrel of oil,” Annik said eagerly. She led the way, Nessa scampering ahead to walk next to her.
“You know,” Nessa ventured warmly to Annik as they walked, “there’s enough room in the captain’s quarters for you too. The bed Talek had delivered is huge and way more comfortable than the cot in your room. You are welcome to…” Nessa rounded the corner, the rest of her invitation inaudible.
Tristan’s heart hammered, and Serana and Lydia giggled when he looked to see if they had overheard.
“Did you two know about this?”
“We figured Nessa was the best to approach her since they’re closest,” Lydia whispered conspiratorially.
“We don’t want Annik feeling left out. She’ll bind with you when she’s ready, but it’s important for her to still feel included until then,” Serana added, a knowing smirk spreading across her face before she continued. “Nessa says she likes to watch, too.”
Tristan slowed to a halt and didn’t know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut rather than potentially add something that would come back to bite him. If his Bound wanted to invite Annik and she wanted to join, he would welcome her eagerly.