by Logan Jacobs
I did a little three-sixty from my perch on one of the branches, but froze when I turned back toward the ocean.
Out in the clear blue, calm ocean, where there wasn’t a cloud or fog in sight, I could once again see three massive, white, shimmery ships. They passed a huge rock about ten miles off the shore of my island, but they didn’t just pass by it. The third, smallest ship actually sailed straight through the rock. The midsection of the ship broke apart like fog around the object, and then it reshaped to perfectly form the ship again.
This time, though, instead of sailing the ocean on what seemed to be an aimless mission, the three ships looked like they were headed somewhere.
And a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me they were headed right for my home.
“Hey, Jemma, it’s getting a little late,” I called out to the woman as I turned back around and tried to conceal my nerves.
Jemma turned to give me a confused look, since the sun was still high in the sky, but her brows quickly unknitted when she saw what laid behind me.
“You are right. Ben,” She nodded and schooled her features so as not to alert the other women. “We ought to return to the castle with the meat, while it is still fresh.”
“But I was just beginning to really enjoy it up here,” Brenna sighed.
“Don’t worry,” I placated her quickly. “We’ll come back up here soon. It’s just that boar meat doesn’t last nearly as long as tarrel meat. It has to be cooked fairly quickly.”
“Of course, Ben.” Brenna nodded and smiled at me softly. “We shall go.”
The deer women all climbed down, and thanks to both Jemma’s and my gentle prodding, none of them caught sight of the ghost ships on the horizon.
I turned back around to glance at the ghostly vessels one last time before I climbed down. They were still out there, sailing forward, and this time, it didn’t seem like they planned to disappear again.
It seemed the maldungs were a problem I’d have to address sooner rather than later.
Chapter Ten
Jemma and I managed to help the other women gather the boat carcass and head back to the palace without drawing the women’s attention to the ghost ships still on the horizon. Still, I watched them until they had disappeared from sight as our elevation got lower. They didn’t seem to be on a course toward our island, but the very fact they were still on the ocean made me extremely nervous. I wasn’t sure if they might abruptly change course and head in our direction at any moment. From what Jonas and George had said, the ghost ships were full of brutal conquerors, on the same level as the orcs were, but the orcs were flesh and bone, and they were also pretty damn stupid.
If everything the legend said was true, I highly doubted three ships filled with men capable of throwing a coup were anywhere near as dumb as all of the orcs were.
When we made it back to the castle, I pulled Jemma aside.
“We need to talk to the others about this,” I murmured to her. “I want to have a meeting with Nerissa, Ainsley, and Mira before I mention the ghost ships to anyone else. I need their opinions.”
“Of course.” Jemma nodded.
We headed down the hall and split up so we could gather all of the women in one of the meeting rooms. I found Nerissa and Mira in Nerissa’s bedchambers, and the two sisters were watching over a napping Arrick.
“He looks so peaceful when he sleeps,” Mira whispered as I walked in.
“But only when he sleeps,” Nerissa laughed. “This man is a little tyrant already.”
Despite my worries, I couldn’t help but chuckle at my son’s antics.
Nerissa’s soft, silver head popped up the minute she felt my presence. She turned with a smile on her face, but the expression quickly faded when she saw my own.
“Ben, what is it?” she asked.
“I need to talk with the two of you,” I replied. “Jemma’s gone to find Ainsley. Follow me.”
Without a word, both Mira and Nerissa followed me down the stone hallway and into one of the rooms none of us normally touched. It was a large chamber, just like all of our bedrooms, except instead of a bed and the usual effects of a person, the room was filled with a single, long table and eight chairs.
Jemma and Ainsley arrived at the same time we did, and the two deer women followed us into the room.
“Ben, what is going on?” Ainsley asked as she pressed a nervous hand to her stomach.
I turned to survey each of their faces. Mira watched me quietly and observed every move I made while she waited for me to speak. Ainsley had a slightly nervous expression on her face, though she tried not to show it, and Nerissa wore a mask of absolute calm. I knew, though, this was merely a facade she’d perfected in the years she’d ruled as queen. Only her vibrant eyes gave away the worried turmoil inside.
My stomach turned to know I had to give them news that would worry all of them, but I also knew there was no other choice. We needed to figure out what kind of a threat the maldungs posed, and how we could defeat it, should the need arise.
“Have any of you ever heard of the maldungs?” I asked as I got straight to the point.
Ainsley and Mira both shook their heads, but Nerissa didn’t move. The only indication I had that she’d even heard me at all was all of the blood suddenly drained from her face, and her normally pretty skin went completely pale.
“My father used to tell me stories about them,” she finally managed to say. “The ghost ships, he called them. Neither alive nor dead, but somewhere in between.”
“Yeah, those would be the ones.” I nodded.
“Ghost ships?” Mira demanded. “What in the gods is that? How can something be neither alive nor dead? You are either dead, or you are not. As far as I know, there is no in between.”
“That would, unfortunately, be wrong,” I sighed. “And I know this because I’ve seen them with my own eyes.”
“Where?” Mira gasped as she turned her wild gold eyes on me. “When? Why have I not seen them?”
“You weren’t with me,” I told her. “Trust me, you don’t want to have seen them. Those things are creepy as hell.”
“Fuckers of mothers,” the warrior murmured.
“I am sorry, Ben, but I must say I am a little confused,” Ainsley interjected as she looked between Jemma and me. “What do you mean, they are neither dead nor alive? How are they here, then?”
“That’s a good question,” I replied. “And I don’t actually have an answer for it. What I do know is Jemma and I have seen those things twice now, in as many days. And from what I understand, they haven’t been seen in thousands of years. Which makes me wonder why the hell they’ve come out now. I guarantee if they were a normal part of the oceanic landscape, someone would have seen them by now. They’re pretty hard to miss.”
“Did you ask Jonas about them?” Nerissa questioned.
“Yep.” I nodded. “He told me all about the legend, but he didn’t really know of any way to defeat them.”
“Do you think they are coming here, sister?” Mira asked as she assessed her older sister’s worried expression.
“They are conquerors,” Nerissa mused and furrowed her brow. “They go after any land they want, and any people they want. Unlike the orcs, they have no use for living beings. Instead, they just destroy whatever, or whoever, inhabits the land they want and take it for themselves. Which, I suppose, is a more humane way to do it all, depending on how you look at it.”
“Yeah, that is very humane,” Mira snorted before she turned back to me. “What do you believe we should do, Draco Rex?”
I thought over her question for a long moment as I contemplated our two plans of action.
Plan one was to tell everyone in the village about the ghost ships and make a whole town full of women nervous and on edge for an unknown amount of time while we just waited to see if the ghost ships would try to do anything unsavory.
Plan number two would be to keep the information mostly to ourselves and establish some sort of
guard to keep watch for any of the ghost ships.
“I think if we tell the people, there will be panic,” Ainsley finally spoke up in a diplomatic tone, the one that had made me choose her to be president of the deer women in the first place.
“Ainsley is right, as always.” Jemma nodded. “I am afraid enough as it is. I cannot imagine how the rest of the women will feel.”
“Alright, so we keep it quiet for a little while,” I decided. “We need to tell a couple of women and set up some sort of guard. We also need to build a high tower to spot anything that’s trying to come for us.”
“Sela, Darya, and Zarya should be told of this,” Mira added. “And I believe we can ask Theora and Sarayah as well. They can all keep an eye out and sound the alarm if need be.”
“Good choices.” I smiled at the warrior.
“How do we build a high enough tower without attracting any attention?” Nerissa asked. “A new structure like that will certainly turn a few heads.”
I tilted my head as I considered the query. Nerissa was absolutely right, as usual. A new tower would bring up more than a few questions, but I also knew everyone’s minds were on the orcs right now. No one would suspect we needed to build some sort of enormously high tower in order to spot three ghost ships that had only been a legend up until this point.
“Let’s tell them we’re reinforcing our guard,” I replied. “We want to be extra cautious, now that we’ve got so many of our people on this one island, so we’re just adding in an extra tower.”
“Good plan.” Mira nodded.
“Jemma, can you go find Sela, Darya, Zarya, Theora, and Sarayah?” I asked.
The auburn-haired woman nodded and dashed off to go find our chosen guard women. When she returned twenty minutes later, the rest of us filled them in on what had happened.
“So, we are supposed to watch for white ships that do not look like solid objects?” Theora asked with her brown eyebrows knitted together. “That seems as if it should not exist.”
“Trust me, I was just as surprised as you are now,” I told her. “And I’ve seen a lot of stuff that shouldn’t exist since I landed here. But they were definitely real. We saw them twice already, and Jonas knows of the legends about them.”
“Alright.” The deer woman nodded seriously. “We will keep a lookout for these ghost ships. What do we tell the rest of the women?”
“Tell them we’re just being extra cautious about the orcs right now,” I said. “No need to cause unnecessary panic.”
A half an hour later, we were down at the guard wall near the edge of the village, and we started to construct the tower. I helped direct all the women to build the bamboo structure that would serve as our additional tower and give us a bird’s eye view of the ocean fairly far beyond the island.
The tower was slim, with four sturdy poles made of bamboo we’d lashed together, a peaked roof, and a single platform in the middle just big enough for two people. The twins, Darya and Zarya, had crafted a second horn from a coconut shell, and that was left up in the tower in case it needed to be used by the women to sound the alarm. My hope was it would be unnecessary, and that if the ghost ships did start to head toward us, we’d have enough time so I could explain what was going on to the rest of the women.
When the tower was finished, Darya, Zarya, and I took the first watch. The ghost ships were no longer anywhere to be found, but I didn’t let that fool me this time. I’d already been lulled into a false sense of security when they’d disappeared before. This time, I wanted to keep my guard up and remain on high alert, in case they did reappear.
Of course, I hoped they wouldn’t, but I had the distinct feeling they’d show back up again. And when they did, I planned to show the giant sea ghosts they wouldn’t have such an easy time taking over my island on my watch.
Later that evening, I found Jonas in his bedroom, on top of his bed with his eyes wide open as he stared up at the ceiling.
The moment I stepped into the doorframe, Jonas sat up and looked at me sharply.
“Hello, Ben.” He smiled.
“Hi, Jonas,” I replied as I cautiously stepped into his room and made sure no one else could overhear our conversation. “Listen, I was wondering if you knew anything else about the, you know, ships.”
“Ah, yes.” He nodded. “I noticed a new addition to our guard wall. Are you keeping an eye out for them?”
“Yeah,” I said as I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. “We picked out a team of some of the women to watch the ocean. They’ll be calm and keep their heads, but we’ll have some sort of warning if the ships decide to reappear again. Do you know anything about their plane of existence? Or maybe a weapon I could use to fight them off?”
Jonas squeezed his eyes shut and considered the question for such a long period of time, I actually wondered if the old man had fallen asleep sitting up. But, just when I was ready to prod him gently and make sure he was still conscious, his eyes flew open, and an excited glimmer danced through them.
“I do,” he replied. “They exist on our plane at times, but only very briefly, if I remember correctly. The ghosts can either sail around things that exist the way we do, or through them. When they sail around them, they have to touch our plane for a moment, but I am not sure it is enough time for you to fight them off.”
I recalled how the ship had sailed through the rock the other day. It had almost seemed to split apart and come back together around the solid object, whereas they all seemed to touch the water without issue.
“So, if I get them into our plane for long enough, I can fight them?” I clarified.
Jonas nodded slowly, but the squint in his eyes told me something bothered him.
“I am not sure which part is legend and which part is true,” the old man finally sighed. “I would love to assume it is all true, but I do not actually know. The story is an ancient one, beyond any time we have ever known, and we do not have any written stories to look at and make sure I am right. It was passed down orally.”
“That’s okay, Jonas,” I reassured him and walked over to pat his crooked knee. “If they come to this island, I’ll use whatever information I can get to try and fight these bastards off.”
I left Jonas to his meditation and traveled through the halls of the palace, which was abuzz with excited activity. All of the women seemed to be settling into the new normal quite well, and despite my worries, I smiled at the sight.
I passed Hali in the kitchen, along with Theora and a few of the deer women, and I watched for a second as the redheaded cook taught them how to make coconut bread. They kneaded the dough out on the counter, and then pulled it apart to roll out identical little rounds, which were then placed over the fire to cook.
In the garden, I watched as my kids ran around and played with each other and the water dragons. Marella, as usual, took charge of their game of pretend, and she ordered Arrick and her twin sisters around in a very general like fashion. She stood, with one small fist on her right hip and her chest puffed out in a very all important style, and grimaced while she gave her orders.
“Arrick,” Marella growled, in what I was fairly sure was meant to be an imitation of me, “reinforce that house. We can’t have them blowing down in the middle of storm season. What will you do if I’m not here?”
“Of course.” Arrick nodded furiously and scurried to reinforce his “house,” which was a pile of sticks and rocks that resembled more of a beaver dam than it did a hut.
Marella turned and caught my eye, and I received the biggest wave. Her bright purple eyes shone with happiness, but then she seemed to remember just what it was she was supposed to be doing, and she frowned as she turned back to her brother.
“They grow so fast, don’t they?” Talise murmured as she appeared next to me, with Careen’s daughter Oshuna in her arms.
“They do.” I nodded before I held out my hands, and she silently passed my youngest child to me.
I stared down into her wide, bright
eyes, and grinned. Oshuna already seemed intelligent beyond her years, despite the fact the kid couldn’t even talk or walk yet. She gurgled happily and snuggled her weight into my chest, and Talise leaned over to nuzzle my arm as she also gazed down at the little baby I held.
“What you have done here is amazing, Ben,” she sighed as she turned her large blue eyes up to look at me and smile. “You have brought two different races together. Two different sets of women with opposite lives, histories, and ways of doing things. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Thanks.” I grinned back at her. “I haven’t thought of it that way.”
“I know,” the black-haired woman chuckled. “That is why I am telling you this.”
Talise rested her head on my shoulder, and the two of us watched as the children continued their imaginary game on the bright green grass.
That night, as I did my nightly rounds to check on all of my mates, I could hear Ainsley awake in her bed. It was nearly midnight, which was highly unusual for the blonde, especially now that she was pregnant and almost always exhausted.
So, I carefully peeked my head into the room to find the deer woman sitting straight up in bed. Moonlight poured through the open window, and I could see the soft glimmer of tears on her cheeks.
My heart instantly squeezed in on itself. I hated to see any of my women cry, but for Ainsley, it was especially jarring. She was always so composed.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I came into the room.
“Ben, oh, I am sorry, did I wake you?” She sniffled and wiped at her cheeks.
“No.” I shook my head as I walked over and sat down on the soft, bird feather mattress. “I was just checking in on everyone.”
Ainsley had pulled the thin blanket around her shoulders, but she didn’t seem cold. It was more like she clung to the material for comfort, so I quickly wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me.
I imagined I could feel the very beginnings of a tiny bump in her stomach. Her pregnancy had progressed much slower than the dragon women’s, and while I was grateful for that, it was also a bit strange. I’d just gotten used to the sped up growth pattern of my other children, and now I was about to have one that grew more like a human child.