Hurricane Smile (Part 2)
Blood and Starlight Chapter 7 Part 2
Blood and Starlight: A conjurer, a vampire, and a mechanical demon embark on a rescue mission.
Audience: Adults (contains violence, strong language, and sexual content)
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Chapter 7
Hurricane Smile (Part 2)
The summit of island kings took place in Tennoc's palace throne room. Chairs had been brought in and placed in a deliberate hierarchy. Kai brought Ely forward, introducing him to the gathered nobility with an incomplete recounting of the events on the Isle of the Gods. Muffled whispers and curious looks accompanied the story, but in all, they seemed willing to accept Death's aid in their campaign against the Canon.
Relieved to have completed his part, Ely sat with Salía and the rest of the Novara clan. As the proceedings commenced, she whispered the names and origins of the speakers, translating the more interesting pieces of dialogue for him.
A ruckus at the door admitted a tall, wiry man dressed in a flowing cape with a feathered collar.
"King Morag of Seúza," Salía whispered.
He addressed King Tennoc with an impenitent apology as he stalked to the empty chairs reserved for his entourage near the back of the chamber.
The Council resumed.
Finally, King Morag rose to speak. "You ask us to send our ships and our warriors to defend your shores with nothing given in return. Our island has never seen even a rumor of red sails."
"Do you think that will not change should the Canon occupy the remainder of the Barrier Keys?" demanded a noble-visaged woman sitting among the Novaras.
"The templars may have no trouble navigating your gentle waters, Jian, but ours are untamed," Morag declared. "Even if they manage to get close, the reef will take care of the rest."
"If you do not count yourself as Séoc, why did you come?" Jian questioned.
Morag raised resentful eyes to the gathered company. "It is you that have always treated my people as outcasts. As though our shores do not break the harshest storms before they wreck your great cities?"
"Did we not all sail to your rescue when the monsoons struck?" another king asked.
"We sent shipwrights and builders and mirrorwood," Jian added.
"Food, livestock, fresh water," put in another.
"All shared with contempt," Morag spat. He turned narrowed eyes to Tennoc. "We have rebuilt tenfold since your meager aid was supplied. You want our might at your back? I have named our price. We will take nothing less than First Seat. The Séocwen prince is yet unmarried, and I have seven daughters, all strong and healthy. Take whichever suits your liking, but we will join the Novara line."
It was Kai that rose to answer. Ely frowned as he heard his own name spoken. Kai turned toward him, and with his address, all eyes in the chamber followed. Ely looked to Salía, waiting for a translation, but she just stared at her cousin.
"What did he say?" Ely whispered.
"I cannot offer my hand to your daughter because it has already been offered to Elyssandro Santara Ruadan."
Ely blinked at her, not quite sure he had heard her right.
Kai continued, voice unwavering. Salía translated in a hushed monotone, "Séocwen would share allegiance with Death's Vale whose prince has done more for the Séoc people than Seúza or anyone else that sits at Council."
The room buzzed with shock and outrage. Ely looked between the flushed faces, chest tight. With some of the glares cast his way, he feared he might be forced to defend himself. Salía's hand poised on her cutlass hilt confirmed she expected the same.
King Tennoc's voice rose above the din. The protests fell to a dull roar as the kings of the Barrier Keys began to disperse.
"She has adjourned the Council," Salía told him. "We should go."
They left the chamber, avoiding the departing monarchs. Kai met them under the trees in the courtyard. He caught Ely's eyes, looking sheepish. Nervous even.
"The next time you decide to incite a riot, give us a warning, cousin," Salía scolded.
"I'm sorry. I did not know what I was about to say until it left my lips," Kai said.
"Did you mean it?" Ely asked, a foolish, hopeful grin escaping.
Kai nodded, smile just as wide. "Yes."
"This is not the time, you two," Salía hissed, snapping the back of her hand against Kai's arm.
"Kailari!" Tennoc's enraged shout boomed.
The king swept toward them with eyes like an inferno. Seeing Ely, she rounded on him. "Is this the price you demand for your freely offered help?"
"Ely had nothing to do with it," Kai intervened, placing himself between them. "He was as shocked as everyone else."
"Salía, your father wants a word with you," said the king.
Salía and Kai exchanged glances, then she nodded and left them.
"What were you thinking?" King Tennoc demanded in Séoc.
"I was thinking we need not…a greedy fool...let us all burn...his own ends."
"You are no better…Morag...gone...Others will..."
They continued to argue in tense Séoc. Ely caught only pieces of the conversation, but he understood the shape of it. The Council and its allegiances were in chaos because of him. With a final growl of rage, King Tennoc stormed away.
"What will happen?" Ely asked as they traded the city for the jungle path back to the bungalow.
"There will be shouting and hand waving," Kai replied. "But we will prove them wrong."
The pirate prince paused, turning to take in his apprehension.
"Are you angry?" Kai asked, searching his eyes.
Ely shook his head. He wished he was. It would feel better than the sinking feeling of a fool's hope.
"They will see it our way, Ely. When the tides have turned, they will see it our way."
The look of determination on his face would not be swayed. Ely followed, heart aching as he thought of Salía's entreaty. She was right. Kai would not pay heed to the peril that followed their hearts into the daylight. Even if he were to do his part against the Canon, would the Séoc people ever see past a storied monster? Would Kai's mother?
The Novara cousins met them in Kai's cove. They spoke in Lanica as much to confuse any listening ears as for Ely's benefit.
"My father says I am to stay off the Marisola and away from you," Salía said.
"Our mother says the same," Yamon added.
"Are you going to do as they ask?" Kai inquired.
Salía glared in defiance. "You are our captain. Not them."
Yamon and Mirit nodded their agreement.
"So, what is our next move?" Salía asked, arms crossed.
"There is a blockade of Canon ships encroaching on Lilipon," Kai said. "Jian told the Council they lurk but do not move to attack. I say a blockade is an attack. Were we to clear the way, they cannot deny that everything I told them is true."
The others listened intently, considering his mad proposal. It was suicide, surely, setting off five against named gods knew how many. Yet Ely felt Death's vigor singing through his veins, begging for release.
"What do you say, diakana? Can you sink a few Canon ships?" Kai asked.
Ely inclined his head. "Get me close enough, and I can."
"Good." Kai looked to each of his crew in turn. "We are all on board for this mutiny, then?"
"Yes," they said as one.
They set out under the cover of night, though they did not make for the docks and the Marisola. Instead they journeyed to a cave where Kai had secured the old, single-sailed sloop with the carving of Cocatl at its prow. The same boat they sailed the day Ely met the Novara cousins on the beach.
While Kai and his crew charted their course by the stars, Ely sat high in the crow's nest drinking in their light. Dawn approached. Canon ships dotted the horizon, crimson sails aloft. More than a few.
Ely stood, hands raised, focus fixed on the eye and blade that waved its banner at the forefront of the fleet. A shout skipped across the water. They were seen. A warning shot sprayed a geyser a hundred feet from their hull.
"Keep steady," Kai's voice commanded below.
Ely closed his eyes, mind plunging beneath the waves down into the darkest depths. He had felt it there when traveling this way before. The bones of an ancient beast, vast as a mountain. It rumbled a reply to his gentle call. His target locked, Ely weaved a net of black ether and cast it into the sea. He felt the beast stir. Heave. Split the ocean floor.
A roar echoed from the deep. The ocean seemed to rise into the sky in a solid wall of water. Ely gazed at the primordial beast, its bones crusted with barnacles and draped with seaweed. Then it crashed down again, pulverizing the foremost line of Canon ships to splintered shards. Kai shouted orders, frantically trying to pilot their vessel away from the aftershock.
The surviving templar ships veered away, panicked shouts rising in a maelstrom across the water. With a twitch of his hand, Ely called the beast back around. It obeyed, loyal as a steadfast watchdog, gathering speed for another charge. Before it broke the surface, a blast of blinding white light burst across the horizon, knocking Ely from his feet. When his vision recovered, he saw boiling bubbles where his pet had been, but it did not emerge. He could no longer feel it. The blast had severed the connection.
"What was that?" Salía called.
"I don't know," Kai said, peering out toward the remaining Canon ships with apprehension.
"We should go," Salía said. "We've made a point they won't soon forget."
"No," Ely said. "Take me closer."
It was not his own curiosity compelling him forward but the insistent whispers of the presence beyond the veil that drove him toward the figure that had unleashed the light.
"It's an Apostle," he whispered.
He had never seen one of the Canon's legendary invokers of Miracles. Few living ever had.
Death rustled within him, seething to escape. Black clouds formed above their vessel, thundering and flashing. Ely struggled to keep control, but a howling wind surrounded him, bearing him up into the tempest.
Surrender, death's legion intoned.
Still he resisted, fighting as the storm raged about him. He stopped as he came face to face with a figure cloaked in white from head to toe. He floated with effortless grace among the clouds, not troubled in the least by Death's storm.
He smiled, a sinister light in his gray eyes.
"Hello, Morgata," he laughed.
Though he spoke softly, his voice carried over the wind, muting it.
Ely flinched away from the voice. That was all the opening needed. His eyes glazed over, and he knew no more until he sat up, gasping and retching seawater on the Novaras’ deck. Kai bent over him, dripping wet, breath heaving.
"Are you alright, Ely?" he asked.
"Fine," Ely managed. "What happened?"
"You did it," Kai said, awe in his voice. "The Canon fleet is gone. I was afraid we'd lost you."
Ely lay back, vision hazy. Kai helped him into the shelter of the small cabin. He slept fitfully, waking in the late afternoon heat as they once again neared Séocwen.
"So, you don't remember any of it?" Kai asked him when he returned to the sun-drenched deck.
"Only one thing," Ely replied. "It was an Apostle that made the light. He met me in the sky. Spoke to me. Well, not to me. To Morgata."
"Interesting," Kai remarked, "that an Apostle of the Canon would address a named god."
Ely nodded. "Very interesting."
They pondered the strange, unnerving occurrence as they sailed to shore. The cousins left together while Kai and Ely walked the beach back toward the bungalow. Already long shadows were beginning to drape over the sand
Ely's limbs dragged. He felt too drained to speak. He could not have conjured even a dust mote if he tried. Death had wrung every drop of power from his body and tossed him like a husk into the sea. Perhaps if he had a shred of strength left, he would have sensed the trap.
Before he could cry out or draw a breath, they were surrounded. Ely's knees buckled, kicked out from under him. Someone hit Kai in the temple with the haft of a spear. Ely threw out a hand toward him, but heavy metal clamped about his wrists, biting into his skin. The manacles glowed red then white hot, illuminating a circle of glyphs that sizzled and burned. He cried out. Someone tied a gag tight around his mouth. Four men held Kai while two more bound his hands behind his back. It was not until they were both restrained that Morag of Seúza emerged from behind his henchmen.
"You will pay for this," Kai growled.
Morag loosed an ugly, gleeful smile. "I have already been paid. Not to worry, young prince. King Tennoc told us you were not to be harmed."
The Seúzans laughed.
"Bring them," Morag commanded.
The rogue islanders gagged Kai and marched them off into the jungle trees. Ely closed his eyes as they walked, reaching for any spark of death magic. He felt it knocking at his hands, but he could not channel it. The manacles. Of course. They were forged for a diakana.
Dusk settled in purple shades. They reached a cliff overlooking a punishing ocean current. The Seúzans forced Kai to his knees while Morag's men dragged Ely toward a mangled tree that stood a white-limbed corpse on the cliff's edge. Kai shouted through the gag, struggling to no avail.
The Seúzan mercenaries scaled the tree, dropping down ropes to bind Ely by the arms, hauling him up into the petrified heights. Someone stretched out his arm. The heft of a hammer drove a bolt through a round opening left in the manacles. It pierced his forearm, biting into the wood on the other side. Ely screamed. He tasted blood as his teeth ground his cheek. Another bolt nailed his other arm to the tree.
"He is yours!" Morag shouted to the star-blistered sky. "Take him back!"
Then the Seúzan horde dragged Kai away, leaving Ely alone, his blood staining the bone-pale bark.
He did not know how long he hung on the cliffside, waiting for Death to come to his rescue. He thought the rustle in the woods was another fever dream. Salía, Yamon, and Mirit wrested the bolts free and cut him down. They did their best to bind his wounds and bore him between them back through the jungle. More darkness. More fever dreams haunted by the Apostle who threw discs of burning light to sear his flesh from the bones.
The Novaras delivered him into the Etrugans’ care. Rión sat with him for many nights until, at last, his fever receded. He found his hands shook when he tried to stir, and his fingers would not move to his command.
"I will take you back to Dr. Faidra when you're out of danger," Rión promised.
"Where's Kai?" Ely asked.
"They said that he is safe," Rión soothed. "You must rest now, little brother."
It was another week before Rión took him back to Dianessa. The journey was slow and perilous. Without Death's raiment about him, the dead did not recognize him and tried to hinder their passage. They fell to the Etrugan warrior's axes, but the journey to the University took much longer than it should have.
Dr. Faidra examined his wounds, observed his useless hands.
"I told you what would happen, warm blood," she croaked.
She left him in the east wing to heal at nature's pace. It had taken weeks to regain the use of his hands. Weeks more to recover magic. The last Ely had heard of his pirate prince was that he had married a princess from Lilipon. The scars left by the burning manacle glyphs and the spikes that nailed him to the bones of a tree remained. A story he wished to forget.
You got me on this tale of sorcery and giant ships on the sea. Can't wait till next time,