A World Within Read online

  Captain Blackborne and his guests stood on the quarterdeck, awaiting the arrival of the other captains from Blackborne’s fleet. The dinghies crossed the sea between their ships and the Andromeda. “What’s going on now, pirate?” Marissa asked with unfeigned contempt.

  “My dear, this is a simple formality. My men simply want to lay their eyes on the prize. They were unsure I could pull this off, and there is a good bit of treasure in the hold of this ship which needs distribution.”

  “Nothing but a common criminal, as I suspected,” Marissa said. “So much for your noble ideas of justice for the dead.”

  Captain Blackborne fumed, but managed to control an outburst. He laughed instead to thwart his temper. “Ah, Marissa, you do know how to push a man’s buttons…not to mention boil their blood.”

  Marissa shot the captain a hard look. He smiled, quite pleased that he had angered her as well.

  The sea drew Daniel’s attention away from the bickering pair. The calm water which had been present a moment ago began to churn in the reflected moonlight. The men in the dinghies started to struggle against the current.

  Daniel watched a huge area beneath the small craft flash glowing white light then crimson red just below the water’s surface. Daniel’s flesh began to crawl, though he wasn’t sure why.

  A massive boom, like a cannon shot, sounded from the water as sea spray filled the air. One of the small white dinghies sailed into the air, scattering its human cargo into the Waron Sea. The small boat hit the water again, nearly twenty yards away, smashing into kindling as it landed.

  All eyes fell upon the smashed vessel and then back to the foaming cauldron of water encompassing the remaining dinghies. Panic began to take the sailors as they scanned the foam looking for the next attack. A slimy tendril lunged out of the deep toward one of the men and caught him around the throat and upper torso. As quickly as the man began to scream out in the dark, his call fell silent as the appendage pulled him out of the little boat and into the water.

  Many other tentacles emerged from the dark water, like vipers striking out at multiple prey. Man after man disappeared from the dinghies in mere seconds. Cries called out from the decks of the ships to the lost men. Daniel shook, terrified; not by the loss of the pirates, but of what lay just beneath the surface of the moonlit water. He couldn’t see it yet, but a terrible foreboding attacked his senses, like a nightmare vision as yet unrealized.

  The sea suddenly erupted like a volcano, sending sea spray up in a massive plume which cascaded down upon all of the ships like a fresh, salty rain. Tentacles of massive girth flew outward from the eruption, latching onto several of the ships including the main mast of the Andromeda. Marissa dodged out of the way alongside Captain Blackborne. The captain hit the deck in a roll and came to his feet again quickly.

  “THE KRAKEN!” Blackborne shouted. He whipped his twin cutlasses from their scabbards on either hip and launched toward the massive red tentacle. Daniel stumbled backward into Louie.

  “Turn round, lad,” Louie said. They backed up to each to each other and Daniel felt Louie using his own tied hands to work on the knots binding Daniel’s wrists. In moments he had the boy loose and then Daniel went to work on Louie’s bonds. Mickey and Bob got busy working through the same process.

  A huge octopus-like head pushed through the surface of the churning water, following its arms. Mass panic ensued among the pirates. Most had their weapons drawn and some fired muskets and pistols at the great beast. Captain Blackborne attacked the tree-sized tentacle which began to pull the ship over by the main mast—nearly thirty degrees of tilt so far. Gear and people on the decks rolled toward the sea as the Andromeda leaned over. Blackborne hacked furiously into the horrid appendage dragging them toward the depths.

  Daniel now had the Bard Princess free as well. She snatched a fallen cutlass from the deck. Blackborne caught eye of Marissa and yelled for help. “Marissa, help me! We must cut it loose, or we’ll all die!”

  Daniel saw her approach him from behind and raise the long sword above her head. He knew she was about to strike the pirate kidnapper down. If she did not do it now, they might never escape. Marissa let out a war cry and swung the glinting blade down on the captain’s position. The blade sunk deep into the crimson flesh of the Kraken, barely missing Blackborne’s head in the process.

  Marissa hadn’t taken the opportunity to kill Blackborne. Somehow, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Daniel sighed with relief. She pulled the blade free and surged forward again, hacking at the beast with all of the fury she could muster.

  The creature’s tentacles splayed out in all directions—many more than eight arms in all. The body extended well below the surface. Numerous sucker cups ran the length of each arm. Daniel noticed that each suction cup looked like a lion’s jaw with sharp teeth lining the rim—able to take a man’s head clean off.

  Marissa and Blackborne hacked completely through the Kraken’s tentacle. The Andromeda immediately righted herself in the water, sending everyone still standing down onto the deck in the opposite direction. Meineke, who still clung to the main mast, launched away from the beam like a circus performer shot from a cannon.

  “EEEYA!!” Meineke cried as he sailed out over the water and away from the ship. Daniel and Louie both spotted his screaming, gray, little form arcing out and then down into the water. Meineke dropped with a ploosh into the sea about eighty yards away, like a pebble into a pond.

  More of the mighty arms launched toward the Andromeda. The Kraken would not give them up just yet. Some of the tentacles snatched men from the deck, pulling the screaming pirates below the surface of the water near the massive, bulbous head of the Kraken still protruding out of the water. The chilled seawater covered their vain cries for help with darkness. Had it not been nightfall already, they might have noticed the churning foam around the Kraken’s body turning red.

  Huge tentacles scoured across the deck of the great ship, searching for solid anchor points to latch onto. The massive head of the kraken pulled closer toward the hull of the Andromeda as the arms pulled on the ship. The Andromeda tilted again with the weight of the beast’s body surging through the seawater. The hulking monster tried to bring its body up to the Andromeda or the ship down to its body.

  Those people still standing, including Daniel and his companions, found the deck literally dropping out from under them as it leaned hard over. Daniel slid across the wooden planks as the deck turned into a ramp leading down into the sea and the waiting maw of the Kraken.

  The monster’s black beak crashed through the railing and surrounding hull. Its fishy eye seemed fixed on Daniel as he tumbled toward the nightmare waiting to receive him. Daniel thought of the dragon which had hungered for him, its eyes set to his destruction in the same way. The question in his mind again was, why me?

  Daniel tried desperately to stop his advance toward the snapping, black beak of the Kraken. One chomp would easily crush him and snap his body in two. Daniel’s feet fought for purchase on the deck. His hands waved about over his head as he slid down, trying to find anything tangible to grab onto.

  A hand snatched him from the air and abruptly halted his advance toward certain death. Daniel swung against the deck, his booted feet still trying to find a place of purchase. Daniel looked up to find Captain Blackborne at the end of the rescuing arm. Marissa clung to some of the rigging nets next to the pirate with Louie and his cherubs fluttering about among the great sails.

  “Don’t drop him, Nathaniel!” Marissa pleaded like a mother for her child. Daniel noticed the use of the pirate’s first name. She lost every ounce of venom in her voice as the captain dangled Daniel over the snapping beak of the Kraken.

  Captain Blackborne grunted as he tried to lift Daniel’s weight. “Don’t worry, lad, I’m not letting go of you…not again.”

  Daniel saw in Blackborne’s expression such determination. This man meant to do for him what he had not been able to do for his own son years ago. Nathani
el Blackborne would pour every ounce of strength through that arm to save him, or die trying. Every thought of this man’s villainous career as a bloodthirsty pirate faded in Daniel’s mind and only the picture of a desperate parent trying to save a child remained. Daniel’s own father and his lack of concern for the boy all of these years passed through his thoughts as well. Had he not been so terrified, Daniel might have wept at those images.

  Nathaniel groaned to bring Daniel’s one hundred and ten pounds up. Daniel grabbed onto the captains velvet jacket as he came within reach and Marissa latched onto him as well. They got the boy into the rigging nets as the monster watched them hungrily from below. The severe damage to the hull made it clear the Andromeda was going to sink.

  The Kraken had all but abandoned the other pirate ships by now, focusing its energies on the mighty Andromeda. Still, a number of the beast’s tentacles remained wrapped around parts of the other ships and they were brought into close proximity to its body and the fatally wounded Andromeda. Several of the smaller vessels collided with one another and began taking on water.

  Cannon fire joined the barrage of muskets already shooting into the kraken’s smooth crimson-toned flesh. The writhing leviathan lashed out with more tentacles at the smaller ships as though swatting at a swarm of mosquitoes.

  “Try to make your way up to this side of the ship!” Bob shouted.

  Louie, Mickey, and Bob pushed one of the battered white dinghies off the deck and over the railing above them. “If we can get this into the water and not have it smashed to bits, then we might have a chance!” Louie shouted.

  Captain Blackborne, Marissa, and Daniel all nodded and tried to climb up the deck. It had become a sheer wall now with the Andromeda half capsized. Men screamed as they fought for their lives while others dumped into water and tried to swim away from the writhing mass of angry tentacles. Several of the smaller pirate ships were half submerged and going down fast. Their crews had been left with little choice but to jump into the water and try to swim for one of the ships still afloat.

  “Meineke!” Louie shouted.

  The wil appeared on the railing above them where the cherubs worked to get the dinghy over. He seemed in good shape despite the launch out into the sea from the main mast. Still, he looked like a drowned rat with his grey fur soaked with seawater.

  “Meineke!” Daniel shouted. “I thought you were done for!”

  “Don’t count me out yet, lad. It was a good swim to get back over here, but I’m up for it. Now, all of you, climb for your lives!”

  They grabbed for ropes and anything else they could get a solid grip on to pull their weary bodies up the steep deck. Tentacles whipped into the air around them and one of them grabbed hold on Daniel’s lower leg.

  He screamed in pain as the toothy sucker lacerated his flesh through his leather boot. The tentacle pulled, and Daniel descended back down the sheer face of the deck despite his best efforts to hold on to anything he could find.

  “DANIEL!” they all screamed.

  Meineke grabbed a harpoon from the inner hull of the dinghy and leaped away from the railing like a rabid base jumper, screaming all the way down. The wil sailed past Daniel, still trying to slow his own descent toward the snapping, black beak of the Kraken.

  Meineke allowed the wind to catch his arm pouches, filling the fleshy membranes and pushing him hard to the right just as one of the Kraken’s tentacles flew up toward him to intercept. He corrected again, a master of air current manipulation, and brought his body back over the great fishy eye of the Kraken. With the heavy harpoon tip aimed straight down, Meineke folded in his small arms and dropped like a bomb again.

  The Kraken’s lidless eye came up to meet the wil like a skydiver landing on his target. The harpoon sank into the cornea releasing clear aqueous fluid. The tentacles relinquished everything they had a grip on including Daniel’s leg as the beast went into a thrashing spasm. It may not have held a grip on Daniel, but now the timber-like tentacles smashed wildly into everything in sight.

  Meineke took flight in his bird form, dodging several tentacles thrashing nearby as he made his way back to Daniel. The wil caught hold of Daniel and lifted him with powerful wing strokes. The others had gotten the dinghy over the railing by now and it was literally sitting on the face of the hull, which was now horizontal up in the air.

  “Stand clear everyone!” Blackborne said as he heaved with all of his strength and pushed the dinghy across the wet hull. When it reached the point of inward curve on the face of the hull, it sped up and he stopped pushing. It continued sliding under its own momentum and then away from the hull altogether. It wobbled in the air like a leaf on the breeze and then, to their amazement, landed upright on the water.

  “Right, let’s go!” Louie said as the cherubs took flight and headed for the boat.

  A mist began to fill the air around them. It seemed to be coming right off of the surface of the sea. Meineke carried Daniel over the horizontal hull face and toward the small dinghy sitting alone on the water. “Where in the world did this fog come from all of a sudden?” Meineke said as he carried Daniel. But the boy did not answer. He was nearly unconscious and in a daze. Blood covered his left leg, but it didn’t seem enough to cause this reaction. “Daniel? Daniel, wake up, what’s wrong?”

  Meineke hastened to get the boy to the dinghy where the others had congregated. Captain Blackborne and Marissa climbed in from the water having dove over the side of the Andromeda’s hull. The cherubs sat inside and helped to pull them in as Meineke arrived with Daniel.

  “Marissa, something’s wrong with Daniel!”

  They examined him, particularly the injured leg, for bleeding which might explain the faint condition. To Marissa’s surprise, when she removed the shredded boot and tore away the fabric around the wound, the flesh already looked partially healed. “What’s going on?” she muttered under her breath.

  Daniel’s head rolled back and forth as though he was fighting for consciousness. “Wake up, lad,” Captain Blackborne said. He patted the boy on the cheek lightly.

  The fog billowed up around them, consuming the dinghy. It happened too fast to be natural. They could only make out the very top of The Andromeda’s capsized hull now. They heard the fierce battle still raging somewhere beyond, but they could no longer see it. More importantly, the Kraken could not see them. Meineke may have wounded its one eye, but it still had another.

  Daniel remained in a daze as though all strength had been sapped from him. Then another amazing thing happened. As they sat in the boat, seven of them with no oars to speak of, the boat began to move on its own. They saw nothing, made no effort to paddle, and yet the boat moved of its own volition in some unknown direction. Only the fading screams of pirates, cannons, and musket fire and the smashing of wooden planks by thick tentacles gave them any indication of which direction they were going…away from the Kraken.

  MORTIS

  A lone fortress stood in the midst of an area of ground completely devoid of any living foliage. Gnarled, black trees bent low to the ground like withered flowers. They appeared burnt and dotted the landscape for miles in every direction. The gray soil starved for moisture and nutrients.

  All life withered in the embrace of the Necrom Void or became twisted and malevolent—evil and dead in spirit just like Mortis himself. Mortis ruled the Necrom Void. And where he claimed dominion, the void spread its decay and death. Here, in this place, Evil was called good and good was called Evil.

  The fortress of Mortis stood at the heart of the void—a place of desperate wickedness. Its ramparts had been formed from fused rock so black that light itself seemed to be sucked into it never to return. As the void grew the fortress moved—always remaining at the center. A droning hum, not quite mechanical, sounded in all places within the void. The noise had no discernable origin, but remained ever-present and maddening.

  Very few creatures remained within the void for long. Only those bent to evil intent continually found themselv
es able to tolerate it and thrive upon it. In every place where Mortis had claimed dominion there were some—creatures which hate the light and despise the good. There were always some, and Mortis allied with them as their master in order to spread the void across each Living Land.

  Of Living Lands, there were many to be sure—billions—and Mortis wanted them all. He desired to claim what Iam had made for his very own kingdom. He had been successful many times, but at other times unsuccessful. Iam redeemed them to his own kingdom, or Mortis took them and spread the void through and through, bringing death.

  Most desired to remain willingly ignorant. And this fact alone made Mortis’s task all the more simple to complete. Every Wielder he had ever encountered, in the epic struggle for their Living Land, began their journey away from Iam. They remained all too eager to possess the power which Mortis gave them. Only in the end of the matter did they understand the true nature of the struggle. And by then, it was too late. So it would be for this Wielder.

  The allies Mortis made among the inhabitants of the Living Lands always believed they would have a kingdom through his dominion. And in their greed they were always wrong. So far in this Land, many creatures had already come willingly under his control.

  Today, one of those creatures, a wil, roamed through the halls of the fortress. He plodded along the lonely corridors toward the Hall of Vision in search of his master. The only light within the fortress emanated from a swirl of red and green fog which hung in the air, casting its glow upon everything.

  When the wil walked up to a set of massive, wooden doors they began to creak and moan, then opened of their own volition. Unsurprised, the little creature walked inside the Hall of Vision. A large circular chamber with long, jagged stalactites emanating from above opened up before him.

  In the midst of the chamber stood a pedestal of stone shaped like a tall barrel. Mortis stood gazing into the pool of water contained within. A vision appeared there, just below the surface of the stagnate water.

  “Come, Minion, and see,” Mortis said. His voice sounded gentle like a child’s, yet there was a distinct undertone resonating like a current of pure evil. Minion came to the edge of the Vision Pool and peeked inside. His short stature made it difficult, but he rested his chin upon the edge and peered within.

  They watched as a mighty sea beast, the Kraken, tore away at King Turin’s pride, the Andromeda. “What a monster,” Minion whispered, his eyes growing wider with every passing second of destruction.

  “A mindless brute, but useful,” Mortis said.

  “Is the Wielder among them, M’ Lord?”

  “He is indeed.”

  “Then we have him?”

  “Perhaps.”

  As they watched, a fog billowed up from the surface of the water. It quickly obscured everything in the vision. They saw the Kraken’s tentacles flail wildly in the billowing cloud, smashing the Andromeda blindly along with the other vessels within its clutches.

  “What happened, Master?”

  “Clever.”

  The thick fog permeated everything, turning the Vision Pool into pure whiteout. Mortis turned from the pool and strode across the stone floor—his robe so dark it was difficult to ascertain its borders. Only the appearance of his flesh, with its death-pale hue, gave any indication. Mortis turned to face Minion again. The wil remained by the Vision Pool, absently grooming his short, brown fur and stroking one of his long ears which fell back behind his head like a ponytail.

  “The Wielder has escaped the Kraken,” Mortis said.

  “Where do you think they’ve gone, my lord?”

  “Almost certainly they will continue toward Corsica, although they’ll have a long journey across the Waron Sea. Assemble your companions, Minion, and meet this Wielder in the Deadwood. You must lure him away from the others and destroy him.”

  The little creature hopped up and down excitedly. “It will be done, Master. We’ll tear him to pieces for you.”

  Mortis did not smile. He rarely smiled, unless something was in pain before him. Minion scampered out through the room’s large wooden doors. Mortis looked back to the pool of water. It had resumed its murky blackness. The Wielder had escaped three separate attacks and each one made him stronger.

  Mortis watched the water with a young boy’s face—his hair like a raven’s wing in flight, dark and wild. The water remained black. There was nothing to see, at least, not yet. But when the Wielder emerged again, he would find him.

  DREAMING

  The cold mud squished between Daniel’s toes as he stood in the warm water of his family’s pond. He stood chest deep in the water at this point with a cool breeze blowing. Daniel’s movements created ripples upon the water.

  He noticed that there was a substantial fog in place all around the pond’s perimeter with only a few wisps intruding beyond the water’s edge. Two toy boats floated next to Daniel in the water. One was a grand wooden vessel with great care made for the detailed carvings which embroidered it. The wooden ship even had real cloth sails upon its three masts, nevertheless the ship was broken.

  Daniel lifted it from its partially submerged state and attempted to right it in the water. Two of the masts had been snapped like twigs and some of the sails were torn. The hull of the carefully crafted model had been crushed on one side so that it had no hope of floating any longer. The entire thing measured nearly half his size—beautiful despite its condition. Daniel couldn’t help but think what a tragedy it was for the fine ship to end up in this condition. He dropped it back into the water, allowing it to resume its former capsized state.

  Daniel noticed the second toy, a little white lifeboat, bobbing upon the surface of the water. Inside sat the small figure of a boy. Daniel mused that it might be him and took hold of the little boat. “Shipwrecked, huh?” Daniel said to the carved wooden boy. “Well, you can’t stay out here on the sea where it’s dangerous. We’d better get you to the shore where it’s safe.”

  Daniel took the stern of the little dinghy between his thumb and index finger and began to push the small craft through the water. He sputtered and spit, making sounds like a motorboat in the process. Pulling up his feet from the muddy pond bottom, Daniel slogged along as he pushed the little wooden passenger toward the safety of the shore.

  When he arrived on the bank with the miniature dinghy, parking it on the dry land, Daniel looked back to the beautiful but broken model of the great sailing ship. He expected to see only the smallest portion of it still visible at the surface of the water. To his surprise the ship appeared perfectly whole again. It rested gently upon the rippling current.

  A horrid crimson tentacle, like that of a monstrous octopus, breached the water high, then slammed down upon the model ship. The miniature vessel exploded, sending thin pieces of wooden debris in every direction and a wave rippling out from the impact. The wave grew to an unnatural height, hitting Daniel as he lay on the shore next to the little dinghy he had rescued.

  The water washed up and over him much more than it should. When it retreated from him, the pond had disappeared. Daniel stood now on a battlefield of sorts. It appeared as though a great conflict had recently taken place, and there were people watching a single man. But this was no ordinary man. Daniel did not know his identity, but felt that he should. The man seemed familiar to him, but he wasn’t sure why.

  Daniel watched as bewildered faces beheld this man of sorrows. In conversation with one another, the men confessed their belief that this man would fight with great power and deliver them from their enemies. But things had not turned out as they had suspected for instead of using his great power, this man had surrendered himself to the enemy to be tortured.

  Daniel watched as they did unspeakable things to him. He understood, without a word said, that this man could literally have undone reality itself had he wanted to. But instead, the man had submitted himself as a sacrifice for his friends. Of all that stood by to see the gruesome sight of his death at the hands of his enemies, only
Daniel comprehended that this seeming defeat was the only way to win. By his death the mysterious man with all power had saved others and defeated the enemy.

  The display fascinated him. What love, he thought, that a man should lay down his life for his friends like that. The scene faded to black before him and he turned to find a full length mirror standing before him.

  The mirror did not show Daniel’s reflection. Instead the mirror provided a view of an arid wasteland where even the sun itself was not welcome to shine. Ominous clouds filled the sky above, and in the middle of the vision there stood a small mountain of rock. The small mountain began to zoom toward him in the looking glass. As its features became more apparent, Daniel saw that it was actually a fortress made from black stone.

  The fortress faded, leaving an image of a boy with raven hair and midnight robes. This person slowly turned to face Daniel as the mirror brought his features into more clarity. He saw the whites of this boy’s eyes, but the centers, where pigment of some color should be, were as black and devoid of life as Hell itself. Daniel thought for a moment he was staring into his own face, an unreal dead version of it. He closed his eyes tightly, afraid to look any longer.

  When Daniel peeked again, he saw only sunlight and felt the warmth of it. He opened his eyes wide and realized he was lying on his back with the others staring down at him. They looked worried for some reason. Then the memory of the Kraken attacking the Andromeda came rushing back in. Daniel saw relief wash over some of their faces. He saw Marissa, Louie, Mickey, Bob, Meineke, and Captain Nathaniel Blackborne all around him as he lay there. “Hello,” he said. “Where are we?”

  WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

  When Daniel felt strong enough, Captain Blackborne lifted the boy up to his feet. The others observed as Daniel brushed his damp clothes off. He appeared to be fine, despite his recent episode of unconsciousness.

  Along the shore, about five hundred yards away, stood a large city with docks reaching out into the sea. “How did we get here?” Daniel asked. “Are we back in Gennedy?”

  “We’re on the other side of the Waron Sea,” Marissa said, “at Corsica.”

  “Corsica?” Daniel said. He seemed to leave them for a moment as he pondered. “I remember a dream.”

  “A dream—you mean while you were passed out?” Marissa asked. “Daniel, what’s the last thing you remember before the dream?”

  “Well, I was released by the Kraken and then Meineke grabbed me—then the dream. I was standing in the pond on my family’s estate and there was a model of a sailing ship lying in the water smashed up a bit and nearly sunk…the Andromeda!” he said with sudden insight.

  “Go on Daniel, what else was in your dream?” Marissa asked.

  “I couldn’t do anything for the model sailing ship, but I saw a little boat with a carved, wooden boy sitting in it.”

  “Daniel was there any fog in your dream?” Captain Blackborne asked.

  “Yes, there was fog everywhere. Why do you ask?”

  Everyone in the group looked at everyone else and then back to Daniel. “Whoa, this is giving me the creeps,” Meineke said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  But Marissa interrupted. “Finish the dream, Daniel. What happened to the wooden boy and the little boat?”

  “Well, it was really weird, because I kept thinking the wooden boy was me. Anyway, I just pushed the little boat across the pond and parked him on the shore. Then I looked back at the model of the sailing ship and it was perfectly fine and upright in the water until a big tentacle, like the Kraken’s, rose up and smashed it into little pieces.”

  “My men,” Blackborne whispered under his breath.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you all looking like you just saw a ghost or something?” Daniel said, genuinely puzzled. “Did I do something wrong, Marissa?”

  Marissa tried to contain the emotions battling in her mind. She laid her hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Of course you do didn’t do anything wrong, Daniel. We’re all just shaken up a bit after everything that’s happened.”

  Marissa straightened, taking stock of what was left of her crew. Her eyes fell on Nathaniel Blackborne. He returned her gaze. “Princess, I would like to apologize for my behavior earlier. Please understand that my intentions were never to harm any of you. I had a debt to settle with Samuel Hastings. He was the man who made the decision and led the assault that killed my son. My Justin was murdered. Surely you can understand.”

  In truth, Marissa did believe him and she understood. She still tried to appear cynical to his face, however. She would never admit it, but Nathaniel Blackborne had her admiration in a twisted sort of way. She didn’t hate Blackborne, but she still didn’t trust him completely either. He had saved Daniel, though, and that was something.

  “And what about King Turin, pirate?” she said.

  “Self preservation, Madam. Turin’s vessel would have been my death nail. By taking it, I avoided killing any of Turin’s men.”

  Marissa didn’t buy this excuse at all. “You may accompany us for now, Captain. Thanks to you, we are down in number and we can use all of the help we can get on this important quest. However, you can be sure that if our men have met with any harm on the way back to Gennedy, I will dispatch you myself.”

  She said it with as cold and serious a stare as she could manage and Nathaniel Blackborne appeared to get the message.

  He nodded as much and said, “Lead on, my lady.”

  “We’ll need more weapons, thanks to Jolly Roger here,” Louie said sarcastically.

  “We can refit in Corsica, before we head out to rendezvous with Bon and Jale,” Marissa said.

  “If they’ve even made it,” Meineke said.

  “Don’t be so glass-is-half-empty, Meineke,” Daniel said confidently. “I’m sure Bon we’ll be there as planned.”

  If it had been anyone else making the statement, Marissa might not have asked her next question. “How can you be so sure, Daniel?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just a feeling I have.”

  Marissa smiled at the boy. “Why don’t you lead the way to Corsica for us?”

  Daniel smiled back. “Sure, come on, everybody.” And off he went, taking the lead with pride.

  Marissa watched him go with the others beginning to follow him up the beach toward the seaport city of Corsica.

  “What are you thinking, Marissa?” Captain Blackborne asked.

  “I’m not sure yet. But I think there is far more to this young boy than meets the eye.” Marissa turned a cold eye toward Captain Blackborne. “And captain, I meant what I said. One wrong move from you while you’re in our company and you’ll not see the next sunrise.”

 

  THE FIDDLER

  When their group walked into the seaside city of Corsica, it became immediately apparent that the city was not at all like Gennedy. The fact that they all just walked into it was the first clue. Corsica had no wall like King Turin’s city.

  Daniel noticed that Corsica also lacked the locks which Gennedy employed to safeguard itself against ship attacks upon its docks and the city beyond. The houses and buildings were made of timber alone, decorated tastefully, but lacking the dragon scales employed by Turin’s port city across the sea. Corsica seemed at ease.

  Once their group entered the city, they began to notice some of the people were staring at them. “Perhaps we shouldn’t have come here,” Nathaniel said to Marissa.

  “Why?”

  “Surely you know some of the history surrounding Corsica.” Nathaniel said. His eyes darted back and forth, expecting trouble.

  “Yes, I know,” Marissa said. “Corsica may be a place which caters to the lower elements, but they dwell in relative peace. What’s the matter, Blackborne, don’t you like associating with your peers.”

  “That’s just it, Princess, I never was very big on friends or peers. There’s a bounty of such size on my head that most would give up their right arm to capture me, alive or
dead.”

  “Really?” she said, undaunted. “Perhaps I should cut off your head right now and collect the bounty myself.”

  “Believe it or not, Princess, I can probably prove myself of more value to you alive.”

  “I doubt it,” she said sarcastically. “What skills do you have to offer? You’re a wanted man, a pirate with no ship or crew and not the best dresser either.”

  Marissa reminded herself not to enjoy teasing him too much. Despite his saving Daniel, Blackborne was still not to be trusted. “Anyway,” she continued, “we don’t really have a choice. Just beyond Corsica is our rendezvous point with our friends and we have no way to change it. We need supplies and weapons, and Corsica has both available with no questions asked.”

  “Just be careful, Princess, and remember the element you’re in.”

  Daniel stopped when they reached the town square. Here the road split into several different directions away from a central fountain. “Where to now, Marissa?” he asked.

  “Any suggestions, Nathaniel?”

  “Well,” he said, scratching his five-o-clock shadow, “if it’s weapons you want, you won’t find them available out on the street. We’ll have to go to the Fiddler.”

  “A friend of yours?” she asked.

  “A business acquaintance,” Nathaniel corrected.

  The princess turned to Louie and the others. “Louie, I want you to go into that supply store and see to our other provisions while Captain Blackborne and I try to secure some weapons for our journey.”

  “We’re on it.” Louie turned to take the lead. “Come on, lads, we’ve got some shopping to do.”

  As the others headed off after the cherub commander, Marissa turned back to Nathaniel. “After you, Captain.”