Chapter 15
1504 Words
15
I started back and whipped my head to my right. A shriveled man with a spry gait and piercing blue eyes stood a foot behind me. He was dressed in brown pants torn above the knees and a shirt that might have been white in some past life but was now a discolored yellow. Atop his wispy white tufts of hair was a cap that looked older than Xander’s real age.
There was nothing very unusual about him, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I pointed at myself. “Are you talking to me?”
He grinned and showed off an impressive set of decayed chompers. “Who else would I be talkin’ to but a fae?”
A chill breeze blew over me and reminded me of my wet blunder. I shivered and wrapped the coat closer to myself as I looked away from the old man. “I don’t think I’m much of a fae.” I glanced in the direction Xander had gone. The heavy fog obscured the route. “Or even a human.”
The man stopped near my side and hunched over to peer at me with his unblinking gaze. “But ya can hear the call, can’t ya?” he persisted.
I twisted my head around and glared up at him. “I’m getting really tired of all this cryptic fae stuff. What the hell is-” I lifted my hands and made air quotes, “-the Call?”
He grinned and showed off a set of teeth that would have made a scream and run away. “Yer a sprightly one, aren’t ya? I’ve seen many like ya, but none so quick with a snap.”
I turned away and huddled deeper into the coat. “Whatever you’re trying to sell, I’m not interested.”
He plopped himself beside me like we were old friends. A cold chill swept over me and I scooted a little away from him. He leaned toward to make up for the space.
“An old sea dragon like me hasn’t got much to sell, Lady Fae, but what we’ve learned these long years on the seas. Fer yer question-” he nodded in the direction of the starboard side, “-the Call is what brings ‘em out of the deeps.”
I followed his gaze and wrinkled my nose. “Brings who out of what?”
He leaned forward at an angle and studied me. I leaned back to escape the dreadful smell that wafted from his decayed mouth. “The deeps are where the Mare Fae came from a long time ago, and where Valtameri has his court.”
My ears perked up at the name and I turned my face to the old man. “Valtameri? The guy who runs the oceans?”
The man nodded. “The very same. If ya know the Call ya might be able to bring his offspring, but a good, strong Call might be enough to bring the old king ‘imself.”
I arched an eyebrow. “So what does this Call sound like?”
He chuckled. “If I knew that, Lady Fae, I wouldn’t be talkin’ to ya right now.” He tapped his elbow against my arm and gave a wink. “I’d be havin’ myself a little bit of fun with one of the daughters of ol’ Valtameri, if ya know what I mean.”
“And you thought I’d know it because I’m a fae?” I guessed.
He nodded. “Aye, but even if ya don’t know it I’d bet my last fish ya can feel it.” He tapped my chest over my heart with one of his bony fingers. “Just there. It beats inside ya like the beating of yer heart.” He creaked onto his small feet and bowed his head to me. “I hope to be seeing ya, Lady Fae.” He shuffled off down the deck and disappeared behind another pile of crates.
My curiosity was piqued by the strange man, so much so that I stood and followed him behind the crates. There was no sign of the old man, but there were two other sailors, a young man and a middle-aged one. They looked up from their rope wrapping. One of them glared at me.
“What’s wanted?” he snapped.
“Did you see an old guy pass by here a second ago?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “No, and we wouldn’t. There’s no old sailors aboard Lord Cayden’s flagship.”
My eyebrows crashed down. “Then how was I just talking to one a minute ago?”
One of the sailors lifted his head and his eyes widened. The gruff one sneered at me. “I’d say you were seeing things in the fog, miss. Now if ya don’t mind we’ll be getting back to our work.” He lowered his head and resumed the rope wrapping.
I pursed my lips, but turned and returned to my crate. My eyes followed the path I’d seen the old man disappear. I was sure he’d gone that way, but the one sailor had said there shouldn’t even be an old guy aboard.
As I was looking at the other line of crates when one of the sailors appeared. It was the less sneering, younger man. He kept looking over his shoulder as he crept up to me, and he spoke in a hushed whisper. “Did you really see an old man aboard?” he asked me.
I arched an eyebrow, but nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“What’d he look like?”
I shrugged. “He was dressed in a pair of old brown pants and a shirt. Why?”
“What was the color of his eyes?”
I leaned back and frowned at the fellow. “Why do you want to know?”
He gave another glance over his shoulder before he dared take a seat beside me. “I think I might know who you saw. My dad-he was a sailor, too-he used to tell me stories about an old man of the ocean who’d sometimes appear on a ship. He was supposed to be the ghost of a shipwrecked who’d come aboard and talk to some of the crew and passengers.”
I shivered and wrapped the coat closer around me. “So is this some ill-omen of imminent doom or what?”
He shook his head. “My dad said he was supposed to bring good luck to the ship’s journey-”
“Hey! Where’d ya go?” I heard the gruff sailor call out through the fog.
The younger one by my side jumped to his feet. “I gotta go.”
I grabbed his sleeve. “Wait a sec. If that guy was a ghost why’d he talk to me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I gotta go.”
The sailor pulled from my grasp and hurried away into the fog. I was left with the sinking feeling that I’d been talking to a dead guy. My eyes flitted over the foggy deck. The area was empty, but I could hear the calls of the sailors as they went about their work.
“Good luck, huh?” I murmured as I wrapped the coat closer to myself. A sneeze interrupted my thoughts. I rubbed my nose with my finger. “He’d better start with the good luck before I die of pneumonia.”
Even a visit with a ghost couldn’t shake the fatigue from my weary bones. I dozed off and was awakened by a soft shake of my shoulder. My eyes fluttered open. Before me stood Xander. Behind him was the whole of the deck. The fog was gone, and the pink color of nearly-dawn shown over the sails.
I sat up and winced as my back complained about my rough bed of crates. “Done deciding the fate of humans?”
He took a seat beside me and pursed his lips. “There was less to deliberate than to learn.”
I rubbed some of the sleep from my eyes. “Come again?”
“Cayden and Captain Kamban told me of what they knew about the island of Ui Breasail and its inhabitants.”
“And?”
He leaned back against the crates and pursed his lips as he looked ahead of us. “If negotiations fail, there will be war.”
My shoulders drooped. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. The people of Ui Breasail are very proud, and pride may make them unwilling to negotiate. They also have the upper hand should war be the only option. The island is a natural fortress surrounded by rocks but for one large cove. With their control of the cove and Dragon’s Bane they would be impossible to overcome by sea and nearly the same by air.”
Sunrise was nearly upon us, and the growing light allowed me to study his pensive face with its dark shadows. “You look tired.”
A weary smile slipped onto his lips and he tilted his head to look at me. “I do not know how you can do it.”
I blinked at him. “Do what?”
“Be a human.” He raised one hand and studied the fingers. “You have such frail bodies and minimal strength, and yet even in this world where war and competition have brought the species to the brink of extinction your kind continues to persevere.”
I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and grinned. “We’re a pretty stubborn race.”
He returned my grin with a broadened smile. “So you have taught me. Try as I might you insist on testing my ability to protect you.”
“Maybe I’ll be the one to protect you this time. Besides, I’ve got a guardian ghost on my side.”
He blinked at me. “Pardon?”
“Land ho!”
- Writer
