We have been treading through the waters for a couple hours now, the dread and anticipation of what lay ahead, heavy in the air between us. We had already gone through the large Tukt’s River at the pier in Kasardis and made it out to Sea. The princess, wedged in the very end corner of the longboat had silently cried herself to sleep. Carson and I flanked on either side of her, making sure to not draw unnecessary attention and to keep her as far away from the crew as possible on this crowded thing.
We had given Jarvis the drenched trade routes he had requested, and he sat at the wheel with his other goonies, silently plotting and planning over their next steps. He had complained that we were sloppy in the palace when we gave him the rundown on what happened. We didn’t argue and he didn’t push. This morning had been full of many tragedies and him giving us space as a small mercy for our efforts were greatly needed. It wasn’t going to last for long, though.
“Boss, straight ahead!” a brisk voice, a goon on the wheel states, grabbing Jarvis’s attention.
I look out ahead, through the fog I see land with jagged cliffs and a strong current. The outer rim of the island is full of brush and trees and jagged rocks, the water splashing all around. That isn’t exactly where we are pulling in, though. No, the actual spot is on the opposite end, away from the mainland and view of any stragglers or other pirates.
After a small while, treading carefully through the jagged rocks and the change in water from dark blue to indigo-black, we begin closing in on the cove. The cloudy sky disappears above us in turn for damp rock, sconces lining some of the cave walls. Ahead lies a quiet shore, no current here and many more of his crew.
As we land ashore, some of the crew starts disembarking.
“What is this place?” the princess asks, barely a whisper.
A sharp jab from behind silences any other questions and closes the idea of any protests. Carson takes the lead, then the princess and then myself. The crew who are already ashore begin leading the way with some of the more “guardsman” of Jarvis's crew remain behind us, their weapons drawn. Jarvis leads the crew in through a large enough crack in-between two natural rocks, forming a barrier between the cove and the inside of the island. One by one, we duck inside, following through and come to some natural layers of slick rock forming natural steps.
The silence is no more as we pile into an opening, spanning in layers through the inside of the island. Tents are set up with campfires, barrels of beer and bundles of wheat, tobacco, hangers of varying meats and bundles of apples are scattered through all campsites.
We follow over a small, five foot-makeshift bridge of wooden board, crossing one of several natural streams to which form “districts” inside the cavern. To our right, another district, we see people crying, screaming for help as a band of cutthroat women, some of whom I recognize by face through other times we have been here, are practicing dagger throwing with live bait. The princess gasps ahead of me, stopping a second to watch in horror as the women purposely throw the knives, still hitting their live target, in non-lethal areas, creating a sort of game and amusement.
“No...” the princess says, tears brimming in her eyes as I nudge her along. She looks back as she trudges behind Carson, looking at me with shocked disbelief. I gesture for her to keep following.
We keep on walking, gathering small attention for others who pass us. Some spit at us as we walk past them, others smirk disgustedly at us while others give crude gestures. Something I am used to every time Carson and I end up stuck here. The princess, however, mutters under her breath and glares as I keep having to nudge her along at nearly every offense. At one point she turns around in anger, but the man behind me picks up his scimitar and threatens, “Move it!” to which she doesn’t turn back again.
More and more of the crew scatter to their areas in the residential spots or makeshift places around their families or friends. Jarvis, a handful of the goons to whom I assume he is planning with and his guardsmen, lead us to a small tent. Cages are lined up to the right, just over another stream and wooden board, most full of filthy peasants or other men. There are a group of mercenaries, a couple I recognize who are a bit more ruthless, handling the women in terrible ways. I put a hand on the princess, to steer her away slightly from the sight as their screams, cries and loud panting radiates from that direction.
I feel her shake steadily under my touch from the horrors around us but am pushed backwards almost as soon. Jarvis shoves her inside the tent and as I try to steady myself from the sudden jerk away from her from the guardsman behind me, Jarvis sticks a spear in the tent opening. Carson readies his fists but just steps out of the way, so we are both facing him.
“Aight', boys... good work on the trading routes. Next time, try not to burn down the palace or get the documents wet.”
I glare at him, but he just nods to a woman, whom I hadn’t noticed before and she walks nervously toward me, taking my hand. I jump at the sudden touch but after a second, she tries again and I allow it as she instead, decides to set some new bandage in my hand to do it myself. A small vial of alcohol is also given to me, and Jarvis dismisses her.
“You three will stay here tonight. I might have another errand for you boys in the morning.”
“Jarvis, we already did your dirty work; we can’t stay here forever.” Carson snaps at him.
“I very well can and will if you keep up that tone at me, Red.”
Carson bites his lip, a familiar sign that he is trying to keep himself in check.
“My guardsmen will stand watch here. Don’t do anything stupid until the morning. If you need a bite to eat, you’ve earned it, but one of them will accompany you.” Jarvis says, then turns to his guardsmen, “One allowed out at a time.”
“Yes, Boss!” the five of them muster.
Carson and I are then allowed inside the tent as Jarvis makes his leave. The princess inside is sitting on her legs, her face in her hands. She sobs quietly and I can’t help but feel sorry for her. I sit awkwardly to one side and Carson sits at the other.
Quietly, I pull out from my sash another document. Carson watches me as his eyes go wide. He looks at me in question and I nod. It is the research found in the study I had grabbed in the drawer while Carson tried keeping the queen occupied to which i had worked out the false bottom.
“Mal...” he helps me open the damp pages, folded together and fragile from not being dried properly when we had plunged into the water surrounding the castle. “I didn’t know you actually got them.”
“Got ’em right as that-” I stop, realizing what I was about to say, in front of the princess and decided to correct my thought, “Yeah, I got them when we were leaving.” Carson nods, understanding my change in tone.
As we gently pry it open, minus the tiny tears here and there, we are actually able to get it in relatively one piece. We begin reading to ourselves.
I skip the first part, most of it just scribbles or notes of various elements and medicines and minerals. Afterall, finding the cure or what looks like he thought of making one, was our best bet. We skip most the entirety of the first page, most being scratched out as well as the back.
“How can you two read at a time like this...?” the princess starts, her words low and sorrowful.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve been here. I guess we didn’t exactly have time to tell you what to expect when we were risking ourselves to save you.” Carson states, glaring at her.
I smack him, none too gently on the arm. He gives a quick yelp before I begin, “It sucks, but we are completely powerless here. I’m sorry about the palace and I am sorry you’re, um...”
I am at a loss of words. Should I be sorry she is being exposed to this? It isn’t like the queen put a stop to Jarvis and there were rumors she had been working with him to collect taxes from difficult citizens. Maybe it was a good thing she saw this; she would know just how most of us citizens suffer.
“She’s dead... isn’t she?” she asks, her eyes searching mine for confirmation. I stare back at her, closing my mouth shut and thinking. There wasn’t much to say so I just nod regrettably at her.
She nods and attempts to stifle her sobbing, taking some deep breaths. “I can hear those women screaming...”
I listen and hear it, too. I used to be phased by the fact women would be openly beat and raped, here for everyone to see. Granted, they were the wives, daughters and sisters of Jarvis’s enemies. He didn’t normally determine their fate, no. He would let his crew decide that. Whoever survived he would release to the waters, sending a tribute as he would call it, past here at Shadow’s Edge and closer to the mainland for the Serpent.
“Why... why would he do this?” her blue-grey eyes stick out from her red face, damp with tears.
“This is how the world is, your Majesty.” Carson states. I frown at him, and he shrugs. Carson has a particular dislike for royals, as did I, but I am finding his words a bit harsh in this moment. She did, after all, lose her home and her mother in one night. Not to mention, being forced into this situation so quickly, I think is punishment enough.
She glares at him but ignores the stab at Carson’s words. She looks down at the papers I hold, and her expression looks puzzled. “Why do you have my uncle’s research?”
Carson and I look to each other, not realizing we could be asking her instead of figuring it out ourselves.
“You know about this?” Carson asks, pointing at the papers in bewilderment.
“Well, yes... and no. I know Uncle Yuran was trying to understand the cause and the cure for the plague.”
“What did he discover?” I ask and we both listen in.
“I don’t know. He never told me. I was always stuck in my tutoring sessions, and he was always hauled away in his study. I never got to see him much before he left.”
“Before he left?” I ask.
Her stomach growls and she looks to us. “Please tell me you have food. I... I don’t want to go out there.”
I look at Carson and he rolls his eyes, dragging himself up and mutters something under his tongue before he disappears out the tent. We hear a muffled, “Food.” from Carson and some receding footsteps.
“He hates me.” she says, glaring at the closed tent entrance.
“He...” I struggle for the right words. “He doesn’t hate you. He doesn’t trust you. You have to understand that normal people like us aren’t treated well by your people.”
“You say that like I’m a different species. We protect you and help you; you should love us.” she says.
I suck in a frustrated breath before continuing, “Obviously you aren’t understanding this. This is the world normal people live in. You are just now seeing your first woman getting raped, your first pirate, your firsthand in watching someone get tortured. This is our normal. How old are you?” I ask.
She looks at me with a harshness in her eyes but answers without enthusiasm, “Seventeen.”
“The first time I saw a woman raped was at eight years old. I was probably three or four when I saw a man beaten to death for something as simple as grabbing an extra apple for his son.”
Her eyes are wide and her body stiff. As she opens her mouth in defiance, but I cut in, “This is a harsh world, and it is harsher to the people who don’t lookout for each other. Carson and I have been through a lot. We don’t have family or friends outside ourselves. If you want to stay with us, we will teach you the streets, but I need to know if you’re gonna have our backs.”
Carson cracks the tent open, looking at us curiously at the last of what I said. He closes the tent and sets down a tray of meat, bread, water and some ale. I continue, “It is your choice.”
She stays there silently, her eyes not leaving the tray of food, deep in thought. I sit there a moment before Carson begins grabbing at the food. I sigh in frustration, following suit. The princess, speechless, takes a piece of the stale loaf and wraps herself tighter in the blanket, turning away from us.
Light screams are still heard along with cruel laughing, but I drown it out. I look to Carson, both of us grabbing at the wooden cups of ale and we clink it lightly, simultaneously saying, “To another day alive.” and bottoms up.
The night dragged on, but soon, things quiet down around us. We leave the tray outside our tent and stay inside the remainder of the night. Carson took the liberty to address my wound which he said wasn’t looking the best. In honesty, the tiny gash was red and puffy. I was almost sure it was becoming infected. The alcohol had stung and then we rested in silence. Carson and I lay back-to-back in the front of the tent and the princess lay down, a good space away from us on the other side. We keep the documents hidden in my sash along with the few jewels I had taken from the palace. Our packs that Jarvis had sorted through while he left the pier, lay by our feet.
We knew morning had come when Jarvis opens the tent and shouts us to get up. He yelled at us to get dressed and to have the guardsmen take us to the dock in the cove when we finished. I rummage through our packs, throwing some spare clothes to the princess. She looks up in disgust but doesn't protest. I begin undressing and hear a gasp from the princess.
“What?” I ask.
“Mal, she’s a princess. Unless she’s been sneaking around with some prince, I’m sure seeing us shirtless is new and exciting for her.” Carson winks at her and her face turns a bright shade of red.
I snicker, not able to help myself and I gesture for him to get out of the tent. We were used to being half naked at times in the streets, among other poor. It was just something nobody paid attention to anymore. “Privacy for you, but don’t take too long or Jarvis will be the one knocking.”
I watch as her jaw drops and Carson adds, “Chop, chop, Princess.”
Carson and I finish and wait a brief minute before the princess emerge in trousers and an oversized blouse. Her frown is heavily defined, and she huffs, crossing her arms, keeping her boots and her cape. “Not too bad of a look for you! Now you look like you might actually fit in with us.”
If looks could kill, Carson wouldn’t be here right now. Nope, his guts would be all over the place and I would be friendless forever.
“Let’s just get going. I want new clothes as soon as we reach any kind of city!”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, your Majesty.” Carson says.
We continue in soft banter the rest of the way, a headache forming almost immediately as two guards ahead of us and three behind, all the way back to the dock, none of us making any eye contact with anyone to whom we pass.
“What took them so long?” Jarvis complains.
“They, um... were waiting on the girl to change.”
“Still have some decency after all these years, huh boys?” Jarvis prods, waving a hand for us to come onboard. The three of us, along with the guardsmen and a handful of his normal crew aboard with us. Eventually we set out and wait patiently to arrive wherever Jarvis intends to go.
Some of the crew casually glance and snicker in our direction but generally keep to themselves, to which I’m grateful. Eventually, we get past Shadow’s Edge and are into normal waters again before Jarvis makes his way over here, sitting on a barrel.
“So, Princess, you no longer have a home. I’ll give you the option I give all orphans from my hometown. Will you be joining me and my crew? You will get the spoils and the glory that-”
“There is no way you are actually asking me that. Seriously?! You torture people for games and you...” she bites her lip and looks up at him defiantly before continuing, “you degrade women. What kind of a man does such things?”
He chuckles bitterly before standing and bending down in the middle of the three of us, mere inches from her, face to face. “You think I’m horrible and a monster, don’t you? Most of my crew are strays and rescues. You will find war everywhere Princess, but at least I give them a home and fighting chance to you royals who think hold power.”
“We do hold the power; that is the point of royalty!” she shouts.
I can tell it struck a nerve in Jarvis at the deep breathing and a serious demeanor taking over. At first, I think he is about to strike her, but instead he goes back near the barrel, leaning on a post to the small ship.
“Let me tell you a story, girly. Have you ever been in the village of Rosse? South of Kasardis but in your late mother’s jurisdiction.”
She shakes her head, and he continues, “Your mother never once intervened to the happenings in my home village. Once as a six-year-old boy, my brother and I wrote a letter, as best we could. We didn’t know how to write, and so, we gave half our shares of bread to an elderly woman who would beat us with her cane for getting the answers wrong. We called her Nana Urlig.” he looks to the distance at the memory.
“It got the job done. We learned enough to read and write the important stuff. We bribed the first courtier who promised the message would get to the queen and it did. Her response?” he glares down at the princess with bitterness in his tone, “She raised the taxes in response with a message from the warden in our village that we needed to work harder to be considered valuable enough to help. Afterall, why help us when she wanted us to produce more? It was a punishment.”
He sits on the barrel and continues, “Boys and girls to the age of thirteen, if they haven’t proven useful to the adults in the village, whether that be by service, pleasure or labor,” he watches the princess flinch at the words. “they are sentenced twice a year to walk off the pier during the storm seasons. They say if we survive then the Gods have favored us and come back to work in the village; that we have earned our right to live.
“You can guess most of us do not survive, little girl.”
“Then how are you alive? You are well over thirteen years old, you pirate!”
He chuckles before saying, “That’s a compliment compared to the other things I have been called. Now, I was sent off the pier during one of the worst storms in the season. I was swallowed whole by the Sea, my lungs on fire, my eyes in a watery haze. I was in and out of consciousness and didn’t know how to swim.
“Eventually, I awoke, washed ashore in water as thick and dark as ichor. The inky water had stained my clothes, my hands and the shores to match. I, a mere boy of thirteen, was stranded... but I survived.”
He gets back up and walks up to her again, bending down before continuing, “It wasn’t the help of your precious family. Your queen made her point. We weren’t worth saving. I spent years on that island and lucky enough, answers about my heritage. You see, I wasn’t the first one who had laid claim there. My grandfather had been there first, his human tomb lay there, just waiting for a descendant to take action.”
The three of us listen intently, Jarvis has since never shared his story with neither Carson nor I. Jarvis continues, standing up with some pride to his stance and tone, “I was eighteen when I found my way back, when I was strong enough, no longer a boy. I went to the orphanage first, got all the kids out before I burnt it down. As it lay, burning, I gave the children a choice: Come and serve with me as my crew, or be left to your forged fate here, in this village. You can imagine the children here had no sentiments about the townsfolk, the men in particular. They beat and raped the women, made them do terrible things; they had no voice. The kids were treated lesser than them.
“The orphanage burning caught the attention of the village, by obvious means. The warden soon came to inspect the incident. I had armed the children and I was much bigger than when I had left the village. They were shocked to see me alive and more shocked at the sight we beheld. I gave the warden a choice: we burn down the rest of the village or twice a year, I will be back to give the orphans the choice. He chose the latter.
“As you can see, Princess, this crew I possess, needs to eat, sleep, fuck and trust. I am responsible for those needs. The best way I can do so is by taking it by force. I went back, to the queen, your precious mother. Who do you think threatened the townsfolk for higher taxes afterwards when I came back? I did. Why do you think my crimes are turned a blind eye to?”
I look from Jarvis to the princess; she has her eyes squeezed shut and her body is shaking. Tears threaten her as she tries to keep it in. Jarvis lifts her chin up to meet his gaze, her tears betraying her as they begin to stream down her face as she meets his eyes, a hatred passing from her to him. Jarvis smiles and is about to say something when the ship rocks, knocking us all off balance.
“What the fuck...” Carson starts but another thunderous shock goes through the ship, rocking it again and we lose our footing, sending us all on our asses.
“Capt’n, we’re under attack!” his goon from the wheel shouts.
A large splash hits nearby, a cannon just missing us, causing an icy wave of water to rush at us onboard. “Get down!” I yell at them, grabbing the princess and pulling her to me, Carson already getting to his feet. Another shake happens and I hear the shouting begin, but not from our ship. A small sized ship, similar to Jarvis’s, lay linear with us. A thick wooden board drops, connecting a pathway between the two ships.
“Shit, pirates.” I curse.
“I thought we already were with pirates?!” she scrunches her face.
“Enemy ones.” Carson states and darts to the side of me, gesturing us to stay low and follow. Fighting and screams break out across the whole ship. This is an attack against Jarvis, and as much as I know he can definitely hold his own, this gave us a chance to get out while they are all distracted.
“Get to the lifeboats!” Carson shouts.
A pirate from the opposing ship jumps in front of us, Carson dodges quickly, knocking the man off his feet. This gives Carson the opportunity to steal the weapon from the man and Carson quickly jabs him in the chest while he lays on the ground.
The princess gasps as another pirate makes his way at us, but Carson swipes through his neck, creating a gushing red gash, spraying the three of us.
“Auh!” the princess throws her hands at her face, trying to block out the noise and violence spruced around. Carson yanks her to him and lowers her forcefully to the lifeboat on the side of the ship, throwing me down there after her. He jumps down in, and I start paddling away.
I paddle and Carson yanks the princess’s chin up. She goes wide eyed but allows him to the touch. “She’s alright.” he says and nods at me. The princess sets her arms down, her breathing labored as we sail away from the two ships.
“I see smoke.” Carson states at the front, viewing behind us.
“Just keep going. We both know Jarvis can’t die that easily. He’ll notice we’re gone and one of his lifeboats when everything cools down.”
He nods and we set sail, a thin layer of fog beginning to separate us from the further and further away ships.
Hours pass and by the time the sun starts setting, hope rises within me as I see land to our left in the distance. Carson sees it too because a smile splays around his lips. Another half an hour goes by before we make it to shore. We help the princess off before nodding to a fisherman who helps us secure the lifeboat. I grab a jewel from my sash and set it in his hand discreetly, getting the message across. The man nods and disappears after managing the lifeboat in the nearby brush.
“W-where are we?” the princess asks, dread on her face.
I bend down, swipe my hand through the wet sand, black in between my fingers. I let it drop before I answer, “The Black Shores of Valantis, your Majesty.”
After a second, she mutters, “Lena. My name is Lena.”
Carson looks to me and smirks as I state, “Guess we made first name bases. Nice to officially meet you, Princess Lena.”
Carson sets a reassuring hand on her shoulder and nods, making her brave a small smile.
“Let’s go get some lodging. I hear they have the best fresh garlic salmon, here!” Carson states
ns 18.68.0.109da2
