Prologue IV
PROLOGUE IV
TALON
I sat in the corner of the tavern, wearing my leather coat with the gold buttons, my hat back in my chambers at the outpost. My ankle rested on the opposite knee, and I drank my ale in silence as the rest of the bar was rambunctious and rowdy.
Topless women sat on men’s laps for a couple coins, while drunken men made idiots of themselves and got their coin purses stolen. We’d been at sea for a long time and were docked at this island for the foreseeable future. We had no plans, no leads on treasure, and the winter winds were coming.
Captain Blackstorm got his tankard from the bar then joined me at the table. Time and sun exposure had weathered his face, turning it into leather like his coat. Nearly twenty years had passed since the day we’d met—and that passage of time was written on his face.
He lit up a cigar and stuck it in the corner of his mouth. “I’m fucking tired.”
I drank from my tankard.
“Didn’t think I’d live this long. Pirates never do.”
“Then you must be a good pirate.”
He grinned before he sucked the smoke into his mouth and tasted it on his tongue. It left his nostrils a moment later. “I’m a damn good pirate.”
I clanked my tankard against his. “I’ll drink to that.”
He drank his ale then returned the cigar to his mouth. “So why do I look like an old fucker, and you haven’t aged a day?”
Because I’d been blessed with an immortal life—a gift I hadn’t asked for. “Guess I’m just lucky.”
“Only unlucky people believe in luck.” He sucked on his cigar again, let it coat his mouth, and then released it as a puff of smoke. “We’ve known each other for twenty years now, and I still don’t have any idea who you are.” He sank back in the chair and looked at me, his fingers still gripping the handle of his ale. “You’re a good sailor. A good fighter. And you’re loyal. That’s all I know—and I would love to know more.”
I held his gaze for a long time, my fingers resting on my glass.
“And I think your enduring youth is explained in that tale as well.”
I trusted Blackstorm with my life, but I would never tell him about Khazmuda. He was still a pirate, and pirates were greedy. “It’s a long story.”
“Those are the only stories worth hearing.”
I took a long time to begin the tale, because it was the first time I’d ever verbalized it to anyone. To speak it aloud was to relive it, but I did it because of the friendship and camaraderie we built over decades, across the world, across all the seas. But I told him the story—from the beginning to the end. I left out the details of my escape to protect Khazmuda.
He listened to every word, didn’t interrupt me with questions, and it didn’t seem like he blinked once. “Now I understand why you’ve never wanted to travel south.”
I gave a slight nod before I took a drink from my tankard. I appreciated that he didn’t tell me he was sorry about what happened, didn’t try to sympathize with something he could never understand.
“And I understand why you’ve forbidden us from taking women as prisoners…because you were married.”
“It’s not because I was married.”
He cocked his head slightly.
So much time had passed that it was hard to picture Vivian’s face in my mind. She was forever in my heart, but time had dulled her appearance and her memory. I was a different person now, and with every passing year, I lost more of who I used to be. “She was raped before I met her.”
He gave a slow nod in understanding.
“It took a long time to earn her trust, but it was worth it.” It took a long time to earn her desire, to make her feel safe with me, for her to let go and enjoy me the way sex was supposed to be enjoyed. The hard work and patience paid off—because our love was passionate and beautiful.
He gave another slight nod. “That means you’re not Commander Talon—but King Talon of the Southern Isles.”
“I’m no king.”
“You can’t reject a title that’s in your blood.”
“Well, I do.”
He enjoyed his cigar for a few moments before he put it out in the ashtray. “You have no desire to take back the throne? To avenge your family? To slay Barron in your wife’s name?”
Time had dulled my pain, faded it like the color of wood in constant sunshine. The wound would never heal, but it had scabbed over and turned into an ugly scar. It was a part of me, but it had stopped hurting to breathe a long time ago. I’d fucked whores in brothels without guilt and had moved on with my life.
And once the pain had subsided, the anger had come forth. “I do.”
He crossed his arms over his chest as he cocked his head.
“But I can’t win a war without an army. I can’t fight dragons without dragons of my own. I can’t defeat a king protected by dark magic. My only hope is to sneak into the castle and kill him in his sleep, but that doesn’t fix the problem. One of his sons would wear the crown, and the subjugation would continue.” There was no scenario where I would be satisfied, where I would find peace.
His head turned away, and his expression became heavy in thought.
It seemed like the conversation had concluded.
But then he looked at me again. “I know someone who can help you.”
My eyes narrowed.
“We sailed to the west, and a storm blew us off course and forced us farther out to sea than we’d ever been. We docked at an unoccupied island, the trees all dead and decayed, a cold desert. That was where I met him, the Lord of the Underworld— Bahamut .”
It was a long journey, one of the longest stretches we’d ever taken as a crew. Without our level of experience and knowledge, the trip would certainly end with our ship at the bottom of the ocean and our bodies as shark food. We’d sailed so much that last year and Captain Blackstorm had promised the crew a long reprieve, so we only took volunteers. Our ship was half manned, but we still made do.
After months out to sea with storms that blew us off course several times, the island was finally in sight, a speck in the distance, a storm of clouds that circled above it while the rest of the sky was blue.
Captain Blackstorm came to my side as we looked over the bow. “There she is. Exactly as I remember her.”
My eyes were locked on the horizon, slowly watching the land grow from a speck to something more. “Tell me about him.”
“I came to the island for supplies, and he appeared out of nowhere. My ears are trained like a bloodhound. You can’t sneak up on a fella like me. But his boots didn’t make a sound. I think it’s because he’s not real.”
I turned to look at him.
“Like a mirage. You see something that’s not really there.” He continued to stare at the island in the distance. “He looks otherworldly. Hard to explain…it’s something in his appearance. It’s something in his presence. One look at him and I knew I’d met something I didn’t understand. I’ve sailed this world all my life, and I thought I’d seen it all—but I realized how wrong I was.”
“What did he say to you?” I looked at the island again.
“Told me he could make me the greatest pirate who ever lived—for a price.”
“Then you must have taken the deal.”
He turned back to look at me, a smile in his eyes. “I’m not the one who worked my way up from fisherman to commander.”
“Only because I learned from the best.”
His hand moved to my shoulder, and he gave me an affectionate squeeze, reminding me of the way my father used to grab me. When we’d started this journey together, we were the same age, but now he’d grown to my father’s age and the relationship had changed. I viewed him differently—and he did the same with me. “I didn’t take the deal. Sometimes I wonder what would have been if I did, but a pirate never looks behind. Only ahead.”
“It must have been a hefty price, then.”
“When my time comes, I want to be part of the sea, not the underworld.”
I continued to stare at his face, wanting more specific details but knowing not to ask. I would find out soon enough anyway.
“Talon, whenever you’re ready to take back what’s rightfully yours, you know you have us at your disposal. I’m sure we could recruit the other pirates as well.”
For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. “That’s awfully generous, Captain Blackstorm.”
“Ethan.”
My eyes narrowed.
“You’re more than one of my crew, Talon.”
He’d never told me his name before. None of the crew knew it either. But he shared it with me…and only me.
“And it’s not that generous,” he said with a smirk. “Because I know there will be plenty of riches when all’s said and done.”
I smirked back. “It’s all yours, Ethan.”
The ship dropped anchor, and I rowed to the island alone.
I’d traveled to distant lands and exotic islands, but I’d never seen black sand like this. It was dark like the midnight sky, like Khazmuda’s scales. The rocks possessed the same darkness too, like they were pieces of hardened lava from a long extinct volcano.
I ventured farther inland, moving through the open spaces between the desiccated trees. Not a single leaf existed, just sharp branches that pointed menacingly to the sky. The earth was barren of vegetation, just dirt and rocks and pointed roots.
The farther in I moved, the colder it became and the less vivid the colors. Everything moved into a spectrum of gray.
I stopped when I saw the artifacts hanging from the trees. Circles and triangles made of branches, fastened together with dead roots. The symbols changed, displays of different shapes and sizes, their meaning indecipherable. I felt a warning in my heart, an alarm in my mind, and then a voice whispered in my ear.
“Go back.”
It was so quiet, I wasn’t sure if it was real, if it was just a trick of the wind…even though there was no breeze. I halted where I stood, seeing the structure up ahead, an enormous skull carved out of rock, as tall as a small mountain.
I stared at it, my pulse quick in my neck.
I hadn’t blinked, hadn’t pulled my eyes away, but then he was suddenly there.
In the uniform of a king, he stood in midnight blue, an elegant cape behind him, his armor shiny like it was buffed by servants every day. A powerful sword hung at his hip, the hilt made of solid black.
He looked like an ordinary man with dirty-blond hair and bright-blue eyes, but his presence was powerful. As powerful as a hurricane that ravaged the seas. His jawline was hard like mine, his cheekbones angular, and his eyes had a visible menace. He was young like me, a man my sister would call handsome.
His hostility was so profound it was physical.
I didn’t step closer.
“You’re not a lost sailor. You’ve come to my lands with a purpose. State that purpose and then begone.”
I blinked—and then he was right in front of me. He could move without taking a step, transfer from one place to the next with the speed of a thought. I didn’t flinch or draw breath despite the jolt of surprise. “I seek your aid.”
“I only give when I take, Talon Rothschild. The price must be equal.”
I held his gaze, knowing I faced off with a god. “My kingdom was taken from me…and my family murdered. I must avenge them and reclaim what is mine. But it’s a battle I can never win, not when they have dragons and dark elves—and I have nothing.”
A heavy silence passed, one in which he didn’t blink once, just observing me. “That is a heavy ask—and will require a heavy price. Do you wish to proceed?”
I felt no hesitation. Saying it out loud forced me to remember, forced me to remember the way my wife screamed as her flesh was burned straight off the bone…and my child was killed before they’d had the chance to live. “Yes.”
“I can’t directly intervene with the events of the living. But I can gift you the power to triumph. I can give you command of the dead, a power I myself wield. You can raise an army of the fallen to fight for you. An army that knows no pain, an army that will blindly follow whatever you command until they’re allowed to return to their silent depths. Do you accept?”
“I need more than that.”
His expression hardened before he continued. “The gift of a god is insufficient to you?”
“An army on the ground can’t defeat the dragons in the skies—and there are many.”
He stared long and hard, his eyes shifting back and forth between mine. “You need dragons.”
“Yes. Is that something you can give me?”
“No. But I can tell you that free dragons still exist in this world. I can tell you where to find them, but I can’t command them to fight for you. As I said, I have no command of the living. I can give you the resources to succeed, but I can’t claim the victory in your name.”
“Nor would I want you to.” I wanted to face Barron on my own, to bring him to his knees before I tied him to the stake and watched him burn. I couldn’t bear the sight of my family bursting into flames, but I wouldn’t blink as I watched him burn.
“Do we have a deal?”
“What is the price?”
He stared for a while, and then slowly, a smile moved across his lips. “Your soul, of course. It will be mine—for all eternity.”
A chill ran up my spine.
“Once you’ve secured your victory, I will collect payment. You will have a moment to savor your victory—then your life will be forfeit. You will never be reunited with your loved ones in Caelum.”
“Caelum?”
“What you refer to as the afterlife.”
I swallowed, thinking about the family I would never see again.
“Think carefully, Talon Rothschild. Once the deal is made, it's binding.”
It was a painful decision, but an easy one. I never wanted to face Vivian again—because I didn’t deserve to. I’d suspected Barron long before he put his plans in motion. I could have taken Vivian far away and started over in a new land. I could have forced a succession over my father and killed Barron when I wanted to. But I hadn’t done any of those things. I had just let it happen…let them all die. “We have a deal.”
Well, he did it. Now what? Find out in The Dragon King .