Chapter 6 #2
“I accept.” He belted out a laugh. “This is wonderful news, Captain. You will not regret it.”
Lili rolled her eyes. “He might. In the meantime, I’ll show you around.” She aimed in the direction that would take them below deck, then shot Augustus a pointed look. “Why don’t you check out the captain’s quarters in the meantime?”
Sickness churned in his stomach, but he nodded.
It was time to face his ghosts.
Augustus must have stood outside this cabin door a thousand times. A thousand times he’d knocked. A thousand times she’d answered.
The silence now was heavier than the door itself, sinking into his skin like cold water.
He released a long-held breath and took the handle. Inside, he was immediately assaulted by his mother. The brine of the sea mingled with her exotic perfumes.
Her ghost strode across the room with a young boy clinging to her leg. She chuckled and gripped him under the armpits, hauling him up to sit on her hip. “You’re no better than a starfish, you know that?”
Cassia’s cabin wasn’t unlike Mettius’s with its blend of rugged practicality and opulence. A mahogany desk dominated the room, its surface scattered with her belongings: navigational charts, maps, and a battered logbook that still lay open, filled with her meticulous entries.
Behind the desk was a high-backed chair upholstered in deep black leather, where Cassia’s ghost twirled a blade, her black eyes ablaze. “Sit.” Followed by the usual addition, “Will you ever not be the bane of my existence?”
Augustus ignored the twinge in his chest and looked to the right, where a detailed, hand-drawn map of the known seas marked her past routes.
“And here is the cave system,” her ghost said to the child on her hip, “where I saved your father from a pool of flesh-eating eels. Never trust your father when he claims a place is safe to swim unless you can see well through to the bottom. He never learns from that particular mistake.”
Augustus drifted to Cassia’s bedchamber doorway. A sturdy wardrobe stood against the far wall, its doors slightly ajar to reveal a collection of rich fabrics. The silks, velvets, and brocades were almost entirely black, each embroidered with intricate silver thread.
Her king-sized bed was adorned with cushions and a thick, embroidered quilt.
Her ghost sat atop the weathered chest at the foot of the bed, tears streaming, chest heaving on sob after sob.
She didn’t notice him in her doorway as she held her slightly rounded stomach, blood darkening her pants and dripping down the wood.
Augustus perused the shelves lining the walls where Cassia kept a collection of rare books, navigational instruments, and curiosities from distant lands—a petrified balkie’s claw, an intricately carved onyx statue, and bottles of rare, potent spirits.
Every element in his mother’s cabin spoke of a life lived on the edge, her fierce independence and commanding authority, and a taste for the finer things.
And all of it, every last detail, was a stab to the heart. It was no better than a mausoleum.
Lili was right—a change had to be made. He couldn’t captain this ship, but he couldn’t sell her either. The Entia belonged at the head of the Triarius Fleet. She belonged with his father.
If Augustus sent the request now, he could have Taran Phya working on the build for a new ship. A new sea-worthy home for the start of his and Selene’s life. Mettius could oversee the details on Augustus’s behalf, and the entire ship could be complete when they arrived in Warian Bay.
Augustus started for the desk, imagining what he might request in the missive. The ship would need a name and figurehead, something Cassia would find fleet-worthy.
His gaze fell on one of the paintings in the room, and he had his answer.
The Goddess of Battle wielded a mighty thunderbolt spear.
Her long hair flowed like liquid mercury, and her eyes were like storms. She wore armor made from a lightweight obsidian material adorned with symbols of war etched from starlight.
She was fierce and wise, a master strategist, and known for her ability to turn the tide of battle.
Just like Cassia.
“Komera,” he said, and the rightness settled into his chest.
With newfound purpose, Augustus sat behind the desk, pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment, and began to write.
Selene threw the doors open wide, letting sunlight and possibility spill out. “As requested…the library.”
Warmth filled her chest as she inhaled the scent of ancient parchment.
The sight before her was unlike any other in the palace, with levels upon levels of books and scrolls, the room crowned by a magnificent dome.
Golden light streamed in through windows, bathing the room in warmth.
Dust motes danced in the light like tiny little sprites.
The library was an amalgamation of marble, wood, and vibrant fabrics. Reading nooks with ornate furniture covered in rich velvet. Intricate mosaics and tapestries adorned the walls with integral moments in Perean history.
The four Rangers entered like an unchecked storm, their boots drumming across the marble, their crackling energy clashing with the quiet softness inside the grand rotunda.
They stopped to stare up at the towering white marble body of Isella, the Goddess of Wisdom. A flowing peplos draped her figure in delicate folds to sandaled feet, and she cupped a curious owl in her hands.
Blaze swiveled toward Selene, brows raised. “The maps?”
She pointed toward a wooden stand that held a globe of the known world. The shelves beside it held dozens of rolled parchments with more detailed maps.
While she and Blaze headed for those, his friends dropped weapons, coats, and themselves onto the furniture in a nearby reading nook.
She’d learned very little about them in the last week since they’d spent much of it bent over a tavern bar.
With Pandora on a ship back to Wairia, and the new Head of House still getting her feet beneath her, it fell on Selene to help the quiet, broody lot with this particular request.
The two men were Luc and Xavier Duclos. They were nearly identical—brothers, maybe—both bearded, unnaturally tall, and probably crushed boulders in their spare time. Telling them apart was made easier with Xavier’s shaved head and Luc’s short brown hair.
Roslyn Simone was an anomaly amongst these burly men. She was petite and lean like Selene, though that was where the similarities ended. Her dark brown hair was kept short and tight like a man’s, but was long on top. She never smiled, and her dark gaze cut through everything like a blade.
Blaze leaned toward Selene and smirked. “They bite less than you think. Unfortunate, really.”
Selene laughed. She’d liked him from their first meeting. Well, no, she didn’t love watching him kiss Augustus, but other than that, he had a good nature about him. Augustus’s attraction to the pirate-turned-ranger in both physical appearance and personality was easy to understand.
She pulled out the few parchments she knew held the maps Blaze was looking for. “Are your friends always so quiet, or have I been hanging around pirates too long and can no longer tell the difference between normal and true disorder?”
Blaze set an elbow on the shelf and leaned into it, his brown eyes twinkling.
“Forget about us—we’re boring. But you…” He gestured wildly toward her.
“You walk in like a blade wrapped in silk. I have so many questions, and they’re only multiplying.
For starters, the eye thing between you and Augustus is insane, and your chemistry is off the charts hot. If you’re ever up for a third—”
“No.” She hadn’t meant to snap, but smiled sweetly to rectify her sharp response. “If we change our minds, you’ll be the first to know.”
“I’d better be. Tell me more about you, though. One minute, you’re dressed like you could slit throats with your eyes closed, and the next, you could be a literal princess of Perean. I mean, this gown is…” He let out an appreciative whistle.
Selene fingered her rose-colored chiton and the gold twine braided like a delicate net around her waist. Her hair was twisted artfully off her neck, and she wore a pair of gold circlets overtop.
“I’m not a royal,” she said. “But I did grow up in the palace, and I’m good at reading maps. So, how can I help?”
“That’s all I get?” His eyes narrowed, then his expression opened with revelation. “I take it you’re not ready to get into your history with Augustus?”
Selene relaxed her shoulders and set everything back down. Smiled. “On first impression, I like you. You seem honest, and you’re very handsome—”
He beamed. “Thank you.”
“But I don’t know you. If Augustus wants to share details with you, then I’m all right with that. Until then…” She shrugged. “You and I should form a friendship outside of our shared relationship status with a certain broody pirate.”
The light in his eyes muted, and his smile dimmed, but he nodded. “I can respect that. And I appreciate your honesty.” Blaze straightened to look at the stack of maps. “Leonidas mentioned the oxbeasts were—”
A whisper of movement at her feet tugged at her awareness an instant before a familiar weight bumped against her leg, climbing with delicate claws.
He settled on her shoulder, and his cool nose nuzzled into her cheek.
She sensed his question like a secondary thought mingling with hers, only brighter.
“This is Blaze,” she said. “An old friend of Augustus’s.”
Roslyn, Luc, and Xavier surrounded Selene like hungry lions, their focus on the creature perched on her shoulder.
Blaze’s eyes widened. “Is that a—” He rattled his head. “Selene, how in the gods’ name did you end up with a dronsian?”
She grinned and scratched beneath the creature’s scaly chin. “I told Augustus he wasn’t a dragon.”
Truthfully, she hadn’t known for certain what he was.
Only that he’d appeared and was almost always around.
And they were connected somehow. She couldn’t read or hear his thoughts exactly, but she always sensed what he had to say.
She wished he’d pick out a name already, though. He was just being picky at this point.
“Definitely not a dragon,” Roslyn said with a surprisingly deep and gritty voice.
“I’ve only ever seen one other,” Blaze said. “The woman who claimed it was a little…strange.”
“She was mad,” Roslyn corrected.
Selene’s skin tingled. She’d also seen another, only it had been part of a statue representing the Mother inside the mountain. It had been in the temple that collapsed, where Noi’s body was now buried.
“Now that I think about it,” Blaze continued, “she had eyes like yours, too.” He laughed under his breath. “You have to tell—”
His words splintered inside Selene’s chest, icy cold.
Selene braced on the nearest shelf, mouth dry, and Orestis’s final words echoed like a slow, rotting drumbeat.
Where are the others like you?
Why do your people not return to these lands as you do, again and again?
“Where was this?” She shoved past Luc and Xavier, heart hammering toward the globe. “Show me,” she whispered, breath ragged.
Blaze came to stand beside her, eyebrows drawn together. “Are you all right?”
The dronsian’s tail wrapped around the back of her neck like a hug, and his body vibrated with a quiet purr.
“Can you just…?” Selene trailed off and motioned to the globe, swallowing thickly. “Were there others?”
Blaze glanced at his friends and back. “Yes, though I didn’t see them. The Okosian people claim she comes from a village on a nearby island, but she never lets anyone near.”
He began spinning the globe, searching, and biting his lip.
Behind them, one of the men—Luc or Xavier—whispered to someone, “Do you know what this is about?”
“Yeah,” Roslyn responded quietly. “We came across them a few years back. The woman was a real cunt.”
Someone snorted.
“Here,” Blaze said, pointing.
Selene didn’t recognize the countries or islands in the Paraneau Sea. The most notable landmass was a country called Okos, and his finger was on an island less than a day away by ship.
The Trayterre Isles.
“Would Augustus know where this is?” she asked.
“Undoubtedly. Okos was well within the fleet’s usual route. In fact, he and I spent a lot of time in their red-door bordellos.” His eyebrows climbed high, and he smirked while reminiscing. “The ‘menu’ they offer in those places is unlike any in the—”
He cut off at her sharp look.
“Please, do go on,” she said tightly.
Blaze cleared his throat and lowered his gaze. “Sorry, yes. He’s familiar with the area.”
“Would he have visited this island?”
She couldn’t imagine Cassia, Mettius, or Augustus would have dismissed seeing anyone with blue and brown eyes. Surely, he’d have mentioned it by now.
Blaze shrugged. “The woman rarely went to the mainland, and her people didn’t have anything of value that I’m aware of.”
Nothing to steal and sell back in Warian Bay.
Selene sighed and turned for the exit. “Are you good here?”
She was well outside the door when Blaze’s voice reached her. “Yes. See you later, then?”
That depended on Augustus.