CHAPTER FOUR
FRASER CONNELL’S MOTHER was a nereid who fell in love with a human. Instead of dragging him into the deeps to drown as she should have, she gave up everything to be with him, so, of course, he betrayed her. Their son emerged years later, a man grown with a thirst for vengeance.
How do I know his history so well? He told me.
From Ozora’s personal journal.
Three ships stood outside of Hastrior’s protected harbor, firing their ballistae at the elvish galleons. They’d held the invaders off so far, but were outmatched.
The elves returned fire, and their mages launched fireballs. I had no battle training, and even I could see that the defenders wouldn’t be able to hold against the elvish assault for long.
Taenya leaned forward and slapped Cassyrra’s neck, then twisted to shout over her shoulder.
“Hang on! This might get a little wild.” I barely caught the words before the dragon dropped like a stone, wings folded tight to her flanks. The wind rushed past with a shriek to yank and pull at my hair, and my tearing eyes turned the stars into streaks.
When she snapped her wings out and leveled off, I dared to wipe at my eyes with one hand. There was no chance I would let go of those leather straps, my lifelines, with both hands.
We were much closer to the ocean, and Cassyrra let loose a thick column of brilliant blue flame.
She ignited all three elvish vessels with a single, scythe-like sweep of her head.
They all roared into oblivion, wood and sails exploded in the dragon’s blast, and left only the ships protecting Hastrior above the waves.
Cassyrra lifted a shoulder and swept into a long curve that took us further out to sea.
Her wings boomed, and the wind was a physical force beating against my face and ears as she climbed up to just below the clouds.
From up there, even in the darkness, the coastline was clearly visible, and seemed to stretch into forever.
We were high above the water, out beyond Hastrior’s tip, a finger of land that pointed due west. The peninsula stretched away from us, toward the east before the coast curved north and south, glimmering in the starlight.
Distant waves broke against the beaches, and glowed ghostly blue with their own light, limning the coastline.
Neither moon had risen, but the eastern hills were edged in gold, announcing their arrival.
The relative silence as the dragon leveled off was almost as deafening as the rushing winds, and the view was breathtaking. I sagged in the saddle with relief at this moment of relative peace in the turbulent night.
There were no more elvish vessels. Just as the waves glistened when they struck the shore, any vessel crossing these waters would leave a bluish wake in its path. None approached from the Vauxterel Islands either, but who knew what lurked out of sight? More might hide behind the islands.
Nothing else remained to be seen along the coast at the moment. Emberglen burned north of Hastrior, but that was it. No sounds of battle, no bursts of mage energies reached us as we scouted the offshore waters but, no other towns were as close as Emberglen.
Realization came with a jolt, the Crimson Death had attacked my home because it was the closest town to Hastrior.
Although beholden to a different kingdom, taking both meant the invaders would have a secure base at Hastrior, and control significant chunks of the neighboring kingdom of Alurenth.
If they’d been successful. From the air, even in the dark, their strategy was clear.
Cassyrra circled and dipped lower, aiming for the tip of Hastrior’s peninsula. I held my breath against the tension that cramped my stomach.
He’s not here. He hasn’t been here. Why would he be here? If I said it enough, it would be true. Right? I was pretty sure Fraser held a grudge against me ever since I tried to kill him.
To be fair, it wasn’t my fault. It was his.
Completely.
Either way, I was the last person he would want to see. If he was even in Hastrior. Which was doubtful. There hadn’t been even a whisper of a rumored sighting in years. If I was lucky, I’d never see Fraser Connell again. Ever.
That was my hope anyway.
Cassyrra landed in the wide-open fields of the peninsula’s tip.
A massive, blocky keep sat in front of us a few hundred feet away.
Heavy stone walls formed the outermost rampart, and ran right up to the cliff’s edge.
A single, closed, wooden door faced us, and there were no windows on this side, since it was built it to defend against the very invaders Cassyrra had destroyed.
No torches or magelights illuminated it, and it appeared abandoned.
Climbing down from the dragon’s back was easier the second time. Bare feet helped. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost my sandals, but that was the least of my worries.
Hastrior’s defenders were still beyond the harbor. Taenya pointed at tiny lights gliding across the black sea much faster than their mother ships. They were already inside the seawall.
“I think Captain Connell is in one of those,” she said.
Her words froze me. Why would she speak his name?
“Cap–Captain Connell?” I gulped to cover my stammer. “He’s long gone from all I’ve heard.” I couldn’t keep the warble out of my voice, tension gripped my throat like a fist.
“Yep. I was told he was the one who spotted the incoming ships. I need to talk to him about something important.” This night was about to get a whole lot worse. And I’d thought it peaked with invasion from an ancient empire.
I didn’t stop to think about how she knew this. All I could hear was that she planned to stand there in the field under the stars and have a conversation with the pirate I’d tried to kill. On purpose.
I wanted no part of that.
“Listen.” How to put all my past history with the infamous pirate captain?
“I should point out that he will not be happy to see me.” Best I could come up with, and the confusion in her lifted brow said I hadn’t convinced her.
Before I lost my nerve, I spilled my secret to her.
I had to say something, couldn’t just stand there and pretend I wasn’t the one who set his ship on fire.
Taenya’s eyes grew wide, but with respect or fear, I wasn’t sure when I told her about the fireblast spells in his holds, planted before I ran from Hastrior. Then she burst into laughter.
“I had to do it. I did!” I rushed to justify my actions.
“I discovered he was planning to raid hippocamp pods for brood mares. I investigated, along with Fraser’s second-in-command, and we found all the proof.
We both found out together.” My explanation was jumbled, but I had to get it all out.
“There are several wild pods in the waters around the Vauxterel Islands.” Hippocamps, part-horse, part-fishy-dolphin-ish creatures, were common enough sights around port cities like Hastrior.
I’d sometimes see them from Emberglen on my beach walks.
The lights disappeared from view. Faint men’s voices and the sounds of splashing were carried up from the beach far below on the breeze. My heartrate notched up, and I hurried through the rest of my story.
“Fraser planned to catch a bunch and sell them to anyone with enough money.” The bitter taste in my mouth matched the disgust in my voice at the idea he’d hunt the beautiful sea creatures.
Renowned as powerful predators, and notoriously difficult to catch, once trained, hippocamps made formidable protectors.
Wealthy merchants and nobles hired their riders to guard ships from pirates and raiders.
While most who tried to hunt them are unsuccessful or even killed, Fraser had an advantage most did not.
“He grew up on a hippocamp ranch. He’s half-nereid.
” Just saying it reignited the ire that induced me to destroy his ship, and I trembled, but not with chill.
“Fraser knows how to handle them, so luring and catching them is simple for him. I was not going to stand for that. I didn’t much care if he was on his ship or not when I triggered the spells.
My only goal was to stop him from capturing the poor creatures. ”
“Ha! I thought this was going to be hard because of me.” Taenya half-laughed, half-choked, and doubled over.
“No ship, no raids.” I flung my hands up, frustrated by her laughter.
What I did was the obvious choice when Gordon showed me the holds on Skirmisher refitted to transport the large beasts.
“My only thought was to take away his ability to get to the pods.” It came out snappish, my voice speeding up. “I’ve avoided this place ever since.”
“It’s not like Emberglen was far from Hastrior.” She coughed and straightened, her expression inquisitive but cautious. As if she was curious but didn’t want to offend by asking directly.
“It was far enough, and I didn’t go there directly,” I said absently as I rubbed my arms, a nervous gesture. I stared off into the distance, my thoughts circling around Fraser.
“Did he stop hunting the hippocamps?” she asked. Her question pulled me from my introspection, and I shrugged.
“He disappeared not long after I fled. There were rumors. Some blamed him for attacks on a few noble houses, but no one’s seen or heard from him since...” I trailed off, unable to say again that I sank his beloved Skirmisher past the sudden tightness in my throat.
We waited. I twirled my hair, twining it through and around my fingers, a nervous habit from my youth. It usually soothed me.
Not that night.
In the intervening years, I’d heard plenty of stories in my journeys before I settled in Emberglen. They were just stories. Fraser Connell was a legend, and legends beget more of their kind.
Travelers also told how his second-in-command, Gordon Derryngton, had taken control of Hastrior after I fled.
I was reassured that he was the one to step up after.
..everything. It was he who helped me uncover the plot to capture hippocamps, and escape Fraser’s wrath after I planted the spells on the ship.
I couldn’t imagine he’d been part of the city’s ruin. Something dire must have befallen him, some rumors even had him dead. For ruined it was, and now there I was dragged back against my will. Worse, I faced a confrontation I’d avoided for years.
Bet this doesn’t go well.