EL BK5 Chapter 24 - The Long Passage Across the Seas. (Patreon)

Book 5 | Chapter 24 - The Long Passage Across the Seas.

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Salty sea spray whipped the loose strands of my hair past my ears as I gazed out across its mottled blue-grey surface. It reflected the overhead gloom from above. Soft ashen clouds, nothing more than thin wisps, blanketed the sky from horizon to horizon in any direction. In the distance, the shadowy outline of land stretched like a thin thread between the ocean and the heavens.

It was not our destination, only an uninhabited island in the Atlantic–I sighed to myself. No, landfall for us was still several days away on this voyage of what felt like a thousand years. Of course, standing on deck away from the internal air filtration systems syphoning the mist of sea salt from the air wasn’t the brightest of ideas. But it was the only place I could find reprieve from the endless conversations and gossip of the other Fae nobles.

Only dear Charles dared approach me here. He, like I, sought to escape the Fae. He stood quiet and still beside me. Clutching an empty whiskey glass in both hands with white knuckles as his complexion turned fluctuating shades of green that concerned me greatly. A faint crinkle marred his brow, and his lips pressed into a stressed line, but he kept the thoughts to himself.

He is tall and broad for a human man, and seems even more so for all the training he does with my brother. The last of his aging signs touch the corners of his eyes and dust his hair pewter brown. His appearance since becoming infected has increasingly remained the same, and we suspect he will age little no matter how many years pass. 

I emptied the last of my own glass, as I contemplated that idea. It pleases me more than it should. I enjoy his presence. With the outward calm of a trained professional, his level-headed approach to the things that horrify him leaves scars only on the inside. Like lightning trapped in a bottle, internal chaos with a smooth exterior…

Sensing my gaze on him, his slate eyes slid to mine and his grim expression melted into a happy-go-lucky grin, “Lot of salt in the air, you’re not going to melt or something, are you?”

“No,” I assured with a small chuckle. 

He'd been the one to help Nathaniel after he’d been doused in salt for a few months and the chalky half-dead pallor of my brother hadn’t left either of our minds. Charles knew salt drained our energy and worried over me. He didn’t understand that the damage is only catastrophic with prolonged exposure, and if the salt is continually renewed. Salt that has already been filled with magic is harmless, it’s why the ocean is so dangerous, the continuous replenishment of sodium.

“Are you not growing cold?” I questioned in return, remembering the poor regulation of human bodies and noting his coat as ‘not thick enough’.

“Me? Nah, I’m fine,” he dismissed the concern with a less than assuring shrug. His ears and nose were turning pink.

“Come, we can’t remain too long or else Alferic will presume us to have fallen overboard.” 

I turned on one heel to march him inside and he followed, dragging his feet reluctant to return below deck. If I were to let anything happen to him the orphan would lose his mind and my brother would suffer the consequences. 

The hatch door opened with a smooth whoosh into the corridor. Exotic carpet with carnelian hues and golden latticing extended the length of the floors in this level, muting the sound of our boots as we walked. The walls were painted deep blue and adorned with Victorian-era paintings, though few were anything more than an eyesore. They were spaced by areas of empty paneling at a frequency that allowed one to breathe past the onslaught of visual stimulus.

Small jewel encrusted lights hung overhead. Not as grand as a chandeliers, they twinkled in slow rotation with the sway of the ship all the same. Behind me, Charles stopped mid stride to straighten a painting tilted by the motion. But when he touched it the mounting detached from the wall entirely and it landed with a thud.

“Ahh shit,” Charles muttered, and I turned back to see what the fuss was. 

“What are you doing?” I asked as my brow knit itself in confusion.

He glanced up at me with wide eyes, as if he had forgotten I were there, then rapidly began to explain, “I barely touched it, it wasn’t hanging straight, I just- and then it…” he struggled, motioning between himself, the wall, and the offending painting. “It’s big,” he concluded as if that were an explanation.

“Yes,” I agreed, moving to help him lift it back into place not for its weight, but for how it was wider than either of us. 

We were still struggling to coordinate when a new set of footsteps reached us. My grandfather, Alferic Klein, tall and severe as he was, in fresh pressed cotton with golden accents on his shoulders rounded the corner. His long white hair trailed behind him in a long braid that reached his waist, and tapered like a whip. 

With the sharp eyes of a hawk and the presence of a lion, the Grand Duke of Hohenblut stared at us down his nose. Charles dropped his end of the painting in surprise, almost toppling me before he regained his grip.

“You have dislike for the painting?” Alferic enquired. He came to a neat stop with his hands folded behind his back and tilted his head in curiosity.

“Oh, no no, I- w-” panic flushed Charles’s face red from chin to forehead, and I thought he might pass out.

“Quiet,” I ordered to spare him the agony, “Forgive me Grandfather, the painting was uncentered. We were correcting its position.” 

Alferic paused, considering the statement before stepping past. He brushed Charles aside without a word to help me lift the canvas back into place, “Yes, this one unbalances with the tide.”

Catharsis washed through my veins, making my hands numb with relief. 

With the painting back in its place, Alferic addressed me again, “Might you lend me an ear? 

“Of course,” I dared not turn down the invitation.

The Duke nodded, “Walk with me.” It was an order, not a suggestion.

With a sparing glance back to Charles and his twitchy anxiety I accepted my fate and began to follow after my grandfather, “I don’t need an escort on this occasion, retire to our room.”

He was gracious enough not to sprint, although I’m sure his soul would have separated itself from his body to escape quicker if it could.

Alferic and I wandered the quiet halls alone in uncomfortable silence for an unbearable number of minutes. He strode ahead. Returning his arms to their resting folded position behind his back as if he were a poet deep in thought. The sharp tip of his braid swayed with the motion of his step and the inertia of the ship like a pendulum. 

“Your Pet has a nervous disposition around Fae?” he began with an airy lightness.

“He is a resilient type and ever ready for an altercation. His uncertainty stems from restraint,” I explained, keeping my shoulders set straight as I did.

“He would seek an altercation even when he is outmatched?”

“To protect, yes.”

Another moment of pensive thought brought on silence again. 

“You acquired him as an adult, no? Does it affect your trust in him?” Alferic pondered with delayed curiosity.

Before departing on this voyage, Nathaniel had handed Charles’s contract over to me. It wasn’t a strong contract in the way Eric’s was to him, it held only the basics of a foundational agreement, and I hadn’t seen any need to make changes. It bound the man to me and granted him the protections of a Fae Pet, but it felt unnatural to call him a ‘Pet’. 

“My last Pet was raised from infancy. She passed every test with an above average grade and successfully completed the training program, yet it did not guarantee her loyalty,” I avoided speaking her name as I explained for the way it twisted my throat closed. If I kept the memories from my mind, pretended to have forgotten and buried them below a watery line of fine wine, they couldn’t hurt me. 

“Charles, like Markos’s human bride,” I continued, “Came to us fully grown and offered his faithfulness of his own will. It is steadfast.”

“And is it somehow beneficial for you to keep the human essence within him?”

I faltered, almost tripping over my own feet, “Pardon?”

“The vessel holds both a human and witch’s essence. Ordinarily, the stronger witch’s soul would consume it’s host, you have halted that process. Does preserving the human provide an advantage?” Alferic clarified with practiced patience.

“...The human essence is what makes him valuable. The other is a parasite,” I answered with more irritation than I should have. The very idea that Charles should vanish brought bile up. Symptoms of having lost one human already, I would not lose a second.

“I meant no offense, I was simply interested,” he apologized indirectly, “We have quite a plague on our hands you see. The witches have sensed stability and have begun awakening all across the northern lands. They’re causing quite some trouble.”

My brow creased as understanding intermixed with confusion, “You’re asking because you want to know how we contained the witch?”

A sly smile reached Alferic’s expression, “But of course, we have to do something about the influx.”

“That’s why you agreed to allow his passage on this ship?”

“Why else?”

My jaw locked as I considered the implications and all the ways this might put dear Charles in danger. “You may not use him for experimentation,” I decided at last.

Alferic laughed, it was a haughty sound that offered no reassurance, “Of course not, he is your property. It would be unbecoming of me to commandeer him without permission. However, I had quite hoped to observe him.”

I held my ground, “No.”

“Let me rephrase, we will be very interested in his habits. I wasn’t asking, nor do I need to.”

“You will upset his mentality.”

“Nonsense!” My grandfather waved a hand dismissively and resumed his stride, expecting me to follow, “His human senses won’t even know we are there, and of course, it would be wonderful if while you are visiting you made an effort to broaden your social standing.”

I narrowed my eyes and remained in place until he turned back, “And just why should I do that?”

Alferic let the carefree theatrics disappear. His smile dropped and his wandering gaze locked on mine. Cold calculations circulated behind the reptilian appraisal before he spoke again in a lower voice, “Don’t test my patience," he warned.  

An involuntary shiver raked my spine and I swallowed my pride, “Forgive me, what I meant to say was that I will be better able to integrate if I understand the purpose.”

He gave a tight flash of teeth, “Dearest grandson, you are one of only two direct descendants from our bloodline and it would please me greatly if you could assert yourself in the same way your brother has. My son was near-sighted and I was foolish to allow him to raise the both of you. Our empire is dwindling both in number and in force. To be gifted two heirs is a blessing. One to rule each continent."

His words rose the hair on the back of my arms. He wanted me to succeed his rule? … If he ever found out I was not the eldest…

***

I entered our room quietly. Dizzy and nauseous from the earlier conversation I twisted the handle and let it swing open. The room beyond was still and silent. Carved mahogany furniture, the bed, sofa and cabinetry were secured to the floor or walls. Gracious linens sprawled over the beds, untouched. A hundred reflective glass beads dangled from the lamp cover, spreading glistening sparkles throughout the room as they swayed.

Charles lay asleep on the couch, curled up in his clothes, wrinkling the fabric in a way that should have been a crime. I shrugged my coat off and laid it over him. I had never had a male Pet before. No one had, except my brother, did this one need more or less care than our female pets? Should I wake him to make sure he has eaten? I wasn’t sure, I only knew he needed to be kept warm.

Confident that Charles was resting well, I reached for the liquor cabinet and poured myself a tall glass of room temperature wine. We would make landfall in Europe in the coming days. From then on, we would both be watched. I for any flaw in the four minute lie, and Charles for goodness only knows what. I finished half the glass in a handful of gulps. 

I’m sure Charles and all his anxieties would react wonderfully to the extra surveillance.

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