with these concerns one evening, after Mikahl woke from a troublesome dream.
The ship they were on was called Shepherds’ Goddess. As the name implied, it was mainly used to haul stock. Prince Raspaar purchased it from a yard in Salazar where it had been sitting in dry dock for most of a decade. At least it held water and seemed sturdy enough in the one storm they sailed through. In its hold, forty head of prime Valleyan breeding stock whinnied and stomped about in the narrow stalls. Even on the deck with the breeze, the rich earthy aroma of digested oats was potent. Below decks the smell could only be described as ripe.
Hyden and Mikahl shared a tiny cabin. There was barely enough room for both of them to stand up at the same time. Hyden noticed Mik was awake and leapt from his upper bunk. He took a seat on the footlocker near his friend’s feet. Mikahl looked terrible.
“What is it, Mik?” Hyden asked. “You have to tell me. We can’t go into Westland with you half awake.”
“I have to go,” Mikahl said harshly. “I don’t expect you to follow me. If you don’t think you can trust me, or the state I’m in, then beg off.”
“Trust you?” Hyden’s voice was tinged with anger now. “We’ve been through too much for this. Tell me what the problem is or I’ll call the whole thing off, at least your part of it. I have to find Phen, and I’ll somehow get Rosa free if I can, but you’re sick, Mik. How are you going to keep from being discovered when you call out in your sleep?”
“How could you stop me from going?” Mikahl asked. He propped himself up on an elbow and it was obvious that he was more curious now than aggravated. The effects of his dream were fading, save for the sheen of the sweat that slicked his face.
“I’m a legendary wizard, Mik,” Hyden joked. He was relieved to see Mikahl grinning. “I can send you to another plane of existence. While you’re there you can go on a quest to find Oarly’s other boot.”
“Aye,” Mikahl chuckled. “The stumpy bastard told me about his boot, and the cinder pepper.” Mikahl cringed at the idea of it. “Brutal.”
“Aye,” Hyden nodded. “Talk to me, Mik. We have to succeed here. It’s not just me and you who will perish if we fail. If something happens to you, the kingdom will lose Ironspike’s might.”
“Bah,” Mikahl huffed as he reached for his boots. He pulled a shirt from the pack by his bunk and tried to shake the lingering effects of the dream as he dressed.
Mikahl hated the dream. It sickened him to see his father’s haunting, worm-ridden visage. And Rosa was bleeding and pleading for him to save her. Even now he could hear her in the recesses of his mind.
“Come on, let’s get some air and I’ll try to explain.” Mikahl stepped out the door to make room for Hyden but called over his shoulder before he got too far, “Bring the flask Oarly slipped you. I think I’ll need a sip or two.”
They made their way up onto the deck. After long weeks of traveling on the Seawander, Hyden was spoiled to its luxuries. The Shepherds’ Goddess was a ship of purpose, not built for comfortable travel. The peak of the bow offered the only bit of open space large enough for the two of them to speak privately.
Hyden decided it was like being on a balcony that overlooked the sea. Seeing his friend’s troubled expression, he handed Mikahl Oarly’s flask. Mikahl took a long pull from it and winced.
“By the gods,” he hacked into a hoarse cough. “Did that fargin dwarf piss in this?” He wiped his mouth and spat. “It’s got the aftertaste of a refuse pit.”
“Hyden laughed despite his growing concern. “It’s Wyndall’s home-brew,” Hyden explained. “Persimmons and some pink fruit fermented in a goat’s bladder.”
Mikahl blinked a few times. “It’s strong enough. I nearly swallowed my tongue.”
“Aye,” Hyden agreed as he took a sip and made a sour face. After he managed to swallow, he spoke in a hiss, “I should’ve filled it with squat weed juice to pay you back for your departing gift.”
“That was masterful, wasn’t it?” Mikahl was serious. “I had no part in the thing with the cinder pepper though. That was all Oarly. Dugak warned me he was a great trickster.”
“He is,” Hyden agreed. “He made us all think he was dead on Cobalt’s island. You should’ve seen Phen crying like a babe.” He stopped himself. The thought reminded him of the matter in hand. “I have to go fetch him. I’m not sure what it is, but there is something special about him. He kind of reminds me of you.”
Mikahl shook his head. “They are torturing the Princess, trying to draw me into a trap.”
“How do you know?” Hyden asked.
“I’m not sure, but I keep having this dream that’s not just a dream.” Mikahl faced Hyden and his eyes were grave. “It’s like seeing things that happened through someone else’s eyes. They’ve violated my father’s grave and mutilated the Princess. Something tells me it’s a trap, but there’s no way I can keep from trying to save her. It’s as if I’ve been spelled from afar.”
“Phen would know of such spells,” Hyden said, chiding himself for not learning more about magecraft now that he could read. Phen had taught him a dozen cantrips. Not illusionary tricks and the like, but real magic. Nothing formidable enough to take on a sorceress like Shaella, or her bald-headed wizards, though. Hyden couldn’t even find the boot he’d made vanish. He did have some of Phen’s spell books in his pack. He decided he would study them. Maybe he could find something that could help?
Talon swooped down and landed on the rail between them. He kept his wings partially open to keep his balance as the ship rolled and swayed on the sea.
“He’s gotten huge,” Mikahl observed calmly. He remembered when Talon was barely a foot off the ground. Now the fierce looking hawkling was twice that or more. The bird’s wingspan from tip to tip was as long as Ironspike.
Hyden beamed like a parent. “He’s strong too. He carried a fish twice his size up out of the sea to the deck of the Seawander once.”
Mikahl nodded and reached for the flask again. Hyden let him take it.
“I guess we need to figure out how the bitch is planning to trap you,” said Hyden. “Or at least make a plan better than what we’ve got.” Hyden was glad that Mikahl wasn’t taking the matter of his sickness lightly. He could tell that it would be impossible to try and stop Mikahl from taking part in what was to come. He didn’t like the situation, but then again who would? His faith in Mikahl was returning.
“Gods… Ughh!” Mikahl coughed as Wyndall’s brew stole the breath from his lungs. “You don’t like our plan?” he asked after he’d regained his breath. “We take to Lion Lake, swim into the underwater tunnel that Lord Gregory told us about, and follow his map through the dungeons. Then we go up into the castle and start killing skeeks and bald-headed wizards until there’s no one left to kill.”
“Is that really your plan?” Hyden snatched the flask back and took a longer sip this time.
“Do you have a better one?” Mikahl grinned stupidly.
Hyden forced the liquor down his throat and made as if he were a dragon breathing fire across the sea. “Not yet, Mik,” he managed to answer. “But by the White Goddess, and all the gods of men, we’d better come up with one.”
Invisible, Phen followed the skull to the hall the red priests had turned into a temple of Kraw. The priests didn’t like the idea of the Queen’s wizard standing over them while they worked, but apparently there wasn’t much they could do about it. After much debate, the three priests finally convinced Cole to relocate them and the Silver Skull. Phen overheard most of the conversation and it scared him. The priest needed a larger room, preferably with a high ceiling, so that any larger demons or devils, and especially the great Kraw, would have room to move about once a gateway to the Nethers could be opened. Cole asked them how a large demon would be able to leave such a chamber without destroying the walls to get out. That caused another argument, about the shape changing capabilities of demon kind.
Finally the decision was made to move the whole mess outside where there was plenty of room. There was a large enclosed garden off of the royal chamber. The gazebo, the priests decided, would make a perfect dais. The skull was placed on a table while the priests transferred their candles, tomes, and other accessories. Cole made zard servants hang curtains from the eaves of the structure so that the curious eyes of the tower guards wouldn’t intrude. A lectern, stolen from the castle’s chapel, was draped in black silk and the skull was eventually placed atop it in the center of the octagonal floor of the gazebo. A long table was covered with candles, bowls and other items, such as likenesses of Kraw in wood, gold, and stone.
Phen was in the garden, watching from a distance. He shuddered when his eyes met the milky green chips of
