taut in his neck and throat, he nevertheless forced words out in a hiss.
“Jenna, come away from there,” he said. As Lorren had predicted, she showed no sign of recognition or of even paying attention to him.
“I’ve not released you from service,” he continued. “Lord of Deepingdale or not, you’re my first mate! The Voidhawk needs you!”
At the base of four stone steps that led up to a dais upon which the throne sat, he searched around in frustration. Her continued ambivalence left a hollowness in his stomach and a growing heat of rage in the back of his head. He saw the bed nearby, causing his eyes to narrow suspiciously.
“Alright,” he said, looking back at her again. “I need you. I made a mistake — it won’t happen again.”
“The mistake wasn’t what happened in the hold, I mean,” Dexter added quickly. “I mean acting funny and losing track of what’s important.”
“I figure if Kragor and Jodyne could be together on the ‘Hawk, and if Rosh and Willa are being friendly…well, there’s no good reason why the Captain can’t have his first mate as his only mate.”
Still Jenna showed no outward signs of paying attention to him. Gritting his teeth voluntarily instead of involuntarily now, Dexter made his way to his knees and then drove a foot that was half-numb and half in agony into the ground. He rose up and stood unsteadily for a long moment, then took his first step on the stairs.
“I’d be thankful if you’d show me some sign, that door put a serious hurt on me,” Dexter admitted. When still no sign was forthcoming he sighed and took another halting step.
Focusing now on being ambulatory, he made his way up the remaining steps. The numbness in his legs was fading and it was being replaced with the agony of fried nerves and singed flesh. Finally Dexter stood swaying slightly before the throne. He looked down at her and realized his hand was resting upon the hilt of his sword.
“Jenna,” he said her name again, drawing some strength from it. “I hear tell that this happens every so often. There’s nothing right about it,” he added.
“Maybe you can hear me, maybe you can’t. There’s something going on here that’s not you and not me. In fact, I got an idea what it is, and I won’t stand by it.” Dexter had leaned closer as talked, hoping his words might lull her into distraction.
The Captain of the Voidhawk lunged forward, losing his balance and falling as he did so. His finger closed around the amulet that hung from Jenna’s neck and pulled it — and her — to the ground with him.
Jenna screamed as though burned and tried to pull away from him. Dexter’s fingers, exhausted from the electrical discharge, nearly slipped free of the amulet. Her lips began to move, and a few breaths later words were issued from them. Dexter felt the hair stand up on his arms as he instinctively knew she was casting a spell. His Jenna, who knew no magic, was casting a spell on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said as his hand came across and smashed into her jaw. He had little leverage to throw the punch, but it served its purpose and ruined her spell.
Off balance, Jenna was able to pull back from him. Dexter’s fingers barely hung on to the amulet now, and he was stretched out in a bad position in order to do so. He looked up and saw her mouthing more arcane words. He tried to yank her forward by the amulet, but instead he felt a numbing cold streak down his arm from where her hand latched onto his forearm. Try as he might to ignore it, she was able to yank away from him and he fell forward onto his other arm.
Gasping in agony, Dexter put a block on his nerves and felt only the driving need to get that amulet. His vision tinged with red and black spots, he lunged towards her. He slammed clumsily into the elf, who was also off balance, and propelled the two of them down the steps of the dais. Dexter wrenched the necklace away from her, ripping it over her head and bringing some hair with it. Jenna made no noise until it was removed, and then she let loose a blood curdling scream that set Dexter’s spine to tingling.
She leapt on him, trying to reclaim it. He tucked it against his belly and struggled to get away from her — or to get her away from him. A few elbows into the side dislodged her, but she was coming back for him quickly. He dodged to the side, bouncing off a statue as he did so, and was surprised to find her so easily being duped. Yet again her behavior was inconsistent with who she was.
Dexter struggled up the stairs before she could recover, making his way towards the weathered old man lying in the bed. The man’s eyes were open and he stared hatefully towards Dexter, yet he seemed incapable of rising up. Dexter looked down at him and drew his sword with his right hand while the amulet was still clutched tightly in his left. He heard Jenna coming behind him and he knew his time was short.
“She’s not your puppet!” Dexter spat at the man, then threw the amulet on his chest. Less than a heartbeat later he felt the burning tug of steel as it entered his lower back.
Dexter looked down in shock, seeing the red coated blade of Jenna’s rapier emerging from his belly. He looked up at the old man and saw a hateful glee burning in his gaze. “She belongs to no man!” Dexter said, and drove his magical blade through both the amulet and the former Lord’s chest, pinning him to the bed.
Jenna and the old man screamed in unison. Dexter slid to his knees and used the edge of the bed to keep himself up from falling over. At least Jenna had let go of the sword that impaled him. A moment later Jenna gasped.
* * * *
A long moment of silence followed Rosh’s statement. Willa looked at him, uncertain of what to say. Rosh turned to meet her gaze and shrugged again. “My ma told me when I was a twelve.”
“I left home a couple years later. Had to find him and tell him who I was. Then…well…” Rosh trailed off into silence again.
“My mother was a slave,” Willa said. “She tried to care for me as a baby, I’m told, but she took ill. There’s no money to be had in healing a slave.”
Willa hid her bitterness well, but some still shone through. “Some of the others that owned us all tried to take care of me, but they had trouble enough getting by. I was forced to find my own way begging, stealing, and learning various skills.”
She looked at Rosh and smiled sadly, “I never knew who my father was.”
Rosh grunted. “Sometimes that’s the best.”
She nodded, hugging him with her arm consolingly. “I pretend I ain’t got a dad,” he said. “Truth is I don’t — he don’t want nothing to do with me. He didn’t even offer me a spot on his crew when I found him; just told me I was a worthless bastard and to get out of his sight.”
Willa cringed, imagining how that must have crushed the boy version of the man she now clung to. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Rosh chuckled. “Don’t be. He was right. Took me a few years to figure it out though.”
“Rosh! You’re not worthless! I can’t imagine anyone-“
Rosh put a finger to her lips to silence her. He chuckled. “You’re damn right I ain’t! Just took some time for me to figure it out. I got being a sumbitch in my blood,” he explained. “I know I can be good at it too — Dexter tell you where he found me?”
Willa shook her head. “I was working for pirates, not doing nothing but following in his footsteps.”
“How’d you end up on the Voidhawk?”
“Dexter talked to me,” he said. “Made me realize there might be more to it. Made me think killing and stealing ain’t the only way to make some gold.”
Rosh chuckled. “The Captain don’t know none of this, mind you.”
Willa nodded and smiled, then kissed him. “He’ll never hear it from me.”
Rosh nodded, then smiled. “There it is,” he said.
“What?”
“That itch — it’s back.”
Willa, startled at the topic change, looked around. It was a pretty enough town, but it seemed to have lost some of its appeal. Where once she had found no flaws, now she saw patches of grass that were not perfectly colored. Other imperfections were evident as well: shingles that were not placed quite right on roofs, potholes in the roads, shutters and doors that were not a perfect fit, and other such anomalies.
“What happened?” Willa asked, confused.
Rosh shrugged. “Best get back to the ‘Hawk — Dex’ll be wondering about us.”
