Sea Of Seagulls: A Pirate and Fae Tale

Chapter 15

"This is ridiculous," Shaye heard Theodosia whisper quietly, her voice nearly inaudible over the crashing of the waves against the shore.

They were heading back to the ship. Almost out of town, yes. But the streets were bare. It was almost abandoned had there not been two shady-looking guys sitting along a shack's wall. So Shaye didn't see the need to whisper.

"What?" Shaye asked curiously.

"I truly thought that the wyrdkey was here."

"It's okay, we were just thrown off track," Shaye said with a smile.

It wasn't ok. Theodosia had made enough mistakes in her life. Now they would have to journey far away to retrieve the wyrdkey. After they came all this way. If the wyrdkey was even in the Red Desert. Her father could have lied to her, but she wasn't completely sure.

After making way to the shore of Eyllwe, Shaye and Theodosia were soaked. Drenched from head to toe, they started their walk. They made it maybe a mile inland before they saw or heard any civilization. Not much was in the area. Just some trees and some broken stone rubble. There was a stone door on the ground that led to some underground stairway. It was slightly covered with grass and dirt so Theodosia guessed that it was meant to be hidden. The only question was what were they trying to hide.

Theodosia let her curiosity get the best of her so Shaye was forced to follow down the stairs behind Theodosia. Shaye knew a little about Eyllwe. She knew that it no longer was ruled by Ardarlan after the war. She knew that her mom had a friend who was an heir here. But they had never met. Her name was Nehemia.

The stairs led to a dark room only lit by two torches on each side of the dusty walls. It seemed to be quite a small room. Symbols ran all along with the stone, wyrdmarks Shaye thought.

Theodosia ran her hand along with the carved symbols. She felt some crack in the wall.

Shaye moved beside Theodosia looking to see where the line ended. It started at the ceiling and ran to the floor. It was almost as if it was handmade.

Shaye pushed trying to figure out if it was a door or something. The stone wall didn't budge. Theodosia worked on the other side.

Theodosia gave up and leaned on the wall. There wasn't anything here. It was just a room. Nothing special was there.

"This was lame," Theodosia commented, obviously bored.

"There has to be something here," Shaye said, frustrated and slightly confused.

"Shaye moved along the other walls seeing if any of them had a similar split in the stone. The opposite side of the room did as well. That could not possibly be a coincidence. Theodosia walked to the other side of the room from Shaye examining the line.

They heard a beating sound of hooves above them.

Both Shaye and Theodosia went silent. The hooves stopped above them.

Shaye gripped her sword ready to get answers. They were about to see what was so special about the too-small space they were in. A look at Theodosia revealed that she was doing the same.

Light shined on the wall as the horse's rider opened the door.

Shaye hid on the wall of the stairs ready to kill if necessary.

Shaye's eyes saw the red hair first. Then the cloak. And finally the face.

Noelle.

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Theodosia took the step first walking into the light. She stared at the girl. Noelle's eyes went wide as she hurried down the rest of the steps.

"What are you two doing here?" Noelle questioned trying not to be too loud.

"What is this place?" Shaye asked.

"It's a place you shouldn't be in, that's all you need to know," Noelle confirmed.

"Did you know we were here?" Theodosia wondered aloud.

"I'll explain later," Noelle whispered as she walked to one of the walls with the cracks.

Noelle ran her hand along the wall until she reached a wyrdmark. She whispered something too quiet for Shaye or her to hear. The two sides of the cracked stone slid aside opening a door.

Noelle looked back as if to say, follow me.

As Theodosia and Shaye made their way through the door, Noelle whispered something else and all the torches in the room lit up as they walked through.

The room was spacious and every small sound echoed throughout the cavernous dark room. Noelle passed Shaye and Theodosia a torch flickering with a flame, heat beating off of it.

Theodosia scanned the room. Documents were pinned to the wall. Maps and log trackers laid out on a table in the middle of the room. The wall was still covered in strange marks. Theodosia realized all 4 walls of the room were full of papers.

"What is this exactly?" Theodosia questioned Noelle who was scrambling through a pile of sheets in the middle of the table.

"This is a hidden room where we hid all our documents when the King of Ardarlan defeated us. Not many people knew about it because word would eventually get to the king."

"I remember hearing that story, He murdered tons of slaves in camps," Shaye replied, amazed by the stacks and stacks of information.

"What is it that you're looking for?" Theodosia asked scanning the document headers.

There were lists upon lists of names. They each had a number and location by them. Theodosia had not learned much about the war but from the looks of it, it was documents of all the people in Eyllwe.

"Find a name of someone from Briarcliff," Noelle commanded.

Theodosia nodded and searched a pile but found nothing. She pushed it out of their way as she began rummaging through the next stack. This could take them ages. Theodosia began searching.

"Found it," Shaye exclaimed.

"I recognize the name. My mom knew a Briarcliff when she was younger. Ansel was her name. She was an assassin in the Red Desert. My mom saved her life one time. Ansel always was up to something," Shaye explained.

"How old would they be now?" Noelle asked.

"Maybe in her 40s," Shaye guessed, not completely sure.

"I have to go," Noelle mumbled before turning to leave.

"Wait," Theodosia added.

"Who is this Ansel person to you?" Shaye asked, keeping her voice low.

"She is my mother, I think."