The Last Whisperer

16 | Shipped To An Island~

Seren clicked her tongue. He's so noisy that I almost want to kill the both of us, she thought.

She brought her hands on the floor in front of her. They were bound together by a thick rope, tied so tightly that the division between her wrists and her prosthetics started to detach. She propped herself up, then clumsily stood on both legs.

The ship tilted to the side. Seren staggered and hit some hollow barrels. It hit the side of her ribcage, which made her see stars from the absurdity of the pain.

"I said hurry up!" The Garrison pulled on the rope again and Seren stumbled forward to the stairs that led up to the deck.

Seren glared at him from the side of her eye. "Don't fucking push me, brad." If she only had the strength, this guard would probably be headless by now.

"Tsk." He grabbed the back of Seren's collar and threw her to the deck.

She was under the sky—it was grey and dull, like it frequently rained in this place. The salty breeze hit her face like it was welcoming her, and not in a good way. Waves crashed on the walls of the ship like it planned to get inside and eat everyone. But that was not even the main attraction.

They were at an island full of rocks—rocks that were shaped like enlarged stalagmites, pointing upwards and outwards like it prevented intruders from getting inside. It encircled the island like a protective wall. In the middle of it all was a giant stone castle.

All of the windows were a block of squares and were barred with iron. The walls were reinforced with thorned wires at the top, and four watchtowers guarded the whole island on all corners. Prison guards watched her from the inside.

This place was called Bargeesa.

The Garrison shoved her, prompting her to keep walking. Two more guards were below the ship, waiting for her arrival on the sandy shore. Seren stared them down—they each carried a lance that were as tall as they were, and they wore a slightly different armor. Instead of gold, they wore gold and black. They hid their faces inside metal helms.

"What are you waiting for? Go and get off the ship already," the Garrison behind her told her.

Seren searched for some sort of plank or anything she could use as a bridge for her to walk down, but there was nothing.

"There are no ladders or anything," she informed him. How was she supposed to get down from this high altitude?

The Garrison scoffed. "Oh, that's not what I meant." He put a hand to her back and pushed her off of the ship.

Seren's heart lurched. She counted exactly two seconds before she face-planted onto the wet shore.

"Oof!" She spat out crusty sand from her mouth as the guard cackled from above. She glared at his disgusting silhouette. Nice job. You're currently number two on the list of people I'm going to murder.

Two sets of metal boots stopped right in front of her. "Get up, missy. It's the start of your miserable life here in Bargeesa. Welcome."

The guard who said that sounded like he did not like his job at all, and Seren instantly liked him.

But the other guard...

A hand grabbed a bunch of her hair.

Seren grimaced as her head was forcefully gripped upwards. The sun went into her eyes and she squinted. A metallic helmet loomed in front of her face.

"Would you look at that. We got a girl this time. What heinous crime did you commit for them to send such a lovely lady into a firepit like this?"

The voice was fogged, the metallic barrier between them doing effects. Seren eyed him in that mask and wondered just how hideous he looked like inside. She didn't care—all Garrisons looked the same to her anyway.

"Hitch, if we don't hurry, we'll run out of food to eat for lunch in the mess hall again." It was that bored voice, the guard that sounded like he hated his job.

Seren, however, had enough of this mistreatment. She raised her arm and clutched the hand holding her hair. Then she used her elbow to bend his arm and drag him down to the wet sand. "What the—" he managed to say before his buttocks hit the ground.

Seren got up on her own, clumsily. She put her boot on top of his helmet, using it as a footstool. "What a pig," she said under her breath, but both guards heard it. She toyed with his head with her foot, nudging it to the side, then kicking some sand in it.

"Prisoners aren't allowed to attack guards," the bored guard said. He held the rope in his hands and watched the entire interaction. "You'll be punished if you do. Don't make the same mistake again. Hitch, get your ass out of the water."

Hitch—the jerk—swatted Seren's foot off of his helmet. "With an attitude like that, she won't last a day in this hellhole." He dusted off the sand from his helm.

Seren scoffed at his words. It isn't my first time being locked up in a cell, bud.

The bored guard spoke. "Let's bring her to the prison ward for inspection."

He pulled on the rope, and Seren did not resist. With the amount of Garrisons she spotted watching from above—from the towers and the windows, like hawks waiting for her to make a move—she did not have any chances of escaping today.

Next time, she thought. I'll get out of here next time.

•••

Nero Galloway saw the exact moment the ship docked on the shores of Bargeesa. He sat on one of the larger, unbarred windows near the western watchtower with one leg folded and the other dangling outside. He bit on an apple as he watched the city Garrison dragging out a red-haired woman out of the inners of the ship.

Then he waited for the rest to come out. When he realized that was all, he started to become confused.

Just one prisoner for this month?

They usually shipped in around ten every month. The least number they got was six. But one? Was the crime she committed so heinous that they had to urgently ship her away from the kingdom?

Nero chewed on his apple. The taste was dry, like all of the other foods they offered in Bargeesa—stale and was as hard as a rock.

The girl fell off the ship. Two of Bargeesa's prison Garrisons approached her. One of them held her by the hair.

And Nero watched as she retaliated by bringing him down, even stepping on his face as an added bonus.

"Hmm," Nero hummed. He scratched his chin, thinking deeply in his head.

He assessed the girl—wet clothes from being thrown into the sea and layers of gauze around her arms and neck. She was now being pulled into the entrance of Bargeesa, and suddenly he got a wonderful idea in his head.

He threw away the dry, tasteless apple out of the window before swinging his feet and going back inside. He heard a guard yelp from below.

As he walked down the stairs to the mess hall, he held his hands behind his back. He had on a calm smile on his face like he knew everything was going to be fine.

"It's time for me to leave this shithole," he murmured to himself.

Then he started whistling a jolly tune.

It was time, indeed.

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