Kingdom's Vice Series: A Voyage of Vengeance ( #2 2015)

Chapter Twenty-One

"What do you mean a woman is coming for us?" she shrieks, pulling her child close to her chest. "Will they take him from us?"

I lower my eyes and rest a hand on her shoulder. "I do not know what they plan, Jasmine. But you and Wayland must hide. Now."

He emerges into the light, from the side of the room. His robe is lined in silver—but his dirty blonde hair makes him out of place. An Allerian robe on the wrong man's back.

"If it is a war they want," he snaps, "a war they shall have!"

I throw my arms out to ward him off. "No!" I counter, "We strive for peace, not for war! If you want your child to live long enough to see this world anew, your sins washed clean, you will do as I say."

He steps back with a scoff, "And who are you to command me?"

Jasmine looks to him over her shoulder and smiles."She saved us. That's who she is: our saviour." She gathers the child in the cloth and hurries Wayland into the shadows again. "Do as she says."

Reluctantly, he follows her into the shadows, where the streams of sunlight bleed through. I watch them go and when they have cleared, with a swish of my skirt, I depart.

~.~.~.~

The balcony is heavy with archers, all arrows fitted to the strings of their strong bows of silver. The tips of the arrows are aimed at the sea, at the approaching bough of the mighty ship ahead. Dark are the sails and the wood alike. Rotten and gruesome they must be. I can sense the stench of vengeance from here.

"Al vanathar!" Alec calls out to the archers in their mother tongue. They are at his command now. The coward is no more. "If they move to strike," he continues, "shoot to kill."

The last words send a chill down my spine and the breath leaves me. His determination startles me.

And what of your mercy? I ask him, my eyes locked and lips unmoving amongst the metal men.

He does not look at me. He only says, without a quivering lip: "For these foul creatures, I have none."