***
Juele sat in the corner of the cell, humming to himself. Every once in awhile, Maya would ask a question to which Jules provided a satisfactory answer.
"How long have we been in here?" she asked, banging her chained hands against the cell door halfheartedly. She'd given up on escaping, but not on the inside.
"I'd have to say at least a week. It should be October twenty-fourth today." He scratched a mosquito bite, only one of the dozens. They left Maya alone which only increased his frustration.
Her eyes brightened at the mention of the date. "Sehyun is going to be here tomorrow."
"What are you talking about?"
Standing up on excitement, Maya explained, "He kept muttering about meeting some Marty on October twenty-fifth at Belisies Port."
"That's in Tereline, isn't it?"
"Yes, but it's not far from the Arce Ace."
Juele turned back to look at the stone wall, finding that more entertainment than some sliver of hope. "So?"
"I think you know what I mean. You know this castle better than anyone, right?"
"What makes you think that?"
"You-you live here."
He didn't reply.
It was so hard watching him so defeated. From the short time Maya knew him, he seemed like the type of person to never lose, never give up, and to be there for others. But with nothing but a scowl on his face, he seemed so contradictory.
He whispered, "Are you suggesting we break out?"
She hummed.
"We'll be caught."
She smiled, trying to lift the spirits, something she'd always expected James to do. Despite him being the younger sibling, he knew how to make her smile when all she wanted to do was frown. Sehyun used to do the same thing until he gave up after a few tries.
"We can try."
He stood, making the movement slower than necessary. He whistled as he pulled against the chain that held him to the wall. She hadn't noticed before, but he was sweating despite the chill running in the underground dungeon.
A bark came as a reply to his whistle.
"Indie!" Juele called. His voice rumbled through the dungeon.
Another bark came then the sound of jingling keys came. A properly groomed Australian Shepard came running from the halls, the keys to the cell in her mouth.
Indie came and took a seat in front of the prince through the cell bars. She smiled brightly, wagging her tail with enough excitement to tell Jules she was happy to see him.
Juele shed his depressed demeanour and became animated and spoke in a high pitched tone. "Indie. You want to play?"
She wagged her tail harder.
Jules closed the distance between him and the dog, pulling at the chain as much as he could. His feet slipped against the dust and dirt of the cell, nothing he wasn't used to already. "Can you give me a roll-over?"
She did as he asked.
He asked her to do various tricks; roll over, play dead, jump, dance, limp, and even taking a bow.
When Maya asked why, he said, "I need to get her in the mood. She's not trained to drop the keys, but she'll do it eventually.
"Do you need any help?"
"Actually," he stared at a bone on the floor, "can you play tug of war with her? Let her smell you first, though."
Doing as the prince asked, Maya got into an intense game of tug of war as the only one of the two not chained to the wall. But even with the dog's mouth open, the loop of keys stayed stuck in the dog's teeth.
"It's stuck in there," she said.
"I can see that." He bit his lip, thinking of a solution. "Pluck it out right before you give her the bone."
Maya tried and failed many times before the key finally fell free.
Just out of her reach.
Juele showed no symptoms of anger or disappointment. Just a look that said, Why did I even bother?
But Maya wasn't about to give up. She reached out of the bars, stretching her shoulders out in a way that couldn't be healthy. Her fingers brushed against the key, giving her a rush of motivation to reach further. With a final movement, she got the key at the expense of pain at her shoulder.
She relaxed against the wall.
"You have to open the door now."
"Right."
Indie wagged her tail, expecting Maya to play with her as she stood. Clearly, she wasn't the best guard dog when guarding the prince.
Before opening the door, Maya unlocked the chains at Juele's wrists and her own. Surprisingly, Auber's dungeon couldn't care less about security considering the same key was used for every cell and cuffs.
***
After nearly three minutes of waiting, a ghost finally arrived.
"Where is it?" Aeryn asked when Sehyun bowed at empty air and said a greeting in Spanish. What couldn't he do?
"It's a woman, not an it." He gestured at the space in front of him. "Unless you're extremely stupid, I'm sure you could tell the spirit is in front of me."
She refused to express anything. Aeryn hadn't noticed it before, but Han was quite condescending. He'd called out anyone who made a mistake before helping them in a tone that screamed: idiot.
Either he was rude or oblivious to the fact that he sounded rude.
Sehyun spoke to nothing in Spanish, a language Aeryn only knew the basics to, and started to write up a contract with illegible handwriting. He drew a line at the end of the page and handed the pen to the air. He let it go, but the pen didn't fall. It floated in the air and signed the end of the page.
"Gracias," he said as he rolled up the paper and fed it into the candle. The paper burned and fell away into ashes.
When her eyes widened in protest, he shook a hand, dismissing her concerns.
Sehyun waved at the air once again before sitting down again.
"Now what?"
He made a sound that no human should be able to make and said, "Well, now I would go kill her husband, but I never specified in the contract when I would do it, so as long as he dies before me, I'm good."
"How many contracts do you have backlogged?"
He smacked a hand on a stack of paper reaching just above his head. "That many."
"But then why did you burn that one?"
"I gave her a copy of the contract through the fire."
Aeryn wanted to ask more questions. If he had to summon the ghosts with that candle, why would he call forth so many and exact their revenge? Couldn't he just ignore their requests? What forced him to sink so many ships?
But her chance to ask them vanished as the ship started rocking. Rocking much harder than it was supposed to.
"What's going on?" she asked, gripping his bolted desk.
Han sighed, already comfortable. "Leviathans. I've encountered them before. They're quite easy to deal with."
"They exist?"
"Of course--"
The sound of gunshots and cannons firing came from outside, overwhelming both of their senses.
Aeryn stood and raced for the exit while Sehyun moved further into his room to lock his bookcases. He couldn't risk any of them falling down and getting their covers bent.
The captain of the White Crow arrived on the main deck to observe the scene. To her right was a ship that looked oddly familiar. It was the ship that had retreated after sending over a letter saying they wanted Erel. The ship that had arrived out of nowhere.
And it seemed it had friends this time.
Sehyun came out of his room, staying behind Aeryn as he located the muscle-man's ship to his left.
But the real threat was the two ships in front of them. Two ships that towered over the Black Egret, something no other ship had managed to do.
Both captains guessed one ship belonged to Kronos and the other to Cronas. The other two small ones must be their underlings.
Sehyun cursed colourfully as Suzy climbed the stairs from the lower deck to the main one. She saluted. "Captain, I am sorry I didn't report to you earlier regarding the leviathan situation. I was attending to an injured sailor."
It took a moment for the quartermaster to take a look around and spot four enemy ships.
"Where did they come from?" Sehyun asked. He wasn't angry or scared. He was indifferent.
But the same could not be said of Aeryn. Her hands were in her hair, pulling out glorious auburn strands. "I need to get to the White Crow."
"Go ahead," Sehyun said, shielding his eyes from the sun. It was only a few hours until evening, and this fiasco would delay his meeting with Marty.
Aeryn promptly got off the Black Egret and returned to her own ship to relay any necessary orders. Without her gunner and quartermaster, things would be a little rough at best.
Compared to the other ships nearby, the White Crow was a little bigger than an ant.
It seemed everything had started to go downhill, and seeing the top of the mountain became difficult.
***
Thanks for reading Empress of the Sea. Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed the chapter.
So, I finished writing all chapters and I just have to update them, and let me tell you, the final four chapters are quite NOICE if you like pain lol. I might forget to upload because of school, but everything will be out before October. Including Book 2's title, cover, synopsis, and release date reveal.
Word Count: 1570