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“WELL, IF IT ISN’T THE honorable Lady Anna!” The door swung open. Siera stood backlit by the morning light, a flask in one hand, a mug in the other. She leaned against the door frame, her corset too tight to hold her bosom, the chemise beneath it little more than a ripple of lace. “Daughter of a legendary rogue. She who is the shedder of blood and traveler to the Neverworld! You’re still living as a beggar in my father’s house?”
She stumbled into the room and set a hot mug of mulled wine in front of Anna, then grabbed another goblet from the counter, and sat at the table across from her.
“You’re drunk, Siera. Did you spend all night at the pub?”
“Goodness. Why would I do that when I have a man and a home to keep me happy? Unlike other women I know.”
“Why do you harass me?” Anna asked, her cheeks starting to burn. Siera’s words cut to her heart.
Siera lowered her voice, controlling her speech so she didn’t slur but as she leaned over the table, Anna swore the stink on her breath would gag a mule.
“Can’t help it. I remember what you were, and I’m baffled by the change. Who would have thought a courtesan who once wore velvet dresses and feathers in her caps would be living like a blacksmith’s daughter, sleeping on a pile of hay in the old storeroom?”
“You’re jealous I took your place?”
Siera let out one curt laugh. “Jealous? Of you?”
“I’m just wondering why you came back to torment me. Is that your purpose in life? Other than visiting the pub?” Anna asked.
“It’s a proper thing to do under the circumstances. Someone has to keep you accountable.”
If Anna weren’t in Benjamin’s home, she’d have slapped Siera.
“I never meant to be here this long.” Anna took a drink and spat the liquid into her napkin, repulsed by the numbing taste of cloves.
“I see you have your riding outfit on,” Siera said softly as she sat up straight in her chair. “Going horse hunting? Again? Like you do so faithfully every morning, and so faithfully come back empty handed?”
“I didn’t have many outfits left after the fire,” Anna glanced up at her. “And of course, no money to purchase more. So, there’s a reason I’m wearing riding clothes and hunting for my father’s herd. I don’t blame the people of your village for raiding my family’s belongings, but it would have been nice to have some of my clothes back.” She paused long enough to return Siera’s glare, and then exhaled, searching her mug for some solace. “Not that they’d fit me anymore.”
“You’ve slimmed down like the rest of us,” Siera agreed. “When in Kolada, live like the peasants!” She lifted her mug and offered a toast.
Anna gave her a blank stare.
“You ought to visit the pub more often, that’ll fatten you up,” Siera said.
“I have no taste for ale.”
“I sure would if this town did to me what they did to you. Poor child!” Her tone was so facetious Anna fought the urge to throw the contents of her mug at her.
“We’ve been through this how many years, now, Siera? Can’t you stop looking at me as if I’m some sort of freak?”
Siera shook her head and took another swill. “I just see you as foolish chasing something that’s long gone, is all. Why don’t you give in and become one of us? Marry and be done with your quest. You aren’t going to find your father’s herd. They’re most likely halfway to the Casdamia Wildlands by now. Horses want to be free.”
“I’ll find them someday. What else do I have in life?” Anna asked. “I did have an inheritance at one time.”
“Your father was in debt. Stop complaining.”
Anna stared at the steaming liquid in her mug. Her father had been indebted to the entire village of Kolada, and the villagers pillaged his house and burned it down in return for payment. Whoever else he owed outside Kolada’s borders, she didn’t know, nor did she care to find out. Whatever his arrears, it would be better for Anna to remain in disguise to the world lest she be imprisoned for his debts. Maybe drinking would help to forget the aspirations she had to outlive her father’s bad reputation and one day become King Barin’s wife. Irrational, yes, but not for the reasons of which Siera accused her. Anna had played the fool thinking Barin would lower himself to her level. She, the daughter of a tyrant, an accomplice to an insurrection, and an abductor of innocent children.
“What’s wrong?” Siera asked, staring at her with a sympathetic pout. “Someone on your mind? Wouldn’t be the King you spent time with in the Neverworld would it?”
“Leave me alone,” Anna said and turned away from her.
“Hurts, don’t it?” Siera asked but there was no pity in her voice. Anna didn’t answer. “I don’t know why you’re so glum. He was good to you. Kept you from swinging on the gallows. Now there’s a merciful man, yes ma’am. And your poor mother? What about her? Drowned in the river, overcome by grief.”
“My mother knew everything my father was doing. If she took her own life, it was because she couldn’t live with herself knowing she had blood on her hands.”
Siera clicked her tongue. That cold stare pierced Anna as if it were a knife.
Why had Siera even come this morning, Anna wondered as she regarded the woman’s rosy cheeks and dimpled chin. Siera was married now, living a happy life. Why did she have to keep returning to plague her?
“I pity you,” Siera muttered.
Anna slammed the mug on the table and stood. “I don’t want pity, Siera. When are you going to realize that? I don’t even want to be living here. I’ll find my father’s horses, sell them, and buy an estate somewhere and live happily away from you people.”
“Ought to be more thankful,” Siera said. “If to no one else, to my father. He’s been feeding you and giving you a home for how long now? It’s been years. Why don’t you grow up and move out? He doesn’t need your trouble.”
“How am I trouble?”
Siera laughed. Drool leaked down the side of her mouth and she wiped it with her arm. “I can’t believe you’re so naïve. People wanting revenge, bill collectors, and troublemakers from Casdamia. I don’t know how many times someone comes into the pub looking for your father’s heirs and we’ve lied about it. Just last night a couple of strangers came in asking about you. It’s getting old.”
“Who?”
“People. From all over—Kerchev, Prasa Potama, Ogress, Casdamia. Last night it was three strangers in garb we’ve never seen before. Odd looking fellows. Who knows where they were from? No one tells them you live here because we’re afraid my father will get pinned with the debts. He doesn’t need that kind of disruption. Can’t you hide somewhere else? Do us all a favor and leave Kolada!”
“Believe me, I’m trying,” Anna assured her. It would be horrible if Siera’s father was pegged as her family’s accomplice. The man had been more than generous to her when she returned to find her home burned to the ground and her father’s legacy dispersed among the townspeople. It was Benjamin who insisted she live with him and his two daughters. Siera was the only one who objected, but Siera had moved out after her marriage to Kayden.
If Anna had some other place to go, she would.
“If you’ll excuse me, Siera, I must cut this conversation short. I’d love to visit with you longer, but I have work to do.”
Anna took the bridle from its peg near the door and stormed out of the house, her breath hot with words she dared not utter. A physical fight with Siera would cause more problems than the woman’s insults. No need to put Benjamin in such a precarious situation. Anna got along well with him, but he’d surely break down and take his daughter’s advice and evict Anna if the two tussled.
When she arrived at the barn, the stable hand had a horse saddled for her. He said little when she put the bridle on the mare. No one talked to Anna much and she had Siera to thank for that. Still, he was a pleasant young man, and she was grateful that he knew her routine of a ride every day after breakfast. He asked no questions. The entire village knew what she was doing—searching for the majestic animals her father once owned. Some of the horses had been taken from the estate before the house burned. Most of the herd, however, had disappeared before the townspeople could claim them. It was these beauties that Anna swore she would find.
The horse’s steady canter helped her to forget Siera and her words of truth. Anna rode long and hard to the west. She had covered most of the territory between Tuluva and Kolada last spring. If there were any horses in that direction they’d have been claimed as strays by now. It was in the wild lands that her hope lay, and so she searched territory she hadn’t been in before. A vast stretch of rolling hills, oak forests, and bending willows awaited her. There were few farms out this way and the country was pristine. Anna wished she could live in this section of the kingdom and forget her troubles. But without any income she was doomed to begging.
Today, however, she was anxious to see the coast again.
She rode all day through fields painted yellow with spring blooms and into valleys dotted with sheep grazing in virgin pastures. She slowed her horse to a walk as she passed farm wagons making their way to the coast carrying jerky, dried fruits, and breads. They greeted her with a wave as she passed.
“How much farther to the sea?” she asked one farmer.
“Less than a day’s ride on a steed like yours,” the man answered. It was then that Anna decided to finish her journey in the port town of Stahlberg, a village made up of a livery, an inn, and a pub. The weather was in her favor, so she needn’t worry about housing. She could camp in the countryside. When she reached the coast, she’d be satisfied she had finished her search to the west. All day the sky blossomed with clouds against a turquoise sky, and the air smelled fresh and clean. The journey was worth the trouble, though she hadn’t found any sign of the Koladan horses. This year she might have to cross the river and look for them in Casdamia, something she’d been avoiding.
“Perhaps I can find someone to travel with me,” she patted her mare. The villagers in Casdamia were hostile toward her father and vengeful of the pain that he caused. Those same people would remember her from when she traveled with her father. There was no name more despised in all the countryside than Lord Sylvester’s—as Siera loved to remind her.
When Anna reached a stand of oak and aspen, she stopped by a brook to fill her canteen and rest. Daylight would fade soon, and this was as good a place as any to lay down for a while. Anna had her trusty bow and dagger with her. Trained by her father, she never went anywhere unarmed.
She kept a keen eye on her surroundings and flinched as a branch snapped not far from her. A beaver waddled out from its burrow among the reeds, sniffed in her direction, and then dove into the creek. Anna watched him swim upstream and then settled on the grass with her lunch. Shadows grew long as she rested, and though she didn’t mean to, she fell asleep.
Anna woke to the sound of footsteps in the woods and jumped to her feet.
Three men approached her, their horses trailing behind. Their clothing was like nothing she had ever seen—each man wore a black leather vest with chains of polished metal that dipped into pockets lined with satin. Cream-colored shirts ballooned off their arms, cinched tight by lace around their wrists. One of the men had a long goatee that curled under his chin, and brows that pointed wickedly toward his forehead. Another was clean shaven. Their trousers were tight and high leather boots clung to their calves with buttons and metal snaps, adornments more expensive than anyone in Kolada could ever afford.
Each man had in his hand a vial that reminded Anna of the potions of the Neverworld, dark swirling liquid begging to escape its glass prison.
“Are you Anna of Kolada?” the older man asked.
Anna gasped and backed away.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Another took a vial from his belt, emptied a drop onto his finger and flicked it at a tree limb above her horse. Immediately a wind grabbed leaves from the branch and twirled them into the sky, blotting out the sunshine.
The cloud of debris that flew over her mare spooked the animal. Anna caught the reins and started to mount. With Anna’s foot in the stirrup, the panicking horse broke into a gallop and Anna clung to her neck and lifted herself onto her back. Louder than the sound of her horse’s hooves and her beating heart was the voice of a man sounding alarm.
“After her!”
It was a chase through the thicket that Anna hadn’t been prepared for and which ended all too quickly as she had no control over the terrified mare. The horse stumbled and balked when it came to a ditch, stopping so suddenly that Anna flew out of the saddle, rolled over the horse’s neck, and crashed into a bed of ferns. Her horse reared and loped away into the woods leaving her flat on the ground.
Anna’s head spun as she lay there wondering if she would be able to stand but too stunned to feel any pain. Two of the men who had been pursuing her jumped from their horses. She had to get away from them. She tried to stand, got to her knees, and collapsed.
“Easy there,” one of the men said as he took her arms and pulled her to her feet. The other man yanked her dagger from her belt.
“Good work, Hawk!” the man who had taken her weapons said.
“Let go of me,” Anna demanded gaining her senses. She whipped her hands out of her captor’s grasp. Hawk latched onto them again, this time violently, twisting her arms behind her back and tying them with a coarse rope that dug into her flesh.
“Stop!” Anna tried to pull away from him but all that did was cause a sharp pain in her shoulders. “Why are you doing this? Let me go. I’ve done nothing to you!”
“Help us out, Jednah,” Hawk called to the horseman.
The third stranger rode up to them. “They didn’t say how pretty she was. Or fragile. Thin as a rail, this one. I thought we’d have a fight on our hands.” He sheathed his weapon.
“You might still,” Anna growled.
“She could provide us some fun,” one of the men mumbled.
“No! Get that thought out of your mind, Fengard,” Hawk exploded. “That’s not what we’re here for.”
Jednah slid from his saddle. He had a gray beard with little metal keys braided into it, and unlike the other two, he wore an armored vest the color of wine that stunk like stale ale. Though he had a belt loaded with vials, small silver flasks, a dagger, and an odd-looking instrument that could have been a weapon, his eyes were sympathetic and his voice quiet.
“We’ll bring her to the admiral. I’ve no interest in roughing a woman. We’re to keep the peace, remember?”
“Then why don’t you just release me?” Anna blurted. “I’d be a burden to you. Untie me and I’ll go about my business without telling a soul what happened!”
The gray-haired man smiled. “I’m sorry, Lady Anna. We’ve been ordered to bring you with us.”
“How do you know my name?”
“We know a lot more about you than just your name!” Fengard said.
“How?” The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. That these men knew her name caused her heart to race. They were sorcerers, that was clear. Did they come from the Neverworld? Would they torture her? Kill her? Hawk released her and stepped away, but her wrists hurt from the binding. The more she struggled to get out of it, the more the ropes chafed her skin. “Untie me. Please?”
The three stared at her and she, in turn, studied their faces. The magic they carried smelled familiar.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Can’t tell you that, my dear,” Jednah said. “It is you who will be answering questions, I’m afraid.” He offered no other explanation.
Hawk lifted Anna onto his saddle.
“I’m not going with you!” she protested, her heart beating so hard she thought she’d faint. Bad enough that her body hurt from the fall but to be shoved, carried and thrown on a horse not only scared her, but humiliated her. What could she do? She glared at Hawk, halfway on the saddle, Hawk holding her there by her hips, pushing her up higher onto the animal.
“You’ll either sit on the horse or be flopped over it like a sack of potatoes. Take your pick.”
“You’re a scoundrel,” she accused, barring her teeth. Not wanting to ride anywhere upside down, she swung her leg over the horse so that she sat on its withers.
“And stop your whining,” Hawk added as he climbed into the saddle.
“You have no right to take me anywhere. I demand you give me a horse and let me go.”
A thick cloth covered her mouth mid-sentence, and the Hawk tied it taut. She could only growl, and she did so until her throat grew sore.
“You’ll have a chance to tell your grievances to Admiral Geraldo. We really don’t want to hear it,” Hawk added.
“Careful there, Hawk,” the older man cautioned.
“Careful?” Hawk laughed. “I will treat this one with the utmost care.”
They rode from the glen onto the plains, and when they reached a road, Hawk untied her hands and slipped the gag off.
“We don’t want to raise the suspicion of any passersby,” he whispered in her ear. “But if you don’t keep your mouth sealed shut, or if you call for help, we’ll make certain there will never be any help for you.”
Anna spat the dirt from her mouth that had been on the rag, rubbed her aching wrists, and tried to look behind her. “You’d kill me?”
“Only if we had to,” he answered, wrapping one arm around her waist. “But it would grieve me.”
She tried pushing his arm away.
“This is for show, milady,” he said. “And to make certain you don’t jump.”
They rode until the sun dipped below the horizon and until they crested a hill. No other travelers crossed their path and so the opportunity to call for help never came. The company paused and Anna gasped at the sight that spread out before her. In the distance, the Nisi Sea glimmered in its sunset glory.
Anna had visited king’s courts and emperor’s halls, and she had even seen the piers and wharfs along the coast in Prasa Potama. Nothing struck her as powerfully as the sight of waves billowing in the open ocean with nothing but the horizon in the distance. She had missed the fresh salty fragrance of the sea. It reminded her of the days she had spent with Barin.
“It’s stunning,” she said.
“That it is,” Hawk agreed.
By the time they reached the shore, darkness had shadowed the earth and the sea sparkled with reflections of the stars. The soft murmur of waves breaking over sand added a gentle rhythm to the night and there was a cool refreshing breeze. Anna took in a deep breath. The three men dismounted, and Hawk lifted her off the horse. He wrapped a blanket around her while the others tended to the horses. Keeping an eye on Hawk’s friends, Anna waited for the right moment, and when it came, she let the blanket slide to the ground.
“What are you doing?” Hawk asked. When he stooped to pick it up, she stomped on his foot and broke into a run along the rocky beach.
“What the—,” Hawk gasped, hopping on one foot, and holding the other.
“Don’t just stand there. Get her!” Fengard ordered.
Anna dodged into the woods, tripping over rocks. Her skirt snagged onto a blackberry bush, and she yanked it free. She pushed her way into the willow thicket. Twigs pulled her hair, and limbs scratched her face. She wheezed—her breath short from panic.
Hide, she told herself and ducked. pulling willow branches down around her. She held her breath and waited.
The sound of boots told her the men were hot on her trail, and they stopped very near where she had left the beach.
“Where in Allotrope’s Isles did she go?” It was Fengard’s angry voice.
“In there somewhere,” Hawk said.
They were so close. Their boots crunched over the sand and loosened rocks under their feet. Anna bit her lip and hugged her knees. If only she could roll up into a ball so no one could see her!
“Cursed sticker bushes,” Jednah complained. “Ouch.”
“This is ridiculous parading through the thicket like this. She couldn’t have gotten far in this mess. Use a vial and let’s get her to the ship.”
Vial? What kind of Vial?
Anna could tell by the metallic smell someone had opened a Neverworld potion. Some of the most horrific spells came from the Neverworld. Would it make her pass out? Would she be possessed by some alien spirit? She wanted nothing to do with that magic.
“Wait!” Hawk said.
He’d found her. The brush that concealed her parted and she saw Hawk’s hands. She crawled away from him, but he reached into the bramble, first grabbing her skirt, then her arm. He squeezed her wrist tightly. Anna scrambled backward, dragging Hawk into the same pile of brush she hid in.
“Stop it, woman, curse it! We’re not going to hurt you.”
“I’m already hurt!” she growled.
“You wouldn’t be if you’d cooperate. You’re coming with me,” he said.
“Here! Use this vial,” Fengard offered from the other side of the thicket.
“To bloody Hades with your tonics,” Anna said. “Get away from me.”
Hawk pulled her out of the undergrowth and swung her over his shoulder.
“Let me down, I can walk!” She pounded on his back. He repositioned her and held her tighter.
“You can run, too, it seems,” Hawk noted.
“Hang on to her, Hawk, she’s an unruly one,” Fengard said.
They walked quickly,
Blood rushed to her head as she bounced against Hawk’s back. She pounded on him. He shifted her weight.
She scratched and bit and kicked him. If she tormented him enough, he’d have to put her down. He didn’t. He laughed.
She tried to reach Hawk’s dagger. Dizzy from blood rushing to her head, she held onto his shirt and stretched. If only she could.... Her fingers touched its hilt.
Fengard came up from behind and grabbed the dagger, tucking it in his own belt.
“Careful there,” he said.
Her body went limp, and she closed her eyes in exhaustion. She would wait for a more opportune moment.
While Hawk held her, the other two men unsaddled the horses and turned them loose. Hawk set her on the ground.
“There, you see? All’s well. You can walk from here,” he said. “But I’ll hang on to you just in case you get a notion to run again.”
With all three men surrounding her, Anna had could do nothing but march down the wooden dock. Jednah led the way. The sound of boots clicking over the hollow planks gave Anna the shudders. She peered at Fengard as he strolled next to her. He took her arm whenever she hesitated. He had an untrustworthy smile. The poison smell of his vials was gone now replaced with an odor of sage. He looked at her from the corner of his eye as if he owned the world.
Who are these men and where were they taking me?
A cold empty feeling hit her stomach and she trembled.
So many questions raced through her mind, but she thought better than to ask. She stopped struggling against the men. Fengard released her arm and once his hands were off her, fear melted into indifference.
I suppose they aren’t going to hurt me, yet. How do they know me? And who is this admiral they’re taking me to?
A small boat awaited them at the end of the dock. Hawk helped her into the middle of the rowboat, and fixed the blanket over her shoulders, again.
What’s his story? Always giving me a blanket and trying to be a decent human being when he’s a rogue.
She took a deep breath to calm herself as Jednah and Fengard took up the oars.
“How do you know my name?” she asked
“Someone told us,” Hawk mumbled.
“Who? Who told you who I am? Who’s behind this?”
“Careful, Hawk,” Fengard warned.
Hawk ignored Anna’s question. She stared at Fengard who rowed without looking at her. After a moment of getting no response, Anna studied Hawk again.
“What kind of a name is Hawk?” she asked.
“My name is Hawthorne. But my brother gave me the nickname Hawk. I have no idea why. I can’t fly. Not yet. The tall man is my twin brother Fengard.”
“Twins? That’s interesting. You don’t look alike.”
“That’s good,” Hawk said.
A laugh burst from Jednah. “You can say that again! Two of them like Fengard would be two too many.”
Hawk sat behind her, so she couldn’t see him but the boat leaned when he adjusted her blanket tighter over her shoulders.
The man’s obsessed with trying to make me comfortable. Guilt maybe? How comforting! I wonder what that means.
“Care to tell me why you’re kidnapping me?”
“Sorry. Can’t,” Hawk said.
“Of course not.” She droned and wrapped the blanket tighter around her body.
The night was so dark, even with the stars and their reflections sparkling on the water that she didn’t see the three ships until the smell of wet wood, tar, and metal reached her nostrils. They were large vessels elaborately adorned and she imagined an array of colors when the sun shone on their decks. The tops of the masts were so high that Anna had to bend her head to see them. Jednah hooked a line onto a peg that protruded from the foremost ship and steadied the rowboat next to a rope ladder. Hawk helped her stand. She had difficulty climbing the ladder as it swung over the water but held on tight, and Hawk followed close behind.
“Don’t be afraid,” he laughed. “If you fall, I’ll catch you.”
“Hawk will be glad to catch you,” his brother laughed.
“I won’t fall and there’s no need for anyone to think they’re going to catch me,” Anna retorted. She wasn’t going to let her guard down. These men were potential enemies to the Potamian kingdom.
Fengard gave her a hand onto the ship.
“Everyone’s down below. I imagine the first of the shipment has arrived,” Jednah announced.
“What do we do with her?” Hawk asked.
“Take her to the admiral and tell him we got us a prisoner. Tell him she caught us practicing magic.”
“What?” she said gawking at the brothers. “I’m going to tell him the truth.”
“That would not be wise, milady, because if you tell the admiral the truth, you will meet an untimely end. I promise you.” Fengard’s knife was in his hand at the blink of an eye. He pressed it firmly against her throat. “The sea is deep, and believe me, we’ll make certain your body will not float to the surface.”
Anna swallowed. She wasn’t ready to die, not like this, not at the hand of these rogues, whoever they were or whatever their plans were.
“Gag her,” Fengard told Hawk.
Hawk gagged her and tied her hands. When Fengard left them to gather their packs from the rowboat, Hawk whispered in her ear,
“I’m not going to let them hurt you,” he said. “I swear.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Airmed and her colleagues.”
A cold chill raced up her spine and a sour taste met her tongue. So! This is about my past, my father, and the part that I played in the conspiracy.
“I tried to put it all behind me,” she said softly.
“Somethings are never forgotten,” he answered.
Fengard walked up to them and patted Hawk on the arm while glancing up at the admirals cabin swinging in the air as the sailors lowered it. “I’ve told Geraldo we’re coming. He’s on his way. Let him decide where to put her.”
“I thought Airmed was going to make that decision,” Hawk said.
“She will. But we can’t sneak Anna on board. Geraldo needs to know we’ve taken a prisoner.” Fengard drew his knife and flashed it in Anna’s face. “Play along with us, sweetheart if you know what’s best.”
Hawk moved in-between his brother and Anna, pushed the knife aside and, taking her arm, guided her toward the landing deck for the captain’s quarters.