Sea Of Sparks And Shadows

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!

The deck was almost completely empty when she arrived. Her feet almost gave from beneath her by the time she spotted mecheye first and raced towards him.

“what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Ash got arrested.” She panted. “where’s Hawk?”

“captain’s cabin.” he said as he strode in it’s direction.

she followed after him and entered the familiar room. the captain and Hawk were sitting at the table with a stack of papers between them, a mug of steaming tea beside each man.

“They took Ash.” Mecheye repeated.

They both stood up.

“When?” The captain asked.

Mecheye turned to Amaris and she stood up straighter, straining to regulate her breathing. “just now. at the market. two guards. they had the manticali insignia on their coats.”

a short silence followed as everyone looked around, well aware of what that meant.

“I’ll call the crew.” hawk sprung into motion, fumbling towards the door.

“I’ll see if i can spot any of the rest in the docks.” mecheye followed after him.

the captain nodded at the boatswain then turned to her. “do you know in which direction they were heading?” he asked.

she nodded repeatedly. “yes. they said something about a... a castle?”

“the Whitecastle?”

“yes.”

“no.” he muttered to himself. his eyebrows creased as he paced the room. “by the heavens, this isn’t going to be easy.”

this was the first time she saw the captain show any sign of worry. and that wasn’t good at all.

“what?”

he mumbled something she couldn’t hear.

“why is it going to be hard?”

“it’s cursed.”

Amaris blinked. “what?”

“the Whitecastle is a cursed prison.”

“cursed...by the spirits?” she asked, confused.

“no. by the dark emperor. we don’t know what he did, but everyone knows that no man has entered that place and came out chainless and alive.”

“they... kill them?” she gulped. “but that’s alright. we’re going to save him before they can do that.”

“no. it’s not alright. it’s not that they execute them as much as it is that the dark emperor put a spell on that castle so no prisoner could come out of it without his order. no one knows how, but it’s working. no one got out of that prison since the day he weaved his spell 95 years ago.”

“wait, what? he’s that old?”

“we need to find a way to stop them before they get there.” he ignored her. he strode to the book shelves and searched through the scrolls. “where are Mirage and Wind Tuner when you need them?” he growled.

he at last pulled a large scroll out of the stacks. his hand absentmindedly caressed the dried roses as he passed. he unrolled the huge map on the table and fixed it in place. The map of Manticali.

Before Amaris could ask anymore questions, hawk and mecheye returned with half a dozen crew members including Slygrin. “These are all we could find.” explained hawk as he hurried to the table.“where is he going?”

“Whitecastle.” the captain answered curtly, all traces of previous panic vanished as he pointed at a small circle in the map. a chorus of curses erupted from the men as they gathered around the table.

“so what will we do?” someone asked from the crowd.

“nothing.” another voice answered. “it’s too late.”

Amaris whipped her head up and glared at the speaker. “what do you mean it’s too late? you want to just leave him there to die?” she exclaimed. “what the hell is wrong with you?”

the man, whom Amaris now recognized as the guy Slygrin pranked with the spider, Shark, stared at her dumbfounded before he found his voice. “look, i don’t care what you think, but that place is a death trap. we get in, we won’t come out. every damned closet there is probably guarded too. If we go in there we’re done for. that’s it. we can’t just-”

“she’s right.” Captain interrupted. “it’s not too late.” A silence fell across the room as they all watched the captain and waited for his plan. “if they were at the market and are heading straight to Whitecastle, which i can put all my money on, that means they’ll have to take this route to fit their carriage.” he traced a line on the map leading from the sea to the circle. “considering this road crosses the center of the market and a few small public squares, their progress will be slow. we can rent some horses, take these narrow alleys and block their way. Preferably somewhere far from the town. Wind Tuner can check the area for us and warn us when they’re getting…” his voice trailed off as he noticed the faces around him. Or rather, the lack of a particular one.

“I couldn’t find him.” said Mecheye.

“The healer he knows didn’t come to the market today. He went to his house.” added Slygrin.

After a beat of silence, the captain asked. “How far is his house?”

“A town over. A small remote cottage near the joyfruit farms. He flew there.”

The captain cursed under his breath. “We will have to do it without him then.”

“We better get moving then.” said hawk.

The captain nodded. “Go rent the horses. The rest of you get ready. Make sure to take the acacia seeds. And as much bullets as you can load.” Soon they all start leaving. Amaris was about to talk to the captain when he called out. “Not you, Mecheye.”

He stopped at the door. “Need anything sir?” mecheye asked.

“You’re staying here.”

“What? But sir-”

“You’re still not healed. I’m not letting you go out there and get yourself killed.”

“I’m not. I’m fine. I can fight. sir, please.”

“No. You’re staying and guarding the ship. This is an order. I’m not risking your life like this.”

“Sir, as it is, we’re less than a dozen going in against heaven knows how many guards and soldiers are in that prison. By keeping me here you’re making our chances even less.”

The captain didn’t answer and stared at him silently.

“The boy is right, you know.” Hawk said from the door. “We need all the help we can get.”

The Captain sighed. “You’ll stay at the back. Go get ready.”

“Yes, sir.” mecheye smiled. “Thank you, sir.” with that he jogged out of the room to get ready.

The captain moved to his desk and pulled out a pistol. “Shouldn’t you be getting to your ship, miss...?”

“Amaris. And no. i...uh...I want to come.”

The captain paused. “Come?”

“With you. I need to make sure he’s alright.”

“No.” the captain’s voice was firm and echoed a sense of finality.

“Please. I can take care of myself. Mirage and … and Ash have been teaching me how to shoot. I can do it. I can help.”

“You have no idea how messy it could get. Believe me, you are better off leaving us all behind.

And boarding a rebel- free ship.”

“I don’t care. I have to come. He’s … he’s there because of me. I… he tried to help me run and he got caught because of it. I...i’ll never forgive myself if something happened to him because of me. I have to make sure he’s alright.” amaris whispered the last sentence, her lips already starting to tremble as she slid her eyes away and willed the horrible scenarios out of her mind.

“He will be.” the captain’s voice was much softer now. But she didn’t have the courage to look back at him and see how much of a naive useless child he must’ve thought she was.

“I need to make sure of it myself.” she swallowed. “Please.” she said again.

“I can keep an eye on her.” hawk suddenly said. Amaris had forgotten he was even still there. “I’ll watch over her and if things get out of hand, i’ll find a way to get her far from trouble.”

A beat of silence.

“Very well then. She’s under your responsibility, then. Make sure she doesn’t get herself killed.”

And that was how amaris ended up on a horseback riding to a cursed prison in the land of the mind weavers.

***

Amaris’ knees ached from the pebbles they were settled on. She never thought she would get tired of the smell of dirt and grass but it turned out that spending hours either lying or crouching behind huge boulders in the fields and waiting for a carriage to pass by wasn’t the most exciting -or comfortable- thing to happen to amaris.

In front of her, Hawk hadn’t lost his focus once. He kept his gaze on the end of the road watching patiently for the vehicle to arrive. Amaris looked up at the sky. The sun was already lowering itself. An hour longer and it would be too dark to see anything.

“What’s taking them so long?” shark grumbled.

Amaris could sense his nervous energy from where she crouched down; farthest from the street and hidden behind a boulder. If she wasn’t so anxious herself, she would have found the sight of the hugest man on the crew trying so hard to shrink himself into hiding amusing.

But he was right. Hours had passed since they arrived and hid their horses. Only two troops of riding soldiers passed by in their coats and hoods. No prisoners, no chains, nothing. Other than that, no one rode by. It was starting to get frustrating. A thousand potential mistakes passed through her mind. Was there another road they didn’t know about? Was there another prison they didn’t know about? Or worse of all; did they kill him already?

“Keep your hole shut.” hawk shushed him. “Someone‘s coming.”

She could see mecheye and Slygrin check their guns from across the road. Amaris held her breath praying to the heavens that this would be the one they were waiting for. That this would be a carriage with ash in i-

“No…” she muttered as she saw more riding guards approaching. No prisoners in tow.

“Damn it!” shark cursed as they got closer. “That’s it! I’m going in!” Before anyone could do a single thing, he jumped out of his hiding spot and onto the road, a gun in either hand.

“Shark wai- shit!” hawk muttered then quickly turned to Amaris. “Stay here. Don’t make a sound. Don’t move. Don’t breathe until i tell you to.” she nodded silently and he jumped out of his spot. “Good.”

Shots rang out and amaris watched from her spot, clutching her gun in both hands. She counted half a dozen men, two of which already lay dead on the ground. Three were fighting on their feet while one sat frozen in his saddle.

The men moved in synchronized dance. Mecheye didn’t flinch as his shot found its target in a man’s chest and stole his life. Neither did Slygrin when he threw his knives at the guard who was aiming at Shark. The guard cursed and fell to his knees to take out the protruding knife from his side, but it was too late. With one shot from the captain, he was dead.

The battle didn’t take long. And soon shark had the only survivor pinned to the ground with a hand around his throat, ready to end his life if he so much as moved a muscle.

The captain squated next to the guard and spoke calmly. “One of your friends arrested a man today. A wanted criminal from Sinsecria who’s part of a crew. Where is he?”

“I don’t know.” Shark tightened his grip around his neck and the man wheezed. “I swear, by the willow. I don’t know.”

“Is there another road that leads to Whitecastle?” Amaris stepped forward hesitantly and asked. The captain looked up at her then back at the man.

“No.” The guard coughed out.

“Then how did they pass without us noticing?” Shark sneered.

“Captain?” Mecheye interrupted. “I think i know why.” he looked down at one of the hooded bodies and dread washed over Amaris.

Hey everyone! This story has the last two chapters removed. To read them, please head over to Webnovel and search for this book. By doing so, you would be supporting me while also getting to know what happened to the Amaris and the crew. Thank you for reading!