Border Crossing

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"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

"Worse than what?" Blackbeard asked with a snort as he poked at Alice's unconscious body with his boot. "You want to be cursed forever?" He added.

The large man again stopped Yena, this time pinning her to the wall with his large hands either side of her head. "This servant you're supposed to find, does she even have a name? You any idea how many of the girls working for the king would tell you they're his number one?"

"You pick some strange women to bed, old friend. Your obsession with a mermaid got us to that land. Your obsession with an elf got us cursed. What next? A nug queen? A centaur's daughter?"

Yena's face dropped. Once again she was thwarted. Kane had dealt her a terrible blow. He had told her nothing but handmaiden. How was she to know which one he meant?

"I hear a rumour that dragons have returned." Blackbeard chuckled before stepping over the unconscious couple to head into the hold.

The large man smiled, realising again he had hit the truth. "I guess that mean's you'll have to stay here until you figure it out, wont you?" He purred. "What am I supposed to call you, little mouse?"

The first mate cursed under his breath and turned to instruct the crew on what to do with Blackbeard's son. He did his best to ignore the lovely song. He knew what it would do.

"You think I'm stupid, don't you?" Yena snapped. "Call me whatever you like. I'm not going to give you power over me by telling you my name. Not even the one my beloved calls me."

"You pick your moments." Blackbeard remarked once he was inside the hold. The song was lovely, but it seemed he could no longer fall under its spell, which saddened him the most.

"Auron." The well built man told Yena simply when she refused to offer up her own name. "If you wont tell me yours, then I guess 'Mouse' it is then."

"As do you, my darling." The musical reply came from deep within the hold. "Why is our son here? I'm assuming it's because he does not know you sold him to the elves? It is my hope that you did not tell him you were his father? Or perhaps he forgot?" Bright green eyes appeared in the darkness, leaving no doubt who was speaking to him. "And the girl? Who is she?"

"Call me what you like but I won't answer." Finally Yena found a single burst of magic. With a dramatic wave of her slender fingers she made herself disappear into thin air. She was truly thinking she could hide from him this way.

"I told him, but the boy don't care." Blackbeard snorted. "He wont believe me, even when he sees he's following in my footsteps, not the way I hoped though... the lapdog of some child who is playin' make believe that she's Queen of the pirate court."

Yena had gotten away, for now, but Auron was still smiling. The king had sent him a most interesting gift.

"What a shame that he has not become a womanizing bastard like the man that helped give him life." Sharyn said thinly. "I cannot say that I am not pleased with this outcome. But the Pirate Queen...tell me more of her. All I know is what I sensed on the deck. That power...It's something I've never seen before." 

It didn't take long for Yena's magic to wane. It left her drained and wondering if there was something in this castle keeping her from it. Were these people so very afraid of what magic could do?

"Power?" Blackbeard sneered, truly not knowing the truth about Alice. "She's just some little girl. She's probably dead by now anyway, one of my boys stuck her good."

Yena would be found by one of Kane's handmaids. She was not much taller than the elf, with long golden hair that was braided and coiled into a bun at the nape of her neck. The young woman knew right away who this was, and that she was going to keep Auron from her as best she could.

"It must be terrible to be human. Even an enchanted one." Sharyn snorted. She stepped forward, her pale skin illuminated in the tiny shaft of sunlight that appeared in the deck overhead. "You know nothing. Her wound is already healed and she is spoiling for another fight. Not from the man who hurt her but the one who hurt Garrik. You let it happen by the way. You didn't even try to stop it."

Yena woke up wrapped in a warm blanket and lying on warm sheets. She couldn't remember the last time, if ever, that had happened to her.

Blackbeard merely shrugged. "What kind of man will he be if I'm there to fight his battles for him?" He remarked, though he was watching Sharyn closely, trying to understand her words about the girl.

"You should be more careful where you try and use magic." The young woman warned from where she had been sat reading beside Yena's bed. "If Auron had found you... He would have made an example."

"You have yet to do anything but sell him to an elf!" Sharyn shouted, the ship rocking with the ferocity of her fury. The sea responded to her, awake and alive. "Do not talk like you are being a good father!" 

Yena very nearly hissed at the woman sitting beside the ornate bed. "Where am i?" She asked, swallowing hard past the lump in her throat.

Blackbeard closed his eyes and smiled as the ship rocked. "And yet here he is, back home where you always wanted him."

"In my bedchamber." The handmaid replied, though she made it sound as though she spoke to a child who didn't understand the tongue she used.

"You misunderstood. I wanted the boy in my home. Mine." Hair the color of flames flashed in the slits of sunlight and was gone. Again it she had returned to the darkness. "But that isn't possible. You keep me caged on this dreadful ship! I need to be in the sea and you know it." Emerald eyes appeared in the blackness of a corner. "You will not best the girl. She has a fate that reaches above our own. But before you say anything, yes, I know you will try." 

Yena ignored the tone, used to being spoken to that way. She threw the covers back and crossed the room to the window, desperate for the fresh air. "Who are you?" She asked, hunting for a break in the curtains. Every moment she couldn't find one she became more desperate.

"How do you know about the girl?" Blackbeard asked suspiciously. He loved Sharyn, that was his only reason for keeping her like he did; he was too selfish to set her free and never see her, or hear her song again.

The young woman stood up and followed Yena to the window. There she pulled a cord that parted the heavy material of the curtain enough for the other woman to find the sunlight. "My name is Vivien, I'm one of the king's handmaids... If you can call us that, given the things he makes us do."

"You think I am blind just because you keep me in this darkness?" Sharyn asked him. "You forget that blood drips through the cracks in your deck. I've told you before the song blood sings. Our son would die for her ten times over. That's becoming a problem given the state of the Black City."

Yena was like a moth to flame as she pressed herself to the sill, the warmth washing over her. It had been so very long. She'd missed it more than she could say. 
"Vivien..." she finally said, her head clear enough to think. "Are you his favorite? What does he make you do?"

"You know that for a fact?" Blackbeard asked thinly as he paced. He didn't like the girl. Something about her set all of his senses on edge. "She's probably just some whore he shacked up with after too much rum."

Vivien seemed to shy away from the sunlight, hinting why there were such heavy curtains in such a small room. "He is still infatuated with his sister, even after her little display last time she was here. He... Makes us..." She stopped and shook her head. "You don't need to know."

"The boy doesn't drink and you know it. I've heard your spies telling you. If he chose her there is a reason for it. She is his destiny." Sharyn explained. 

"You mean like cleaning and taking care of pigs? Bear hates that too." Yena said, the words going over her head.

"Maybe the drunk bitch chose him." Blackbeard sneered, making it sound like no one was worthy of his son, not even a queen.

"If that was ever something the missing princess did, then yes... He would have us doing that." Vivien agreed.

"If you had sent us back to the sea when I found I was with child none of this would be happening." Again Sharyn appeared from the darkness, all but standing toe to toe with Blackbeard. "You have your playthings! Let me go!"

Yena frowned at this. "I'm not sorry but...I don't like your king." She leaned out the window, just able to see a dark blonde head below. The guards were changing post and Auron was barking orders. "He's not much better, is he?"

"If i had sent you back to the sea, what of the boy? You know he would have never survived in your world!" Blackbeard snarled, taking hold of Sharyn's shoulders and giving her a shake.

Vivien glanced past Yena and shook her head. "No one likes the king, but Audon is a pussycat compared to him."

"You do not know that! And if that is why you keep me here, now is the time to let me go! The boy doesn't need me and neither do you!" Sharyn shouted.

"I'm not going near that bastard again." Yena hissed.

"You think you know everything, don't you?" Blackbeard breathed, his piercing blue eyes filled with a strange sadness now. "Go talk to our son then, ask him what he would have preferred."

"You may not have a choice." Vivien breathed, snapping the curtains shut again just as Auron's heard turned in their direction. "You should never have come here. Magic is only good for getting you killed!"

"I will not talk to him. I will take him with me." Sharyn said firmly. She didn't seem to understand that mermaids were female only. She would truly kill her son if she tried. "Open the door, Jack. You cannot keep me here anymore. War is coming and I must protect my people and my son."

"Another one of those people are you?" Yena snapped. The darkness reminded her of the cave she was locked in. "There's nothing wrong with my magic. It's him. He makes you all afraid. Speaking of...your king sent me here for his favorite handmaid. I have to find her and get back to Bear. I'm worried about him being alone with that monster."

"War has already come, woman." Blackbeard remarked, though he didn't stop her from trying to leave this time. "I just chose not to be a part of it. War holds no profit for me."

"The king has no favourites, just whoever reminds him the most of his precious sister." Vivien replied. "We don't even have names to him, so you could take anyone, I would imagine."

"Then you will die." Sharyn said darkly, pausing by the door. "Despite what you have done to me, Jack, I still love you. I do not want you to be lost in the Black City. The elf will not forgive you for betraying her either." 

"What?" Yena could do nothing to hide the disappointment in her voice. "There's not one he chooses over the others?! That's not what he told me!"

"I don't fear the Black City." Blackbeard assured Sharyn softly. "And what can the elf do to me that is any worse than what she already has?"

"He actually favours one of us?" Vivien asked, perhaps a little too much hope in her voice.

"You haven't seemed to be slowed down by her curse." Sharyn said from the door. "If anything you are having more fun with it. You don't need me." 

Yena threw herself fave down on the bed, practically whining. It took her a long whole before she turned her head to answer. She told the other woman what Kane had said about only desiring one of them. The best one. He hadn't given her a name.

"I don't fear the Black City because it's a place I long for." Blackbeard breathed, though he wasn't looking at Sharyn now. "I cannot die, do you have any idea how painful that is?"

Vivien shook her head and sat down on the bed beside Yena. "He makes us dress like his sister, pretend to be her while he..." Her green eyes were filled with an odd kind of sadness. Vivien didn't seem upset at having the King have his way with her, only that it wasn't her he though of while he did it. "What if you take me to him? If I'm not the favourite, you can just come get someone else?" She suggested, knowing full well if she was the wrong choice it meant death. The poor woman just didn't understand that it was death either way.

"There is nothing there but darkness. Do you understand? There is no relief." Sharyn whispered. "Your life here is much better. There is no maker. Stay with me." She couldn't believe she'd even said it. Especially after what he'd done to her.

"I have to kill you to take you there. Then...there is no going back. Do you understand?" Yena said, almost excited about the fact of seeing Bear agan so soon. She had no idea she wouldn't be going back no matter what.