One that lured him toward that presence he kept telling himself couldn’t be real.
It just couldn’t be.
That was his thought until he reached the wooden railing and peered over the side into the dark waters that sloshed against the boat. There in the bright moonlight he saw that which stunned him most of all. A shining glimmer of a form bobbing about that he’d never thought to see again.
“Chthamalus?”
Barely discernible in the inky night waves, the old sea demon grinned up with golden fangs. The color of cold, dark seawater blue, he was a peculiar sight to any who didn’t know his breed. Part squid, part barnacle, part humanoid, the Barnaks could shapeshift to blend in with humanity. At least temporarily. Longer if they “preyed” on humans. The only way to tell one of their breed, even in human form, was by the unholy light blue luminescence in their eyes that would shine whenever something bright reflected against their pupils. Otherwise, they were beautiful perfection.
But in this form…
Hideous fishlike ghouls not even their mothers could stand to look upon. And yet Kalder had never seen a more beautiful vision—except for Cameron.
Aye, Chthamalus Morro was a sight for sore eyes. Even if his face did look like a dried puffer fish’s head stretched tight over a shrunkenskull and his ears had more in common with a starfish than a human. He’d take it.
“What are you doing here?”
With his mouth twisted down into a perpetual grimace, Chthamalus breathed from the gills in his neck. “I heard that you had been reborn and were back alive. My place is at your side, my lord. As I vowed to you once. So here I am to serve you as I should and as you need.”
That solemn oath of loyalty touched him a lot deeper than it should have. Leave it to his old friend to track him down, even all these centuries later. “I can’t accept your oath, Tally. I freed you from the service me father demanded of you. You know that.” All of Chthamalus’s species had been held in bondage as guardians for their royal family. It’d been something his father had decreed after he’d conquered them.
But Kalder had never believed in holding any species as slaves.
Not that it’d mattered. Within moments of Kalder’s birth, Chthamalus had been impressed to serve as his guardian and teacher. A task the lunatic had taken to with zeal—like an old mother hen possessed by the devil. He’d all but sat upon him to hatch.
So the two of them had spent years tussling back and forth for some form of freedom. Tussles Kalder had lost more times than he’d ever won.
“And I have missed you, my lord. Wyñeria isn’t the same without you. Indeed, it’s terribly boring. Oppressive. Depressive. Disgusting, truly.”
He scoffed at those words. “Given that it failed as a civilization centuries ago and me people are all dead, I can well imagine that.”
“Nay, Highness. Not dead…Hidden.”
Kalder scowled. “What?”
“’Tis true. King Varice veiled the kingdom after you and Prince Muerig were slain.” Tally rose from the waves to slither up the side of the ship so that he could be nearer Kalder’s position. He cupped the edges of the railing with his webbed hands so that he could peer around the deck. Then, he looked to the waters below as if fearful of being overheard by something more than the earless water.
Peculiar actions for a fearless creature.
“He’s put a price upon your life, Your Highness. He fears you’ll return and take the kingdom from him.”
Stunned over such ludicrous paranoia, Kalder stared at the demon for several seconds. When he could finally gather his ability to answer that, it was a resounding “What?”
He nodded. “On your return to the living, the veil opened. The king believes you’re the one who did it, so that you can invade your homeland and take his power as he did yours. He’s gathering his army for it. That’s how sure he is that you’re returning to take it back.”
Kalder’s head reeled with this new information. Honestly, he wasn’t sure which part of it shocked him most. That his brother had called in dogs to hunt him down, that his brother had killed him, or that they still lived.
It was all too much to handle.
“Has he lost all reason?”
“A good bit of it. Aye. Did you not hear what I said?”
Leave it to Chthamalus to not understand his sarcasm. “And my mother? Does she live? What has she to say?”
“She drives him to it. Feeds his madness with a frightful frenzy.”
You should have guessed that.“Well, that’s awesome.”
