Dread will out. There’s nowhere to hide that it won’t find you.
He should have known that an enemy so insidious could never be truly defeated. Only held at bay for a bit.
“The ship’s coming apart!” That cry went up in unison from the crew.
“Drop the dinghies! Abandon ship!”
It wouldn’t do any good. The swell of the waves would overturn the tiny lifeboats in a heartbeat and drag them all to the bottom of the ocean, where they wouldn’t stand a chance against the riptides that would trap them. Again, that was why his father had gone undefeated during his entire reign. Why no army or navy could touch their people.
Not until the Myrcians had destroyed themselves with infighting.
More orders followed all around him, but Kalder barely heard them. Mostly because he knew what the Deadmen did. This far out at sea, there was no help for them. They were alone. If the ship went down, they would be stranded without food or shelter. And while Deadmen couldn’t die, there were plenty of things worse than death.
Having been tortured in hell more than once, he could testify to that.
I can’t leave them here to suffer.
To be lost at sea…
He wasn’t his mother. He didn’t glory in the pain and suffering of others. Not even in that of his enemies. Never mind what would happen to those he considered his real and true family.
“Chthamalus!” Kalder watched as the Dread Waters rose ever higher and pounded harder and harder against the sides of the ship, stripping more planks from the hull and sending them to the sea below.
The demon appeared by his side in his warrior form. “My lord?”
“Can you open a portal back to Wyñeria?”
He actually turned green with the thought of it. “Why? I just came from that place.… You don’t want to go there. Trust me. It’s not the home you once knew.”
“We have no choice.” It was the only place where the crew would have any semblance of dry land this far out.
His eyes bugged even more. “My prince…”
The ship whined and lurched as more of the hull fractured and came free. Lightning flashed in the dark skies above. Howling screams echoed around them.
And that was just the crew.
They wouldn’t have much longer. Any second and they were done for.
Kalder braced himself against the railing and held tight against the bucking ship. He ducked as a mast came free and swung wide, narrowly missing his head. “I won’t run, Tally. It’s not in me to do so. Ever. You say me brothers want me. Fine, then. I’ll take the fight to them, and if I have to dig me own grave, I’ll make sure to plant the shovel up their arses before I go. Now open that portal and make sure Muerig goes with us through it.”
In the midst of scrambling to see Mara and the crew safe, Devyl caught sight of Chthamalus by Kalder’s side. The furious glower on his face would have terrified a lesser man. But as noted, Kalder backed down from no one.
Not even Devyl Bane.
“What’sthatdoing here?”
The fact that Devyl was familiar with Tally’s breed surprised him more than his captain’s anger. “You know his species?”
The captain gave him a droll stare. “Aye. I’ve pulled the gills off a large number of them.”
Chthamalus shrank away with a squeak at the thought of being maimed in such a manner.
Unwilling to see him harmed, Kalder put himself between them. “This one is counted among me family, Captain. More so than those I share blood with.”
“Du?” Mara’s voice was even weaker.
The captain turned as pale as Cameron’s Necrodemian hair, and for the first time ever, Kalder saw fear in the captain’s eyes as he glanced down at the woman in his arms. There was no missing the love in Devyl’s heart for her. She and his sister were the one true weakness he had. The only thing that could defeat their invincible leader. And that right there was what Kalder would sell his soul to have.
