She sat up straighter now she had some wine in her. Asdren and I shared a look.
“Your father never wished for you to know about this,” Hyla said, her voice strong, her pointed chin coming up. “I pleaded with him to tell you the truth, but he forbade it. He said he had no wish for you to know you were of the elite class, for it would turn your head. You’d be a pirate like him. Blood bound to the sea.” Coelum fell back into his chair, slack jawed, as the story flowed from her like a dam weakening and then breaking after years of stress. “He was your father, Coelum, that is true. Your mother, I know not, for I was just the shamed daughter of a cooper, who had taken up with a cowardly shit who ran out on me when I found myself increasing. I have many suspicions about your mother. “
“Oh? And what would those be?” Coelum asked, his words icy cold.
“An elegant elven female, no doubt taken up with a blackguard, finds herself expecting a dirty child, a child carrying half-human blood. It is a tale as old as the sea itself. That would bring scandal untold on a noble house. But such worries were beyond me. I struggled with the birth of my child. It was born dead, cord around its neck, and I turned to the church for solace. The grand cloisterer…he came to me in the night with a babe in arms not one moon later. It was you, blue eyes bright as a summer day and a head of black hair. Knowing my plight, he—the cloisterer—offered me a large sum of gold to take you to the pirates of the Stormhold with no questions. I was living on the streets, sleeping with rats in alleys, a sun away from having to sell myself to survive.”
Cadere pushed his goblet aside to sweep the wine bottle from the table. He drank long and deep from it, lowering it to stare through the wall as if he could blow a hole through it with mere thought. Anger and shock played out on his face.
“You needed me as dearly as I needed you,” she continued. “And so I left Renedith and my family to find a new one here. Among the seafarers. I sailed with you and still do, looking out for you as if you were the son that I lost all those years ago. Many times I stared at you and saw the noble blood in you but was forbidden to speak of it. Your father knew all, but he would not refer to her, the woman who he had bedded, and so the lie slowly became a truth.”
“No,” Coelum growled, the bottle in his hand shaking. “It was still a lie. No matter how much you and my father wished for it to be the truth, it was a lie. My lineage is not what I was told it was. I am not the son of a poxy whore but the son of a noble woman, the half-brother of a fucking king. Even when news of the Stillcloud heir taking the throne reached us, neither you nor my father said a word to me! We sat around this very table talking about the new king and all Father did, allyoudid, was run down the aristocracy with drunken barbs at the monarch who all the while was my brother.My brother!”
The wine bottle in his hand was brought down on the edge of the table. Glass shattered, wine flew into the air, and we all went rigid. If he went to hurt the woman with the busted bottle out of a blind rage, I would step in front of her. She was a pawn. A rook on a chessboard moved about by powerful hands trying to keep a secret that would impact not just lives but an entire vills. Not only a vills. An entire kingdom.
“We should go,” Asdren stated, rising from his seat. “This is family business.”
“You shall stay here in the Violin. I will need to decide what my reply to the king will be. Take a room here. I wish to haveyou close at hand. Hyla, you should go as well. My apologies for my temper.” Coelum dropped the neck of the bottle to the floor as we stood. Jaculi leapt to my shoulder, Click to my forearm, and we left with Hyla following us out, wearing a mask of cool indifference. A stalwart female, in truth.
“Prescott,” she said as the door closed behind us. “Find them a room. Clean, fit for a guest of the captain.”
“Room, yes,” he replied. She climbed down the stairs without a word to us, which was understandable. We had brought the news that had tossed her world and the world of an elf who thought he knew who he was into a maelstrom that the Stormhold would be hard pressed to rival.
A room was readied for us in short time. Upon entering the humble lodgings, I turned to look at Asdren while Jaculi and Click started bickering over a shoe buckle found under the large bed. They were like siblings.
“Well, that was quite the fucking moment,” Asdren said as he sat on the edge of the bed to start peeling off his boots. “Makes me glad to be away from all that nobility shite. My da was cut from the same cloth. Shame to the clan was akin to murder or even worse. Old, powerful arses trying to hide secrets in their dusty wardrobes all need a firm boot in the cockles.”
I sat down beside him, shoulders sagging. “This may be the first time that I am glad to not be of noble blood. Nary a soul seeks to steal off into the night with the son of a notorious bandit unless they are planning to drown the babe in a water barrel.”
He straightened, dropped his boot to the floor, and gave me a tired, admiring look.
“You’re the most noble among us, Vol’ka Dor.”
“You’re biased,” I replied and got a bold smile.
“Aye, that I am. Can I borrow your raven? I need to send a few messages.”
I kissed him for getting it right, and then I kissed him again because I adored him.
We came awake wound around each other like vines, his head on my chest, long beard covering my stomach and groin. It took a moment for me to recall where I was. The room was drafty, the fire low, and the wallpaper a ghastly blue and silver design. One was not picky when one had only stolen goods to choose from. Thick covers lay over our tangled legs, richly made and stuffed with goose down. Also pilfered. Those who sailed under Coelum scored some valuable goods, it seemed. Aside from the tacky wall covering. Asdren shifted. My cock, already hard, stiffened more. So much so that it peeked out from amid black hair festooned with blue beads. I ran a hand over his shoulder, feeling the firm muscle under his skin, grinning down at my prick as it stood at attention. Perhaps we could find time to—
A thunderous pounding on the door scattered my fantasies of sex. Asdren sat up, eyes round, head twitching as if seeking out where the danger was at before he blew out a breath of understanding.
“Aye, what’s the fucking noise about?” Asdren bellowed, rubbing at his eyes with the tips of his fingers.
“Meet captain. Now.” The deep voice of Prescott informed us. A chime clock rang on the dresser.
“Glad to see the fucker gives us so much time,” Asdren grumbled, kicking off the coverlet to hit the floor with a thud. Sighing over the loss of that fat cock in my arse, I followed suit, dressing fully and then opening the window to allow Jaculi out to hunt. Click was gone, having sailed off last night to find the members of the Sable Legion. Asdren had directed them toreturn to Avolire to wait for us, as we may be tied up for some time with a possible prince having an identity calamity. I took note that my weapons had been brought in while we slept.
We were let into the captain’s room by Prescott. There were signs of a mighty hashing about as the room was destroyed. Lamps broken, bedding thrown about, and half a dozen wine bottles lying on the floor. Thankfully, no nude bodies were lying on the rumpled bed.
Coelum sat at the table, now cleared of the feast from last night, nursing a ceramic mug of what smelled like strong coffee. He still wore the plum pants but had pulled on a lilac satin robe.
“You look rested,” he roughly said as he indicated with a wave for us to sit.
“Pity the same can’t be said for you,” Asdren replied as his backside found his seat.
“I’ve had a night to be sure.” His eyes were red, his long hair pulled back into a thick tail that hung down his back. “I’d like to thank you for bringing that news to me.”
