When we rolled through ornate gates to the seaside shrine of Ihdos, I peeked through the closed windows to see dozens and dozens of carriages being battered by waves and wind strong enough to blow a horse over. There were scant few commoners at the gates. Seemed only the nobles were daft enough to ride through a typhoon in their finery to gawk and titter.
We were rushed inside. Footmen and pages with large coverings held over our heads escorted us into the main vestibule. Prescott hurried to my side as we were led into a side room where the oldest elf I had ever seen bowed and blessed the king, the queen, the consorts, then turned to me.
“This is the new prince?” the ancient one asked. His sight flew to Prescott, who was making large fingerprints in the warmwax at the base of a candle. “And this troll is under the full control of your brother?”
“Yes, Exalted Cloisterer, this is my brother, Coelum Stillcloud, the new Lord of Renedith. The half troll is Sir Prescott, duly appointed sentry of Lord Coelum, and is a trusted ally of the crown,” Aelir said while underlings of the church patted at the hems and shoulders of V’alor and Merrilyn’s speckled attire.
I didn’t miss the fact that my paternal last name was no longer said. Just as if Pontious Cadere had never existed, his name was stricken from all the decrees and scrolls of lineage, I assumed. Only my mother’s name was to be used, and only in disgraced tones. For she had spread her legs for a dirty pirate. The shame of it all. It didn’t sit well in my craw, to be honest.
The old elf droned on at me, kissing my knuckles, blessing me with scented smoke from a dozen censers carried by under-clerics. We filed out of the antechamber into a damp room, lit with thousands of white and gold candles, many as tall as the mainmast of the Cloud’s Shame. Massive stained-glass windows surrounded us, the tempestuous sea slamming into the delicate-colored glass over and over. My eyes were drawn to the towering statue of Ihdos. He stood above us, eyes blank, hands raised, his hair spread out about his bare feet. Each pew was filled with elves in finery and jewelry so resplendent that the temple itself dimmed in comparison. Each of the slightly damp nobles eyed me like a new dish to be placed before them and pulled apart to discover its secrets.
Le’ral guided me to where I would stand throughout the morning prayers, to the back and left of Aelir, where the twins would stand once they arrived. Behind the key heirs, as the ambassador and Le’ral had explained over and over. When I was officially announced as a prince of the realm, I would step forward to take my place ahead of the royal consorts. Eventhough I possessed not a drop of royal blood. It was all utter nonsense. Yet, here I stood, with sweaty palms, my eyes on the ocean beating mercilessly against the windows.
The nobles were all quietly looking me over, whispering behind silk fans, their faces painted and dusted white, their ears long and sharp, their eyes narrowed. Each one surely picking at each disgusting trait of the pirate prince. Mentally plotting, hissing like cats that a half-bred stain on the name of Stillcloud was being brought amongst them. Why surely the king wasmadto expect those of noble elven blood to accept this foul swine! You may dress and perfume a pig, but it was still a pig. Even I, the pig, knew this to be true.
Scanning the crowds as the opening benediction dragged on, I spied my crew, far in the back, standing among a neat row of church acolytes. Hyla waved as our eyes met, then she pointed at her wooden leg and the new yellow slipper upon it. Pith, Simon, they were all here, and all looked quite nicely kitted out. I’d have to thank my brother for allowing them to witness their captain becoming something far different from what he had been not so long ago. For a flash of a moment, I dreamt of throwing the silver circlet resting on a fat pillow beside the Exalted Cloisterer into the sea and running hell bent for leather to my ship.
I spied Beiro and Asdren in the back with my crew. My eyes went to the stone scrollwork in the ceiling to find…ah, yes, there he was, sitting atop the ornate curved stonework like a cat. Jaculi, tail wrapped around his body, bright blue eyes bored.
Then the twins arrived, bringing smiles to all in attendance as they took their place in front of me, each taking one of my clammy hands.
Locating a white candle the height of a tree in the corner, I focused on it…the flicker of the flame, the way the wax ran down the slim taper until my sight drifted to the stone wall. TheExalted Cloisterer was talking about Ihdos and his love for those who came into his temple to renounce their simplistic ways to attain a spiritual metamorphosis. I stared at the droplet of water seeping through the stone.
I watched it as it slithered down the wall to join other puddles of seawater that lay unheeded by the masses. Candlelight reflected off the pools. The nobles packed into this ostentatious temple seemingly uncaring about the gathering of ocean water at their feet. Surely their silken slippers would be stained if nothing else. The longer I stood under the light of a thousand candles, the stronger the urge to bolt. This was not me. This was what Aelir wished me to be, and for the life of me, if I did not speak out, I would—
The largest puddle moved. I blinked, sure that the smoke of all the fucking candles mingling with the aroma of a hundred or so differing perfumes had blurred my vision. Shifting to the left slightly to see the largest pool around a noblewoman of such girth she required a third of a pew to rest her arse on and stared at the mere. A shimmer ran across the surface much like a ripple in a glass of water when Prescott plays leapfrog with Simon. I moved right to see around the large woman and caught a small undulation in the pool. Shaking free of the sticky grip of my nephew for a moment, I slid my right hand into the small coin bag on my belt. My fingers skimmed the lucent, jerking away as it was ice cold. Another billow moved over the large puddle then another. I glanced at the other pools at the base of the walls. Each one seemed to be swelling, the seawater congealing and then slowly rising from the puddles. A watery head rose from the pools of brine.
“Fukkate,” I spat out, stepping around the twins as the first of a dozen dewraith began to take form. “Get the king and his family to safety!” My shout rang out just as the largest translucent figure with hollow eyes like an empty well reachedout to lay a watery hand on the head of the large woman. Frost coated her face as the monster drained the warmth from the noblewoman. Mouth frozen in a scream, the woman tipped over with the pallor of blue death on her skin. “Prescott, protect the twins! Tezen, V’alor, Pasil, Le’ral, my crew to arms! Show no quarter!”
V’alor gave me a dark look but drew his sword just as Pasil and Tezen did. Le’ral slid a rapier from a jeweled scabbard. Utter bedlam broke out as nobility from the far corners of Melowynn tried to flee. Old people were knocked aside, some onto the wet floor where the emerging dewraiths enveloped them in the cold of the depths to siphon off their body heat. Frost began to coat the floor, the walls, and the stained-glass windows, keeping the violent sea at bay. Pirates, scorned by the ones battling through to save them, leapt into action with hoots of glee. They, too, had been too long without a good brawl. I called on my powers, sigils flaring to life but much weaker than normal, and pulled a large ball of briny water from the middle of a monster, only to have the seawater reach out to engulf my glowing hand. That was obviously not the way to battle these beasts, so I shook the water off and fell back to melee fighting.
“What the hells are these things?” Pasil shouted, sliding on a patch of frost as he shunted Aelir and the queen out of the main chamber. I glanced back to see that Prescott had the twins in his arms, shouldering the royal guards that were encircling Aelir, Raewyn, and Lady Merrilyn out the side door. Lady Merrilyn was most displeased to be shuttled away from the fight.
“Dewraiths! Handmaidens of the three sisters,” I yelled as I ran at one of the creatures. The lucent was cold and dead in my pouch. I’d never known it to grow so cold nor to refuse to respond to me when I needed it. “They seep through stone to steal the heat of the living. We must find a way to seal the stone, or they will overrun us!”
Knowing it was futile, but left with no recourse, I dove over a nobleman cowering on the floor between two pews to slice through one of the transparent but lethal monsters. My scabbard sluiced through water with sickening ease. I called up my powers to bring the water to my bidding then recalled my previous attempt, so I let the magick fizzle. It was then that I knew these beasts of the deep were here to deliver a warning. To me.
“Ack, my picks go right through them!” Tezen bellowed, zipping over my head to avoid the watery lunge of a dewraith. “How do we fight something we can’t make fucking bleed?! Sorry, Your Lordship!”
The man on the floor seemed uncaring of titles or profanities at the moment. I could hear the twins crying in fright, and that, more than any dead noble or cowering prude, stirred my anger.
“Got to seal the stone!” a gruff familiar voice bellowed out just as Asdren appeared at my left with a flaming gold candelabra in his hands. “Buckets of bitumen!” No one replied. “What? You’re going to doubt the fucking dwarf when it comes to stonework?!”
“Summon the masons’ guild! Tell them we require all the pitch and lime they can ferry to us and to do it with haste!” V’alor called out to his men, who were trying to get the crowds outside. “Wise thinking, Grimmane!”
An arrow whizzed by and through a dewraith, embedding in a wooden table holding a delicate oil lamp. I knew the fletching well. Beiro was somewhere, probably up with his damn dragon in the rafters. The table tipped over, spilling oil onto the floor. An idea appeared, a desperate one, aye, but an idea just the same.
“Our blades are useless on them. We can only repel them. Asdren, put fire to oil!” I yelled out as I touched on my magicks, pulling them forth as I sheathed my weapon. Blue sigils flaredto life. I pulled fresh water from a font then hurled a tight ball at one of the dewraiths. It impacted its side, diluting the seawater enough to slightly weaken the spawn of the deep but not to destroy it. I shoved a weeping man in peacock-blue pantaloons to the guards and fired off another volley, getting nowhere quickly.
“Aye, Captain!” Grimmore yelled, charging to the small puddle of oil and touching the flames of the candles to it. Fire leapt up from the oil. Two of the dewraiths caught in the blaze turned to steam. “Fire! We need more fire! Ah, you blighted son of a cock poxy hag!”
I spun to see the frost touch on Asdren’s cheek and spread to his long beard. I ran at the dewraith as I took off my cloak, whipping it through the spreading flames on the floor and tossing it over the monster with its hand on the dwarf’s shoulder. It reared back and turned into a fog of seawater. Asdren rubbed at his cheek, looked skyward, and gave his lover a cocky smile. Beiro, atop the massive stone statue of Ihdos, nodded and fired off a shot that struck another lamp in an alcove. Flames leapt to life. The dewraiths hissed and spat as they were reduced to steam one by one. Le’ral raced past me, a torch made from his own cape and a broken table leg and waved the fire into the face of a monster that had sprung up from a nearby puddle. I’d been so busy looking at the outrider sitting on a god’s head that I’d not seen the creature rise from the pool. A large cloud of steam rose to the dragonling enjoying the show. Fire now crawled around the floor, following the fingerlings of lamp oil. The seas churned outside, our pants drowned by the irate waves. My sight lingered on the stained-glass rendition of Ihdos for a moment too long.
“Coelum! Behind you!” Le’ral bellowed but too late. Arms wet and cold as the depths wrapped around me. My body seized as frost spread over my skin, my feet sinking into a puddle thatenveloped both me and the watery monster grappling with me. Down we sank, into the floor, as the shouts of my lover wavered then stopped. I drew in a fast breath before the stone flooring sealed over my head. The lucent now pulsed with renewed energy as silence, so complete my ears rang, closed in around us. Ice crept over my chest, creeping into my bones, and sending my heart into a panicked frenzy before it stopped beating.
Opening my eyes with a shaky gasp that pulled bitter cold air into my lungs, I shuddered to consciousness, the cold embrace of the dewraith locking the muscles of my arms and legs. My eyes were cloudy at first as I struggled to understand where I had been taken. Then I saw we were in a throne room in a dark cave lit by hundreds of odd fish that glowed in the pitch black. They swam in lazy circles around us, bottom jaws protruding to show rows of sharp teeth. My vision moved to the three sisters before me, their hair floating about their heads, pale green eyes locked on me. They sat on thrones of pink coral, thin women, scales covering them from head to webbed feet. Shells and starfish clung to them like barnacles to a ship. None would say they were attractive, but they were commanding in their presence.
My heart, still beating unevenly, sped up as Nymira Tidebound, Lirentha Saltveil, and Vaelora Moonwake stared at me with ire in their fathomless gazes. A thin dark eel swam past as the grip of the dewraith grew ever tighter. And so this was how the Cadere line ended. At the webbed feet of three highly angered sea witches. Pity, I would have liked to possibly sire a set of twins like my brother had someday…
