Take the body and give me the rest (11 page)

Seth couldn’t
understand why Stephan would do it. What could this old man have
that he wanted so badly? A life of the sea? Sitting by the fire and
trading ghost stories and the history of Dacar?

Seth spoke back
to Elizebetha in Dacarian, carefully at first, then boldly. He knew
it, he knew the language, he knew the songs and stories and he held
the entirety of the man’s life. His name was Jopher.

Elizebetha
looked at him. ‘What happened? I wouldn’t have thought Stephan
would bother to learn it.’

‘I didn’t know
a word until just now, being here, hearing the language, another of
Stephan’s old ghosts just came back to me,’ he said.

‘Who was it?’
she asked.

‘Some old story
teller called Jopher. I have no idea why Stephan would take him.
What did he know that was worth his life?’ he said.

‘Think not
about him, but Stephan; you’ve got his memories about the event as
well,’ she said.

Seth cast his
mind back into the General’s, almost twenty years ago when he had
visited this place. He saw a memory of Stephan sitting talking with
Jopher and grasped a hold of it. He was struck in an instant by a
sickening hunger like he hadn’t felt except when he was calling the
creature. It staggered him.

‘He was hungry;
that was the only reason. The creature was calling its hunger, so
much so that he couldn’t stand it anymore, and that was the only
reason,’ he said.

She just nodded
to him.

‘Why hasn’t
that happened to me yet or to you?’ he asked.

‘The more you
call the creature, the deeper the connection you have with it. You
may grow to the point where you can call it with a simple command
in the mind. But the closer you are, the more you experience its
hunger as your own. Now, somewhere behind the veil perhaps it
hungers madly but you just can’t feel it,’ she said.

‘Does it affect
you?’ he asked.

‘I’ve only ever
done a summoning once in my life, Seth, and that was when I was a
little girl. You have already done much more than I ever did. But
also at times you can feel the hunger come at you in different
forms,’ she said.

‘What forms?’
he asked.

Here, she
laughed at him. ‘I know what you have been up to with the Pellosina
woman, Seth. Your passion for her is normal lust but also more than
that, I don’t doubt. A passion to own, devour, possess. Those are
the creature’s hungers. For myself, I often feel that way about
knowledge, the want to know everything in the world there is to
know. I devour knowledge and feel a lust for it. Less exciting than
your lust, I’m sure, but they sate the feeling, at least in
part.

‘Let’s head to
bed, Seth. Tonight, try focus on the new man in your life. It would
be shame to let all those stories and tales be taken from the
world.’

Seth’s dreams
for once behaved themselves and he spent the night exploring the
many yellow fireside memories of the simple man that had been
Jopher. He heard many tales in the man’s voice of ships that had
never returned, kings and dukes of Dacar, the howling woman who
haunted the coastline waiting for a lover who would never return.
He felt the simple pleasure in gaining the regard of others as he
spun the tale and a glass of ale well earned in the telling. Seth
woke in the morning, feeling better than he had in months.

They were back aboard the decks of
The Opulent
by the time the sun had
risen to the halfway point in the sky. Seth was looking forward to
running into Minsetta and thus was happy to stroll up and down the
decks a little with Elizebetha as he told her some of the new tales
and Dacarian ghost stories that were now his.

He saw Minsetta
coming towards him from a distance and was still left a little
breathless at the sight of her. Lucky bastard he was. She looked
radiant in the sunlight, casting down on her simple white dress,
brown skin and brown hair in lovely contrast. She smiled at him as
he came close. Elizebetha had hung back to talk with someone
else.

She looked a
little tired and not quite herself, but she smiled brightly anyway.
‘Good afternoon, young Master, nice trip in Dacar?’ she asked.

They still pretended in public
in
case the Captain took offence. It was no secret that the Captain’s
brat still held a strong grudge against Seth, and Seth didn’t want
to get bumped overboard one night. He hoped that none of the
sailors running the ship at night had seen them in their moonlight
antics or felt like being vocal about it.

‘Very nice, I
learned a lot about the place. And you, did you go ashore?’ he
asked.

‘I did, but
I’ve been many times before. Anyway, will I see you tonight?’ she
asked.

He was a little
surprised. ‘Actual plans to see me? You must have missed me. I’ll
be there.’

‘Lovely, I’ll
see you tonight, young Master,’ she said softly and swept away.

Elizebetha
rejoined him. ‘She is a magnificent looking woman that one. Be
careful with her.’

Seth smiled
back at her. ‘Afraid I’m going to get my heartbroken?’

‘I am. You’re a
lot younger than her and inexperienced in love,’ she said.

He laughed
aloud. ‘Stephan was plenty experienced for the both of us. I’ll not
show her any more than she shows me; that was his rule to the
game.’

‘It’s hardly a
game, Seth. Just be careful. I’ll still need you when we make
landfall.’

‘Yes, Your
Ladyship,’ he said, feeling his heart drop a bit. He didn’t know
what he was planning, but it didn’t exactly involve never seeing
Minsetta again.

Chapter 13

She led him
from the deck by the hand, like she had some many nights since the
first one. He was familiar with the way they twisted and navigated
in the moonlight past the masts and ropes across the main deck and
into the lamp-lit corridor that held her room. Her room as well was
familiar to him now, and the well-made bed a welcome sight. He
wouldn’t talk to her about what Elizebetha had mentioned; they
never talked about what would happen when they actually got to
Pelloss, and it was an unspoken rule. But now he was hoping that
the trip never really had to end.

Inside the
lamp-lit room, she gently pushed him backwards onto the bed and,
with quick hands, undid his boots, taking them off and casting them
aside. Next she unbuttoned his shirt, taking it off him and,
lastly, undoing his belts and pants, slid them off as well. Seth
lay on the bed naked in front of her gaze. With a simple motion,
she undid a few clasps at the back of the white dress, and the
entire thing fell to the floor exposing her to him as well. She
looked as incredible as the first time he’d seen her naked. He felt
his lust and hunger surge within him.

‘Go to the
middle of the bed,’ she said, he moved himself to the middle of the
bed. She came crawling up him, pressing her body against his, and
feeling the hot skin-on-skin contact. Reaching out with her hands,
she took a leather binding that was near the metal bed head and
tied Seth’s wrists down. He laughed as she did it; he’d done it to
her just a few nights before. She leaned back, allowing a view of
her stretched out as she tied ones at his feet as well.

When she was
finished, she sat astride him and slowly grinded her sweet pussy
into his hardening cock. He looked at her from lying under her, her
large perfect breasts on display, as was the sexy way her lip
curled a little as she ground against him. When he could feel her
wetness, she reached down and, just like the first night, he felt a
thrill of pleasure as she guided him inside of her. He so badly
wanted to reach out and touch her with his hands but couldn’t; he
couldn’t even get those lovely nipples in his mouth. He was
helpless but happy as she slowly picked up speed in her downward
rocking motion. She reached down between her own legs and found the
spot, while Seth looked on, more turned on than he could believe as
she worked herself to climax, feeling her tighten around him and
hearing that squeal of release. He came just moments after,
drinking in the sight of her and the feeling of her.

They sat for a
few panting moments and she smiled down at him. ‘Thanks, I needed
that,’ she said.

He laughed.
‘It’s always my pleasure.’

She slowly slid
off him and the bed, walking across the room to a tall dark wooded
wardrobe. She drew out a thin red gown and draped it over her body,
coming to stand beside the bed to gaze at him. His breathing was
now back to normal, and his wrists were starting to chaff against
the tight leather bonds. She went to a small table and pouring some
wine into a glass let him drink deeply as he lay there. He was
about to ask her to untie him when she began to speak over him.

‘Seth, I have
to tell you something, and it’s easier if you’re like that,’ she
said.

He was starting
to get a bad feeling; this lovemaking had a very goodbye feeling to
it. He resolved to be strong about it.

‘Of course,
talk to the helpless man,’ he said.

‘I’m older than
you, Seth. A lot older. I’ve survived this long because along the
way I’ve learned that the only person I can trust and rely on is
myself. I’ve seen everything this world has to offer, Seth, and I
know exactly what you are.’

He felt
defensive and very exposed now. ‘What exactly am I?’

‘You’re a
gatherer of souls, Seth. You steal people’s souls and you carry
them around inside of you.’

‘That’s not
what it is at all!’

‘I know better
than you, Seth. I’ve been alive for more than one hundred years
because I’m one as well. I could see it in you from that first day.
You are too young to know everything so well. The way you spoke
Cravosi and Pellosi was too good and, when you said Arisetta had
taught you, I knew for certain. She would never have taken a male
student and, to learn what you knew, that would take many years
that you just didn’t have.’

‘So you’re one
of the Dark Guild?’ he asked, now starting to fight against his
bonds but even with his new found strength he couldn’t break them,
his head was starting to swim a little bit and he was struggling to
make sense of her words, He thought of the wine, did it taste
slightly bitter?

‘I’m not one of
them, but I owe them, Seth. I was on this ship to remove lady
Elizebetha, but they reached out and let me know that you are now
also a part of the deal.’

‘So all this
was nothing at all? You’ll just happily kill me now? I love you,
can’t you see that?’ he said fiercely, not caring about the rules;
he’d be dead soon anyway.

Her large brown
eyes glazed for a mere moment with a sheen of tears—and, with a
blink, it was gone, and she was composed again. ‘I know, Seth, and
I love you too, in my own way. You’re a very sweet boy. I wasn’t
even going to do this. I don’t care what I owe them and I don’t
care what they are offering me to do this, but in the end I just
can’t get past what you’ve got inside of you, and that’s what I
need to take back from you.’

‘The General?
Why do you care so much about him? What did he know that was so
valuable?’

She shook her
head sadly. ‘Not the General, Seth; I don’t care about him. It’s
Arisetta, and it’s blasphemy for a man to be carrying around her
soul. I want to know her. I will carry her with respect.’

‘I haven’t got
her soul; it’s her memories and experience only. She’s dead; the
General killed her and I only have a shadow of what she was. It’s
like watching a play of her life,’ he said passionately.

‘You know
nothing, Seth. If you’d had the chance to live as long as I, you’d
see. We are gatherers of souls and these emotions that you’re
talking of are nothing at all. This time with you is just like the
blink of an eye. Am I meant to throw my whole life away on
something so short? I’ve done so many terrible things; this doesn’t
even come close. And you would have become exactly the same. Truly,
I am saving you from yourself.’

Seth struggled
hard against the bonds but couldn’t get free. He knew this was the
end; no talking his way out of this. Heartbreak was the least of
his worries now. He tried to call the creature with his mind; he
could feel it pressing hard trying to get in, but his mind couldn’t
focus on the words he needed to call it, what had she given
him.

‘Fucking do it
then. Call your beast and have it rip me apart, I hope the memories
of what I feel for you will you haunt you forever.’ He slurred at
her

She laughed at
him coldly but with a touch of pain. ‘No more than anything else
I’ve done to get here, Seth; no more than anything else.’

Her large brown
eyes slowly turned out of focus, and Seth could feel a strange
feeling as she reached out for something. He could feel her pulling
and bringing something in, reaching out across the cold veil and
connecting with something. It felt so different from his own
creature; not a blood lust hunger but something cold, dark and
deadly. Something that suffered and wanted all else to suffer as
well.

The air in the
room thickened and grew dark. The air was swirling like a silent
storm and Seth could see the veil and a large pale shape looming
behind it. It was the shape of a person but didn’t move like one.
Slowly, the veil parted and into the room with the ceasing of the
storm, it stepped.

Seth’s creature
wasn’t like this. His was a wolf of sorts, and an animal god was
how he thought of it. This thing was dead. It was almost six feet
in height, a girl, or the dead body of one, come to life. Pale and
stinking like a corpse, black lank hair and eyes that were all
white with no pupils. It wore a black dress that looked in the
style of Dacar funeral garb that had been ripped, bloody
fingernails and cuts on the backs of its hands, the wounds of
crawling out from a buried coffin, he thought.