Traveler (19 page)

***

The man she had been with, whose name was Derek, froze as the woman he had been about to make scream like a banshee disappeared below him.  His eyes were wild and crazy.  “What the fuck?” he asked, staggering out of his car, his pants half falling down, her minidress clutched in one hand and her bra still hooked on one of his buttons. He staggered to the front door, raising his hand to bang on the door as if his life depended on it.  “Help!”

After his charge had left to go to some party, Alexander had spent the bulk of his evening working on the pendant that he had promised her earlier in the day.  Just as he finished securing the last tendril of magic to the silver, there was a loud, frantic banging on his front door.  He set the pendant down on the cocktail table, wiping his hands on his jeans as he walked to the door.  When he opened it, he was shocked to find a crazy looking man on his doorstep asking for help.  His blue eyes narrowed, filling with icy rage when he noticed the bra hanging from the man’s shirt and the familiar dress clutched in his hand.  “What’s wrong?”

“She disappeared, man!” he said, eyes wide and frantic.  “We were getting hot and heavy...and then she vanished!  Right from underneath me!   What the hell, man?  I’m freaking out, man!  Where did she go?”

Oh for the love of...!
He froze for a moment before quickly pulling tendrils of magic from the air, using the mystical energy to make the dress and bra disappear from his grip...making them return to Aislin’s bedroom, along with anything else she might have left in his car.  Lacing his voice with a compelling thread of magic, he replied calmly.  “Relax...you must have been slipped something wherever you were at.  When you pulled into my driveway, you were alone in your car.”

The man looked at him with wide eyes.  “Of course...by myself in the car...no one else with me...” He turned away, walking as if in a trance.  “Just myself...going home...”

Maintaining a calm facade, he stood there and watched until the man had driven away from his home.  When he was gone, Alexander hurried back inside, cursing under his breath.  He should have just stayed up last night to work on the pendant.  Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier?  Shaking his head, he snatched up the delicate necklace on his way towards his bedroom, only to stop in surprise when his cell rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and almost dropped it in shock to see Aislin pop up on the caller ID.  Before he could answer it, the phone stopped ringing.  
Damn...hold on...I’m coming...

***

Aislin scowled at the now-familiar cabin.  Great, back here again.  She opened the trunk, thankful for the seemingly endless supply of dresses inside.  The one she pulled out was a deep forest green, and it showed off her eyes.  A knock on her door sounded soon after she dressed, and she looked up in surprise.  Who could that be...?  She opened it to see the Captain standing there.  “Captain?” she said in surprise.  “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Rahim smiled at her, his smile not reaching his dark eyes.  “I need to speak to you...in private, please.”  

Frowning, she let him come into her cabin.  “What’s going on?”  

“Why is Brileia questioning what I told her?”  

“What you told her?  Do not get me started on what you told her, Captain.  You are a heartless bastard for what you told her!  Your timelines don’t match up.  Why? Why tell her a lie...is he alive and just doesn’t want to see her?  The truth, always, is better to give someone than a terrible lie.”  Alex’s words popped into her head, and she smiled a little.  She didn’t know how true his words were...until now.  “You make it right....or I will have to do something rash and find the truth out for myself.”  

Rahim stood up to her, standing tall over her.  “Do not dare to threaten a pirate Captain, Traveler,” he growled.  “Or you will regret it.  Think carefully on your words before you speak to me again.”  Then he turned and left, leaving Aislin alone.  

***

Luc carried a platter of food, bread and dried meat down to Brileia’s room, as he had every day, twice a day, since she had been on their ship.  It had only been a few days, but he felt that he had a connection to the girl.  He raised his knuckles to knock on her door.  “Bird?  It’s Luc, bird.  Your Rogue.”

Blue-embroidered white silk clung to her slender body as Brileia sat against the headboard of her bed, staring listlessly at the opposite wall.  The sound of Luc’s voice brought a faint smile to her lips as she glanced towards the door.  As difficult as this entire situation was, that man was one of the few nice things in her life.  He was so kind and gentle with her, making certain that she ate regularly even when she really did not feel like it.  Her voice was soft, yet just loud enough to be heard through the door.  “It’s open, Rogue.  You can come in.”

He smiled and pushed the door open, placing the platter on the bed beside her, looking at her with his dusky green eyes.  “Bird...you haven’t been eating,” he admonished.  “Where have you been putting the food I’ve given you?  You need to keep up your strength, please.  Your attitude lately...it’s been very down.  And I don’t know what I can do to help.”  The look he gave her was pleading, unbecoming on the face of a pirate rogue more accustomed to dangling women on his knee.  “What can I do to put a smile back on your face?”  She reminded him of his younger sister, but he had never felt like this for a sister before.

“I am just not hungry...” She murmured softly, lowering her eyes to hide the tears she felt building up.  “What does it matter if I keep my strength up?  It won’t change anything for me.  The Captain will do what he wishes with me...and I will never have what I want.  I wish you would not worry so over me...”

Luc sat a little closer to her, placing an arm softly on her shoulder.  “Bird...please talk to me...what is it you want?  You’ve never actually told me, all the times I’ve asked you...” He tilted up her chin so he could see her face, wiping away the beginnings of tears on her cheeks.  “You know you can be honest with me...”

Cerulean eyes stared up at him for several moments before she whispered sadly.  “That’s because it is nothing but a child’s naive wish...one of those things that will never happen, no matter how much you wish for it.  I am trying really hard to put it behind me now.”

Luc sighed softly, and kissed her forehead before standing. “If there is anything I can do, please let me know.”

“Of course...but please..don’t worry about me, Rogue.”  She gave him a very faint smile, hoping to reassure him a little.  “ I really do appreciate your visits.  They are...the only thing that keeps me going in this place.”

Her answer lifted his spirits a little, and his heart clenched in his chest.  It was very soon to fall in love with a woman, but when Luc fell, he fell hard.  He heard the call for land abovedecks.  “Prepare yourself, Bird...we’re pulling into the island chain now.  I’ll try to see to it that you are safe.”  He opened the door and swiftly closed it.  He needed to help the boat dock.  

Rahim stood at the helm of his ship.  “Raise our colors, Petra!” he called.  “Our banner flies high here!”  The cabin boy ran to raise the Captain’s colors, a black flag with a red dragon flying across it.  Calls on the shore of “Ho, the Captain’s ship!”  “Prepare to port the Captain’s ship!”  could be heard even in the belly of Rahim’s vessel.  Luc looked up at his captain and nodded his head.  Rahim smiled; they were finally in port.  

Aislin ran on decks, her eyes scanning the new environment that now loomed before them.  They were moving into a beach, with long wooden docks jutting out into the water.  The people here were dark of skin, with tattoos across their shoulders and faces in some tribal pattern.  They were all dressed in strange looking clothing, loose and organic looking as if they had made it themselves.  

One man in particular, taller than the rest and darker of skin, climbed up the side of Rahim’s boat like a spider.  He grasped Rah’s forearm in greeting.  “Captain...we’ve missed you in port, and the dragon banner you fly,” he rumbled in the deepest baritone Aislin had ever heard.  

Rahim smiled.  “And I’ve missed you too, Harbormaster.”  

The man let go of Rahim’s forearm.  “Do you have any cargo to report?”  

Rahim looked at Luc, who looked at him with pleading eyes.  Squaring his jaw, Rahim nodded.  “A number of consumer goods...and one young woman, belowdecks.  Originally I was going to ransom her; now, I don’t want to do that...I’d rather she go to a nice family; a serving maid or some such.  I don’t want anything to happen to her, Harbormaster,” he said calmly.

The Harbormaster nodded.  “As you say, Captain,” he murmured, and motioned for four of his men to go belowdecks to collect Rahim’s cargo. Luc struggled against the hands of two sailors as they held him back.  He couldn’t let Bird go.

Two men went belowdeck to bang on Brileia’s rooms.  “Open for the Harbormaster!” they bellowed.

Brileia had stiffened slightly at hearing the call above about docking the Captain’s ship, with its dragon banner, not quite knowing how to feel or think about the fact that they were at port.  She closed her eyes for a moment, silently praying that she could keep her composure when the time came.  He didn’t want her around, much less to even be aware of his presence.  She would grant that wish to the best of her ability, even if he changed his mind and got down on his knees to beg forgiveness.

The banging on the door made the petite girl flinch fearfully before she rose to her feet.  White silk swayed slightly as she crossed the small room quickly to open the door.   Trying not to betray too much of her fear, she lifted her chin slightly and faced the two men.  She would go to her fate with her head held high.

The two men took her arms, not unkindly, and led her out of the cabin and up onto the deck.  They had their orders, and it wasn’t to harm her.  Rahim tried to look at her as she was taken from him all too soon, his hand on his cutlass to hid the trembling.  Luc struggled against his bonds, needing to rescue her.  Aislin looked aghast.  What was going on...?

Raven-black curls were tugged by the ocean breeze as she was taken up onto the deck, her movements graceful and calm.  She glanced towards one of the few kind faces she had seen since leaving her home, her heart aching to see him struggling so much.  “Rogue...don’t...it’s alright.  You don’t need to save me.  I go willingly to my fate.” She murmured softly, giving him a gentle smile, the only true smile she had given in ages.

Aislin’s heart broke for this young woman as she was led off the ship, Luc’s face crumpling as she disappeared down the gangplank.  Rahim stood, stoic, ever the Captain.  Aislin wanted to slap him.  He showed no emotion whatsoever.  Once the men, with Brileia in tow, had left the ship and had left eyeshot, the two sailors holding Luc let him go.  Luc, in response, marched up to Rahim’s face and spit in it.  “You’re a heartless bastard, Captain,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  He moved with a stiff gait going belowdecks...to Bri’s cabin.  

Rahim didn’t even clean his face.  “I deserved that,” he murmured to himself as Aislin walked up to him.  “I deserve everything that is coming to me.  I let her go, Traveler,” he murmured, his eyes sad.  “I let my Bird go.”  

Aislin looked at him, her eyes wide.  “You’re....her Dragon?  You?”

He gave her a crooked half-smile.  “It’s taken you this long to figure it out?  I thought you would have guessed a long time ago...” His face nearly collapsed.  “I...I made a mistake, Traveler,” he whispered.  He turned to her, grabbing her forearms.  “I need you to find her, Traveler.  Find her and bring her back to me...do whatever you need to do...I cannot move from my ship, not until the cargo I brought has been taken care of.  It’s one of the rules of being docked here...so I am powerless to stop it.”  He took a deep breath, breathing out of his nose.  “I didn’t know how much I’d miss her until she was gone, again, from my life.  How much I felt like I was an empty shell without her.  I had to say goodbye to her once, twelve years ago; I can’t do it again.  Please bring her back.”  With that, he disappeared too below-decks.  Maybe even to try to patch things up with Luc.  

Aislin, on the other hand, walked down the gangplank looking around her like a complete tourist.  The foliage here was so pretty, so exotic. She could hear the calls of monkeys in the trees, the snarls of jungle cats further inland, and the sounds of jungle birds.  The trees soared above her, towering with their palm fronds and tropical fruit.  It looked like paradise.  She glanced further down the dock, where a jeweled palanquin was making its way down the wooden surface towards the mainland.  Its rider was a woman, that much she could tell, but not much more.  All Aislin could tell was she was beautiful, and rich by the look of her palanquin.  A strange place, this one was.  Maybe Alexander would explain it to her...if she ever saw him again.  A pang hit her heart at that thought.  She hoped that he would find her again...he always found her...right?

The village that they had pulled into was very well off for an island chain.  The huts, because huts they still were, looked like something more out of Swiss Family Robinson than island ware.  Aislin liked it; she could get used to living here.  She needed to find the harbor master. With a few well-placed questions, she found him, living in one of the largest of the huts.  Aislin navigated her way through the village, making her way to the largest hut in the center of the village proper.  She raised a tentative hand to ring the reed bell outside the house, and was pleased to see the Harbormaster himself answer the door.  “What can I do for you?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble of surprise. “Are you new in port?”  A frown crossed his face. “I do not recognize you.”

“I need to find out the location of a girl that was just loaded off the Captain’s ship,” she murmured, eyes downcast.  

“And who might you be, to ask this favor of me?” he asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.  

“My name...is Munchkin.”  Her face twisted up a little as she gave him the nickname.  She didn’t want anyone but those who already knew that she was Traveler...Alexander hadn’t said it was safe to tell people.