Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

The queen was long gone, however, the water inside the tank where she had been now reduced to a quarter full and already growing still once more. How did she get away? Where did she go?

Rupert’s voice cut through the din. “My king! We need to leave!”

You need to, Sydney thought again, then took a risk by swinging at his face and catching him in the jaw. I need to know where Mom went!

Rupert grunted at the blow, but his grip upon her tightened. Unfazed by her attempt, he yanked Sydney toward him with his full strength. In one fluid move, Rupert knelt and cast her over his shoulder. Rising quickly, he bore Sydney aloft and upended her. His right hand clamped upon her back to steady Sydney too. Then, with his free hand, Rupert drew his sword. “Merrows, with me!” He cried before lunging free of the pavilion. “Protect the king!”

The Merrow soldiers obeyed, all of them swarming around Darius to fend off the crowd as Rupert led them running for the safety of the Nautilus tunnel.

“You three with me!” Rupert called out to several of the Merrow soldiers nearest to him. “The rest stay back to defend the rear and close off the tunnel!”

Fight, Sydney! Her mind screamed at her, adrenaline coursing through her with every step Rupert took. You won’t get another chance!

Sydney wasted her strength in continued fight against Rupert’s grip, kicking as best she could, pounding her fists against his silver armor, and all to no avail.

Just as Sydney did not tire in her fight for freedom, nor did Rupert stop his own efforts to lead her and the king further into the tunnel and away from the threats outside. The Merrow lord did not stop until he, Sydney, and the king were all deep inside the tunnel with the trio of soldiers to protect them.

“Put me down!” Sydney shouted at Rupert. “Let me walk!”

Rupert didn’t listen, heading further into the tunnel. One of his soldiers started ahead of him to lead further in, the others flanking the king.

“Rupert!” Sydney screamed. “Put me down!”

When Rupert stopped, however, Sydney quickly surmised it was not because of her order for him to do so.

Both of the other soldiers who flanked the king had tensed. With their shared focus on a target that Sydney could not see, both Merrows drew their blades without awaiting an order to do so.

Darius too had stopped, his lip curling. “Bring him to me,” the king spat.

Rupert raised his hand to halt the soldiers, even as the other Merrows sprang forward. “No, wait!”

Sydney heard the clashing of blades second later, the grunts and whimpers of a short, but furious fight. Then, there was only silence. What’s going on? What happened?

Rupert slid her free of his shoulder and settled her to ground. Turning, Sydney discovered all three Merrow soldiers laid low. A hooded figure stood over them. Garbed in the stained, raggedy attire of a Selkie slave, the warrior’s blade gleamed of spackled crimson in the torchlight. Though Sydney could barely see the hint of his blazing eyes beneath the lip of his Selkie hood, she felt the fury of one who not be denied his quarry. When the hooded figure looked up that she might recognize him, a voice within Sydney whispered his name as one that she had known would come to save her all along if there were but a single breath left within him.

Quill . . .

* * *

Part V

The Salt Tempest

29

SYDNEY

As his sister, Yvla, had done in the royal stables when coming to rescue Sydney, Quill had draped himself in the simple, hooded garb of a Selkie slave. Had she not known better, Sydney may have even mistaken the deep brown hue of his cowl and robes for a monk from ancient times, a piece of history come alive in the haunted tunnels of the Nautilus. There was no mistaking the bloodied sword in his hand, however, the dead Merrow soldiers at his feet, nor the blazing in his eyes as her true father looked defiantly on those holding Sydney captive.

“Quill!” Sydney called out his name. She attempted to run for him too, but was again caught by the wrist and held back by Rupert.

Quill shook off his hood that the others might better recognize him too. “Let her go, lad,” he growled to Rupert. “She’s not the one your king wants . . .”

Darius stepped forth that he might stand between them. “No . . . she’s not. Still, it seems to me now that I shall never have what I truly desired ever again.”

“As Nattie warned you from the start, if you will remember rightly,” Quill replied to the king. “Do not fault her now for telling you the truth all those years ago and holding to it ever since, Darius. Whatever pity she held for you then is wasted now. You wrong yourself to have ever believed you might come between she and I.”

“Ah, but I have.” Darius spat, yanking Sydney away from Rupert and bringing a dagger to her throat. “I have that shared love between you and Nattie both right here and now, don’t I, savage?” He trailed the dagger’s tip to hover over Sydney’s chest. “Shall I carve out the part of her heart that is half yours first, or the bit that is my traitorous wife’s?”

Quill’s face darkened when Sydney flinched.

Rupert’s armor clanked as he shifted. “My king . . . you said you would let Sydney live if I delivered him here.”

“Quiet, Bowrider!” Darius shouted him down. “I’ll not have you ruin this moment I have long dreamt of.”

Sydney’s gaze flitted toward Rupert, questions in her eyes and seeing the same in his also. You were trying to save me? She wondered when Rupert stepped back, though the knuckles of his armor flexed in strengthening his grip upon the sword at his side. You were going to save me by delivering Quill