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

Sydney had no chance to wonder further, the king’s blade pressing deeper against her neck. Not enough to pierce the skin, but holding no pretense it should cut deep if she attempted to pull away.

Quill showed the palm of his right hand to the king. “Release her, Darius . . . we both know you won’t harm Sydney.”

“Do we?” Darius asked, his voice breaking. “You don’t think I’ll kill her? Is that it? You don’t think I’ll kill your daughter?”

“Much as you may wish to believe otherwise, I think those hands of yours have never killed anything in your life,” said Quill.

“How, then?” Darius sneered. “How is it you of all people think to know me so well.”

“Because I have hated you nearly all my life, Darius. My hands have slain more enemies than I can count,” said Quill. “And for all of my hatred, for all these old and lingered wounds between us, still I could not bring myself to end your son’s life when the opportunity fell to me.”

Jun? Sydney thought, his face flashing in her mind at the notion of Quill having met her brother. What does he mean?

The king scoffed at Quill’s claim. “You think me for a fool, don’t you? That you would not slay any child of mine? Or that I should ever again believe I fathered any with Nattie, let alone a son.”

Quill sighed. “Indeed, I admit that I struggled to believe you capable of seeding a child too,” he said to the king. “Then again, I suppose even a blunt instrument will serve when given endless time and opportunity. Who else but you to father the precious, Merrow prince with Nattie after you had me locked away in darkness and convinced the world that I were long dead and gone? Or had you not thought of the time I was away and measured those years against the count of your son’s age?” Quill continued when the king did not answer straightaway. “No, then. It seems the only one to play you for a fool was the Blackfin, Your Grace.”

Darius hesitated. “I saw the boy’s body . . .”

“You saw what your pet seawolf wanted you to see,” said Quill. “But today, Your Grace . . . today, I have little doubt the cost of your blindness comes to be paid in full.”

“The only cost of today will be your life, savage,” said Darius. “You didn’t actually believe I would ever harm my love and wife, did you? You think I did not allow your people to venture safely inside that they may save her life?”

“Aye, I believe it,” said Quill. “And said as much to Sydney, once . . . but it was not the queen’s life that I came to save today, Darius.” His eyes shone on Sydney before glinting back at the king. “I want my daughter back.”

Daughter . . . Sydney cued on the word, her eyes welling at the admission from Quill. So, it really is true. Her face warmed at the notion.

Darius stole any happy thoughts away, hugging Sydney closer to him.

She winced when the dagger delved into her skin, producing a trickle of blood down her neck.

“You want your daughter,” the king said to Quill. “And I want my son. If what you say is true and the Blackfin lied to me, then where is your proof? Where is Jun now? Hmm? Where!?”

“In truth, I would not tell you if I knew,” said Quill. “But I have seen with my own eyes that he had a Merrow tail to match your own. I tell you too, Darius, your sweet prince would not last in the realm beneath the waves. Nattie has shielded him to his detriment, I’m afraid, just as your father did for you. The boy is not made for this world you claim to rule over.”

“Ah, but Nattie did not shield Sydney, eh?” Darius flung back. “Your daughter is so different from my son?”

“She is,” said Quill. “And no doubt stronger now from the pain and experience she has endured at your hands. Aye, along with the Blackfin’s torments too.”

“A pair of fools then, you and your savage daughter,” said Darius. “I always knew you should willingly trade your life for hers if given the chance.”

“It seems you have some sense after all, then, Darius,” said Quill, his face tightening as he lowered his blade and then cast it aside. “My life for hers . . . as your Merrow lordling arranged.”

Sydney shuddered in looking at Rupert, her former friend not daring to meet her gaze with the confirmation of Quill’s claim.

“As was arranged,” Darius agreed, even as he kept a firm hold on Sydney. “And if my ears serve me well, I do believe your death comes swiftly, Quill. What better way for a savage to meet his end, then I leave you to the wolves?”

Goose-pimples prickled up Sydney’s arms upon hearing the marched echo of armored footsteps from afar, all leading in from the Nautilus pavilion. As the footsteps drew nearer, Sydney turned all her focus on Quill instead, studying his face and the scarred over wounds he had sustained when fighting the Orcs in Catcher’s Corner, all so that she and Yvla could escape.

“Don’t,” she said quietly to him. “Please. Pick up your sword! Or run away, now! Don’t do this. Don’t throw your life away for me.”

Quill’s face softened. “It is already done, child. Soon, you will have no more to fear.”

“Careful, Quill,” said Darius. “Wouldn’t want the last words your daughter hears from you to be a lie, now would we? Not from a beloved father who would claim only to ever speak truth to her.”

Quill kept silent as the approaching party arrived.

Tears stung the corners of Sydney’s eyes when Malik Blackfin came to stand alongside the king with his second-in-command, Solomon, and a slew of other Orcs. Blood stained their blackened armor, their faces sweaty and many among them bearing fresh wounds. But, in the Blackfin’s eyes, all