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

light in Darius’s once bright and shimmering eyes began to dim, his gaze turned from his killer, finding Sydney instead. “N-Nattie . . .” he wept, gasping his final breaths. “F-Forgive . . . forgive me.”

How could she? Sydney wondered. Still, she wept when the king breathed his last, his blue eyes holding on hers until the light in them too was gone.

The Blackfin removed his dagger from Darius’s side, then cleaned the bloodied blade with the king’s own robe. Standing, Malik kept the weapon handy as he faced Sydney and her true father. “You’re still here,” he said, grinning once more. “I would have thought you should’ve tucked tail and run off with your daughter by now, savage.”

“It appears you thought wrongly of me, at least, then,” said Quill.

Malik chuckled. “Afraid me and my seawolves will chase after you, eh?” He shrugged and sheathed his blade in his belt. “You’re not wrong. In fact, I’d say you could expect us to begin our hunt for you and the princess by nightfall. Think that would be enough time for you to at least give us a chance at recapturing you? I’d rather you make a fair run of it, you understand. No real glory to be had without a worthy opponent.”

Quill ushered Sydney step behind him, then drew his sword. “Or we could end this now.”

Malik smirked at the challenge. He glanced over his shoulder at Solomon and the other Orcs with him. “It would seem you are outnumbered, my friend,” he said. “And you’ve only just got your daughter back. It would be a shame to have me throw Sydney back into the cells once more without the king to safeguard her. Besides her title, I have little, true need of her now. Are you so keen to meet the same end as I gave your father and sister too?”

“I have faced worse odds and lived,” said Quill. “And I’ll be damned if I turn my back to the likes of you.”

Malik sneered. “You are damned no matter what you do, savage. The same as both your sister and father learned when they dared to take arms against me.”

“And yet here I stand,” said Quill.

Malik chuckled. “Keep your vengeful thoughts awhile longer, then. Let them stew, for now, and save your daughter instead. I swear that you will not receive such a grant from me again.”

“Why make the offer now, then?” Quill replied. “If you mean to hunt and kill us anyway, then let you come and try it now.”

“But why?” said Malik. “Why in this damp, cold tunnel of all places? No . . . I think not. I assure you, savage, if and when your death falls to me, it will not come in such a dark place as this with no one to witness your end. I’ll not have rumored tales of my victory thereafter, nor ruin this historic moment by dragging your body through the streets and naming you as the king’s assassin now. For whatever Darius may have thought of you, I know you for a savage well loved by your people and feared by all in this city. A would-be king in your own right, if savages held to such titles.” His smirk broadened. “And you don’t kill a true king without an audience to witness.”

Sydney swallowed the lump in her throat the resolve in his words, even as the Blackfin went on cleaning his blade.

“Besides, savage,” Malik went on. “This day will have stories enough to carry among the people for some time, I imagine. Soon enough, word will spread to every depth and furthest reach of the five oceans. A traitor queen and her subjects rescued and fled? The princess taken too, and with none to know where she might have gone? And now their weakling king and a handsome, noble lord murdered also? Aye . . . and all thanks to the monstrous plots and whispered success of the Unwanted leader, No Boundaries, who tried and failed at such attempts before.” Malik pretended to shudder. “Ooh, no doubt he was a savage slayer too! Sent to slip in among our ranks with his fellows of half-bred ilk to stir chaos among the good and trueborn people of New Pearlaya. Aye, a precursor of the greater storm to come, even as his fellow screamers in the heathen armies approach to attack our great city too.” Malik smiled. “No, Quill, you savage fool, I have no want of your life, or of your ingrate daughter’s today. I would much rather allow the threat of you and your kind to settle in and take hold of my city and people first. All before my loyal seawolves and I rescue them from their fears, that is. Aye, and return their beautiful princess too after rescuing her from your savage ways.” Malik glanced at his Orcs. “Gather up the king and the other bodies. Lord Bowrider and his Merrows too. It seems our city has a greater tragedy to mourn over than just the traitor queen and lost princess today, my brothers . . . aye, and the people will need to learn of it all, if they’re to rally to our cause and raise arms against our enemies to come.”

Solomon and the others in Painted Guard armor came slowly forward, their swords drawn and at the ready for any sign of attack from Quill.

Sydney’s eyes were drawn to Rupert’s body, even as she backed away with Quill’s guidance. She bit her lip to keep it from quivering as the Orcs collected the murdered, young lord. They came for the king’s body next, bearing them both and the slain Merrow soldiers away, all headed back up the Nautilus tunnel with the bodies upon their shoulders.

Quill remained, holding to his promise to not turn his back to the Orcs.

Malik too had yet to abandon his watch of a fellow enemy either.

For a moment, Sydney wondered if Quill and the Blackfin were to remain locked in a