Svoz bared black teeth that gleamed in shafts of sunlight that spilled through cracks in the cavern overhang. “I’ve been trapped here so long. I’m thirsty….so very thirsty.”
Ilior made a strangled sound while Jarabax’s eyes widened.
“I’ve never seen this,” the pirate breathed. He withdrew an ornate dagger from the sash at his waist and handed it to Selena. “Sirraks use blood magic. Magic from another plane.” He looked at her, his eyes wide. “Give him your blood and he is yours.”
Selena took the dagger as Svoz knelt before her. His mouth was hanging open and yellowed saliva dripped from between his black teeth. Selena swallowed hard and laid the dagger against her palm.
“No,” Ilior whispered behind her. “Don’t do this.”
Selena hesitated. Her wound breathed its cold draft in her chest, making her shiver. Skye Heard the god and sent me on the quest that will close my wound. And now Skye has gifted me with this…creature for a reason. Faith.
She drew the dagger across her skin.
The pain was swift and bright but Svoz’s reaction consumed her attention. His imperious demeanor disappeared, and he writhed and moaned in delight, contorting his form to bend under her outstretched hand. A forked tongue, long and obscene, protruded from his mouth to catch Selena’s dripping blood. He lapped at it eagerly, wantonly, and she squeezed her eyes shut, disgusted. When that tongue wormed its way over her palm, she snatched her hand away.
“Enough!” she cried, breathing hard. “Is it? Is that enough?”
“To satiate me?” Svoz licked his lips. “Never. Human blood….” He sighed gustily. “There is nothing sweeter. But to bind us? Aye.” He got to his feet and bowed low, composure returned. “Master.”
Selena’s stomach roiled. She poured water from her ampulla, found the moon in the sky, and murmured the sacred word to close the gash on her palm.
“You can unchain him now,” she told Jarabax.
“No need, Master,” Svoz said. “Now that I am yours…” He vanished in a plume of acrid, greasy smoke. The empty chain fell to the soil. Another plume of smoke erupted behind her, and Svoz stepped out of it.
Jarabax sighed. “Such a valuable tool…”
Svoz grinned wickedly. “You have no idea.”
The small party returned to the skiff, the hulking sirrak bringing up the rear. Ilior stayed close to Selena, trudging through the shore in stony silence.
“Skye’s command was that he remain in this cove and out of sight,” Jarabax explained as they walked. “I don’t need to tell you that had other pirate collectives learned of his presence, I’d have had a fight on my hands to possess him. But Skye is no fool. She ordered him to remain hidden and he was bound to obey. The chains were my request. For the benefit of my men who were entrusted with feeding him. The chains made them feel better about the whole situation, and I think you can understand why. And that reminds me: Svoz’s feedings…” The pirate chuckled as they arrived at his skiff. “A thing to behold, I assure you, but no longer my duty. I will take you back to solid ground and then we will part ways until such time as I call upon you for the favor owed.”
“What favor?” Selena demanded. “As far as I’m concerned, our association is over.”
“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve housed and fed your pet sirrak for two years,” Jarabax said. “You are in my debt.”
“Shall I tear his arms off, Master?” Svoz asked placidly. “He can’t ask you for a handout out if he doesn’t have any.”
Jarabax coughed. “Business can wait. Let’s depart this grotto. There is no rush, of course.”
Jarabax’s skiff was too small for Svoz to join them and Selena watched, her eyes wide, as the sirrak altered his form. His red skin lightened to a skin tone, and his wings seemed to fold in on themselves and then disappear. A linen shirt, breeches, and boots were born of the skin on his chest and legs, and the black of his horns became hair. In moments, the hulking sirrak was gone and in its place was a sailor, as human as any, but for his eyes. Svoz’s eyes were a strange, silvery hue that gave him the appearance that he had no iris. Only black pupil.
Jarabax sighed again. “Oh, such a gift as this…”
He let Selena and her companions out at the uneven shore at the edge of the ship graveyard. Once his men had pulled a safe distance away, he called, “A favor, remember. A small one, to be sure, but a favor nonetheless. I expect to collect when the time comes.”
Selena turned her back to him. “Come,” she said to Ilior and Svoz. “Back to the Wayfarer. It’s been a long night. I want to rest.”
“You seem a little chilled, Master.” Svoz put in as they picked their way over the rocky beach. He wore an overly wide smile on his human face that didn’t touch his strange silver eyes at all. “Perhaps you should warm yourself at a fire?”
“You shut up,” Ilior told the sirrak and the sirrak ignored him.
“But I suspect it would take a mighty large hearth to comfort you…”
Selena put her hand on Ilior’s arm and felt his muscles coiled to spring. “You know quite a lot about me, Svoz. Perhaps Skye told you…?”
Svoz held up a pale hand. “What transpires between my masters and I during our association is sacrosanct. I am forbidden to speak of my relations with my former Master just as I am bound to keep silent about whatever adventures you and I embark upon.”
“Then how…?”
“To one of my fiery disposition, the cold draft emanating from your chest cavity is obvious. As is its…otherworldly origination.” He pouted in mock sympathy and fluttered his eyelids. “Care to talk about it?”
“No,” Selena stated. “We’ll sort out our arrangement after I have had some sleep. Now be silent.”
“Haven’t you someone you wish me to dispose of?” the sirrak asked. “At least let us begin our relations with a demonstration of my loyalty?”
“You will hurt no one unless I tell you to,” Selena said. “And I can assure you, those instances will be very rare.”
“Very well. I can tell already this is going to be a tedious indenture.” Svoz heaved a sigh. “Former Master was much more fun.”
The Admiral’s Son
Admiral Archer Crane hated the smell of the city. Thousands of people navigating narrow streets and alleyways, stuffing themselves into immovable brick and stone boxes. Their odors intermingled and were held trapped by high towers and hills that kept the wind from cleansing it all away. Who could live like this, and why? There were hundreds of oceans on Lunos. “Seas upon seas,” as Skye had once told him while nestled snuggly in the crook of his arm.