Private Tales Upriver

[Rayth Keirn]

His own imagination had been wandering in a less innocent direction than her own. She didn't need to know that. He did briefly try and think what it would take him to settle down. Rayth decided that he would know when the time came. Before he could explain that her next question came at him like a bag of rocks.

"Wow..." he went. It was a shame she could not see the expression on his face. "...well I did promise." And he had kept his promises. Mostly. A few moments didn't count.

"I have done. Or at least I think I did. But it as not...reciprocated.

"Oh, didst thou know my longings
For thee, from day to day,
My hopes, so often blighted,
Thou wouldst not thus delay!

"Oh well, it was not to be!" Rayth added after the brief recital. His heart might have been hurt once, but he was young and recovered quickly from such aches.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

If only she could’ve seen his expression. She couldn’t help herself in reciting the following back up to him.

“The sweet moon through your lattice gleams
And lights your room like day;
And there you pass, in happy dreams,
The peaceful hours away !
While I, with effort hardly quelling
The anguish in my breast,
Wander about the silent dwelling,
And cannot think of rest.”

She paused and stepped out of the water, light splashes hit stone where she walked. The air felt a little chilly. She found she’d gotten used to the water. She curled in on herself and she tried to quickly dry off before beginning the process of putting on the new clothes. He didn’t sound to bothered. Still. She found herself saying.

“I’m sorry. Relationships are never easy. They can be messy and costly.”

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"You don't need to apologise," he called down.

"Simple would be boring. But if you keep quoting poetry I am going to suffer a second heartbreak this week!" he called down.

Unlike Eislyn he had not brought many sets of clothes so he was back in the same. He figured they had been given a good wash in the river already. Rayth was quite glad to feel the grim scrubbed from his skin and have the slightly floral scent about himself instead.

"Going to hold on to question three?"

 

[Eislyn Gray]

"Oh really?" She quickly stepped into the thick woolen skirt that went down to her ankles. Tugging on a light-blue blouse, she tucked the shirt-tail into the skirt and drew her wet hair free, to lay across one shoulder.

"I suppose you'll just have to suffer a few days longer until your heart is set free." The Paragon would be back in two days. And she imagined after that, the Captain would stick to his word and set her on her way while Rayth sailed in the other direction. Funny that the thought of that happening made a small frown form on her lips.

"And of course. I have to think of a good last one. When you least expect it."

Picking up the soap and her discarded dress, she called up to Rayth.

"Decent down here. Just lacing up."

She should've been more specific in that she was just lacing up her boots. Not the corset. Rayth might be a little disappointed.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

Rayth dropped his legs over the edge of the stone lip. He sat above Eislyn as she finished lacing up her boots. Using his fingers he combed his hair back and started to rebind it behind his head.

"I like your blouse," he observed. "And so you admit that you and my heart have much in common, that they have been captured but are to be set free in two days?" he laughed.

Rayth could joke, but he wasn't going to forget there time here easily. He finished tying his hair and let his feet dangle.

"We should get some rest," he said, leaning his head back to yawn.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

She looked up. Corners of her lips twitched.

"Who knew that a princess could capture your heart?" She teased back as she stood. "Well, rather the poetry." She gave a quick nod as she made her way up the rest of the steps to join the pirate. Fingers remained in her own hair as she worked the long strands into a braid.

"Rest sounds good. Besides, I don't think Geelyn trusts you with me. Wouldn't be surprised if she or Brin came around that corner." It was hard not to look at Rayth and let her mind wander to what she'd seen at the pool. Couldn't help the little blush.

Damn him.

Ruining her sensibilities. Just two days. Two more days.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"But do you trust me Eislyn Gray? And yes we can both use full names," he laughed. He had been smiling almost perpetually since they had come to the secluded spot, but it faltered a little. Despite the jokes and teasing the question mattered.

Rayth couldn't stop for guilt. He could not undermine his own captain. Despite his nature, that man had done a very great deal for Rayth. He had as much of a hand in the man Rayth was today as his parents. But he did not want Eislyn to go back on her way thinking of him as a common scoundrel.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

There was something in saying a person’s full name. It added to the weight of the moment. Made the person being named pay a little closer attention. Even in jest. In a way, it was more intimate because it was used sparingly. And it meant someone knew you enough to know both names.

As they strolled together, past the old houses up from the pool, she considered his question carefully. Even though he ended it with a laugh. Arms cradled her bundled dress and wet shift carefully.

“Trust you to...keep your word? Trust that you are who you say you are?”

She almost asked if he meant, trust that he wouldn’t harm her? But that one she wasn’t so sure of. Maybe that he wouldn’t intentionally. And they’d already had a conversation about how he wouldn’t have taken the job if he thought his Captain would’ve caused her physical harm. But there was certainly room for unintentional emotional harm the longer she stayed with him. It was getting harder and harder to keep this swashbuckler firmly on the other side of the fence. To keep her feelings and emotions about him where they should be.

She wanted to make sure she was answering what he was really asking.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"Those things I suppose. Both of them. And do you trust me to keep you safe?" he asked slowly. He had to carefully consider her words but in his mind trust was difficult to narrow down to a specific set of circumstances. He was not so analytical and careful with his words. What was...was and more often than not he followed his gut feeling on matters.

Unbeknownst to Eislyn there had been an original offer to leave her body where it could be found. The captain of the Paragon had declined such a grizzly task. Unfortunately for the group of four their employer had not given up on the idea, which was why a second crew were on their way. The other ship would not have been capable of abducting Eislyn, but they were more than willing to do the dirty work.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

She looked toward him. "Before the monsters, I would've said no." Why would she have said yes? She had no idea who Rayth was other than the pirate who'd boarded her ship, threatened her men, killed one person, and taken her captive. He'd even threatened her on the Paragon when she'd insisted on coming above deck to see the warship in the distance.

Maybe warned rather than threatened.

Still. Hadn't exactly given her the warm and fuzzies. It was funny how things could tilt so differently in the other direction after a few hours.

"Now?" She took a breath. She thought of the stairs with the monsters. Their angry rant. The other sides she'd seen of him. Her leap into the pool below and not being worried about whether or not Rayth would be there to pull her up. Not being worried about being in his arms and experiencing an unwanted salacious touch.

"I'm leaning toward yes." They were at the top of the path now. In a bit she'd be tucked back inside the bedroll by the fire. No plots of escape this time. Hopefully she'd get some sleep.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"Good, that's good," he replied. There was none of the usual humour that typically danced benesth his voice. For a moment he actually appeared quite bashful. Rayth laid his sword out beside his bed roll and fell asleep to thoughts of the sound of rushing waterfall drowned out by hushed promises and baited breath.

---

"Ship!"

Rayth stirred slowly. He turned on his bed and tried to fall back asleep.

"Rayth! Ship!"

This time his eyes snapped open. He couldn't ignore his own name.

"Shi..." he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Rayth there is a fucking ship pulling into the harbour!" Geelyn shouted from the door.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

Eislyn stretched, eyes snapping awake at the commotion. Blonde wisps had managed to break free from her braid, fanning her high-cheekbones.

"Ship," voice croaked like a groggy frog. Was it her envoy coming in for a rescue? Had they seen her scarf? A mixture of feelings warred within her at the thought. Feelings she couldn't quite parse through.

Heel of her hand pushed at her eyes. Verdant gaze looked from Geelyn to Rayth with a question.

"I though the Paragon wouldn't be back until tomorrow." She began to rise from the bedroll, going to peer out a crack in one of the walls.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"Not the Paragon. Not your ship either." Geelyn looked down at them with a grim expression set on her face. Rayth was quick as a flash to his feet.

"Put the fire out," he grunted at Brin. He walked for the door and followed Geelyn to a good viewpoint.

It was a small ship. One that was probably limited to the shallows off the coast and rivers. It had two small sails as well as oar power.

"I don't know that ship," he grunted. "Might be smugglers. Stay out of sight. We might have to run. Princess, we might need to hide your case out of sight. If they are smugglers looking to stash some goods they might just take your personal effects and sell them..."

 

[Eislyn Gray]

Eyes widened as she stared through the stone crack. The ship didn't look as well kept as the Paragon. Black sails. Squinting, she could make out a few figures. Figures that certainly didn't look small or skinny. Burly men? Maybe an orc?

Hard to tell from here.

Fingers touched the iron bangle at her wrist nervously. The idea that she should run toward the strangers never crossed her mind. She didn't like the spark of worry in Rayth and Geelyn's eyes. Brin was muttering as he put out the fire. She caught him kicking at one of the bottles of rum.

The young woman turned toward her trunk. "That's fine," she murmured. "Just clothes, books, and," she paused. "my favorite slippers that are actually good weapons for hitting sea monsters in the head with." A quick, tense smile. Walking over to a small pack, she slipped it on her shoulders. "I have this. And it already has food from when..." voice trailed off. From when she tried to escape before.

Golden-wheat brows furrowed across her forehead. "Where are we going to run?" Maybe he meant hide by the pools.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"I'm not sure yet," said Rayth. Behind them Brin was dragging her case out of sight deeper into the collapsed rubble of another house. He was watching the ship very carefully, looking for any clues. There was no sign of them starting to being any cargo up to the main deck.

He flashed Eislyn a confident smile over his shoulder. One that he didn't fully feel on the inside. He waggled an eyebrow at her escape bag.

"Stick close, let's get a better view."

He picked a path out of their small house to try and give them sight of the landing area and the winding path up. The small ship was able to draw right up to the rocks and lower a plank down. Rayth wondered if the Krakarl would show for something so much larger than a rowing boat. Before he could give it much thought a dwarf on the bow of the ship cupped his hands to his mouth and cried out.

"Crew of the Paragon! We're here on behalf of the same mission!"

Rayth's sudden turn towards Geelyn made it obvious he was aware of no such plan for a second ship.

The dwarf stepped down on the rocks. He was followed by three burly sailors and an odd figure in black. The last had a feminine silhouette but was shrouded in black robes.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

Long skirt swished at her ankles as they crept down a path, to kneel behind some rocks with a view of the harbor. Eislyn, too, thought of the monsters in the deep and couldn’t help doing a quick sweep of the surface of the water.

They had to be hungry by now. Healed too?

Worried gaze flickered to Rayth and Geelyn. Had the Captain not trusted them? How else had these people found out they were here? If Rayth thought these people were sent by the Captain, would he just hand her over?

Fingers tightened around the shoulder straps of her pack. Eyes traveled back to the figure in black. What were they doing?

The figure’s nose tilted in the air, then raised a limb and pointed in their direction. Eislyn froze.

“Do they see us?” Her whisper seemed too loud.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"No but they know we're here," Rayth said. He slowly slid back down putting his back to the rubble and moving out of sight.

"Which I don't understand. The plan was simple. I can think of no good reason for them to be here."

"Come out! We just want to talk!" came another cry from the dwarf.

Rayth's eyes darted from side to side as he tried to figure this out. He pursed his lips and turned his head from Brin to Geelyn. Then he turned his head towards Eislyn. Despite her being the prisoner he was inviting her to the conversation.

"Do we talk or run? If we take the high ground we could try and find out what they're doing here?"

 

[Eislyn Gray]

Eislyn's lips thinned. She waited for the others to speak first. Geelyn looked worried. Her large shoulders shrugged. "If we talk I say princess stays here with one of us. Two go down to meet 'em. I'd rather them not know how many we got here."

Brin edged in closer.

"Maybe they brought good rum."

Eislyn couldn't help the twitch of her lips at his comment before they flattened again. Being a negotiator it was hard for Eislyn not to agree with Geelyn. "We might be running from nothing?" She hesitated when she said that because there was something about that figure in black that tickled something in her memory. Maybe something from the books she'd read with Hannah as a child.

"Geelyn's plan makes sense. I'd like to come, though."

It was Rayth's call. But Eislyn was a trained professional.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

"Stay close to Geelyn. If I say run she knows where to go. Follow her. Listen, tell me what I need to say if you have to."

Rayth scrabbled up the rubble, picking a plan somewhere in the middle of everything suggested to him. Since that shipwreck he had chosen his own path. Except for when the captain shouted at him.

"Hey down there! Not another step!" he shouted, drawing his sword. The group was still on the path to the edge of the town, just on the edge of shouting distance. He couldn't see the one in the black robe. He scanned the area, looking for them. "What's your business?"

The dwarf stopped, holding his hands out wide. He was shorter and stickier than Brin. He had thick white hair.

"No need for the sword m'lad! All on the same side. Just here to take the princess on the next leg of her journey!"

Rayth narrowed his eyes, turning to the other three who stayed out of sight.

"This wasn't the plan," he hissed.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

She wanted to move forward, to get a better look but a meaty hand that covered her entire shoulder and part of her arm pressed against her. Eislyn looked back at Geelyn who shook her head silently. As quickly as it was there, the hand was removed. Thin fingers pushed against the rock rubble restlessly. She found a small hole to peek through.

Even if it was the plan, Eislyn didn't want to go with them. She didn't like how surprised Rayth was. She didn't think the Captain of the Paragon would've done this to his secondmate. And not told him. It just felt, off. She usually had a good sense of when a negotiation would go bad and she was getting that now.

"Ask who hired them. Maybe ask for proof?" Eislyn whispered up to Rayth. But she didn't want to know about the proof because she was worried if they showed it, Rayth would give her away.

 

[Rayth Keirn]

Rayth gave a curt nod and then turned back to the dwarf.

"We didn't get told about this. How do I know you're not her people?" Rayth called down. He already knew they weren't. Where had that one in black gone?

"We're not her people. We were also hired by the Duke of Wherlston!" The dwarf called up, keeping a jovial tone. The crew of the Paragon truly did have a reputation. The dwarf didn't seem to be in any rush.

Rayth's eyes suddenly went wide. A piece of logic fitted into place.

"Geelyn," he hissed. "Get her out of here."

"Why?" Geelyn asked, but she was already turning to go.

"Because that is who we're being paid for and they would only risk Eislyn knowing if she they were planning to..."

"Kill her!" finished Brin, pointing his hammer at a slate roof above them. The robed figure stood in silence. Rayth couldn't even see their face in the hood. What he could see was the long, double pronged spear they held.

"Shit!" went Rayth, hopping down. He stood side by side with Brin to block the path as the hooded figure stepped off the roof and seemed to glide to the floor.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

"Duke of Wherlston," Eislyn sputtered, eyes snapping up as the black-clad figure's feet hit the ground with no small amount of grace. The figure's head snapped in Eislyn's direction.

Geelyn scooped Eislyn up and threw her over her shoulder like she weighed nothing. The half-orc began running in the opposite direction. "Hey. HEY!" Eislyn sputtered, hanging over Geelyn's shoulder. Hand pushed against the half-orc's muscular back.

"Rayth! The clothing. "That's an assassin from the Mask of Shadows. Watch those boots. Knives on the toes!" Geelyn grunted. Eislyn squirmed. "I am perfectly capable of fleeing on my own, Geelyn."

The half-orc swore. "You hesitate too much."

 

[Rayth Keirn]

The air hissed as the gleaming head of the spear narrowly missed Rayth's face. He could see his own reflection in it.

"Not really worried about the boots just yet!" he called back. He turned and swung at the assassin, but she flowed around the blade like water. She would have skewered him, but Brin's hammer went swinging up to knock the spear aside.

Rayth danced back in, falling into a complex offensive routine that should have been too much for a spear in this close. The hood fell back as the assassin rolled away, revealing a shaven, tattooed head. Dark blue eyes looked up at Rayth. The assassin shrugged as if to ask if that was all he had to offer.

It was all he had to offer. Rayth looked down at his sword and tried to think of something he could do to stop this whirlwind killing machine. She did not afford him the time to think of a plan.

The assassin rushed in, the head of the spear singing as it swung at Brin and then Rayth. It clashed with hammer and sword before the assassin tried to dart between them.

Rayth was just quick enough to flick his sword around, rolling the head of the spear aside to take another swing that stopped her leaping past. Brin swung his hammer and nearly took her shaven head clean off with it.

Rayth allowed himself to feel hope for just a split second. The assassin changed direction and flipped away. Brin cried out, clutching at his forearm. Rayth saw the streak of blood where the blade in her foot had caught him.

Once more the assassin fell nimbly on her toes and raised her spear. Rayth and Brin stood side by side in her path, breathing heavily. The dwarf's breathing suddenly hitched. Rayth turned to see Brin clutching at his arm, his face a mask of agony.

"Poison," Rayth murmured.

Brin nodded his head. "Get the job done."

The dwarf leaned into the charge. Legs pumping as he screamed in defiance. The spear flashed out, Brin managing to use the handle of his hammer to push it downward. Rayth heard the thud as it struck Brin just below the sternum. He saw the twin tips of the spear stick out of Brin's back.

Brin's hammer clattered to the ground but he kept pumping his stout legs. One fist wrapped around the haft of the spear. The other struck the assassin in the face as he drove her back, closing her eye. The dwarf kept charging and both he and the assassin tumbled over the rubble and fell from sight.

Rayth started to follow but the skirmish had given the dwarf from the ship and his group of sailors time to make it up the path and through the city. Rayth turned and sprinted after Geelyn. Alone.

 

[Eislyn Gray]

Eislyn squirmed and tried to get a last glimpse of Rayth and Brin face off with the spear-wielding assassin. Eyes caught the flash of Rayth's sword and the assassin's spear before she and Geelyn rounded the corner, cutting down a side-street and on up. They were weaving deeper into the city. Eislyn bounced on the half-orc's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"What if they need help?" She whispered, worry twisting at her gut.

Geelyn didn't have time to answer as one of the burly men and that dwarf slid in front of them about a block up, cutting off their retreat. How'd they get up there so fast? Eislyn suddenly found her boots back on the cobble-stoned street. Geelyn remained planted in front - between her and the others.

"Remember the way to the pools, princess? You need to run there. Now." Eislyn peeked around the woman's bulky frame. How would Geelyn go up against these two? What if the assassin was right behind them and Rayth and Brin...?

The jovial dwarf with the winter-white hair called out as they stalked forward.

"No need for anyone to get hurt. Just hand over the princess and we'll be on our way."

Geelyn mouthed to Eislyn. "Run, damnit."

 

[Rayth Keirn]

Rayth sprinted around the corner. He nearly slipped on a tile in the middle of the street but kept on going. His face was red and sweat beaded across his brow. He hadn't slowed to resheath his sword.

There was a blood curdling scream behind him. At first his imagination attributed it to Brin but within a few strides he realised that it was more distant. The only logical conclusion was that the krakarl had resurfaced. He would not have ever thought he would be glad to see them return.

Geelyn heard him coming. She did not turn to face him. Her longsword was held out to one side and she held her ground.

"Rayth, hide the girl then come back and fight."

Rayth knew that it was a ruse. There was only one way out of this for Eislyn. He thought Geelyn would be able to take the sailors stood before her, but then he had thought the same about the assassin.

He caught up with Eislyn by the pool and didn't now slow as he passed her. He rushed to a crack in the wall. Another trick of perspective that his the secret he had kept from her. He took one look over his shoulder to make sure they weren't followed and waved Eislyn through. Into darkness they went. A long smooth corridor hewn straight through the rock.