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Dead in the Water
"How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is." -Wilhelm von Humboldt
"I'm sorry, Lord Troy," said Colton, letting the rain wash the blood from his blade. It mingled with the water on the ship's deck, giving the planks a red sheen in the moonlight.
"I suppose it couldn't be helped," said Troy, turning away from the massacre. His blade, too, was bloody, and he tossed it to the deck in disgust.
Thunder sounded in the distance, and for several moments, the old man and the young warrior stood in silence, listening to the falling rain. In the distance, the firelights of Razril winked and flickered in the downpour. Tomorrow, they would strike, cutting off the Knights from the rest of Gaien, and hopefully obtain the treasure that the Governor and Cray so dearly coveted.
"What should we do with the bodies?" asked Colton. He bent down and closed the lids of the four corpses. He murmured a quick warrior's prayer over them.
Troy brushed away some of the brown hair matted to his forehead. He stared out to sea. "Throw them overboard. Let the sea take them."
"It will be done," said the older man. Colton signaled to the two Kooluk captains standing guard in front of the bridge door, and they hustled over, their heavy armor clanking. He relayed to them Troy's orders. With a sharp salute, the two soldiers bent down and shouldered the bodies.
First overboard was the cold corpse of the Nay-Kobold, then the elf woman. Next was the strong-headed man with the warrior's arms. As they picked up the final body, the body of the young boy with the headband, Troy stopped them.
He walked over to the body cradled in the soldiers' arms and brushed the wet, brown hair out of the boy's lifeless face. He stroked the cold cheek with a gloved hand, running it down the contours of the face and neck.
"Young knights, dead so young," said Troy to himself more than anything.
"Unfortunate, yes" said Colton, putting a wrinkled, but strong hand on his superior's shoulder. "But, for them, it was wrong place, wrong time. This is war, Lord Troy; we have no room for sympathy for the enemy. Many more like them will die tomorrow if they do not surrender. You know that."
"Yes," said Troy, but his dark eyes were somewhere else, in another time, another place.
Colton cocked his head, motioning for the captains to dispose of the boy's body. Thunder boomed overhead. Suddenly, as the soldiers reached the railing, a dull, orange glow, like a still-burning ember in the fireplace spent burning all night, cut through the black of the night from beneath the boy's glove.
In the span of a second, Troy had scooped up his sword and Colton brandished his own. The soldiers gasped and dropped the body, taking several steps back, fearing some strange magic. The boy's body fell in a heap, like a puppet with its strings cut. The glow pulsated and brightened in intensity, and an unnatural heat washed over the crew aboard the ship.
"What devilry...?" said Colton, but Troy was already moving. The handsome warrior knelt beside the body. He pushed back the boy's glove and his eyes widened a fraction of an inch at the rune he saw there.
"This..."
"What?" said Colton, edging closer.
"The Rune of Punishment."
The glow became brighter and brighter until the ship was surrounded by a halo of orange light, lit up by its own personal sun.
"You mean to say that we have it here? By accident?" said Colton, almost smiling.
But Troy's face remained impassive. "It would appear to be so." He stood and called out orders to the ship's crew. "Turn us around! We sail for Kooluk immediately!"
"Yes, sir!" echoed the soldiers.
Before anyone could move, the Rune vanished from the boy's hand. Colton screamed in pain, tilting his head back to the sky, mouth wide in a cave of agony. He tumbled backward, clutching his right hand. His head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled back into his head as he stumbled out of consciousness. Troy watched with barely expressed concern until he noticed the shallow rise and fall of the old man's chest, assuring he was still alive. He reached down and pried Colton's left hand from his right and saw the Rune of Punishment there like the mark of a curse on his friend.
He didn't have to turn his head to know that the body of the boy had vanished, scattered like the cremated ashes of the dead. When he noticed the soldiers looking on with horror, he stood and drew his blade.
"I said Kooluk! Now!"
They scattered and Troy was left alone with his unconscious friend, the rain beating down on both of them, marking this night forever.
"Let's get you inside, old man," he said, putting Colton's arm over his shoulder. "Let us hope you make it back to Kooluk alive, else that Rune's curse will be mine to bear." He reached the cabin, laid Colton down on the straw mat in the corner, then stepped back out into the rain.
"I pity you, Colton."