Hey guys, I'm back! Having successfully navigated my way through Nanowrimo and winning (wee!) I'm glad to be back and writing about the Drewery twins et all. After this story is done, I might re-edit the story I wrote (which is currently titled 'the V word') and post it later. It is way too full of typing diarrhea, not to mention, it's only about half done.

As most of you may have noticed, there's those new reply thingies, which I am using. If you really want a reply, please, sign in and I will respond.

Here's a shout out right now to everyone who reviewed and didn't get a reply. Shout out!>>

Anywho, as an interesting fact, this chapter is exactly 2500 words. Freaky, huh?

-Lulai

Chapter Ten: Gone

"You didn't have to come with me," Xavier said to his grandmother as they stood on the wooden pier in the port of Barrish. A slight river breeze was blowing, ruffling his hair, and making him eager to continue on his journey. It was a strange thought to him, to want to go back to the place where he had seen so much death, but just the thought of actually doing something instead of sitting around the castle made his feet itch to get onto the boat that was currently docked beside where they stood.

"Nonsense," Fiona responded, brushing an imaginary piece of lint off her purple skirt. "You need at least one friendly face to see you off. Besides, I haven't been to Barrish in a long time. You merely gave me an excuse to come."

A grin tugged at Xavier's lips. "If you say so."

Fiona put her hands on her hips, and looked at him through raised eyebrows. "Don't get smart with me, Xavier," she said sternly, then surprised him by pulling him into a tight hug.

"But stay smart out there," she continued, her voice going warbly with held back tears. "Come back to us."

"I will, Grandmother," he promised, hugging her back. "Promise you'll keep an eye out for everyone at home."

She snorted. "Of course. You know how much I like to stick my nose in everyone's business."

"All aboard!"

Xavier slowly pulled away from his grandmother's embrace. "I have to get on the ship now," he said softly.

She held him out an arm's length and straightened his hair. "You'd better get going them," she said crisply, and turned him about. "All your belongings have been loaded on the boat already."

"Thanks," Xavier said, adjusting his brown coat over his shoulders. He limped up the gangplank towards the sleek brown ship that was taking him back to the eastern coast of Equilian.

"Bye darling!" Fiona called, waving at him. "See you soon!"

He waved back, as the gangplank was pulled up behind him.

"Ah, yer highness," the captain said. "I be Cap'n Kinsley. Glad to have ye aboard."

"Thanks, Captain," Xavier said, shaking the man's rough sea-hardened hand. Captain Kinsley was an almost slight man compared to Xavier's height, but had muscles the size of water barrels. His head hadn't been shaved very recently, and the short bristles of hair showed a balding head, but his moustache was dark brown and thick. "I'm glad that you could take me on on such short notice."

"Anythin' for Delainë," Kinsley replied. "That be a man ye be wantin' for ye, not against ye, if ye know what I mean."

"Yes I do," Xavier replied dryly.

The Captain turned suddenly, shouting out orders that were followed impeccably.

"May I stay at the prow, out of the way?" Xavier asked.

"Of course, yer highness," the Captain said, before leaping to his spot at the steering wheel.

The ropes were thrown up from the dock where they were piled in small piles on the wooden deck. Other rigging was strung across, while sailors shouted instructions and general jibes to each other from up on the two tall wooden masts in the centre of the ships.

There was a great clanking sound as the chain was dragged up from the bottom of the ocean, and the front sails were unfurled with a rustle of ivory fabric. They billowed and the boat started forward smoothly as the captain shouted orders for rigging steering.

Xavier stood at the prow and looked down the river towards the ocean horizon.

He was on his way.

…

Zander sat as his desk, flipping a coin between his fingers, his mind on other things than the declaration in front of him.

"Your highness?"

Zander straightened and set the coin down on the table as a scruffily dressed man entered the room. Pulling off his dark billed cap, the man revealed a dirty face, half covered by a dark grey beard, and one bright blue eye. The other was simply a hole with a great scar running from the centre of his forehead down his cheek, and ending halfway down his neck.

"Yes Landon?" Zander said, standing. "You found something?"

The man nodded. "I did. This man, Winters, was originally from the small fishing village of Holmstead. He left to find fame and fortune, but instead fell into a nasty little circle of women and booze. When he was twenty four, he signed on a ship, where he stayed for three years. He came back, soberer, and meaner, and has been running odd not-quite-legal jobs ever since."

Zander nodded, absorbing this. "What was this ship's name?" he asked.

The man fingered his beard. "Reamer's Bane, I think."

"Are you sure?" Zander asked, turning his head sharply to look at him.

"Absolutely," Landon said. "Why?"

Zander sat back down, pressing the coin to his lips in thought. "There's another person that I know of that came from a ship named the Reamer's Bane, and if I am correct, then I have some more digging to do."

Standing suddenly, Zander pulled a bag of coins from a drawer in his desk. "Thank you very much, Landon, for your service."

The man took the bag with an extremely graceful bow, quite at odds with his haggard look. "Any time, your highness."

A knock at the door prompted Zander to ask who it was.

One of the butlers opened the door. "There is a young miss waiting for you in the green salon," he said.

A smile snaked over Zander's mouth. "Excellent. I will be right there. Landon, you can show yourself out?"

Landon gave another half bow, with an almost mocking grin, and Zander nodded back.

As he followed the butler down the hall, Zander couldn't help but wonder why Lauren had visited him. He had always been the one to initiate their meetings, mostly because she was oddly fascinating to him. He had never met a woman besides his sisters who could cross verbal swords with utmost skill and did so at every opportunity.

Not to mention that she was a little more than easy on the eyes. Long wavy chestnut brown hair that seemed to have a life of its own, always crowding her face with its cute button nose and sweet lips. She was built like woman too, all soft curves and pale flesh, and he could easily picture her flush with desire.

As soon as he entered the salon however, he realised that today was different.

Lauren stood, looking out the window, her deep sapphire eyes brimming with tears, her hands holding each other in a death grip.

"Lauren?" he asked softly, wondering what was wrong.

At the sound of his voice, she turned and flung herself into his arms, trying to talk to him, but her words were so fast and garbled with tears that he couldn't pick out a single thing she said.

"I'm sorry, darling," he said, "but you need to slow down. What's wrong?"

"She's gone!" Lauren cried, and promptly burst into renewed tears.

…

Xavier stood at the prow of the Aquamarine, the fresh sea breeze blowing through his hair, inhaling the salty tang of the ocean. They had been sailing for nearly two hours now, and he never felt more free. He didn't realise how much he had liked the ocean until he returned to his land-locked home.

He watched the ship cut through the waves, bouncing only slightly. He had a slight bit of nausea when they first reached the open ocean, but now that he had been riding the swells for a little while, he seemed to have gotten a hold over his stomach.

"Yer highness?" Captain Kinsley called to him.

"Yes?" Xavier responded, turning to the man.

"I forgot to be askin' after yer man, there," he replied, tying some sort of rope to the hull of the ship.

"My man?" Xavier responded, surprised.

"Aye," Kinsley responded, straightening. "Tall lad, brought on yer baggage. He looked mighty nervous, an' I be wonderin' if it be his first time at sea, an' if it is, he shouldn't spend all his time down in the cabins, but come up on deck to get his sea legs."

"I didn't bring a ser – " Xavier was cut off by the snapping of ropes and the shouting of several men.

"Ay! Lads! Tie that down!" Kinsley was off to make sure the rigging was secure.

Xavier walked purposely towards his cabin. He didn't much care that the boy had stowed away, there were many reasons boys ran away to the sea, and besides, that was the captain's problem. What irritated him was that he had used Xavier's name to worm his way aboard. The stowaway had probably bribed the servant that his grandmother had hired to bring his bags on to let him do it, so he would have an excuse.

Although he was riding first class, his room wasn't anything overly fancy. It was still a small room, with a low shelf running around the one side. A small wooden desk with a matching chair sat opposite a bed strung across the side. There were two port holes overlooking the ocean had a curtain over them to keep out the light. Opening the door slowly, Xavier stepped into the fairly lit room, ready for anyone.

A dark lump lay in the hammock, apparently asleep judging by the deep heavy breathing coming from him. The boy did look rather frail, covered only by a thin woolshirt that didn't quite hide the slimness of his back.

Xavier's lips tightened in annoyance, and he flipped the hammock so the stowaway tumbled out, landing on the floor with a thud and a strangled yelp of surprise.

On his way to the floor, however, his dark billed cap fell off, letting loose a torrent of thick golden hair.

Xavier groaned. He knew of only one person with hair that thick and lustrous.

But what the hell was she doing on the Aquamarine?

Julie groaned, rubbing her hip. She knew that that hammock didn't look very safe, but she had been so nervous that it was either sleep or pace frantically. Apparently, she chose wrong. A noise behind her made her look up, and her face paled.

"Eck-zayv-her?" she croaked, scrambling to her feet, holding her cap in her hands. It certainly was Xavier filling the small room with his presence, his jaw clenched tightly with anger, his eyes furiously dark.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he asked her, taking a step forward, closing the door behind him. Julie instinctively took a step backwards, but had to stop when the corner of the desk dug into the side of her ribs.

Her thumb came up into her mouth as she formulated her answer. She couldn't very well tell him that she wanted to make sure that nothing happened to him.

"I believe I asked you a question," Xavier said, his voice silky soft and almost menacing.

Julie ignored the nausea in her stomach from her nervousness and fear, and stood up straight to look him in the eye.

"Ah w-hant t-hoo help," she responded gruffly, wishing that she had more of her brother's commanding presence. In fact, she wouldn't mind her brother being there. She didn't know what she was thinking, but she was beginning to doubt her initial plan, and she really needed someone's support.

She steeled herself internally. She was here to make sure that Xavier didn't fall ill again. He was not well enough to undertake such a journey, and far too stubborn to admit it.

"And how were you proposing to do that?" asked, his eyes all but spitting black at her.

Her inner resolved deflated a little bit. "Ah d-hon't n-hoe," she said, her shoulders falling.

"You are not strong enough to be in such a place as Equilian," Xavier said quietly.

Hoping to draw a smile from him, Julie flexed her bicep, patting the ridiculously weak muscle. Her small grin faded, however, when Xavier lifted an unimpressed eyebrow at her.

"You call that a muscle?" he asked, then before she could react, twirled her into his body, his bicep pressing into her throat, cutting off her air supply.

She gaped at him open-mouthed, trying to pry his arm from her neck to no avail. After a couple seconds, he removed his limb, but made it clear to her that he was in control of his arm, not her, and Julie dragged a grateful gulp of air into her lungs.

"That," he murmured in her ear, "is a muscle." His arm encircled her waist, the fingers of his other hand tracing over her neck lightly, causing goose bumps to raise all over her body.

"Half the men in Equilian are as strong as I am. Most are even stronger."

Julie shivered, his words affecting her almost as much as his touch. He was far stronger than he let on, which he demonstrated when she couldn't even budge his arm so she could breath. That someone else might be able to do such a thing to her frightened her quite a bit.

A cheeky part of her mind pointed out that still couldn't breathe, but for a different reason.

"Ah ahm m-hore sm-hart," she whispered.

His arm tightened on her waist almost painfully. "No," he disagreed, "you are naïve. We are going into a war zone, Juliette. Men do not rely on intelligence during war; they rely on brute strength."

Her heart broke for the pain in his voice, but she said nothing.

Xavier's free hand slid up into her hair, sliding his fingers through her golden locks, and pulling them out so that they fell through his fingers like strands of thread back to her shoulders.

"They dream of women with hair like yours," he said, "soft and golden light." His hand fisted in her hair. Julie wished she could see his face, see what he was thinking. "I will not insult you by telling you what they would do to you, but believe me when I say that even with your intelligence, you would not be able to stop them."

"Ah ahm n-hot sc-hared," Julie lied, her voice a rough whisper.

"Then you are more foolish than I ever thought you could be," he said, releasing her and putting as much room between them as the small space would allow.

She began to chew on her forefinger nail agitatedly. "N-hot a f-hool," she said. "D-tehr-m-hend."

He gave her an almost confused look. "You would do this all for Devon?"

"W-hould yhou?" she replied philosophically, her voice cracking with fatigue. Perhaps it would be better if he thought she was there to help rescue Devon.

His jaw tightened again. "You are not to leave this room under any circumstances," he said, and closed the door behind him.

Julie sat down on the chair with a heart-wrenching groan, putting her face in her hands.