Chapter Ten: The Everlasting
"This LUTE has been passed down Queen to Princess for 2000 years. Garland stole it when he kidnapped me. Please accept it as my gift, it just might come in handy."
Princess Sara, Final Fantasy I
Jakk knew he would miss it.
Fluidly, in one motion, Klad pulled out his sword and impaled it on the first Kyzoku, while the second met a blow to the face by his gauntlets. The Kyzoku staggered back, denying his mates from access to the crowded reception room of the Consul's Palace, while Klad, Bane, and Aki charged forward. Captain Haust drew his own blade, meeting an eyeless pirate's cutlass with a clash of metal. Jakk knew better than to fight. Grabbing the Consul's hand, he rushed back to another room.
"There's another exit to this place, isn't there?"
"Of course there is, but I'm perfectly capable-"
Jakk cut her off. "That's not the point. My friends, if you can call them that, are giving some time to get away."
"From what?"
He shook his head. "Just show me the exit," he said, looking back at his companions fighting.
Klad was nodding his thanks to the black mage, looking as the Kyzoku who tried to sneak disappeared in smoke as the knife sticking in his back fell. Smoothly running his sword through another pirate's body, the sounds of the clang of metal outside surprising him. He looked at Bane again, a mysterious smile crawling up those dark lips. The knight's mind clicked.
"So that's what you were doing for the brief few minutes you left us, Bane. Freeing the city guard."
Bane shrugged. "There were only five pirates. A quick blast, and the door holding the city guards fell. Along with the pirates. Besides, they prove useful in giving us less Kyzokus to deal with."
"Five? Easy for you to say," Aki said, pushing a Kyzoku back and letting Haust slice off an arm. To his shock, the thing doggedly fought one-hand, blue smoke spewing out of his severed left arm like blood, as the rest of his body disappeared.
"Where's the blasted pirate?" Klad murmured, looking through the arched window. Besides the smoking clothes spewed around the Consul's polished marble, Bikke was gone.
Meanwhile, Jakk and Lacee had drawn their own weapons, fighting off two Kyzokus.
"You said there was a back exit!" Jakk shouted.
"I lied, didn't I? I thought a Light Warrior would be a better fighter," she responded coolly, accurately targeting the center of a pirate's face with throwing knife and then waiting until he charged at her to throw it. Clutching his face, the Kyzoku suddenly burst into smoke that stank faintly of old clothes.
"I'm just a simple-" Jakk almost let the word thief slip again. No. Not now. Not when she likes me, Jakk thought.
Another dagger impaled the chest of the Kyzoku he was sparring with.
He ran his rapier through the chest, pulling back and surprised scarlet blood didn't show up on his blade. Grinning, he looked at the Consul.
"It seems like every girl I've met carries a hidden weapon. They come very useful at times, don't they?"
She nodded. "Especially when coming to fighting off handsome courtiers," she said, sarcastically.
Jakk returned the sarcasm. "I'm hardly handsome, my lady."
"I wasn't talking about you. I meant the pirate." She motioned to beautifully stained window, and Jakk saw Bikke running past them outside.
"So that's why they haven't-" Jakk stopped, wondering how not to offend Pravoka's leader. "-done anything to you?"
"You mean captured and killed me?" She laughed. "I'm hardly the pretty and innocent girl, Jakk. My people chose me to be their leader for a reason. And yes, Bikke was trying to court me after he captured my city."
"That Tari-forsaken soul," Jakk said.
Lacee shook her head. "He's hardly the swashbuckling marauder you would expect. Nor a cold-hearted villain. I'm still uneasy at the thought of why he joined up with the things."
As Jakk opened his mouth, he was again interrupted by that mage, coming in from the outer room.
"Again, Jakk. Stop flirting with the Consul. We must go. Now." A hint of hidden exasperation added with humor slipped through Bane's tone.
Jakk turned to go with the others, while Captain Haust was rounding up his crew. Outside, the City Guard was routing the pirates back into their ships, while the Everlasting stood ready, her three tall sails standing out behind the black of the pirates' vessels.
"Jakk, wait!" Lacee held his hands softly in hers, he noted surprisingly.
She ran somewhere in the corridors of her palace, coming back with a slim rapier he had never seen before. The handle of the blade was the same as any other, but the metal was peach-tinged, not a solid silver-gray. It seemed carved instead of heated from molten iron, carved into a sleek blade. And she thrusted it to him as a gift.
"Consul, I've barely known you. I can't-"
"Of course you can't take it, Jakk Skyar. That's why you must have it. Look! It's a coral sword, made out of Pravokian reef coral. Lighter than the cumbersome thing you have, and yet strong, not brittle. Just promise me you will come back."
He choked on his words. "Of course." He paused, thinking for something to say that would fit with his fake rich merchant status. But nothing came.
"Thank you," he said.
"Good luck," she whispered, softly, as Klad pulled the young thief away.
"Up with the sails! Come on!" Mizzam Haust slashed at a fleeing Kyzoku as he roared at his crew to get the Everlasting.
At the center of the city, four horses, their hooves clacking on the cobbled streets, as Basyi was the first to climb the ramp to the ship, assisted by a sailor. Strider was the last, and then, her sleek form smoothly cruising in the water, the Everlasting was off.
And then, Bane turned his sight to the front of the ship, looking at the fleet of black-masted pirate vessels blockading the narrow passageway out of the sea.
Haust looked too. "I suppose, master mage, you have a plan to get us out of here with your magic?" His voice had only a drip of sarcasm.
"Magic of this world is not easily summoned by mere want, Captain. Especially elemental magic. But I do believe that something can be conjured. Keep the ship at this the same speed." And then, without another word, the mage went down below.
"Where's he going?" Haust asked.
"I do not know," Klad murmured, confused.
A sailor, his blue shirt and white pants splashed with salty water, eyed the three youths and the captain nervously. "They're almost in bowshot range of us, Captain. A few more minutes, and they'll be ready to with grappling hooks."
"Understood."
They came closer to the fleet of ships. Arrow whined and splashed into the water. One struck the deck with a reverberating thong. Jakk, a nervous sweat breaking out, wondered impatiently what Bane was doing. Perhaps he knew they were going to die, and didn't care to stop it?
And then, he felt it.
A giant hand seemed to lift the ship out of the water, making it rise into air, fueled by winds. Aki gasped, loosing her balance before feeling powerful hands grab hers and balance her out. She looked back, into the colorless gray orbs of Klad's eyes as he smiled warmly at her. She couldn't feel the strength and power in him, making her feeling confident and happy. And she realized that her lips were turning towards his...
As the ship rolled into the sky, balancing itself out, startled gulls squawked and rose higher into the thermals. Aki pushed out of Klad's arm, and for one saw the knight startled and surprise, exploding out on his face. At first she felt pleased with this unexpected reaction coming from the normally apathetic knight. But hen she blushed, cheeks giving away her embarrassment and shame. I didn't meant to hurt you.
Already, it seemed like the knight had shut her off from himself. No, Aki thought, it appeared that way. She could sense his feelings linger...but that stony gaze and aloofness settled back into Ryar House Haasions again, the expression every man pretended to show in order to hide their feelings.
Gusts of wind blew her hood closer to the back of her head, swirling her flame-gold curls out in the wind, and propelling the ship in the air, and our of Pravoka. Into land, where the Kyzokus could not chase them. The fierce gust blew again, pulling her hood closer, hiding her feelings from him.
Kraken watched unkindly as the headless body of Sibikken, commonly known as Bikke the Pirate, writhed its life out on the ocean floor. Kraken's human hands, one gripping Bikke's own bloodstained cutlass, were still shaking with rage. He did not like taking human bodies, but it was an available option. He did not like humans at all, for they were worthless and untrustworthy, demonstrated by the pirate scum, the headless body still twitching. Humans were unlike the shark swimming at his side, in his underwater palace, unperturbed by the beheading. Kraken calmed himself.
"Tell Kary that the four have escaped and are heading to her realm of interest, in Elfland. Also issue an order to Kyzoku Captains to put their man-o-wars on alert for a ship in the Aldi. They know which."
"Yes, my lord." The shark swam away.
Kraken turned to the glittering black orb on the altar. His minions might have failed, but one way or another, the Light Warriors would be the Alatari's puppets to pull on strings. As would the rest of the world. As long as part of his soul rested in the orb of water, tainting it black, and tainting the waters to make them wild, the seas would be troubled. And even if the warriors made light in the orb, his soul would be expelled, free and whole again. To do what it pleased.
In the end, the Fiends would always win.
In the end, order gives way to chaos.
Bane's eyes slowly but surely closed. The ship was now out of the Kyzokus' eyesight, heading towards Elfland, and it had been lowered into the wild seas minutes before.
"You okay, Bane?" Jakk asked, feeling surprised at the genuine sense of worry pouring from his voice. But of course, the black mage had just saved all of them.
"Tired...wind magic saps your strength," Bane said, voice faltering. "Tell Aki...not to bother healing. Saps her strength as well...wake me up when we're on land."
"Of course, Bane. Good night."
He watched as the mage slipped into his bunk, rolling over to one side, fast asleep.
A shadow figure with a dark cloak and hood on jumped out from the ship's dark corner, and right into Jakk's back, quickly reaching inside a pocket and pulling out the Lute Sara, Swan-Princess, had given him. And then the shadow enveloped Jakk.
Hugging him.
As the hood fell off, the golden hair and smiling, lovely face of Princess Sara was revealed, startling Jakk even more.
"Miss me, Jakk?"