Disclaimer: Not mine, yada yada

Is it just me, or does the word 'Eel' just seem misspelled every time you see it?

The Canary Bride

By Kylia

Chapter 3: The Shrieking Eels

The trio, led by Damien, took the ship out into the channel that separated Starling and the Glades. It was dark, and the wind was light, but steady, keeping the ship moving. With the state of affairs between the two realms, there was little traffic on the channel, especially this far from any major ports or trade routes.

Damien had every reason to believe that no one could possibly find them.

Barry stood at the back of the ship, looking back. He could have sworn he saw something a while back.

They were halfway to the Glades now. Halfway to being done with this dirty business. This is what I get for signing up with a man like Damien. Much of the time, the tasks they did were... at least not so cruel, as this one. Kidnapping a young woman solely to use her as a pawn to start a war. Even when they did things that were less than honorable, the victims had always been other criminals, or unsavory characters in one form or another.

"We should reach the cliffs by dawn," Damien remarked, relaxing against some crates. Barry wasn't sure where Damien had gotten the ship, but it was almost certainly once owned by smugglers.

"That's good. All the better to be done with this soon." Barry looked back over his shoulder.

"You keep doing that. You've been doing that for an hour." Damien observed. "Why? Some sort of fencer's neck stretch?" He said those last few words slowly, like he'd gotten ahead of his own words there.

"Just - making sure no one is following us." Barry looked again. There. There was definitely something back there. And it was getting bigger, in the distance. But was it actually a ship. "This whole scheme only works if no one knows."

"The idea that anyone could be following us is absolutely inconceivable." Damien rolled his eyes.

Barry shook his head, looking back. Nothing. Whatever it was wasn't there anymore. Again.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid again. In his life, a bit of healthy paranoia had gone a long way in keeping him alive, but Barry couldn't deny that he was sometimes prone to taking suspicions too far...

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Princess Laurel noted in a calm, regal voice. If was the first thing she'd said since she'd woken, and she sounded completely unfazed by her situation, bound by heavy rope behind her back. "You think you're safe, but in the end, you will be caught, and Prince Malcolm will see you all hanged."

Possible, but unlikely. Barry was wanted in several countries at this point, but none were particularly likely to ever get around to hanging him. Florin would just be one more, if the Prince even learned their names or faces.

Still. The way she was bearing up under this situation... she wasn't begging for her life, wasn't trying to bribe... it wasn't even really a threat, what she was saying. Just stating what she saw as plain, simple fact.

I certainly respect her more than anyone else I've helped Damien kill, or had to kill myself.

"The only neck on board this vessel you should be worried about is your own."

Subtle, Damien. Subtle. Barry resisted the urge to roll his eyes and looked over his shoulder again.

"Will you stop doing that?" Damien exclaimed, straightening up a little. "Your paranoia is giving me anxiety. Calm down. This is the part where we get to relax."

"Are you sure no one could be following us?" Barry knew he was opening himself to being mocked, but...

He looked back again. There was. And -

That was definitely a ship, or a boat at least, in the distance. A lamp at the prow to guide it.

"As I said, Barry, that would be absolutely, totally and in all other ways inconceivable! No one in the Glades knows what we're doing, and no one in Starling could have gotten to us this fast." Damien closed his eyes, leaning back. Barry watched him twitch, clench his jaw and then open his eyes, looking back over at him.

"Damnit. Your paranoia is definitely getting to me. What makes you so worried?"

"Well, I've been seeing something behind us on and off for an hour, and now I can definitely see that it's a ship." Barry gestured.

"What?" Damien stood quickly, hurrying to join him at the stern. Ray, who had been keeping silent through the whole exchange, looked back as well. Barry gestured.

"See?"

Damien shook his head, "No. No. That's nothing - that's no Starling warship, no Glades frigate." Which was true. The ship was drifting closer, and it was small. Smaller than this smuggling vessel they were using. Damien waved a hand dismissively. "It's probably some local fisherman, out on a pleasure cruise... in the middle of the night." Damien's own voice sounded less and less convincing as he went on.

"...through eel infested waters."

Oh crap. Barry had completely forgotten about those. That was the other reason they'd been so confident of not running into other ships. The waters of the channel between Starling and the Glades were filled with bloodthirsty eels, man-eaters.

Barry was about to respond to Damien's exceedingly terrible argument when there was a splashing sound behind them.

Ray? Ray couldn't swim. Barry turned, terrified for a moment - only to see a small pile of rope where the Princess had been, Ray standing there, stunned, and the Princess, despite her formal and heavy dress, starting to swim away from the ship - just as when she'd fought against Ray and himself, she was proving she knew what she was doing.

"You - go in after her!" Damien demanded.

"Into all those eels?" Barry started to shake his head, then... "Fine." He started taking off his sword belt, and then his vest, as Damien groaned in frustration and hurried to stand by Ray, looking at the fleeing Laurel - her dress was slowing her down, but she was putting some distance between the boat and herself...

Even without the eels, there's no way she can swim to shore... not with how far they were.

"Veer left!" He ordered Ray, who moved to the wheel and started to turn the ship.

And then they heard it. A warbling, eerie sound, like screaming, but not, coming from all around, as the water started to churn, shapes moving towards Laurel. Laurel pulled up short, looking around, treading water.

"Do you know what that sound is, Princess? Those are the shrieking eels." Damien called out, and Barry felt a shiver run down his spine at the way Damien said it, the almost... glee at the prospect of watching the eels eat. "If you don't believe me, wait. They like to toy with their food, but they always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh."

Barry tensed, swallowing. With the eels out in these numbers - he wasn't sure he could actually get to Laurel in time, and then get her back here. He didn't want to see the eels get her, or lose the payday from this job, but -

He hesitated.

"If you swim back now, I promise no harm will come back to you," Damien announced, which was a lie. But Damien wouldn't hurt her until it was the right time to kill her, so he was sort of telling the truth. In the most useless way possible.

Why am I working for Damien again?

TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB

Olivia watched Raisa suddenly stop, as she relayed the eels drawing in close, their shrieks, changing the pace at which she was speaking, really driving home how close Laurel was to getting hurt -

What if the eels get her, what if she gets eaten...

"Wait, why did you stop?!"

"You seemed like you were getting tense." Raisa observed, and Olivia realized she was indeed, sitting up stiffly, her hands clutching at the blankets, balling into fists, tight, knuckles nearly white. "The eels won't get her. I promise."

"No, no! I know that! I - I-"

"Are you sure? You seemed really nervous and worried."

"No! I wasn't worried! There's no way Laurel gets eaten by eels!" Olivia didn't let herself sigh in relief. But of course Raisa wouldn't tell a story where Laurel would get eaten by eels! "I - I was just - I was concerned. Because Laurel was concerned."

"Laurel was afraid. It's okay to be afraid when something like this happening to you," Raisa noted. "But I can keep going, if you're sure..."

"I am, I am!" She nodded vigorously.

TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB-TCB

Laurel was many things, but she was never one to give up. The eels were closing in, and one of them seemed ready to charge her, but Laurel had not let Oliver's death kill her, she would not let these... beasts achieve that end.

Though she was loathe to return to the boat, she swam towards it, cursing these dress she'd worn out riding - Prince Malcolm had insisted she always look the part of a princess to be, and it hadn't seemed worth fighting him on the dress, else he might try to send more guards with on her rides.

That had not turned out well, but -

One of the eels stopped shrieking and Laurel felt her heart pounding in her throat as she grabbed at the side of the boat, trying to pull herself back in, looking over her shoulder, an eel opening it's massive jaw - Laurel tried to pull her legs out of it's reach -

A fist smashed down on the top of the Heel's head, Ray's other hand grabbing her wrist and pulling her into the boat.

"That was close," Ray noted. "But you almost made it back on your own. Well done!" He smiled.

"Only because we moved the boat closer, and because she was stupid enough to go into the water in the first place." Damien noted. Laurel pushed herself up into a sitting position, meeting his eye as Damien turned to her. "You were supposed to be a smart woman, Princess, and yet here you were, thinking you could outswim the shrieking eels. Especially when there's nowhere for you to go."

"You underestimate how far I can swim and how long I could have tread water." Laurel said confidently, trying to act as though she wasn't soaking wet and starting to feel quite cold as the night chill got to her.. "I would take any opportunity to escape." She could only assume these men, even if they weren't from the Glades themselves - Barry spot with a pronounced Central accent - they had to be working on behalf of the Glades. That was why they were crossing into that kingdom. No doubt, they would seek to ransom her, or hold her against Starling for some... concession, or maybe a trap for Prince Malcolm, or Prince Tommy.

"Well, you know better than to take one right now, at least." Damien noted with a dark chuckle.

Our of the corner of her eye, she saw Barry go back to the stern and look back behind them. "I think he's getting closer."

Laurel had no idea who it could be - she hated to admit it, but Damien was right, there was no way anyone from Starling could have realized where they were and come to give chase so quickly...

But it can't be a coincidence... Maybe some enemy of these three? They seemed the sort...

"Whoever he is, he's no concern of ours!" Damien snapped. "Sail on!" He looked back at her. "That was very foolish of you, Princess. Brave, maybe, but stupid."

"I also established that I'm more valuable to you alive." Laurel noted. She'd already assumed that, but still.

"Don't assume that that could never change, Princess. There are limits to my patience." Damien assured her.

With the three now making sure one of them was always watching Laurel, even to the point of sleeping in shifts, the ship sailed on through the night, to sunrise, drawing ever close to the Glades. The 'local fisherman' behind them continued to follow, drawing closer and closer, until, after the sun had fully risen, and the morning mists ahead began to part, Barry looked back again, seeing the other boat so close he could actually make out the shape of the man on the deck, albeit distantly.

"Look! He's right on top of us!" Barry furrowed his brow, "I wonder if he's using the same wind we are using." He tugged on a rope, trying to get the sail to open a bit more, to catch the wind better. It was a bit baffling that the other boat had caught up so completely.

"It's impressive work, but whoever he is, he's too late." Damien chuckled. "See!" He pointed ahead as the mists parted completely. "The cliffs of insanity!"

The Cliffs of Insanity, said to be so high that a man would go insane before hitting the water if he fell off of them, were the most infamous part of the Glades coastline. Many had tried to climb those cliffs, but none had ever managed it.

"Hurry up!" Damien turned back to them, "Move that - and that. Move it! Once we get to the cliffs, it'll be impossible for him to follow!"

Tight control of the boat drew them in close to the cliffs, a small patch of land at the base, just barely big enough to hold four people, as Ray started attaching a series of ropes and harnesses to his elaborate suit of armor.

"Only Ray can go up our way. No one else has a suit like his. He'll have to go around for hours until he can find a good place to actually dock. There's nothing for a good long way in either direction." Damien had prepared this operation well. There was rope waiting for them for that exact reason. No one would normally hang rope down a distance this long -

Getting that much rope up to the top of the cliffs had been easier said than done, and pricy, but he'd done it. This job would more than cover every cost tenfold. Even with Barry and Ray's cuts, Damien would be getting out of this an obscenely wealthy man.

Together with Barry, Damien latched Princess Laurel into one of the harnesses on Ray's suit, then Damien started to the same. It was going to be a little undignified, but it would do.

Once Barry was latched in, Ray grabbed ahold of the rope.

"Do it! Move!" Damien ordered, watching the boat come in close. They could do it, there was no way he was going to be able to climb the rope after Ray. No one else could come close to being that strong...