Ch: 280 A Kraken The Wall

“Gary, I really do wish I’d…” Amicus murmured from a table near the stage, while the madman was noodling softly in A minor.

 

“No hard feelings. If it had been anybody else, I’d have felt slighted.” His voice was soft and lyric, as always… when he wasn’t murdering anything.

 

“How did you break my strictures and circle? Your shadows came flooding back at the end there.” He asked with more than just professional interest.

 

“That would be telling… they might try and get you to shackle me again.” He said with a lopsided and sorrowful grin.

 

“So we’re back to this, are we?” He asked. “No more trust, no more jolly, friendly musician… just the dark witch?”

 

“I am only giving what you guys are demanding. Keep fumbling around in the dark, you’ll find something with fangs before long.” His voice felt like a chill wind from a far, cold place. 

“I should put down another immortal soon, so they don’t think I’ve gone soft…”

 

“Son…” Amicus began.

 

“Don’t.” He snapped coldly. “I’ve bent over backwards, built bridges and watched you guys burn them, then demand more from me… no more. You get the mercenary witch… the one who wields curses and tangled skeins of shadow in your nightmares.”

 

“Gary… we’ve learned so much… but much more remains occult…” He stammered.

 

“Miss me with that. I’ve got a few schemes on the boil and a deep antipathy to the current political hierarchy… That means I don’t give a warm squirt how much chaos I unleash on your society… especially your religions.”

 

“The conservatives will…” 

 

“...Will kiss my ass when the next threat comes along and they squeal for my aid… Money and tradition are what they care about, they can pay hard coin, as is traditional.” He said harshly. “It’s probably best we stop this conversation now… Just consider for a moment, why no one ever cares about any other group’s opinion? Why is it the conservatives I have to please?”

 

“Because they have the money, boy.” Amicus answered sharply. “Money is power and it’s best we all remember that.”

 

“Power is also power…” He said softly, as he left the stage and disappeared into his workshop.

#

 

Alone for a moment at last, he cracked open his sheet and checked out the damage.

 

Gary Ward: Demihuman Monster, Aberration

Class: Druid, Craftsman, Witch 

Age:18 

Rank:Iron plus

 

Might:Copper minus, Beast, divine Contract, Homebody, The Hive, The Sun.

 

Resilience:Copper minus, Ward, divine Contract, Fractured Soul, Quietus Moon, The Moon

 

Agility:Iron plus, Spear Wanderer's Legacy, Pockets!, Sleight of Mind, The Hierophant.

 

Will:Copper minus, Brigid, etheric Contract, Artisan, Bound in Flesh, The Hanged Man.

 

Mind:Iron plus, Ipet, divine Contract, Interface, Unlivening, The Endless Dance of Death.

 

Animus:Copper minus, Joy, divine Contract, Familiar Stranger, Entrainment, The Fool.

 

“Huh… no more undead… noice! And ready to rank up! Noicer!” He cheered into the corner where Xyll used to hang out while he worked. “Aww…”  His eyes fell on Victor and Ward’s timeshare coffin and sighed… “They grow up so fast.”

 

“Yes, Gary, they do.” Solange whispered from behind him.

 

“Hey Sol… don’t mind me, I’m just…” She wrapped her arms around him in a hug that made him flinch to protect his tenders at first, but she just took him in her tiny arms and held him close silently.

 

“I feel lost… every time I reach out beyond my family, I fall hard. I’m really wondering sometimes, why I didn’t let Wheatford fall… or worse, whether I’ll let it next time… cause there will be a next time.” He sobbed. “No one understands… nobody else can understand… I thought Ducky did, but he’s…”

 

“Shut up, boy.” She whispered. “Cry it out until you can spend some quiet time under the trees with your spider friend… you will find her greatly changed, but still a wise and gentle soul.”

 

“Thirp too?” He sniffed softly. “I can’t handle it, Sol…”

 

“I said shut up.” She pulled his face into her shoulder and locked him in for a good, long, blubbering, snotty session of hardcore bawling.

He hardly twitched, when Sol traded him over to Shai, who passed him to Tawny. Becky got him next, followed by all three little ones, once he’d cried himself to sleep at naptime. He woke up in Liam’s arms, while Tallum was getting ready to tag in.

“I’m gonna have a lot of laundry to wash… huh?”

 

“Oh yeah, tons. Love you brother.” Liam whispered, while Tallum set about dumping him out of his bed.

 

“Enough moping. Tomorrow’s your birthday.” The big man rumbled. “You gotta suck it up and marry my sister… unless you wanna ditch her… I’d hate to have to smash you flat.”

 

“Meh, I’ll stick around for the next rest of my life or so, but no promises beyond that.” He tried to put on his old crooked, half mad smile, but it was a thin and pale imitation.

 

Together they staggered downstairs, mostly because Gary was all over the place. Tallum tipped him into the bath without even a warning, he simply pointed and shoved, resulting in an enormous splash.

 

“Good work, Tallum my boy!” Axio chirped happily in the bath. 

 

Plumeria was nestled under his arm and looking… radiant in the steamy garden pool. She smiled and plucked a small red and purple striped plum from her headdress of fruiting boughs and passed it over to him with a smile. 

“For you, Gary… A wildfire plum, the first fruiting of my first daughter in so many centuries I’ve lost count. Plant her in your garden and watch her grow with your own children.” The tiny almond eyed beauty sighed happily.

“She made me promise to bring her to you, since she hasn’t yet the strength to manifest herself.”

He held up the tiny thing and smiled a real, heartfelt smile for the first time in a long while.

“Go on. You know you want to.” She giggled.

 

Gary popped the tiny fruit in his mouth and nibbled the flesh from the pit with delicate care and kissed it into his palm with a smile. “She’s delicious!” 

In seconds, he was squatting naked over by the dwarf cherry tree, planting the pit with his Contract weapon, in the form of a bronze trowel. Once she was buried, he lay on his back above her seed and watched the sky spin for a while. 

 

Clouds and birds flew over, as the shadows lengthened into nightfall. When the first bat flittered by, bringing a short bittersweet stab of loss and fondness into his heart, he got up and dressed himself. 

‘Time to be a human being again.’ He firmly instructed his wayward emotions and stepped out into his family’s embrace.

#

 

“Your grace… What an honor to have you come calling in these trying times.” Gary said with no warmth or welcome behind the words. “What have you come to trade?”

 

“Gary I…” The look in the young man’s eye stopped the duke cold. “I’ve come to tell you that we have  a force heading for Port Burndown as we speak… and to give you this loathsome gift.” He finished after a  brief pause to collect himself.

He handed the boy a small packet of waxed leather containing a parchment envelope… inside was a single three foot long, black, tightly coiled hair. “I brought you your damned demon pube.”

 

“Oh… Leo… you really do care!” The madman chirped happily, his odd, deadly aura of menace flying away like windblown leaves.

 

“Leopold Belen!” Celeste snapped at him from a sofa near the fire. “You didn’t!” She flailed and struggled mightily in her attempts to stand, beneath her imaginary belly. “Gods blight all men! I’m too huge to get up! What kind of wedding gift is that?” She called out to her wayward husband. 

 

“It’s what he asked for, woman!”

 

“Shai strike him one for me, I promise the ducal guard won’t impale you.” She jeered.

 

“Yeah…ok…” He sighed. “You guys have pretty much played it straight… Your clerics and lords need to watch their fuc…-” Shai gave his ear a tug and nodded to the three children coloring by the fireplace with Dannyl.

“…fudge. I’ll do what I want… when I want it. They can all go dangle, as my friend Thirp likes to say.”

 

“I’m not here to make excuses for the clerical council, or my disobedient lords. They will have their own consequences to deal with soon enough.” Leo grumbled at the mercurial boy.

“I just wanted to show up and let you know where we stand… and where you do. Julius sends his regrets, I informed him but of course, a brace of bottled ghouls in his duchy are the priority.”

 

“Subtle… you sure you want me out of town? The pantheon is getting twitchy…” He smiled a half feral, half mad predator’s snarling ‘grin’ at the duke. “Or is that why you want me out of town?”

 

“Both answers are fair, but I don’t want you out of town. If I could, I’d keep you here, sniffing out demons before they hatch… all day every day, like a pig rooting up truffles.” He answered bluntly. “I’ll be downright nervous till you land your deranged arse back on my doorstep.”

 

“I can work with that. I’ll guard my territory… and my family, but remember whose guard dog I am. War is about to find out that I can bite, without killing.” He growled.

 

“Gary… I understand you have some… connections through your… gods above and below lad… don’t bring a holy war into my peaceful streets!” Leopold grumbled.

 

“It’s blood feud between me and the clergy of War, Order and Craft… don’t get in my way, Leo.” He snapped. “I won’t start anything in town, but they nearly met the Devil in your temple quarter today… I had to struggle really hard to stay a simple Fool for you.”

 

“You worry me sometimes, lad. At moments like this, I almost suspect the madness to be real.” Leo said softly.

 

“Leo, baby… I may have passed Death off to Ward, but I still hold all the other cards. Ask Streeka if you want to know more.” He sighed. 

“Now, unless you want to meet the Hanged Man… I need to go play with my kids.”

#

 

“We’re busy plannin’, Papa… Go play with Mama.” Amy scolded him when he tried to join the coloring sesh, down by the fire.

 

“What are we planning?” He insisted, snuggling in between Rio and Wilf.

 

“Adventures.” Wilf said, with one of his rare, childish smiles of delight. “We’re planning our base.”

 

“It’s a house, Wilf… not a base.” Rio reminded him gently. “It’s got to be a home, like Shai’s… not a fortress.”

 

“I like castles… as long as they’re fun, Wilf… no plain rock walls!” Amy huffed as she critiqued his drawing of a blocky, gray, stone keep on a mountain top. “Where’s the garden?”

She held up her colorful depiction of… it was a lot.

 

“I’m not sure a whole herd of unicorns is a great idea… Ester’s a lot by herself…” Rio argued reasonably.

#

 

“Why did we agree to cater this party?” Dannyl asked, from behind a mountain of pale dough. With quick and efficient moves he tore out a wad of the stuff and shaped it into yet another of the many loaves gathering themselves and rising in his proofing closet.

 

“Cause they’re our comrades and we love them?” Ivy asked sweetly. “Or because I’ll kick your lazy arse if you try and slip away.”

 

“That seems fair.” He smiled that winning, heart throbbing grin that got him into and out of so much trouble. “Ivy…” The handsome lad muttered softly, still working his dough, as he spoke. “Ward offered me a Contract last night; I’m thinking about accepting, is that… weird?”

 

“Super weird. And pretty awesome.” She sighed. “I don’t have any affinity for him, and Tallum gets super sexyjelous when he even thinks about the possibility…” She smiled wickedly and nodded to herself. 

“Yeah, you should ask Tallum’s advice about this… and tell him I’m ‘too close to the problem’ to advise you…”

Her smile became even more deadly and venomous as she considered the potential outcome.

 

“Sure Ives, anything for you…” He said with a wicked grin of his own. “Do you have enough Lunarglide?”

 

“Nope!” She answered with delight.

#

 

“Of course we’re going, Sweet Jocomo.” Gabbbie whispered into his ear as the sun went down. “I command it, as your empress!” She bit her perfect dusky lip and looked down at her almond eyed, dark haired servant and sighed.

“Now, Joco… what can poor, humble Gabbie do for her warrior?” She purred, melting into his arms.

 

“I rather fancy being bathed by a nubile slave girl… shall we go visiting…? We shall go visiting your sisters.” He corrected himself firmly; and delivered a mildly stinging swat to the imperial backside to make his point.

 

Gabbie giggled and rubbed her bottom against his lingering ‘swatting hand’ with delight. The outraged gazes of her hidden guardian Whispers rang against her new ‘Spider Sense’ from Thirp… That made it even more scandalously pleasurable.

The stalking, near invisible shadows surrounded them as the short, pale complexioned young warrior strolled down Wheatford’s streets, hand in hand with Gabbie. The dark, tall, foreign orphan girl doted and coddled her man in almost embarrassingly subservient ways during the whole journey.

She plied him with treats from the early festival stands, beverages from carts pushed by orphans and was generally a perfect girlfriend…

 

“The left hand is…” Scorpion whispered to Mantis, who cut him off with a glare.

 

“Duty.” Mantis hissed, as she vanished into a shadow.

Centipede gave them both an unpleasant glare as he slipped across a nearby rooftop in the strange, dual moonlight in this town.

They haunted the steps of the young couple as they skipped carelessly through the streets of town, sampling what tomorrow would bring.

 

“I’ve never really attended a barbarian wedding, or festival…” She sighed to her beau.

 

“I have attended a few of their events, in my duties. They are diverting and pleasant.” He answered smugly, with a soft and tender pat and squish of Gabbie’s bottom, when no one was looking. 

Outside town, on the bridge over the river Belen, she dropped his hand and danced forward to the soft strains of music drifting over the water. At the peak of the bridge span she gave a twirl, spinning the hem of her white summer dress scandalously high up her dark, slender legs. 

 

She lowered her hands coquettishly before he got more than a fleeting glimpse of the imperial ‘pantsu’... but it was enough to bring him running to her side, as they raced for the glowing lanterns beside the garden gate.

 

“Gabbie! Jocko!” The kids shouted when the young couple joined the small gathering in the private baths.

 

“Oh, hey guys!” Becky sang when they slipped into the pool. “We were just heading up to bed…” 

 

“No we weren't…” Wilf muttered softly, before being hushed by Rio and Amy.

 

“So enjoy the baths…” Becky continued, after hitting Wilf with a mildly disapproving stare. “Oak leaf is already set up for you.”

 

“Oak leaf?” Joco asked, looking a little confused. 

 

“Gary got tired of shapes and colors for the guest rooms…” Becky smiled and waved, as she shepherded her rowdy charges upstairs.

 

“I know, Wilf… but it’s important. You can pick the story tonight, ok?” Amy chided her younger brother, as they followed their leader to bedtime just a little early.

#

 

The four stalking Whispers were met in the garden by a giant, red haired barbarian smith and his comparatively small wife… her radiance’s new ‘sister’s’… adopted parents.

She confronted the insect themed warriors dressed in common bodice and skirts, with green checked apron at her waist and a damp towel in her hands.

“Your mistress is safe in this home. Be welcome, if you bear neither arms or malice... Cause a  hint of problems and I’ll personally see to it that my husband and son pull your ears out yer arseholes.” She batted her eyes at the dark armored quartet of dangerous men and women in her daughter’s garden.

“Now drop all the sharps, pointies and stranglies in these baskets, take off those hideous masks and come inside.”

 

From some battles, even the imperial Whispers will withdraw. Not many, just the unwinnable ones.

#

 

“Lot’s of imperial activity…” Bos’n Willits murmured to the captain. “Should we run up duchy colors and lie doggo?” He asked, holding up a few of their collected flags. 

 

“Erazmus… they’ve always been cozy with both us and the empire…” Captan Stoltz grumbled. “Play it safe… word is another crew got burned on one of those Wheatford jobs.”

 

“Dryland snatches are for dirt scratchers.” Willits mumbled unhappily. “Idiots like that are gonna draw too much heat to honest traders like us.” He mumbled.

#

 

“It’s the Salty Kiss, captain… She’s on the list, running under Erasmus’ colors.” First officer Tanaka grunted, as he released his vision gift.

“Could cause trouble if she’s really under duke Erasmus.”

 

“Fuck the duchies and their barbarian ‘dukes’. Take her. I want the ship intact and at least a few hands alive. Release the Krakens.” Captain Wai Chen said softly. 

 

On the aft rail of imperial frigate Light’s Glimmer,a dozen nearly nude figures, their bodies and weapon harnesses painted in mottled blue and gray, slipped into the water in silence.

Evening brought shipping to a near standstill for a few golden minutes on this end of the Shallow sea, the Pirate’s Hour it was called… At sunset, the tide fell slack and the winds dropped, as the evening breezes gathered offshore among the clouds and fog they would soon carry over the coastal range.

 

In this brief lull, shadowed forms emerged beneath Salty Kiss’ waterline, moving beneath the surface in silence. There was a soft splash, as first the port, then the starboard rudder chains sank into the deep, neatly cut. There was a soft sound of hammering as a barbed spike was driven into the ship’s prow below the water line, attached to a cable and a billowing cloud of sailcloth.

 

Sea anchor set, rudder controls cut free, the ship drifted aimlessly as her crew slowly vanished, one by one. In the long evening shadows, dark forms slipped over the rails, moving in silence among the panicked sailors and warriors. 

 

When Light’s Glimmer drew alongside the stricken vessel, her crew were neatly bound and draped over the rail… those who were not neatly bound and slipping beneath the waves. 

“Twenty unfortunates chained in the hold, along with some common trade goods and a few sundries.” First tentacle Lorena reported with a grim smile. “A dozen slavers captured, seven killed.”

 

“You are relieved, good work. Crab platoon will handle the prisoners, Lobster and Eel will be on call.” Her captain murmured happily. “Tell sir Tanaka I wish to interview the captain personally…”

 

“...Under the flag of the duke of Port Erasmus… a worthy with whom I have done much business… you would be wise to release my ship and crew…!” The ‘captain’ blustered, Tanaka’s meaty backhanded slap ended his tirade swiftly.

 

“Thank you sir Tanaka…” She said with a smile. “I am Captain Wai Chen, of her imperial majesty's navy… not the local coastwatchers… they have been… reassigned.”

 

“N-navy?” He murmured very quietly past a significant tightening in his throat.

 

“Yes… The imperial navy is taking matters in hand… Where is the self-styled, ‘Admiral Amy, Pirate Princess of the Shallow Sea’ currently stalking?”

 

 “Who?” He whispered, drawing a fresh slap from the burly imperial knight’s mighty right hand.

 

“Your face will wear out before sir Tanaka’s hand does. Speak freely, you are already guilty of trading in human bondage.” She said with a smile. “As difficult as it may be to believe, things can get worse for you.”

 

“I have never heard of this ‘admiral Amy’, noble captain…” He whispered, drawing a slap to his as yet, unreddened cheek.

 

“Now we begin asking your crew, unless you wish to change your answer? Only one of you will win clemency with the truth. First come first served.”

 

“I’ve never heard of any such captain, crew or vessel…” He sobbed desperately. “Maybe they are northerners? Please… I’ve been hearing things about Wheatford…” The blubbering wretch gasped.

 

“The inland mercenary realm? Really?” She asked sweetly. “Do you think her radiance the empress let’s utter fools command her fleet?” She scoffed. “Wheatford indeed…”

#

 

“What shall we do with the trade goods, captain?” Saephan Khang asked, as morning light broke over the sea.

 

“We are not pirates, nor are we running a zoo… strike their shackles and set them ashore with some supplies.” She muttered. “This is just empty fringe. Shiraz is the nearest domain… No one who matters will care if we dump the rubbish here. We follow our only lead… for Wheatford, up the Belen river.”

#

 

Light’s Glimmer sailed away before second bell, with Salty Kiss in tow and her captain dangling from his own yard arm, leaving a small group of cat, dog, rabbit and coyote kin standing in ragged clothing by the shore, beside a few crates and bales.

 

“I thought things would get so much worse when they turned out to be imperials…” Sasha sighed as she carefully washed her long, velvety ears by the seashore with the others… Finally getting clean before putting on honest to gods fresh clothes was almost as good as watching the captain kick and twitch to his ending; after he got to watch his entire poxy crew meet that same fate.

 

Twenty young ragged and battered people moved about on the seashore, or lay in heaps still sobbing, with a tangled stew of emotions to struggle through.

“Let’s get off the shore and find civilization before we get caught agai…-” Brent the coyote lad spoke gently, but firmly as the oldest among them, at seventeen. 

He fell silent, when six armored men stepped out of the bushes to confront them.

 

“Hold, In duke Mubarak’s name!” A voice shouted.

#

 

Third bell rang out slow and sweet over Wheatford town, as a small crowd gathered in the garden for a quiet, private and totally unsanctioned wedding, under an arbor of duskmoons and roses.

The witnesses on the groom’s side were Liam, Tawny and two completely anonymous and well disguised… No it was the duke and duchess in common costume and another of Leopold’s abysmal horsehair false mustaches. 

The quartet stood under a canopy of wide dark green leaves, with a huge fanged snapdragon flower on a thorned and armored stalk, hovering over them.

 

The bride’s side was just as eclectic, smith Harlan and Adele, Tallum and Ivy stood there smiling with pride, under a wide spreading magnolia tree.

Dannyl was on a stool nearby, drifting sweet notes into the sky freely, just enjoying a perfect summer afternoon with friends, family and otherworldly beings from the beyond.

There was an area strictly for humans… to accommodate those few who were still struggling with challenging concepts like people that just happen to also have fur or tails… segregated seating was at the back, in the corner, far from anything good.

 

Becky presided over a brief but heartfelt sermon, supervised a chaste kiss betwixt the new minted husband and wife, then turned Gary’s shadow band loose under Ward’s direction. 

 

Clowns to the left of me,

Jokers to the right…

Here I am stuck in the middle with you!

 

The reception rolled on until sundown, behind the closed and sealed garden gate… invited guests who arrived on time reported later that it was ‘The Craziest Party That You Ever Saw’.

 

The dance floor slowly consumed the rest of the festivities… as anyone could have predicted, turning the party into a grinding mill, where only the most dedicated party people could withstand the pressure…

 

Aint no stoppin a Pirate Party, 

cause an Amy party don’t stop!

 

She sang from atop the harmonium, shaking her tiny bottom beside Wilf an Rio, as the grownups tried to keep their exhausted feet under them.

 

No one was sure when or where Gary and Shai had vanished to… but the party ground on, for those few still dancing, drenched in sweat and looking fevered and wild.

#

 

Out on the quiet backwater pool, just off the river channel, Seahorse sat at anchor, rocking back and forth to the music drifting down from the house.

“It’s true, lad…” Shai gasped, her fingers entangled in his hair. “A pirate party dinnae stop…”

He couldn’t hear her, since his ears were blocked by creamy thighs.

#