Take the body and give me the rest Page 8

  Seth knew he wouldn’t be seeing Minsetta this night as The Opulent would be docked at Dacar and then depart midday tomorrow. Lady Elizebetha intended to stay ashore in a real bed, in a fine rooming house that she had been in a few times before. While Seth was feeling well out of danger, and didn’t think Elizebetha was ever in any at all, he intended to keep up appearances and stay with her that night in the city.

  The rooming house in which they stayed was a lot more to Seth’s taste than he had expected. While it was a large three-level stone building, the bottom floor was a tavern. It reminded Seth of the Mermaid’s Kiss except the drinks cost twice as much and the clients on this eve were many of the same people travelling on The Opulent.

  ‘Is it to your like, Seth?’ asked Elizebetha as she looked around the tavern room.

  It was a warm room, with a hearth at one end with a fire yet to be lit. A small stage as well for musicians and minstrels and, of course, a large bar of polished wood, behind which stood a well-dressed older man with greying hair but a friendly countenance.

  Seth smiled. ‘It suits me quite well, Lady Elizebetha.’

  ‘I thought it might, and they also have hot baths, good food and large beds. Everything we need to forget the privations of sea travel,’ she said.

  Seth thought of his own room and of sharing the large warm bed in Minsetta’s room. The privations of sea travel were still a luxury to him. Yet the General’s memories of finer things often clouded his own views.

  That night, Seth and Lady Elizebetha sat downstairs in the common room, sitting near the fire and enjoying the atmosphere of the tavern room. A lone male minstrel was on the stage playing a harp slowly but with confidence. It was a quiet music, and over it Seth could hear people talking and telling stories.

  Sitting by the fire and feeling its warmth on his hands, Seth started to feel a sensation he was almost beginning to recognise; he was getting flashes of this very room and the mirror sensation of being by this fire night after night. He looked around and saw that instead of the faces of strangers, these were people he now recognised. The owner was turned from a friendly old man to now a man named Rolf and a good friend he’d known for years. The minstrel was known to him to as well, not by name, but because he’d seen him play many times before.

  Seth turned to Elizebetha. ‘Can you speak any Dacarian?’ he asked.

  ‘I can speak some, it’s not a language—more a dialect. It’s just a strange mix of Cravosi and Pellosi. What should I say?’ she asked.

  ‘Anything, but say as much as you can or tell me a story,’ he said.

  Seth closed his eyes as the Dacarian words found his ears. Dacarian was a mix of Pellosi and Cravosi but with some unique words and different ways of saying things and different structure. At first he couldn’t understand, but then slowly he felt his understanding growing as the memories became thicker and came to him slowly, one by one. A man as old as the owner of this tavern, he’d sat by the fire many nights, traded stories for a glass of ale or a meal. He’d lived here his whole life and been a part of the furniture in the tavern. One night, he had been trading stories with an interesting young man called Stephan, an army man he was, a lieutenant. He’d gone to his room to share some Cravoss port that Stephan had, and there he had been knocked down from behind and then darkness. He had no memories beyond walking through the doorway and the sharp knock to the head.

  Seth couldn’t understand why Stephan would do it. What could this old man have that he wanted so badly? A life of the sea? Sitting by the fire and trading ghost stories and the history of Dacar?

  Seth spoke back to Elizebetha in Dacarian, carefully at first, then boldly. He knew it, he knew the language, he knew the songs and stories and he held the entirety of the man’s life. His name was Jopher.

  Elizebetha looked at him. ‘What happened? I wouldn’t have thought Stephan would bother to learn it.’

  ‘I didn’t know a word until just now, being here, hearing the language, another of Stephan’s old ghosts just came back to me,’ he said.

  ‘Who was it?’ she asked.

  ‘Some old story teller called Jopher. I have no idea why Stephan would take him. What did he know that was worth his life?’ he said.

  ‘Think not about him, but Stephan; you’ve got his memories about the event as well,’ she said.

  Seth cast his mind back into the General’s, almost twenty years ago when he had visited this place. He saw a memory of Stephan sitting talking with Jopher and grasped a hold of it. He was struck in an instant by a sickening hunger like he hadn’t felt except when he was calling the creature. It staggered him.

  ‘He was hungry; that was the only reason. The creature was calling its hunger, so much so that he couldn’t stand it anymore, and that was the only reason,’ he said.

  She just nodded to him.

  ‘Why hasn’t that happened to me yet or to you?’ he asked.

  ‘The more you call the creature, the deeper the connection you have with it. You may grow to the point where you can call it with a simple command in the mind. But the closer you are, the more you experience its hunger as your own. Now, somewhere behind the veil perhaps it hungers madly but you just can’t feel it,’ she said.

  ‘Does it affect you?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve only ever done a summoning once in my life, Seth, and that was when I was a little girl. You have already done much more than I ever did. But also at times you can feel the hunger come at you in different forms,’ she said.

  ‘What forms?’ he asked.

  Here, she laughed at him. ‘I know what you have been up to with the Pellosina woman, Seth. Your passion for her is normal lust but also more than that, I don’t doubt. A passion to own, devour, possess. Those are the creature’s hungers. For myself, I often feel that way about knowledge, the want to know everything in the world there is to know. I devour knowledge and feel a lust for it. Less exciting than your lust, I’m sure, but they sate the feeling, at least in part.

  ‘Let’s head to bed, Seth. Tonight, try focus on the new man in your life. It would be shame to let all those stories and tales be taken from the world.’

  Seth’s dreams for once behaved themselves and he spent the night exploring the many yellow fireside memories of the simple man that had been Jopher. He heard many tales in the man’s voice of ships that had never returned, kings and dukes of Dacar, the howling woman who haunted the coastline waiting for a lover who would never return. He felt the simple pleasure in gaining the regard of others as he spun the tale and a glass of ale well earned in the telling. Seth woke in the morning, feeling better than he had in months.

  They were back aboard the decks of The Opulent by the time the sun had risen to the halfway point in the sky. Seth was looking forward to running into Minsetta and thus was happy to stroll up and down the decks a little with Elizebetha as he told her some of the new tales and Dacarian ghost stories that were now his.

  He saw Minsetta coming towards him from a distance and was still left a little breathless at the sight of her. Lucky bastard he was. She looked radiant in the sunlight, casting down on her simple white dress, brown skin and brown hair in lovely contrast. She smiled at him as he came close. Elizebetha had hung back to talk with someone else.

  She looked a little tired and not quite herself, but she smiled brightly anyway. ‘Good afternoon, young Master, nice trip in Dacar?’ she asked.

  They still pretended in public in case the Captain took offence. It was no secret that the Captain’s brat still held a strong grudge against Seth, and Seth didn’t want to get bumped overboard one night. He hoped that none of the sailors running the ship at night had seen them in their moonlight antics or felt like being vocal about it.

  ‘Very nice, I learned a lot about the place. And you, did you go ashore?’ he asked.

  ‘I did, but I’ve been many times before. Anyway, will I see you tonight?’ she asked.

  He was a little surprised. ‘Actual plans to see me? You must have missed me. I�
��ll be there.’

  ‘Lovely, I’ll see you tonight, young Master,’ she said softly and swept away.

  Elizebetha rejoined him. ‘She is a magnificent looking woman that one. Be careful with her.’

  Seth smiled back at her. ‘Afraid I’m going to get my heartbroken?’

  ‘I am. You’re a lot younger than her and inexperienced in love,’ she said.

  He laughed aloud. ‘Stephan was plenty experienced for the both of us. I’ll not show her any more than she shows me; that was his rule to the game.’

  ‘It’s hardly a game, Seth. Just be careful. I’ll still need you when we make landfall.’

  ‘Yes, Your Ladyship,’ he said, feeling his heart drop a bit. He didn’t know what he was planning, but it didn’t exactly involve never seeing Minsetta again.

  Chapter 13

  She led him from the deck by the hand, like she had some many nights since the first one. He was familiar with the way they twisted and navigated in the moonlight past the masts and ropes across the main deck and into the lamp-lit corridor that held her room. Her room as well was familiar to him now, and the well-made bed a welcome sight. He wouldn’t talk to her about what Elizebetha had mentioned; they never talked about what would happen when they actually got to Pelloss, and it was an unspoken rule. But now he was hoping that the trip never really had to end.

  Inside the lamp-lit room, she gently pushed him backwards onto the bed and, with quick hands, undid his boots, taking them off and casting them aside. Next she unbuttoned his shirt, taking it off him and, lastly, undoing his belts and pants, slid them off as well. Seth lay on the bed naked in front of her gaze. With a simple motion, she undid a few clasps at the back of the white dress, and the entire thing fell to the floor exposing her to him as well. She looked as incredible as the first time he’d seen her naked. He felt his lust and hunger surge within him.

  ‘Go to the middle of the bed,’ she said, he moved himself to the middle of the bed. She came crawling up him, pressing her body against his, and feeling the hot skin-on-skin contact. Reaching out with her hands, she took a leather binding that was near the metal bed head and tied Seth’s wrists down. He laughed as she did it; he’d done it to her just a few nights before. She leaned back, allowing a view of her stretched out as she tied ones at his feet as well.

  When she was finished, she sat astride him and slowly grinded her sweet pussy into his hardening cock. He looked at her from lying under her, her large perfect breasts on display, as was the sexy way her lip curled a little as she ground against him. When he could feel her wetness, she reached down and, just like the first night, he felt a thrill of pleasure as she guided him inside of her. He so badly wanted to reach out and touch her with his hands but couldn’t; he couldn’t even get those lovely nipples in his mouth. He was helpless but happy as she slowly picked up speed in her downward rocking motion. She reached down between her own legs and found the spot, while Seth looked on, more turned on than he could believe as she worked herself to climax, feeling her tighten around him and hearing that squeal of release. He came just moments after, drinking in the sight of her and the feeling of her.

  They sat for a few panting moments and she smiled down at him. ‘Thanks, I needed that,’ she said.

  He laughed. ‘It’s always my pleasure.’

  She slowly slid off him and the bed, walking across the room to a tall dark wooded wardrobe. She drew out a thin red gown and draped it over her body, coming to stand beside the bed to gaze at him. His breathing was now back to normal, and his wrists were starting to chaff against the tight leather bonds. She went to a small table and pouring some wine into a glass let him drink deeply as he lay there. He was about to ask her to untie him when she began to speak over him.

  ‘Seth, I have to tell you something, and it’s easier if you’re like that,’ she said.

  He was starting to get a bad feeling; this lovemaking had a very goodbye feeling to it. He resolved to be strong about it.

  ‘Of course, talk to the helpless man,’ he said.

  ‘I’m older than you, Seth. A lot older. I’ve survived this long because along the way I’ve learned that the only person I can trust and rely on is myself. I’ve seen everything this world has to offer, Seth, and I know exactly what you are.’

  He felt defensive and very exposed now. ‘What exactly am I?’

  ‘You’re a gatherer of souls, Seth. You steal people’s souls and you carry them around inside of you.’

  ‘That’s not what it is at all!’

  ‘I know better than you, Seth. I’ve been alive for more than one hundred years because I’m one as well. I could see it in you from that first day. You are too young to know everything so well. The way you spoke Cravosi and Pellosi was too good and, when you said Arisetta had taught you, I knew for certain. She would never have taken a male student and, to learn what you knew, that would take many years that you just didn’t have.’

  ‘So you’re one of the Dark Guild?’ he asked, now starting to fight against his bonds but even with his new found strength he couldn’t break them, his head was starting to swim a little bit and he was struggling to make sense of her words, He thought of the wine, did it taste slightly bitter?

  ‘I’m not one of them, but I owe them, Seth. I was on this ship to remove lady Elizebetha, but they reached out and let me know that you are now also a part of the deal.’

  ‘So all this was nothing at all? You’ll just happily kill me now? I love you, can’t you see that?’ he said fiercely, not caring about the rules; he’d be dead soon anyway.

  Her large brown eyes glazed for a mere moment with a sheen of tears—and, with a blink, it was gone, and she was composed again. ‘I know, Seth, and I love you too, in my own way. You’re a very sweet boy. I wasn’t even going to do this. I don’t care what I owe them and I don’t care what they are offering me to do this, but in the end I just can’t get past what you’ve got inside of you, and that’s what I need to take back from you.’

  ‘The General? Why do you care so much about him? What did he know that was so valuable?’

  She shook her head sadly. ‘Not the General, Seth; I don’t care about him. It’s Arisetta, and it’s blasphemy for a man to be carrying around her soul. I want to know her. I will carry her with respect.’

  ‘I haven’t got her soul; it’s her memories and experience only. She’s dead; the General killed her and I only have a shadow of what she was. It’s like watching a play of her life,’ he said passionately.

  ‘You know nothing, Seth. If you’d had the chance to live as long as I, you’d see. We are gatherers of souls and these emotions that you’re talking of are nothing at all. This time with you is just like the blink of an eye. Am I meant to throw my whole life away on something so short? I’ve done so many terrible things; this doesn’t even come close. And you would have become exactly the same. Truly, I am saving you from yourself.’

  Seth struggled hard against the bonds but couldn’t get free. He knew this was the end; no talking his way out of this. Heartbreak was the least of his worries now. He tried to call the creature with his mind; he could feel it pressing hard trying to get in, but his mind couldn’t focus on the words he needed to call it, what had she given him.

  ‘Fucking do it then. Call your beast and have it rip me apart, I hope the memories of what I feel for you will you haunt you forever.’ He slurred at her

  She laughed at him coldly but with a touch of pain. ‘No more than anything else I’ve done to get here, Seth; no more than anything else.’

  Her large brown eyes slowly turned out of focus, and Seth could feel a strange feeling as she reached out for something. He could feel her pulling and bringing something in, reaching out across the cold veil and connecting with something. It felt so different from his own creature; not a blood lust hunger but something cold, dark and deadly. Something that suffered and wanted all else to suffer as well.

  The air in the room thickened and grew dark. The air was swirling like
a silent storm and Seth could see the veil and a large pale shape looming behind it. It was the shape of a person but didn’t move like one. Slowly, the veil parted and into the room with the ceasing of the storm, it stepped.

  Seth’s creature wasn’t like this. His was a wolf of sorts, and an animal god was how he thought of it. This thing was dead. It was almost six feet in height, a girl, or the dead body of one, come to life. Pale and stinking like a corpse, black lank hair and eyes that were all white with no pupils. It wore a black dress that looked in the style of Dacar funeral garb that had been ripped, bloody fingernails and cuts on the backs of its hands, the wounds of crawling out from a buried coffin, he thought.

  Minsetta spoke to the creature. ‘Hello, Arabelle. Take his body and give me the rest, would you?’

  The thing turned to regard Seth, who was lying helpless and prone on the bed. It had dirt and mud still clinging to it as it looked at him. It straightened its seemingly broken neck with a sharp click and slowly started to walk towards the bed. He thought to scream, but he knew it would do no good. The wood in these rooms was thick and solid. If he was going to get killed by this thing, he’d at least die like a man.

  It reached the bed and opened its mouth. Inside were black gums and animal-like teeth in tight rows, sharp teeth for a purpose. It started to climb onto the bed and crawl towards him; he knew those teeth would soon be in his neck and in a matter of moments he’d bleed to death. He cast through his mind, madly trying to find something he could use. He thought again to his own creature and could feel it fighting and clawing to get in but he’d hadn’t the key to unlock it from its cold prison.