Heirs of the Fallen: Book 03 - Shadow and Steel by James A. West Read Free Book Online Page B

go. For the sake of his Brothers and his father, he could not suffer any such feelings to stain his conscience.

Chapter 8
     
     
    For two sleepless days and nights, the gale blew and raged. By day, under leaden skies, the Night Blade always sailed ahead of the Bloody Whore , a misty shape at the edge of sight. At dawn of the third day, the Brothers found that the ship had vanished.
    Now nearing sunset, the swells still wore foaming white crowns, and the rain came sporadically in pounding sheets, but the worst of the storm had passed. In the time since the night of the raid, four more Kelrens had lost their ears to Ulmek’s blade, before the rest decided that sailing the ship without objection was the better option.
    “I still believe they yielded too easily,” Leitos said, looking down the deck. From this vantage, they could keep an eye on the sea-wolves busy sailing the Bloody Whore .
    “Perhaps,” Ulmek allowed, haggard of face and eye. A wave boomed against the hull, sending up a curtain of salty spray. He caught a rope tied about the foremast to keep his balance.
    “They cannot be trusted,” Halan said.
    “Of course not,” Ulmek snapped. “I suffer them to live out of need alone.”
    “And after our brothers are with us again, what then?” Halan asked, his bluff features drawn, accentuating the dark circles under his eyes.
    Ulmek scrubbed a hand over his face. “When we have rescued Ba’Sel and the others, I will strike off the heads of these sea-wolves until my sword breaks.”
    Halan looked to a rosy slash of clouds hanging low over the southern horizon. By the coming dawn, the storm would be a memory. “We are not seafarers,” he said slowly. “We are far from home, and getting farther by the hour. Kill the sea-wolves, and we will remain far from home.”
    “Then I suggest you learn from them,” Ulmek said. “Make them believe we mean them no harm.”
    Leitos turned his eyes on the five slavers who wore bloodstained bandages around their heads, those who had lost their ears. He doubted they would ever make the mistake of believing they were safe in the hands of the Brothers of the Crimson Shield.
    Telmon glanced at Leitos, bared his rotten teeth in a grin. Sumahn, standing nearby, slapped the back of the slaver’s head. Telmon flinched, looking like a feral animal about to lash out, then abruptly bent back to coiling rope.
    “What if we do not find the Night Blade ?” Halan ventured.
    “We have no choice but to trust that we will find her where Telmon promised,” Ulmek said.
    After discovering the disappearance of the Night blade , Ulmek had threatened to chop off a few more precious pieces of Telmon if he failed to explain how a ship could disappear. The slaver admitted that his comrades had likely dumped their cargo to make better speed. “To the south, there is nowhere else to go. I tell you true, they sail for the hunting grounds,” the slaver asserted, all the more believable because Ulmek had been a hair’s width from blinding the sea-wolf with the tip of his dagger.
    “As do we?” Ulmek asked. The Bloody Whore sailed south, to be sure, but as none of the Brothers had ever ventured beyond sight of land, there was no way to know for certain if the Kelrens were sailing them where they claimed.
    Telmon leered. “Soon, you’ll know Telmon does not lie. By midnight, unless the Whore strikes a reef and founders, she’ll be riding anchor beside the Night Blade ….”
    Ulmek interrupted Leitos’s grim study. “The storm is letting up. You, Halan, and two others go and get some sleep.”
    “What of you?” Halan asked. “As our leader, you can ill-afford to neglect yourself.”
    Ulmek’s fierce expression left no room for argument. “I will take rest when our men are safe among us.”
    More than food, the opportunity of rest pushed Leitos below decks to collapse into a smelly hammock in the crew’s quarters. The night of his testing, the battle against the Kelrens, and the many