CARPE DIEM
Prologue
“If you want to save the lives of every woman in this village you will do as I say,” the snide voice of our temple master replayed through my mind. I looked over the Sterncastle deck at the blackening sky nervously. A storm was coming up the Busillus Waterway echoing off of the Aeterno Mountains with deafening thunder claps.
I cast a look at the shear mountain cliffs that surrounded us trying to judge if rocks would tumble down beneath the harsh winds. “Mistress Casana,” Tobias, captain of the Abyssus, called over the rushing noise. “We’re approaching a split in the waterway do we go left or right to the sea?”
The choppy water sliced against the bow swaying us but beyond it I saw the peninsula dividing the waterway. I turned letting the wind cut through my linen skirt as I marched into the navigation room. “Jeddah where are the waterway maps,” I demanded of the hunched over man who was flipping pages frantically.
“I know Casana, I know,” he rumbled, “nothing shows a divide in the waterway it should come right from the Celestial sea.
“I need an answer now,” Tobias snapped, “right or left.”
I breathed out closing my eyes tightly trying to use my intuition alone to guide us. “Right,” Jeddah declared and I blinked at him. His glass magnified brown eyes hit mine sharply.
“Are you sure,” Tobias grunted, he didn’t like Jeddah from day one but I had to trust in my guide.
“Yes Captain if Jeddah says right we go right,” I said firmly turning to look at his sea weathered face. His gray eyes were hidden beneath wrinkles and thick facial hair. He scowled pressing his lips into a firm line before walking out of the room silently.
The ship listed to the right sinking my stomach in the move. “Everything will be ok Casana,” Jeddah murmured standing up slowly.
“I know Jeddah thank you.”
I walked out of the navigation room watching Tobias direct the ship down the narrow curving passage. The ship slowed as he barked orders. I went past him catching his foul expression before going down to the main deck. Many of the men glanced up watching me with leering eyes as I made my way to the Forecastle deck.
“I’d ere on da side of caution if I were you miss,” the gruff voice of Rojen replied.
I glanced into his unreadable eyes. Something dark and dead lurked in the sailors depths. “I need to be close to the bow when we reach the heart of the sea Rojen.”
“Aye I know,” he shrugged dissolving back into a fog that rose up against the ship. The cliff walls made for strange weather. I continued my assent to the deck watching the black water slap against the bow violently.
In the distance the orange glow of torches cast strange shadows up against the gray mountain. I opened my mouth to call back to Tobias but was struck silent by the sight of men falling down from the heavens. They dropped in like wraiths, demons cast from darkness and fog. My heart fluttered like a trapped bird in my chest threatening to break out.
A man appeared from the mist towering over me. “Well, well,” he cooed. “What do we have here?”
Lightning split the sky illuminating his haggard face and empty stare briefly to my eyes.
“You’re trespassing in the Serpent’s Tail. All trespassers become property of Serpent Bay,” he reported.
“Please we meant no ill will,” I stammered. “We were traveling the waterway to the Celestial Sea we did not know it split into your territory.”
“Casana,” Jeddah’s scream cut through the night and I flinched stumbling backwards. I caught the fighting on the main deck as he tried to push past his captors. I opened my mouth to call to him but the glint of the blade hollowed me. Lightning flashed showing Jeddah’s empty scream as the blade drove through him.
“Jeddah,” I cried launching myself past the man and over the railing. I fell in a tumble catching Jeddah as he slid off the sword. “Jeddah, Jeddah don’t die,” I called trying to get him to focus on me but his eyes were losing their shine.
“Casana,” he breathed going limp against me.
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