Black Pearl

Chapter 59

I was far from queen like when I snatched the paper from his grasp. I had seldom seen Leo's writing but I knew the short jagged lines to be his.

"How did you get letters here? Wouldn't they have to go through the queen?" I demanded, not allowing my eyes to even skim.

"We spent a fair amount of time having pigeons trained to find ships, this one in particular. We just took the same pigeon that delivered letters to the queen and trained it to come to the ship instead. I know you may be loyal to her, but she is not an advantageous middle man." he explained.

I took a deep breath, dying to know what the letter said but afraid to give my eyes a chance to read it. If it was enough to keep him awake at night, what would it do to me? "I'm scared. Jacob, I'm so afraid of so many things right now."

He tipped his head back, staring at the stars above. I wished that I could read him then, but his voice was even and the curve of his mouth revealed nothing. "We are all worried, Ember. These are hard times that no one saw coming. I won't tell you what is going on if you don't want to know. Ignorance can be bliss. I think you deserve a little bit of that."

"But I'm not ignorant enough to believe that nothing is going on. Not knowing is eating at me. It keeps me up at night."

He only shrugged his big shoulders. So, I made my own choice and read.

Jacob,

I hope that you are well. I worry about you constantly. You may be talented with a blade, but those sirens are beyond anything either of us expected.

But I am not writing to you to tell you that I am thinking of you, unfortunately. You see, things have gone from bad to worse since you left. The fairies are convinced that war is the only way, not that any of us find that surprising. What is surprising is that they rallied the trolls on their side. Though I knew that trolls weren't on our side, I never thought they would join the fairies. They must be enraged to come out of their neutral position.

Our people are against me just the same. They feel that there was no punishment delivered, that I was too weak to do something permanent. They fear that I am ruled by emotions. I was on the brink of losing support. Thankfully, Archer has joined the battle, coming on our side and he helped me convince the towns people to evacuate the surrounding area. We both know the fairies want anything that glitters and is gold. I'm okay was sacrificing my riches if it means saving some lives. Archer will also fight beside me in two days' time. I told him to stay away, both for his sake and his wife's sake. He refused and I'll be glad to have him beside me in Valemont Valley.

I wanted to tell you that you may have to prepare for what we always feared. And I am ordering you to stay on the island until you receive word that the battle is over.

Take care of her.

-Leo

I read the later at least half a dozen times before handing it back to Jacob. The tone was heavy, the words ominous. That was not to be denied. However, there was still much unknown and the reality was that nothing had happened yet.

And he had asked Jacob to take care of me. Unless he had meant someone else, but I couldn't fathom who. The fact that he had wrote about me, even in such a tiny part, warmed my heart. Was he worried about me? Did he still care? Did he have a gut feeling that I hadn't slaughtered his brother without cause?

"It sounds like everything is alright," I said carefully. "He wants us to stay here, that's okay."

Jacob scraped a hand down his face. "That is because you don't understand."