Shadow Kingdoms | Book 1 ✔ (REWRITTEN AS 'THE EXILED KING')

Chapter 19 - The Storm

Lirya lay still, barely breathing, as she waited to see what would happen. A hand shook her shoulder gently.

"Lirya?"

A light flared and she shielded her eyes from the glare. It was Jon. He looked at her, sheepishly.

"You were crying."

Oh. Once again she felt that constricting terror that flooded her senses, leaving her paralyzed by fear.

"I heard this odd rumble. I was scared. This is... new to me." Lirya whispered, sitting upright in the bed. 

Jon looked really embarrassed. His face was bright red as he blushed.

"Um. Yeah. About that..." He trailed off uncertainly.

"Go on. Do you know something?" Lirya asked suspiciously.

"That may or may not have been my stomach." he muttered.

"By Pelos!" Lirya gasped, then giggled, "You sure have one hell of a hungry stomach."

Then she leaned down and grabbed her rucksack. Lirya drew forth a loaf of bread and a gold gylin.

"Here. Eat the bread on the way down and ask the cooks for an early meal." She said, handing them over to Jon. He grinned, then left with the items. Lirya sighed, silently berating herself for feeling scared of Jon's stomach. Then she crawled back into bed, where she promptly fell asleep.

She did not even stir when Jon snuck back in, with what looked like half of the leftovers from the meals last night. She still slept soundly when Jon then proceeded to devour the food noisily, despite him trying to keep quiet. Jason, however, woke and grumbled something about people needing their beauty sleep.

"Oh yes. Go back to sleep, Jason Kainley, and get your beauty sleep." Jon laughed.

Jason muttered something under his breath, something likely not meaning well to Jon, who abruptly shut up, having the superior hearing of the elves. Jon polished off the remains of his meal and laid down to get some more rest.

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It was morning when Jon woke the others up loudly in time for breakfast. Jason groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, but Lirya, despite being woken by Jon that night, sprang out of bed, eyes sparkling. Jason arched an eyebrow.

"Happy, are we? Clearly you didn't get woken by his -Jason jabbed a finger at Jon- munching. It could have woken the dead!"

Jon looked insulted, "Only the dead? I would have liked to think that I had woken Pelos from his sleep in the Celestial Palace. Oh, and for the record? I did wake Lirya. With my stomach."

Then he left for breakfast. Lirya grinned, "Hell. It sounded like a Feirwulf." A Feirwulf was a wolf born of fire. With a body of flame and eyes of blood, it was feared across Dargon.

"Oh! Really?" Jason laughed. Then, laughing, they made their way down for breakfast.

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Jon had asked for a large amount of food for their journey, though Jason had protested loudly that they could feed a small army with that.

"I didn't want to go hungry." Jon explained. Jason's eyes widened in disbelief as he beheld the food they were taking. It was a literal feast, and enough to feed a family of ten for months. Using her charm and gold gylin, Lirya secured warmer clothes for herself and horses for them all, as well as one to bear the food.

A small frown on her face, Lirya muttered, "I only have seven gold pieces. I can only pray that we do not be attacked by highway robbers, for should that happen, we will not be able to pay the ferryman to take us over to Silvardor."

"It will be fine. I trained with Sir Elvon, you remember him, Lirya?" Jason asked.

"Yes. He was the best and most capable man I have ever met." Lirya mused.

Jason looked hurt, "Wait. Not me? Am I not capable?"

Lirya laughed and rode closer to him, playfully shoving him. Then she rode forward, ignoring Jason's yell, "Hey!"

They reached the docks at around noon, inquired around the taverns and located the ferryman. He stood in his boat, with the square rigged sail fluttering in the breeze. It was clear that he was about to take off, but they saw no passengers. Jon called out to the ferryman and the ship stopped, the sail going down. They rode up to him and he greeted them.

"'Ello. One gold' piece for each of the animals and one for the three of you." He smiled, showing broken and aged, yellow teeth. Lirya counted out five gold gylin and handed them over.

"Thank thee. Welcome aboard."

They got on, and using a special harness, got the horses aboard. The boat left the shore and the three friends got comfortable. It would be a fairly long ride. Silvardor was a days riding from Sanobar, so it would easily take several hours, depending on the weather.

A storm was brewing. It was in the air and the clouds had never looked more sinister. The waves grew more choppy and more spray was thrown on board. Jon was the first to hang over the side, the wrath of the sea sending his stomach roiling. It probably didn't help that he had eaten such a large helping of breakfast earlier. As the storm grew wilder, Jason, too lost his battle with the sea. Lirya, however, was strangely unaffected, only turning slightly green as the sky turned darker and darker. The boat was soon thrown around the open sea, like a broken toy. They had sailed into the Great Sea, and there was a grey outline cutting through the fog and spray from the sea.

"Land Ahoy!" The lookout boy called from the lookout nest. Sure enough, the ferryman heard him and swerved the boat quickly, but he was too slow. It seemed to Lirya that the ferryman was moving the boat in slow motion while the land sped closer. Then they collided. The ferryman was thrown off the boat and into the raging waters. He did not surface again. Without a ferryman, the boat lurched and spun wildly. Jason stumbled towards the helm, intending to try to steer the boat, but the water was flooding in at an alarming pace from the smashed hull. Jason, too was flung from the boat, his cry swallowed up by the sea.

"No! Jason! No..." Lirya cried, running to the place where Jason had fallen under.

Under the water, amid the wreckage from the boat, Jason heard her cry, and tried to surface. Then something struck him in the head and he saw nothing more.

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