Solstice, Book 1: A Prince, A Thief, Etcetera

Chapter 1: A Friendly Kidnapping

It's not real. It's not real. This ship can't be real. That's exactly what Levi Stirling thought as it carried him out to sea. Against his will.

It was the sort of ship that would not have seemed out of place in a pirate movie--the kind made of wood, with white sails. It probably would have looked majestic sailing over clear, blue waters on a bright, sunny day.

But it was not bright and sunny that night.

It was dark. Dark behind and even darker ahead.

And by the look of things, a storm was brewing.

Levi clutched the railings as the ship's creaking deck rhythmically rose and fell beneath his feet. His left eye was swollen almost shut, but he could still see well enough to make out the frothy wake churning below and know that a boat like this should not be able to sail so fast. And it should not be able to maintain a straight course with no one at the captain's wheel. This ship can't be real, he thought again. Because it was impossible. No ship as old as this one apparently was could sail itself.

For the thousandth time, he wondered where Lindel and Ferrus were taking him.

Looking towards the bow, he was hit with a salty spray that made his bruised lips sting. There still was no visible sign of land. He couldn't even make out the horizon. The starless sky and the murky sea were like one impenetrable veil of inky blackness. He reached for his inhaler.

"You won't find much to see out there. Not until we've crossed the Faeth Fiadha," a voice called out from behind. Its tone was carefree and pleasant, and it made Levi want to scream.

He looked up and frowned at Lindel who was presently reclining on the railing of the top deck where the captain's wheel was mounted, one leg hanging carelessly over, and idly tuning a lute of all things. Levi hadn't heard him come up. A gust from the sea tugged at Lindel's clothes and tossed his golden hair about his handsome face. He regarded Levi with an amused smile. "That's what all this mist is, in case you were wondering."

"Are you going to tell me where it is we're really going?" Levi croaked, his voice thick with vaporized medicine. They had not given him a straight answer for this question yet, though he had asked countless times since they'd first left the dock.

Lindel laughed. "Like we said earlier, you wouldn't believe us even if we told you. And even if you did, it might be too much for your small, young brain to handle right now. You've had a trying day, after all. We'll have to ease you in slowly."

Levi's eyes darted to the railing again. For one wild moment he considered jumping and trying his luck out in open water. Perhaps he could make it to shore...

Yeah right, the rational voice inside his head told him. They had been sailing for well over an hour now, always heading in the same direction and somehow maintaining the same unnaturally fast speed, no matter how the wind shifted. The time for escape had long passed.

Besides, Levi had never exactly been a good swimmer.

He tried to console himself by thinking that if Lindel and Ferrus were going to do him harm, they surely would have done it by now. Even so, he still felt uneasy whenever he looked at Ferrus, his other captor, sitting cross-legged on the lower deck with a sword across his lap that was almost as big as he was. The blade was easily as wide as Levi's hand, and the hilt looked about as long as three or four of his fists. There was also something weirdly mystical about the sword. Even with no moon or stars, the blade gave off a faint glimmer as Ferrus slowly stroked its length with a whetstone.

Ferrus's silver hair spilled over one side of his face down to his shoulder, but his un-obscured violet eye gleamed sharp, and at that moment it was fixed on Levi. As if he'd read his thoughts, he spoke to him in a low grumble, "S'no reason ter be afraid. There'd be no sense in goin' through all this trouble just ter be killin' yeh. We needn't have woken you from yer nice, warm bed if that were our purpose."