Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

the rag that muffled him. He turned silent once more when one of the Orcs gave him a warning knock upside the head with their armored glove.

Tears spilt upon Sydney’s cheeks at the sight of her mother’s former protector too, a famed former general of the Orcinians and her high school’s humble custodian too. Mr. Owens stood bound and gagged beside his son.

Sydney fell to her knees, sobbing, when the Orcs removed the hoods of the smaller pairing too.

The last she had seen of Amelia Mayfield and her father, Jack, had been when Sydney and Owens waved goodbye to them on her mother’s ship before venturing off to Crayfish Cavern in continued search of Garrett Weaver and the Selkies who had taken him. Both Amelia and her father were former residents of the Indianapolis Zoo, and Sydney’s mind flooded with curious wonder as to how and when all of her friends were taken hostage.

All such questions disappeared when Malik Blackfin marched in front of the hostages, his eyebrows raised in consideration of which he might choose to pull from the lot.

Remembering how Yvla had fared against him, Sydney found her voice. “Please,” she begged through her tears. “Please, leave them alone! Don’t hurt them.”

“Hurt is the name of this game, child,” said the Blackfin, ignoring Amelia and her father when both would not meet his gaze. Instead, he looked between Owens and his father, both of whom refused to glance away. Smiling, he grabbed hold of Owens and yanked him from the line. “How much can you withstand, boy?”

Sydney shouted as Malik clapped his hand on Owens’ shoulder, then dropped her friend to his knees with a swift kick.

Mr. Owens came alive then too. It took Solomon and two other Orcs to restrain Mr. Owens as the Blackfin drew a dagger from the sheathe upon his belt.

Owens snorted and tried to rise. For all the good it did him, he continued to fight against those coming to keep him down too. Even as the Blackfin stepped behind him, Owens shouted a muffled defiance through the gag in his mouth.

“Please!” Sydney howled, watching the Blackfin raise his dagger, the tip of it poised over the back of Owens’s neck. “Stop this!”

The Blackfin would not. With a quick decisive move, he reached forward with his free hand and grabbed hold of the gag binding that was tied off at the back of Owens’ head. The Blackfin slipped the blade beneath the stripping and cut it loose, freeing Owens to speak before stepping away.

“Owens!” Sydney cried. “Owens, look at me.”

“Syd,” he croaked, pushing up from the floor. “I’m sorry, Syd.”

Malik Blackfin laughed at their exchange. “What are you sorry for, boy? Following a liar?” he asked. “Or that doing so landed you and your traitor father here?”

“That we’re stuck here with you, man,” Owens spat. “And my Pop’s is no traitor.”

The Blackfin kicked him square in the face, knocking Owens aside again. “Brave boy,” he chuckled even as he signaled his Orcs to raise Owens to his knees. “You would have made a noble sea-wolf in my Violovar.”

Sydney shook her head when seeing Owens still dizzied by the blow. “Stop this,” she cried to Malik Blackfin, then looked to the king when she received no response or pity from him. “Please! You don’t need to do this.”

The king nodded. “On that we are agreed,” he said in answer to her. Then, he looked at Owens. “Tell me, boy. You lived ashore also and came to the Salt with my daughter—” the king’s face reddened at the mistake. “With this girl here. You do remember Sydney, yes?”

Owens nodded. “Yeah . . .”

The Blackfin gave Owens a nudge in the back with his boot. “Careful, boy. That’s your king who stands before you. Speak to him again without any manners and those will be your last words.”

Owens glanced at Sydney with his good eye, then mumbled a response. “Yes, sir.”

Malik rapped Owens over the head. “He’s no sir, boy. Call him ‘Your Grace’, or—”

“Blackfin,” the king raised a hand to quiet him. “Clearly, this boy does not where he is. Say nothing of the danger presented to him even now.”

Malik flashed his dagger. “Shall him I teach him, Your Grace?”

“No. Not yet anyway.” The king’s gaze flickered to Sydney instead. “This lesson is not meant for him anyway.”

It’s for me. Sydney thought to herself, her heart breaking at the sight of more familiar faces and friends suffering as the result of her choices. This is all because of me.

Darius called to Owens. “Boy . . . I remain curious as to the true reason that you, Sydney, and these other oath-breakers decided to follow my wife and return to my kingdom. Care to shed some light on it for me?”

“I already told your soldiers before they put a beating on me, Your Grace,” said Owens. “Me, Syd, and Amelia came looking for Garrett Weaver. We came to rescue him from Selkie slavers and take him home. That’s it and that’s all.”

“Clever lad,” said Darius quietly. “Holding to your shared stories. But then Nattie and your father, the shamed former general here, well, they would have ensured you all aligned your lies before Makeda brought you into my city, wouldn’t they?”

“It’s the truth, Your Grace,” said Owens. “I’m telling you.”

Darius frowned. “Blackfin . . . I believe he’ll need that lesson after all.”

Again, Sydney fought those restraining her as the Blackfin nodded and went to obey the king’s command. Her breath caught in her throat, however, when the Blackfin’s blow did not fall upon Owens, but his father instead. Sydney winced at the onslaught of kicks and punches rained upon Mr. Owens by the Blackfin, Solomon, and other Orcs.

Owens too fought to no avail then. “Leave my Pop alone!” He cried through his own tears at his father strewn upon the floor as the beating continued. “You’re killing him!”

“Not yet, they aren’t,” said Darius. “But the general soon will be dead, if you won’t give me