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

Sydney screamed then, wincing for every landed blow upon Mr. Owens. “He’s telling you the truth! Please! We’re all telling you the truth! What else do you want from us?”

Darius raised his hand, signaling the Orcs to cease in their attack.

Sydney immediately looked to Mr. Owens, the slow rise and fall of his chest signaling he yet lived.

“Pop!” Owens cried out. “Pop, talk to me!”

Mr. Owens mumbled a response.

Please be okay. Sydney prayed as she watched the mammoth Orc roll over, wheezing through the gag in his mouth. Please don’t die because of me.

The king stepped in front of her, blocking her view of him. “You already know what I want, Sydney,” he said. “Truthful answers to my questions. That is all I require of you.”

Sydney glared up at him. “I’ve already given you both. I don’t know what else you want me to say!”

“Where is your brother?” Darius asked her. “Why did your mother decide—”

“We left Jun at home!” Sydney shouted. “What else do you want from me? I don’t know where Jun is if he isn’t ashore and back at home in Indiana!”

Darius scowled at her before turning to Owens again. “And you, boy? What do you know of the prince’s whereabouts? Assuming he is my son, that is, and not some other bastard pretender.”

Owens took one glance at his father, then shook his head. “It’s like Sydney said, Your Grace. We don’t know. Me and my Pop was supposed to get Sydney from the zoo and take her back home to be with Jun. But then me, Syd, and Amelia decided to go out looking for Weaver in the Salt instead.”

“But why?” the king asked. “Why would you forsake your prince’s safety for an orphaned Orc?”

Because of me. Sydney knew when Owens looked at her for what to say. Unable to withstand his questioning gaze, she looked to Amelia and found her crying too. Because I convinced them all to come with me.

Owens mustered a response. “We didn’t know Jun was a prince,” he said. “Or Sydney a princess either. For all we knew, Jun was safe at home. Our friend, Weaver, wasn’t. We just wanted to get him back. That’s all.”

“And where is this Weaver now?” Darius asked. “This orphaned Orc you all seem so concerned with?”

Malik Blackfin chuckled. “He abandoned them all, Your Grace. He betrayed my sister and the Painted Guard, then murdered a few good and loyal soldiers before fleeing once he discovered they knew of his true intentions for venturing into our city.”

“That’s a lie,” said Owens. “We didn’t have any plans for coming here, man. All we wanted after we found Weaver was to go home. It was Makeda and the Painted Guard who forced us to come here and then turned on us and her too! They’re the ones who betrayed Makeda and—”

“Enough!” Darius silenced him. “The daughter of Orcin will stand trial and speak in her own defense at a later time. We’re here tonight to discuss the queen’s crimes. Will you give us the truth of them here and now, lad? Aye, and at her trial also?”

They want him to lie? Sydney wondered. That’s what this is about!?

Owens’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Your Grace. Already told you everything I know.”

“And what if I said your father’s fate depended on your answers, boy?” Darius asked. “Would you have any further truth or explanations?”

It is. That’s what this is all about. Sydney choked at the realization. They want us to lie . . . to lie against Mom.

Owens seemed to understand the king’s meaning then too. “I gave you all the truth I got, Your Grace. My Pop too.”

Sydney pushed to the limits of her captors’ grips. “Owens, just do it,” she said. “Do what they say. They’ll kill you and your dad if you don’t.”

“They’re gonna kill us anyway, Syd,” Owens replied, his bottom lip shaking even as he flung defiance at the king and Blackfin. “But I ain’t gonna help them kill nobody else.” He glared at the king. “You don’t like my answers, Your Grace?” Owens spat at the king’s feet.

Malik Blackfin laughed and gave Owens’s head a rough rubbing. “Aye, now there be a sea-wolf if ever I saw one.” He nodded in respectful show. “You are your father’s son, boy. I’ll give you that. Aye, you do General Owens and your forefathers proud.”

The king snorted at Malik’s praising of Owens. With no better answers from his Orc hostages, Darius turned toward Amelia and her father. “I wonder, boy, if your Merrow friends feel the same.”

Sydney’s face paled when the Blackfin took up the king’s meaning.

Leaving Owens and his father to the other Orcs, Malik strode toward Amelia and took her gently by the arm. “Hush, now,” he said to her, separating Amelia from her trembling father, then leading her onward. “Answer truly and you have nothing to fear, girl.”

Sydney wept at the state of her terrified friend, barely able to shuffle forward alongside her captor.

Amelia’s face bore none of the bruises that her father did, yet she shook all the more for her fear as Malik positioned her in front of the king and then cut free the gag in her mouth.

“What say you, girl?” Darius asked her. “What truths would you give me and the crowds to come about the queen’s reasoning for returning to the Salt, yet leaving our prince behind? Abandoning him, some might say.”

I’m sorry. Sydney thought when Amelia trembled further at the question, their gazes meeting for a brief moment. God, I’m so sorry.

Amelia offered an incoherent response, her voice squeaking like a frightened mouse.

Malik nudged her. “Speak up, girl. Let the king hear you.”

“I-I’ll do anything,” she said, her face flushing as she glanced at Owens on the floor near his injured father. “I’ll say anything you want. Just please don’t hurt them anymore.”

“No, sweet child,” said Darius. “We don’t want to hurt your friends, nor the queen either. We only