Read Online Scimitar War by Chris A. Jackson - Free Book Online Page A

were sailing. Above the roar of surf, she could still hear the shouts and calls from the ships ahead, but the light from their lanterns was now only a diffused glow in the bank of mist.
    “Where we goin’, Miss Cammy?” Paska asked, her voice low and guarded.
    “South.” She looked back at them, and cringed at the fear in their faces. “We’re going to find our friends, Paska. We’re going to save them.”
    “We are?” she asked, glancing at Tipos. “How we gonna do dat?”
    “Just steer us close to the reef, Paska. The ships won’t venture close in this fog, and we can use the sound of the surf to guide us.”
    Paska turned Flothrindel south as they cleared the reef and entered the mists, and Tipos trimmed the sails. On their right the shouts of alarm and constant ringing of bells sounded as the ships tried to avoid colliding in the fog, while on their left surf roared against the reef. Eventually, they slipped free of the fog, the mists like a wall behind them, and the sounds of alarms and men faded.
    The salty breeze of their passage cooled Camilla’s face. She breathed deep, relaxing her stranglehold on the sea. Her plan had worked. Her power had proven reliable, though the thought of what she had done to earn it hung upon her soul like an anchor dragging her down to the hells.
    “So, Miss Cammy,” Paska asked hesitantly, “you a seamage too, now?”
    The question brought Camilla up short. Deep in her mind, the voice laughed.
    “No, Paska,” she said in a sad, quiet voice. “I’m just about as far from a seamage as you can be.”
    “Okay,” Tipos said carefully as he stared at Camilla. “Den how in de Nine Hells you be doin’ all dat?”
    Camilla looked once more at the fear on their faces, and despair welled up in her. Because I’m a monster , was the answer, but she couldn’t tell them. Not yet.
    “I’ll tell you in the morning. Right now I need to rest.” She looked aft toward the receding shadow of Plume Isle, then down into the cabin. “Paska, please fetch little Koybur and keep him here in the cockpit with you.”
    “Why?” the woman asked. “He don’t take up much room. You can sleep down dere next to him.”
    “No!” Camilla’s voice was sharp to her own ears, but she could allow no room for temptation. The voice was already calling out to her to feed, to replenish her power. That she would not do. “Go get him. Then close and bolt the cabin door behind me.” A simple hatch wouldn’t hold her back, but it might dampen the sound of their heartbeats.
    Paska gave the tiller to Tipos and edged past Camilla into the cabin, emerging a few moments later with her sleeping child clutched to her breast. Camilla went below and listened as her friends locked her inside, then lay on the cabin sole and tried to ignore the ravenous voice that whispered in her mind.
    ≈
    Emil Norris woke to the piercing horn call of alarm, distant shouts, and an empty bed.
    “Camilla?” he called, before he remembered that she had not graced his bed for the last two nights. Fumbling to light the lamp, he finally managed to strike the match. Light flared as the wick caught, and he saw a note on the pillow beside his. Ignoring the distant cries of alarm, he snatched it up. His hands began to tremble as he read.
    Dearest Emil,
    I regret more than you can know the necessity of my departure. For your safety, and that of all whom I love, I must leave. Something happened to me in Hydra’s lair that I don’t fully understand. An evil possesses me, and it is dangerous beyond reckoning. I fear it will soon overpower my own will. I could not live if I ever harmed you or Tim.
    I killed the soldiers. Tell Joslan, so he will stop his hunt for the killer. I have also taken Flothrindel , and forced Paska and Tipos to help me escape. Please don’t let them be held accountable for my actions.
    I seek to free those taken by the cannibals, and will remain among them. There, at least, the beast within me can feed and