The Sorceress: Part Four

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Jacques shook his head and continued to Isca’s house. It was a cheerful little home, with a small garden of kelp in the front. Jacques knocked on the door. It opened in a few moments and the Maraquan Aisha smiled. “Hello, Jacques!”

     “Hello. And this is Lurina.”

     Isca noticed Lurina for the first time. She invited them both in. Once they were all settled in chairs, Lurina questioned her.

     “Look, the reason we’re here is because...” Lurina explained why they had come.

     Isca looked at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen your sister. I haven’t even been out of the city in a month.”

     Lurina’s eyes were downcast. “Oh... Okay.”

     Jacques suddenly sat up straight. “Could Caylis have seen something?”

     “Maybe, but I can’t be sure. Let’s go see her; it’s not far.”

     ***

     They found Caylis sitting on a rock near her cave.

     “Caylis!” Isca called.

     Caylis turned. “Oh, hello, Isca,” she said without much emotion. She narrowed her eyes. “Who’s the Xweetok?”

     If there one thing Lurina hated, it was being referred to by species. She adopted the same expression Caylis had on. “My name is Lurina, Aisha.”

     Isca rolled her eyes. Her sister had an uncanny knack for annoying people. To stop a battle between her and Lurina, Isca explained why they had come.

     “Yeah, I found the Xweetok. The Drenched had gotten to her, though, but she’s fine now; I gave her the potion. Only, she hasn’t woken up.”

     “That’s because you didn’t use the right method,” Lurina said confidently. “Now where is she?”

     Caylis lead them into the cave. Lying on one of the beds was Lallinara. Lurina swam over and whispered something into Lalli’s ear. Lallinara sat straight up and screeched. “I’LL TEACH THAT NEONVI TO KNOCK OVER MY BOOKS! SHE'D BETTER WATCH OUT IN THE BATTLEDOME!”

     She saw everyone looking at her and blushed. “Hey there, everyone.”

     “Who’s Neonvi?” Caylis asked.

     “Neonvi is our annoying friend who is incredibly dumb.”

     Caylis massaged her forehead. “Those ‘Drenched’ are becoming a real problem. They can really hurt you if you’re not careful.”

     Lurina shivered, remembering her encounter with them. “I thought so.” She remembered something. “I never told you thank you!” Lurina said to Jacques.

     “That’s fine. I’m glad they didn’t pull you down.”

     “Why are you so glad?”

     “Because you’re a girl; you’d have been crying for months!”

     All four present girls advanced on him, and after they were done, Jacques forgot all silly notions about girls. He rubbed his arm and muttered something.

     “Shouldn’t we be heading back?” Lurina asked.

     “Yes, we should. Give Lallinara a little potion, Caylis.”

     Caylis tossed Lallinara a bottle. Lalli took a sip and placed it on a table. “Let’s go.”

     ***

     On the surface, Garin, Shedars, and Loranisa were in the water near the Revenge. They were waiting for Lurina, Jacques and possibly Lallinara to return.

     Lurina surfaced first, followed by Jacques and Lallinara. Lalli gasped for air.

     “What’s wrong with you?” Loranisa asked Lalli.

     “Stupid potion wore off two minutes ago,” Lallinara replied and coughed.

     Loranisa smiled. “Now, how about we put our plan into action?”

     ***

     The plan had been explained. Loranisa’s wings had been magically dried and she had flown Garin and Jacques on board. The three of them were sneaking around below deck. Then they ran smack into a group of pirates. The two parties looked at each other for a moment before the smaller one bolted.

     “We have to slow them down!” Garin panted.

     “Leave that to me!” Loranisa said and stopped running. She reared up and brought her hooves crashing down a support pillar. The wood splintered and broke in half. A crack appeared in the ceiling.

     “What are you doing?” Garin yelled. “We’ll be separated!”

     “You’ll also be separated from these goons,” Loranisa answered.

     The section of the deck above them collapsed and they were indeed separated. Garin and Jacques looked helplessly at the mass of wood between them and Loranisa and the pirates, before running again. They were stopped again after a few minutes, this time by Benny the Blade.

     “Well, well, well. The captain will like to see you.”

     ***

     “Garin, how nice,” Scarblade snarled. “I will enjoy finishing you off.”

     Garin scowled. He wished he didn’t have to listen to Scarblade rambling on and on.

     “I suppose you thought you could regain the sorceress? That was the last mistake you will ever make.”

     “Ok,” Garin said, “first of all, the Kyrii you have is not the sorceress. I suppose that genius, Benny, couldn’t figure out it was the Ghost Xweetok who was the one with powers. Second, you realize we could blast this ship to smithereens any time we wanted.”

     Scarblade smiled evilly. “That would be quite impossible. This ship is protected by ancient spells. Besides, you wouldn’t attack the ship while your Kyrii friend is on board, would you?”

     “Oh, she’s not on board anymore.”

     “What do you mean she’s not on board? She’s locked up below deck.”

     “Just what it sounded like; we have freed her.”

     “That’s impossible! It was guarded by a dozen of the best of my crew!”

     “That fine, but you didn’t count on one thing. The sorceress helped us.”

     “Go check the prisoner!” Scarblade shouted to Benny.

     Benny hurried off and came back in a few minutes.

     “Captain,” he wheezed, “the prisoner is gone and the guards are all unconscious.”

     Scarblade growled and faced Garin and Jacques. “That’s bad. We’ll catch her. But at least I’ll have the pleasure of seeing you two die right now!” He drew his cutlass. “Now which one of you should I kill first?”

     “Sorry, Scarblade, you won’t be killing anyone today,” a mysterious voice said. Shedars stepped out of the wall.

     Scarblade glared at her. “You’re the sorceress, I presume?”

     “You presume right,” Shedars said. “Now how about letting those two go before we get nasty?”

     “We? Who’s we? I only see you.”

     “I mean myself, and my mentor.”

     Jhudora appeared beside Shedars. She glared at Scarblade. “Listen, punk, I really like my apprentice. She brews some killer coffee, and her poisonous lollipops have twice the effect! I also hate anyone who gives her trouble. And since I’m in a good mood today, I also hate anyone who gives her close friends any trouble. So, I ask you- are you going to apologize or am I going to have to make you apologize?”

     “I’ve never apologized to anyone! I’m not about to start!”

     Jhudora sighed. “So be it.” She flicked her fingers.

     Suddenly Garin, Jacques and Shedars found themselves on the deck of the Black Pawkeet. They were bombarded with questions. Garin held up a hand to silence them.

     “Wait,” he said. He remembered something. “What happened to the Uni?”

      “She flew back on her injured wing a few minutes after you left. Then the sorceress transported the two Xweetoks and the Kyrii. Then she went back to help you,” Talak the orange Wocky said.

     Everyone noticed a spire of smoke rising up in the distance. It rose up, formed into the shape of a Bartamus, and evaporated.

     “Pretty, isn’t it?”

     Everyone turned around. Standing behind them was Jhudora. Her purple and green gown billowed in the sea breeze.

     “Thank you,” Garin told her.

     “Mmm...” the faerie said.

     Shedars bowed. “Yes, thank you, Miss Jhudora.”

     Jhudora splayed three of her fingers into a ‘w’ shape. “Whatever,” she said.

     “Did you kill him?” Lurina asked.

     “No,” Jhudora replied. “Any destruction whatsoever would have resulted in a pile of paperwork from Fyora. I merely... burned him up a bit.” Then she poofed into purple smoke.

     ***

     “Well, there’s Krawk Island. Guess this is goodbye.”

     “Yeah...”

     The few days left until they docked at Krawk Island had flown by. Now, they were on the pier. The girls could contact their owner from there.

     “That really was an adventure,” Garin said.

     “And...” Lurina prompted.

     “And I’ll never forget you girls.”

     “And...”

     Garin sighed. “And I realize that girls are not inferior.”

     “Exactly.”

     “Well, we have to be going. Hope that wing heals up.”

     Loranisa nodded. “And here’s your dubloon pouch.”

     “What- how did you do that?”

     “What can I say?” Loranisa shrugged. “I’m a born pickpocket.”

     Garin grinned at them before climbing back on board. “Goodbye! For now, that is!”

     The girls smiled and waved until the Black Pawkeet was out of sight. Lurina turned to her siblings.

     “Well, let’s get to Mom.”

     ***

     They managed to send their mother a neomail and waited near the docks. In an hour or so, the Eyrie cab landed and the girls climbed in. Their mother looked them all over anxiously.

     “So, what exactly happened?”

     “Umm...” Lurina said.

     “The thing is...” Loranisa started and then stopped.

     “You see...” Lallinara said.

     “The yacht...” Shami said.

     “They had to take it back,” Shedars said firmly. “And they dropped us off at Krawk Island which was near it.”

     Their mother nodded, believing her pet. “How did you hurt your wing?”

     Loranisa was taken by surprise, but she recovered fast. “Um... I accidentally caught it in a door!”

     “You should be more careful!” their mother chided, while Loranisa nodded seriously.

     ***

     Jhudora muttered an ancient dark faerie spell as she flew over the ocean. That would teach those other faeries to capsize a ship they thought she was on.

     Nereid, the Healing Springs faerie, saw her and sighed. She wrote out a neomail to the pharmacy. When Jhudora got her revenge, she always needed a lot of supplies.

     ***

     Scarblade’s crew hurriedly went around, putting out the small fires. Scarblade himself was too burned up (literally) to help out. His fur had turned an ugly shade of purple. He growled to himself as he plotted his revenge.

     ***

     On board the Black Pawkeet, as Garin let the breeze play over his face while he watched another beautiful sunset, he wondered if he’d ever see those girls again. For some reason, he knew he would.

The End