The Queen of the Waves

37: the Vengeance of a Warrior... Again

He watched as the captain of the Golden Promise left the ship along with almost all of the crew. There was a high chance that there would be valuables onboard that ship, and a reduced crew would make it an even easier target.

Following the captain towards the public house, he slunk along the shadows as he waited for any hints.

"What I would give to be at home with them." The captain sighed to his first mate.

"Yeah," the man agreed, "she really is the most beautiful baby girl."

The man in the shadows froze as he processed the words. A baby in Zauros was a rare and precious thing, because of the sickness, there were hardly any women to give birth. And a baby girl was even more rare and coveted.

A baby girl would bring him far more profit from a trafficking ring or brothel than any jewel or trinket on that ship.

Mara slept deeply, for the first night in weeks Calla was settled and sleeping, her body was exhausted and she needed this.

Calla sniffled slightly in her sleep as the ship rocked as a particularly strong gust of wind made waves.

Mara hummed and rolled onto her other side. The ship was silent and full of sleep.

It was silent, until the window of the cabin was smashed. Mara startled awake with a scream of terror as Calla screamed with her.

Mara's eyes flew open and she saw her worst nightmare. Calla's empty bed and the shadow of a figure disappearing into the darkness.

"No!" Mara screamed as she realised what had happened. They had taken her daughter.

Even though everything in Mara cried out with the need to plead and beg, her training was a more powerful instinct.

Silently, she pursed her lips to keep the tears from falling as she dressed herself. Dressed all in black, Mara threw open the door and rolled her eyes at the 'guard' Bas had chosen to protect them.

He was passed out asleep and snoring. In her anger, right after Mara stole his dagger and sword, she stamped on his hand, crushing the fine bones.

She stormed down the streets of Zauros, every instinct in her body listened to the world of the street. The footsteps down back alleys, the laughter of drunks and then, the cries of her baby.

Her feet flew down the streets as she followed Calla's cries. Her hands ached with desire to plunge the dagger into their chests.

When the screams stopped, Mara's chest dropped to the floor and she frantically panted. She wasn't even supposed to be walking far yet, let alone running but the pain in her stomach didn't matter, all that mattered was getting Calla back.

She paused, looking around the line of houses where Calla's cried stopped. Her feet moved like a curse, she clutched the dagger close to her heart as she peered through the rotting, cracked shutters of the houses.

All the lights were off, all but one house, so she started there.

"Where did you get it?"

The voice carried to Mara and vomit surged to her throat.

"I found it, on a ship."

Men began to laugh and then Calla cried again. Mara flipped through the window, her desire to protect her child meant that all concepts of her own safety.

Her eyes flew around the room, ten men, she could take them. Her dagger slammed into the chest of a heavily tattooed man as the sword slashed through the throat of another.

As the other men rushed to grab their weapons, Mara's eyes fell on Calla, naked and screaming on the table where all the men had been sitting.

Rage devoured her. She screamed as the blades smashed through flesh and screams of the dying.

Only one man was left alive in the room as the others choked on their blood.

"You realise what you did, don't you?"  Mara snarled, "you just pissed off a sleep deprived warrior of Sousmonté, and stole her daughter."

"No," the man gasped, staggering backwards as he dropped his weapon in an attempt at surrender.

"Oh yes," Mara advanced malevolently towards him, "you're just lucky I don't want to waste my time making you suffer."

Mara kicked him in the chest, knocking him to the floor. She slashed his Achilles' tendon so he couldn't run away.

His screams filled her desire to make them all pay, but it wasn't enough.

Her knife made quick work, like cutting through meat at the butcher. When she was done with him, he was nothing more than a heap of meat.

Turning her attention back to Calla, she dropped her weapons to the floor and scooped her daughter up with the same hands full of violence.

"I'm here, mummy's here." Mara cooed as she wrapped her daughter in her coat.

Calla continued to scream, it was juddering and full of fear. Mara began to sob with her daughter as she staggered out of the door. The pain she had in her stomach and underwear was nothing compared to the pain in her chest caused by the terror of losing her child.

"Mummy's here. It's ok." Mara voice was husky with tears. "I'm here, and I'm never leaving you again."

Calla was still crying, but she had settled slightly against her mother's chest. Mara stumbled and ached down the cobbled streets as she desperately attempted to find her way back to the Golden Promise.

"Calla," Mara murmured as she pressed her nose into the soft downy hair of her baby, "I'm here now. You're safe. We're safe now..."

Mara trailed off as she prayed to the heavens that she hadn't just told a lie to her daughter. Yes Calla was in her arms again, but safety?

The pair of them were lost in a city full of disease that claimed women and children first.

As much as Mara wished she didn't, she needed Bas to come and rescue them.