Shadows Bleed

XII

XII

My eyes cracked open, staring up to Yyr, seeing blue skies and the faintest of cloud cover. My entire body ached, protesting even the smallest of movements with stiff groans. A delighted smile still managed to etch itself on my face. We had made it.

My field of vision was clouded as a number of worried faces hovered over me.

"Are you alright?" Celeste asked, pressing a concerned hand to my forehead.

"I feel fine," I replied and made to get up.

Rolling over onto my side, however, a terse grunt broke from my dry lips, bringing to attention my tense muscles, objecting the disturbance as they were. Climbing to my feet, Celeste immediately grabbed both my shoulders and looked me up and down.

"Hmm, you seem okay. I'd go wash your face though."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You'll see," she said, stepping aside to allow Bluepin and a number of others to step in and congratulate me.

"Well done. I can't believe we did it," Bluepin said, pulling me off my feet and into a colossal bear hug. "Good on ya."

"How did you do it?" one of the crewmen, Orepk, asked. "How did you split the Stormwall like that?"

"I've no honest idea," I answered, the words a wheeze from my compressed body. I was still unsure as to what I had done or how I managed to.

"Well, thank goodness for it, whatever it was," Bluepin said and, realising I needed to breath, put the topic to rest and me on the deck. "The real question is; where do we go from here?"

I excused myself, holding up a hand for silence and returning to the fore of the Mayflower. I moved slowly, turning in a small circle. The shards vibrated when I looked north-west, clear indication that the Csyirean Isles were in that direction.

I pointed to the invisible path, "Tell Varik to take the ship north-west."

Orepk nodded and travelled aft.

"Apparently," I said, sparing a sideways glance in Celeste's direction, "I need to wash up. I'll be in my cabin."

***

Standing before the mirror and basin in the room, stared at myself in wonder. My flesh was pale and, had I not known better, I would have assumed myself to be recently risen from a fresh grave.

But, most captivating of all, were the dried tracks running from my eyes and over my cheeks. The crusty trails were not of salty tears, as I presumed during the storm, but were instead dark red in colour.

Oddly, I felt no pain from where the blood had seeped and went about washing my face before hunting down a hot meal.

***

Within an hour, land was sighted and, within another three, we were sailing into the most incredible harbour I had ever seen.

The inlet through which we entered the bay was flanked on either side by two enormously tall watchtowers. They were connected by a bridge, stretching over the harbour entrance as a walkway and parapet. Along it, uniformed men marched back and forth. A few of the sentries stopped to peer down at the Mayflower.

Beyond the watchtowers, every other aspect of the harbour and city vied for my attention. The buildings were unlike anything I'd ever encountered, most standing between three and five stories tall with steep, triangular sloped tile rooves. The streets were perfectly straight and paved with cobblestone, people bustling about both on foot and in an assortment of strange vehicles.