Unspeakable Secrets The Alchemist Series (A Dark Medieval Progression Fantasy)

Chapter 64 The Captain

"H-how did you get out?" the man whispered as he stared at Adelia like the gates to the hells had opened and threatened to swallow him whole.

"Where are our things?" Connor asked.

The captain pursed his lips, which prompted Adelia to increase the pressure of her fingernails upon his skin. His skin indented beneath the pressure of her grip and the trickle of blood running down his neck thickened.

He flinched and his eyes flicked to a chest sandwiched between a bookshelf packed full of scrolls and books and a chest of drawers.

The captain quickly looked away, but the small action told Connor everything he wanted to know.

He walked over to the chest. Water dripped from his hair and clothes and every step generated an unpleasant squelch in his shoes that Connor felt gush between his toes.

He bent down and inspected the chest. The dark polished wood and metal reinforcements gleamed in the soft light. There was no lock, nor any traps visible from the outside.

Connor carefully lifted the lid, looking for tripwires or other mechanisms but saw nothing of the kind. He opened the chest fully. His leather armor, clothes, weapons, and his bottomless bag were piled neatly on top of one another with Adelia's things folded up just as neatly beside them, her many daggers resting atop the small bundle.

Connor frowned.

It was starting to bug him how respectfully they'd been treated so far... after being tossed in prison cells and stripped of all their possessions. Things could have been worse... they should have been worse.

He checked his bottomless bag and heaved a relieved sigh. His codex was still inside.

"It's all here," Connor said.

He placed the weapons he'd been carrying in their failed attack beneath Zauberer into his bottomless bag as the ones he'd gained from the Syndicate ought to serve him well enough for the time being. He stowed the clothing and armor he'd worn for the attack and Adelia's too as wearing armor would just be dead weight if they fell into the ocean. With the waves as big as they were, it'd be a miracle if they didn't capsize.

Then, he secured his bottomless bag to his belt and patted it softly. It felt good to have it securely back where it ought to be.

The weapons he was already carrying would have to be good enough if anything tried to eat them.

He picked up Adelia's holster filled with throwing knives and her leather belt and stood up.

"Where were you taking us?" Connor asked as he came up behind Adelia and strapped her holster and belt in place, allowing her to keep her attention fully on the captain. She handed him back the knives he'd given her and he sheathed them in his bandoleer.

The captain didn't respond. His only movement was the occasional wincing swallow against Adelia's iron grip.

Adelia growled. An inhuman sound that made Connor's hackles rise. But the captain remained silent.

Connor opened the door at the back of the captain's sleeping quarters and walked out into a larger cabin area with a desk covered in maps and charts, compasses and instruments for measuring distance and plotting a course, a magnetic compass, and an open locket to one side which contained a small portrait of a young girl with the captain's green eyes.

The maps seemed to be of excellent quality. And, yet again, Connor was amazed at the Syndicate's caution as even those charts that the captain was clearly using to navigate didn't have a clearly marked path of where they were going. They did have faint markings of where they'd come from and their current direction, however.