Thief

Prologue: Thief

You wouldn't believe me if I told you. From this mountain, you can see the top of the world. My only regret, never being able to see it with you.  - Melony

Prologue: Thief

His lungs burned as they begged for air. His body felt hot on the outside, yet strangely cold on the inside. His skin burning as though he were melting into a puddle of skin and bone. His stomach cold like ice, painfully so. As he sat there, feeling the boat rock steadily in the waves, his brain felt as though it'd been smashed in my a steel hammer. The only thought running, or rather could run, through his mind was a simple prayer. He'd never been religious, but something about the current situation had him favor the existence of some higher being. Anything to keep him alive.

Anything to numb the pain.

His eyes shot open as the stairs of the hull began to creak and crack. Through the thick black he could see nothing but a single outline of a tall, wide man. This man carried a husky voice. Stern and masculine. As this man talked he could feel the vibration of his throat from where he sat, chained to the bars of his cell. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" The man said, as if amused by him somehow.

Still too dark to see the man's face, he knew exactly who his captor was without the aid of a light. This voice, so harsh and cruel, could only be owned by one man he knew. A ruthless pirate who'd committed the most sinful of crimes over and over again. This man, he had no doubt, would suffer in hell for it. And even if the place didn't exist, he was sure a hell would be made especially for him to repent his crime.

Before he answered, he cleared his throat. Though it was still dry and his lungs burned intensely with, he spoke in fluent coherence. "Mistakes were made, I'll give you that." Though he sounded as if he were joking or trying to make light of the situation, he couldn't have been more serious.

He thought of a God, yes, but he managed to catch glimpses of other thoughts as well. Where had he gone wrong? He asked this to God, wondering, had it been all his fault? Had he not been too careless would he still be a free man? About sixteen years of experience and this is where it got him? Chained to a cell on a pirate ship with little to no chance of survival. And for what?

To see the top of the world?

The pirate before him knelled down to his height on the floor of his cell. "What mistakes, brother of mine?"

He cringed as the pirate spoke near. How many years had it been since they last met? And when had his brother managed to contract halitosis?

"Stole from the wrong people." Or rather, at the wrong time.

The strangest smirk possessed the pirates face. His rotten and unregarded teeth lay decaying and exposed. "Did you? How foolish of you to make such mistake. I would have thought a brilliant thief like yourself would know better." His voice hoarse with each word.

He fought back the urge to glare at the pirate, a brother he knew no more, and turned his head sharply to the right to avoid that grin. Why must he answer such a ridiculous question? Though even he knew it was unusual for him to slip up. In retrospect, he should have known the guild would strike at the most opportune time. He should have known that it wouldn't be only him with devious intentions. But he hadn't thought it through at all. His desire and impatience finally ran him straight out of luck.

The pirate's grin became darker. The missing white no longer looked like teeth and instead were black and yellow exposed bone. "A woman?" He asked this in the most amusing way possible. The pirate had to catch his himself before letting out a boom of hysteria inside the hull.

Still, he couldn't put his eyes back on his brother. His blunder not only put him in a dire situation, but an embarrassing one too. To his older brother he was a failure. Always was. And it was for reasons like this he received that perception. When he didn't answer the pirate snapped his head back, finally unable to keep that laugh contained.

His laughed boomed in deep heavy croaks. It shook the ship more than the rough salted waves just outside the rotting wooden panels. "Of course, brother of mine. What did I tell ya? Women will only cause you the most of trouble. Now see where ye ended up? On my ship of all places. And for what? A woman of all things?"

He let his eyes fall to the floor. Yes, for a woman. Though he couldn't figure out for which one anymore. Was it for Tatiana, the spoiled little princess? Or was it for the only woman he ever truly loved? A sweet, innocent girl whose life had been taken so fast. As he thought on his own past, he sunk his head until the weight of it dug the chains deeper into his already scuffed wrists. The memory of pain and mourn suddenly hit him again. He felt heavy. Angry, sad, mortified, betrayed. All these emotions barring him all at the same time.

That's what it was. All for a woman he had never once kissed. Who's hand he never once held. Or witnessed a bright smile upon her face. There was only a cold, distant stare in her dead eyes. And so his situation began to finally make sense. It wasn't the princess at all who'd gotten him into this mess. It was his own. His own impatience. His own anger, sadness, and betrayal. All his own.

Had he not watched her die, maybe his head would have been clearer that day. Maybe he would have thought it through. He would have known not to take from the king's personal vault.

Not when he knew the royal family was meant to die that very same day.