An Assassin In Time

Chapter 14.2: Incidental Stowaways

Part Two

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"Vellis," he hissed. No one replied. Great. Alone in the dark in a ship's hold during a storm. Great. He couldn't wait to be found as a stowaway. This was just, wonderful. Castian kicked out at the water in the dark. His foot hit something hard and he muttered curses.

The ship pitched hard and he fell into the water with a splash. Castian coughed. He hated boats. He'd never been on one before, but he now knew with absolute certainty that he hated them. His stomach turned lightning fast cartwheels as he leaned back against the barrel behind him.

What were they going to do? His stomach went even tighter. The Warp hole. His spot to home. How were they ever going to find it? It was out in the middle of the sea somewhere. Oh God. Were they stuck here? Oh God. He shut his eyes.

Castian thought he was going to puke again, and not from the wild tossing of the ship. They were going to die. Even if they could get back to the spot, it would take more than a day. His fingers dug hard into his palm as he breathed. There had to be something they could do. There had to be. He wasn't going to be torn up by the flow of time like Deric had been. No, no, no. His breathing became less steady rather than more. Just on the edge of his mind hung the wall of absolute panic. It wasn't unfamiliar. No, Castian was well acquainted with its press, shoving its way up his throat. He'd been shot at enough to know how to force himself not to let it take over. Mostly.

His hand shook as his nails bit in even deeper.

"Vellis!"

He heard something in the dark, and his eyes immediately hopped towards the source. Of course, he couldn't see anything.

A hand touched his shoulder and he shot up.

"Calm down." Vellis jerked him back. Why was he so strong? How was he so strong, after two time jumps and well... just being Vellis. His grip squeezed the bones in Castian's shoulder against each other.

"Ow," he made the word a snarl. Vellis didn't let go, he seemed dead set on breaking a bone or three. "I said," Castian grabbed his arm and ripped his hold free, "Ow, and, in case you need to know, that means cut your shit out from now until infinity."

Vellis gripped his arm instead. "Sit." There was a command in the word. It made Castian want to jerk away again.

"Or what?"

"Or I'll throw you and you won't get back up anyway." He pushed down on Castian with shocking force. "Sit."

He didn't sit, his knees just buckled and he landed in the shallow water with a splash. Vellis knelt down beside him and he jerked free. "Don't touch me." His shoulder throbbed where the other boy has squeezed it.

The ship rocked under him, turning his already fraying nerves in on themselves.

"We need to get out of here," Vellis hissed.

"How?" the word came out an angry snap. "How do we get out of here? We can't swim back the the Warp hole, through a goddamn hurricane. Or at least I can't, you can go to town, maybe the hurricane can beat your shittiness out." He reined himself in, biting the tip of his tongue before more words could spill out. Annoyance made it hard to hold back, and the fear of what was going to happen to them fed into it.

"We can't swim," Vellis said, as if that had actually been an option somehow. "We'll have to steal a boat, or... I don't know, we'll figure it out."

"Figure it out," Castian hissed. "Exactly how do we figure this out? What can we do? We won't make it back to the spot before our day is up, you know we won't. Even if we had a boat, even if we had a ship. We're in a hurricane, we're already too far to ever make it back." God. His throat tightened up, choking off any other words, they were so screwed.

Vellis dropped into the water next to him. "So what? We just give up. Is that what you're saying?"

"Maybe. I don't know." Castian gripped the planks below him with his nails as the ship crashed through a wave. He swallowed. "Seems easier than thinking about how dead we are right now." His breathing came quick though his teeth as the ship pitched down. His stomach dropped out from under him, the floor of the ship seem to plunge away. Vellis hissed out a sharp breath.

"So, we give up. And we wait for the storm to pass and someone to find us and kill us for stowing away, or we're ripped up once we've been out of the field too long. Basically with your plan we die either way."

"Yup." It was hard to get the word out past the nausea crawling put his throat. The ship slammed into something and he was thrown to the side. His shoulder crashed into the wall, and a moment later Vellis landed on his with a yelp. Something in his shoulder popped.

Castian's scream of pain was hollow in the darkness of the hold, with the storm tearing them apart from outside. He thrust Vellis away, swearing. His entire arm raced up and down with hot needles of pain. And his shoulder. Oh God his shoulder. No. Don't think about that, the pain would made him throw up.

He curled around his arm. He couldn't move it. Out of place or broken. Both, maybe.

"Dammit, Vellis!"

"Do you think I wanted to fall on your sorry ass?" the boy snarled in the dark somewhere to his right.

"It's broken. I think it's broken." His head spun, and the next plunge of the ship almost made him topple over. "Ow..."

Vellis moved to his side. "Maybe it just needs set, let me--"

"No!" Castian jerked back. His entire arm flashed in pain. "No. I don't want you touching it, I think you've done enough, thanks."

Vellis muttered something, but didn't try to touch him. Could black spots fill your vision in the dark? Apparently, the answer was yes.

Castian leaned back against the wall groaning. His arm was tight to his chest. The feeling in it was wrong. It hurt, yeah, but it also somehow felt like it wasn't there. He swallowed, trying and failing to drown the nausea.

The ship continued to rock about, sloshing water up over Castian. He shrank in on himself. A single more humiliating way to die couldn't exist. Stuck outside the Field, on a ship in the middle of the sea, trying not to puke. God. His shoulder throbbed ice and fire through him, making his head turn. The black dots were back in his vision.

Vellis slid over to sit next to him in the dark. He didn't touch him at least.

The ground slid under him and he tumbled into a barrel before he could stop himself. His arm exploded. Well, it felt like it, and if it had it would have probably hurt less.

Vellis said something, but his ears were ringing too much for him to make the words out. The sounds of the ship and storm turned distant, rising and falling. Then they were just falling, falling away, back into a distant roar that filled his ears. It sounded like a raging river far off.

Castian dropped to his side, barely aware of the pain from the impact.

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And so ends another chapter, oh boy!

I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to put one up Friday, but if not, I'll get it up as soon as possible. My life is insisting on being hectic and full of disasters... haha, yay. *grinds teeth*.
Now would be an awesome time for people to help me spread word about my story here, if you like it, recommend it to a friend maybe :/ . Not trying to panhandle for votes or anything, but the story is getting closer to done every day, and if I can manage to get popular here, I might attract an agent. Which could lead to the money my family really needs.
ANYWAY, if you feel like it, please help me spread the word, maybe make a post on your twitter or facebook, publicity and word of mouth is probably the only way I'll ever make it. Love you guys, you're great.