Together they finished their cleaning duties and joined the others in the kitchen to prepare the feast for the master. Once the meal was over and cleaned up, the two returned to the courtyard. Thomas had been waiting for them. Two guards were posted at the end of the hallway near the gates. The three of them were free to talk before they went to bed.

After Kirsten and Thomas had briefly discussed the day’s duties, Kirsten asked Thomas if he knew why Merglan had come after their family and what exactly he wanted. Thomas couldn’t give her much more information than he’d provided back on the ship.

“He asked me all sorts of questions about our father and whether I was capable of performing magic, but I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Thomas said. “Thargon’s master said I wasn’t who they’d sent him to find, but that he was close by when Thargon found us. Do you think he was talking about the young man who was with Anders when he came back with us?” Thomas asked. “If they’re still together, Anders could be in danger,” he said, concerned for his cousin.

“It’s possible. That would explain why Thargon came after us when Anders and the young man returned to the house with father,” Kirsten sighed. She had hoped Thomas would provide her with a more solid explanation for why they’d been captured and turned her thoughts to her cousin saying, “I hope Anders isn’t worrying himself sick over us.”

“I’m sure he’s handling it as best he can; he’s strong-willed,” Thomas said confidently. “And if I know Anders, he’ll be trying to find us and free us from this mess. No magician or magical beast will stop him.”

“You’re probably right, but we can’t wait here forever. We need to break out of here,” Kirsten said lowering her voice and looking over her shoulder at the guards.

“I agree, but how?” Thomas whispered. “This place is under a powerful spell that doesn’t allow anyone to leave. Today a man saw the gates were left open and made a run for it. As soon as he rushed outside beyond the gates, he vanished, poof, just like that,” Thomas said snapping his fingers. “All of a sudden he reappeared back where he was before he’d made his escape attempt and the guards quickly took him away. I don’t know what happened to him, but it couldn’t have been good.”

“Geez,” Kirsten said, shaking her head. She remembered the strange thing that had happened to them earlier. “Maija and I heard someone talking about a prophecy. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Maija did.”

“What was it? What’d they say?” Thomas asked intrigued.

“At first it was muffled, but once I got my ear to the crack in the door, I could hear them clearly,” Maija began. “It was Merglan talking with Thargon. Merglan said something about the son of a king and the veiled daughter of the elf huntress who had been prophesied to become the most powerful sorcerers in history. It sounded as though Merglan was trying to stop them from finding their magic. He also mentioned something about how they would be coming on the backs of powerful dragons. He told Thargon that he’d been close to capturing one of them at the Grandwood Games, but nabbed the wrong person. He went on to say how if he weren’t so busy with their operation that he would have gone in Thargon’s place.

“After that he said something about how he wasn’t able to sense what the boy was thinking when he came aboard the ship. He sounded frustrated as to why he couldn’t sense him on the boat or in his cell at night, but can sense his thoughts clearly when he was working in the mine. That’s all I heard before Chantal came back and we had to get back to work.”

“So there’s hope that someone’s going to rise up and defeat Merglan and his evil army?” Kirsten asked hopefully.

“Well, I didn’t hear them say it was a sure thing, they just said there were two who have the potential to overthrow him, destroying his magic,” Maija said. “It sounds like they’re worried about them finding the magic and want them killed before they discover it.”

“And that’s what they wanted with you?” Kirsten asked her brother. “ Why didn’t they just kill you if they thought you were one of the people who could be powerful enough to overthrow him?”

“Maybe they wanted to try to convert me to their side? But why would they want that? It doesn’t much matter now, I’m not dead and they said I wasn’t the one they were looking for,” Thomas said.

Hearing a scuffle of footsteps in the hallway, the three of them stood up. A group of the dark armored guards came into the courtyard. With filthy hands gripping the hilts of their sheathed swords, they told them through thick accents to get back into their cells or they would be beaten. The three did as they were told and the cell doors were locked behind them.

Kirsten whispered to Maija once they knew the guards couldn’t hear them, “I hope Anders isn’t in too much danger if Merglan really is after the lad who was with him when Thargon took us. Do you think he’ll be okay?”

Maija tilted her head to gaze longingly at the darkened sky. “I don’t know.”

Chapter 12

Glacial Melt Bays

Anders and Max sailed with Britt and her crew, following the Rollo Navy ships along the coast of the Bareback Plains east and into the Marauder Sea. Life on board the ship proved more difficult than Anders could have imagined. Everyone ate and drank only what they needed to get by without falling ill. It would take the ships nearly two-and-a-half weeks to sail around the Bareback Peninsula and into the Glacial Melt Bays area. They didn’t have much extra food and water aboard the small ships and couldn’t afford to waste much time stopping on land. The only stops the crew made were to resupply their barrels of fresh water and gather more food. Each time they’d leave before nightfall and each time Anders missed the chance to meet with Zahara.

Everyone had to sleep under the blanket of the night sky, because the ships had no cabins or quarters below deck. Unaccustomed to sleeping while sitting up, Anders didn’t get much rest during the extent of their voyage. A mixture of saltwater and rainwater formed puddles that pooled in the low points of the ship’s floorboards, making the option to lie down for rest more miserable than sleeping upright. He tried sleeping on the deck of the narrow ship the first night, but got so cold he was sure he would freeze to death.

Anders kept a constant eye toward shore, hoping to see Zahara. Though he didn’t spot her, he somehow knew she was nearby and keeping her eyes on him. Max caught Anders staring at the shoreline one day and asked what he was looking at. Anders lied, saying he thought he saw some more wild horses, but Max gave him a wary look unconvinced he was telling the truth.

In addition to keeping his encounters with a dragon secret, Anders desperately wanted to tell Max about seeing Ivan sneaking away from camp and Zahara’s suspicion that Ivan was hiding something important from them. But he again decided against it, because he knew in the close quarters of the ship someone would overhear him, so he kept his secrets to himself.

After nearly two-and-a-half weeks’ travel to the east and one rough night sailing around the choppy waters of the Bareback Peninsula’s tip, they at last reached the Marauder Sea.

“One more day with good winds, and we should be at Glacial Melt Bays where we’ll begin our hunt,” Britt said sounding more than ready to fight against Merglan’s soldiers.

“How do you know our location so well?” Anders asked.

“I’ve sailed these waters several times before,” she said. “On my first raiding party we sailed to the southwestern tip of the Eastland Territories. We were going to attack a well-known orc encampment.”

“Wait what?” Max stopped her, surprised at the mention of orcs. “There are orcs in the Eastland Territories?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, loads of them. Thousands,” she replied.

“What’s an orc?” Anders asked.

“You’ve never heard of an orc?” Max asked surprised.

“Why, are they well-known?” he asked.

“You could say that,” Max said.

“Orcs are a cruel species, the spawn of pure evil,” Britt began. “Most are as large as Red, some growing to twice his size. Orcs grow at a very rapid rate. Their children are often indistinguishable from adults by the time they are three years old.

Every orc I’ve ever seen or heard talk of is boorish and it’s impossible to differentiate the males from the females with an untrained eye.

Their dark gray splotchy skin gives them camouflage among rocky and tree-covered areas; however, most orc tribes tend to gather in wide-open areas, like the plains. In the vast expanse of these areas, they can gather in large numbers and see potential enemies coming from miles away. Many orcs have tusks that protrude outward from their lower jaw. A tusk can range anywhere from the size of my finger to the largest of rams’ horns.

People say they’re the spawn of demons brought to Kartania from the underworld to cause chaos in the lives of humans, elves and dwarves. I don’t know about all that nonsense,” she scoffed. “I’m not sure where they came from or how they got here; all I know is they are a plague on this earth and should be exterminated.”

“I believe they are the spawn of demons,” Max said. “I didn’t know there were any left, though.”

Anders looked at him, eyebrows raised, “You believe in demons, but not dragons?”

“Yeah, so what?” he said with some extra authority.

Britt continued, “Orcs are unnaturally strong for their size but are notoriously slow. Most of them now congregate in the Highland Plateaus in Eastland.”

“I heard stories as a child that Eastland is the birthplace of the fairnheir, too,” Max said, completely engrossed by what Britt was saying.

“Isn’t that what Thargon is?” Anders asked. Britt cocked her head to the side, eyeing him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Thargon is the one leading the soldiers we’re hunting.” Anders added to clarify for Britt.

“No,” Max said. “He’s a kurr.”

“Oh,” Anders said. “What’s a fairnheir then?”

“That beast that Thargon was riding the night your uncle was killed was a fairnheir,” Max said. Anders nodded picturing the beast on the streets of Grandwood during the attack and again on the road where Uncle Theodor met his demise. “They’re like hounds, but as large as bulls and have the disposition of badgers.”

Britt continued to eye them quizzically, “Well, in lighter news and to answer your question, Anders, I’ve sailed around this part of the world several times.” Max and Anders sighed together, remembering the origin of their conversation.

For the rest of the day Anders imagined what it would be like to fight in a battle against orcs, kurr, and fairnheir as his father and uncle had during The War of the Magicians.

“Pull up the sail and get out the oars,” Britt commanded the crew when they approached one of the Glacial Melt Bays.