KGWrites

Darrin

The Dawnrunner, Autumn District Docks, Fallen Kingdom of Aldiron

The stitches in Darrin’s leg ached as he walked the length of the Dawnrunner’s deck, doing his best to keep his stride steady and not betray the burning pain he felt with every step. The Hills girl had really made her one cut count, and even without the poison it had taken almost a week before he’d been able to move properly again.

But there could be no rest for the wicked, and given Darrin’s actions in the arena, he figured a little pain was at least some penance.

Reaching the top of the gangplank, Darrin found himself standing shoulder to shoulder with Oz. The usually cheery man was sour-faced and grim, his brown hair was held back from his face by a cloth tied across his forehead. He’d let his silver streak of hair remain loose outside of the tie, instead it hung down across his face. He stood with his arms folded, looking down at the dockside.

As Darrin joined him, he sighed and sagged his shoulders, seeing what Oz was dealing with.

Spyder Xeros stood at the centre of the stone dockside, surrounded by soldiers of his militia. The crew of the Dawnrunner were giving them a wide berth, but Spyder had positioned himself well, stopping them from moving their cargo off the dock. Upon seeing Darrin arrive, Spyder looked up and raised a hand in greeting, though his expression remained as unfriendly as ever.

“Crowe! The fuck is this?” He demanded. Darrin let out a low groan in response. Next to him, Oz stifled a laugh. Darrin started down the gangplank, pointing towards his crew as they stood waiting with the cargo. All of them were eyeing Spyder’s militia warily, hands hovering near weapons.

“I’m sorry Lord Xeros, I didn’t realise you needed it explained so blatantly to you. I’m unloading my cargo into the warehousing here, as his Lordship requested.” He jabbed, causing Spyder to redden and some scattered laughter to break out through his own crew.

“The lower districts are full of rebels, you can’t unload them here!” Spyder replied, his voice forceful.

Darrin laughed dismissively. “I’ve got the cargo of the entire fleet of Blueholdt to unload, it won’t all fit in the tiny Spring District warehouses. It’ll barely fit here. Besides, I’ve already filled them with weaponry and armour. Down here I’m just putting food and other supplies. Unless you’d prefer I also ran the risk of arming the rebellion?”

Spyder’s lip curled as Darrin reached him. He opened his mouth to retort when Darrin interrupted him again.

“I didn’t think so.” He concluded.

“If the rebels attack…” Spyder began but Darrin laughed again.

“Well if only I knew where to find the man tasked with finding and ending them. I’m sure he’s doing a fine job and not standing wasting the time of any other members of his Lordship’s court.”

Darrin could practically see the steam coming out of Spyder’s ears as he reached boiling point. The big man’s hand tightened on his mace. Darrin gently laid his left hand atop one of his water daggers, ready to strike.

“Careful pirate.” Spyder’s voice, even at a low growl, rumbled across the docks, loud enough to be heard. “You might be the interesting new face right now, but soon your roguish charm act will wear off. You’re not as high in his ranks as you think. And when he gets bored, I’ll be there to break his new toy for him.”

“Glad you think I’m charming.” Darrin replied cheerily with a slight bow of his head. Mocking laughter rumbled around the docks from the crew of the Dawnrunner. Then he stepped close to Spyder. Looking up at him, unfazed by the sheer mass of muscle opposite him.

“I’m curious about that though.” He began, mirroring Spyder’s tone and ensuring he remained loud enough to be heard by everyone else around them. “Because since coming to this city I’ve culled the Sea Lords for him, taken a blade for him and now I’m undoing the damage your strangling of the city has done to his reputation for him by bringing the food back. Meantime you, Lord Xeros, have failed to execute a rebel commander. In fact not even that, you let that rebel escape and now they’ve gotten more support than ever. And you failed to stop Hills’ daughter before she literally assassinated Draconeus. We’re very lucky he’s immortal, because if he wasn’t you and Hills just got our new ruler killed.”

Spyder was completely still now. In fact, Darrin could see he was trembling with the effort of not attacking Darrin here on the dockside. Darrin smiled sweetly.

“If it were me in that throne, it wouldn’t be the interesting new face that I’d be bored of. It’d be the one that keeps fucking up. So if I were you, I’d get moving on finding those rebels.” He lifted his hand and patted Spyder’s cheek once, like he was teasing a child. The man looked like he’d sooner bite Darrin’s hand clean off, but he remained unmoving, his cheeks scarlet red.

Then Darrin turned on his heel and started walking away, back towards the Dawnrunner. Once he was a few steps away though, he slowed, glancing back over his shoulder and speaking lower now, so that only Spyder and the few people nearest them both could hear.

“Spyder?” He began, making the big man look back. “Threaten me like that in front of my crew again and I’ll cut your balls off and feed you them.” Darrin’s tone was still even and friendly, the threat almost conversational. Spyder’s shoulders hunched, and he seemed ready to respond in kind when Darrin laughed and raised a finger, turning back to face Spyder.

“Wait. No. Can’t do that. That royal guard girl, Cobalt, already beat me to your balls didn’t she?” He pursed his lips and nodded to himself, feigning deep thought. “Guess I’ll need to get creative then.”

Spyder fled quickly after that, like a scolded hound, his militia in tow.

Darrin turned back to his crew on the docks.

“Well, wasn’t that dramatic?” He smirked and they all laughed, moving their hands away from their weapons. It was more than a little reassuring to see they’d all be so ready to step in and help if taunting Spyder had ended badly.

“Back to work then!” Darrin ordered cheerily and they obeyed without any argument. Darrin himself ascended the gangplank to Oz’s side again. He noted with satisfaction that Oz had been ready with a bow, hidden just behind the ship’s railing.

“Risky, pissing him off like that.” Oz cautioned and Darrin shrugged.

“He’s a mad dog on a tight chain, fun to wind up but won’t do anything without his master’s approval.” He replied.

“Until he breaks the chain.” Oz maintained, his expression dour. Darrin held up his hands and nodded.

“You’re right, but we can handle Spyder Xeros, and there’s a thousand of him in this shithole, Draconeus wouldn’t miss him.” Oz tilted his head, conceding the point.

“Still though,” Darrin went on. “He’s right about security. I want the dockside and warehouses secured and under Blueholdt guard constantly. And I want to know if anyone comes near. That’s rebel, Accursed, legion and militia. If they’re coming into our territory, I want to know who they are and why they’re here.”

Oz nodded, committing the orders to memory. Then he nodded slightly further down the docks, towards a large warehouse already guarded by members of the crew. “And that one?”

“Dawnrunner only, I don’t want to take risks on the other captains’ crews.” Darrin replied quickly. Then he turned to face Oz, lowering his voice so only Oz could hear him. “Is it ready?”

“It’s loaded with food and supplies if that’s what you mean.” Oz reported. “And a few of our boys and girls have been nice and loose lipped about it around the district.”

Darrin nodded and patted his friend’s shoulder. “Good work Oz. I’m going to head over there and oversee things. Maybe keep all the crew near the ship for now?”

Oz smiled and gripped Darrin’s forearm, squeezing reassuringly. Then he moved away to issue Darrin’s orders.

Darrin meanwhile, walked back down the gangplank and crossed the dockside to the warehouse Oz had indicated. He quickly dismissed the two sailors standing guard and slipped inside the space himself, locking the door behind him.

Inside was a space stacked floor to ceiling with crates and casks, supplies from the Dawnrunner. Darrin didn’t stop to look around though, instead crossing to the table that had been placed in the centre of the warehouse. On it was a map of Aldiron, along with an iron key ring bearing a single key and an unlit lantern. Groaning slightly, his leg protesting with aches and pains, Darrin lowered himself into one of the chairs, drawing his sword from his back and his two daggers from his sides and laying them on the table in front of him.

And then, he waited.

The sun had disappeared below the horizon and darkness was beginning to set in before Darrin’s patience paid off. He’d not long lit the lantern and his stomach was starting to grumble incessantly when he became aware of the fact that he was not alone in the warehouse anymore.

Shadowy figures waited just at the edges of the light. Two of them. They were tall and broad shouldered, stood side by side in one of the long passageways between crates, just outside the light.

Darrin’s body was tense, the sensation of being surrounded and watched making him uneasy. Slowly, making sure his movements were obvious and visible, he lifted his hand and tapped the table with the weaponry in front of him.

“I’m unarmed, I mean no harm.” He reassured the figures. “Just want to talk.”

“You expect me to believe that you only had three weapons, Captain Knife-in-the-boot?” Came a familiar voice as one of the strong looking figures stepped into the light.

Lord Captain Haster seemed to have recovered from most of his wounds from his captivity, though he still bore scars and a few cuts that were still healing. Still though, he was far more intimidating now, fully armoured in steel with a sword at his side, than he had been as a prisoner in the arena.

And now Darrin knew what he was capable of too.

“You think I’d risk giving you a dagger in the arena to keep you alive just so I could kill you here and now?” Darrin reasoned and Haster eyed him warily.

“You went through hell in that arena. Hell has a way of changing perspectives on things.” He replied carefully. Darrin sat forwards, a coldness creeping over his body as he fixed Haster with a steely glare.

“Don’t disrespect the memory of my friends by suggesting I killed them for blind ambition. I told you I’d help you once we both got out. And here we both are.” He gestured to the surrounding crates.

Haster smiled thinly and nodded, walking forwards and drawing his sword. For a second, Darrin felt goosebumps rise on his arms before Haster laid the blade down on the table between them.

“Here we are.” Haster confirmed, looking back over his shoulder at the other figure.

After a second’s hesitation, the figure stepped into the light. This man was also armoured, and both taller and broader than Haster was. He had long brown hair and a thin scar that ran past the right of his pale green eyes. Eyes that held a sallow, haunted look, with dark bags beneath them. Darrin recognised him from the attack on the arena, the one who had led the rebellion, Marius Fridolf.

“When you spoke to Haster, neither of you had much choice but trust. Now we do. So before I sit with you, why should we trust you?” Marius asked, his hand laid firmly on the hilt of his sword.

Darrin took a deep breath before answering. “Because I am not here on behalf of the Sea Lords of Blueholdt, nor to serve on the court of the Demon of Shetani.” He answered, lifting his hand to show the ring Alyx Cobalt had given him, still hanging from its chain.

“I am here on behalf of Princess Iona Ravellan of Aldiron, to help keep her people safe.”

There was a sudden gasp and rush of movement from behind him and Darrin spun in surprise as a small figure dashed from the darkness. They were hooded in a grey cloak and slender, moving in a near silence. Before he could react, they had snatched the ring from his hand, pulling back their hood to reveal a young girl.

She couldn’t have been more than twelve, thirteen at the very most. With black hair cut short around her head and skin so pale it was almost ghostly white. Her blue eyes shone with tears as she lifted the ring to examine it, turning it around in her hand.

Darrin was in little doubt about who he was looking at.

Lillian Cobalt, the Cobalt Kitten. The young ward left behind who Alyx and James had missed so dearly and spoken of so fondly when they’d been his guests aboard the Dawnrunner.

A second of examining the ring passed before Lillian spun to face Darrin.

“Where did you get this?” She demanded, holding up the ring.

“It was given to me, by Lady Alyxandra Cobalt. Who I know would be so unbelievably relieved to know that you’re alive, Lady Lillian Cobalt. As would her brother.” Darrin replied and Lillian’s breath hitched and she let out a small smile, a silent tear creeping down her cheek.

“A ring alone means little.” Marius interrupted, though his voice was more at ease now. Perhaps softened by seeing the tenderness in Lillian. “What proof have you gotten that you come from Iona?”

Darrin nodded and looked first to Lillian again.

“The Princess wants you to know that she’s sorry for letting you go in the palace. And that she hopes you kept that pork loin you took from the kitchens before you got separated.” It was a tiny detail, an unimportant one. The type of thing you wouldn’t learn through interrogation or torture. Lillian sniffled and laughed lightly.

“I lost it just after we got split up.” She said softly. Marius though, leaned forwards.

“It’s me and Haster you’re dealing with here Crowe, not Lady Cobalt. If you claim to be from the Princess, surely she gave you a way to prove you come from her.” He insisted.

Darrin nodded, laughing lightly to himself.

“She said you might be a little stubborn Commander Fridolf. She told me to remind you that when you, her and Lady Hills were teenagers, the three of you once practiced kissing in the palace gardens.” He grinned. Marius reddened with embarrassment as both Haster and Lillian’s faces lit up with amusement.

“Said that you were so bad at it you put her off men for life.” Darrin pressed on and Marius cleared his throat awkwardly, not looking at anyone else in the room.

“Yes, thank you Captain, you’ve made your point.” He muttered. Next to him, Lillian giggled.

Haster folded his arms across his chest.

“So you’ve met the Princess and the Cobalts. You say you’re with us. So what do you plan to do?” Haster asked and Darrin gestured to the map on the table, to the palace at the peak of the cliffs.

“The arena has drummed up support for you across the city. Support Draconeus wants crushed. He intends to send everything he has after you now. The Second Legion, his Accursed, Xeros and the militia, all of them are tasked to find you. And with Lady Hills gone, you just lost your spy in the palace.” He explained. At his words, Marius seemed to darken, looking away and pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingertips.

“You’re offering to take her place? Become our eyes and ears in Draconeus’ court?” Haster pressed. Darrin clicked his tongue and tilted his head.

“In a sense, yes and no.” Darrin replied. “Things can’t work like before with Hills. There needs to be a new method, a give and take.”

“You want information on our movements too. To know what the rebellion is planning.” Haster surmised and Darrin nodded. The three rebels exchanged glances, their expressions unreadable.

Darrin leaned forwards. “It’s a big ask, I know. But I promise you, I am here to help. And if you’ll permit me, I have a gesture of goodwill. A way to start this on the right note.”

That caught their attention, and they turned back from each other to look at him. He raised his arms and gestured to the warehouse.

“I know that the Second Legion and the militia have been strangling the city. Rationing food and supplies. This warehouse is filled with exactly that. Food, clothing, medicines. And currently, the only person anywhere near it from Draconeus’ courts and forces, is me. No guards, no traps.”

Haster and Marius peered at Darrin, eyes narrowed.

“Won’t you get investigated, punished even, if things go missing?” Marius asked and Darrin chuckled.

“It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I’ve been recovering from being stabbed. I’ve not had time to report a full inventory yet.” He said with a casual shrug. Marius examined him for a long moment before turning his head to Lillian.

“Cobalt, go check that he’s telling the truth. That there’s no-one else around. And if he is, then go get some of our friends in here, start loading what supplies we can carry. Leave the crates.” He ordered and she nodded, still eyeing Darrin with a suspicious look. Crossing to Marius, she reluctantly held the ring out to him. But Marius shook his head.

“You keep it. It was gifted to Alyx Cobalt, it should stay with her family.” He told her softly. Lillian’s narrow, suspicious expression softened into a smile of thanks. She wordlessly slipped the chain of the ring around her neck, looked back to Darrin once more before pulling the hood of her grey cloak up. Then she stepped back, out of the light and into the shadows and within a second, was gone.

They sat in silence a moment longer, giving the girl a chance to put distance between them before Marius turned to Darrin.

“You’re asking us to put a lot of trust in you Crowe, a man who just murdered his own allies to earn a place at Draconeus’ side.” He began. Darrin sighed.

“I know. And I’ve made my peace with being damned for what I’ve done. But understand, I did what I did for Aldiron. For this rebellion.” He pointed to himself, then swept his hand around in a wide arc that pointed to each of the other two men.

“The three of us, we need to work together on this. To give each other information on movements, attacks, weaknesses, everything. If we want to survive. If Aldiron is going to survive, then we need to buy Iona enough time to find the Brightblade.” He pressed.

Haster ran a hand through his short beard, his expression grim. “Buying that time, it’ll have a cost.”

“A high one. Higher than you’ve paid before.” Darrin conceded.

“You’ll tell us Draconeus’ troop movements, his plans of attack. Points of strength and opportunities for us to strike?” Marius clarified.

“In exchange for the same from you. Information I can feed carefully to them, keep them away from your centres of power, make them look in the wrong place before you strike them.” Darrin responded, making Marius shift uncomfortably.

“But if that information is always mistaken…” He began and Darrin nodded grimly. He’d been dreading this proposal. It was one thing to damn himself, but to ask others to do the same didn’t sit right with him at all.

“I’d need accurate information, I’d need to be able to expose rebel activity.” He concluded.

“You’re asking us to sacrifice lives. To knowingly get our people killed.” Marius growled, his tone low and dangerous.

“I’d be doing the same with my own.” Darrin responded quickly. “It can’t just be militia and Second Legion I give you. If Blueholdt suffers no losses that looks equally suspicious.”

Marius sat back, his jaw clenched and his arms folded tight across his chest. He and Haster exchanged a long, wordless look.

“Iona told me you were an honourable man, a soldier used to fighting the battlefields against Gruraith’s armies. Battles where parlays are honoured, you can collect your dead afterwards, retreat is an option. Things are different here. War has rules, survival doesn’t.” Darrin pressed him. He swung his arm wide, pointing in the direction of the arena in the upper districts.

“Look at the arena. Hills set a trap with Haster as the bait. He knew you couldn’t let him die, that your honour wouldn’t allow it. And if Violet hadn’t attacked, nearly killed him, Draconeus and me, then your rebellion would already be over. It’s your choice now, die with honour and lose the war. Or work with me, become monsters, but keep the city alive and just maybe, we win the fucking thing.”

Marius went quiet, his expression stormy as he wrestled with himself. Haster though, spoke up again.

“It’ll put a lot of blood on our hands.” He said simply.

“It will.” Darrin agreed. “But the way I see it, our hands will be covered in blood whichever way this goes. This at least gives us a choice in whose blood.”

Silence washed over them like waves at high tide as each man grappled with the choice before them. After a few minutes, Haster and Marius exchanged a glance again. Marius’ expression was pained, reluctant. But Haster gave him a slow, resolved nod. Marius turned to Darrin.

“Alright Crowe. You’re right. We’ve paid high costs already and gotten very little return. I think your plan might work. It’ll damn us to the deepest hell, but it might work. So what’s the next step?”

Darrin breathed a long sigh of relief and nodded his thanks, and condolences, towards the two men. But there was no point wallowing in the self-pity of what they had just agreed. It was far better to just begin moving onwards.

“For now, take the supplies I give you, recover and consolidate. I will do the same. I’ll gather information on militia forces and movements and I’ll carve myself and Blueholdt a sector of territory here at the dockside. In three days, we meet here in this warehouse again. And every three days after that, an hour after sundown, I will be here. I will wait an hour, for one or both of you. Or someone you tell me you trust. If no-one comes, I will leave and we will need to wait longer. If someone does come, we exchange information, we make our plans and we go our separate ways.” Darrin offered and Haster looked about himself sceptically.

“This warehouse is secure?” He asked, his eyes lingering on every shadow.

“You can ask Lady Cobalt when you next see her if you doubt me.” Darrin reasoned. “But it is fully operated by my own crew from the Dawnrunner, none of the crews of the other captains. Only my crew know why I’m doing any of this, and only they will be anywhere near here.”

“You trust your crew?” Marius asked and Darrin sat up straight, proud.

“I’d trust every man and woman on that ship with my life. My crew are my family, we would never turn our backs on each other.” He replied. Marius nodded, seeming at least placated by the answer.

“Then that plan works.” Haster agreed, standing to his full height. Somewhere deep in the warehouse, the sounds of people moving through the space became apparent. At the edge of the light, the small, slender frame of Lillian Cobalt reappeared.

Marius and Darrin rose from their seats, keeping their eyes on each other. Slowly, Darrin extended his hand. Marius looked at it for a long while, before finally he reached out and gripped it. He shook once, firmly.

“Seems we’re bound for hell. But at least I’m not going alone.” He told Darrin with a humourless chuckle. Darrin smiled grimly back and nodded, before releasing the hand and repeating the gesture to Haster. Haster then turned and left, disappearing into the darkness of the warehouse, moving to help the rebels with their theft.

Marius though, stayed standing near Darrin, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

“A question Crowe, please?” He asked and Darrin raised his eyebrows in surprise. Marius’ tone was different, not strong and commanding but almost timid and unsure. Slowly, he nodded, giving Marius permission to ask.

“After the arena, Violet Hills was taken. Do you… do you know?” Marius asked, his tone almost pleading for answers. Understanding dawned on Darrin, followed by sympathy and sorrow for the pain he wouldn’t be able to lift.

“I’m so sorry Marius, I don’t know.” He explained with a gentle shake of his head. “By the time Draconeus had cured me of the poison and I could move again, she’d already been taken away. I never found out where.”

Marius lowered his head, nodding to himself. Slowly pushing the vulnerability back down as he buried the pain. He glanced to Lillian at the side of the light, where she watched with a pained expression.

“We’ve heard… reports.” He began gently. “About what happens to the prisoners he takes. If… if you hear anything…”

“You’ll be the first to know.” Darrin reassured him, gently laying his hand on Marius’ shoulder. The rebel commander nodded, looking up at Darrin, his green eyes shining with thankfulness, and pain.

And then, taking a deep breath, Marius buried the pain. His shoulders lifted, squaring up again. He lifted his head and that same strong, stoic expression covered the pain like a mask. Reaching down, he picked up his sword from the table and sheathed it once more. He gave Darrin one last grim look, and then turned to join his rebels.

Which left only Lillian Cobalt.

The girl stepped into the light, pulling her hood back again and shaking out her black hair. The ring on its chain glinted in the lantern light. She looked to Darrin uncertainly, wringing her hands together.

“James and Alyx.” She began quietly. “Are they alright?”

Darrin walked slowly around the table, leaning his back on it and placing his hands by his sides as he smiled at the girl as reassuringly as he could.

“Fighting fit.” He replied. It was a half-truth, when he’d first met them, Alyx had been nursing a sprained ankle and when they’d left Blueholdt James and Meghan Whiteoak had been nursing injuries from a demon. But the girl didn’t need to know every detail.

“Did they… Did they talk about me?” Lillian asked uncertainly. Darrin paused, looking at her carefully. Her eyes were wide, and she nervously chewed at her lip as she spoke. She’s afraid she’d forgotten, abandoned. Darrin smiled, unlike Marius, this at least was a fear he could help.

“Every day.” He told her. “Alyx wouldn’t ever shut up about how strong you are, how much she wanted to see you kicking Second Legion arse.” He quoted Alyx word for word and Lillian sniffled and giggled.

“And James, he told me so many stories about you. About how brave you’d been, how smart you were. He was so sure that they wouldn’t need to find the Brightblade. He kept saying that by the time they got it, the Kitten would have killed the demon and be sat on the throne.” He leaned forwards, placing his hand on Lillian’s arm.

“They love you Lillian, and they miss you. And that’s not changed.” He concluded. Lillian nodded and wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her sleeve. Then she looked up at Darrin again.

“Where are they?” She asked simply.

“They were headed north from Blueholdt.” Darrin explained quietly, looking around to make sure they weren’t overheard. Aside from Lillian, he only wanted Marius and Haster to know details of Iona and the Cobalts.

“If I’m right, they should be in Fallham by now, up in the swamplands. And hopefully, they’re kicking the shit out of the monster that rules that place.”