A Soldier's Life - 393 - The Shadow Belt

Chapter 393: The Shadow Belt

We were four days from our second layover in the port city of Delpsa in the Kingdom of Gorgiphia. The days melded together, and I was shocked how fast Evie was not only learning Elvish but also her fluency in Telhian was rapidly growing. Granted, she spent most of her day talking to Benito, Blaze, and Lesna in Telhian and being corrected. Unfortunately for her, all three spoke with a commoner’s slang and accent. I rarely spoke to Evie in English anymore, and that was only to explain something.

“I don’t feel like lessons today,” Evie said the day before we were about to reach Delpsa. The voyage had gone even smoother than the captain predicted, with no sightings and comfortable weather.

I patiently put down the Elvish tome she had been struggling through. The tale, Shadow of a Broken Heart, was actually extremely captivating and well-written. There was a hint of political intrigue in the background of the love story between a young woodsman, Orrian, and a savant mage girl, Tiriana. I admit I had read ahead of my lessons with Evie. It very loosely followed the plot of Romeo and Juliet. Except that after the protagonist, Tiriana, faked her death, the woodsman blamed her father and died trying to kill him. When Tiriana awoke from her faux death, she fought a spell duel with her father, won, but could not kill him. She deserted her family to wander the world. There was a sequel book, but I had no idea how I would find it, as this copy was almost seven hundred years old.

“Don’t you want to find out what happens?” I asked, with a mischievous grin. The next chapter was where Tiriana laid out her plans to fake her death.

Evie let out a long sigh. “You are terrible at keeping a secret. I can tell you already read ahead.”

“I am not terrible at keeping a secret,” I growled mirthlessly.

“Yeah, you are. It’s why I trust you,” Evie snapped back with a grin.

“You are only ten. How do you read people so easily?” I asked, closing the book.

“Not all people. Just most. And I think I am eleven now,” she said a little morosely.

I studied her for a moment, and I guessed she missed her family. “Eleven? Great age. That was when I started cliff jumping. There was an old quarry where I grew up. My friends and I used to go there in the summer and challenge each other to see who could climb the highest to jump.”

“Did you win?” Evie asked, interested.

“Ugh, no,” I winced. “The highest I ever jumped was about twenty-five feet. I landed sideways and had a red welt on my body for three days after. Never went higher after that,” I laughed at the memory.

A quintet of glowstones appeared in my hand: one blue, one red, one violet, one yellow, one blue, and one bright white. “Happy birthday, Evie. I harvested those from a demonic dungeon, and my friend Maveith shaped them. Don’t be showing them around, colored glowstones are rare.” I marveled and beamed at the stones, and I gave her a leather pouch to carry them in.

Instead of studying, we talked about what she used to do with her family and Lexi on her birthdays and other gifts she received. “But magic gemstones are definitely the best gift ever,” she finished and gave me a hug before returning to her cabin.

The Sensible Seahorse closed in on the shoreline, and I could see dozens of sails in the distance and around us. The port city of Delpsa must be extremely busy. The first mate was bellowing orders as the sailors scurried to obey. I saw a curious merefolk pop his head above the waves on port, only to disappear shortly after. The sighting kept me vigilant until we finally docked.

I let people walk the docks, just to get off the ship after more than eight days in cramped quarters, with the deck constantly moving beneath their feet. It felt good to have solid ground underfoot. “Lesna, stay near the ship,” I warned. I kept my eye on the halfling as soon as she stepped onto the wooden pier. She had been edging behind some crates. She huffed but returned to Benio and Evie’s side.

The people of Delpsa had dark skin and preferred white and beige clothing as they moved to and from the docks. The passengers at the end of their journey struggled with their belongings that the sailors had piled on the docks for them. The air smelled oddly salty-sweet, with no lingering fish smell that I had come to expect in most ports. When I mentioned it to Blaze, the captain, who was walking past, told me why. “It’s spawning season for most of the aquatic life in the region—the water is thick with eggs and seed. Give it a week and you will have to be breathing through your mouth by any shore in a hundred leagues of here.” He chuckled to himself.

“Thank you,” I replied.

He considered me for a moment before he approached me. His serious demeanor had me on alert. Once he got close, he reeked from the four days at sea, personal hygiene not high on his list. “Don’t transport your type often,” he said with a wink. “Since this is your first time sailing this route, I wanted to warn you that in two days we will pass through the Shadow Belt, a forty-mile stretch that has some unpredictable weather. We may drop anchor and have to wait a day or two to cross.”

“It is dangerous?” I asked.

He seemed to consider, drawing on his experience. “We are opposite to spring storm season, but if the clouds darken over the strait, only the foolhardy will attempt to cross.” He replied with an ominous note.

“Thank you for letting us know, and for tossing the man from your crew,” I replied.

“Your man did the tossing, I just didn’t let him back on board.” He nodded and went into the city, hopefully looking for a bathhouse.

Two hours later, I cursed, “Pluto’s ghost! Where is Lesna?” Benito and Blaze looked at each other, then back at me, apologetically. “If she isn’t back on the ship when we sail, she can stay here,” I said, acting angry. Evie looked panicked as Lesna had been a good friend to her. She was desperately scanning the docks and the streets she could see.

I herded my companions on the ship, not wanting to deal with anyone else straying too far, and smirked as we entered my cabin. Lesna was in there and had done some quick shopping in the city, “Surprise! Happy Birthday! Evie!” We all yelled for her. Her jaw hung open, and she looked at a smiling Lesna who had been party to tricking her. A smile slowly formed, and she hugged me first before the others.

Evie was shocked when she received gifts from everyone in the group. Lesna got her a nice nightgown, and Blaze gave her a black leather belt with two sheaths for daggers. I had paid for the daggers, which Lesna did an excellent job selecting. The hilts were plain, but the blades were made of excellent watered steel.

Blaze gave her an assortment of expensive cloth hair ties, as Lesna had not been able to find a child’s bow that he wanted to give her in order to teach her archery. She found something similar to a birthday cake, a lemon-flavored, dense bread with a lemon glaze on top. The single wax candle stuck proudly in the center.

I loved it that my plan came together. I had managed to inform the others about the importance of the party to her, and the mood was joyous. Maybe it was slightly devious on my part. If I could make it feel like she had family on Desia, it would help her forget about her own family on Earth. Plus, you never wanted to be on the bad side of a powerful necromancer.

When we left port, we were excited as it should be about four days to reach our destination, Nausis. Past the city’s breakers, the waters definitely became more turbulent, and a number of the passengers couldn’t acclimate to the constant rise and fall of the waves. When we reached the Shadow Belt crossing, the waves were ten feet high, and the expanse of water before us was shrouded in dark clouds. The clouds flickered constantly as lightning was everywhere on the horizon, well into the distance. I could see why the captain had warned me.

The captain was on deck and had the Sensible Seahorse headed to shore, toward a bay that had a number of vessels with drawn sails. The first mate was cursing our bad luck, “Shouldn’t be this bad this time of year. Bad Omens.”

Even the sheltered bay, crowded with four other ships, had turbulent waters. The captain assigned men to watch the rails, as he was concerned that sahuagin or merfolk might try to raid the ship overnight. I observed the other crew; three were composed of humans of various shades, while the fourth appeared to be elven, with a pale complexion. The captain seemed unconcerned by the flags they were flying, and soon the first mate was shouting back and forth with his counterpart on a Tegairosian ship. Apparently, the storm picked up just over a day ago.

After a time, the first mate addressed the worried passengers on the deck, the sails were stowed, and we were anchored in the center of the bay. “Storms don’t last long in the strait. We shouldn’t be anchored more than a day or two.” I turned and looked out at the bay. I had seen enough magical storms in my time to know that was not natural.

“It is because there is a thick ley line running under the bay,” a man standing to my right said in Elvish. He stood next to me uninvited, his black cloak pulled tight, and his stubble with a few gray whiskers. I think he had come aboard in Delpsa, but we didn’t typically interact with other passengers.

“Have you passed through the Shadow Belt often?” I asked conversationally.

“Too many times,” he said tiredly. “My profession takes me abroad often.” He shifted his stance, and the hilt of his sword briefly pressed against his cloak.

“Hunter?” I guessed. “Heading back to the Citadel?”

He chuckled, “I am not dumb enough to join the Death Hunters. I hunt the living.” He reached under his cloak and showed his guild medallion.

“Returning from a successful hunt?” I asked as I layered my dimensional space over his head, ready to take it if I didn’t like his answers. No one had been tracking us using clairvoyant magic, but there were other ways.

“She got away,” he said sadly. “Escaped her mortal bondage. I was tasked to bring her back alive by her father, now I have to tell him of my failure.”

“Are you headed to Nausis, then?” I asked.

“No, Petos, capital of the Heptarchy of Tegairosia. It is the home port of the Seahorse. I frequently take passage on Captain Moros’ ship. I saw you practicing this morning. What master did you learn under?” He studied me, and I finally figured out why he approached me. He was impressed with my bladework.

I played through a number of responses, but settled on one. “Konstantin Silvanus.”

“Never heard of him. Do you care to test yourself against me in the morning?” He asked.

“Perhaps if I knew your name,” I said with a sly smile. “Eryk Marco,” I extended my wrist for him to shake. My dreamscape could always use upgrades.

“Kyrenic the Unbreakable. Knight Champion of Queen Adelin.” I shook his hand, but was confused.

“I thought you were an adventurer,” I asked.

“A man can be more than one thing,” he said, laughing. “You are definitely more than you appear. Warrior, father, mage.” I cocked my head questionably. “I noticed you healed a broken finger one of your men gave you this morning, and you let them go at you much harder than is safe.”

“A spell form,” I said dismissively.

He nodded, “Have a few myself. I will see you in the morning.”

We never found the opportunity to truly test each other, as the skies transformed into an eerie shade of blue by morning. Captain Moros swiftly maneuvered the Sensible Seahorse, hoisting the sails and navigating her into the Shadow Belt Strait. The journey ahead promised to consume an entire day as we traversed the gap. Just as we crossed the midway point of the strait, the sky began to darken ominously. The tension among the entire crew as they tried to do whatever the first mate yelled as quickly as possible to hasten our passage, told me we were in for some misfortune.

© Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.