Sky Lord by Rowan Erlking (that summer book .txt) 📕

“Go back, blue eyes!” A man dressed in a feathered frock approached them, paddling his canoe through the slough and tall weeds. He wore a white shirt of imported cotton. “You are not wanted here!”

“We are heading to the island,” Jonis called back, waving one hand that held his sword. Tia knew two messages were being transferred here: I am going and you had better not try to stop me. But with how casually Jonis said it, it sounded almost incidental.

“You will not set foot on that island, Cordril!” the armed warrior shouted.

“Most certainly not,” Jonis replied as he would to the Patriarch. “I’m wearing boots. I will set boot on that island.”

Tia snickered despite herself.

The islanders glared at his cheek, watching them come closer.

“We will not let you go any further, especially with that woman,” said the warrior, who was now obviously some important person among this people.

Jonis glanced a back at Tia. He shrugged. “It seems that they know you.”

She blinked and stood up higher. “Do you know me?”

The leader moaned, glaring at her. “You will not return to the island. We sold you, child. We do not want blue eyes here.”

Tia stared directly at him. “You were the ones that sold me?” All her anger suddenly flared up from inside, consuming every inch of her feelings. She jumped over to the front of the boat, nearly ready to launch her self off at him. Tia stopped just at the prow. “Did you know that the woman who purchased me beat me? Almost daily!”

The leader stare back placidly, even with a sneer. “Good. Sky Children like you deserve to be punished.”

Fuming, Tia started to climb the front of the ship. “Deserve? I was a child! I had done nothing wrong, and you took me away from my mother! How dare you inflict your judgement on me! You have no idea what I have been though, and I don’t think I deserved any of it!”

“Tia, calm down,” Jonis said, placing his hand on her shoulder to pull her back. “Save your energy for the island.”

“You will not set foot—” the chief said again.

“I know, I know, I’ll set boot,” Jonis replied, covering his smirk with a plain-faced nod and wave.

That only made the islander angry.

“You will go back, or we will kill you!” the island chief said, raising his spear.

“What?” Jonis asked, taking his pistol from its holster, cocking it as he lifted it up, “You mean with a weapon like this?”

The warrior shrunk back.

Jonis smirked, lowering the pistol so it was pointing right at the headman. “I am a hunter by trade. I think Tia here can account for my good aim. Is that not right?”

Tia looked back at him and straightened up. His cool really was how to play it. She nodded. “Oh, yes. I’d say you are the best hunter in the world.”

He blushed, nudging her with his elbow as if embarrassed. “Stop it.”

She cast him an amused glance, knowing that this was all a game to him from her previous encounter with his thoughts.

The natives moved back though still watching them with their spears and bows in their hands. Many of them carried old steel knives, long used and worn. Their machetes looked more like swords, beaten now into tools for harvesting. They were fishermen, not warriors, and they soon cleared the way.

Jonis grinned, turning to Tia. “Guide the boat through.”

Quickly obeying, Tia hopped back over to the stern where she turned up the motor, steering them slowly through the rocks. The islanders watched them pass by, focusing all their hate on their faces. All their eyes followed the boat, glaring much at the Cordril hunter, but more at Tia whom they clearly never wanted to see again.

They cleared the rocks, reaching an open stretch of sea. The water was a cool shallow green. They could see the ocean bottom and all the different kinds of tropical fish swimming among the shoals. Beyond the cool green water, they spotted a volcanic island covered in lush trees looming large before the horizon. Full of life.

Birds fluttered over the branches. They heard all sorts of birdcalls over the lapping sounds of waves on the shore. The air surrounding the island was hot and moist, very much unlike the city of Stilson where it felt like winter was upon them. Here, it seemed to reign eternal summer. They must have gone south, Tia decided.

The islanders from the Rocky Sea followed them back to the island. It was like a fleet landing around them on the shore, ready to slaughter them.

Jonis’s sailboat could only go in so far before they had to stop. He hopped off into the water, which ended up as high as his waist, then dropped the anchor into the soft sandbank. Lending a hand to Tia, he smiled. It was odd to her, treated like a lady, but she took his open hand and felt the blue sparks electrify between their touch. A passing thought came from him, warning her to be careful. She dropped into the water beside him, blushing.

Wading waist deep to the shore, they stopped on the sand, staring right up at a more formidable-looking island chief who barred their way with several armed guards carrying muskets. Jonis halted, peering at them and passing a thought to her. Tia heard him wonder if the powder inside the muskets was even dry enough to work.

“You will leave,” this chief said.

Jonis lowered his gun as if giving up. He sighed, placing his gun in its holster. Reaching into his belt pouch, he drew out a shimmering chain in his hand. “A peace offering, perhaps, may calm His Highness of worries.”

The chief glared at him. “You will turn around and leave.”

Raising his eyebrows with a glance at Tia, Jonis remarked, “He has quite a one track mind, doesn’t he.”

His flippancy, despite being a stress reliever in a dangerous situation, did not feel wise here. The islanders looked ready to kill and eat them. Tia’s muscles grew tense.

“Off!” the chief bellowed.

“Here,” Jonis said with a light flick of his wrist, “If you won’t take it from my hand, I’ll toss it to you.”

The gold loop tinkled in the air. Tia recognized it as it flew over the sand. The thin chain lassoed around the leader’s neck with a jingle. She knew too well what would happen next.

The chief dropped to the ground, grabbing at his neck.

“Too heavy for you?” Jonis asked, approaching him as if surprised. “It was only a little chain.”

Tia held back as she watched the chief’s guards tried to pull the demon chain free from their leader’s neck, but they couldn’t even get their fingers under.

“What have you done to him?” one of the guards shouted, glaring with fury.

Jonis shrugged, glancing once at Tia. “Your guess is as good as mine. Is he allergic to gold?”

She saw his look, wondering how his mind was working. He had let go of her hand to throw the chain. Yet, there in the memory she had stolen from him was an answer, flashing out as something he had planned ages ago.

“It’s a demon chain!” one of the older members of the tribe shouted as he pushed through the crowd. “None of us can take it off, and it will strangle him if he struggles.”

The chief immediately stopped struggling.

“Oh, good,” Jonis said with a smile. “I’d hate to see you strangle.”

“Kill them,” the chief hissed under his breath, staring at the sand under his knees.

The muskets went up. Jonis took a halting step back.

But Tia did not wait for him to follow through with the next step of his plan. She stepped forward to where the chief knelt and placed her hand flat on his forehead, looking up at all the others around them. “If you try it, I will suck him dry.”

No one moved. All their eyes all fixed on her face all of them nearly dropping the weapons in their hands. Tia saw the terror that seized them. She could read their fear without even a touch. It was obvious that they knew more about what her kind could do than she did.

Jonis sighed. He walked over to Tia, looking down at the chief and then at the islanders around them. “Fine, if we must do it that way.” He said with authority, “Tell us what you know about the Sky Lord. Also, tell us where the Sky Lord’s treasure is.”

“Don’t do it!” the old man that had warned his people about the chain shouted.

But Tia could already hear the chief’s thoughts from the touch, which was exactly what Jonis was after. There was no need to drain all his memories or life to get what they needed. Just the mere mention of the Sky Lord, and the story of what he knew floated up.

“Let’s go.” Tia took her hand off the chief and pulled on Jonis’s arm. “I’ll lead the way.”

“Ok.” Jonis grinned, taking her hand. They did not walk away. They ran.

It took the crowd one second to wake from shock before they chased after the two blue-eyed beings, abandoning the chief in their fury. The pair dashed from the shore into the jungle, not looking back. Tia did lead the way, passing the direction they were to go through touch so that soon Jonis was pulling her along to their destination.

“What do you think they’ll do?” Jonis asked, as they scrambled through the underbrush. The thoughts Tia had gathered from the island chief transferred right through her hand to his, and he knew exactly what she had learned. Even now, he was getting an answer to his question before she could even speak.

“They’ll chase after us to kill us,” she shouted back. “Now hurry! We’re running through dangerous territory.”

Dangerous, they both knew, was an understatement when talking about that island. They soon saw why for themselves as they ran though what looked like city ruins, overgrown with plant life.

An ugly brown skinned creature dropped from the trees onto the jungle path right in front of them. It looked almost human, but it had the shape of someone starving. Its stomach was bloated while its ribs clung to the skin. It was bare up top, but wore a grass skirt not unlike the degenerated Sky Children islanders they had just left behind. What made it look inhuman was its mouth—a mere slit no larger than a coin slot. It spoke from its throat.

“Blue eyes! You should never have come back,” it hissed.

Tia and Jonis skidded to a halt in the sand over the crumbled stone road.

Spinning around, as many of these things suddenly crept out of the bush to surround them, Jonis drew his sword. “You are mistaken, it is my first time here. But I will assure you, when we go we have no intention of returning. I’m only here for answers.”

The thing hissed at him. “You! You smell of human!”

“Cordril hunter, at your service,” Jonis replied with the casual air that Tia felt was very unnecessary at that moment, bowing and propping his sword with grace.

“Cordril?” They all hissed with widening eyes.

“Its the brother!” others shouted.

The demons around them jumped back.

Though her nerves at seeing such hideous creatures were drawing tight, Tia glanced at Jonis and smiled. He had a way of making others tremble without any real intention of harm, and he always had a plan. And if she had understood Jonis’s passed-on thoughts correctly, she knew what he was attempting to do now. Hopefully, they would be driven to the cave they were already heading to, just like in the memory of the legend she stole from the village chief. Also, with hope, these demons would not dare take them on as supper. Jonis seemed prepared for both.

But a gunshot echoed over island, slitting through the peaceful hissing sound the leaves made from the wind, the rumble of the waves, and the birdcalls. The demons, Jonis and Tia glanced back to the shore where the noise came from.

“Damn!” Jonis