Page 3 of Entangled

Two

LAND OF MURA

“This is a waste of time. We’re never going to catch anything.” Zann Blackseed looked over the edge of his brother, Rhys’ ship, The Spectrum, and shook his head in disgust. He and his brothers, Darium and Rhys, had been fishing for several hours now and all they’d caught was an old boot, a rotten log, and a lot of insults from Elric, Zann’s father-by-marriage. Even Stone Nightstalker, the newest member of their group, wasn’t having any luck.

“If you boys would just face the fact you stink at this and let me help, we’d all be home and eating a good meal by now.” Elric leaned back against the side of the large fishing ship with his feet up and his arms crossed. His eyes were closed.

“Nay. We don’t need your magic to put food on our tables,” grumbled Darium, pulling in a line and lifting it up to see that it was empty.

“Zann and I are kings. We can provide for our people and especially our own families, Rhys chimed in.

“That’s right. Besides, Stone and I can go out hunting later,” offered Zann, just itching to get back into his shapeshifting form of a wolf to hunt at night in the Goeften Forest. With Zann’s animal instincts and Stone’s clear night vision, they were bound to make some good catches.

“Stonestealer is a bounty hunter. He doesn’t hunt animals, he hunts men,” scoffed Elric with his eyes still shut. The short little elf was a sage and also messenger of the gods. He was probably the most magical of the beings of Mura, but also the most irritating. If Zann hadn’t been married to the man’s daughter, he and his brothers most likely wouldn’t tolerate Elric and his vulgar ways.

“I’m no longer a bounty hunter, just a tracker,” Stone answered in his defense. “And now that I’m married to your second daughter, I’d appreciate it if you called me by my real name. It’s Nightstalker, not Stonestealer…Father.” Stone added the latter part just to get a rise out of the elf.

Elric’s eyes shot open and his mouth turned down into a nasty frown. He jumped up on the wooden seat, still no taller than Stone who was sitting, being no taller than waist-high to a common man. “Call me Father once more and you’ll find out just how powerful my magic is when you’re scraping your hind end off the bottom of the Masked Sea,” spat Elric. “And don’t think I can’t do it.”

“Calm down, Elric.” Darium wound up his fishing line and wiped his hands on his breeches. “We’re all family and need to get along now.”

“I never wanted to be friends with a Sin Eater like you, Darium.” Elric was at it again. Always seeming as if he longed to stir up trouble.

“I’m no longer a Sin Eater,” said Darium. “And we don’t have to be friends, but nothing can stop us from being family. So just get used to it.”

“I told you we shouldn’t have come out here to fish,” Elric continued to complain.

“Only some of us are really fishing.” Stone raised an eyebrow looking at his lazy new father-by-marriage. Stone’s dog, Fang, jumped up from his sleeping position on the deck and ran over and hopped up on the bench next to Elric. The dog put his paws up on the side wall of the ship and looked over the edge and whined.

“What’s the matter, boy?” Stone ran a hand over his dog’s head. “Something’s got him spooked.”

“It’s probably all you big oafs pretending to be fishermen when none of you can even manage to catch a cold,” said Elric, chuckling at his own jest.

“There’s a storm approaching.” Darium looked up to the mast of the ship, seeing his raven, Murk, landing atop the lookout basket and squawking like crazy. “Something’s got Murk upset as well. Mayhap we should pull in the net and start heading back. Hopefully, we can beat the rain.”

“Sounds like the first good idea today.” Elric jumped down from the bench, but did nothing to help pull in the net.

“Nay, I don’t want to leave yet.” Rhys stretched his neck, looking toward the other fishing ship close by. “I’m not leaving until he does.”

“He, who?” asked Elric with a yawn. His short arms went out to the sides as he stretched, having just woken up from a nap. Elric hadn’t even been invited on this trip but insisted he come along, just wanting to be nosy.

“Rhys only wanted to fish today because he saw King Ravenwolf’s ship sail out earlier. Everything’s got to be a competition with my brother,” grumbled Zann.

Zann and Rhys had replaced two of the dead, evil kings of Mura. King Sethor had been the last one left but he recently died as well. At his death, Macada Castle was taken over by Sethor’s nephew, Sebastian Ravenwolf. Sebastian was a much younger man than Sethor and also more capable of putting together a bigger and stronger army than his uncle. Rhys worried about King Ravenwolf storming their castles of Kasculbough and Evandorm and his brothers knew it.

“Rhys, it’s starting to rain.” Darium struggled to reel in the net. Zann and Stone helped him. “It must have tangled on something.” Fang started to bark uncontrollably. The raven still squawked from the lookout basket above their heads. “We need to hurry and head back.”

“I don’t want this new king to think we are weak rulers.” Rhys’ stubborn side showed. “A little longer won’t kill us.”

“Nay, but I might.” The elf crossed his arms over his chest. “Especially if the mutt doesn’t stop barking. He’s hurting my ears.” The little man placed his hands over his pointy ears and cringed.

“He’s sensing something wrong. I know my dog,” said Stone, still petting Fang and looking over toward the other king’s ship. “I feel it too. Something is fishy.”

“Not a good jest considering we didn’t catch a thing today,” said Darium, still pulling on the net, not understanding what it could be stuck on.

“Nay. That’s not what I mean. King Ravenwolf has caught something. Whatever it is, it seems pretty big. Take a look.” Stone pointed toward the other ship. King Ravenwolf’s men were hoisting up the fishing net and it looked to be loaded.

“Pull harder! Raise that net now,” commanded Sebastian Ravenwolf, running to the edge of the ship to see if they’d perhaps caught a dolphin or two in their nets. They’d had bad luck all day, and Sebastian hadn’t wanted to retreat until Kings Zann and Rhys brought in their nets as well. He was the new king of Macada Castle now since his uncle’s demise. He needed to prove his worth to the Blackseed brothers, since those boys had magic on their side and he did not. Mayhap his catch of a dolphin would make his enemies see him as more of an equal after all.