Voidhawk - Lost Soul (3 page)

“Where she go?”

Dexter glanced around, then nervously shrugged. He saw Dexter’s expression darken and the man’s knuckles whiten. “I’ll try to find out,” Xander added. “But we don’t know anything that happened.”

“Look for a mark on her body.”

The voice carried across the room, drawing startled gasps. One of the elders stepped past Keshira without so much as a glance at her. He reached up and removed the hood on his dark robe, then stared down at the girl through silver eyes. “It is a special tactic used only in the most unusual of circumstances. That it should be used here is most grave.”

“Elder Kiltyrn, my thanks for coming so soon,” Dexter said.

“I sensed a spark of forbidden lore, I had to see if it was as I feared,” Kiltyrn said.

Korina
searched Jianna’s flesh, looking for a mark of some sort. She nearly gave up hope when, at last, she found the small but swollen dot on the back of her neck. Elder Kiltyrn frowned as he studied it.

“Most unfortunate,” he mumbled before turning to address Jenna and Dexter. “Her soul has been stolen. Her body will wither and die in a matter of days.”

Dexter heard himself gasp. He took another step, using his grip on Jenna to keep himself from falling as much as he was keeping her from sagging to the ground.

“Stolen? By who?” Jenna asked.

“By an enemy. Either an enemy of your own or an enemy to your Empire,” Kiltyrn said. “This is no simple feat. It requires a great deal of magical talent to craft a weapon capable of doing this. I did not think anyone was still alive that could do so. For an assassin to possess the skill and magic necessary to infiltrate the private rooms here tells us that this must be a very well funded operation.”

“Can she be saved?” Dexter blurted out. He’d all but ignored everything the elder had said, focusing instead on when the ancient elf had said about her body fading within a matter of days. “If her body’s still alive for a few days, can we put her soul back in it?”

Kiltyrn bowed his head, pondering the question. He nodded a few times then raised it up to stare at Dexter with his strangely luminous eyes. “It’s never been done, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. The process is simple in theory. The problem is the trap that holds her soul will not let her go without having her soul replaced with another.”

“We destroy it then,” Dexter grunted. “Not the first time we’ve done it.”

“No, it’s not,” Kiltyrn let a sad smile tilt his lips upward. “But her soul would not survive the destruction of the cage, nor would whoever destroyed it.”

Dexter scowled. “Heard that before
, too. I’ll take my chances. Now where do I find the son of a bitch that done this?”

“After the flash of ancient necromancy the assassin disappeared from our sight,” Kiltyrn said. “I can only offer one final bit of hope, though I fear it may be your undoing.”

“What hope?” Jenna snapped, clinging to his words.

“I can put this body in a state of suspension. Months will pass before it feels another day.”

“I’m not sure why that’s a bad thing?” Dexter asked.

“You could spend the rest of your life searching for something you may never find. It might be wiser to stay here and finish what you’ve started. This fool’s errand might be the point behind this attack.”

“Admiral, I’ll go,” Tasha interrupted, stepping forward. “Jia’s the daughter I’ve never had. I love her more than I value my own life. I won’t stop until I find her.”

Dexter held up his hand. “That’s enough, Tasha.”

“Sir, I—”

“I said that’s enough!” Dexter snapped. “Freezing time or not, I don’t got the time to listen to you babble about how important Jia is.” He turned to look at Xander and the wizard’s scantily clad apprentice. “Wizard, I need you.”

Xander frowned. “I’m not much use with necromancy. Besides, wouldn’t you want someone more skilled with combat magic? You have a habit of finding people that want to kill you wherever you go.”

“I want you. Either you come willingly or I knock you on your arse and
you wake up on the ‘Hawk.”

Xander sighed. “
Then I’m yours. Trilliana, this will serve as a test of your ability to use magic in the face of adversity.”

Dexter nodded then turned back to face his wife. He saw the tension in her body and hoped she wouldn’t snap like an over-wound bowstring when he reached out to take her hand.
“I’ll find her and bring her back.”

“No, we’ll find her,” Jenna
squeezed his hand. She turned her head towards the door. “Captain Lucemius! Have the nobles assemble. They have thirty minutes and not one minute longer. I will address them.”

The elf that Dexter had punched bowed to her from the doorway. Dexter noted he didn’t dare step foot into the room. He also noted the elf’s swollen lip. “Tasha, stay with Jia. Keshira ready the ‘Hawk. I’ll pick up a few more people we need and meet you there.”

“Good, I’ll be there as soon as I finish with the council,” Jenna said. “Elder, what preparations must you make for Jianna?”

“I think you make a grave error,” Kiltyrn said. He waved his hand over Jianna’s body, sprinkling a fine dust he’d taken from his pocket over her. “But it is your error to make. Without strong leadership your people may forget the progress they have made.”

Jenna nodded. “Thank you, Elder Kiltyrn. We are indebted to you again. As for my people, I’ve already ignored the ones that matter the most for too long. If the elves forget so quickly then perhaps they were never mine to begin with.”

Kiltyrn nodded. “Her body awaits. It will endure for years in this state. Returning her soul will break the enchantment. May the winds of the void speed your journey.”

Chapter 2

“We’re sailing on this?” Trilliana’s tone left no doubt about what she thought of the Voidhawk.

“She’s been docked for a long time now,” Dexter defended his ship. It was true that the ‘Hawk had seen better days, but the problem wasn’t a matter of dry rot or damage, just dust settling in. “She still sails the void and I reckon she’ll be sailing it long after we’re gone.”

The smirk on the witch’s face said otherwise. Dexter scowled at her, but turned away when he heard a commotion on the docks. He turned and saw Jenna striding along the wooden limbs of the conjoined trees Flasgoryll was built upon. She wore breeches and a vest made of leather, with her swords at her hips and a pistol on a sash. Dexter also noticed that she looked angry.

The elven capitol city was massive, nearly the size of a small moon. As with nearly all elven outposts and citadels, Flasgoryll was a living entity. Far from sentient, it nevertheless consisted of a massive tree that had been nurtured with magic to grow into the shape that its tenders had imagined. Now it housed thousands of elves and served as one of the Elven Empire’s mightiest shipyards capable to growing the most breathtaking vessels
to ever set sail across the void. The Voidhawk, in comparison to nearly any elven ship, seemed crude and uninspired.

“Look beyond the surface,” Xander urged his apprentice. “The Voidhawk has served for many years and has no small amount of magic built into it. Beyond that which is necessary to sail the void, I mean. I thought like you once, even after I worked my own magic into it to increase the size of the cargo holds. I’ve come to learn much more about it, there’s magic in it that goes beyond what the books can teach us. The magic of devotion and hard work. The magic of love.”

Trilliana spun to look at him, her delicate eyebrows raised. “You sound poetic, or at least romantic.”

Xander chuckled, trying to erase the red bloom from his cheeks. “Emotion carries power. It can be dangerous, especially for those that know how to use it. I’ve had lengthy debates with the Elders about it
. I suspect channeling such energies over long terms—and by invoking them in massive groups of people—is what can cause inexplicable phenomena to occur. Miracles, you would say, or for even longer term results the creation of deities.”

“There’ll be no deity that can save you if you don’t have the ‘Hawk ready to sail by the time I’m back on the deck!” Jenna stepped off the ramp and strode across the deck, heading to the circular
staircase that would take her to the companionway closest to the bridge.

Dexter allowed himself a smirk. “Seems my first mate is back,” he offered.
A ribald curse drifted up from the staircase, followed by a crash of wood against wood. He turned without another word and hurried after her.

Jenna was pulling chart after chart out of a chest, unrolling the delicate parchments on the table then tossing them aside. She looked up at him when he entered
and glared angrily. Her eyes softened. Her shoulders sagged and it seemed only her hands on the table kept her knees from collapsing beneath her. Dexter hurried over to her, rounding the table and placing his hand on her back.

“We’ll get her,” he whispered.

Jenna turned, burying her face into his chest and letting loose a sob. The Captain had little choice but to hold her tightly while she let loose the emotions that had been building in her. Emotions that, he suspected, had built over six long years spent denying everything except the needs of the Empire.

When she could draw a breath with little more than a shudder she whispered into his sodden shirt, “I’ve been a terrible mother.”

“You’ve been here. Busy, yes, but you were here,” he consoled. “Beats what I grew up with.”

“My mother was here too,” she confessed. “She’s still here somewhere. Exiled with my father.”

Dexter sucked in a sharp breath. “Do you think they did this?”

“What? No,” she said, still clinging to him. “I just meant my mother was always around, but she seldom had time for me. She never played with me or listened to me. She would talk to me at times, telling me how things were and what was expected of me, but that was it. I fear I’ve turned out just like her!”

“Can’t say that your mother seems the type to send her daughter off to practice swinging swords around in the air with a smile on her face.”

Jenna was silent for a moment, then she shook her head. “She thought my interests were scandalous, at best.”

“Well there you go. Maybe you weren’t so bad after all.” Dexter grimaced, his words sounded over and done with. He spoke carefully, trying to end on a hopeful note. “You aren’t a bad mom.”

She sniffed and pulled away from him. “I’m jealous,” she admitted. “You spent so much more time with Jia.”

Dexter sighed. “There’s not a day that’s passed I haven’t pined away for life on the ‘Hawk. Running the Elven Navy’s not much better for family life than being Empress is.”

Jenna glanced up at him, a twinkle in her eye he’d not seen in a long time. “And you’ve got an idea what it’s like to be the Empress?”

“Well, on top of having people kneeling and groveling all day long there’s the problem of tripping on some of those dresses. Horrible things, don’t let a person move in them! Not to mention they take too long to get out of when court’s gone on too long and I’m fit to bursting with all that fancy Elven wine I’ve drank.”

Jenna snorted, then buried her head back in Dexter’s chest. “Thank you, Dex. I don’t know how you
can make me smile, but you can.”

“Comes with being Captain and all. If you’d like I’ll show you some of the other perks later.”

“Other perks?”

“Private bedroom, for starters.”

Jenna looked at him again, then softened in his grip when she saw the tenderness in his eyes. She kissed him hard, not out of passion but out of necessity. Dexter clung to her in return, finding that it helped him as much as it did her.

“How are we going to find her?” Jenna whispered once they’d separated.

“That’s where the guy upstairs comes in.”

Jenna’s eyebrows scrunched together. “When did you take up religion?”

Dexter grinned, having lured his wife into his trap. “I meant the man wearing the dress.”

She let out her breath with a soft chuckle. “You really think Xander can help?”

Dexter shrugged. “Been many a time I didn’t know what would get us out of a jam. With the proper motivation he’s always come through for me.”

“You’re going to punch him again, aren’t you?”

“I was thinking of tearing the scarves off of his naughty little apprentice and using them to tie her to a ballista bolt, then seeing how that might affect the weapon’s aim.”

Jenna’s eyes widened. She let out another laugh before shaking her head. “You wouldn’t do that.”

Dexter’s grin didn’t fade but his eyes shifted just enough to match his lower tone, “If I knew that pissing into the wind with my mouth wide open stood a chance of getting her back, I’d do it.”

Jenna studied him then nodded. His
promise stood as an example of the lengths he’d go to and it sent chills down her back yet warmed her heart. She remembered the times he’d risked his own life trying to save her, even above that of risks he took for the other crew members. She nodded. Dexter would find a way to move the very void surrounding them if he had to.