Chapter 1 - Queen De Shaus

chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE - THE QUEEN DE SHAUS

 

I wonder if there are still bloodstains in the ship cabin where my brother killed my parent's, Tobylas De Shaus thought as he stared out to sea. I hope their treasures and belongings are still there. After ten years it might be stolen. 

 

Everyone had speculated that the Queen De Shaus had sunk after Tobylas' mad brother Shausoman had killed his parent's and the entire crew and most likely had killed himself afterwards. Are their ghosts waiting for me on the ship? Tobylas wondered.

 

He sat on the crowded beach amongst the villagers, with little Tornette as she played in the sand completely nude. Her skin seemed to have darkened very fast in the sun. But he and his friend Neirick who were both red haired had just turned red. They were both trying to conceal their discomfort in the heat as best as possible, but soon enough their tunics were off, hair a mess, and they no longer hid the ale they shared with each other. People watched the trio in amusement, considering Tornette was the famous Sorcerer Perri Haven's daughter and Tobylas was his adopted son. Neirick was a humorous, vulgar man Tobylas had befriended a long time ago. Prince Rucktis, who was like a brother to Tobylas, had yet to arrive to the beach. They were all like family to Tobylas. Perri was like the father Tobylas never had.

Perri had been gone for days.  

People gathered around beach fires despite the heat of the two suns as it neared evening.

The oceanfront market and pier fluttered with activity; vendors cawed, and music tinkled in the distance from where the magic dancers performed in the harbor for sprightly wanderers. Folks from far and wide awaited the return of the famous sorcerer Perri Haven.

 

Last evening, King Flagon had urgently cornered Tobylas at the Corshnick Inn as guards had followed him in. He said with a grin, “Son, I've been looking everywhere for thee.  I have good news for thee. Thou wert supposed to be in the palace with Rucktis helping him look after Tornette. I should have known thou wouldst be drinking instead."

"What is the news?" Tobylas asked.

"Kamuel came home today to prepare for Perri's arrival. He sayeth Perri and Loeto will return tomorrow on thy ship - the Queen De Shaus! She is thy family ship Tobylas, so thou art the first to know."

Tobylas' eyes widened. "How did Perri find my ship? Did he raise it from the bottom of the sea?"

"Oh, nonsense!" the King sat beside him and draped his strong arm around his shoulders. "Tonight we drink merrily to celebrate the return of the sorcerer Perri!" he announced to the whole Inn. "And the discovery of my son's ship!" The village people cheered and Tobylas grinned. "Canst thou believe it, Tobylas? I know how long thou hast wondered about your birth parent's ship. If Kamuel's message is true, tomorrow thou wilt finally find the closure thou hast sought for a long time. This is a moment to celebrate and drink to!"

 

And Tobylas had been excited to hear the news last night, but now memories of his real parent's saddened him. What memories he could remember, at least.

 

Ten years ago, on that tragic night, he heard gut-wrenching screams. He saw his mother’s pallid face as a slug of blood escaped her lips and then he watched his father die; his father’s face looked panicked. Tobylas then froze in spot, as his big brother snuck towards him holding a cutlass ready to kill him next.

His small body calcified in place, his fear blubbered out of him like a boiling pot; festering, wheezing and whistling " and his eyes opened as wide as sails " he anticipated that his brother was about to thrust a cutlass into the soft of his belly.

Imagining death and pain gripped him in spot; the surprise of betrayal stung his heart and he felt like crying, but was too afraid to make a sound.

He barely heard the first loud crash of a cannon roaring and cracking into the ship.

But his brother heard and had already run off.

Tobylas heard the echo of footsteps on the ship deck as his older brother sprinted off. The sounds of his footsteps against the wrinkled deck slowly became nothing but ghosts. Where had he gone?

Tobylas, alone with the corpses of his mother and father, cried softly and hid under a knitted quilt, the dead eyes of his father staring through him. He mustered no courage to close his father’s glazed-over eyes.

The ship lurched with a cannon wrecking the side of her hull. Soon after, armed Corshnick Guards boarded the ship with shouts and took Tobylas into custody. They just left the bodies and all their possessions, and they didn't listen to Tobylas when he tried to tell them about his brother. As they dragged him off ship, Tobylas saw bodies of the whole crew sprawled everywhere. The Guards ruled his parents and the entire crew dead. They heaved him into a jail cellar overnight, and just left him alone as images of the dead bodies ran through his mind.

They left the ship anchored near the harbor with a cannon buried in her hull and the corpses left on ship until further notice, and the guards sentenced Tobylas to hang for piracy, but Tobylas didn't understand his fate.

The next day the ship vanished from where they thought they had anchored her. They decided that she had sunken in the depths of sea, since she had been badly damaged.

Thankfully the sorcerer, Perri Haven, took pity on Tobylas and saved him from hanging. He raised him as his own son, planning to mentor him in magic studies, but Tobylas was never a natural magician and never keen on learning either. So instead of studying the magic arts, Tobylas chose to become a servant to King Flagon. The work was easy and the royal family began to consider him as a part of their family; they took care of him as he grew up as a troubled orphan and took to drinking at a young age. They spent a great deal of time supporting him during his rebellious youth, trying to get him to attend school with Rucktis.

Now at the age of one and twenty years, his past was still the reason Tobylas drank until red-faced and belligerent, and until he was dragged out kicking and struggling, from encouraging brawls at the Corshnick Tavern every night " or at least every night he could sneak away from the palace.

He knew he behaved rudely, but there was no retrieving the soul of a boy who had been abandoned and pushed unto a strange land.

 

"G'day Tobylas, Tornette and Neirick, are ye ready for Perri's return?" Kamuel walked over to them in his old man form. He was a shapeshifter, known for taking the form of a black cat.

"Aye," Tobylas said.

"Aye!" Tornette exclaimed loudly.

"Aye," Neirick parroted them both and belched loudly as he drank from Tobylas' bottle of Rensher's Ale. Neirick was a giant bawdy red bearded man, probably ten years older than Tobylas.

 

Tobylas grabbed the Rensher's away from Neirick and took a few sips before setting the bottle down into the sand. He glanced at the Corshnick guards who stood with their horses a fair distance away. "Kamuel, why do we need guards?" he asked.

Kamuel changed the subject, "Pray pardon me Tobylas, thou lookest after this young lass, I’m going yonder for a wee walk to stretch my legs….” his words dwindled as he hobbled off.

 “Pass me the Rensher's, I need somethin’ more to drink so I do, can ya Tobylas?” the big red haired Neirick bellowed in a humungous voice and elbowed Tobylas in the arm.

Tobylas flinched and peered uneasily around.

He located the bottle half buried under sand and tossed it to Neirick absentmindedly.

 

The crowds murmured once they spotted the ship in the distance. Tobylas bolted up and squinted out to see it, but the two evening suns swelled, and beat across the ocean furiously at his face so it was hard to see her as she sailed closer.

"Neirick, wilt thou please lift me up so I can see over the crowds?" Tornette asked eagerly. He lifted her up easily and sat her tiny nude behind on one of his giant shoulders.

"The sun is about to go down!" Tornette shouted over the loud talking of the crowd. "Then the sun won't be in our eyes!"

In the next few minutes the sea began to swallow the suns, creating a monsoon of coral across the sky and ocean surface that slowly dimmed into a rusty orange as it marked the day’s end. The two harvest moons also began to peek over the mountains as the sky lit up and glowed the same orange as the fires along the beach.

The sight of a ship sailing through the middle of the drowning suns was a sight many artists were attempting to paint on their canvases.

“Is the Queen De Shaus a schooner?” a boy asked his Pa as they shuffled down the beach. "Can we ask Prince Tobylas?"

“Nay son, let's not bother him. She's too far away to tell just yet, but we'll go to the harbor and get a closer look.”

Tobylas grinned as he overheard them speaking about him.

“Here comes Perri!” voices hushed over the shore.

"I see magicians on shore, ready to defend the village." Tornette said. "Why? Nothing bad is going to happen, is it Tobylas?"

 

I hope not, Tobylas thought. He didn't reply. He had an uneasy feeling. As if to satisfy that thought, the suns sank further into the ocean and the shore became even dimmer.

Tobylas saw the old man, Kamuel, limping his way feebly down the beach, up to the big pier. Crowds cleared the way for the old man, and he dutifully acknowledged their respect with bright smiles.

Neirick put Tornette down and she hopped from one foot to the other trying to expel her nervous energy. “Tobylas,” she said. “Tobylas?” But Tobylas drifted off in thought again, glaring out at the ship. “Tobylas, if that's thy ship then canst thou take me sailing on it?”

"Tobylas doesn't know a thing about sailin'" Neirick laughed. "But I've had me many years of experience at sea, so I have."

 

Suddenly, quite a few people began leaving, their faces struck with terror. As she sailed closer, Tobylas saw why.

Her sails looked blood red, and not solid in color, but more so like the crimson brush smears of a painter on a canvas of white, or more chillingly, like massive blood smears, as if the sails had been soaked in the dark red blood of many men.... As if they had been used as bandages to apply pressure to a massive bleed.

 

People began yelling. Tobylas shouted, “I will meet thee on ship! Look after Tornette.” He dashed through the crowds, hurdling over a family sitting on the beach, colliding into a man, and sprinted through more crowds daringly. As he arrived to the dock, he saw Perri standing next to two unfamiliar men. He arrived at the sorcerer’s side breathless.

Neirick uttered an annoyed sigh, pushed himself up and the little girl squeezed her hand into his, “Neirick, I’m kind of frightened.”

“About what? There be’s nothin’ to be frightened’ o’,” Neirick growled. “She be’s just a ship. And she’s a mighty fine ship, if ya ask me. I han’t laid me eyes on a ship like her in a long time. Tobylas never told me she was such a fine ship.” He furrowed his brow. “Not that I ever believed she was on the ocean. I thought Tobylas was a bit loopy. Could ‘ave sworn the rumors to be a trap.”

“The ship has red sails, Neirick. Look! They are like blood! It still could be a trap,” Tornette glowered. “But I see my father"”

“Aye! See? 'Tis all dandy! Perri be’s safe, lass.” Neirick said as he led the little girl up to the guards.

“Halt… for some reason I feel really bad. I have a terrible feeling, Neirick. And my father always told me to trust my instincts. He says that magic can tell us more than meets the eye.”

Neirick stiffened up as they reached the Corshnick guards. He despised completing jobs for authority. “Now hush up lass, I get a floggin’ if I doesn’t take care of ya right. And I really don’t fancy meetin’ the tail this eve, not in this ‘ere heat, I’d surely die of infection, ya know.”

“Aye sir,” Tornette obeyed. “You have enough scars on your back. I shall be silent.”

 

Tobylas hugged Perri. "How did you manage to find the Queen De Shaus?" He pulled away and studied the sorcerers face. "And what happened to the sails? They are red! It's frightening the people!"

“Tobylas, it’s really swell to see thee,” Perri shuffled around uneasily.

 “Do not speak here!” interrupted Kamuel who sat at the sorcerer's feet in his black cat form. “The crowds are watching, have some grace. Tobylas, thou wilt wait until the guards arrive, then follow us back to the palace.”

Tobylas halted for a second before swinging around and standing stiffly beside Perri. "Nay!" Tobylas whispered. "I cannot go back to the palace, I have not seen my ship in ten years!"

“Silence!” the cat replied. It sat on its haunches; its long tail flicked as it scanned the crowds before it with yellow eyes. “We must escort Perri back to the palace as soon as the guards get here. We may need the soldiers to gather guns and weaponry to aid us.”

Tobylas glanced back at the ship and made out several gruff sailors aboard. They seemed to be waiting around for something.

"Why? Is there danger aboard ship?" Tobylas asked.

He glared down the dock, to see Neirick and Tornette approaching as they held hands, and Prince Rucktis and a group of guards and soldiers marching fifty steps behind them. The crowds stared up at Tobylas as he stood beside Perri. The docks towered above the shoreline, to the harbor made by a breakwater. The Sailing Master had done a good job, and the breeze had pushed the ship straight to the dock.

Corshnick guards in their chain-link armor kept the people away from the docks. The restless crowd grew loud with lunacy, barricaded on the beach.

He saw from the corner of his vision that Perri, who stood beside him, turned his face towards him as he waved to his audience below. The old sorcerer’s face cracked into worry lines.

Tobylas' heart sunk before the sorcerer spoke. He sensed bad news.

“Turn back now son. Only painful memories wait for thee on that ship. I don't know how to tell thee this... Thy brother is alive. He waiteth on the ship, Tobylas. Shausoman is alive.”

Tobylas felt like he had just been hit in the stomach. "What?" Shock overwhelmed him. "Shausoman is aboard the ship? I thought he was dead. Would I even recognize him after ten years? Does he look much different, Perri?"

His stomach did flips, he felt frightened, disturbed and excited at the same time.

"Is he okay? Is he wanting to reunite with me?" Tobylas also tried an awkward wave to the crowd below, to keep up appearances and calm the crowd. "Why is he here after all this time?"

"Stay away from him Tobylas. His sailors hath Loeto." The sorcerer cried. "Come with me back to the kingdom, I have important news."

“What do you mean they Loeto?" Tobylas shouted, his eyes widening. "Is she okay?"

"Hush!" Kamuel hissed.

"I can't turn back now,” Tobylas mumbled, his eyes drifting over the heads of the people. “I have to go get Loeto. Why did you leave her? If my brother is on this ship, I have to speak to him. I have to know what happened that night. Let me go talk to my brother and clear things up.”

All the people waited in silence on the shore and on the pier waiting to hear the news Perri must have.

Tornette finally bounded up to the sorcerer and gave him a large hug, “Father! I missed thee so much! I am so glad that thou art home!” Perri uttered a weak chuckle, his eyes twinkling, picked her up and the display of family reunion seemed to calm the crowds. Neirick glanced at Tobylas, nodded a greeting to the Sorcerer, pushed past them and strolled up the ramp to investigate the beauty. She is a fine ship indeed.

“Halt, Neirick,” Kamuel hissed at Neirick. “There is nothing good aboard that ship. Take my warning if you want to live.”

Neirick growled, “I’m done me job, ‘n done lookin’ after the poppet, ‘n ya got the sorcerer, ‘n if ye ask me, this ere beauty ‘as tons of swell things aboard her... fine treasures. She belongs to Tobylas does she not?”  Neirick disappeared aboard ship, gloating, “And methinks I shall fancy her bounty.”

Tobylas flinched; every muscle in his body ached to run across the ramp and explore his ship himself.

Perri grabbed Tobylas’ elbow, sensing the young man’s adrenalin increasing, “ Let us go now, then, Tobylas, we will go meet the King. I have urgent news. Urgent.”

 “Nay, I have to go find Shausoman,” Tobylas protested. “ Nay! I am sorry, for this, Perri. I have to go see him now!"

Tobylas ran onto the ship.

"Shausoman is not who you think he is!” Perri shouted after him. Flabbergasted, Perri turned to go up the ship deck. “Get back here Tobylas!”

A Corshnick guard halted the sorcerer.

Tornette grabbed her father’s sleeve. “Father, stay here, let me go get Tobylas. You need to reassure the people.”

Perri shook his head. “Nay, it is unsafe. I should go,” he pushed Tornette into a nearby Corshnick guard. “Stay here.”

“You will not go!” the cat shouted in a loud enough voice that the nearby crowd heard and gasped. Then he lowered his voice, “I am your guardian, Perri! You will not go on that awful cursed ship.” Kamuel transformed into his old man form, and the crowd began cheering, assuming it a display of magic for their entertainment.

Perri sighed.

“Kamuel, I do not have the Firestone, 'tis with Loeto, and she's still on the ship. Gods, please be with them both.”

Tornette squirmed away from the grip of the big man whose arms seemed to be as strong as brick. They were solid, but she was skinny enough to wiggle her way out from underneath. Her arms were nude and her skin slipped from his grip easily. “Thou dost not touch me!” she screamed. The sorcerer, confused, swung around to see his daughter sprint up the ship ramp. 

“Stop her!” Perri’s voice boomed. He turned to run after her, but Kamuel and the guards restrained him.

“I’m not going aboard a haunted ship,” a guard stuttered.

“"Tis not a haunted ship!” Kamuel's face turned red.

Prince Rucktis ran up to them with an appalled face. "What hast thou done?" he shouted at the guard who had let go of Tornette.

Perri shouted one last time, "Tornette, you come back here!" 

 

Tobylas gazed at the wooden carvings of a mermaid that sat on the bow, remembering the exact day his father had carved her. His brother had helped him and had looked like a happy and ordinary boy. How had he turned into such an angry killer? Tobylas shuddered. Even now, he doubted his brother could be capable of what his own eyes witnessed.

He tripped over something and sprawled out over on the main deck, realizing that he fell at the feet of a familiar man who just looked down at him.

Tobylas stood surprised and talked fast and nervously. "Thou knewest my father back in the day. His name was Jairaid De Shaus. I remember thee. Donnis, I think thy name was. Thou wert a lot younger back then, because I was just a wee lad back then."

Captain Donnis Starling spoke, “So ya must be Tobylas.”

“Where's Shausoman?” Tobylas asked.

“On the foccsyle deck." The captain said.

"Where is that?" Tobylas gritted his teeth. "I han't been on a ship in ten years."

"'Tis where all the men be gathered at." Starling said.

 Tobylas flung around and ran off towards the noise.

 

“Do ye mock me?” a sailor barked, and swiped Neirick’s flask away, losing grip of it and accidentally sending it crashing down onto the deck. People on the docks hollered as they saw the fight.

“Nay, I think naught of ya good or bad,” Neirick growled and stepped back. “But this beggar ‘ere be’s insultin’ me, I knows this be ye ship, but this be’s me enemy.”

“Nay! Get back unless ya want to meet yer ghost.” The sailor holding a large cutlass slammed Neirick away from a poor injured man who doubled in half over the ship’s rails. Neirick retreated and glanced around for Tobylas. I know Tobylas shall be here shortly. From afar he watched the angry sailor kick the man to the deck. The injured man tried to crawl away.

A group of people that watched the fight from the pier yelled as if it had become one voice. Mothers and fathers shielded their children’s eyes from the onslaught.

 

Climbing the ladder to the forecastle deck, Tobylas jerked over as a man was hurled past him, at the rail, and then pinned by a tall, black haired sailor. Tobylas pushed past the fight and moved to the starboard rail to watch the black waves rush past the unmoving ship. Neirick slid up beside him. “So, do ya recognize which one be ya brother?”

"I am not sure if I can recognize my brother." Tobylas said. "He has black hair. But a lot of those men have black hair. He had blue eyes. It's been so long."

The barking of laughter caught both of their attention, and they turned to watch the fight, as all the other sailors did, with big tankards of cheap arrack spilling over their chests.

"Fighting is so repulsive." Tobylas whispered.

The black haired sailor had his back to Tobylas so Tobylas moved around to the side to see him snarl in the other man's face, “D’ ya mock me, child?”

For an answer, the beaten man spat a large gob of saliva at him. Sharp metal slammed into the man’s gut, and was twisted around in his insides.

“'Tis what ya git, b*****d.”

"Oh gods," Tobylas bent over feeling nauseas, "I did not expect that. That is cruel! That is disgusting...."

Neirick pounded him on the back. "Toughen up, Tobylas. Ya be's in the presence of sailors now."

"He dieths! Right in front of thee, and thou dost nothing?"

"Well I don't see ya doin' anythin' Tobylas."

"They'd kill me." Tobylas choked on a sob. He tried to hold back tears as he watched the sailor grab the dying man, spun around and threw him towards where Tobylas and Neirick stood at the rail.

"Doth he deserve that?" Tobylas gasped in-between sobs. "Why doth he kill him?"

The poor man wheezed, with wild blood-shot eyes, and he folded over onto the deck on his stomach, at Tobylas’ feet. With his face smashed into the floor, he glared up at Tobylas, his eyes itching to knife someone in the back. He choked up a gob of deep red slime, and his slit eyes watered to the point where he had to close them, give up and die with his head weak on the deck. The sailor stepped up, and with his foot, ground the man’s face into the deck with sickening crunches. The sailors all cheered, and collapsed with laughter.

Tobylas gazed in shock as every man climbed like scavengers over the dead body, and stripped it of coins. He wanted to run away and never step foot on the ship again.

But then his gaze rested on the murderer’s ugly face, and his familiar eyes and black hair that danced in the wind.

 The killer lifted his angry face and glared up at Tobylas through wheezes of breath. His eyes sparkled with recognition. Tobylas glared at him, remembering those horrible hate-filled eyes. He felt his stomach churn with what felt like serrated blades.

The crowd silenced, as people noticed the stare down. Tobylas wiped tears out of his eyes and stood to greet his brother. Neirick got his cutlass ready and he was right to assume it was Tobylas' brother.

“Thou hast killed another man.” Tobylas said. “ Just like thou didst kill our parents. I just want to know why. What happened that night? Shausoman, thou wert never a bad brother to me afore that. What happened to thee?” He heard whispers from the men and the crowd below as the killer, Shausoman turned away in disgust. Shausoman understandably looked different now; he had aged. He stood taller, looked gruffer, his face unkempt with a mess of beard, his jet black hair hung long like a sleek curtain, but Tobylas recognized those eerie blue eyes. Tobylas just stood there and stared after his brother.

“Ye be’s brothers?” Fonner stepped up, laughing. “And he killed yer parents!”

“I’ll say, me bucko!” Casha smirked and dropped his pants. He waved his manhood in Tobylas’ direction. “To the bottom of the sea, we'll take ya.”

"Shausoman." Tobylas begged. "Please say something."

Shausoman turned to the laughing sailors. "Silence, or I will burn ye up in the fire's of Hoocian." Then he faced Tobylas. His nostril flinched, “This man who stand afore me is me brother. I am the only one who can kill 'im. I’ll slay ya brother, if ya don’t run off like the wimpy mutt ya be! This is me ship.” He gripped his dagger, and made it float in front of his reddened face, like an eagle soaring in front of a mountain. The men grew silent.

 “I do not fear thee.” Tobylas spoke with more confidence than he really felt.

 

Shausoman leapt on him, knocked him hard down to the floor, and smashed his fist into Tobylas’ face. The crowd on the pier grew hostile. Tobylas felt his nose crunch and blood pour down. Shausoman sat up, over Tobylas, and shouted something out; two other men pinned Tobylas to the ground. Sniggering, Shausoman stood while the two men ripped off Tobylas’ clothing, and coins fell out of his trousers. Shausoman pocketed them. Tobylas managed to kick someone, they fell to the slippery ship deck, but some other sailor pinned him down while men scraped up his coins.

Shausoman unbuttoned his trousers, and urinated over Tobylas’ hair, the other sailors cheering, as the warm fluid splashed over his face. “A friendly greeting to ya, me brother. Ye should o’ met yer death long ago,” he laughed. Then he brought his boot over Tobylas’ face and stomped hard, knocking him out completely. Tobylas was left naked on the floor of the boat, unconscious, and the stench of urine could be smelt even at the bottom of the ocean. And there was nothing for him right now, only despair, even though everything was black. 

Author's Note

Look for grammar mistakes, improper use of modern english, improper sailing terms, things that need more clarification, repetition or boring parts that could be cut out.

Sailor dialogue is different than other dialogue. Singular you is "ya" and plural you is "ye".

Note, this is a finished 4 book long series in draft form but I'm just going to post the first chapter for now, I want to make sure the opening sentence is gripping and foreshadows the following chapter enough.