The Unreached Duchy

Chapter 15

Derketo walked up to the desk fearlessly, Ade following cautiously behind close at his heels. “Good evening. I’d like to have a room for the evening.”

“The only room we have left is alongside the horses. They like to stomp their feet around daybreak.” The inn keeper informed Derketo.

“Gratitude. I don’t think that the hoof stomping will be an issue. I plan on meeting my Royal Escort at the Temple at daybreak and heading to Thargelion.” Derketo replied, “Could you point out which way to the correct room please?”

“Right down there and the room is two bits” the inn keeper replied pointing down the long hallway.

“Gratitude.” Derketo said as he laid the two bits on the counter. “Come Ade. We need rest for the journey ahead of us.” Ade happily padded down the hallway after Derketo while looking at the paintings that hung on the walls along the way.

Derketo and Ade settled into the room next to the horse stalls just fine. Derketo could hear the saddler working on away on the other side of the wall, assuming it was on his saddle. Ade curled up on the bed next to Derketo, who absent mindedly rubbed her head between her ears.

“Our new lives start tomorrow Ade. Can you believe it? Tomorrow morning we will be on way to Thargelion with Senara after we collect your saddle from next door. I do hope that you don’t mind me riding on you, I’m not sure I could keep up otherwise.” Derketo could barely contain his excitement in his voice. “But for now we rest and sleep.”

HOPLITE NAMTAO

Upon arriving at the wreckage site after leaving the girls at the square, Namtao knew the spot and had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach; the spot between his belly button and the start of his scales. It was the spot where the chest had fallen, it was still in the same area. Now the water was full of people, some of them had metal rings around their feet connected to each other by chains, making it known to all who saw them knew they were prisoners. There was something else that made him feel sick in his stomach; there were pieces of the ship with the name on it. Catharina was written on pieces of solid wood that must have been off the side of the ship. Namtao felt the need to speak with Serdar Neruda.

“Serdar Neruda” Namtao said cautiously as he approached his Commander, “May I have a word?”

“Of course, Hoplite Namtao” the Serdar said as he turned to face Namtao, This is the worst shipwreck I’ve seen in many months. Well now, what is it?”

“The name of the ship is the Catharina, and the chest from the earlier bares the same name.” Namtao said solemnly.

“I noticed that too. Grab as many human as you can, as ordered. This does not change anything about your orders, but this may save your promotion.” The Serdar advised.

“Yes sir.” And with that, Namtao swam towards the surface and started grabbing as many human as he could to take back to Maimakterion as they were ordered to.

Normally, Namtao didn't notice what the human looked like; he'd just grab them and pull them to the surface, the speed that he pulled them was determined by how much they fought him. Some didn't fight at all, but attempted to help him reach the surface, which made the whole thing so much easier since the general field order was to kill any human that fought a Hoplite. But tonight was different, these human were different because they'd almost seen him and Rusalka earlier. A mistake that would haunt him longer than ever before and he knew it would probably haunt him for the rest of his life.

But there’s two human that caught Namtao’s attention this shipwreck, a man and a woman. The woman was not very tall, maybe only Rusalka’s height; she was light brown skinned with red hair; but that’s not what caught Namtao’s attention. What caught his attention was that it appeared that she had given up her will to live as she fought to get back to the surface and kept getting pushed back down.

The man looked a lot like the woman, he was closer in height to Namtao, with golden brown skin and black hair. Namtao was able to see the fire in the man’s sky blue eyes as Namtao grabbed the purple tunic and pulled her towards the surface since other Hoplites were already fighting with the man to get him to the surface.

The man seemed more concerned with getting to the woman than saving himself so Namtao thought the best way to make the man comply was to save the woman. As if Namtao had read the man’s mind, he got the woman to the surface where she started coughing up the water she had swallowed; the man stopped fighting to get to her and started trying to get himself to the water’s surface.

Two Mimas were already waiting to take the man and woman to the infirmary located in Bucatius, they were the last two survivors. Sunrise was already on the horizon so the Mimas would not have a problem seeing their way and it was still dark enough that if any human did see them in the sky, the human would think they were just dreaming.

Namtao placed the woman on the back of a mima that was multiple shades of pink. Once the woman was secured on the back of the mima, Namtao smacked the rump and the creature promptly took off from the water; water sprayed everywhere and everything in the creature’s path but the woman was so securely attached to the mima, they could have been flying upside down and there was no chance of her falling off.

“Rav…ana…Rava…na…I must get…to her…” the man kept saying to the Hoplites before fatigue, exhaustion, and sea water got the best of him. The pleas were all but ignored as he too was strapped securely onto a mima, also multiple shades of pink, and sent off unconscious to the infirmary in Bucatius