The priest focused and concentrated for nearly a dozen minutes before at last he gasped and slumped over. Dexter had passed out a few minutes before, unable to hold himself awake anymore. Jenna had been talking to him and cradling his head while Keshira held him still. All in all, it made for too many people in a small area, but that was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
“Is he going to live?” Jenna asked, trembling as she held him. He seemed so frail and cold against her, she feared she had lost him.
Logan held her gaze at her for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding weary. The man was exhausted; he looked as though he had aged ten years in a span of as many minutes. “I am far from my God. My power wanes with the great distance to him. I was able to help, but he is weak and if he is not careful, he could tear the tissues within him.”
“Keshira, carry him back gently,” Jenna bade her. The pleasure golem did not even nod, she simply picked up the Captain and cradled him carefully in her arms.
Bekka aided Logan to his feet, then he and Bailynn led the way out of the throne room and back down the tower. Jenna kept glancing back and Logan slowly felt his strength returning. They passed through the staircase and the foyer. The gargoyles lay dead, torn apart by Keshira and bludgeoned by Logan.
The hole Keshira had made was down a side passage, but now that the tower’s master was dead, the entrance was open before them. They passed through it and found they could see the townsfolk assembling in the town. “We should hurry, I expect they’ll be angry,” Logan advised.
They made as much haste as they dared with the wounded captain, reaching the Voidhawk before Constable Lorren brought the assembled villagers to meet them. Keshira placed the captain in his bunk then left Jenna alone with him.
“You can’t die,” she told him when they were alone. “We all owe you too much, how can you hope to collect on it if you’re not here?”
She leaned in close to him and pressed her lips to his alarmingly cool flesh. “To the void with the rest of them,” she whispered. “Just hold on for the things I can give you. Those stolen minutes in the hold were nothing, I promise you that!”
She kissed him on the lips again and stood up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and made her way out. A few months back, she would never have believed she would be crying over a man, especially a human! She could hardly believe it herself.
She emerged onto the deck and came across Bekka first. “He has to live — I owe him many years of being miserable for what he’s done to me.”
Bekka’s brow furrowed in confusion, then smoothed and she nodded her understanding.
“What’s going on here?” Rosh asked, seeing the mob approaching the Voidhawk. He tightened his grip on Willa’s hand and she understood. They took off at a run, angling ahead of the mob to make it up the dock and to the Voidhawk before the villagers could intercept them.
“Where’s Dexter?” Rosh asked, clearly upset. “I got to talk to him!”
“He’s below, recovering.”
Rosh grunted and pushed towards the stairway below deck. Jenna stepped in front of him, halting him. “He needs to rest; he’s no good to you right now.”
Rosh glared at her then gruffly said, “I don’t care what you two did to wear him out, there’s a bunch of people coming here and I got to tell him about it!”
Jenna glared back. “We know they’re coming,” she said. “We saw them already. Stand a post in case we have to repel them. Bekka’s already sitting the helm and getting ready.”
“Look,” Rosh said, “I never met that man at the festival before — I ain’t who he says I am but I bet he’s stirred up a nest of trouble.”
“Rosh,” Jenna said to him. “I don’t know what business you have or what you’ve done, but this is not about you.”
“It ain’t?” Rosh asked, surprised. He covered quickly, but too late to avoid an exasperated look on Jenna’s face. “Of course it ain’t. Must be your fault. Thought you was supposed to be their new queen or something?”
“Mind a post and keep your tongue to yourself,” she snapped at him. Grumbling, he moved off and helped the even more confused Xander to get the rigging and the sails set up in case they needed to set sail. The Constable led the villagers onto the dock and approached the ship. He did a double take when he saw Jenna standing atop the gangplank, a hand on the sword at her side, the same sword that had been stained with her lover’s blood.
“My Lady, why are you not at the tower?”
“I’m not your Lady,” she said. “You’ve no Lord, he’s dead.”
There were gasps amongst the mob. “How did he die?”
“He tried to take control of me — to take over my body and soul. He died with a sword through his chest,” she said. “You are free of his sadistic rule.”
“If what you say is true…”
“It is,” she said, interrupting.
“I… I must think on this. It seems as though a veil has been lifted, and I am confused. I trust we cannot keep you here without great loss of life. Will you wait and tell me more after I see the tower myself?”
Jenna thought on it for a long minute then nodded. “Aye, we will wait.”
“Where is your Captain?”
“He is resting, the fight with the wizard was difficult,” she said, not wanting to admit that she had been the one to run him through.
Several men waited at the dock, keeping an eye on the Voidhawk and crew. The others went with the constable, heading up to the tower and seeing with their own eyes what had happened. When they returned an hour later, the constable brought with them Dexter’s sword.
“It is as you say,” he admitted. “With every passing moment I see things more clearly. I am an old man now, but in my youth why would I wish to stay in a small place such as this? It is not the paradise I had dreamed it to be.”
“This is your Captain’s sword, I believe. It is a fine weapon and I remember seeing it upon his hip,” he said, walking up the gangplank.
“I admit I do not know what to do now. We have always had the protection and governance of our Lord. I do not hold you at fault. Indeed, I feel gratitude for you opening our eyes. Many of our people came from the stars, and have stayed against their will without even knowing it.”
Rosh nodded from where he watched nearby. He had been willing to stay as well. He looked to Willa and she met his gaze. She had similar thoughts.
“You’ve been ruling them for a while now.”
Everybody turned, surprised to hear the words coming from behind them. Dexter stood, leaning heavily against the stairway railing. He walked across the deck, his face pale. “Constable, your Lord stayed in his tower minding his business and left you to run Deepingdale. He used you like cattle, stealing a body when he needed one so he could cheat death.”
“Now you can live for yourself. Look about, the town needs fixing with the magic gone. You’ve a fine port, and this is a fine place for trading. We’ll spread the word of your location on the charts if you’re of a mind for us to do it.”
He glanced at the other ships in the harbor. “Some fine ships here too, sell them off or make a navy to protect yourself. There’s plenty of them that’d be too happy to turn this into their private base…”
The constable followed Dexter’s gaze, eyeing the ships thoughtfully. He nodded as the ideas meshed with his own and he put a spin on them. “Captain, I think you’ve done a great deed for Deepingdale today. Are you sure you’d not like to be the Lord instead? Free of magic, that is.”
Dexter smiled weakly and shook his head. “Dreams only constable. The Voidhawk is enough for me. I’ve a fine ship and the best crew to be had. I got no right wanting anything more — that’d just be greedy.”
He nodded, smiling in appreciation. “There are better ships here too, can I at least offer you one of them instead of the Voidhawk?”
Without turning or even thinking about it, Dexter shook his head. He swayed a little on his feet, and Jenna went to him to hold him steady. She put herself under his arm to look as though she was simply embracing him rather than keeping him from passing out.