Hot Blooded Episode 1: The Prodigal Prince (Supernatural Thriller Series) (4 page)

Akna narrowed her eyebrows and turned away, storming past Tiambla.  She pushed aside Revfran, who was just getting out of his boat.  She stopped.  Turning around, she grabbed Revfran by the upper portion of his skins, dragging him back to the boat.  “We’ll talk as we go.”

“Hey, wait a minute!  Come on, Akna, I can walk on my own feet,” said Revfran, his legs dangling in the air as Akna lifted him off the ground and carried him by his skins.

Lakerdi and Yavmah got out of their own boats, laughing at the sight.  Lakerdi brought his hands to both sides of his mouth, amplifying his voice to reach Akna across the beach.  “Make sure not to rough him up too much, Akna.  If you kill him, who’s gonna run the midnight watch?”

“In your boats.  To the coast.  Now.”  Akna didn’t stop to look at them as she hurled Revfran to the bow of the rowboat.  She heard cursing coming from behind her, then two splashes as the other lookouts pushed off into the sea.  Untying the rope securing the boat to the shore, she pushed Revfran’s boat into the water with one swift thrust, then leapt into the air.  She landed at the stern, rocking the boat so violently that Revfran felt sure it would topple over.  His breathing slowed as the boat settled down, his hands gripping the sides like a vice.

“So, it was that bad, huh?” Revfran asked, wrenching his hands from the wooden sides of the boat.

She threw her head back to face the sky, fists clutching clumps of her black, shoulder-length hair.  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

Revfran tried to smile at her.  He picked up the oars, and with smooth, powerful strokes, they shot through the water.  The rowboat was streamlined and narrow; the wood coated with a special resin to create even less resistance against the waves.  The muscles in Revfran’s arms bulged as he maneuvered through the salty sea, getting them to the base of the cliffs in almost no time.  Yavmah and Lakerdi were already there, tying their boats to wooden poles located in a cave under the cliffs, out of sight. 

Akna stepped out of the boat.  The waves lapped at her feet as she stepped along the wet rocks at the base of the cave.  “All right, tell me what you know,” she said, walking ahead of them.

“There was a fisherman’s ship.  Belonged to water giants, no doubt about it.  It was engulfed in flames when we arrived, and the framework was breaking apart.  My guess is that it was lit up only a short while before we got there.  The flames were too hot, so we didn’t get close enough to see if there were any survivors.  If fire giants were the ones responsible for this, they were long gone,” Lakerdi said.  His feet were too big to walk along the sparse stones without slipping, so he sloshed through the shallow water by Akna’s side.

Akna nodded.  “That seems like something they would do.  That might mean we’re not their target after all.”

“Thinking like that is what gets people killed out here,” Naslen said.  “Better to strike first than die first.”

Akna’s eyes widened, and she turned around to stare at her father. 

Naslen floundered at the sudden stop, his left arm grabbing the rock he was stepping on in order to steady himself.  “Watch your step!  You almost knocked me off balance, you waste of space.”

Akna gritted her teeth, and stared down Lakerdi and Yavmah.  “All right.  Which one of you rat bastards is responsible for this?”

Yavmah took a step back along the rocks, and his hands flew up in front of his body.  “Hey, he just got on the boat!  I assumed we were all going together!” Yavmah said. 

Akna slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead.  “Oh, that’s just great.  Tell me, Father, how are the troops going to get here if we need them now?”

Naslen regained his balance, standing upright.  “I left Tiambla in charge.  I’m sure she can handle it,” Naslen said with a wave of his hand.  “I can’t be expected to row back to the island by myself with one hand.  Besides, you would pit any one of these boys against ten of Drarke’s strongest soldiers, isn’t that right?”

Revfran grinned at that statement.  “Damn right!  Don’t worry, Chief, we won’t let you down.”

“You’re all idiots,” Akna said, shaking her head.  “Now more than ever, that makes this strictly an information-gathering scouting mission.  Absolutely no contact is to be made with anyone from the mainland, no matter what.”  She frowned at Naslen.  “You are to stay by the boats.  Got a problem with that?” 

“No problems here, Chief,” he said.  He looked to the side, a pained expression crossing his face.  Tears welled up in his eyes.  “Although, with the waters as rough as they are, and me not being a strong swimmer, I probably won’t be there when you return.”

Akna stomped on the rock her right foot was resting on, shattering it.  “So just rest in a boat!  Kick back!  Relax!  And stop being so damn difficult!” 

Naslen locked eyes with Akna.  “Such an unloving daughter.  I wonder what your poor mother would say if she could see you now?”

Akna felt her blood run cold.  “You would go so far as to bring up something like that?”

Naslen smirked.  He raised his chin, looking down at her.  “What good is sacrificing yourself for your child if your partner can’t hold it over that child for the rest of his natural life?”

Akna felt a lump in her throat.  Turning around, she stepped into the water, the waves now splashing all the way up to her knees.  She lowered her head.  “You’re a heartless bastard, you know that?”

“I do what I can.  So, are we going, or what?” Naslen said, walking past her through the water. 

Akna stood still, her shaking hands clenched into fists.

Revfran wondered how long he could stay where he was without making a sound.  He sure as hell wasn’t moving before Akna did, and judging by the expressions on his compatriots’ faces, they both looked like they would rather crawl back into the cave and die than take one step further.  The dark green algae felt slimy beneath his feet, and he noticed the same algae covering the walls of the cliffs.  The cliffs were steep and high at the point by the cave, but they tapered off in the distance to meet with the shoreline.

“That’s right,” he thought.  “Just keep focused on other things.  Don’t let her pull you into this.  Wow, I never noticed how damp these cliffs are.  Sure is a difference from the arid environment of most of the mainland.  Wait a minute, aren’t I allergic to algae?”  He sneezed.

Akna smacked herself on both sides of her face twice, then shook her head.  She turned around to face them.  Her eyes were dry.  “Let’s get going,” she said. 

Lakerdi held Revfran’s neck with his arms in a choke hold, while Yavmah smothered Revfran’s nose and mouth with his hand.  “Yes, Chief!” they said in unison.  Revfran looked like he was about to pass out from the sudden lack of oxygen.  Yavmah wiped his hand on Revfran’s skins, wrinkling his nose.

Akna turned without a word, and ran along the rocks to catch up with her father.  Her toes gripped the edges of the rocks, pushing off with the balls of her feet almost as soon as she landed.  She caught up to Naslen, who was already seeking cover along the rocky shore.  “Have you spotted anything?” she asked as she squatted down beside him.  Her fingertips grazed the ground, and her head stayed low when she peered over the rock that kept them hidden.

“‘Bout time you got here.  I don’t see anything, but I can hear voices coming from inside that grove of trees,” he said, pointing a little further inland.

Akna’s eyes followed to the place where he motioned.  Loud voices were indeed coming from inside the grove.  Deep, rumbling voices that shook the sands beneath her feet.  It was then that Akna noticed the smoke coming out of the trees.  “Fire giants,” she said in a low voice.

“What’s going on?” Lakerdi asked.  He and the others knelt down beside Akna and her father, watching the smoke grow thicker at its base.

“We’re not sure yet,” Akna said.  She crawled in front of the rock on her hands and feet, keeping low.  “I’m going to go check it out.”

“I’ll go with you,” Revfran said, drawing his knife from his pelt.

Akna frowned.  “No, you stay there.  I can’t trust any of you to not do something stupid.  Besides, this is a no-contact mission, remember?  I’m just going to see what’s going on.  Wait here for my signal,” she said.  Her hands braced her body against the terrain as she crawled forward.  She came to the edge of the grove and stood up, hiding behind a tree.  She peered inside the grove.  The trees obstructed her view, but she could tell that the voices were not far off. 

“And how did you expect to kill them all by yourself?” a man asked from behind her.

Akna swung her arm at the man’s head, stopping herself inches away from his temple when she saw it was her father.  “Damn it, Father!  Stop sneaking up on me like that!”

He snorted.  “Like I’d really let you go alone.  Anyway, I figured you were only talking to Revvy, back there.”  His mouth pulled up at the corners.

“I can’t think of anyone I was talking to more than you,” she said, shaking her head.  “And keep your voice down.  What do you think will happen if - ”

A cracking sound in the tree she was standing behind cut her off.  The tree split apart horizontally, right at their level.  “Get down!” Akna said, pushing her father out of the way.  He used her force as momentum to keep running, dodging the splintered debris.  Akna used the inertia as well, and she averted the flying trunk of the tree by lunging to her left, landing on her right hand with her feet swiveling over her head, and swinging herself once again to her feet.  Looking at the falling tree as soon as she landed, she saw a man with a red scarf with his back crushed against the plummeting trunk.  When the tree came crashing down, he toppled over to his right side, within Akna’s view.  Speechless, she reached her hand out to him, wondering if he was still breathing.  His whole body spasmed, making her jump.

“Fuck me alive,” he said, his black eyes opening.  “If I get thrown by one more fucking giant today, I’m going to be very unhappy.”

Chapter 3 - The Prodigal Prince

“Get the hell back here, Kilar!  I know you’re not dead, you son of a bitch!”  The ensuing footsteps were even louder than the voice.  The reverberations alone almost knocked Akna off her feet.  She steadied herself by bracing her arms against the fallen tree while the earth shook.  Massive hands that were almost as big as Akna’s entire body knocked one tree after another out of the way as the fire giant they belonged to emerged from the grove. 

Akna’s heart felt like it was about to race out of her chest.  The fire giant standing before her towered over many of the smaller trees, and what’s more, he was not alone.  Standing ready to fight at a moment’s notice were five other giants.  They held back for now, but Akna didn’t know how long that would last.  The first one that emerged was well-decorated in golden ornaments, different from any that Akna had seen on a high-ranking officer before.  The golden ringlets encircled around his arms and legs, shining as bright as the sun.

“‘Son of a bitch’?  What an awful sentiment, Takar.  She’s your mother too, you know,” the man behind her said.  Akna’s head whipped around to see the man with the red scarf getting to his feet.  He moved his head from one side to the other, cracking his neck.  His eyes met hers.  He cocked one eyebrow.  “Hey there, beautiful.  What are you doing after the fight?”

Akna frowned.  “Kicking your ass if you get me or my men involved in this petty brawl.”

Before she could react, his arms were already around her, pinning her back to the trunk of the tree.  A smile spread across his face, his dark eyes boring into hers.  “Mmm, firey.  I like it.”

Akna punched him in the armpit.  She used the break in his stance to pull his legs out from underneath him by moving her left leg behind his right knee.  Landing on top of him, her right knee crushed his groin and her elbow lodged in his throat.  “Just try that again,” she said, digging her elbow into his throat.

Kilar grinned.  “If you insist.” 

Akna blinked, surprised that her elbow wasn’t obstructing his voice.  “Is his scarf really that thick?” she thought.

Revfran’s face flushed and he gritted his teeth.  He darted from behind the rock’s cover, his arms pumping as he ran.  “Get away from her, you bastard!”  He smashed the side of his foot against the side of Kilar’s head.