Chapter Seven

Nesryn and Flynn trained together for the next three weeks. Nesryns leg was healing well, though she still had a limp. The assassins were kind, they taught them fighting skills and stealth, whenever Flynn saw Nesryn she was training, throwing knives, shooting or running. She barely talked, she ate as much as she could each meal time, she gained more weight in muscles, her ribs no longer showed, she wore her hair in a long braid down her back, now that it wasn't constantly coated in dust and dirt from the working fields he could see it was a dark golden-brown. She would swim and wash in the river nearby. She turned her body into her weapon, she had been a soldier before the labour camp, but now she was a warrior. She had one of the assassins tattoo her left arm, feathers crept up her arm from her wrist and up till her shoulder where it grew out into one great sweeping wing over her shoulder and upper back, the longest feather ticked her lower back on the left side. The black ink of the tattoo looked beautiful on her chocolate coloured skin. In that moment Flynn knew he had fallen in love on that battle field by the labour camp. The feeling only grew stronger day by day. He smiled whenever he saw her, though he would rarely get a smile back, she was still grieving. One night it was colder then usual and as he walked back from the river where he had been swimming he found Nesryn sitting by a fire in the woods. She did this sometimes, she would stay out in the forest instead of returning to her warm bed. He walked over and sat down beside her. They sat there in silence. Suddenly she began to speak.

"I have a daughter back home." He blinked, he didn't know what he had expected her to say, but it was not this. "She lives with my sister. Her father died when she was three and now she probably thinks her mother is dead too." Nesryn hugged her knees her head resting atop them gazing into the fire.

"Whats her name?" Flynn asked, he didn't know Nesryn had been married and he felt a pang of jealousy towards the man even though he was dead.

"Verenya, today is her ninth birthday." Nesryns voice was tight as if she were speaking around a lump in her throat. "And I'm not there for her, she deserves better." Her voice got higher with every word and she blinked back tears.

"She's a lucky girl to have you as her mother. You care about her and she knows that, thats what matters. We can go back. We can go find her, we can even leave tomorrow, I'll come with you." Flynn said his voice soft. Nesryn turned to him her face filled with hope.

"You would do that for me?" Her voice was thick with emotions, he nodded.

"This and anything you wish of me." He said smiling at her, then he leaned forward and kissed her.

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Jay stood at the bough of the boat, as it glided over the smooth surface of the dark water. The sky was a deep blue, stars sprinkling the vast sky above him, light crept over the horizon in the east, it would still be few hours till sunrise. The Hunt would begin at sunrise. He couldn't sleep. Glancing back he saw the second ship sailing slightly behind and just to the left. The nearly full moon and stars reflected in the water ahead. Robin had announced that Samael and some of his riders would be joining the Hunt, they were all in Jay's team which he though unfair for the other teams but there was nothing he could do about it. There were fifteen teams each with fifteen people. They would hunt the prisoners, the aim of the Hunt was to find the Queen of Dragons, the prisoners would have to rely on their magical and shifting abilities to survive, this made it easier to filter out the weaker ones, in the end only the most powerful would remain. Though some shifter had the ability to shift into dragons Samael had told him he would know if it was the Queen. Once they found all the strong ones they would take them to the fire cliffs of Ashra, after that they would go to Verdnosa, no one knew what happened to those shifters who went onto Verdnosa, few ever came out and those who did didn't say a word of what had happened to them in there. Some of them were sent to labour camps all around Amiria or to one of the riders castles as slaves. The ones who went to the labour camps usually died within the year having given up on life. The ones he had seen when he visited the castles were broken and beat, they put up no fight, they were resigned to their fate, some threw themselves off a balcony or sliced their wrists open. He didn't blame them. Though he was a rider he didn't agree with some of the things they did. He didn't agree with Ben when he decided to have fun with the female prisoners. Ben, he was gone, dead and Yuana had done it. He understood why she had done, had he been in her position he likely would have done the same thing. But that didn't stop him from missing Ben and grieving for him. Ben had been one of his best friends, he had been about to graduate from Koro and then he would have gone to the place he had been talking about for months, Verdnosa, where only the best riders were allowed. But now Ben would never be able to go there, he would never be able to visit Karkasa, the island where the Hunt took place, he would never be able to take part in the Hunt. He would neve-

"Jay?" A voice interrupts his thoughts, it was Samael. "Why aren't you asleep? You need your strength for tomorrow."

"I-I can't..." Jay sighed. "Whenever I close my eyes I see Ben." And Yuana, he said the last part in his head, he felt so confused, Yuana had killed Ben yet he wasn't angry at her, he wanted to be but he couldn't. He bent over the rail and laid his head on his hands the wooden rail hard and solid under his elbow. “He should be here, its all he ever wanted.”

"I'm sorry." Samael said softly, he came to stand next to Jay. "We will find the girl and make her pay! We'll make her regret ever being born."

"No, as much as I should hate her, I just can't. I mean we brought her here, we let Ben have his fun and it came back to bite him, or she did I guess."

Samael stared at him. "Jay we talked about this, you are in the process of granting her a long and painful death." Jay looked up into Samaels scarred face, why was it so bad if he loved Yuana? Samael had loved too, he remembered Nesryn, he didn't know what had become of her after she was taken to Verdnosa, she was probably dead but that was beside the point, Samael had loved so why wasn't he allowed to?

Jay turned back to the water, he stared into its dark depths, two cold blue eyes stared back, he looked straight into them not registering for a few moments what he was seeing.

"Samael!" Jay snapped pointing into the water, he watched as a face rose out of the darkness, those eyes staring unblinkingly back at him. The face was like none other he had seen, its skin was to pale it seemed see-through, its sharp teeth were bared, beneath it he could make out a powerful tail moving elegantly driving the creature towards the surface. Jay leaned in closer, mesmerized by the way the creature moved through the water and those eyes...They seemed to glow, they seemed to call to him, he could here a voice that sounded like his mother, he couldn't hear what she was saying but he knew it was her, Jay leaned further over the edge of the rail, he began to fall forward but a hand grabbed the back of his jacket pulling him back, back and away from the thing in the water. He fell backwards bruising tail-bone as he crashed onto the hard wooden deck. He heard a loud splash then silence. He shook his head dazed and saw Samael crouching in front of him.

"What happened?" Jay asked, his head swam slightly. He scrambled to his feet and looked back at the spot where the creature had been but it was nowhere to be seen, all that remained was a ripple spreading out from that spot. He turned back to Samael. "What was that?"

Samael smiled grimly. "That was a water demon... It called to you didn't it." It wasn't a question but Jay nodded anyway, he was trembling slightly, all his strength was gone as if it had been sucked out. "Come on." Samael said as he pulled Jay to his feet. "You'd better get some sleep, we'll be there soon."

Jay slowly made his way across the deck to the door that led down to the sleeping chambers, he paused at the door and looked back at Samael, he stood still as a statue scanning the water, his scars stark in the moonlight. Jay didn't know what made him open his mouth.

"How did you get those scars?" Jay asked, for a second he thought Samael hadn't heard him but then the older man slowly looked at him. His white-blond hair shimmering.

"Don't ever ask about them again!" His voice was nearly a growl as he glared at Jay, his blue eyes so similar to those of the water demon, the same hatred shone in them promising to end Jay if he said another word.

Jay lifted his chin. "Yes sir." He said and vanished through the door, it clicked shut behind him. Samael continued to glare at the spot where Jay had just been. His face turned bitter as he slumped down onto the slightly damp wooden deck, his chest filled with something he hadn't felt in a very long time, regret. He clenched his jaw and swallowed back the lump in his throat. He wouldn't shed a tear, he wouldn't be weak. He wouldn't let himself pay for his sisters mistake.

~

Jay woke up while the boat bumped into the shore. He pulled a shirt over his head and ran onto the deck, Karkasa was even more beautiful then he had expected, a little stream flowed merrily out of the river and wound its way into the grassland disappearing in the morning mist, trees grew along the stream, every now and that a leaf was plucked free a small gust of wind and floated down to the ground that sparkled with dew, long grass swayed elegantly in the breeze. The spring air was clean and fresh. The sun broke over the horizon bathing the scene in golden light, the rest of his team gathered next to him, all mesmerised by the beauty of the island.

"It's beautiful!" Jay breathed, his breath clouded the air for a moment before it was whisked away by the breeze.

"Aye." Samael said. "It's beautiful but deathly. Never trust anything or anyone just because they are pretty." Jay knew what Samael was talking about. He ignored Samaels last sentence and the sidelong look Samael was giving him, he looked to his teammates.

"Let's not wait around too long." Jay sighed tearing his eyes away from the scenery. He jumped from the boat to the cold, hard ground, the second boat was resting on the riverbank not far away, the gang plank had been lowered, Jay walked up it and the smell of horses hit him. It was comforting, something familiar on this strange island. His teammates slowly followed him, one after the other. A few minutes later he reappeared leading a dappled grey horse down the wooded ramp, the horses hooves clopping loudly in the quiet morning. He heard a wet snuffling sound coming down the ramp after him, he glanced back to see a pair of ullos being led down after him, the ullos looked half feline and half canine, they were strange creature but they had a good sense of smell and thus good trackers if trained appropriately. The ullos would track the prisoners who had been released onto Karkasa a few days earlier. Once all the riders sat mounted on their horses, the two sailing ships set off back across the Ravoraso river, it would take the ships two days and nights to get back across the widest river in all Amiria. Jay blew into his horn, it was beautifully crafted, spirals encircled it the white bone polished so it shone in the golden morning light. The horn sounded, a deep note that made his heart sing, once the sound of the horn had faded into silence he spurred his horse forwards into a fast canter. The grasslands stretching out before him.

"Let the Hunt begin!" He cried, the wind whipped through his hair as he hadn't bothered to tie it back, the drumming of the horses hooves on the hard ground shook the earth, no birds sang, no animals were to be seen, all wisely hiding, hiding from the oncoming death.