The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock (12 page)

“Wait!” said Malock, holding up a hand. “If you kill
me, my men will come into the jungle after me and take you down.
They're a group of professional god-killers who will do anything to
save me, up to and including killing a god like yourself.”

The Loner God shook his head. “That's a nice lie,
but very unconvincing. No such thing as a god-killer and your crew
especially is so pathetic that I doubt they could even so much as
scratch me. Besides, some of your men are already in the jungle
searching for you even as we speak.”

Malock perked up at that. “They are?”

“Yes,” said the Loner God. “I've left them alone
because they're not much of a threat, but I think, once I'm done
with you, I'll eat them, too. It's been a long time since I last
feasted on so many mortals. By the time I am done, I'll be the
fullest I've been in five centuries. Who knows? Maybe I'll even
feast on the rest of your crew, if I'm feeling up to it.”

The Loner God was licking his lips and the more he
licked his lips the faster Malock's mind raced for a
solution—
any
solution—to this predicament.

Then an idea came to mind and Malock said, “Oh, I
wouldn't touch me if I were you, God of Solitude.”

“Oh, and why wouldn't I do that?” said the Loner
God.

Malock cross his arms, trying to look as
authoritative as possible, and said, “Because I am Prince Tojas
Malock, son of King Halock and Queen Markinia, Crown Prince to the
Throne of Carnag, Captain of the
Iron Wind
, and Chosen One
of Kano.”

The Loner God's expression went from amused, if a
bit hungry, to pale in less than a second. “What was that last
one?”

“Chosen One of Kano,” said Malock. “Kano summoned me
to World's End. I am under her complete and total protection, you
know.”

The Loner God looked down at his feet, muttering
quickly, “Can't believe I almost broke the Treaty ... came this
close ... must be lying ... no, he's telling the truth all right
...”

“Excuse me,” said Malock, “but what are you
muttering about?”

The Loner God looked up. For the first time, Malock
saw fear in the god's eyes. “I can't kill you. Part of the Treaty,
you understand.”

“No, I don't,” said Malock. “I mean, I don't want
you to kill me, of course, but I don't understand what you mean
about the Treaty.”

“It's my least favorite clause,” said the Loner God
with a grunt. “See, we gods can place individual mortals under our
protection. So long as you are under Kano's protection, then I
can't kill you and neither can any other god, whether northern or
southern. Even if you stumble into the domain of a southern god, we
still can't touch you.”

“Oh,” said Malock. “Well, that sounds pretty good to
me.”

“It does work out rather well for you mortals,
doesn't it?” said the Loner God. “You smell like Kano. Thought at
first it was just the sea, but I can smell her all over you like a
blanket. You got lucky, mortal.”

Malock smirked. “So the high and mighty Loner God is
stopped by a mere Treaty. Being a southern god must not be all its
cracked up to be, eh?”

“Shut up,” the Loner God snapped. Then he paused, as
if thinking, and said, “Interesting,” in a tone that Malock didn't
like.

“What's interesting?” said Malock. “Me?”

“Not you,” the Loner God said. “I just did a quick
sweep of the island and the seas around it and discovered that you
aren't the only one under the protection of another god. Some
members of your crew have that same protection.”

“What?” said Malock in surprise. “Who? Which gods?
Why?”

“That's what I'm trying to figure out,” said the
Loner God. “Why would my brothers and sisters place their agents on
your ship without you knowing unless ... oh, I see. Politics as
usual.”

“What does that mean?” said Malock.

The Loner God chuckled, like he was sharing a
private in-joke. “Unlike we southern gods, the northern gods are
prone to infighting and politics. I imagine they must have learned
it from you mortals. Personally I tend to stay out of these
conflicts, which is why I am going to spare you and the members of
the rescue party that are currently in the jungle.”

“Wow,” said Malock. “But will you please tell me who
is chosen and what gods chose them?”

“No,” said the Loner God. “That would help you and
frankly I don't like helping mortals. I may not be able to kill you
myself, but I can make your voyage that much more difficult for
you. Besides, if I outed your fellow chosen ones, then my siblings
would get angry at me and I'd get drawn into it. Already cutting it
close by killing your men and attacking you, so I'm gonna give up
while I'm ahead and let you go.”

The Loner God snapped his fingers and the vine began
lowering itself. When Malock was a few feet above the ground, the
vine let go of him and he landed on his feet, jolting his spine and
making him curse the Powers again.

When Malock looked up, he saw that he stood in front
of a pathway that he was sure hadn't been there before. And when he
looked up at the trees, he could no longer see the Loner God.

“Take this path, Chosen One of Kano,” said the Loner
God's voice, which seemed to come from everywhere at once. “If you
follow it, you will eventually reunite with your party and find the
beach. Then you may continue your quest, but if I were you, mortal,
I would get onto your ship, head back north, and never look back.
Mortals rarely prosper from the politics of the gods.”

Malock didn't respond. He simply began walking down
the path, feeling more lost and confused than he had wandering
around in the dark.

-

“Mal!” Vashnas called out, slashing through the
thick underbrush of the jungle. “Tojas! Where are you?”

As Kinker ducked underneath the remains of a vine
that Vashnas had chopped down, he wondered why she had allowed him,
Bifor, and three other sailors (among them Magnisa, Gino, and Forl)
to tag along at all. She could probably have stormed the island all
by herself, found Malock, and returned to the ship just in time for
dinner. Did she honestly think she needed backup or did she just
let them tag along because she didn't want to waste time forcing
them to stay on the ship?

Whatever the reason, Kinker was beginning to regret
agreeing to go along. The underbrush was thick and his pants
constantly snagged on bushes. His beard had little twigs and leaves
stuck in it, which he did not even try to remove, knowing as he did
the fruitlessness of that task. The air was hot and muggy, too, and
more than once he had to slap an insect off his exposed neck.

Bifor was in the back, waving his wand and muttering
incantations under his breath all the while. Exactly what he was
doing, Kinker didn't know. Bifor had been acting that way as soon
as they landed on the island's shore and when Kinker asked him what
he was doing, the mage made an incoherent comment about the 'magic
levels' of the jungle being 'off the charts.' It made no sense to
Kinker, though he supposed that was because he was not trained in
the magic arts.

So far, the trio had not found any sign of Malock or
any of the sailors that had gone with him into the jungle. Of
course, the jungle was very dark, even though it was the afternoon
and the sun was out, but Kinker thought that at some point they
would have to find pieces of clothing or discarded weapons or even
bodies. He didn't see any wild animals; in fact, there were so few
animals that he wondered if there was any life on this island at
all, aside from the insects that kept trying to bite his neck.

That was when a drop of some kind of liquid fell on
Kinker's nose. He blinked and wiped the liquid off his nose with
his finger and looked at it closely. In the dark, it was impossible
to tell what it was, so he licked it. It tasted like blood.

“Guys,” said Kinker, not daring to look up, knowing
what he would see. “I think I've found a clue.”

Vashnas immediately stopped calling out Malock's
name and turned to face Kinker, her face alight with eagerness.
“What did you find?”

“Blood,” said Kinker. “A drop of it fell on my
nose.”

“Blood?” Bifor said. “Fell from where?”

Kinker pointed up. “From the trees, presumably.
That's all that's above us.”

Bifor spun his wand around twice and it suddenly
flared, illuminating the area they were in quite well. He then
raised his wand above their heads, allowing them to see what was in
the trees. When they did, Kinker wished he had kept his mouth
shut.

Wrapped tightly among the vines and branches of the
trees were the sailors who had gone with Malock to search for
Sumsa. They were nothing but bones now; in fact, the only reason
Kinker recognized them was due to the bits of cloth hanging off
their bodies, which looked like the sailor uniforms that the crew
of the
Iron Wind
commonly wore. Little droplets of blood
dripped from the ribcage of one unfortunate sailor, an aquarian by
the look of it.

“Oh my god,” said Vashnas. “Do you think any of
those are—”

“Vash?” said a familiar voice nearby. “Is that
you?”

Bifor turned his wand in the direction of the voice,
revealing Malock, who stood on a path several dozen yards away from
them, a path that Kinker hadn't even noticed until Bifor's light
showed it. For some reason, Malock didn't look surprised to see
them.

Vashnas shoved her sword into Kinker's hands and ran
at Malock. She scooped him up in a big hug, causing Malock to gasp
for air, saying as she did so, “Oh, Mal, I thought ... for a moment
I thought you were ... oh, I'm just so glad you're alive and
well.”

“I won't be if you keep hugging me like this,”
Malock said, his voice strained. “I'm happy to see you and all,
Vash, but if you could let up just a little, then I could breathe
again.”

Vashnas let go, looking sheepish, as Kinker, Bifor,
and the others approached.

“We are pleased to see you are alive, Captain,” said
Bifor, inclining his head in Malock's direction. “Please don't be
angry with us. We know you told us to go home if you didn't return
in six hours, but Vashnas here simply couldn't stand the idea of
abandoning you, at least not without knowing if you were alive or
not.”

Malock rubbed his back as he said, “Oh, it's not a
problem. Really, I'm actually glad you disobeyed my orders for
once. This was the one time where I really needed you guys to do
that.”

“What happened?” said Kinker, glancing back at the
skeletons of the sailors in the trees. “We found the rest of your
team in the trees and we thought you were dead. Were you attacked
by some animal?”

Malock looked at Kinker with an odd look in his eyes
for a moment, almost as if he didn't trust Kinker, and said, “It's
a long story. Did you say you found the rest of my team's
bodies?”

“Yes,” said Vashnas. “They're little more than
skeletons, their skin stripped off by ... well, we don't know what.
We thought you'd know.”

Even by the dim light of Bifor's wand, Kinker could
tell, based solely on Malock's expression, that the Captain knew
exactly what had happened to his crew and he didn't want to talk
about it.

“I've had a long day,” said Malock, running a hand
through his hair. “A long, long day. We're going back to the
Iron Wind
and when we do, we're continuing our quest
south.”

“But sir,” said Bifor. “We haven't picked any
ikadori peaches yet. Shouldn't we fill at least a few crates full
before we leave?”

Malock shook his head so rapidly that Kinker thought
it might go flying off his shoulders. “No. We will make do with
fish. So long as we still have the trawl, we'll be fine.”

His voice trembled as he said that and he looked
around, as if afraid someone might be eavesdropping, listening to
make sure that Malock was doing exactly what he should be doing and
nothing more. It was a silly thought, so Kinker dismissed it.

“This path will take us directly back to the beach,”
said Malock. “I'll lead the way. As soon we are safely back on the
ship, we're heading south again. Got it?”

The trio nodded, but that did little to stifle
Kinker's curiosity. What did Malock run into that made him seem so
frightened? Why did he insist on them leaving before they picked
even one ikadori fruit?

All of these questions and more filled Kinker's mind
as he followed Malock, Vashnas, Bifor, and the others down the
surprisingly flat path that led to the beach. He doubted Malock
would answer them, however, because the prince's jaw was closed so
tightly that it seemed unlikely to open ever again.

***

W
hen they returned to the
Iron Wind
,
Malock wasn't even angry that they'd knocked out Banika in their
attempt to rescue him. He just woke her up, gave her orders to get
the ship ready to depart, and went to his stateroom with Vashnas by
his side, without speaking a word to anyone else except Bifor. He
asked the mage to heal a small wound on the back of his head, which
Bifor succeeded in doing despite his lack of training in healing
magic.

When the crew heard the order to weigh anchor
already, there was quite a commotion. Many of the sailors wanted to
go on land and pick ikadori peaches. A few of them even began
muttering about mutiny, but when the members of the rescue party
told everyone about the skeletons they saw, the sailors immediately
began to weigh anchor, prepare the sails, and check the compass to
make sure they were headed in the right direction.

Because of their speed and work ethic, the entire
ship was ready to set sail within an hour and soon they were
heading south once more. Kinker watched the island slowly grow
smaller the further they sailed away from it, he still wondering
what had happened there and why Malock refused to talk about
it.