Regardless of the fact that I don't think anyone actually reads this/cares about it, here's the second chapter anyways. Yup.
Chapter 2
In which Calyne fails at hide and seek
"Everyone ready?" Fareus called out, glancing out across his crew that was spread out along the ship. "Take her away, boys." Sails unfurling and expanding in the wind, the ropes keeping the ship tethered to the dock falling away untied, The Discord began to move with the sea, pulling away from the port town. Calyne jerked awake in his cramped hiding spot, the unfamiliar rocking of the ship startling him.
The boxes surrounding him shifted with the sea, and Calyne struggled to keep still where he was. His stomach was threatening to rise in his throat, and he squeezed his eyes shut, until he was worried that he was going to be sick. It had been years since he'd last been aboard a ship, before his parents had died, and it showed.
Soon the ship was safely away from the shore and sailing freely, and though it did nothing to ease Calyne's stomach he managed to lean back against the wooden wall behind him, his eyes drifting shut once again.
"Faar! Hey, Faar!" Brown eyes could not help but roll at the sound of his name, the ever familiar voice painfully clear. After all, who else had the nerve to call out to him while he was quite clearly working?
"What, Ivrix?" Faar muttered between gritted teeth, hands gripping the wheel of the ship.
Ivrix bounded over to the older man, grinning brightly, "I just thought I would come by and check on you." Faar's grip tightened on the wood.
"I kind of have a job to be doing Ivrix. Don't you have one too?" The red haired man shrugged in response to the question, shifting his weight back and forth from foot to foot as he stood beside his friend.
"Well not right now. I'm not technically a sailor, remember?"
Faar rolled his eyes once again, something he had done a lot since he first met the red haired shipwright, "Please tell me you didn't get Rien to do your work for you again just because you know he'll never say no. Honestly, Ivrix I'm surprised Fareus hasn't kicked you overboard yet."
"But you are happy that he hasn't, right?" Ivrix asked cheerfully, though his heart started beating just a little bit faster.
"No." The smile gracing Ivrix's face became just a tad more pained, and he felt as though he'd been stabbed through the heart. He knew it was stupid, to expect anything else from Faar, but he couldn't help but hope. Hope that maybe, someday, Faar could actually like him. It was all he wanted. Sure, he wanted to be selfish, and wish for love from the older man, but Ivrix could survive with like instead. "Go away, Ivrix." Ah, and there it was. Rejection. Again. He should hardly be surprised. Nodding numbly, the smile on his face considerably more forced than it had been a couple of minutes ago, Ivrix turned to leave, cursing himself and his foolish hope under his breath so that he barely heard Faar continue, "I'll see you later." It was enough to lift his hopes, if only just a little.
The ship was bustling with activity, each man assigned their own tasks to occupy them during the day's voyage, along with whatever else simply needed to be done. In the galley, The Discord's cook, Vhon, was all but glowering at the ingredients before him, mentally going over the recipe as he called out, "Hey, Garieth?" the darker skinned Avellian beside him glanced up from his task at his name, clearly confused.
"Yes?"
"Do you remember if we got carrots in Sybitra? I could have sworn we did, but I can't for the life of me seem to find them." Vhon drummed his fingers against the countertop, "I was going to make stew tonight, but if we don't have carrots then I might as well just not bother."
"I'm… pretty sure we did." Garieth answered, tugging on his brightly colored clothing as he always did, "Do you want me to go look around? They would have to be somewhere."
Vhon glanced over at him with a bright smile, "That would be wonderful if you did, Garieth. I would certainly appreciate it." The platinum haired assistant nodded eagerly, setting the knife in his hand and the potato he had been peeling onto the countertop and hurrying out of the galley.
Meanwhile, Fareus was seated at the desk in his quarters, a map sprawled out before him with Tasva on the other side. "Are we still headed for Ethene, oh captain of mine?" Tasva questioned, a mock formality in his voice. Fareus, as any proper gentleman would, responded with throwing his pen at his friend's head. The younger managed to barely sidestep it, the pen instead clattering to the floor.
"Yes, oh cartographer of mine," Fareus muttered sarcastically in reply, lifting his gaze from the map to stare at his companion, "You and I both want to get out of Arcis as soon as possible, and, as I am sure you are well aware - for I know for a fact your father would kill you if you weren't - Ethene is safely in Avel."
"Saying 'safely' in reference to Avel is kind of oxymoronic, don't you think?" the tawny haired man retorted, raising one of his eyebrows.
"How about you give me my pen back so I can throw it at you again." Fareus replied with a wide smile, though his tone completely serious. Before Tasva could respond, however, there was a soft rapping on the door. "Get that, will you?"
Rolling his eyes, Tasva walked away from the desk and towards the door, pulling it open sharply, "What?" Garieth stood frozen before them, instantly meek when put face to face with the ever critical Tasva, "Dammit, Garieth, I'm not going to bite your head off. What is it?"
"Oh, uh, Vhon can't find the carrots we got in Sybitra, he wanted me to locate them. Do you… know where they are?" Tasva could not help but scowl at the mention of Vhon, his dislike for the boy having never subsided.
"They should be on deck still, I know I never moved them anywhere." Garieth nodded rapidly in response, awkwardly saluting to Fareus and Tasva before scurrying back outside, "Honestly." Tasva muttered angrily, "Can't go a single second without Vhon."
Fareus began to chuckle, earning himself a glare from his friend, "I'm sorry, Tas, but you really need to get over your whole hatred of Vhon thing. You thought he was with Vanya, he wasn't, and now you are. What is there to still be angry about?" Tasva opened his mouth to respond, only to promptly shut it once again and, with another annoyed roll of his eyes, stormed out of the room. Continuing to laugh softly under his breath, Fareus set about rolling up the map that was covering his desk. As he stood, grabbing the rolled up map as he did, a nervous shout reached his ears.
"Captain?!" Dropping the map, Fareus bolted out of the door and onto the deck, a crowd of his crew members huddled around a stack of boxes against a wall. Forcefully pushing his way through them, his eyes widened.
"It appears as though we have a stowaway." Tasva stated, arms folded across his chest as the crowd stared intently on the startled brown haired man previously hidden from them.
Unable to think of anything to say, Fareus moved forward and grabbed the stowaway around the wrist, pulling him from his hiding spot. Eyes locking on Raden, the captain commanded, "Raden, come with me, everyone else, get back to work. I'll deal with this."
Seated backwards in one of the infirmary's chairs, arms resting atop the chair back, Tasva's eyes could not help but follow every move his lover made, working silently, "Did you hear?"
"What?" Vanya asked distractedly, dipping a small cloth in the cool water always kept on hand in the infirmary, before ringing it out and carefully dabbing at his patient's face with it.
"Garieth found a stowaway."
"Really now," the apothecary murmured, laying the damp cloth over the forehead of his patient, "What is Fareus going to do?"
Tasva shrugged, "Don't know. He and Raden are figuring it out now, I suppose. We'll find out soon enough, though." Leix, still lying unconscious and feverish on the bed, started murmuring softly under his breath, drawing both Vanya's and Tasva's attentions back to him, "Will Leix be alright?"
"Should be," Vanya answered, leaving the cloth covering his younger patient's forehead as he set about crushing a combination of herbs with his mortar and pestle, "We just need to wait for his fever to break, but it is not anything serious." He glanced up from his job, looking at his lover for the first time since Tasva entered, "Are you here because you need something, Tas?"
"Just wanted to see you." Tasva replied, giving the other a slight smile, "I've barely seen you the past few days."
"Yes, well, I have had my hands full with Leix being ill." Vanya cast his lover a small smile in return, placing his work down in favor of walking over to Tasva and leaning down to give him a soft kiss, "Love you, Tasva."
"I know. I love you too."
"Who the hell are you?" The black haired captain demanded of the silent boy sitting nervously in a wooden chair
"Fareus, show some tact." Raden said with a sigh, running a hand through his own black hair, the locks falling easily around his face. "You're getting us nowhere with this."
"Yes, Raden, feel free to tell me how to run my own ship." Fareus muttered under his breath, glancing over at his best friend. When his eyesight drifted back to the stowaway, he let out a deep sigh as well, "Look… we're not going to hurt you, kid. Okay? Just tell us what your name is, and why you decided to stowaway on my ship."
With this slight reassurance, the boy finally opened his mouth, whispering "Caly-" He stopped himself, heart pounding, "Cal. My name's Cal."
"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Xarnor roared, absolutely fuming as he stared down the two men kneeling in front of him. Tesad and Releo exchanged a quick glance, but neither spoke, fully aware of the consequences it would draw. With a snarl the king stormed across the throne room, knocking Releo to the floor with a single sweep of his hand, "Tell me where the hell that brat ran off to, where he is, and perhaps I'll spare your miserable lives."
When no reply still reached his ears, Xarnor hit Tesad onto the floor as well, glowering above them, "We do not know." Releo hissed eventually, pulling himself up into a crouching position, hands still tied behind his back, "We know he left, but do not know to where."
"You expect me to believe that?" Xarnor snarled, his thick hands clenching at his side, sorely tempted to hit both of them again, "I'll tell you what. Let's see how well the dungeon can help your memory of where you traitors sent my nephew." He turned from them, stalking back towards his throne, "Guards, take them to the dungeon."
Xarnor sat down rigidly in his throne as the two traitors were hauled away to the dungeon, eyes drifting to the line of portraits of Arcis' previous kings that ran around the room, finally locking on his brother. It had been seven years since an assassin had made his way into the castle in the dead of night, killing the king in his sleep. Distraught, the then pregnant queen killed herself only a few days later, leaving only their fourteen year old son to fend for himself and his five year old sister. The princess ended up dying of the plague that had been sweeping through Arcis for the past two years, making Calyne truly alone, and Xarnor could not have been any more thrilled. Having only one boy to pick off in order to keep the throne to himself was all too easy, and the country might as well have been his the day his niece died. Calyne, having lost everything he loved, was in no way prepared to fight for what was rightfully his.
Unfortunately, as the boy grew, so did his disobedience. No, Xarnor had known for a while just what he would have to do when Calyne had come of age and began questioning his uncle's rule. A smirk formed on the dark haired king's face. Calyne had unknowingly made this so much easier for him.
He gestured to his captain of the guard, who had been standing next to his throne the entire throne, "Gather one hundred of your men. I want Calyne and Bycal to be caught as soon as possible. Pick out one of your best commanders to lead them, I want them to leave tonight, and start out in Sybitra. If Calyne wanted to get away as quickly as he could, Sybitra will be our best bet."