The word ‘Fight’ rang in the air for a millisecond before the Beast Awares took off at a charge towards Aggie. Harold had lowered his head down, placing his horns in line with her middle. Aggie managed to leap out of the way just in time, but Harold quickly skidded to a halt and pulled a swift U-turn, taking aim once again at her centre of gravity. The crew were screaming and cheering wildly, making Aggie briefly wonder if there were any other boats nearby that could hear the ruckus, before she dodged yet another one of Harold’s attempts at impalement.

Aggie released a gasp mixed with a sigh- she knew now why Harold was easy to beat, and she didn’t relish the thought of having to knock him unconscious.

This time when he charged, Aggie didn’t jump out of the way; instead she hastily grabbed hold of the horns as soon as they were within reach, and held him at arms length. Despite her strong stance, the sheer power of the Beast Awares slid her back further and further and further across the planked deck.

“Die you bitch!” Harold screamed while he frothed at the mouth. The crewman laughed, and began shouting out numbers increasing their bets.

Aggie winced at the din around her, and felt her hands burn as they slid slightly down the horns.

She needed to end this quicker.

She spotted the mast she had been standing near at the beginning of the fight, and made a snap decision. With a burst of strength, Aggie shoved the Beast Awares, and took 4 long strides to have her back to the mast again.

Harold had already reared around, and was charging her by the time she was at the mast, so Aggie only had to wait a moment before side stepping out of the way, and allowing Harold to ram his horns into the mast.

His left horn made impact, and drove itself an inch into the mast, and the crowd went wild. The jarring effect knocked the Beast Awares into a daze, but he wasn’t unconscious.

Aggie’s shoulders slumped forward in relief.

It was done.

She wasn’t the worst, and she hadn’t had to be too heartless.

“He hasn’t said he’s given up.”

The commanding voice of Captain James Murphy sailed over his crew’s excited shouts.

Aggie turned to face him, his charming smile blazing on his tanned face.

“He’s hurt! He probably has a concussion, it’s bloody obvious he’s done!” Aggie called angrily, making the crew laugh and ‘whoop’ harder.

“Did ‘e stutter Lady? ‘Til tha Beast says e’s finished or knocked off!” The crewmember she had humiliated called gleefully his tail swishing excitedly.

Aggie had a hunch that he had bet on her being unable to stomach the violence.

Aggie glared at the man, then turned to the Captain.

“What happens if I refuse?”

“That depends. Normally I’d just say we kill him, and you are the new last place fighter. However, this particular Beast Awares has a family that cares if he’s alive- just not where he is. So we would probably let the next opponent come out to finish him off, and that would place you in last place little Lady.”

Aggie clenched her fists. With one final murderous glare, she turned back to Harold.

Aggie stepped slowly over to him, somehow not noticing the craze the crew was now in. The world instead had stilled for Aggie as stared in the eyes of the Beast Awares that were now glassy and unfocused.

When his face wasn’t screwed in a murderous rage, he looked tired. She wondered how old he was…

She rested her palm on his forehead, but he only blinked at the move.

“I’m so sorry.” She whispered as she stood straight, and with a well placed kick to the corner of his jaw, his eyes closed, and his body went limp.

The screaming crowd around her slowly came back to her ears, as she stared at the motionless Beast Awares.

It had been… horribly cruel.

And to be the one to distributed such inhuman brutality…?

Aggie felt like being sick.

With her stomach roiling and tears drawing closer to her eyes, she was pulled back to her surroundings when a crewmember slapped the iron shackles on her wrists, and James Murphy appeared behind her, and pinched her shoulders.

“We have our new fighter!” The deck continued to cheer chanting ‘Lady’ over and over.

James steered Aggie back down to the cells, and shoved her into her cell hastily.

The prisoners were all chattering, and debating what happened.

“You know Lady, you were much better than I thought you’d be. You haven’t been idle these past few months have you?” James smiled through the bars and leaned near her as she stood by the door.

He smelled nice, but Aggie knew better than to be charmed by the monster.

She gripped the bars, leaned in closer to James’ smiling face, and promptly kneed his balls through the bars.

He doubled over as the prisoners laughed and shouted at him.

“Rough go Cap’n!”

“Where I come from that’s flirtin’!”

“Nut what you were hopin’ for Cap’n?”

When James stood straight again after a few minutes, Aggie didn’t care that his mask of charm had fallen off, or that he looked capable of murder.

He drew himself up to his full height as First Mate Ikes descended the stairs.

“What happened here?” The First Mate registered the look on James’ face, and his green eyes quickly cut to Aggie, whom had backed into her cell and could only hear her blood pumping.

“First Mate Ikes, mind the doorway will you?” James slowly unlocked Aggie’s cell, and entered. The rest of the prisoners went silent all too quickly.

“James? Please don’t.” Ines’ soft voice drifted from the neighboring cell.

Without taking his eyes off Aggie, James replied with;

“First mate Ikes, is the Fey woman still not dead?”

“All in due time Captain. The Fey are resilient.”

Ines was silent after that, but that was when James landed a hefty punch to Aggie’s gut.

Unable to help herself, Aggie doubled over and vomited.

James then grabbed her by her shoulders, and threw her against the back cell wall.

She landed heavily against the back of her cell, sending the contents of the chamber pot flying all over the floor and herself. She was knocked out of air quickly, and there was a piercing pain in her head.

“First Mate Ikes, sign off on this will you?” James exited the cell, and Ikes entered instead.

He wasted no time in unbuttoning his trousers, procuring a bright pink rolled penis, and then beginning to urinate on Aggie. The smell was so strong and potent, if Aggie had any breath or contents in her stomach, she would’ve gagged.

“Remember Lady. You will respect the Captain.” First Mate Ikes buttoned his pants, and exited the cell. “You will learn soon enough.”

The Captain and the First Mate left up the stairs, and still the prisoners remained silent.

Though none of them were saints, their spirits seemed dimmed.

“You shouldn’t have hit him Aggie.” Ines whispered through the bars as she reached carefully through the bars and touched Aggie’s hair despite it being covered in piss.

“Yes I should’ve.” Aggie managed as she slowly sat up. She used her dry sleeve to wipe her face.

“It’s fine. I’ll kill him before I am handed back to Sean.” She said calmly, knowing that there were also tears running down her face.

“You wouldn’t.” Ines squeaked. “Aggie I thought you were kidding before, you can’t kill him!”

“Why not? He deserves it.”

Ines didn’t say anything, but what touched Aggie the most was that the Fey seemed to believe Aggie would do it. That she could do it.

“Ines, tell me about Tara, I’ve never heard much about it.” Aggie settled her bruised body on the floor, and waited for a distraction to the pain thudding in her head, or the aching in her shoulders and gut.

“What do you want to know?” Ines replied quietly, sensing that Aggie needed to not think or talk about the ordeal she had just experienced.

“I heard that no creature can be enslaved there. No one can be magically bound by oaths like the Servicers, is that true?” Aggie waited. She felt like she was going to be sick again as the smell of urine and her vomit from earlier hit her nose.

“That’s right, Tara won’t allow it. We have only really had one Servicer come willingly into our world. She was a pretty interesting woman…”

“Was she freed? From her Oaths I mean?”

“Yes. Immediately.”

“Did she want to be freed?” Aggie asked, but was feeling suddenly very tired.

“She did actually… Don’t know whatever happened to her, but she was lovely. She fell in love with a Fey man while there and didn’t want to leave, but she disappeared not long after arriving. She could still be there I mean! Tara is huge but- Aggie?”

But Aggie was already lost to sleep. She dreamt of Arlen and the Minkies, and Tork was there for some reason. They were laughing, but Aggie didn’t know about what, and she was drifting further and further from them...

Further from the people that made her feel safe and good.

***

Arlen finally had beaten Mek again while the pain echoed in his body, but then something new had happened.

The encompassing pain ended, but instead there was an ache in his shoulder and his gut.

When he told the Queen, her teeth clenched, and she glanced at Keynan.

“What is it?” Arlen asked getting tired of having to pry information from them.

“She is probably asleep right now, which is why the pain is gone, but the aches you feel are where she experienced blows.”

Arlen felt as though he had been dunked in a barrel of ice.

“Blows? As in she was beaten? Is she alright? I’ve never felt when that happens before… Our bond must be growing stronger with time.” Arlen’s mind flew through a host of unpleasant images, and felt his fists clench.

“She is alive, you would’ve felt that, but she definitely took a bit of a beating from the sounds of it.” The Queen touched Arlen’s shoulder and closed her eyes as she identified the different pains in his body.

“She took a fist to the stomach… she probably threw up. Then it feels like… her shoulders hit something hard, Either the ground, or a wall of some sort. For that kind of hit she could have been pushed- or thrown.” The Queen opened her eyes, and looked at Arlen’s pale face.

“You could identify all of that?” He whispered, not knowing what else to say.

“Yes. We can continue to check in on her as time goes. If we are right about James Murphy, this won’t be the last time this comes up.”

Arlen was frozen with his anger over his helplessness. They had no way of knowing where the ship’s next port was, and they also had no way of matching the pace of the boat.

“Keynan?” Arlen turned at the Queen’s suddenly calm tone as she stared at Keynan. His eyes looked as though they were glowing as he stared blindly ahead of himself.

Minkies members within earshot stopped what they were doing. They all seemed to know what the sudden stillness of Keynan meant.

He had found something.

Arlen looked at Tieg and Jed whom were giving him hopeful nods.

“I know where she will be.” Keynan whispered after a number of minutes passed. “Something has been decided for the future.”

Arlen’s heart skipped a beat.

The Queen studied Keynan’s face, and could tell the news was not good news.

“She will be at the Southern Prince’s mountainside palace.” The Queen did a sharp intake of breath.

“The palace where he goes for his… underhand dealings and pleasures?” Arlen asked steadily.

“Yes.”

“How in the world did you see that? The prince has his own Shields, and James has his boat covered! Who is going without any kind of protection that you saw? When will this be happening? Will we make it?”

Arlen was surprised at the quick line of firing the Queen was releasing on her partner. He looked far more tired, and he gave the Queen an exasperated look that told Arlen she did this often.

“She will arrive by my guess, in 2 months. We will make it there.” He answered patiently, but even Arlen was on the verge of shaking Keynan.

“How did you find her?” The Queen pressed.

“Her mother. Farrah Beatha will be attending the Prince’s house.”

“Will she suffer if we steal Aggie back?”

Arlen then understood the Queen’s insistence on knowing who gave them insight:

Any suspicious people could be blamed for a breach in security at the Prince’s palace.

“I did not see that far. It could be that we decide to do a more discreet rescue mission, but I also don’t know who is bringing Farrah to the mansion, or why.” Keynan and the Queen seemed to be in a conversation just between then, but they were speaking loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Probably for humiliation. The Southern royals probably didn’t like a lowly Lady being chosen for a position of power in the North. James is using his having Aggie as an attraction to his dealings, he isn’t being very subtle.” The Queen shook her head. “Were you able to see how we get in?”

“We looked like the servants.”

“The ones with-”

“The wigs, yes.”

“Fucking hell… those stupid-”

Arlen cut away from his daze at hearing that they wouldn’t be able to rescue Aggie for 2 months. He knew there was no use arguing the future. All he could do was be sure he was ready, and hope that Aggie could hang on.

“What’s wrong with wigs?” Arlen heard himself ask, but felt completely disconnected from his own voice.

“The servants of the Southern Kingdom wear god awful hot awkward wigs, and the Prince? That bloody eejit powders his face because someone told him that he blushes easy! He looks like dunks his head in a flour bag every morning. Now all his stupid footmen do the same to make it a ‘style’!”

“I’m familiar with their customs, the question is why does it matter?” Arlen asked again still not understanding why the Queen was so passionate about the fashion of the South.

“The Queen once was disguised as a footmen on a visit to the South when we went to… retrieve a few items from the palace. She was found in the treasure chambers due to her sneezing.” Keynan explained with a slow smile spreading across his face.

“What were you getting from the chamber?” Arlen’s curiosity got the better of him.

“A Minkies person whom shall remain nameless,” The Queen’s eyes twitched in the direction of Tieg. “-Accidentally sold an item that had significant value to the tribe. We needed to retrieve it.”

There were a few awkward moments as everyone around Arlen tried hard not to laugh.

He wasn’t in the laughing mood, but he did see how it could be quite funny.

“How can we get to the Southern Kingdom? Why is the ship taking 2 months to get there? It should only take 3 weeks or so.” Arlen pointed out trying to get the Minkies Queen and her mate to focus on more important matters than wardrobe malfunctions.

“He has to stop at multiple ports along the way, and I imagine he is going to try and utilize Aggie’s predicament best he can. To what end, I don’t know. We still don’t know how he recognized Aggie.” Keynan pointed out as the rest of the Minkies started packing up their camp, and prepared for heading out.

“We can travel to the outer edge of the North King’s Settlement and grab some horses. We’ll bring Jed, Keynan, and myself, the rest will stay with the tribe and wait at the border for our return.” The Queen nodded forming the plan, and also nodding her orders at the rest of the group who stood waiting.

Arlen felt better that they had at least had a direction to aim for, and let out a small breath.

They would find her. She would be fine. If not at first, eventually she could heal.

Then, they could continue traveling and seeing the world together, and not have to think about Duke’s, Minkies, or psychopathic Captains ever again.