Chapter 59

Ron had gone straight to the kitchen after witnessing what was happening in Marty's room, the crew was also having a small party after escaping the leviathan so he found plenty of booze there which he had come to find. It was of even worse quality than Marty's but he still drank till his brain wasn't able to form images in his head. 

He woke up the next day with an intense headache in his room, he didn't remember how he got there or anything much, but when he saw Isanna in the room having breakfast, the memories came back rushing to him making his mood worse. 

"Drank a little too much last night?" she asked smiling.

"Me too, I don't remember much of last night, I usually don't drink that much," she said.

"Here, drink this tea, it helps with the headache," she pushed a cup of tea towards him.

"No thanks, I need to eat something," he said and left the room as quickly as possible. He couldn't look at her face yet, outside the room he almost ran into someone. He looked up to see it was Fiona. She also looked at him startled, her face got a little red and they stood there awkwardly for a moment, remembering the last day and wondering what to say.

"Going for breakfast?" she asked finally breaking the silence.

"yeah," he answered. They went to the kitchen together got a table in the corner and started eating in silence.

"Look, I hope you don't think badly of me because of last day," Fiona said.

"Are you kidding? I should be the one saying that," he said.

"You just looked upset this morning, I thought it might be because of me, I don't know what happened to me, I think it was because of what happened, with all the adrenaline I just got a bit too worked up," she said. Ron wondered if that was what happened to Isanna too. 

"You again have that upset look, did something else happen?" she asked.

"No, I just drank a bit too much last night, so I am still hungover, what about you? What did you do after we?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing much, me and Rin just played some games in our room," she said.

"Games?" he asked.

"Yeah, she has a lot of them, I think she likes collecting them, she has a bit of a child-like personality, I think cats get older slower than us humans," she said.

Derek walked into the kitchen at that moment, all dressed up. 

"Going somewhere?" asked Ron.

"We will reach our destination sometime today, it's not very far now," he said.

"What today? I thought not until late tomorrow," asked Ron.

"Marty ended up using too much fuel with that leviathan scare yesterday, this ship engine works weirdly the distance doesn't matter, he's afraid we won't make it if we go slowly and carefully, so he has had the ship on full speed since we left the glacier," said Derek. 

"You never told us where we are going or what we can expect," said Ron.

"We are near my kingdom," just then Rin appeared in the middle of them out of nowhere.

"You can tell?" asked Fiona.

"Of course, I can smell it," she said. 

"Yes, we are going to a port town in the half-breed kingdom, some common enemies of ours have attacked them there, and we are trying to find a way to provide them with much-needed help," said Derek.

"What's our one ship going to do?" asked Ron.

"They have imprisoned a whole port, if the half-breeds show up with a fleet of their ships and cut off their route of escape, they'll kill their prisoners, with our vague and ugly-looking ship, they might think that it's just a lost ship with a drunk captain and we need to deal with this mission with stealth," said Derek.

"And have you thought about who sent those Black Hands after you?" asked Ron.

"I have asked that question to myself yes, who knew where I was going to be when they attacked us in the forest, the answer is no one," said Derek.

"So, even after all the time Marty spent gathering supplies we have run out of fuel and we are soon going to be in enemy territory with no way to escape," said Ron.

"Yeah it's as bad as it can get," said Derek.

"And we thought we had just escaped a dangerous situation when we are soon going to be in an even worse one," muttered Ron. 

Vanessa and Emily were hiding in a dark corridor on the ground floor of the castle waiting for Raymond's signal. 

"Are you sure he is not tricking us?" asked Emily.

"Not after what we showed him in the morning, you didn't see his face, men think they are smart but in the end, they all want one thing, he thinks he has got the advantage over us and we are doing his bidding, when we are the ones who are making him do our work," said Vanessa.

"Yeah, if he gets us inside the dungeon then that will complete most of our plan, it's much more valuable to us than he realizes, but what will you do after our work is done?" asked Emily.

"He blackmailed us and thinks we are just things to use, so he isn't different than the other barbarians, he will be captured or killed like the rest of them," said Vanessa.

 Then they heard some footsteps coming up from the stairs leading down to the dungeon, they hid behind a pillar and watched. Raymond emerged with two other men, who had canes instead of swords, they were all laughing and talking loudly. Raymond leads them away in the other direction. Vanessa and Emily hurried towards the stairs and checked once that there was still no one guarding them and then hurried down the stairs.

The dungeon was dark and old, there were cells to the end, they hurried down the passageway looking inside each cell, most of the occupants were sleeping. Emily stopped in front of one, she looked inside trying to see clearly, the cells were even darker. 

"Dad?" she asked. From inside the cell, they heard some scuffling sounds and then two large hands grabbed the bars and pulled the large man forward. The man had long furry ears, round kind eyes, but still big fangs. 

"Em?" Duke Forin looked at her daughter making sure she wasn't an illusion or another trick of the barbarians trying to make him follow their orders. 

"Yes, Dad it's me," said Emily grabbing his hands.

"Emily, princess! what are you doing here are you all right?" he asked.

"We are perfectly fine, listen, Dad, we don't have much time, the guards will be returning soon, we need your help to contact Vanessa's father," said Emily.

"You have no idea what's going on," he said solemnly.