The Ether Witch

Tam leaned over the railing, willing with every ounce of strength and self-control he possessed, not to throw up his breakfast for a third time the first morning of their voyage after a less than ideal sleep the night before. At the very least, it was a sunny, blue sky above without a cloud in sight, and despite them being further out on the Alcide Sea, the day was moderately warm.

“My lord, I’ve brought you a weak ginger tea. It should help you settle your stomach.”

Eli stood behind her employer, cup in hand, wearing a simple white tunic and long button down black vest with brown trousers.

Unable to answer right away, Tam slowly turned around, his eyes downcast, and his complexion more green than usual.

Still, he accepted the cup that Eli pressed into his hands and sipped it gratefully as the boat continued to climb and descend each wave gracefully.

“Perhaps it’d help to take your mind off of the boat,” Eli suggested helpfully, her hands clasped behind her back.

“I can’t work below deck.” Tam shook his head, his voice rasping, prompting him to take another sip of tea.

“Her grace informed me that you normally train in the morning with her, would you like to train with me, my lord?”

Tam’s eyes flit upward to his assistant, who was regarding him perfectly seriously. He managed to straighten himself, set the tea cup down in a shallow crate that only had a rope occupying its interior, and tilted his head curiously at her.

“Do you know how to wield a sword? Or knives?”

Eli shrugged ambiguously. “I can manage.”

A mystifying smile lit Tam’s face, which did succeed in quelling the olive hues around his forehead. “See, when my sister learned the sword, it was a rather remarkable thing because she was the first woman to have done so. I heard that one of her friends, Sir Hugo Cas remained behind to teach a group of women in Troivack, but given that you most definitely are not a woman…”

Eli’s polite expression fell flat in irritation at his obvious reference to her gender.

“Who would have taught you to wield a sword?” Tam finished airily, while folding his arms.

“I haven’t been trained with a sword, or knives, but I can manage well enough,” Eli began carefully. “I am hard to hit, my lord.”

Tam’s eyebrows twitched at the thought of anyone trying to hit Eli. She was quite slim and petite… He wondered if it was because she avoided eating on purpose to appear more androgynous.

Giving his head a shake, he brought his mind out of his growing concern for his assistant, and instead stared at her somberly.

“I appreciate the offer, but I really am more competent with weapons than I may seem,” the future duke dismissed.

Eli raised an eyebrow, and peered at Tam up and down, then gave a shrug.

Tam stared at her with a mixture of disbelief and vague incredulousness at her obvious judgment of him, as the noises from the sailors below casually talking amongst themselves drifted up to them.

While the future duke did vaguely recall hearing that Eli had once been tasked with attempting to assassinate Eric Reyes (albeit against her will), he had always assumed she had only been considered for the job because of something to do with her magic.

“We can try,” Tam conceded thoughtfully. “Do you need knives of your own?” he asked while reaching behind himself and procuring two daggers.

Momentarily caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the blades, Eli blinked several times with a frown as though confused about how she had not noticed he had those on his person…

“No. I won’t try to attack, I’ll just dodge,” she responded evenly.

The lord and assistant eyed each other calculatively.

Eli for the sake of watching him to see if he would move, and Tam due to his increasing curiosity in her…

He had seemed completely detached and off in his own head as he did this, and so when he lunged abruptly, Eli flinched in surprise.

The blade had stopped a breath away from her right ear.

“You didn’t dodge,” Tam observed sternly with concern rather than condescension.

“You weren’t aiming for me, you were aiming over my shoulder,” Eli defended while subtly widening her stance. “I will concede, that was faster than what I was expecting.”

Tam noted the way she scrutinized his build again, her eyes sharp.

There were just as many reasons why he had worn clothes that didn’t fit him as there were for him having long hair.

They hid him.

And his assistant was becoming rapidly aware that her employer may not have been boasting his competency, and that Tamlin Ashowan was significantly fitter than he seemed.

Tam pulled back his left blade, and in another instant, had the one in his right hand flipped and cutting toward Eli’s middle.

She was able to move out of the way of it… only the cold edge of his other dagger against the pulsing vein of her neck had her eyes widening.

Tam watched the realization wash over her how he wasn’t just competent with knives… He was frighteningly deadly with them.

She swallowed, lowered her gaze and took a breath that shuddered.

Tam was about to ask if she was alright and if they should stop, when she gave a firm nod. “I apologize for underestimating you, my lord. I will take you more seriously here on out.”

The earnestness and keenness in her eyes told Tam that something had shifted in her… His instincts prickled, and a knowing smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

So her magic did have something to do with her confidence in defending herself.

Despite the peculiar expression on her employer’s face, Eli stayed alert, ready for his next attack…

Which was a good thing because the blade that had been resting against her neck flipped again and was about to puncture her appendix while the other was about to gut under her stomach, when she leapt back, landing lightly on her feet.

Tam’s grin widened before he then dove low toward her right side, his right hand aiming for the inside of her left thigh, while he utilized his size over her to wrap his left arm around her back, the blade aiming to slip between her ribs to puncture a lung, however, Eli shocked him by backflipping over his arm. As a result the blade aimed at her thigh met dead air, and while the tip of the knife in his left hand scratched her vest, she got away unscathed, and even came close to kicking him in the face.

When she sprung back from her hands onto her feet nimbly, Tam let out an impressed laugh.

This time he didn’t give Eli the chance to steady herself as he slid forward fluidly, crowding her space, his right arm angling the blade upward toward her heart, his left once again wrapping around her shoulders to pin her in place. This time Eli ducked under his arm and away from the right knife, putting her to his left.

She could have had the advantage in an attack of her own… Or so she thought until she realized that in the time it had taken her to get out of his way, Tam had already switched the blade direction of the knife in his left hand like a compass finding its mark. Luckily she had put enough distance that when he jabbed, she merely leapt to her right, circling closer to Tam’s back, and making him turn to keep his eyes on her.

In a twisting motion, Tam both stabbed with his left and sliced with his right in a move that would have pierced Eli’s belly and cut her throat, had she not doubled over and, in a short hop, spun her legs. Which placed her out of his reach again.

Tam didn’t waste a single breath watching or waiting for Eli to stop moving as he descended upon her, thrusting his blades toward her abdomen and throat again. The speed of the attack had thrown Eli off the rhythm that Tam had been following beforehand, however, and as a result when she darted backward, she wasn’t as graceful, and it only took one quick, long step from Tam to have her pinned against the back railing overlooking the bow of the ship, his left hand pressing the flat of his blade to her throat, and the right at an angle near her middle. The directions of each knife opposite to each other, so if she tried to jump left or right, either way she’d be cut.

Eli’s breath visibly caught in her throat as she gazed up into Tam’s eyes that were calm, his own breath as even as ever, but… He was close to her. Very close… They were practically toe-to-toe.

A very strong urge welled up in Tam as he stared down at Eli… A feeling he hadn’t had in a very long time that was wiping his mind perfectly blank as the intensity of the moment seized them.

Tam wanted to be even closer. He didn’t want to look away from her light brown eyes that had the same hue as fresh cinnamon…

It wasn’t until he felt a particularly large lurch from the sea beneath the ship that Tam snapped back to his senses.

He heard a rush of air escape Eli’s mouth and he wasn’t entirely certain why that sound made the desire to hold her intensify, but it took greater effort than he would have estimated to step back from her.

Once at a safe distance, Tam nodded and lowered his arms and said, “Not bad.”

Eli’s hands fidgeted at her sides as she inclined herself to him, avoiding his stare rather pointedly.

“You’re remarkably fast yourself, my lord.” Her voice sounded tight and awkward…

Tam bowed in thanks. When he righted himself, he noted how Eli remained stiffly standing in place, her chin lowered as though hiding her expression, he opened his mouth to apologize for making her uncomfortable, but was interrupted.

“OYY! YOUR LORDSHIP! WE FOUND A RAT THAT SAYS HE KNOWS YOU!”

The shout from a sailor summoned both Eli and Tam’s attention, and prompted them to cross over from the back of the ship, and look down from the poop deck. Yet even standing by the top of the stairs that would lead down to the main deck, they couldn’t see what the commotion was about as about five members of the crew crowded around.

With his brows lowered, Tam made his way quickly down to whatever the fuss was about with Eli following close behind.

As he approached the sailors, he tapped their backs to alert them of his presence. Though it took some time for things to settle, they eventually parted enough for him to see a young boy being restrained by three sailors. The child had a dirty gray tunic, a battered brown leather vest that was far too big for him, trousers that were too small, and woven shoes.

While the boy struggled, he didn’t speak or shout, and instead grunted against the holds of the sailors.

“Let him go. He can’t run off anywhere,” Tam ordered with an edge in his voice. The men didn’t look pleased by it, but did as commanded.

Tam peered down at the top of the child’s head and inwardly sighed sadly. The boy’s hair was covered in what looked like dried paint, which is most likely how he had been discovered on board as some of the sailors had been touching up some of the crates that held ropes, pulleys, and other important items that they could need at night and would need to find easily…

It wasn’t the first time someone tried to approach a member of the Ashowan family asking for help, or wanting to serve the dukedom… And while Tam and his family were always happy to do what they could, Tam was not at home with his connections and resources to help a child in need, and if he did try to reach out to anyone once he landed in Zinfera, that was risking alerting the Zinferan emperor and his court of his presence.

“What’s your name?” Tam addressed the child quietly.

The boy wiped his nose with the back of his wrist, his chin pressed against his chest, and Tam noticed that he was clutching a folded letter.

“I don’t know yet,” the boy croaked, then with his slim shoulders still hunched, he brandished the letter at Tam. The future duke was already worrying about what he could possibly do with the boy other than try sending him back with the ship to Daxaria after he was dropped off… An option Tam wasn’t fond of given the way the sailors were already cursing the child as some of them went over to clean the mess of splattered paint to the port side of the deck.

Taking the letter, Tam unfolded it and began reading.

All color drained from his face.

The letter was from a woman he had known… quite intimately… a little over seven years ago…

A woman named Rosaline Evans who ran a tavern he frequented when traveling. He had collaborated with her in order for her to gather and share information with him while inspecting the offices and schools in Rollom, and Tam had stayed at her establishment during his visits. He had liked her a great deal, but ultimately, she preferred to live an independent life, and Tam had agreed that they were better parting ways…

Except, according to the letter… It hadn’t been as clean an ending as he had thought.

Tam gaped at the top of the child’s head, his entire body numb and his mouth slack.

“Can I…” Tam rasped the words, uncertain what he was even going to say as his heartbeat tripled in speed.

“Is everything alright, my lord?” Eli stepped forward curiously, eyeing the child and then her employer who was quite obviously shocked to his core.

Tam didn’t even register having heard her as he, on shaking legs, gradually lowered himself to a crouch in front of the boy. “Can you please look at me?”

The poor child trembled violently, and tears still dripped off his nose onto the boards of the deck… But when he lifted his face, it was Eli’s turn to jolt back in alarm.

Tam, however, gaped, utterly dumbfounded into a pale face that was remarkably like his own. The same brown eyes… And he then belatedly realized the true color of the boy’s hair that was long enough to curtain his eyes… was black.

While the boy’s lip quivered, he continued to stare back at the future duke who was utterly speechless.

Of all the surprises Tam had wondered he’d come across during his trip to Zinfera…

Being faced with his illegitimate son had not once ever occurred to him.