Chapter 40
Keira
Such cold, like the very depths of the abode of the nightmare that Charon served. I had been there myself, close to drawing my last breath when I was saved by no one but myself.
The cold of the Northern Isles was quite different from the very bowels of hell. Stunngard, sprawling like an eternal spring caught in frost and ice, spread far up onto the mountain and the cold was only familiar and welcoming to those who lived here.
As Rorcan and I waded through the throng of people dressed in bland, greyscale colors, my eyes caught onto a building that seemed to be made entirely of glass except for the window panes that stood out in stark black titanium. The headboard read Mooney’s and I walked right in and reveled in the sudden gust of warmth that hit my pale, pale flesh.
The inside of the small yet well-kept pub was in sheer contrast to the exterior of Mooney’s, with long wooden tables running along the walls and small roundtables and precariously standing three legged chairs cramming up the darkened space. It had become a habitual haunt of mine in the months I had remained here with Al.
And when I walked over to the dimly lit bar with a chip in the wood where I usually sat, my eyes landed on a man too lean to be healthy, his long gray beard peppered with stars-know-what. He was hunched over onto the counter top, nursing his drink as if it might be his last. If he didn’t come to soon, it would be.
“Move.”
It was a simple word. Shouldn’t have been that hard to understand.
He slurred incoherent Stunngardian, with an undeniable Northern slang.
“You’re in my seat.”
He finally had the idea to turn his neck long enough to put me in his sights. I could barely make out the redness of his bleary eyes over the dirty gray hair falling all over his face.
“And what you gonna do about it sweetheart?”
Incoherent and yet, he asked for his last drink.
In a flash of flaming red hair and a loud male grunt that gave me much satisfaction, the vagrant lay on his back on the floor that was more unclean than him, groaning in pain that was sure to be running through his spine.
“What are you trying to do?” I heard Rorcan’s voice behind me, laced with concern. The concern, I realized, was because of all the eyes that were now upon us, the two foreigners in their midst.
When the scum on the floor decided he would not be stripped of his nonexistent dignity and made to move against me, it was not my hand that moved to stop him.
To my sudden and fleeting surprise, Rorcan had the man’s hand in a very painful position and I admired how he didn’t falter in his stance.
“Best leave the lady alone sir,” he said and it was said with that refined delicacy that only royals possessed.
A husky chuckle sounded from my side and though it was one I recognized, I did not smile when I saw Mooney himself, walking up to the counter that separated us with a lovely green bottle.
“Out of here now… You ain’t wanting to pick a fight with this one, eh?”
With one final sneer at me and Rorcan, the man huffed his way out the door.
Mooney was a stout man, with a scar that ran the length of his left cheek which he claimed was the handiwork of “those nasty pirates.” He always had a gleam in his beady eyes lined with yellow; nasty, as he would say so himself, and yet crucial to people like me. And it was him Rorcan ran his eyes over, perhaps trying to determine how he knew me.
As I sat down, I offered the smallest of smiles, only in acknowledgement.
“What’s with all the spit and polish, eh Red?”
“The usual,” was my only response as I gave him a look. Rorcan well manneredly ignored the nickname as he pulled up a chair beside me, eyeing the dull room that had suddenly regained its loud chatter.
With a huff and sniff, Mooney disappeared behind the bar, taking the green bottle of burning liquor with him.
Rorcan looked unbothered as he sat there, staring at the lines of bottles neatly laid upon the racks and then at me.
I grunted.
“Are you in a mood?” he asked and it sounded so much like his brother that I couldn’t help the tiny smirk that graced my lips.
To be continued…
Am so proud ❤️
With each chapter you leave me astonished at the marvellous array of words that open a world above my fantasy levels and intrigue me with the question that how on earth are you writing so well 😍