This book contains a pirate crew that is inclusive (including disabled, LGBTQ+, and diverse characters and related topics/issues). Please be aware of this and if this will bother you then this is not the book for you.
Tides of Chaos is a brand new standalone novel in the world of Dakaal that explores the world of the pirates seen in Regret (Book 1 of the Assassins of Dakaal series). This is Dark Fantasy. It may contain instances of horror elements, steamy scenes, and dark humor.
This book is being written with all the best intentions and the author welcomes thoughts from people in those communities to ensure that they are being properly represented. Due research is being conducted and the main characters have interacted with people from those communities for years in other forms of media.
Tides of Chaos will be free-to-read as it is written. It is being posted as a serial novel with the goal of at least one chapter a week. As such it is being minimally edited before it is posted. If you would like to read the polished and professionally edited version please wait until it is published as a book. The author does welcome feedback from readers should they want to take the time to do so. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this. I hope you enjoy these characters as much as I enjoy writing them.
CHAPTER TEN
INXLI
Inxli woke to the sounds of his husband’s lovely singing voice accompanied by the talented strumming of a lute. Pleasant sounds, one would think, at least until one listened to the lyrics of the bawdy pirate song. Inxli scrambled to sit up, blushing bright pink when he heard a very vivid description of a maid and the acts she was performing on said pirate. “That better not be a song about your past experiences!”
Reckless laughed so hard it choked out his singing. He gave Inxli a wink. “Naw, everybody knows that were the great pirate Hawknose.”
Inxli gave him an annoyed look as he slipped out of bed and wandered to take care of his morning chores. By the time he was dressed and ready to face the day his husband had even cooked him breakfast. He sat down at the table in front of a delicious meal full of fresh donuts from the bakery, buttered toast, even some roast pig that made his stomach rumble. He stared at the meal for a moment then looked up at Reckless, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Who did you kill?”
Reckless huffed as he sat down and took a bite out of a piece of toast. “I’mma pirate not an assassin. Though speakin’ of…”
“Who did Rubei kill?” Inxli grumbled as he nibbled on his food. Rubei was supposed to be retired from killing people. He didn’t disagree with assassins being sometimes necessary, and things were a little more friendly with them since Onyx had taken over Aderaan and freed the assassins from the nasty Shadowed Divide guild’s rule, but it still wasn’t looked on as a friendly sort of activity by most authority figures. As leader of a pirate town Inxli did his best to try to avoid such things.
“Weren’t Rubei. ‘E’s retired!” Reckless grinned, leaning forward as he casually ate his toast. “Keep guessin’ while you eat. Can’t have ye burnin’ people alive without fuel fer yer magic.”
Inxli huffed. He could probably burn half the planet before he needed to replenish his magical stores enough to need food to burn but he ate anyway, because it was delicious. He enjoyed eating. One of life’s great pleasures. “Did Vyrge get into a bar fight again?”
“Naw, but we’re ‘bout due for that too ain’t we?” Reckless pondered.
Inxli shoved a donut in his mouth and stared at Reckless as he slowly chewed it. Divine creations, donuts. He enjoyed cake and cookies as well. He frowned after his first plate was empty, pondering whether he wanted more or not. “Just tell me.”
“I think yer djinn got summoned to Aderaan. Onyx sent us some reports…” Reckless started to say.
Inxli froze. He let his mind tumble over that information and the fallout of that information. The elves of their former homeland had a really bad habit of trying to take magical power that didn’t belong to them and it wouldn’t surprise him in the least if they’d summoned a djinn. If Onyx was involved it was someone who either didn’t like Onyx having his assassins in town OR had a problem with Onyx’s brother Ruel being king. Seeing as his mother had originally summoned the demon IN Aderaan it made sense it was still lurking there somewhere. All these years of searching? Had it been there all along? “Let me guess, some stupid House elves tried to enslave it like my mother did, it murdered the entire house, and now the assassins are being blamed?”
“Wow, yer good. Ya sure ya don’t read minds?” Reckless asked, raising his thick black brows in surprise.
I wish, Inxli thought to himself, then shook his head. That meant to capture his mortal enemy he would have to go to the place he’d sworn he would never return to. Aderaan. The town he, Reckless, Rubei, Vyrgil, and half the elves in the city had run away from. Sure they had a good, honest, noble king now. Ruel was young though and without Onyx that entire town’s dirty underbelly would be running things still. “Where the report?”
“Here!” A deep voice said from below the table. Then the scrabbling of rat-feet and the rustling of paper as Vinnie climbed the table leg and pratically threw the paper at Inxli’s face as he tripped over some buttered toast. He landed right in the middle of the bread and instantly started cursing about the butter all over his glorious fur.
Inxli ignored the rat constable’s plight as he devoured the information on the paper. He barely noticed Reckless trying to help Vinnie clean off the butter. He appreciated assassins. There were no gory details spared in the report of the deaths of this House. Even better it was one that Inxli personally found annoying. He picked up another donut to nibble on as he read the report wide-eyed, soaking in every detail.
The entire household ripped limb-from-limb, torn apart as though by a beast, but a very deliberate one. They were apparently still trying to find all the parts. Anyone with half a brain would know this was clearly a monster attack and not the work of the assassins. After all, assassins wouldn’t live very long if that was their common mode of operation.
“Ugh, I know that look. Don’t ya dare say we’re goin’ to Aderaan,” Reckless said, once he’d helped their poor rat friend with his butter crisis.
“We’re going to Aderaan!” Inxli exclaimed as he tossed the paper down on the table. “I can’t send anyone else to catch the demon, there’s only a handful of people on this planet that can. Sorry, you married one of them. You know how that goes.”
“I hate Aderaan,” Reckless said with a growl, his bi-colored eyes narrowing.
“So do I! We’re not going to a noble party. We’re going to catch a demon!” Inxli snorted as he stalked past. He was excited about it. It was so rare he actually got to use his demon catching talents, or hunt them at all. They’d been hunted to almost extinction during the cleanup of the world’s apocalypse. And this, this was personal. This demon had killed his real parents, made him a street rat in Aderaan until he was found by Thorne and Jinx, and had been haunting his nightmares for years. He would trap the thing and then move on with his life, finally free of his past. After all he’d been training both knowledge and magical skill for this very moment! He practically bounced into his room to find his magician’s robes and special hat to trade them for his pirate captain ones.
“Oi, at least tell me we’re takin’ Pete along?” Reckless let Vinnie climb up to his shoulder. “And Vinnie?”
“Vinnie and Pete have to stay. Who is going to police the town while we’re gone? You know they always act up if I’m away,” Inxli reasoned as he dug through a chest. Where had his pink robe gone? Not in that one. He had to look fancy and like his position as a respected magician and scholar to go to Aderaan without arousing instant suspicion. He did find some fancier clothes of Reckless’s and threw them at his husband. “Put those one. You can’t go into the fancy city looking like a ruffian.”
Reckless glowered at the fancy clothing. “I am a ruffian. I’m a respectable pirate Cap’n and if Aderaan can’t handle it…”
“Reckless, please. We’ll only be there a day or two. I promise!” Inxli found his magical top hat and immediately threw his hat into its dark depths to feel around. Everything seemed to be there where he’d left it. Did he have everything he needed?
“Can we at least take the ship so we got a way to get out o’ there fast?” Reckless sighed as he tucked the fancy clothes under his arm. “I ain’t changin’ ‘til we get to the city proper either. I ain’t prancin’ around Port-Town lookin’ like a stuck up lord.”
“Yes, of course, we’re taking the ship!” Inxli rolled his eyes. “We ARE pirates and they DO have a dock. And…if they annoy me too much we can burn the city down and just tell Ruel it was an unfortunate accident.”
Vinnie laughed at that then dove off of Reckless’s shoulder and raced down to the floor at the look Reckless gave him. “I will go tell them to prepare the ship!”
“Go with him? I have to think about everything I need to prepare for this hunt,” Inxli said, looking at his displeased husband.
“Naw. I’m stayin right here. I still got that real bad feelin’. You ain’t leavin’ my sight,” Reckless said stubbornly, crossing his arms.
“If that’s what makes you happy,” Inxli said, caught off guard. Reckless really wasn’t superstitious OR magically inclined. What was setting him off? He didn’t doubt there could be a threat. He paused to use his magic to check the warding spells on their home and didn’t sense anything out of place. If Port-Town was under attack or something they’d know. “Is it a general sense of bad things or bad things in specific to me?”
“Bad feelin’ about you not bein’ safe. I don’t know what it is but I don’t like it none,” Reckless said, adjusting his hat nervously.
“Well then keep an eye out. I don’t sense anything magical so if there’s a threat it must be physical or beyond my magic,” Inxli said, tapping his finger on his chin as he looked around curiously. Still not seeing or sensing out anything out of the ordinary he shrugged. “You guard, I’ll prepare. Maybe if we get out of the city for a bit it’ll go away.”
“I hope so. Not that Aderaan makes me feel any better,” Reckless grumbled as he leaned against the doorframe to their bedroom and casually pulled out a dagger and a stick to whittle at an arrow shaft while he waited.
“It’ll be fine!” Inxli assured him. Though he felt apprehensive about it as well. They BOTH hated Aderaan for many reasons. Just a quick in and out job. Nothing to worry about.