Sample Sunday ~ Kawilara 2 excerpt, chapter 13 ~

His eyes avoided Dalannah’s, though he knew she was looking at him, perhaps wondering just what kind of darkness he had come from and what terrors tortured him. Across the room, he spotted three men at a table, travellers who he recalled passing through Tia Justace when he was a kid. They were peddlers, if he remembered right, and spent a lot of time in Ol’ Ace’s. It was possible they knew Gary.

He motioned for Dalannah to stay put as he stood. “I’ll be right back.”

Dalannah didn’t say anything as she watched him cross the room in the casual demeanor of a usual pirate. The travellers spotted Billy as he approached their table.

“Evening, gents,” he greeted sombrely.

One of the travellers motioned for Billy to sit down, his fingers boney and old, gray hair sticking out in frizzy messes beneath his floppy black hat, clothes ripped and torn.

“What can we do for you, sir?” he asked, clasping his hands on the table before him.

Billy sat, setting one elbow on the table with a serious expression across his face. “I’m looking for a man, one you men might know. You’ve been coming through town here for some years and might remember him.”

“A man you seek, aye?” the elderly traveller replied. “Does he have a name?”

“Gary McGee,” Billy said, shaking off eerie tremors he got from speaking of the monster. “Tall, dark-haired, hard core alcoholic. Might have claimed to have a wife and kid at home. He would have been through here, oh, about 11 years ago. Disappeared mysteriously…”

A haze of recognition crossed the man’s deep blue eyes. “I know who you speak of, boy.”

A second traveller spoke up, a younger man with shaggy, dirty blond hair and a white bandana under a brown hat. His red shirt was puffy at the sleeves and his eyes were an ominous brown. “McGee…he claimed to have a wife and kid, alright. But everyone knew what he was, what he did to her. Poor woman…wish there was something we could have done for her.”

Billy closed his eyes for a moment before speaking again, holding his composure together. “What do you know of him?”

“He claimed to be a Black Guard, which is why we never could do anything for that woman of his,” the elder said, anger on his voice, his blue eyes haunted with the ghost of Billy’s helpless mother. “Oh, we tried. Olivia over there, her best friend, tried to get her to leave, but McGee had a dangerous hold over this town. Alcoholic he may have been, but he was a dangerous man, you see. Threatened us, that if we ever tried to take what was his, he’d make sure our wives and sisters burned alive too. They claimed her death was a suicide, she’d stabbed herself to death…but we all knew better. McGee was a bloody monster.”

Billy was taken aback by that. There was more to it all than he thought. “Do you know for sure if he was a Black Guard?”

“No one knew for sure,” the younger man spoke up. “But we had the suspicion. This town is isolated, whereas the Black Guards like to hit the bigger cities for victims to drag back to that prison. The fact they would come all the way out here…it was bizarre. Not their usual territory, you could say. After he vanished, another Black Guard showed up, and he wasn’t so quiet. Gregory Wolfram runs this town now as a Black Guard, has a son, Azrael. Azrael’s mother ran off shortly after they got here…went back home to Adara, after finding some witch rescuers. But that boy is being told a totally different story than what really happened…”

“Of course,” Billy muttered. “What of McGee now? Where is he?”

The elder traveller sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. “Rumour had it McGee kidnapped his woman’s son, kid’s name was Will or something like that. Took him to the prison and the boy was never seen again, at least not in these parts. As for McGee, he high tailed it out of town after killing his wife or girlfriend or whatever she really was…he comes back to Tia Justace every so often, just passes through when his ship needs repairs or something.”

Billy’s heart beat a little faster in his chest. This was more information than he thought he would get. “What’s he sailing?”

“Naturally he sails under the Black Guard flag,” the younger man said, tapping the table thoughtfully. “He sails a frigate, calls it ‘The Burning Whore.’ If that doesn’t show his true colours, I don’t know what does. He frequents pirate havens along the Nevermore coast line. Occasionally, he sneaks down to Weril Island.  Last I heard he was sailing around McGough.”

“Right, then…thanks, gents. You’ve been a lot of help,” Billy said as he stood up, turning to go back to the bar.

“And what is your interest in Mr. Mcgee, might I ask?” the elder’s voice filled Billy’s ears although he had his back turned to the table.

It was like the room stood still. Billy didn’t hear yelling drunks, laughter or any of usual noises in the tavern as he looked back just once to the travellers, who all awaited his answer. “You know that boy, the one who vanished? That’s me, Billy. My interest in McGee? My sword through his heart for what I’ve been through on his account, for what he did to my mother…because I haven’t forgotten.”