Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Broken Chest

To Xyra, sleep was becoming more and more elusive. Her eyes would finally shut when it was nearing dawn and she would arise mere hours later. She was up early that morning. Early enough to see them arrive at port. They had sailed straight over from Inrair to Zoalika, their last stop in Aeliz. It was the first time they had actually docked somewhere and Xyra was allowing everyone to get off the ship. She had heard from information gathered around Aeliz that Zoalika was left untouched by The Center's increased presence in the area. Xyra figured it had something to do with the man they were visiting, Ben, who had proven to be willing to murder soldiers who stepped foot on his island.

She had briefed the women the night before at dinner time how they were to behave, how to respond if anyone asked who they were and to be back on the ship before nightfall. Even with those precautions, she was sure that Ben would catch wind that they were on the island and he would be on the defensive. A string of men of means in the Aelizan underworld had turned up dead, they had either been found burned to a crisp and their house along with them, or they were found maimed. Xyra was sure Ben had caught wind of the killings and he would be expecting someone to come for him. Not only that, Xyra was known in the pirate circles for her ability to torture people, with tortured bodies coming up so frequently, Xyra was sure Ben was expecting her.

Ben was short for Benefactor. Pirates that spent their time sailing Aeliz waters certainly got most of their wealth from leads given by Ben, but apparently, he was turning against the very people he once sailed the waters with. Because of his popularity and influence, he was heavily guarded at all times. Xyra had no doubt that he had doubled his security in anticipation, he had not survived as long as he had for no reason. Many people before her had tried and failed to kill Ben. The Center, merchants whose routes were constantly exposed, roamers and traders who had been blacklisted by him. He was a challenge and Xyra wanted to be the one who managed to succeed.

At the thought, her stomach lurched; she was disgusted with herself. She felt a cold shiver go down her spine and she clenched her fists, taking a slow, deep breath. This was a thing happening of late. Waves of guilt and horror and disgust and disbelief would wash over her. She used to be proud of her skills, she used to regard it as an art form; one she had practiced for a long time. Now, something had shifted. It wasn't a complete turnaround. She still got a rush from doing it, from getting what she needed, from making powerful people break, but what was new was the overwhelming self-reproach.

Xyra, in the past few cycles, had started to slowly unravel. She had kept together after Bari passed away and even through the stress of being ambushed multiple times but the thread began to come loose after the fight with Fletching. She faced death, it wasn't the first time she had but she had gotten closer to it than she would have liked to. When she was a bit younger, none of that bothered her but now it was different. She didn't know if it was the stress of the times they were going through, the tight time schedules, her leg impairing her ability to do things she normally did, the secret she was keeping, the uncertainty of Theo's reaction ,or all of them combined but the threads that wove her together were coming apart. Not only that, she missed Theo and even Cooker.

She had already been on edge and barely managing to keep it together when the interrogations began. In the past, she wouldn't have blinked twice at anything she was doing. Not only did she have layers of justification for her actions, but she was also trained to keep her emotions at bay. It was like she had a metal chest in her head which locked away all of the realities of what she was doing. Of what she had done. Of what she had been asked to do. The chest usually contained a lock but it had since been broken, its keeper distracted with other things. She had been so focused on everything else around her that when interrogations came up, the chest came alive and spilled everything inside and there was nothing to stop it.