The Key: Book 2 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Six: The Oath

Rein jumped back with a yelp, shrinking deeper into the trinket box. She couldn’t bring herself to look the captain in the eye as he gazed down at her with an expression on his face she couldn’t read.

“There ya are, Little Pixie.”

Rein had no words. The idea of begging flickered through her mind, but she pushed it aside. It would buy her nothing. Captain Tzatara said nothing either. He simply extended his hand—broad, calloused, and smelling faintly of steel and old leather. Rein stared at it, then up at him, then back again. Her pulse thudded in her ears. Finally, she reminded herself that it might be wise to cooperate. Gritting her teeth, she stepped forward.

“Now, ya know I have to punish ya for that,” Captain Tzatara said as he carried Rein back to his desk.

Rein hated how he spoke to her like a child—how his tone implied that he didn’t want to punish her. He played as though he was the nice guy, and it was all she could do not to scream how she wasn’t the simpleton he thought her to be.

“But how honest ya are about what ya learned from the map will determine how merciful yer punishment will be,” Captain Tzatara continued. He let Rein off his hand and onto his desk.

“You won’t believe me if I tell you the truth,” Rein said.

“Well let’s see,” said the captain as he got comfortable in his chair. “Try me.”

Rein dropped her arms at her sides. “I only know four languages fluently, Captain: Noelle, Elvish, Atlikan, and Roshirian. I know only a little of other languages, and I am hardly literate in any. It took me a while to learn what language is used on the map, and I swear I only managed to figure out that the language is Dovish and that it’s a map of Roznova. Truly, that’s all I know.”

The captain thought for a moment. “Very well, I’ll be merciful.” He grabbed the same jar that Rein was trapped in before and placed it in front of her. “Get in the jar.”

Rein took a tentative step back. “This is merciful?”

“Would ya like to know the other punishment I had in mind?”

Rein hesitated. “No.”

“I thought so. Get in the jar.”

“You’re not going to put the lid on it, are you?”

“I swear I will not.”

Rein swallowed her panic as she entered the jar. Then Captain Tzatara lifted it off the desk, and Rein slid to the bottom.

“Don’t put the lid on!” Rein pleaded after the captain set the jar upright.

“I swore I wouldn’t.” The captain stood from his seat and left the cabin without another word.

Once Captain Tzatara had left, Rein gazed up through the mouth of the jar with the knowledge that she could climb out if she really wanted. It would be difficult, but she had managed to reach the lid last time she was trapped inside this very container. Though, what would be the point? There was no way for her to leave the ship and she would eventually be found if she tried to hide.

Rein was fully aware this was a tease. If she had wings, she’d easily be able to fly out of the jar, perhaps perch atop a mast, and wait to sail by any speck of land. Indeed, the captain was clever. He knew this would be the perfect persuasion to force Rein to ponder the necessity of wings, which would push her to tell him what he wanted to know. He probably had no other punishment in mind; this would have been it whether she had told him the truth or not. And it was working. She was thinking about her wings, and about what she’d trade to get them back.

Rein sat against the side of the jar and searched her mind for solutions yet again. She tapped her head against the glass thinking, fighting, striving, and desperately reaching. At long last, an idea dawned on her and she had to tell the captain immediately.

“Captain!” She shouted and thrashed her fists against the container. “Captain!” Rein took a long, deep breath and shouted as loud as she could manage, “Captain!!”

However, her attempts were futile. Rein considered climbing out of the glass and pounding against the door of the cabin, but she recalled that the captain had made efforts to keep her secret from his crew. Drawing attention to herself might be reckless. She would have to be patient and wait for his return to voice her idea. With a heavy sigh, Rein slumped back down in her prison, and threw her head against the glass with a soft thunk of frustration. To her dismay, Captain Tzatara failed to return for several hours and during the wait, Rein eventually fell asleep.

ξ

Morning light filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting fractured colors across the cabin. Rein stirred, blinking groggily—then suddenly she was fully awake. Captain Tzatara stood across the room, hunched over a broad map spread across the table, his attention wholly absorbed in its intricate markings. His brows were drawn, fingertips trailing across coastlines and scribbled notes. The memory of what she’d wanted to tell him crashed back to Rein. She shot to her feet, nearly stumbling in her haste, the last wisps of sleep clinging to her limbs as her voice caught in her throat.

“Captain!” she called. Captain Tzatara only glanced up from his map at her. “I have a proposition for you about the key.”

The captain contemplated for a moment. Then he slowly approached his desk and took a seat, folding his hands in front of him. “And what might this proposition be?”

“You can meet me at the Springs,” Rein offered. “That way, my friend will be able to finish her business with the key and I can get wings again. Then, I will fly over to the Springs to meet you there.”

“Well, I don’t trust ya to keep yer word, so that won’t work.”

Captain Tzatara was about to return to his map, but Rein wasn’t going to give up so easily. This was the last chance she had.

“Then here’s what we can do,” she insisted. “I’ll give you my word as a fairy that after I get wings, I will meet you at the springs.”

“What be so special about yer word as a fairy?” the captain asked. “Ye swore an oath not to disclose any such information, but yer suggesting to do so anyway.”

“When we made those oaths, we didn’t know that we could bind each other to them to trust the secrets remain what they are. Once we did find out, most of us refused to renew such vows for varieties of different reasons, myself included.”

“I see. So how do we bind ya to a vow?”

“There’s a bit of fairy magic involved on my part. I announce the oath and we mix each other’s blood so that my blood runs through your veins and vice versa. After which, I have no choice but to follow through with my word.”

Captain Tzatara stroked his red beard as he contemplated her words. Rein braced herself for his reply.

“So there be no way that ye can break this vow?” the captain asked.

“Only if I’m willing to suffer,” Rein answered. “It’s very painful to break this vow. I won’t find it worth it.”

“How do I know for a fact that what ya say be truth?”

“You’ll see it working. If you don’t see anything happen when I make the oath, you can break it off and we’ll work out another deal.”

Silence stretched between them as the captain mulled over her proposal, his face unreadable. Then, without a word, he rose from his seat. Rein tensed. He crossed the cabin with calm, deliberate steps and pulled a familiar volume from the bookcase: the Xyntriav Book of Wonders. A line of sweat formed along Rein’s brow. Her stomach tightened. Did the captain intend to make her finish it like she had offered before?

But instead of placing it before her, he returned to his desk and began flipping through the gilded pages, scanning each one with precision. Rein waited, barely breathing. Then he stopped. His eyes lingered on a passage, and after a moment, he turned the book around and lowered it to her level, open to a specific page. He let Rein out of the jar so she could read the passage clearly.

“Is this what ya plan to do?” he asked.

Rein’s eyes widened as she read the page, her lips parting in disbelief. The words swam in gold-lined script, each one more maddening than the last. By the time she reached the end, her brow had drawn into a hard knot. Why would the Fairy Circle add such a weakness to this book? Rein felt a new hatred toward them boil within her, but she forced the feeling away for the time being and addressed the captain.

“Yes,” she said.

“Very well.” Captain Tzatara closed the book and set it aside. “I also want yer word that I will enter the Springs.”

“I can do that.”

“And what happens say, one of us reaches the Cataras Springs before the other?”

“We’ll both be bound until the vow is fulfilled,” Rein explained. “We’ll be able to sense each other to some degree, and we can work to arrive at around the same time.”

“I can accept that,” the captain said. “So how do we do this?”

“You prick your finger and I slit my hand and we mix our blood together,” Rein answered. “Pretty simple on your end.”

Captain Tzatara removed an ornate, gold-plated knife from a drawer in his desk and pricked his pointer finger to draw some blood. Then he held the blade of the knife toward Rein, who slipped off her black glove.

“I give you my word as a fairy that after I get wings again, I will meet you at the Cataras Springs and you will enter if you provide me the details of the location of the Mystery Miracle Worker.”

Immediately after she uttered the words, Rein slit her hand on the blade of the knife and the cut ignited with a dim, golden glow. When her blood came into contact with the captain’s, a streak of bright gold light shot up both their arms and disappeared at their hearts.

Rein observed the mahogany scar on her palm which bore a faint gleam, just like the prick on the captain’s finger. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, and Rein covered her mark with her glove.

“There,” said Rein. “Now, if you don’t answer my question honestly, with detail, and if I don’t obtain wings, the vow terminates itself. So, where do I find the Mystery Miracle Worker?”

Captain Tzatara chuckled as he stood from his seat and returned the book of wonders to his bookcase. “I admire ya, Little Pixie. That was very clever. But it was unnecessary. I be a man of my word.”

The captain removed the leather-bound journal, and brought it back to his desk.

“Ye were right that she lives on Roznova,” he continued as he unfolded the map in front of Rein. He pointed to a random inkblot. “She lives right there. Though it’s not that simple.” The captain flipped the map over to reveal more information written in Dovish. “She lives in a cave covered in much green. Once ya actually find the cave, there be three more caves inside, and once ya find the right cave again, her lair be behind a wall. It’s gonna take ya a while to find it, so listen carefully.

“The entrance to the first cave looks merely like a hill in the ground. Among the greenery be a willow tree, a glowflower bush, and a cluster of purple rocks. Usually the hill be covered in moss and leafy vines growing from the glowflower bush, so just move all those aside. Ye will reveal the opening, which be a large rock, but I fancy you’ll squeeze yerself in somehow. Once yer inside, go deep into that cave and you’ll come up to three other passages. Continue down the one on the far left. Farther inside, there will be a large crease in the wall shaped like a door to your left, but it blends in very well with the rocks, so be sure to look closely. There’s a torch hanging next to it, so that on top of knowing what you’re looking for should help ya find it. On the other side of that door be the Mystery Miracle Worker’s lair.”

“Lovely,” Rein said clearly not looking forward to this hunt. “I’ll need time to memorize all that. I assume you’ve gotten miracles done by her before?”

“Of course.”

“How do you pay?”

“You’ll have to figure out methods of payment with her.”

“I see.” Rein thought for a moment and glanced back at the map. “I need you to take me to Arcor.”

Captain Tzatara pursed his lips, clearly not liking this. He stood from his seat. “I suppose I have no choice.”

“You only need to take me close enough so that I can catch a bird to fly the rest of the way there.”

The captain shrugged as he approached his cabin doors. “Well that’s a little helpful since me first mate won’t be too thrilled when I tell him to head back to Arcor.”