The Baron's Man

They set the man on a long table. He was in a tight, wet, white and gold outfit, the white and gold, being the colour of the Baron's house. There was sand in his hair, part of his face, and it also stuck on his dress. Among two thousand men, he was the only man breathing.

Anna knew she wasn't supposed to be here, but for some reason, her father let her. She looked at the man gently stir, opened his eyes, and forced him to a sitting position with shock written on his face. Suddenly, he began to scream, not recognizing those around him, or from a different cause which could be that he was seeing something else.

"Please," he cried. "I promised that I would tell them."

Lord White's men dressed back, and the Baron's man placed both hands to his ears.

"Stop whispering," he said with a low pitiful tone. "Stop with the voices. I heard you the first time. Please. Please. Don't kill me. I will warn them, I promise."

Everyone stood silent, watching.

The Baron's man fell silent, and made prayer like whispers. He opened his eyes, looked around the room, then slowly, he dropped his hands. His chest was rising hard and falling, his eyes darted from corner to corner in fright.

"Relax, friend," Lord White said. "We are friends. We are here to help."

The man whispered, "Here to help."

"Yes," Lord White said. "Here to help. What happened to your men, and ships?"

The man closed his eyes, and quickly shook his head as if in an attempt to shake off a dreadful memory, but it wouldn't leave. He looked up at Lord White. "She said it would not leave."

"Who said?" Lord White asked.

The man smiled. It was a smile of caution, one meant to be heeded. "The red one. She is the eldest. Yes. She is. It was her colour you saw at the coast. She said she would leave it there for you to find." He frowned, shut his eyes, and shook his head again. He opened his gaze and locked them with Lord White. "She said it would not leave. She warned that the memory and the whispers would not leave until I warned you."

"What was her warning?"

"You are not to come looking for them."

"Them?" Lord White inquired. He needed to be sure he meant the five whispers.

"Yes. They are five. All beautiful goddesses, made from the sea, and the silence of trees. Seek out silence, and you'll find them in peace. Seek out trouble, or dare shout amongst trees, and you'll also find them. However, the latter wouldn't bode well for the person who does. The former, you will find them, and with love."

"What happened?" Anna asked, out of place.

The man turned to look at her. She hadn't changed her dress, but that didn't matter. The dress was beginning to dry already, although moist, it still revealed her exquisite form.

"We were at sea," the man said, trying to recall the event. "One of the men told me to go fetch the dogs so they could feast on them, prisoners. I didn't want to watch, or bring the dogs. I was forced into this life by the Baron. He said it was a courtesy to spare my family from the horrors of war, and for them to enjoy the protection he offered. Every man was supposed to watch. So I got the dogs with the other men, and we watched them devour these men. The growls of the dogs and the dying screams of these prisoners made the men laugh except me. You see, these prisoners were only pregnant ladies, mothers, children, frail old men, and family men. They didn't do us any harm. The men were just hungry, and they needed the dogs to kill them so they could divide the spoils.

"Well, the dogs killed the last of these prisoners, suddenly, their growls turned to whimpers. With fright on their faces, they looked with caution into the air all around us and began to bark. Uninterested in taking bites from their kills, they began to back away. Some jumped into the sea, and quickly the water took them. We heard no more barking. Not even the waves of the sea. Everywhere around us fell silent, and you could tell the men were holding their breath, not knowing what to expect. Everyone wore distress on their faces, dread settled on us like a heavy blanket. You could feel the weight crashing on us, and it was then we saw them. Five naked ladies, bobbing up and down in the sea. Their plump breasts were well revealed, but their secrets below were hidden by the very same sea.

"They laughed at us, high cackles, one you would associate with evil, then darkness settled all around us. I first heard rips, then screams, followed by cracks, splashing, and thuds. The darkness lifted, and one stood before me. The one with the red hair. She had red eyes, and a very beautiful form. I've never seen anyone so beautiful. She really was pleasing to behold, but something about her heightened the initial fear I felt, and I believed I was going to die."

"Did she say her name?" Anna asked.

The man shook his head. "No. She didn't. She just introduced herself as the silence around us. But that for now, she was reclined to the sea for some reason, and that, however, she would be on land soon." He looked at Anna's father. "She said to warn you, Lord White. She said she knows who you are, and knows what your family did to her. She said to warn you not to come looking for her. She made it very clear before she let me sail to the coast. I didn't move with the sea. She commanded the sea and it took the ship, while a wave carried me to the coast. I believed she was still with me. That's why I screamed. Did anyone survive?"

Lord White shook his head. "You're the only one who survived." But his warning didn't matter. Before the Baron brought his large company to Crest Hill to kill the people under his protection, he would find these ladies and would have them chained, ready to be delivered to the Baron. After all, no one had more power in all the land than the Baron, and Kings and Lords he answered to. These ladies were nothing.

Rose Steele's whisper heard him and smiled. "I'll be waiting, White. It's time we did catch up."

Anna looked at the air above her, sensing, but seeing nothing...

Rose's whisper sailed away.