Chapter 37
Chapter thirty-seven
Under Fire
“Cas, watch out!” Darion yelled. “Sentinels!”
I stood there, frozen, not knowing what to do. The man I had fallen for, the man who had lied to me so horribly, was running toward me, warning me of danger. But I couldn’t trust him. How did I know this wasn’t a trick?
“Of course it’s bloody Sentinels!” Rook shouted. “I should have known it would be something bad with you, Cas.”
Rook’s voice snapped me out of my daze, and I struggled with the final line at midship. “Leave it!” Rook yelled. He drew his sword and sliced the rope.
Darion was about halfway to us with Syra just behind him. Several members of the Royal Guard loaded their crossbows as the Sentinels stood at attention, chanting. I didn’t see how we could possibly escape. They were too close.
And then Syra made a hand signal and the chanting stopped.
The null field dropped.
A golden shimmer surrounded Syra as she started her transformation.
An instant later, a shimmer surrounded Darion. If he was a traitor and he used his Chronothene against us, we were finished. But instead of the betrayal I expected, Darion extended his Chronothene to me.
Time turned to molasses, and the world ground to a halt. I nearly spit up the few sips of ale in my stomach.
Darion turned and ran toward Syra, who was mid-transformation. He shoved her hard with everything he had. Suddenly I understood why he’d extended his Chronothene. Darion wanted me to see that he was helping us.
Time remained frozen as Darion walked up to me, a look of deep sadness in his eyes. I tightened my jaw and frowned. He had helped us, yes. But a rescue and a sad look weren’t going to fix this.
Time snapped back.
Syra flew into the Royal Guard with the force of a cannon just as they were firing their crossbows. The bolts shot off in random directions, all missing their marks. In an instant, Syra was back on her feet, back in her human form, her transformation interrupted.
She signaled with her hand again, and the null field returned. In a rush, it hit me: when she’d dropped the null field, she hadn’t expected Darion to use his Chronothene against her. She had thought Darion was on her side. But instead he’d protected us.
Jask raised her own crossbow, aiming it right at Darion; as far as she could tell, he was working with Syra and had just magically materialized next to me.
“No! Stop!” I shouted at her, standing in the path of fire. “He saved us.”
Jask kept her crossbow aimed at Darion but didn’t shoot.
“We’ll sort this out later,” Rook said. “Let’s go! Give us a push, will you, Cas?”
Both Darion and I grabbed the ship’s rail and pushed off the dock with all our might. The ship floated away from the shore with both of us holding on for dear life as the dock disappeared beneath our feet. The first crossbow bolts hit the hull just as we scampered up and over the bulwark.
The ship was already quite a ways from the dock as Syra approached the edge at full speed.
Even in the moonlight and at a distance, I could see the relentless look on her face, like she was a machine without emotion and with only one purpose.
I realized then that Syra wouldn’t stop until her task was done or she was dead.
And that realization sent a shudder through me.
She reached the edge of the dock and kicked off.
I couldn’t imagine that anyone could make that leap, but somehow she managed it, slamming into the edge of the hull, her arms draped over the railing.
Her hair and eyebrows were entirely singed off, and blisters covered her face and arms. The sight was so horrific that it made my legs buckle.
Part of me wanted to curl up and hide belowdecks.
Instead I steadied myself and drew my dagger, ready to slash at her fingers on the railing. But she moved with a frightening speed I hadn’t anticipated, and in a blink, she was halfway over the bulwark, drawing her sword.
A twang came from behind me, and a bolt from Jask’s crossbow buried itself in her shoulder. Syra let out a howl. For a split second, something in her face shifted. Gone was the mechanical, almost-blank look, replaced by…terror? Regret?
A second bolt hit her, and she recoiled, losing her balance, then falling over the edge with a large splash. I gave Jask a grateful nod as the adrenaline of the moment washed over me. But that look in Syra’s eyes was stuck in my mind.
Rook finished hoisting the mainsail, and with a snap of canvas, the ship glided forward eagerly. In the distance, the Royal Guard stood at the dock, still firing their crossbows, but at this range, none of them came close to hitting their mark.
The Wind Runner cut through the water with ease and plunged into the darkness.
“Will somebody please tell me what in all the hells is going on?” Rook said. “Why are Sentinels after us, and who in all the hells is this?” He gestured to Darion, who sat on the deck with a wretched look on his face.
I stayed quiet, as interested as Rook to hear what Darion had to say. Probably more interested. The silence was deafening, with only the sound of the hull cutting through the waves.
“It’s complicated,” Darion finally offered, his eyes locked on mine.
Rook turned to me with a look of impatience. “Okay, your turn. Why shouldn’t I throw this man overboard?”
“We’d be dead without Darion,” I said simply.
“So you know him,” Rook said.
“I thought I did,” I said.
Rook looked between the two of us. “Okay, clearly there’s something going on between you two. Which…fine. Whatever. But I still need to know why the blasted Crown is chasing us.”
Darion sighed. “They’re hunting Cas. And now I’m sure they’re hunting me, too.”
Now they were hunting him?
Rook shook his head and ran his hand through his scraggly beard. “You really are in deep, aren’t you, Cas? Royal Guards? Sentinels? And who in all the hells was that hanging off my ship?”
“I never expected to bring all this to you,” I said to Rook. “I had no idea I was being tracked so closely.” I turned back to Darion. “How am I being tracked so closely?”
“The Crown has figured out how to amplify Veilsense. Sentinels can now sense innate Embers.”
I shuddered. Sentinels could track me for just being myself? “And how long have you known this?” I snapped.
“Since yesterday,” Darion said.
“Wait,” Rook interjected. “They can track us? Are they tracking us right now?”
“Not this far out at sea,” Darion said. “When we go to shore, yes. But I can show Cas how to suppress his Embers.”
“That assumes they aren’t already pursuing us,” Rook said. “And Grey Spit is clearly off the table. The Royal Guard will be all over that dock.”
“They aren’t following us. Or at least, they aren’t close,” I said. As we had sailed away, the thrumming of the Sentinels had faded and hadn’t come back.
“And how would you know that?” Rook asked with a critical look.
“I…I have a sense for these things.”
Rook scoffed. “Well, that’s a relief,” he said, his words dripping in sarcasm. “Even if we escape, this ship is burned for smuggling without a complete refit. The last thing I need is more attention from the Crown.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” I said.
“Damn right you will,” Rook said.
“So where can we land besides Grey Spit?” I asked.
“We have options,” Rook said. “But first we need to be sure we aren’t being tracked. So you”—Rook pointed at me, then at Darion—“and you need to figure your shite out.”
With Jask piloting the ship and Rook acting as lookout, Darion and I were suddenly alone for the first time since we’d entered the prison wagon.
It felt strange being this close to Darion, and I was filled with an odd mix of longing, sadness, and past memories, all tainted by his deception.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” he said. “But I hope at some point, you can at least understand.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’d planned to. But it’s hard. It’s the part of myself I hate the most. And then you told me that Orlik had killed—” Darion choked on his words, and tears leaked out. “Gods, I’m so sorry, Cas!”
Seeing Darion break down sent a jolt of anguish through me, but I fought it back and kept my expression neutral.
“When I saw you in the cell talking to that…that monster…” I tried to keep my composure, but the memory was so painful, and it filled me with an ugly anger. “Watching you talk to him like he was a normal person… He was laughing. You have no idea what that did to me.”
“Seeing you in the darkness, witnessing that, was one of the worst moments of my life,” Darion said, despair on his face.
“So…is Orlik Emberborn?” I asked.
“No,” Darion said. “He hates Emberborn. Only my mother was. And he still doesn’t know that I am. It sickens me every time I have to talk to him. Every time I have to pretend.”
“So you’re…what? Like, a spy?” I asked.
“I’ve been providing information to the Order. And disinformation to Orlik, when I can.”
“I don’t understand how you can do it,” I said. “I literally don’t.”
Darion opened his mouth to speak, but I put up my hand. “No,” I said, forceful enough to make him stop. This was too much to hear at once, and I was swirling with conflicting emotions that I didn’t know how to process. Hearing more from him now would only make things worse.
“I’m going to need some time,” was all I was able to say.
Darion nodded slowly, a deep frown on his face. “Of course.”
There was a long pause during which we both remained silent, looking out at the sea.
It was Darion who finally spoke. “Well, I guess Rook gave us a job.”
“Huh?” I asked. “Oh, suppressing my Ember?”
“Yes. They can sense even the smallest bit of Ember within you.”
“I didn’t even think I was using Ember with my innate abilities.”
“All Emberborn have some within them. I can feel it coursing through me all the time,” Darion said. “But I’ve learned to suppress it. It takes some practice, but eventually it becomes second nature.”
“And you’re doing that now?” I asked.
“I am.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of turning off part of who I am,” I said. “Do you think that if I shut it off, it will mute things like my memory and climbing ability?”
“Perhaps. But hopefully you can learn to control it enough that it gives you exactly what you need when you need it. Are you willing to give it a try?”
I didn’t love the idea, but I didn’t see an alternative, at least not while we were being actively hunted. “Yeah. Let’s try it.”
Darion talked me through the process. It involved reaching into my mind, isolating a part that felt like a warm, flowing river, and then damming it up.
It was the opposite of reaching out with my abilities.
After only a small amount of practice, I was able to at least mute the Ember flowing through me.
But I didn’t enjoy it. It felt unnatural, and I had to concentrate every moment to keep it turned off.
I hadn’t realized just how intertwined with my very being it was until I knew what it felt not to have it.
It felt no different from closing my eyes, or plugging my ears, or even holding my breath. It was stifling.
I hated having to turn off a part of myself.
“How did you learn to do this?” I asked.
Darion looked me in the eye. “Given where I grew up, it was learn to suppress my Ember or die.”