29. Twenty-nine
Chapter 29
So this is it, I thought. This is how I die.
It wasn’t a calm thought, not in the slightest. I was not at peace. But it was so obvious to me how this was going to end that I couldn’t even begin coming up with a plan.
The ravens had reached the end of the dock and were unfolding in a way no bird was meant to do. Black feathered bodies stretched and split, opening to their true forms. It was just like Kalcedon and his Osprey spell. Only the feathers didn’t shed and drift away; they simply ceased to be. It was a neater transformation than his, nothing wasted.
They weren’t human. Not a drop. They must have crossed over in one of the moments when the Ward was down. Whether they were responsible for its failing or were mere opportunists, I could not say.
The faeries took their true forms in a blaze of unguarded heat.
A male and a female stood in front of me, tall and thin with dragonfly wings and leaf-green skin. Shiny armor plated like beetle-shells. Swords of blood-red metal.
Oraik screamed. He stumbled back, only to trip and fall onto the bottom of the boat.
Both faeries charged.
Their power unfurled around them as loose and lazy as a summer’s day, thrumming through my bones and burning straight to my core. I’d always expected pure fae creatures to be powerful beyond comprehension, but to my surprise they felt shades weaker than Kalcedon. They must have spent too much on the fog and the raven forms.
So, like I’d done a hundred times to Kalcedon, I reached forward and shoved my hands into their magic, taking fistfuls instead of pinches. The female realized first. She dragged her power back as the male thrust his sword towards me.
Too late. Too slow. My hands spun, forming phrases faster than I’d ever dared, trusting my endless hours of study to get it right without having the time to think.
My shield snapped in front of us. It wasn’t a fancy one, but it was efficient.
The male’s sword shattered on impact, crumbling into dust. Still hurling towards me, he slammed into the shield and jerked back, nearly falling. It might have been funny if I weren’t still convinced I was about to die. I’d never seen someone run head-first into the invisible equivalent of a brick wall.
A spell shot out from the female, a narrow piercing blade. It shattered on my shield too. I wished I’d gotten further with Tarelay’s work, since then maybe I could have grabbed her attack and used the magic to my own purposes. Instead it simply failed to reach us.
“Get the sail down,” I begged Oraik. My fingers were still twisted into the shield.
“I don’t know how,” he wailed. One trembling hand half-blocked his face as if he was scared to look at the faeries head-on.
The male’s face opened in a silent fanged roar, anger removing his last vestiges of human resemblance. Behind him, the female paced, her cat-like eyes not leaving Oraik. Her lips moved as if she were saying something, but I couldn’t hear it.
“That rope. Pull that rope, below the knot.”
He scrambled up and did as he was told.
I’d meant to take us away from everything. But the faeries would inevitably follow, and I couldn’t trust the same trick to work twice.
We were going to have to trust the Colynes. It was our only chance at escape. I couldn’t call Kalcedon without dropping the shield.
The sail unfurled; in wavering words I directed Oraik how to catch the wind and pull us away from the docks.
The spell was heavy in my hands, dragging on my fingers so hard they screamed. I wasn’t sure how much longer the spell would hold, but it had to. I had to keep the shield going until we reached the safety of the Colynes tal-rih and the witches there. I hoped they were strong enough to help us fend off the faeries.
Oraik was speechless as we sailed towards the Colynes ship, just carrying out my commands wordlessly. The faeries stayed rooted to the shore, and soon we couldn’t see them anymore. The shadow remained heavy over the town.
“What will happen to them? Those people?” he finally asked in a voice so soft I barely heard it.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s my fault. Isn’t it?”
“You didn’t make it happen.” I shivered. I was starting to feel the end of their magic, and I knew that soon if I didn’t drop the spell the cold was coming for me. We were getting close to the Colynes vessel now. The warship reared overhead like a mountain next to us, but I still didn’t dare drop the shield. Not yet. Not until I absolutely had to. Once I let go of the magic there was no getting it back.
The ship behind it was visible now, too, no longer hazy from a distance. It was another warship. Its sails were white, its flags white-and-gold. Cachian.
“But if I hadn’t been there,” Oraik said, still focused on the town. His shoulders were hunched over. I’d never seen Oraik look so defeated.
“You couldn’t have known. Can you try to get their attention, up there?”
“I think they’ve seen us already,” he said. But he stood and waved.
“Why don’t I ever see a Colynes ship without a Cachian one trailing it?” I wasn’t expecting him to answer.
“It’s Crown’s Right.”
“What?”
“It’s just some stupid… they can’t arrest my father or his generals on Colynes soil.” I noted that he looked frustrated now instead of frightened. “For, you know. War crimes. Because he’s still king there. But they can nab him if he ever goes ashore elsewhere.”
“What, they’re hoping he’ll stick his neck out?”
“Oh, they know he won’t.” The warship signaled back to us with a flashing mirror. Its sails dropped and the ship’s progress slowed. “It’s meant to be a statement, I think. I don’t know. I avoided as much of that political mess as I could at the Temple, but people liked to talk.”
It was one thing to regard a ship from an elevated dock. It was another to be in a tiny sailboat in the ship’s path. If it plowed into us, we’d be churned under and snapped in half. I realized I was going to have to drop the shield now. I still had a lick of stolen fae heat I could burn through, but I needed to work the boat. The extent of Oraik’s sailing knowledge seemed to be the instructions I’d given him between the village and here. I didn’t trust him to pull my boat cleanly beside the warship.
I peered quickly around for the faeries. Seeing no sign of them, I let the shield fall. What little heat was left went with it as I took control of my sail again.
“I suppose it makes it hard for him to start another war, too,” Oraik said. We were lined up with the warship now. The sailors above dropped a rope ladder, followed by hoist-loops. I’d never attached them to a boat, but I started trying to figure it out.
“Hold,” a sailor shouted from above. I glanced up; he was laughing at us. Two men shimmied down the rope ladder with a frightening speed, bowed to Oraik, and practically tackled the ropes.
“Thank you,” I said.
I could have cried with relief.
We were here. I’d done it. I didn’t trust Colynes as far as I could cast a line, but Oraik was their prince. There was still the rest of the Ward and the royals and the faeries to worry about, but now he didn’t have to rely on me alone for protection.
“You can go up,” one of the sailors said. “We’ll get her lifted.”
Oraik was looking nervously at the rope ladder.
“You first.”
“I’m wearing skirts.”
“Please?” he whispered. “They’re staring at me. And go slowly?”
I had to feel a little pity for a prince who’d probably never climbed a ladder before, rope or otherwise. There were now at least fifteen sailors peering over the edge of the ship and trying to get a look at their royal passenger.
I wondered if it was the same ship Kalcedon and I had visited. Then captain Ozeri herself appeared at the railing, evidently just as intent on seeing Oraik with her own eyes.
There was a gap of at least two feet between the swaying boat and the huge ship, and the curve of the hull meant the rope dangled out in open air. I took a deep breath, inched to the edge of the sailboat, and jumped. I managed to grab hold of the rope ladder with one hand and get my other arm speared through a rung. My body swung forward towards the ship as I kicked to find the footholds. Then, dizzyingly, I swung back into the open air. But now I was situated, and I hadn’t even ended up in the water. I climbed up five of the rungs and peered back. Oraik stared up at me with a grimace on his face.
“Don’t hesitate. Just go,” I said.
“Don’t rush me.”
“You’ll be fine.”
He didn’t jump. He stood at the edge of the boat, feet shoulder-width apart and hands up in front of him. Then he practically toppled forward, clawed at the rope, and got it in hand as his feet slipped out from under him.
“See, nothing to it,” I said. Oraik didn’t answer. He just pulled himself up and slowly started to climb, mouth set in concentration and eyes staring straight ahead instead of up. I looked back to my own progress, mindful not to take the ropes faster than Oraik.
At last I reached the top. Two burly men reached forward to haul me up.
“Don’t,” I said, as I felt the stranger’s hands closing around my waist and shoulders. They backed off. Awkwardly I threw one leg over the side of the ship, then the other, and hopped down to the deck with my limbs shaking.
It was a large ship, the dark wooden deck divided into terraces at different heights. Two masts made from the limbless bones of great trees—many times taller than any that grew in Nis—sprouted in the middle, branching into webs of rope, yards, and cloth. Uniformed sailors, each armed with a sword, populated the expanse of wood. Trim wolf-boats hung from the sides of the ship; two mounted skein-bows sat on each side of the deck for ranged combat.
With a grunt, Oraik’s head appeared. Then his shoulders. None of the men offered to help him, perhaps assuming he wouldn’t need it. Oraik pulled himself over slowly. He landed on his knees, his back to the men, and slowly stood and turned.
“Welcome, your highness,” Ozeri said. She bowed, and then all the soldiers did as well.
“We were attacked by faeries not half an hour back,” I said. “Someone’s after Oraik.”
“ Prince Oraik,” Ozeri corrected me. “Who in horns are you?” Evidently I hadn’t made a strong enough impression before.
“This is my friend Meda,” Oraik said, before I could answer. “Are you captain Ozeri?”
The captain gave him a measuring look, lip curling down. I expect if she enjoyed serving the Colynes king, she might find Oraik wanting.
The two sailors who’d gone down to help shimmied up so fast it seemed like they flew. Behind them came the rope ladder. Inch by inch my boat rose as a group of sailors turned the crank the lines were attached to.
“If you weren’t Galen’s bastard I’d skin you alive,” Ozeri said to Oraik.
“And yet, sadly for us all, I am. We’re headed to Erital?” He responded flatly, naming the Colynes capital.
“Fast as the witch-winds will carry us. And you can explain to your royal father why we are late.”
I feared that Ozeri hadn’t paid me any attention, that she didn’t realize what sort of threat we were up against. That she’d thought I was lying when I said faeries, or that I really meant to say witches.
“Pardon me,” I said, drawing myself up to my full height. “The village we were at was attacked. I’m sure you’ve heard from the Cachians that somebody is targeting members of the royal lines. Two faeries, not witches, faeries —”
“Enough,” Ozeri said, with a voice like iron. “I am aware of the situation, tiffa.” From her mouth the word was an insult. She looked at Oraik, who gulped. “You are not dressed according to your station.”
“Well, no,” Oraik admitted, tugging at the hem of Nikkos’ oversized shirt. “It’s a funny story, actually—”
“You and your consort —” Ozeri interrupted.
“I’m not a consort,” I protested. “I’m a witch .”
“—will go make yourselves decent.” The captain glared me into silence.
I waited for Oraik to snap back at her, but Oraik wasn’t Kalcedon, and apparently he was cowed. He nodded meekly and clasped his hands behind his back, eyes trained on the deck.
“This way,” Ozeri said. “The rest of you, get me back on course.” The sailors sprung into action.
Following Adaya Ozeri, Oraik and I descended into the belly of the ship.