Chapter 24
Rana sighed and sat beside me at the morning fire. I had tended it most of the night, unable to sleep, so the flames still burned hot enough to not be put out in the downpouring rain.
Rana pulled her coat up higher around her neck with another sigh. “I hate rain. Veyyr, you said we get to the beach today?”
Veyyr stared at the girl like she had spouted Latin at him. I realized she didn’t often address him directly, working more through me or Lucky, or even Harrison.
“Yes,” he stood, arms folded across his chest, looking into the flames. “The beach isn’t far, half a day walk.”
I had spent my night putting my veilrunner and our bond aside—I had time, Sorrow had said I had time, and I needed to get Veyyr through this next leg of his quest. Because as much as I hated not going to find her, I could not let Veyyr face what he considered to be his death, alone.
Maybe we were enemies in our past.
But in the time that we’d traveled together, in the tunnels below, and on the bridge above, we’d found a sort of steady balance that looked a lot like friendship.
In the deepest part of the night, while everyone slept, I let myself examine what he might mean to me…something more than a friend. Sure, we’d had the hot and heavy moments but one of us had always pulled away.
And nothing ever happened in the in-between. Maybe because of Thorn. Maybe because of me.
I could admit it to myself and no one else that I was a fucking mess. Was I uniquely talented? Sure, that made me valuable. Was I a good fighter? Absolutely. Again, that added to my value.
But I had no memory. And when the memories hit me like a giant’s bat, I came unglued.
Thorn was hunting me.
I didn’t like being bossed.
And apparently, I was a cunt in my previous life. That last was perhaps the hardest for me to swallow, even though I had enough evidence from those I’d encountered to understand that it was true.
I touched the ring on my left hand. This though, this connection to a black veilrunner mare it was something more.
Even though the memory was rusty and barely there her love and belief in me, those I could still feel.
“You coming, Tracker?”
I snapped out of my fog. “Yeah. Just tired.”
“Not a good day to be tired,” Lucky hefted the majority of the bags now that Rana was on her feet. “We gotta find a way across the channel.”
I held up a hand like I was in class. “Water, we have to cross a large body of water?”
Harrison and Lucky both nodded but it was Veyyr I was waiting on. He was checking his weapons, deliberately not looking at me. “Yes, a large body of water.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Anyone else see a problem with this?”
Lucky kicked dirt over the fire. “Other than the magic induced storms that come up whenever they feel like? Monsters that rise from the deep?”
Harrison chimed in. “Dragons roosting on the cliffs above watching for an easy meal? Or even if you cross to the first island, you’re now on land imbued with a coven’s worth of magic and tricks? Those sorts of problems?”
They didn’t say the one thing that I was pretty sure was the bigger issue, ahead of all those terrible things.
Before I could say anything, Lucky was back at it as he held a hand to Rana. “Don’t worry, little flower. Look, that’s the beauty of Veyyr’s magic. He can calm the storms. He can push us with the wind across the channel. Really, if you look at it that way, all we have to worry about is—”
“The water elementals that will want to steal him away to make little baby Storm Lords?” I offered.
Lucky’s mouth hung open.
Harrison froze. “Oh. Shit.”
Veyyr glared at me. “I wasn’t going to assume—”
Rana clapped her hands. “Oh! She’s right. Even if I don’t fully remember the bridge, from what you all told me…that elemental really wanted you. My mother said that the elemental lines were no longer as strong as they once were. That they are looking for more…um…options.”
We all just looked at her until her cheeks went pink. “I…that’s just what I heard.”
“Options.” Lucky snickered. “They want a good fuc…romp with our little Storm Lord over here. I mean, if you must pick a way to go out of this life, what a fucking way.” He gestured with his hips far too close to Rana, Harrison snatched her out of the way.
“Get a hold of yourself, dude.”
“Can’t. Too many people around.” He winked and laughed and I rolled my eyes.
Harrison took Rana by the hand and tugged her further back. “Hey, pull your shit together. I don’t think we should even go to the beach.”
“Not your decision.” Veyyr turned and walked away.
“It affects all of us.” I pointed out. “It might not kill you, Veyyr, to get snagged by a bunch of Undines,” wow, that word was dredged up from my head somewhere, and Harrison tipped his head to me in an obvious question, “sorry, water elementals, but you’ll be lost to us either way.”
Lost to me.
Ah, fuck. Had that slipped through the bond to him?
“You have a better idea?” He looked over his shoulder, that quarter slice of his face I was so familiar with, tattoos and hair braided back. Damn him for looking that good first thing in the morning.
“She probably does. She’s very clever,” Rana said.
Veyyr shot her a look. “I think I liked you better when you were sleeping.”
She grinned up at him and took his hand; the same way she’d take Lucky or Harrison’s. “Pish posh, this is much more fun.”
I wondered what she was saying to him in his head to convince him. Maybe nothing.
But a few minutes later, Veyyr paused, shook his hand free of Rana’s and motioned for me to take the lead. “After you then, solver of problems.”
He almost bowed as I went by him. Almost.
I led the way, because I did have an idea brewing and tumbling over in my head.
The problem was that I had a solution, I just didn’t know how to make the solution work.
And it was a crazy solution, absolutely bonkers, unhinged, as dangerous as any other option but… if it worked…it was our best option.
In large part because of something Stheno had said about her sister.
What Harrison had said about there being dragons.
Half the morning went by before the smell of salt reached my nose. The ocean was still a way off, but we were closer.
“Everyone give me a good twenty feet between us,” I said. “Just in case.”
“Sacrificial?” Lucky offered.
“Pragmatic. No elemental will want me, but it will buy us time if they show up for Storm Boy.”
“Storm Boy,” Rana whispered next to me. “That’s funny.
He won’t like that.” She started to skip, jumping and hopping along next to me, aiming for all the puddles.
I wondered if she’d ever seen so much water, coming from a place that had been more desert than lush.
No, that couldn’t be right, she had said she hated the rain.
“Can you tell me what you think might work?”
The distance between us and the others was big enough that I didn’t think they’d hear me. Mostly because like being called Storm Boy, Veyyr wasn’t going to like the first step in my plan.
“I need to talk to someone who has a greater grasp on this world and the magic than I do. Someone nearby.”
Rana frowned up at me, her eyes full of questions. “Like a witch? Like…Thorn?”
“Goddess no, not her!” I laughed. “She probably could solve this problem, but seeing as she is hunting me, I think it best not to offer myself up to her, don’t you?”
She bobbed her head, eyes darting away. “That makes sense. Who then?”
“A new friend. One I can trust.”
“You can trust me,” Rana said softly.
I took her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. “I know that. But this is a bigger problem than you or I can solve on our own.”
She seemed satisfied with that answer at least. Sorrow flitted ahead, landing and then launching as we caught up. He didn’t like the weather any more than I did.
The rain that had been going on all day hadn’t let up by the time I could hear the waves crashing along the surf.
The wind pulled and tugged at what little it could—our clothes were sodden, so they weren’t moving that much. Rana still seemed thrilled with the whole walk, but of course to her it was an adventure.
Maybe a hundred feet from me the rocky path began to turn to sand. I held up a hand, stopping the three behind me. “I am going alone from here. Give me an hour, if I’m not back…well, assume I’m dead.”
Veyyr grunted. “I can find you with the bond.”
“Right, that too.” I adjusted my weapons, patted Rana on the head and jogged down the path. With the cliffs far to my right, that was where I needed to get first. Not to the top where the dragons were, but below.
“I hope you were right about this, Stheno. And that your sister is as reasonable as you.”
Reasonable was relative. Stheno hadn’t really asked for anything from me other than a meal. I’d given her a coat, but that was different—
“I’m coming with you.” Harrison caught up with me. “No one is looking for me.”
His brown eyes flecked with bits of gold were so serious, and he looked a hell of a lot like a lost, kicked puppy.
“You don’t even know what I’m doing.”
“Solving a problem.” He gave me a lopsided grin, still holding the siphon spear.
I sighed. “You can guard my back, okay?”
He gave me two thumbs up, the infectious energy matching the puppy dog eyes. We settled into an easy jog, keeping as far from the water as we could.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I think there is someone near here that I can get some information from. A way across the water that will be safer than braving the elementals,” I glanced over at the surf, the waves absolutely smashing anything within reach.
“I didn’t think about the elementals,” he said quietly. “I forget sometimes, you know? He’s just my brother.”
Sorrow swept along with us, silent, but seeing me along. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to do any more than Veyyr would. But I would make it happen.
“Do you love him?”
I tripped over a log, spun, stumbled and stopped in my tracks to stare at Harrison.
“Pardon what the fuck?”