Chapter 17 #2
Vic pushed through to my side, his face ashen. "This is impossible," he muttered. "We're in a dead realm. The portal hasn't been used in centuries."
"Then how?" Kora demanded, gripping the rail so hard her knuckles went white.
"He must have an Orrery," Vic said, his voice dropping to a horrified whisper.
"A what?" I asked.
"A tracking device. Incredibly rare, almost exclusively used by the Assembly.
It can trace magical signatures across vast distances.
" His eyes widened with sudden understanding.
"The codex. He must have planted something in its binding after the exchange. A Last Light crystal, maybe. They emit quite a unique frequency. An Orrery can sense that.”
So Gideon wasn't some idiot smuggler after all.
"Everyone arm yourselves!" Cypher shouted. "Defensive positions! Knives, ready the main cannon!"
The crew scattered to obey, while I stood frozen, watching The Reckoning descend toward us. It was a predator, and we were trapped prey with nowhere to run.
“Scavenger.” Cypher was suddenly beside me. "Get below deck."
"No." I shook my head. "I'm not hiding."
"This isn't about hiding," he hissed. "If Gideon realizes what you are, what you can do—"
"Then what? He'll try to use me like you did?"
Pain flashed across his face. "Please. Just once more, trust me."
"Too late for that," I said, but even as the words left my lips, I knew I couldn't abandon the crew. Whatever Cypher had done, they didn't deserve to face this alone. "I'll be with Kora."
He looked like he wanted to argue further, but a deafening mechanical groan from The Reckoning cut him off. A hatch was opening in its underside, revealing a smaller craft being lowered on chains. A landing skiff.
"They're coming aboard," Jask called from the starboard rail.
The skiff landed on the ice about fifty yards from our position. The hatch opened, and figures began to disembark. At least a dozen armed men, followed by a tall figure in an expensive coat trimmed with fur.
Gideon Pike.
Even from this distance, I could see his smile as he surveyed our ship. He gestured to his men, who formed a protective semicircle around him as he began walking toward us across the ice.
"Should we fire?" Knives called, her hands hovering over the cannon controls.
"Not yet," Cypher replied, deadly calm. "Let's see what he wants."
We all knew what he wanted. The codex. And probably our heads on spikes.
Gideon stopped at the edge of the gangplank, his men fanning out behind him. He looked exactly as I remembered—handsome in a deceptive way, with perfectly styled hair and clothes too fine for a smuggler.
"Captain Cypher!" he called, his voice carrying easily across the distance. "What an unexpected pleasure to find you in such a remote location."
Cypher stepped forward, one hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. "Pike. You're a long way from your usual hunting grounds."
"Indeed." Gideon smiled wider. "But for the right prize, I'm willing to travel. Speaking of which..." His gaze swept the deck until it landed on me. "Ah, there she is. The scavenger who brought me a worthless book."
I felt the crew tense around me. Kora edged closer to my side, her hand slipping to the dagger at her belt.
"What do you want, Pike?" Cypher's voice had dropped dangerously low.
"What's rightfully mine." Gideon's smile vanished. "The codex and the rift."
My stomach dropped. He knew. Somehow, he knew what I could do.
"You're mistaken," Cypher replied evenly. "If the book didn't work for you, perhaps you lack the necessary understanding to use it. That's just not my fault."
Gideon laughed, the sound like ice cracking.
"You weren't as clever as you think. Did you really believe I wouldn't discover your manipulation?
That I wouldn't track you to the edges of the Gallery?
I know exactly what you're searching for.
The Genesis Engine. And I will be the one to find it, not you. "
"You have no idea what you're dealing with, Pike." Cypher's posture shifted subtly, and I recognized the coiled tension that preceded violence. "Walk away while you still can."
"Oh, I don't think so." Gideon nodded to his men. "Take the ship. Kill everyone except the rift and the captain. I want them both alive."
Everything happened at once. Gideon's men surged forward as Knives fired the cannon, the crystal blast shattering the ice where two of them had stood a moment before. Zoya's wind magic swept another off his feet, sending him tumbling back across the frozen ground.
Tor's terra magic cracked the ice beneath the attackers' feet. Knives and Jask moved in perfect sync, their blades flashing in the pale light.
I found myself backed against the mast with Kora, surrounded by chaos. A man with a jagged scar across his jaw lunged toward us. Kora parried his first thrust, but his second caught her off guard, slicing across her arm. She cried out, stumbling back.
The scar-faced man lunged again as I pulled Kora behind me. I parried with my own blade, the clash of metal ringing in my ears. My arms trembled with the force of the impact, but Knives' training held. I pushed back, creating just enough space to spin away from his next attack.
But there were too many. They swarmed the deck like insects, overwhelming us with sheer numbers. I lost sight of Kora in the chaos, desperately slashing at anyone who came too close.
"Juno, down!" Tor's voice boomed across the deck.
I dropped instantly as a blast of terra magic carrying shards of wooden projectiles flew over my head, catching one of Gideon's men square in the chest. He flew backward, crashing into the railing with a sickening crack.
When I regained my footing, my blood turned to ice. The terra elemental woman—the same one who'd first approached us in the Hollow Market months ago—had Kora pinned against the mainmast, a blade pressed to her throat.
"Nobody moves!" she shouted, her voice carrying over the battle.
Jask's anguished cry tore through the air. "Kora!" He fought desperately to reach her, but three of Gideon's men had him cornered against the rail, driving him further from her with each thrust.
"Let her go!" I screamed, starting toward them.
A hand grabbed my arm, yanking me backward as a blade whistled past my face, close enough that I felt the air displacement. I spun to find myself facing another of Gideon's men, his teeth bared in a feral grin.
I glimpsed Cypher cutting his way toward me, his movements a blur of deadly accuracy that could only stem from a lifetime of fighting just to live another day. Gideon intercepted him, their blades meeting with a sound like thunder.
"You should have stayed dead, Nytherian," Gideon snarled, pressing his attack.
I barely had time to watch before my own attacker lunged again. I dodged, but not quickly enough. White-hot pain lanced across my cheek as his blade caught me. Warm blood trickled down my face and I screamed.
I heard Cypher's rage from across the deck. "JUNO!"
Darkness gathered around Cypher, coalescing along his blade like living ink. Black tendrils writhed and undulated, extending the reach of his weapon. His once copper eyes blackened as he cut down four men in rapid succession, each falling with expressions of shock frozen on their faces.
I couldn't process what I was seeing. Cypher had never demonstrated such magic before. What were those shadows? What was happening?
Cypher's roar echoed across the deck, a sound of pure anguish and rage that I’d never once heard from the stoic captain. I watched in horror as he abandoned all pretense of control, delivering a savage kick that sent Gideon sprawling across the deck.
He stalked towards the smuggler, eyes black as the void, without a speck of copper to be seen. Shadows writhed around him as he loomed over Pike. "Touch her, and I will unravel your soul until the void itself forgets your name."
Dread slithered through me at the promise. Not for Pike, but for Cypher. He was consumed. Lost to the rage.
Kora screamed as the terra elemental pressed her blade harder against her throat, drawing a thin line of crimson that trickled down her pale skin.
Something inside me shattered.
The First Anchor burned white-hot against my chest, and the whispers that had haunted the edges of my consciousness suddenly roared into a deafening chorus. I felt my control slipping—no, not slipping. Being deliberately, consciously released.
"Come to me," I whispered, though no one could possibly hear me.
The darkness responded. Not the absence of light, but something tangible, ancient, alive. It poured from me in waves, rolling across the deck like black fog. I saw Cypher's eyes widen in recognition, in warning, but it was too late.
My magic—if that's what this was—exploded outward, engulfing everything. The ship, the ice, Gideon's men, the crew—all of it consumed by the First Dark as it answered my call.
The solid world dissolved around us. The sounds of battle ceased, replaced by an absolute silence so thick all I wanted to do was scream just to break it. Then we were falling, or perhaps floating, through endless darkness.
I caught fleeting glimpses of the others—Kora's red hair like a flame in the void, Tor's massive silhouette tumbling away from me, Cypher reaching desperately in my direction before the darkness separated us completely.
Then I was alone. Truly, terrifyingly alone.
The First Dark surrounded me. Not empty, but filled with whispers and half-formed shapes that drifted at the edge of perception.
I stumbled forward, though "forward" had no meaning in this lightless realm.
There was no up or down, no direction at all.
Just the sensation of movement through something thicker than air but less substantial than water.
How long I wandered, I couldn't say. Time had no meaning here. The whispers grew louder, then softer, sometimes forming words I almost understood before dissolving back into meaningless sound.