31. Adrian
Adrian
We both rushed back to the ship, looking like a pair of wet dogs. We were sure to avoid the broken plank that had sank her into the water in the first place.
Sage seemed a bit shook up, but more so focused on getting to Bramwell. Maybe that was for the best.
One second, she had been next to me, the next her scream pierced the air, and she had been gone.
My heart had sunk to my fucking throat when I realized she’d been plunged under the deck. There was no telling if she hit a beam on the way down and injured herself, or if there were rocks hiding under there.
I didn’t think, just slithered to the edge between two of the ships and launched myself off.
When I was in the water, it was so fucking dark I was worried I’d never find her, until I realized a bright, blue light was coming right from where she was. In the moment it hadn’t occurred to me what had happened, just that it was the perfect beacon to find her.
I swam quickly, pulling her out and moving us to the shore, which is when the light I saw actually clicked.
I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I’d never seen something on a magnitude like that, and I’d seen my fair share of magic. This had to be something… ancient. No regular magestone could magnify light at least ten nautical miles out.
I could hear chatter from my crew as we went, talking about the strange light, but nobody had any idea what it was, at least not from the whispers I picked up while walking.
Sage was carefully tucked under my arm. I felt like I couldn’t even let her go at this rate. Her entire body shook, and I couldn’t tell if it was from the events or from whatever happened.
Probably both.
Bramwell wasn’t in the war room studying, but I found him in his room just down the hall from mine. I banged on the door, more as a warning than an ask, and threw it open. He was initially irritated, but when he realized our state, had the decency to look shocked instead.
“What happened to the two of you?” he asked.
“We fell in the ocean,” Sage said.
“That’s not why we’re here though,” I told him. “It’s what happened after.”
I explained to Bramwell what happened. He listened intently, waiting for me to finish before interjecting.
“So, what you’re saying,” he started, “is that when Sage fell into the ocean, a beam of light shot from her necklace to a random point that also shot a beam straight up?”
“That’s exactly what we’re saying,” Sage said.
Bramwell took in this information, scratching his gruff chin in thought.
“Sage, I know that this isn’t something you want to talk about, but can you please tell me the whole story of how the necklace ended up on you?”
She looked between him and I. I tried to give her an encouraging glance, but ultimately what she shared was up to her.
“OK, I’ll tell you.”
She proceeded to explain everything that she told me earlier to Bramwell, leaving out some of the emotion she felt around it.
“Sirens,” he said with interest. “I’m not sure what they have to do with it, but it’s obviously something important.” He continued to ponder, pacing in front of his stack of books, looking at each one on the spine.
“I want to try to find some information,” he said, picking up one of the books. “I have a theory, but I’m not sure how much of it is true.”
“Care to share with the class?” I asked.
He dutifully ignored my snippiness. “I think we’re right about it being an ancient relic. But I think we were too focused on where it came from and not what it was used for.”
“What do you mean?” Sage asked.
“I mean, it’s obvious the necklace does… something. We just need to find out what that something is.”
“It shoots beams of light,” she said, as if it weren’t obvious.
“But it’s doing more than that,” I said, realizing Bramwell was right. We needed to take a step back. “Has it ever done this before?”
“Obviously not,” she said.
Bramwell grabbed a quill and piece of paper, writing down our thoughts. “Okay. And you’ve obviously got it wet before.”
She nodded.
“So it’s the ocean specifically.” He tapped the feather to his chin in thought. “And it was given to you by a siren. They’re typically self-serving creatures. So, it had to be something important to them.”
“If it was important to them, why would they give it to me?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t they like… hide it in a shell or something?”
“It probably couldn’t be kept in the water if its presence was that impactful,” I said. “They had to keep it out of the ocean.”
“So they gave it to me to keep it protected?” she asked.
“It tracks,” Bramwell added. “Peradona has a few coastlines, but the capital is in the middle, mostly landlocked. The idea that it would be far away from the ocean there would make sense.”
“And who better to protect something like that than a princess herself?”
Sage took a deep breath, absorbing it all. “Okay, but other than the beam of light, it didn’t seem to harm anything in its path, or really do anything special except pinpoint an area in the ocean. One we don’t even know about.”
Bramwell looked at all the notes he’d scribbled while we talked, his eyes bouncing over them, obviously trying to piece it all together.
“I think it’s some kind of tracking device,” Bramwell said after a while.
“Tracking device?” Sage asked.
He nodded. “It makes the most sense. It’s clear it’s creating a path from one point to another, one of those points being the necklace.”
Sage put her hand around it. “So where does it lead to?”
He abruptly stood, pulling out one of his maps. “You saw where the point went?”
“Sort of,” I said. “I could give a general direction.” I found us on the map, my finger tilting north, where the light was coming from a bit, and about five to ten nautical miles down. “Roughly here, but that’s just an estimate.”
We all looked at the block of pure ocean in the area. No islands, no barges, nothing but empty sea.
“It leads to… nothing?” she asked.
We all stared at the point, trying to conjure up anything, but it seemed everyone came up short. There wasn’t even anything in the general vicinity.
“I’ll pull some old maps we have, maybe something used to be there.”
“Once the ship is clear and off tomorrow, I’ll help you search,” I said.
“And I’ll be here first thing,” Sage said.
Bramwell nodded. “For now, we should get some sleep. It seems the ship will be repaired bright and early in the morning. We need to leave quickly.”
“Why?”
That’s when it dawned on me. “Because that necklace was given to you for a reason,” I said. “It wasn’t meant to be found.”
“And there’s a chance whoever it wasn’t supposed to be found by was close enough to notice it activate.”
“Am I in danger?” she asked, her nerves taking over, clear as day.
“We won’t let anything happen to you,” I promised. And I meant it. Sage was under my protection, and I’d ensure nothing hurt her.
We left Bramwell’s room, Sage shivering even more than before, wrapping her arms around herself in comfort.
“Let’s get cleaned up,” I said. We stopped by my room to grab a towel and clothes before going to the showers that were blissfully empty right now.
“I’ll set this here,” I told her. “And be in when you’re done.”
I turned to go, but her hand shot out, grabbing my wrist. “Will you stay?” she asked.
I swallowed heavily. “Yeah, flower. I’ll stay.”