Chapter 18 #3
The wind howled and whipped at their clothes and hair as they stood near the edge.
“What are we doing?” Erinna raised her voice to be heard, arm poised, ready to catch Inez should one forceful squall dare to push her over.
Inez grinned, eyes wild and gleaming. “Getting rid of some weight.” She faced the horizon once more, threw her arms up, and screamed. The sound was primal and raw, pulled from somewhere deep. The ocean air swallowed it, carrying the cry on the wind.
When Inez finished, she turned to Erinna. “Your turn.”
Her heart hammered in her chest as she peered out over the expanse of rock and water.
All the fear she’d been carrying bubbled up.
The shame in her failure, the worry for her father, and the monster in her dreams. Erinna opened her mouth without a second thought and wailed.
It ripped through her, like grabbing onto her despair and expunging it from her chest.
When she finally ran out of breath, she was trembling, but her chest felt open, boundless.
“Better?” Inez cocked her head in interest.
“Gods, yes.” Erinna reveled in the lightness. A welcome change to the heaviness of dread and despair. Perhaps she could even dare to hope.
The muted sound of a whistle filtered up to them, signaling the change in shifts. The two sat another moment, shoulder to shoulder, relishing in the peace. Even if the pirates preferred Inez, they were both still outsiders.
They started back down the hill, toward camp. Erinna took the trail a bit slower this time as Inez did her best to keep from tripping over jutting rocks and tree stumps.
Halfway down the trail, Inez paused, tapping Erinna on the shoulder. “Umm, this way…just for a little?” She pointed through a thicket of bushes and leaves, shifting from foot to foot like a kid waiting for their parent’s approval.
“Lead the way.” Erinna gestured for her to continue. It was always best to listen to a diviner. That’s what her father always said, though they had never known one in person.
Rare remnants of a path guided their way to an opening, perhaps only a few yards from the main trail.
Two low crumbling walls cut soft lines in the clearing, weeds and wildflowers grew unkempt, nearly brushing their knees.
Inez guided them closer. Soon their boots felt compacted soft earth.
Faded slabs of stone stood or lay around the area, weathered, cracked, and decayed by the passage of time.
“Where—” started Erinna, but a small prickle beneath her skin recognized hallowed land. Her Talent was waking. It knew where the dead were buried.
“A resting place.” Inez walked to one of the more well-preserved slabs of stone and brushed off the surface. On top of an old tombstone was the faded symbol of the Reaper’s Scythe. Whoever populated this land were followers of the Pantheon. That gave Erinna a small bit of solace.
Still, she fought an ebbing sense of panic as she walked to Inez’s side. She would have to get used to sharing her secret.
“Do you like to visit the graves of strangers?” she asked in a failed attempt at levity. Power prickled at her fingertips, her Talent searching for a sign of long departed souls. Erinna pushed it down, but not before feeling an unnatural emptiness. An eerie, unsettling quiet.
“Not usually.”
“So why are we here?” The words came out sharper than intended.
“I got a feeling that we should visit.”
“Feeling?” Erinna swallowed a growing lump in her throat.
Inez tapped her temple in answer. Ah, Erinna understood. It was the sense, the divination, granted by Inez’s Talent.
“What are these feelings telling you?”
Inez remained silent for a long moment, brows knit in thought.
Her hands fiddled with the hem of her oversized shirt.
Stupid, Erinna thought. She must have offended Inez by asking.
How could she be so tactless after everything she went through?
Erinna opened her mouth to apologize before Inez answered.
“I get this feeling that you are like me. And it would be best to help each other.”
“I’m not a diviner.” Erinna’s throat went dry.
“But you’re an aberrant.”
Erinna froze. Shocked. Her most closely guarded secret just tumbled from Inez’s mouth. One that risked her very life.
“But I could be wrong. The feelings are murky sometimes.” It was clear Inez was simply trying to ease the tension. They both knew the truth. Erinna would just have to trust that a fellow aberrant would keep her secret as well.
“Do you know what kind?” she asked.
Inez shook her head. Erinna bit nervously on her thumbnail, somewhat relieved that not every part of her was being caught in Inez’s ability. “Do you mind keeping this between us for now?”
“Just between us.” Inez gave Erinna a reassuring smile, but it only made the gauntness in her cheeks more apparent.
“What else are the feelings telling you?” Erinna could tell there was more on Inez’s mind, the way she stared off in the distance.
“Even when those doors are open, things are still going to be…difficult.” She glanced at the tombstone once more. “We can lose a lot of people if it takes them too long.”
Erinna nodded in slow realization. Inez spoke with the foresight of her Talent. One of those “feelings,” as she called them.
“Does Kane know?” Erinna wondered why she was the one being entrusted with this information.
“Not yet. I’m not sure about…anything.”
What can I do about it? Erinna thought and wanted to ask, but she could see flashes of thought move across the young woman’s face. Patience, she told herself.
“I think they’re going to need you. And I think you may be able to find a way around the suffering.” She lightly patted the stone. “There’s something here, I just don’t know what it is.”
Erinna’s mind churned, wondering what it all meant.
She could feel it. A convergence of fate.
Iprix’s death, the curse, the Weeping Queen, and her Talent.
Thoughts were starting to take shape. Then she felt it—another flare of unbidden Talent.
It came to life as if something had called to it.
A chill touch ghosted across her neck and made her skin crawl.
Not here. Not now. She willed it down, pushing against the rising tide.
After a tense moment, her Talent receded. Coiling back into her chest like a sleeping serpent. Erinna patted the pocket where she placed the tin of tea. She would need a heavy brew tonight.
“We should go.” Erinna turned on her heels, ready to be back among the living.
They barely made it a few steps when the earth groaned beneath their boots. They stumbled, hands instinctively reaching for each other as the tremor rippled through the ground. Roots snapped beneath the soil. Trees groaned in their perch. Rocks clattered across the ground.
As quickly as it appeared, everything fell silent—even the night birds ceased their calling.
Then came the bang.
A roaring, thunderous crack that split the air and grated nerves. All from the direction of camp.