Chapter 18 Svenn #3
I remember too. If a wave that size hits...
Everyone will die.
Rhianelle forces herself to stand. “Then we keep evacuating. Everyone, move! Higher ground! Now!”
But people are traumatized and broken. They sink into the mud. Many just stare at where their homes used to be.
I force myself up. Shadow portals flicker weakly but I open them anyway, ignoring the agony splitting my skull. A few at a time. It’s all I can manage.
Red and Darstan start grabbing people. Warriors and knights of Volundr fan out through the ruins, pulling survivors from collapsed buildings.
“Move!” Eyepatch shouts. “If you stay here, you die. Move now!”
Rhianelle moves through the devastation. She pulls an elderly woman to her feet. “Come on. Up. We’re not done yet.”
I watch her, this queen covered in mud. She still refuses to break even as her city drowns around her.
A child’s cry echoes from a collapsed shop. Rhianelle is there instantly, digging through debris with her bare hands. Darstan helps her and they pull out a girl clutching a muddy cat.
“You’re safe now,” Rhianelle says gently. “Can you walk?”
The girl nods, still holding the cat.
“Good. Go with my knight. He’ll take you somewhere high.”
I’m not the only one watching.
The people of Volundr see her. They see their queen bleeding and exhausted but still fighting. Something shifts and people start moving again. They help each other, sharing what little strength they have left to head inland.
Then someone points toward the horizon.
I turn and my dead heart threatens to stop.
A white line appears on the horizon. It rises and rises, growing taller with each passing second.
Tayum’s Wrath.
The wave towers above the ocean like a mountain made of water, blocking out the sky completely. Debris from the first surge tumbles within it. Ships, trees, and entire pieces of buildings suspended in that impossible wall rushing toward shore.
People stop moving as they stare at what’s coming. There’s nowhere high enough to run. Nowhere safe remains in all of Volundr. I watch hope drain from their eyes, replaced by blank acceptance.
But Rhianelle isn’t looking at the wave. She’s staring out at the open water where our fleet scattered.
“No,” she breathes. Her hand grips my arm. “Kahedin. He’s still out there.”
I follow her gaze and spot the Silver Crown among the distant ships. The vessel is too far from shore to make it back. He’ll be caught between the wave and the coast.
Coinneach’s power is nearly spent. I’m not sure I have enough left to even reach her cousin’s ship, let alone bring him back.
We have to try, the Ysendral mutters.
Shadow explodes beneath my feet and I fall through darkness.
The portal spits me onto the deck of the Silver Crown. Kashran warriors spin toward me with startled shouts, weapons half-drawn before they recognize me.
“Where’s Kahedin?” I demand.
“Here.” He strides from the cabin with charts still in hand. His eyes widen when he sees me. “Vampire?”
I step toward him. “The second wave is coming. Bigger than the first.”
“I know,” he says calmly.
“I can get you out—“
“No.”
Kahedin glances at his warriors. At the other Kashran ships nearby. “You can’t transport everyone. Not from this ship and certainly not from the entire fleet.”
I admit it with a brief nod. “But I can save you.”
“I’m the captain of this ship. These are my crew. I won’t abandon them.” His jaw sets with that same stubborn determination I’ve seen in Rhianelle a thousand times.
Fuck it. Just grab him, Coinneach tells me. This is Nel’s cousin. Her family. She’ll be destroyed if he dies.
I should force him through the shadow path whether he agrees or not. But his eyes make me pause. He has that same iron will that runs in their bloodline.
“Tell my cousin I love her,” he says quietly.
I stare at the brave idiot who’s choosing death over dishonor.
“Tell her yourself,” I grunt.
Darkness swallows me and spits me back onto the shore beside Rhianelle.
She looks at me with hope. “Where’s Kahedin?”
I shake my head. “He won’t leave his crew.”
Her face crumples for just a moment before she forces it back under control. I see the flicker of grief there. The knowledge that she’s about to lose family.
People scream on the cliffs above as they watch the wave approach the distant ships. The second wave is different from the first. A true wall of water that stretches from horizon to horizon, crowned with white foam and filled with debris.
“Gods,” someone whispers.
The Silver Crown turns to face the wave head on. Kahedin stands at the prow, a tiny figure dwarfed by what’s coming. The ship begins to climb, meeting the wall of water at full speed.
“He’s insane,” Red breathes. “They’re going to try to ride through it…”
Most vessels would have capsized at the attempt but Kashran vessels are built differently. They’re made for the wild seas beyond the mapped world. The Silver Crown crests the wave. For a moment it hangs suspended at the peak.
“Come on,” Eyepatch whispers. “Come on, come on...”
I find myself chanting with him. People hold their breath. The ship looks tiny against that mountain of water.
But it’s still intact and it’s still sailing. Then it tips forward and slides down the back of the wave with controlled grace.
“He made it,” Rainer says, disbelief thick in his voice.
One by one, the other ships follow Kahedin’s lead. They turn their prows to face the wave.
Their sails and masts could be shredded under that force.
The second ship climbs the wave behind the Silver Crown, followed by the third.
Others follow with unwavering determination and their battle hymn can be heard from shore.
The smallest vessel starts to slip sideways as the current catches it wrong.
I think it’s lost. But ropes fly between ships as the other vessels pull their companion straight.
A ragged cheer erupts from the people around us. Those who’ve reached the cliff fortresses can see it too.
“Keep going!” People who moments ago had given up hope now shout themselves hoarse. “Push through!”
The sixth ship suddenly lists. The water swallows it whole.
“No!” Rhianelle gasps in horror beside me. One moment it’s there and the next it’s gone. Hundreds of lives lost in an instant.
Not every vessel succeeds. Ships that couldn’t get far enough from shore in time meet the wave unprepared.
They disappear in an instant, swallowed whole and shattered under the impact.
Most make it through against all odds. They climb that wall and crest the peak, surviving the impossible.
For a moment, the people of Volundr remember what hope feels like.
But the wave is still coming for us. It moves faster than the first surge, growing monstrous as it devours the distance to shore.
“Run!” Rhianelle shouts to her people, but there’s nowhere left to run.
I reach for her, ready to move us both to safety.
She slips from my grasp.
“Rhianelle!”