Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Jax
Ihad never seen Dewspell Academy this close before. Even as Temerity sailed into its harbor just before dawn, I still wasn’t certain I wanted to.
I expected to hate Dewspell. I hated what it stood for. I hated that talented, hard-working women like my mother never had the money or luck to study magic here—a place that all but guaranteed a comfortable life full of magic.
I hated that it turned people like Sofie into villains, too, and made her feel like it was her duty to do what others wouldn’t. I’d meant what I’d said to her. Villainy should always be a choice.
For all her wicked power and steely demeanor, Sofie’s heart was too gentle to make a choice that would harm others without Dewspell’s pressure.
The only time she’d ever taken lives was to protect others.
I admired her for it. I admired that she was so strong, she could make the choices that hurt.
I admired that she would always do what was necessary.
I hoped she would understand what I was doing, too.
So I wanted to hate it, this place that made her.
But as I stared at the clay-roofed turrets, the stone bridges and arches and the collection of fortresses they called a school, still painted a faint blue by the dregs of the night, I saw that for all its magic, it was just a place.
As flawed and promising as any. There was no magical aura about it.
No sense of foreboding or power as we sailed ever closer to the quay.
The only thing that made it special? It was the place that made her. My savior. My bane.
Within the hour, Temerity was anchored in the harbor along with a surprising number of ships, and a rowboat was making its way out to meet us with a rather stern-looking sorcerer.
With brown olive skin spotted by sun exposure, a long white beard and voluminous robes—not to mention a long silk hat that looked suspiciously like a night cap—it was as if they’d chosen the most stereotypical sorcerer they could find.
The old man took his time climbing aboard, then standing and adjusting his robes. It was hardly practical attire for boarding a ship. Two attendants scrambled up behind him, one with a harbormaster’s logbook tucked beneath her arm.
“Yes, well?” the sorcerer said after he’d fussed and cleared his throat several times. “Out with it, young man. Why are you here?”
That suited me perfectly well. If he didn’t wish to waste time with introductions and greetings, I wouldn’t, either.
“I’ve come to make an exchange. Sorceress Sofie Dar’Vester is in the captain’s cabin, under a siren’s thrall.
The sorceress, one of your balancers, owes me a rather large debt.
Staggering, in fact. One not even she can repay—not without the help of her school.
But I’m a generous man, and willing to make a trade: Her life for the magic I seek. ”
The elder sorcerer huffed, unimpressed with my demands or the threat to Sofie’s life. “Yes, yes, but why are you here?”
I gave him my best pirate’s scowl. The fool merely rolled his eyes.
“You see, we have perfectly good docks back that way. This is a deep harbor. You’re in no danger of running aground. But I’m sure you knew that, Captain Bluebeard.”
I tried not to let my surprise show, but my eyes must have widened a fraction. My voice was stony as I said, “So she found a way to communicate with Dewspell after all.”
“Not at all.” Letting out a dramatic sigh, the sorcerer appeared to shrink several inches as he slouched. “I’m not sure you understand where you are, captain. Our seers here are second only to the House of Vision in Nox. We’ve been expecting you for the past three days.”
While he was content to slump and sigh, I felt as though my spine were pinned to a mast. Every muscle was tight as I ground out, “Then you understand what she did.”
“Destroyed a priceless enchanted object that likely had no right being in this realm in the first place? Oh, yes.” He ran a hand down the length of his white beard. A clanking sound revealed there were beads woven into it somewhere, making contact with the many rings he wore.
He really was exactly what you’d picture if someone spoke of sorcerers—providing you were a child under ten who’d read too many fairy tales.
“However,” he added before I could form a rejoinder, “we place a high priority on the safety of all our students, past and present. If Godmother Dar’Vester is truly in danger from you, then we will gladly bargain for her life. What, then, are your terms?”
He was an amateur, showing me how eager he was to make the trade. I might’ve requested anything then.
But there was very little I desired any longer.
“Two of my crew are gravely injured. I want them tended to as if they were royals of Elchion, and their safety guaranteed. That includes safety from any knights or constables, or even stern professors. They will be returned to me in full health in one year’s time.”
The sorcerer snorted. “No one can cheat death.”
“I’ve seen evidence to the contrary.”
“Most who have seen a draugr don’t consider that cheating.
The death curse, though…that is a story I look forward to hearing about from Godmother Dar’Vester.
“ His wiry brows waggled. “You have my word that no harm will come to your injured crewmembers at our hands, and that we will apply all our talents towards their healing.”
“Then the first term is set.”
“Agreed. What is the second?”
“Dewspell Academy will create a new Queen of the Sea.”
For a long time, the sorcerer just stared at me blankly, not even blinking. Then his lids fluttered rapidly.
Too late, I realized he was trying not to laugh.
“If this is the price for Godmother Dar’Vester’s life, then it is already forfeit. Good day to you, captain.”
He turned toward the ladder, his attendants snapping to attention. Like an idiot, I reacted. “Wait.”
The old man’s smile was slow and strangely wolfish. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I noticed that his teeth were too white and pointed, his gums lacking any recession despite his age. “Have you thought of a better request?” he inquired, as if this were some trifling academic matter.
I could not ruin this. Not now. Not after seven years, and so much death, and with the lives of two crewmembers hanging in the balance. Not just crewmembers. Oasis, my oldest and fiercest friend. And Omar, who was not far behind her.
For them, I could give up anything. But all that sacrifice…
I took a moment, closing my eyes against the sun that crept over the mountains, painting the harbor gold.
“I want spells that will allow my ships to navigate the Diam Sea without consequences. Spells that will last many voyages. I want a way to renew those spells when they wane, and another spell to detect when they will soon fade. This will be done in the course of a year.”
“Impossible,” the sorcerer scoffed.
“Not for Dewspell.” I barreled on. “If there is any treachery in them, or any failure to deliver the spells I require, I will return and take my wife, and she will never serve as a fairy godmother of the realm again, nor will she ever set foot on Dewspell’s grounds.”
It was a gamble, but one I was confident about. Sofie was important to them. A sorceress with her power—and her willingness to obey—must not come along often.
They wouldn’t wish to lose her.
“Is that it, then?” the sorcerer asked, peevish. “All that, and only that?”
“That and safe passage in and out of Dewspell’s harbor and on Dewspell’s grounds, for me and for all my crew, present or future. That is my third and final term.”
The sorcerer’s nostrils flared. “Accepted, provided Godmother Dar’Vester is released from the siren’s thrall and delivered to us within five minutes of the bargain’s finalization, and that any other magic you may hold over her is removed, and that she is free and under no obligation to you and your crew, present or future, for as long as the agreed upon terms are met.
After a period of one year, if we have met your demands, you also agree to release her from your marriage bonds. ”
As I hurried to process his rapid-fire terms, an itch at the back of my mind told me I was right to suspect this sorcerer. For he wasn’t a human sorcerer at all.
“Are they fae, too?” I asked, pointing to his attendants.
The sorcerer grinned. “Gods help them, they’re mere mortals. That one’s the harbor master.”
The woman in question mimed doffing a hat she didn’t remove, the logbook tucked firmly under her other arm.
“I’ll finalize the deal with one of them, if they have the power to do so,” I said. “Not with you.”
The sorcerer laughed, brushing away his glamour with a sweep of his hand. A taller, youthful man stood in his place, shaking out the hem of his slim, tailored robes. “What gave me away?”
“I think I’d rather leave you wondering.”
“Such poor sportsmanship.” He clucked his tongue.
“I wasn’t aware this was a game.”
“Language is a game. You started playing it the moment you opened your mouth. Professor Elkin, please finalize the bargain with Captain Bluebeard.”
The man beside the harbormaster stepped forward, offering his hand.
I took it, shaking it firmly. Only after I’d done so did I notice his silver and red eyes.
Professor Elkin smiled, revealing his own set of fangs. Brine and bracken, was everyone here lying about who they were?
“We’ll be taking Sofie with us now,” he said. “Mind the terms. You have five minutes.”
I withdrew my hand swiftly, long strides taking me to the cabin I’d shared with her. The one that would be mine alone now.
I’d made so many mistakes. Right now, the only one I could bring myself to care about was this one: I should’ve bargained for more time.
Five minutes was not long enough to say goodbye to Sofie.
Nor was a lifetime.
I could do this. I would do this. Even if it cost me whatever scrap was left of my heart.