Chapter 88 Solace
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Solace
The freezing water lapped against the hulls of the small schooners I’d commandeered from Samyr, the wood so white they nearly resembled the chunks of ice that floated quietly past. The only sounds that accompanied our journey were the creak of hulls and sails as the wind blew us ever northward.
No words were spoken, no stories told as we drifted closer toward our destination.
Closer to the weapon that will win this war.
My bones ached with anticipation—or perhaps the cold, it was difficult to say now that my immortality was stolen. I held little doubt that the godling acted with the help of my half sister’s daughter.
I gripped my hands tighter, the knuckles popping and aching with the motion, just at the thought of her.
She will die. Slowly, painfully, in front of her mother.
A feral smile tipped the edges of my lips with the thought of her death.
“Goddess,” a soft voice slithered from over my shoulder, and I ground my teeth at its presence.
“Razia,” I barked, never peeling my eyes from the mists that dominated the sea this far north.
“We will make landfall soon.”
“How far away are we from the coastline?”
Razia hummed for a moment, the sound setting my teeth even further on edge.
“A few miles at most,” he purred.
A true smile broke across my face then.
“Halt the ships. I will travel from here,” I hissed, pulling on my Air Magic, intending to float the remaining distance.
“Goddess, if I may, I suggest taking me with you. These people are not . . . kind to outsiders and—”
“I am a goddess,” I spat, turning to face the sniveling man who dared call himself my “advisor.” He never winced or cowered, simply raised his eyebrows as if I were an unruly toddler throwing a tantrum.
“Be that as it may, you are a mortal goddess.” Razia’s voice was smooth, but the words cut, leaving a jagged wound in their wake.
I stumbled backward as if physically struck.
“A well-placed arrow or spear while you are otherwise distracted . . .” Razia trailed off, unfolding his hands from his cloak to spread them wide.
I let the magic die in my palms, even as I wished to conjure it once more to wipe the snide smirk off Razia’s face.
Soon. You need him for this, and then nothing more.
I stepped away from the spindly man, leaning on the thin railing that separated the deck from the perilous waters below.
True to his word, the remaining journey was a half hour at most, the coastline suddenly becoming clear as we passed through a particularly heavy cloud of fog.
Calls were made, and splashes resonated as a small rowboat was lowered into the freezing water, ready to carry Razia and me ashore.
The air was charged, anticipation thrumming through my veins as the small boat slowly progressed toward an icy beach.
Despite the fact that Oathic should have been near enough to see from the water, the air was silent, the coastline still.
“Shouldn’t they be watching us?” I hissed, but Razia ignored me, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.
The rowboat came to a sudden stop, jolting as the bottom hit the icy shoreline.
“Wait here,” I commanded the man who had spent the last hour rowing us ashore.
Immediately, the cold soaked through my boots and thin dress, the chill biting at my skin as the wind whipped at my hair.
A small berm separated the icy beach from the rest of the plains.
I watched in impassive annoyance as Razia spent a few minutes battling the wind while hiking over it, following in my footsteps.
Teeth chattering in my skull, we crested the top, and I gazed at the plains below, magic jumping to my hands, as if we could snatch the girl by just laying eyes on the pitiful village.
Where I expected ice homes or even animal hides protecting small enclosures, there was nothing. Just a massive expanse of white, fresh snow.
“Razia,” I gritted. “Where. Are. They? Where is my weapon?”
“Goddess, she was supposed to be here. The village was right here. This is where I left her and—” I cut off his sniveling words with a hand against his throat. His eyes bulged from his head, fingers scrambling for purchase on my iron grip.
“She’s gone?” I cried, voice nearing hysterics. Razia said nothing, just gagged in response, still fighting desperately for his pitiful life—a life I would happily extinguish.
I loosened my grip, Razia dropping like a stone to the ice-crusted snow as he gagged and hacked, desperately trying to catch his breath.
I’ve been thwarted . . . again. Duped. Betrayed. Made a mockery and fool.
Blistering rage built deep in my belly, bubbling over until it ran hot through my veins, obscuring all rational thought.
“That bitch of a half sister,” I muttered. “She did this.” I knew the child we took was important to her, but never realized she’d risk crossing the Ice Shelf again just to retrieve her.
It was a mistake I would not make again.
I pulled hard on my magic, Water pooling in one palm as Air swirled in the other. My soul felt like it was cleaving in two from the sheer amount of power I drew, but still I reached deeper, searching for more.
“Goddess,” Razia hacked, crawling toward me, but I aimed a kick at his prostrating form. My boot connected with his nose; a satisfying crunch accompanied spots of blood and a small cry of pain from the sniveling coward on the ground.
“Solace,” he begged, voice muddied by his broken nose. “There is still time. We can still—”
The longer he spoke, the hotter my blood boiled until my ire released with a bloodcurdling scream.
Magic rushed from my fingertips, the power of it nearly knocking me from my feet.
I drained my reserves completely, but the outcome was worth the cost. A jet of pure ice shot from my hands, spearing deep into the ground and cleaving it in two with a resounding boom so loud, it shook the ground beneath our feet.
Tears from the icy wind that followed fell from my eyes to freeze on my cheeks, but I did nothing to wipe them away.
The earth moved and shuddered with violent cracking noises so loud I could barely hear my own thoughts.
“Now,” I said as the earth shifted, the Ice Shelf falling into the dark, arctic waters, creating a pathway from here to Alvor. “We attack them now. They have denied me what is rightfully mine for the final time. Now, I must extinguish their flame. Permanently.”
Razia followed me wordlessly down the berm and into the small boat, a new skepticism and healthy dose of fear swimming in his eyes. The wooden vessel smelled distinctly like urine, and I wrinkled my nose as I realized the sailor wet himself in fear.
Scowling, I bared my teeth, sending him back to rowing with a small squeak. The cracking of ice and rumbles of the earth followed in our wake, the first strands of the destructive symphony I would rain upon those who dared deny me.