Chapter 4
The sun sweltered high above as Ashkade, Reiven, and I rode along the path worn into the sand.
Rolling golden-brown dunes stretched into the distance as far as the eye could see behind and on either side of us, but ahead, I could just make out the sprawling cluster of red clay buildings, the coastal city of Porscana.
Civilization, even if it was a Human city, would be a welcome change from the days we had spent traveling through the desert that spanned between Kirdiak and the coast. Days of torture for a Siren.
Reiven rationed our water personally, and I was certain he gave me less than him or Ash.
I had run out last night, so my lips were dry and cracked, and my throat felt like a desert all in itself.
It was far worse than simple thirst—it was a constant, gnawing demand that ached deep inside me.
I was a Siren, meant to live in the water.
Even if I didn’t sweat, I couldn’t go without it for much longer.
I tightened my arms around Reiven’s body. He radiated heat, and I hated being stuck on a horse with him, but there wasn’t any room in Ashkade’s wagon, since he stuffed it full of notebooks, mechanical bits and bobs, and tools—research supplies, he had said.
I leaned heavier against Reiven’s back and hissed, “Give me some of your water. Do you want me to wither away to nothing?”
“I told you to drink less.”
“Would you prefer I lick the sweat off your neck?” It sounded more degrading out of my mouth than the threat I thought it was in my head. I pressed my lips against his ear. “Or maybe I’ll just put some holes in your throat and drink your blood. Sirens do that to evil men, you know.”
We didn’t do that, but I wanted him to be at least a little uncomfortable. It didn’t work.
“Stop threatening to bite me. You’re not an animal.” Despite the sweat that rolled down his neck and back, Reiven seemed to enjoy the heat, but that was probably because I was miserable and wilting.
The rhythmic creaking of Ashkade’s wagon beside our horse reminded me I had one other—particularly influential—person to get pity from.
“Ash, tell him to give me water.”
“Give her the water, Rei.”
Ashkade wasn’t so bad. At least he was more pliable than his bodyguard. His grip on the reins from his seat on the covered wagon was so tight, I would have been surprised if he had feeling in his fingers. Motion sick, poor guy. His face was as pale as a shark’s belly.
“How much further?” he groaned.
“You can see the city right there. It’ll be an hour, tops. Probably less if you stop whining.” Reiven actually unhooked his waterskin and whacked me in the face with it as he flung it over his shoulder. I guzzled some of the lukewarm water, exhaling in relief as it brought me new life and energy.
Ash squinted up at the sun. “I’m gonna die.”
“I’ve had enough of both of you complaining to last me a lifetime.
” With a click of his tongue and a flick of his wrists, Reiven urged our horse into a gallop towards the city.
The burst of speed as I tilted my head back for another drink knocked the waterskin out of my hands, spilling its contents all over me.
I had to throw my arms around Reiven to keep from flying off, and I could have sworn I heard him chuckle.
Bastard.
As we blasted away from him, Ashkade moaned for us to slow down, but the wind whipping through my ponytail drowned out his weak voice. And inside that wind, I caught a whiff of something I hadn’t smelled or tasted in years.
Saltwater. The ocean.
By the time Ash caught up to us, Reiven and I had dismounted our horse and were in the middle of arguing about how close I had to stay to him.
We had tested the limits of the Druinnic binding during our journey across the desert, and the memory still burned in my mind: Reiven sauntering off all smug, while the chain manifested to yank me by the throat towards him the moment he was just a black smear against the burning desert sky.
Pretty sure I still had grains of sand in my nose from face-planting in the dunes.
I thanked the heartless Spirits for the few hundred feet of separation we were allowed, and I accepted—begrudgingly—that I was doomed to stay with him for now. But Reiven seemed to want to take things a step further. As in, not-letting-me-out-of-his-sight further.
Ash climbed down from the wagon bench on shaky legs and leaned heavily on his crutch as he hobbled over to get in between us and our argument.
“Ash!” I cried. “I just want to look at the ocean, if your shrimp-for-brains bodyguard tries to keep me—”
Poor kid couldn’t even let me finish before losing his lunch—for the fifth time on our journey so far—all over the road of packed sand that made up the major thoroughfare into Porscana.
His bodyguard grabbed a fresh waterskin out of the wagon for him while I rubbed his back and whispered, “If you give me some money, I’ll buy some herbs I know of that will help with your motion sickness.
You’re going to be miserable on the ship if you don’t take something for it. ”
Natural, under-sea methods of healing had been one of my passions when I was younger, and even in captivity I found myself fascinated by surface-dweller medicines.
One of the attendants at Nightwhisper had taken a shine to me and taught me a bit about plants that could be used medicinally and for fragrance.
Lavender, chamomile, primrose, sage… She always gave me a bottle of the infused water to wash myself with when she discovered some new herb or flower.
“Or she could poison you,” Reiven cut in as his young employer swished out the taste of vomit from his mouth and spat the water on the ground.
Ash’s eyes flicked up to mine, and he gave me a grin. He had a sweet, warm smile, nothing like Reiven’s cocky smirk.
Don’t you dare let this boy worm his way into your good graces, Zephra. You’re going to kill him, end of story.
“We’re going to travel ‘cross the ocean for months, y’know. You’ll see it soon, Zephra.”
At least he actually called me by my name, while Reiven stuck with his completely unoriginal nickname.
“Rei, give her some money. Feel free to get anythin’ else you need while we’re here.”
All I had to my name were the clothes on my back. But if the Timebreaker was going to give me an opportunity to spend his money and potentially acquire an item Reiven might find dangerous in my hands, then fuck yes.
“Rei,” I said, my voice layered with thick, false sweetness as I used Ashkade’s nickname for him. “Your boss just told you to give me some money.” I held out my palm expectantly.
“What are you going to buy?”
“I could use some new undergarments, something with a lot of lace. Are you going to follow me around the shop and watch me try them on?”
Ash blushed like a farm boy that had never seen what a woman wore under her clothes before.
“Maybe I will,” Reiven shot back with a scowl.
“You two and your arguin’ are gonna kill me,” Ash groaned. “Look, I hafta meet the ship captain at the docks soon, so I need to get movin’. Rei, just stay with the horses outside whatever shop she goes to.” He gave us both a sunny grin. A few minutes off his wagon and he was already back to normal.
Reiven grumbled under his breath and slapped a pouch of coins in my still open palm. “Ashkade Taleus Synnex, don’t get lost in this city, you hear me?”
“Yes, Ma.”
“Tell me when you make it. And when you’re heading back. And if anyone tries to push you around.”
“Yes, Ma,” Ash huffed. He tapped on his earring and limped away. Maybe he’d form an alliance with me, an anti-Reiven club. If I could just get and keep him on my side, this ordeal might be more workable.
The people bustling about gave us—well, me—strange looks as Reiven and I made our way down the major thoroughfare.
I kept my eyes peeled for a pharmacy or herbalist where I could buy medicines and herbs, but Porscana specialized more in exotic goods from far-off places.
There were stalls displaying boxes of deliciously sweet-smelling red fruits and vibrant patterned clothing on racks outside many of the textile shops.
A funny little image appeared in my mind, of Reiven wearing one of those hideous bright orange tunics, looking like someone had just vomited orange juice all over him.
He’d probably be miserable in something like that.
No matter how hot it was in the desert, he seemed to exclusively favor black clothing.
He had rolled up and cuffed the sleeves of his shirt, probably to help with the heat, but sweat shone on his forearms and the bit of his chest his shirt left exposed.
I made him wait outside while I went into a clothing shop that appeared a little less gaudy than the others, and bought a few changes of clothes, a sheer nightgown, and a silky robe.
Since they had given me way too much money, I indulged myself and purchased a few strings of pearls that I wove into my ponytail as we continued our hunt for an apothecary.
A sign caught my eye, and I jerked to a halt as we nearly passed by a stall that boasted selling precious jewelry and weapons made of the two most rare, sought-after metals.
The red-faced man at the counter rubbed his hands together as he showed off his wares to a wealthy Human couple.
“Sirensteel and Flamevein Obsidian. Rest assured, should the Druinns ever come near you, they’ll be completely unable to wrest control of anything made of these elements.
Just mind you, keep the Sirensteel away from the hearth. ”
He held up a long, silver chain with a pendant at the end, carved with the rolling likeness of waves on the open sea.
My heart stopped beating. Seeing Sirensteel in the greedy hands of a Human had me furious enough to march right up to him and rip the necklace out of his grip.
Then I could stab him with the knife he held in his other hand, made of a glassy black, wickedly sharp Obsidian riddled with veins of glowing red.
I clenched my fists, nails cutting into my skin, but I had only taken a step forward when my Human tether blocked my way, holding me by the shoulders with a smirk.
“Ah-ah,” he warned, casting a glance at the stall. “Don’t even think about it, Blue.”
“He can’t—that Human can’t just sell Sirensteel. It belongs to my people.”
“What’re you going to do about it?”
I gritted my teeth.
Reiven seemed to know I had no answer to his tease, so he just laughed and ordered me to wait with the wagon while he sauntered over to the stall.
Reiven Miyasagi…You bastard.
His name sounded far too noble for a pirate.
And when he strolled back to me, with the Sirensteel necklace in one hand and the Flamevein Obsidian knife in the other, the smug grin he gave me felt terribly similar to every other well-bred man I’d had the misfortune of dealing with.
“Not sure I understand the appeal of this Sirensteel…The vendor said it melts easily.”
Even worse than seeing it in the seller’s hands, I had to watch the precious metal gifted to my people rest against Reiven’s chest among his other golden chains.
His smirk only grew at the way I ogled the Sirensteel, but the moment I moved to yank it off him, he pointed the dagger he had just acquired at my throat.
“Now, now. I paid well over asking price for these, so keep your hands off.”
“Why? Why even buy them?”
Reiven shrugged, eyes glinting in the sunlight. “Ashkade has plenty of money, gifts from the oligarchs he won the war for. So I don’t have a problem spending his coin on fun things for me.”
I chewed on my cheek to keep from lunging to scratch his damned eyes out.
Seeing Sirensteel, even as a simple necklace, made me yearn for the days I trained with weapons made of our precious metal.
The elder Sirens, like my mother, used complex machines created from the same material as moving training dummies for young Sirens.
Practicing fighting with them always felt more like dancing in the water.
Reiven’s obnoxiously smooth voice cut through my memories. “Let’s move along now, Blue, before someone asks me if you’re the next exotic commodity for sale in this place.”
It wasn’t as if I had a choice. I inhaled through my nose, and somewhere amongst the sweat, fruity sweetness, and tang of the ocean in the air, I caught a hint of the chalky, bitter scent of medicine. A few minutes later, we stopped in front of an apothecary just down the main street.
Reiven leaned back against the wagon. “Ten minutes.”
“What, that's how long you can last having me out of your sight?” My voice dripped with disdain.
“Read the sign posted on the door, Blue. You have ten minutes before they close the shop for their lunch break.” He slid the Sirensteel pendant up and down its chain with a smirk that made me wonder if the Spirits created him to infuriate me personally.
“Maybe they have something to remedy that barbed tongue of yours. Would be a smart investment.”
I didn't bother answering him, tossing my pouch of coins into the air as I headed inside. “Fucking Human,” I muttered.
A jingling bell heralded my entry, prompting the old woman at the counter to look up. She adjusted the glasses on the tip of her nose and gave me a once-over before returning to the dusty tome on her lap.
Shelves crammed with medicines and herbs created a thick, sickly-sweet cloud of scent that wafted throughout the entire store.
I filled a wicker basket with some medical-grade needles and sutures for sewing up wounds and tapped my chin as I eyeballed the various ointments and drugs, searching for the medicine I had in mind for Ashkade’s motion sickness.
My gaze landed on a vial of clear liquid marked for sale as a sleep aid, but I recognized its name, and an evil glimmer of an idea surfaced in my mind.
I stuck it in my basket, along with a few particularly fragrant herbs that I could infuse with water to wash myself with, my favorite way to smell fresh even amid Human sweat.
Ash’s medicine and an antibiotic ointment were the last things to go into my basket before I went to the counter and paid.
The bell rang when Reiven threw open the door. “What the hell is taking so—”
He froze.
He literally stopped in place, halfway through the door, mouth still partly open as the words on his tongue died.
A chill sliced down my spine at how unnatural it was, and I threw a glance at the shopkeeper to see what she thought, but she was frozen too.
She had already returned to her book after ringing me up and was stuck in the midst of turning the page.
“If you and Ashkade are playing a trick on me, it isn’t funny,” I said.
His face remained set in that annoyed expression. It didn’t look like he breathed or registered what I said. He didn’t even blink.
Time had stopped.