Chapter 12 #2
Someone grunted off to my right. There was some kind of movement before me, and then the pain was gone.
My vision blurred into clarity, just enough to register that the hazy, dark shape of motion was Reiven, loose of his bonds somehow.
His arm shot out and connected with Shaddan’s jaw with enough force to throw the Druinn general in a dumbfounded heap on the floor.
The closest pirate jumped at Reiven with his sword, but he ducked under the strike and swept him into a headlock.
He snapped the pirate’s neck with a crack.
A gunshot rang out, but Reiven let the corpse of the man he just killed take the bullet for him.
What’s he going to do? He can’t possibly fight off all these—
Perhaps it was silly of me to underestimate him. After all, he had dispatched the three Druinns at the banquet with nothing but a makeshift club. Even without a weapon, he was deadly.
He dodged the pirates’ clumsy attacks and either broke their necks or used their bodies to protect himself from the incoming bullets fired by Vaetrik. Reiven actually chuckled as the pirate captain continued to kill his own men.
A vein bulged in Vaetrik’s forehead, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so close to dropping the composed facade of a powerful member of the Eventide Brigade. His lip curled as his eyes slid towards me, along with the barrel of his gun.
He fired.
I didn’t even have time to shriek, but the shot merely grazed my cheek in a burning line. It was enough to distract Reiven for a split second, and that was all Vaetrik needed to turn his pistol on him and fire. The bullet struck his arm.
Shaddan popped up to his feet, an odd, pleased grin on his face.
With a twitch of his hand, the spear on his back came free of its holster and flew at Reiven.
An aura of silvery light surrounded it as it moved like it had a will of its own, streaking through the air right towards his chest. Reiven turned to dodge it, but the spear whipped around and slammed its metal shaft into the back of his knee, forcing him off balance.
The last remaining drugs in his system, combined with the gushing wounds in his thigh and arm, slowed him down enough for two of Vaetrik’s crew to rush forward and seize his arms to hold him still. Shaddan swept past him to examine the rope used to bind him to the chair.
“How did he get loose?” Vaetrik growled, keeping his pistol trained on Reiven’s forehead.
With a scoff, Shaddan held up the rope and a tiny stick of blackened wood.
The thin, fraying rope had been burned through, leaving it in two pieces with dark, brittle ends.
“Scrappy, aren’t you?” Somehow, it almost sounded like a compliment, coming from Shaddan.
“Hey…is that Sirensteel?” He raised a hand towards Reiven.
The golden necklaces he wore lifted off his chest with the Druinn’s power, but the Sirensteel necklace stayed still.
Shaddan yanked the pendant off of him. “Holy shit…Flamevein Obsidian, too.” He stole the knife out of Reiven’s belt, apparently fascinated at how it didn’t heed him.
But Vaetrik wasn’t impressed. He shoved the muzzle of his gun against Reiven’s head.
“Wait!” My voice. When was the last time I had the courage to speak to him, much less raise my voice? Whatever bravery had taken hold of me instantly drained when his icy blue eyes met mine. I couldn’t hold his gaze. “D-don’t kill him.”
“The Siren found her voice, has she? I suppose you are the only one who can free her to be mine again,” Vaetrik said, smirking down at Reiven. “Now, release the hold you have on my pet, Miyasagi.”
Reiven spat in his face. A chill ran down my spine at the calm in Vaetrik’s movements as he wiped it away, like a predator releasing his claws.
He laughed, almost too quiet for me to hear.
As I strained my ears to listen, another gunshot resounded in the darkness, and I nearly fell over in the chair I was still restrained to.
Reiven gasped softly as strength seemed to drain from his body, though the pirates gripping his arms forced him to keep his feet.
Blood drip, drip, dripped into a puddle on the ground beneath him.
I couldn’t be certain, since he had his back to me, but from how he almost doubled over, Vaetrik must have shot him in the stomach.
My mind raced to add up how much time he had, with the blood loss from three gunshot wounds.
I needed to get to him and slow his bleeding—
“If you don’t want another…” Vaetrik was saying. He pushed his gun against Reiven’s shoulder joint, another part of the body where he could deal a lot of pain without immediately killing him. “Remove that junk off her, now!”
“Go to hell,” Reiven gritted out.
If Calinia hadn’t run in through the back door at that moment, Vaetrik might have actually killed him, regardless of what would happen to me. Her honey-colored eyes went wide as she took in the scene and froze. “What is the meaning of this? I heard several—”
“Quiet.”
She snapped her mouth shut at Vaetrik’s scathing tone as he reloaded his pistol with a measure of gunpowder.
Then she whirled on General Akshar, throwing droplets of rainwater from her soaked cloak and hair.
“You swore to me he would cease his unsavory activities while in our employ! I will not stand by and watch him hurt the Siren—”
“Put a bandage on your bleeding heart, Calinia,” Shaddan said. “We need her knowledge of the Song of the Void, and if Captain Tynedall wants to keep her after, I don’t really care.”
Trembles wracked my body as Calinia met my eyes. Her voice echoed in my mind, but her lips didn’t move a millimeter. “I will not allow these men to do as they please.”
“Help us!” I didn’t know if it would work or not, but I tried to think the words back at her.
She gave an almost imperceptible nod. And the moment Shaddan and Vaetrik turned their attention back to Reiven, she slammed her palms together.
She dragged them apart and a clear, shimmering sphere spread from her hands, as if she were blowing a soap bubble.
Laced throughout the sphere, I could make out thousands of tiny, familiar symbols, like the ones Ash etched into his rings.
It grew larger, pushing outward until it encompassed the entire house.
Everyone inside froze in place save for Calinia, Reiven, and I.
She ran to me and dug a knife into the ropes binding me until they fell free.
“This is the pirate you and Shaddan hired to take you to Ghrysim Isle?” I said, rubbing my aching wrists.
“Clearly, they had additional arrangements I was not aware of.”
“Clearly.” I seized Reiven’s cutlass from our former ship carpenter’s stiff hand, tucked it into my belt, and ran to catch Reiven before he fell to the ground.
I did my best to keep him standing, wrapping my arms around his back and supporting his full weight with all the strength my body could muster.
The soaking crimson splotch on his shirt stained my skin with warmth as he leaned against me. “We have to get out of here.”
“Zephra—”
“I can’t let him die until we’re no longer bound.” I peered up into his face. Beads of sweat slipped down his temple, and the muscles in his jaw tightened until I was certain he might break his own teeth. Still conscious, at least. “Calinia, how long does this time magic of yours last?”
“A few minutes, if we’re lucky.” Blood dripped out of her nose, but she hastily wiped it away.
I dragged Reiven over to the back door, still open from Calinia’s sudden entrance.
The distant scent of salt—of safety—lingered in the air amidst the petrichor.
Another flash of lightning sliced through the sky in a jagged pattern, brightening the puddles dispersed throughout the muddy land outside.
Behind the houses, an unruly forest of tangled bushes and twisted, spindly trees stretched out away from the dilapidated structures, towards the rocky shore where the Maiden lay waiting.
I paused at the threshold. “Come with us. Vaetrik Tynedall is the worst kind of scum, Calinia, and they’re going to know you helped us.”
She just shook out her braid and turned around to show me the longbow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back beneath her cloak. “Not to worry. I can hold my own. Shaddan is blinded by the wounds our people sustained in the war, but I must keep him from stooping to depravity himself.”
“Alright…Thank you, Calinia.”
Why this strange Druinn girl was so willing to help me, I couldn’t put a finger on, but I pushed away the curiosity for now as I helped Reiven outside into the rainstorm.
The two of us were soaked within seconds, settling a chill deep inside my bones.
We went from utter silence and stillness inside the time-stopped bubble to the deafening roar of pelting rain.
I hazarded another glance at Reiven’s face as we awkwardly shambled just outside the forest brush, following the line of houses towards the shore.
“Don’t go into shock. Don’t you dare,” I ordered, as if he had any kind of control over that.
All he gave me in answer was a half-chortle, half-moan. We made it maybe six houses away from the one we had been held in when an odd pulse of energy ran over my skin, a shockwave that disturbed the muddy grass beneath our feet and made the foliage and roof shingles near us tremble.
Time must have resumed.