Chapter 17 #2
We are free-falling into nothing. We fall for so long, I think it will never end. I expect to be enveloped by an icy, angry grave.
But we never reach the water.
Raiden
"WHAT THE HELL was that?” Arina asks after heaving the contents of her stomach over the ramp leading up to the ship. I rub a gentle circle on her back, but don’t have time to explain my magic to her at the moment.
"I need you to pretend you are my prisoner," I whisper low into her ear. She looks at me as if I've asked her to do the impossible as I drag her up the ramp and onto the deck of the Clestrayian vessel, surprising the crew who were not expecting me to bring another with me.
I don’t look down at her, but the little snake futilely fights to pull her arm from my hold, causing me to squeeze my hand tighter around her upper arm.
“Let me go!” she yells, and I can’t tell if she’s playing along or truly trying to escape me.
"We'll be returning to Clestraya as soon as you're ready," I tell the crew. They’re staring dumbstruck at me, as if they’ve never seen a woman before. "No one is permitted in my rooms unless it's been cleared by me, understood?"
The crew nods and mumbles agreeably in response, eyeing the girl in my grasp. Though I barely acknowledge them as I direct Arina into my cabin. It’s a small space, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time here, and I’ve tried to make it a place of comfort.
And, even after the day she’s had, she looks fucking perfect in here.
She shouldn’t fucking be here. I don’t know why I brought her. I should have left her in the tunnels. That’s what she wanted, but I could not bring myself to part from her. And not knowing if she was safe would have distracted me from the next part of my mission.
"Do I need to chain you up, or will you promise to stay?" I ask, knowing she has no intention of making things easy for me.
When she doesn't respond, I sigh and pull her toward the bed.
"What the hell?" she asks as I pull out a cuff and clamp it to her left ankle.
"It's just until we make it through the wards. I cannot have you anywhere near the crew. They are not my men, and I do not trust them to keep you safe."
She rolls her eyes, and the sudden desire to kiss the attitude right out of her sneaks up on me. I ball my hands in fists, clenching until the feeling passes.
"Ever the faithful servant, aren't you?" she says, the words so sharp they may have cut a weaker male.
I cannot resist snatching her by the throat and lifting her above the mattress. She works to keep her eyes from mine, but I only move in closer.
"You will stay here, in my care, until I have decided what to do with you. You will not take any action that may be detrimental to the rebellion, and you will not intentionally put yourself in harm's way while I am responsible for you. Is that understood?"
She hesitates, but then gives me a slight nod.
It satisfies me enough to gently release my grip. She falls onto the bed, sucking in air as she settles with soft bounces on the mattress before crawling as far as the chain will allow, never breaking eye contact.
A knock at the door causes her to flinch, but she doesn't look away.
"Sir! Captain's askin' for ya!" a crew member calls from the other side.
"Coming!" I shout back, refusing to be the first to end the trance we're holding each other in.
"We are about to be in the middle of the ocean. There is no escaping me here. Should you jump into the water, I pray you drown before the Huri find you or I recover you myself," I threaten and she blinks, finally turning her head.
I click the lock into place and the wood plank I slide over the door scrapes loudly when I drop it. That ought to keep her in.
Above deck it's like a different world. The Smog is almost more suffocating at sea than it had been on land, swallowing up the sky and reflecting back up from the depths of the ocean. Surrounding us from all sides.
It's even worse in the dark of night. Where stars should be there is black, empty, nothingness.
Where the light from the moon should shine in the waves there are only inky dark holes.
The crew runs around, securing the ship as it's tossed about in the swirling ocean water.
I need a fucking breath. She makes me more disoriented than the fucking dark magic. I hate having to treat her like she doesn't mean anything to me, but it will be better for both of us in the long term.
The more she dislikes me, the better.
The captain of the ship, a crew the queen of Clestraya gifted to me, allowing me to bring them from the other continent specifically to haul me back and forth between lands after agreeing to the terms of our treaty, waves me over to the bow.
I reach him and look out to the waves, wishing I could turn the vessel around and solve Lukasia's problems on my own.
"Captain." I nod at the man. "What are your thoughts on the sea-path?" I ask, hoping the seasoned sea-fae will have good news.
"It's more treacherous heading that way, My Lord. We're holding steady for now, but the ocean is a fickle mistress, and the sea-god's an evil bastard. Who knows how the tides might turn?"
I try not to laugh at the irony in his words. "How long until we pass into … friendlier waters?" I say, aware the question holds little truth, as we're likely to encounter more dangers on the other side of the curse.
"Shouldn't be too long once we hoist the anchor. We've been prepared to leave for quite some time now." His words hold an accusation. One I'm sure I'll pay for when we reach the other shore. "You'll stay above deck to move us through the wards, won't ya?"
I tip my head in response, equal parts dreading moving within Clestraya's wards once more and delighted to breathe untainted air.
The Smog has weak spots the further out to sea we get, and the other lands have worked hard to keep the curse from spreading. The wards keeping the Smog from Clestraya's boundaries were put in place by the king.
When I turned eighteen, and my full powers finally manifested, the king and queen allowed me to come to Lukasia to see what might be done about the curse.
The king gave me a blood oath that allowed me to use my power to pass through his magic.
It took three full years to put together a crew willing to move through the Smog, and even longer to track down Konnor.
Moving the ship through the wards will drain me momentarily, a toll I'm willing to pay knowing the reward is full access to my powers on the other side of the curse once I recover.
"The crew was tellin' me they'd heard whisperin' of troll pirates near here. I'd just as soon throw myself to the Huri before facin' those monsters," he says over his shoulder as he walks away.
I don't disagree. The trolls are bloodthirsty mongrels. If they want a ship, they'll do anything to obtain it, slaughter anyone standing in their way. And once they have you in their sights, there’s not much you can do to stop them.
The sooner we make it back to land, the better.
I climb up into the crow's nest, allowing me a perfect vantage point to see where the Smog ends and the king's wards begin. It also gives me an excellent view to ensure Arina isn't disturbed and doesn't try to escape.
When we reach the border, I pull what remains of my powers from the vessel within me, shooting it out into a glittering shield to cover the entire ship, which allows us to slip through the double layers of curse and wards.
The edge of my vision goes dark, and it takes all my focus to climb back down to the deck.
"I'll be sleeping in the crew's bunks tonight. Rouse me if you need anything," I mumble the instructions to the captain as I pass him.
I barely manage to swing myself into the nearest hammock in the crew's quarters before I'm sucked into a deep, dreamless sleep.
A LOUD COMMOTION coming from above wakes me. It's still blacker than black out, and I can't imagine I slept for long. But my full power flares to life within me, and I feel mostly recharged.
With my senses on high alert, I blur into the middle of sheer chaos, discovering a gruesome scene.
Troll pirates have hijacked the ship.
The vicious creatures with their blue-gray skin, sharp fangs, and long, lethal claws where their nails should be are massacring the crew, ripping out throats with their teeth and scraping out their eyes.
More climb the ropes from the decrepit, piecemealed ship towering over the Clestrayan vessel from where it's moored alongside us.
My chest tightens in a panic as I remember Arina is chained in my chamber. Every sound is drowned out by the thought that I must get to her. Nothing else matters.
My sword hisses as I pull it from the sheath at my waist and run toward her, taking out as many of the vile creatures as I can along the way.
One jumps on my back, slicing a nail across my cheek before I can stab it through the head. It falls with a thud when I yank the dagger from its skull.
I consider blurring to her, but don't want to waste any magic or the opportunity to destroy as many of the fuckers as possible.
Purple blood sprays as I descend the stairs and my blade finds the throat of the beast at the bottom.
Finally, I reach the door to my chambers, but ice fills my veins when I see it's wide open, hanging off the hinges. My heart is tight in my chest. Either she escaped, or she's dead.
The feeling is quickly replaced with something akin to pride when I observe the scene inside.
Arina is on the bed, clutching her dagger, covered in sticky purple goop. The body of one of the pointy little beasts lies disemboweled at her feet.
"What the fuck is that thing?!" she asks as I run to her, inspecting her for wounds and unlocking the chain in a rush. “It could have killed me, and it would have been your fault for leaving me chained up in here.”
I cringe internally at the reminder.