Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
D ark clouds circled over Klatos as the Pandora closed in on the city.
Neve stood at the bow with Eleksi, having spent all night ensconced in the rocking bed in their quarters. A stiff wind made their cloaks billow and Neve’s eyes sting. In the distance, the city appeared as a murky smudge of shoreline, backdropped by black mountains.
Jarin stood at the helm, squinting at Klatos through a spyglass. He grumbled something to himself. Neve wasn’t close enough to quite hear, but she thought it was a curse word.
The captain lowered the spyglass and shouted at the crew over the howling wind. “Royal guards at port! Royal guards at port! Changing course for Skull Cave!”
Neve and Eleksi shared a look of dismay. Was the royal guard waiting to ambush Davron when he arrived? Or had they already? Perhaps the guards were even prowling for Neve. Her wanted posters had already been distributed all over the kingdom.
And yet here she was, returning to Klatos by choice, where she was in the most danger. She only hoped it would not be for nothing.
Eleksi put his reassuring hand on her back. “Entering the city via the roads would’ve been riskier. This way, we are forewarned of the royal guard.”
“Yes, we are forewarned.” The dark city melted into the gray morning mist as the Pandora changed course. “But Davron likely was not.”
“It’s possible we’re in time to intercept his vessel. The seas have been rough and they may’ve been delayed en route from Velandia.”
The ship’s hull sliced through the steely water at a tremendous pace. Neve sensed the unfathomable power of the ocean beneath her, more wild and potent than any force on land. The sea was a world unto itself.
Riella appeared at her elbow, on the other side of Eleksi. The siren leaned against the railing and inhaled deeply. Her skin was lightly tanned, unlike when Neve first met her.
“Do you miss it?” asked Neve, watching her. “Living under the surface?”
The sorceress could detect restless, bold energy pouring from Riella in waves. The emanations were typical of a siren. They possessed a special kind of magic, giving them preternatural strength, among other things.
“I miss the peace and quiet sometimes,” mused Riella. “But there’s too much about my life above the surface that I adore.” She looked over her shoulder at Jarin with a starry-eyed smile. “You know what I mean, of course,” she said, turning her smile on Neve.
“I do?” Neve cleared her throat, determinedly avoiding Eleksi’s gaze.
Riella stared at her expectantly. “You have strong feelings for him, do you not?”
The sorceress’s face flushed, despite the frigid wind. Of the many lovely qualities Riella possessed, subtlety was not one of them.
“I, uh—” Neve trailed off.
Riella looked at the horizon and gave a knowing nod. “You’re unused to speaking about your emotions out loud. I understand. I was the same, until I accepted I was in love with Jarin.”
Neve glanced at Eleksi, who was watching her with a slight smile. Her blood pulsed with pure and ferocious feeling for him.
Was this how her mother had felt about Leonid? Had Leonid felt the same for her? Neve sincerely hoped so.
In a violent flash, her dream from last night appeared before her mind’s eye. She’d fallen to her death, arms wheeling uselessly in a voluminous cloak. Her own horrified face had watched from above, backdropped against a starry night sky. Who’d been screaming in her ear? Were the screams her own?
Skull Cave emerged from the mist like a behemoth ancient monster. The craggy black rocks formed a mouth that churned with whirlpools. The deck of the Pandora began rocking savagely, waves lashing the hull and sending salty water into the air.
Eleksi tightened his grip on Neve, putting his arm firmly around her waist.
“Do you want to go below deck?” he shouted over the roar of the pounding sea.
Riella held the railing but otherwise looked completely at ease. Probably because the siren was a better swimmer than everyone else on the ship combined. Neve had never learned to swim, and she knew she’d be sucked deep underwater if she was thrown overboard.
“I would die saving you,” said Eleksi into her ear, seeming to read her mind. “I hope you know that.”
His words, as sweet as they were, sent an icy chill of premonition down her spine. She wished he hadn’t said that.
“No one’s dying,” she replied, with far more confidence than she felt. “Not any of us , at any rate.”
The clouds cracked open. Rain dumped over the ship’s deck, compounding the perilousness of the conditions. The Pandora veered wildly back and forth near the mouth of the cave as Jarin spun the wheel, attempting to gain entry. Every time they seemed close to slipping through the narrow gap, the ocean changed course, flinging the vessel away.
Thunder rolled in and lightning illuminated the water in flashes of white. Neve’s stomach dropped when she glimpsed the huge, jagged rocks beneath the surface. No wonder sailors avoided this route. One false move and the Pandora would smash into thousands of pieces on the cruel rocks.
Riella warily eyed the sky. “Lightning could strike the masts at any moment,” she yelled over the din of the storm.
Neve caught snatches of Jarin’s shouts as he commanded his crew. The sailors worked in concert on the rigging, valiantly trying to control the ship in uncontrollable conditions.
The Pandora sharply changed course. Jarin seemed to be directing them back out to sea.
Eleksi shouted as they pulled away, pointing at something inside the mouth of the cave. “In there!”
Neve and Riella squinted, trying in vain to wipe the water from their eyes.
A gigantic clap of thunder erupted, accompanied by a vivid flash of lightning. In that moment, a ship became visible inside the cave. The vessel was much smaller than the Pandora and was stuck on the cave’s rocky interior banks. A blue and white flag hung limply from the broken top mast. The ship was Zermetic.
“That’s either Davron’s vessel or it belongs to the royal fleet,” yelled Neve at Eleksi and Riella. “We have to check. There might be survivors.”
But already, the Pandora was sailing in the opposite direction. Riella nodded in response and dashed across the streaming deck, climbing the stairs to Jarin. She shouted in his ear while gesturing wildly at the cave.
His eyes met Neve’s. Seeming to make a decision, he called for several crew mates and barked orders at them. Then he and Riella joined Neve and Eleksi on the heaving deck.
“Berolt will take the Pandora further south, where it’s safe to drop anchor,” yelled Jarin over the storm and the churn of the ocean. “The four of us will take a rowboat into the cave on a search and rescue mission.”
Neve looked past the captain where pirates were rigging up a single wooden rowboat beside the railing at Jarin’s command.
“It’ll be dangerous,” said Jarin, directing the warning at Neve in particular.
She almost laughed.
“What’s a bit more danger?” she shouted back.
He nodded in satisfaction and waved her into the rowboat.
With Eleksi’s help, she clambered into the slippery boat and sat in the middle seat. Jarin and Eleksi sat front and back, readying two oars apiece. Riella climbed in last, sitting next to Neve in the middle. The siren held her hand tightly.
“I won’t let you go for anything!” shouted Riella. “If you go over, so do I!”
Neve squeezed Riella’s hand back, feeling a great rush of affection for her. Jarin waved at Drue, giving the signal to lower them overboard.
The rowboat dropped in terrifying fits and spurts down the side of the lurching hull. Neve closed her eyes and extended a spell of Protection outward from her heart, encasing Riella and Eleksi and Jarin, and finally the boat itself. The siren gasped in delight as the magic took hold.
Perhaps Neve ought to have been conserving her strength, but there’d be no point shoring up her magical energy if she died before she could use it.
When Neve opened her eyes, the boat was dropping onto the seething gray ocean. The ropes holding the rowboat gave way and the boat was instantly flung away from the ship, borne on a cresting wave. The wave pitched them toward the cave while Eleksi and Jarin plunged their oars into the water.
Against the raging sea, the boat felt painfully insubstantial. Neve held onto Riella’s hand for dear life, wave after wave of seawater dumping over their heads. Whether by magic or the sheer strength and skill of Jarin and Eleksi, the rowboat somehow stayed afloat.
The water tossed them at the mouth of the cave, then away again, seemingly on the ocean’s whim. The Pandora faded from sight, a hulking shadow merging with the infinite charcoal mist.
Jarin, who faced Neve and Riella, stared up at something behind them.
“Hold on!” he shouted, gritting his teeth and digging the oars deeper.
Heart hammering with dread, Neve glanced over her shoulder in time to see a wall of furious water cresting far above in a great dumping wave.