Chapter 11
The days passed horribly slow, despite Dominic manipulating the wind and sea.
He had been to Enfider long ago and had forgotten how long it would take to sail to the eastern continent.
Ace stood at the helm while Dominic stood behind him, hands concentrated on commanding the wind into the sails and the ocean current to flow in favor of the ship, but his eyes were focused elsewhere.
Adara rested her arms against the starboard rail, peering out over the vast sea.
Her cloak hood had long since fallen in the wind.
Locks of her hair whipped in the gale, wrestled free from the braid cascading down her back, the red streaks stark against her dark hair.
Her eyes were closed, lips slightly turned up at the corners with content as she breathed in the salty air.
She looked so serene, so at peace with the sea.
It caught him off guard, considering that her powers were solely fire.
He’d have thought she’d be afraid of water, or at least hesitant to be near it.
She turned as Caleb approached with a plate of fish they’d caught and cooked this morning, and fruit they’d brought from the island. She took an apple from the plate and bit into it, using her thumb to wipe away some of the sweet juices left on her lips.
Caleb sat down on the main deck, leaning back against the hull as he dug into his food. “I bet you a gold coin that Asher could shoot that off your head,” he said between bites of fish, gesturing to the apple in her hand.
Asher currently stood at a distance from the foremast, bow and arrow aimed at a target that had been carved into the wood with a knife out of his pure boredom.
Asher’s eyes, which had been trained down the length of his drawn arrow, now roamed over to the two of them, perhaps having heard Caleb’s challenge.
Dominic laughed quietly to himself. Asher was their best archer, and the two of them were about to dupe Adara out of her money.
Asher returned his gaze to the target, releasing the arrow. It hit the mast, slightly above and to the left of the center ring.
“I bet he can’t,” Adara replied.
Caleb grinned as if he’d already won.
“Ash!” Caleb called.
He merely pointed to the apple in Adara’s hands, and Asher nodded in understanding. Adara carefully balanced the fruit atop her head. Asher drew another arrow from the quiver over his shoulder and took aim. Dominic watched carefully as Asher closed his eyes and fired.
Adara’s posture went rigid, but she did not flinch as the arrow sank into the apple, knocking it off her head. It thudded against the main deck, rolling until it hit the hull.
Caleb retrieved the fallen apple and held it up by the arrow protruding from its center.
“Not fair!” Adara pointed to the target on the mast. “You missed on purpose, so I’d think you couldn’t do it.”
Asher gave her a sly smirk as he took the arrow from Caleb.
He rolled the shaft of the arrow between his thumb and index finger, then pried the apple free.
“I never miss,” he said haughtily. A glance back at the arrow still sticking out of the target.
“Who said I was aiming for the center?” Asher tossed the apple back to her.
Adara didn’t hesitate to unsheathe a small throwing knife and hurl it. Asher flinched, sidestepping, thinking he would be hit, but the knife struck the apple mid-air.
Adara caught the hilt. “Neither do I.”
Silas eagerly sidled up to the group. “Can you teach me how to do that?” he asked excitedly.
Adara ruffled his auburn hair. “Of course!” She reached for the coin pouch tied at her belt, fished out a gold coin, and threw it at Caleb.
His face scrunched as it bounced off his forehead, but he caught it before it could hit the ground. “This will be no use in Enfider,” he said, inspecting the crown and lykren engraved on either side, the currency for Malryn. He pocketed it anyway.
Silas led Adara over to the mast with a target painted on it.
Drinking Andreilia’s water at only thirteen and having been one of the newer ones to reach the island, Silas still had a lot of training to do, but at least he was willing to learn.
His jaw was set in determination. His eyes narrowed with focus as Adara adjusted his stance and flipped the knife for him to pinch the blade between his fingers.
When he hurled the knife, it hit the target but didn’t stick.
“Ace,” Dominic said, drawing his second’s attention, whose brown eyes had been fixed on his brother, intently watching Asher high-five Caleb in victory. “Bring Adara over here.”
Ace merely nodded as Dominic took over the helm, then headed toward the three of them, laughing as they argued over the fairness of the bet.
Asher always seemed more like a brother to Caleb than he did to Ace, but Dominic suspected Ace didn’t mind.
There appeared to be a rift between them when they arrived on the island, being the first after Dominic.
Asher had seen Dominic for the monster he was, but Ace had stood with Dominic for as long as he could remember.
Of course, they were still close, the bond of blood too great to break.
But Andreilia was where family was chosen, and it seemed they’d chosen differently.
Adara ascended the stairs of the quarterdeck, features stone cold compared to the light in her eyes when she was with Asher, Caleb, and Silas moments ago.
Dominic stepped back from the wheel. “Steer for a while?” He gestured to the helm.
Adara silently took hold of the spokes, gaze cast on the vast ocean ahead. The sun was beginning to greet the sea, the sky its canvas to paint pastel in the coming twilight.
Dominic stood beside her, wanting nothing more than to collapse from the exhaustion of constantly using his magic, but he kept his posture upright, unwilling to let anyone see his energy ebbing away.
They stood in an awkward silence, filled by the droning noise of the ocean waves and the idle chatter of the Andreilians.
Zephyr had taken up his near-permanent residence in the crow’s nest. Wind ruffled his blond hair.
A spyglass was lifted to his eye as he searched the water for any sign of mythical creatures.
Although the young boy appeared happy in his place high off the deck, Dominic knew Zephyr preferred the crow’s nest because it was the farthest from the sea.
He was constantly scanning the ocean for signs of danger because a kraken had sunk the ship he and his brother sailed to Andreilia on.
Zephyr washed ashore, but his brother was never found.
Tyson and Desmond sparred on the main deck.
Tyson lunged with his sword and Desmond nimbly deflected with his spear.
Niran and Silas, being younger and less experienced, observed and learned, rooting them on.
Sawyer and Vesper sat across from each other, playing a game of cards.
Caleb and Tobias stood hand in hand at the forecastle deck while Ace and his brother appeared to be having a quiet argument by the port railing.
Dominic read Adara’s name on Asher’s lips and assumed Ace was warning him not to get too close to the Flamecarrier, for this game of love would end in her demise.
Dominic’s attention returned to Adara, eyes catching on the thin chain hanging around her neck that dipped beneath the fabric of her tunic where that golden key lay over her heart.
He averted his gaze as something inside him clenched, like claws sinking into him and twisting.
How could he ever win her over when she still carried the key to another’s heart?
Would she ever wish to carry a piece of him with her wherever she went?
Dominic contemplated what it would be like to experience a love strong enough that one could never wholly separate from the other.
To have his soul so intimately entwined with another that not even death could stop it.
“Tell me more about the Whisperer.” Adara’s words cut through his thoughts and he never thought he’d be so glad to hear her voice. “I want to know what we’re up against.”
“A monster sent from the depths of Helfarrow to do Belor’s bidding, no doubt,” Dominic replied.
That is if Belor and Helfarrow are even real.
He didn’t voice his doubt about the God of Death out loud, knowing it was simpler to word it that way for others to understand the immense danger they were in.
“Sounds like someone I know.”
He ignored the jab and the glare she shot him.
Dominic himself didn’t know much about the Whisperer, only what he’d read in tomes or heard in stories.
“The Whisperer is an ancient being, ageless like us, and is said to have the ability to see one’s past and future.
” A gust of wind threatened to send them off course, but Dominic’s magic held steady, muscles straining with the effort.
“It also cannot lie. So when people demand to know their future, the Whisperer must tell them. But time, as you know, is a very delicate thing, as is knowing your fate. Of course, if people don’t see what they want, they’ll try to change their future.
But the Whisperer knows their new actions could change the course of another’s fate.
So, instead of letting them leave with the knowledge, the Whisperer kills them, and erases them completely from time. That way, no one’s fate is altered.”
Brows furrowed, lips pulled into a frown, Adara asked, “How does anyone know this then? If those who die are erased from time, how does anyone escape to warn others of the Whisperer?”
He sighed, running a hand down his face in irritation.
“I don’t bloody know. There’s a lot of unexplained tomes about ancient creatures that supposedly no one can survive and live to tell the tale, like the Whisperer and lykrens and dragons and the Phoenix.
The stories just show up in books, and no one knows who wrote them.
People say there were once immortals who walked between realms, gods that lived among us long ago, who wrote these ancient tomes and left them to help us in the doomed world they created as they fled to save themselves.
For all I know, it could all be a myth, but I’m not taking my chances. ”
If Adara knew about anything he was talking about, she didn’t let it show. She only asked, “If you believe it could all be a myth, then why risk it for the Realm Fracturer?”
This sword could be a myth as well. Another legend to give fools false hope for power, another fairy tale to tell children before bed, another fable too dangerous to accomplish. It could be nothing more than a story meant to drive people insane and lead them to their deaths.
Dominic turned to meet her eyes. She looked up at him with uncertainty, like he was dragging her through all this for nothing.
And it might be for nothing, but his desire for the Realm Fracturer was strong enough that he was willing to try.
“Because this sword may be the only thing that can make things right.” Something inside his chest strained.
“And I suspect your hope for this Realm Fracturer to be real is as strong as mine since you’re willing to help me forge it. ”
She stared at him blankly, lips pressed together as if to hold in her words. He didn’t know what she needed the sword for, but she had to be as desperate and insane as he was if she was willing to wage a war of hearts with him and help him make the Realm Fracturer.
“It’s real,” she said quietly but not softly. Her tone was sharp, certain, almost threatening. Like she’d rend the world to pieces with her bare hands if she could not do it with the Realm Fracturer. There was something dark hidden behind the light of hope in her sapphire eyes. “It has to be.”