Chapter 59 #2
He offers me a knowing smirk. ‘Really?’
‘It’s not my fault you look so good in life and death situations,’ I tell him, only for him to chuckle.
‘Come on. Some of the others are closing in. We need to get to the boats first.’
He hits the ground while I’m still ten feet up.
‘Would you be insulted if I offered to catch you?’ he calls up.
‘You really think that me landing on you – me straddling you – is the best use of our time right now?’
‘I wouldn’t argue with it.’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Benny yells down from above. ‘You do realise things echo off a cliff and get louder, right? I think I preferred it when you two were pretending to hate each other.’
‘I definitely preferred it,’ Jonas mutters.
I land a moment later, my feet firm on the ground. Benny is not far behind, but Jonas still has a long way to go.
‘Make sure you hold that boat for him, Benny!’ I call.
‘Don’t worry. I know the rules,’ he replies. ‘You just get you and your prince across.’
I don’t need to be told twice. I race across the stone beach to where the boats have been dragged up past the shoreline.
They’re sturdier than I expected, with wooden hulls and wooden oars with metal ends.
Great for a gentle row on a lake, but crossing a freaking channel? We’ll have to wait and see.
‘Where do you want me?’ I ask Kyor. ‘Front or back?’
‘Now, Thorn, really?’ he groans.
‘I meant in the boat,’ I huff.
‘Right. Right, go in the front. I’ll steer.’
I head to the bow and start to drag it forward as Kyor pushes from the back. We need to get it into water, but where we go from there, I’ve no idea. No bright lights guide us as only the faintest glimmers of the Eastern Isles are visible over the waves.
‘Any chance they just have really small lamps on the islands?’ I ask.
Kyor flashes me a grin. ‘Sadly, I think they’re just far away, my love.’
If it wasn’t for the fact that the others are racing down the cliff face behind us and would happily skewer us with their swords, I would let my heart stutter over what he just called me again. But then, it could easily have been a slip of the tongue. Or a casual term of familiarity, nothing more.
I force the words out of my head as my feet hit the water, and a rush of fear judders through me, so visceral it steals my sight.
I don’t want to be here. I shouldn’t be here.
The thoughts come with a hollowness. Like they are somehow detached from my own mind. But how could that possibly be? How can I have thoughts that aren’t my own?
‘Thorn?’ Kyor’s voice snaps me out of the moment. Only then do I realise the water is knee-deep. ‘You need to get in.’
‘Right. Sure.’
As I climb into the boat, Kyor pushes us out, wading through the waves until the water is at his thighs. Then, with one final launch, he jumps in and begins paddling.
For a few minutes, we’re completely silent. The only sounds are the lapping waves and the gentle splash of our oars breaking the surface.
‘Is it just me,’ I say, ‘or does this all feel a little too easy?’
‘Just stay alert,’ Kyor murmurs.
I do as he says, but it doesn’t stop me from talking. ‘Where are the others? How are they doing?’
‘Hold on. They’re … shit.’ His response is enough to make my chest squeeze. ‘Looks like Benny and Jonas are going to have to fight the others for a boat.’
‘Fight who?’
‘Yeva and Odetta.’ My throat constricts even further. Jonas and Yeva are both from Wrohelm, so what does that mean? Would he switch sides and help her instead? No, I can’t imagine he would, and Yeva and Odetta’s combined firepower is substantially greater than what Benny and Jonas are working with.
‘Fuck,’ I say. ‘Any chance you can intervene? Offer them a helping hand?’
Kyor exhales sharply. ‘Rose, my love, are you suggesting that I interfere in other Rettlings’ fights just to aid your friends?’
Yup. There was no mistaking it then. Twice in two minutes. Still, this time I don’t dwell on it.
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. Can you do it or not?’
‘You know that if I do that, there’s a chance that Etta won’t see them as worthy of the gifting. They should really do it on their own.’
‘Are they going to do it on their own?’ I snap. ‘Or are they going to get killed?’
His silence is all the answer I need.
‘Just do it, Kyor. I’m not losing them too.’
He turns back. Silver crackles of lightning appear between his fingers and a cloud darkens over the shore.
A split second later, the light shoots from his hands, bounces off the cloud, and crashes downwards, striking the ground between Benny and Odetta.
It’s a testament to Benny’s powers that he was able to leap away before it struck, but Odetta wasn’t so lucky.
She sprawls backward, giving Benny and Jonas a chance to grab the boat.
By the time Odetta has gathered herself enough to start hurling flames at them, the boys are already on the water.
Relief rolls through me. I get what Kyor meant about Etta seeing them as worthy, but we’ve all needed help at some point or another in the Retterheld. I know I certainly wouldn’t be here without their support.
But I’m not going to dwell. The boys are alive, and they’ve got a boat. That’s what matters. I refocus on the view in front of me. As far as I can see, there is nothing. Nothing but the sea. Still. Quiet. Maybe it is as simple as crossing the channel.
But then, as the water brushes against the hull and spills over my legs, a feeling ripples through my stomach, a twisting that grips the very core of my soul.
It is pure, tortured agony. My breath hitches for a moment, but then the pain is gone and it’s like I’m not even in my body.
I’m above it. Seeing the water. Seeing our boat.
Seeing Jonas and Benny rowing towards us as we sit there drifting.
What in the Gods’ names is going on? Is this part of the trial?
Have the priestesses somehow used their magic to pull me from my body?
I didn’t even know that was possible. How the fuck do I get back?
‘Rose!’ The boat surges and Kyor slams into me, and just like that, I’m back in my body. Whatever that aberration was, it’s passed. So does that mean it was part of the trial or not? Only as Kyor reaches out over the side of the boat do I realise I’ve dropped one of my oars in the water.
‘What? What happened?’ My voice cracks.
‘I was about to ask you the same, Thorn. Are you okay? You just stopped rowing and let go of the oar,’ he says, handing it back to me.
‘Did I?’ I can’t remember that. I can remember being above it all. And before that all I can remember is pain and the fierce anguish that filled me when the water struck my legs.
My chest pounds as I twist around to look at Kyor, already aware of how insane I’m about to sound. But if that wasn’t the priestesses’ doing, then there’s only one explanation. Somehow, there’s still magic running through me.
‘I felt something,’ I tell him. ‘I felt something in the water.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m not sure.’
I put the oar back in the rowlock and lean over the side.
‘Rose, what are you doing!’
‘Just let me do this.’
He quiets as I lower my hand into the water.
A moment later, the pain tears through me and I scream out in agony.
‘Rose!’
I rip my hand out of the sea and the feeling is instantly gone. That presence. That pain. Vanished.
There is something in there. Something in pain. Something strong.
Kyor stares at me, then glances at the water.
‘Don’t touch it. Don’t,’ I plead with him. ‘It’s … it’s horrible.’
He ignores me, just the way I knew he was going to. ‘I just want to see, that’s all.’
Fixing his own oar, he dips his hand into the sea. His brows knit together as he pushes his arm in deeper.
‘I can’t feel anything,’ he says.
‘Really?’ I breathe. ‘It was in so much pain. Like it was trapped. Like it shouldn’t be here.’
He watches me carefully, but I suspect he’s thinking exactly the same as I am. It’s just a case of who has the guts to voice it first. In the end, it’s me.
‘Do you think this has something to do with the ice? With what happened before?’
‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘But I’m starting to hope it might.’
The comment catches me by surprise. ‘You are? Why?’
He tightens his grip on the oar and nods towards something over my shoulder.
‘Because if it is, then maybe you’ll be able to work out how the hell we get past that.’