CHAPTER 19 #2
The crowd of warriors surged forward to tumultuous cheers. After about half had clambered aboard, Wep dropped off the barrel and disappeared into the throng.
“It’s our turn!” Raif shouted, leading us forward.
I followed, keeping my eyes glued to Teke in front of me, thankful that Ivank took up position at my back. A stern woman with the sides of her head shaved ushered us into a row about two-thirds back.
Raif sat first and pulled aside a loose floorboard, revealing a narrow cavity beneath. I glanced up and down the benches, seeing others do the same. “Here, our packs,” he called, stuffing his down and motioning for ours. One by one, we passed over our bags, and Raif tucked them beneath.
Stationed in the middle, rather than along the sides where the oar-ports were cut, our job was to sit still and wait.
Behind me, Wep called out orders, answered questions, and checked in with ranng leaders.
I focused hard on not turning around. Had it only been a handful of hours since he pressed me against that tree?
To think, all these people were looking to him in deference, their leader, third in command after Dane and Eldreth.
Women probably fell at his feet, yet it was me he pulled into that alcove.
It was me he looked at with that wild intensity.
It was me he kissed despite my betrothal to—
“What’s this?” Teke plucked something out of my braids and handed it to me. It was a small, white flower. They laughed. “Is this one from your latest batch of dyes?”
I looked down at the white flower. There was no reason to use white in the dye-making process. They had no pigment to extract. “Probably.” I forced out a laugh and tossed the flower aside. White flowers underfoot beneath that beautiful tree, Wep’s hard body against mine—
“By all means, keep thinking of your weaponmaster. I’d love to see how this turns out. How many more flowers do you think you can grow?”
“How do I make it stop?”
“Use your magic, Small One. It’s building up inside you.”
“I don’t know how!”
“You do. When the time is right, reach within.”
The longship lurched forward. I forgot how horrible it was on the stomach to be at sea. Glancing back, Wep was at the steering board, completely in control. His eyes were forward, his slight frown was in place, and his attention was focused ahead.
“The moon is high,” Ivank said up to the sky. “We’ll travel fast this night.”
He was right. The ship cut through the waves.
I could barely think through the sting of the sea winds on my face.
I now understood all the tight braids. Thank the Great Dragon for Callagh’s guidance.
The moon rose higher into the night sky, and a chill permeated deeper into my bones.
We tracked the coastline on our port side.
There was nothing but open sea starboard.
After my joints began to creak, and my ass had gone numb from sitting, I heard Wep’s voice behind us.
He was pausing at each group and speaking in hushed tones.
I couldn’t make out his words, but they were stern and clipped.
Anticipation mounted, and I bounced my feet, hoping to get some feeling back into them. His scent wrapped around me before I saw him. That beautiful mix of mint, eucalyptus, and…
“Rosemary,” I gasped. My second sight opened, and Wep’s outline exploded with white light that flashed with green as fresh as a young fern. He’s pleased—to see me?
There was barely enough room to walk between rows, but Wep did so with ease and dropped to a crouch before me.
With my second sight open, I could make out every feature on his face.
The side of his mouth quirked up. His eyes even held a faint glow to them.
The warmth of his body near mine drew me in, and I had to grip the board of the bench to stop myself from crawling on top of him. When he spoke, he looked only at me.
“When we make land, the shields will exit first, then archers will follow. If we’re lucky, we’ll pick them off by arrow.
If not, all warriors will be ready to move in on foot.
” His eyes flickered to Teke, then Ivank, then locked back on me.
“Your ranng is untested, not unskilled. The dragori are unlike anything you’ve fought against, but a weapon is a weapon.
A strike is a strike. You can cut them down just as you can any other.
Take no risks. Stay together. Protect each other.
” He looked down the line at each of us, waiting for our nod before moving on to the next.
When he looked back to me, something flashed behind his eyes as his lifelight flickered with warm yellow. Desire.
Wep leaned in, and I found myself doing the same, though I knew I should be pulling away.
Giving into this thing between us was a madness for behind closed doors, not in front of a longship full of warriors.
“Serae,” he whispered. On either side of me, Ivank and Teke turned away, but I could feel their ears straining toward us.
Both of them were pulsing with aquamarine.
Curiosity. “I know this isn’t the best time, but have you manifested a blessing? ”
My heart sank. “I don’t know,” I lied.
“A bierla from the Great Dragon? Anything that might help you?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure.”
Teke glanced at me sideways but kept their silence.
He nodded and rose, and a single flash of dull blue shone out.
Disappointment. “We make land in a few minutes, just on the other side of this cliff.” I followed the motion of his hand.
We were trailing the shoreline, but I hadn’t noticed the looming cliff up ahead.
It jutted out from the rest of the land, creating a makeshift wall blocking anything beyond from view.
Gripping Teke’s shoulder, I rose to my feet.
It was hard to make out in the darkness and distance, but there was something at the top of the cliff.
It was dark—glowing with a light I could only describe as black—and pulsing with deep red.
Rage. No, it was more than rage—it was hatred.
The ship rocked, and I teetered, but Wep’s strong hand gripped my arm, holding me up.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from that thing on the cliff and its absolute wrongness.
“The cursed,” Vaya’la hissed in my mind. Her fury seeped through our binding, surrounding me.
“Dragori?” I asked, though I hadn’t meant to say it out loud. Wep whipped around, following my line of sight. His grip tightened around my arm.
“Yes.”
Wep took off, running across the benches toward the stempost. Others were jumping to their feet in his wake.
He climbed as high as he could, leaning out over the prow.
We’d be underneath the cliff in minutes.
I had no idea what he saw, but more and more of the clifftop was swarming with that awful red-black light.
“Up there!” A woman three rows in front of us cried. It was the same woman and her brother that Lex had been leering at on the dock. “They can’t fly, right?” She turned to her brother. “Right?”
All heads lifted as the first creature leapt from the cliff.
“Vaya’la!” I screamed in my head. “It has wings!”
“They are abominations. Kill them all!”
It couldn’t fly. Its horrific, twisted form flapped and extended wings that sprouted from its back, but they were too short to bear its weight.
They could, however, allow it to glide slowly toward the water.
It splashed down more than fifty yards ahead of us, but more were jumping now.
I counted five, six, seven dragori jumping one at a time over the cliff.
The first two would hit the water with their companion, but the rest would land right on top of us.
“Do we shoot?” someone shouted.
“No,” Wep commanded in a tone that demanded obedience. “Raise your weapons. All blades pointed upward. Brace yourselves, and leave none alive!”
He whirled and drew the longsword from his back in one fluid motion. The first beast dropped from the sky with an inhuman snarl. Wep continued his spin, rotating around and slashing the thing in half. It clawed at him even as it fell apart at his feet. Its black lifelight faded, and death took it.
Another landed amid a group of warriors who cried out and stabbed the creature from every side at once.
It died before it landed on its feet. Wep spotted his next target and tracked its fall.
The third slashed at the forestay, partially severing the rope, before losing its legs, then its head, to the edge of Wep’s blade.
The next landed atop the yard, gripping the mast for balance. Three more landed after.
“Monserak!” Wep shouted.
A single arrow loosed. It pierced clean through one dragori, which plummeted down to the ship and into Wep’s waiting blade.
“Climb,” Wep yelled at a ranng at his side. Then, to another group, “Get them overboard!”
Warriors sprang into action, tossing bodies and severed limbs into the sea.
I lost track of Wep but found him again as a cry sounded up ahead and to the left.
A dragori had landed on top of someone. She had slashes down her face and neck, both of her blades embedded into the creature’s rear.
The tip of Wep’s longsword jutted out between its wings.
He yanked his blade free and helped toss the thing overboard one-handed.
My heart called out to him, thrumming with fear and pride and shock and I don’t know what else, watching him defend these people and take every killing blow he could to spare them.
Something deep within me reached out, wanting to help.
As if I had called out loud, he turned and locked onto me.
His lips moved in the shape of my name, but all I could hear was the flapping of wings.
“MOVE!” Ivank shouted at my side, reaching for me.