Chronicles of the Four: The Complete Series

by Marissa Farrar

  She nodded. “Okay, let’s do this, then.”

  “We should finish the remains of the water,” Orergon suggested. “We can’t take it with us.”

  There wasn’t much left, but they fished out the number of small critters that had lost their lives in the water cones while trying to get a drink themselves, and then shared around the remains of the water. With the leaf cones drained dry, they walked back down the beach to the raft. The tide had come in since they’d started building, and now the waves lapped at the edges, already lifting the front of the raft up with every wave.

  The group stood on the water’s edge, looking out to sea, silently contemplating the distance to the island. What dangers lurked beneath those ocean waves?

  “Look.” Dela pointed out to sea. “There are some areas where the waves aren’t so big. Maybe that will be the best way to get out deeper?”

  But Vehel shook his head. “No, those are the areas where the waves are being pulled back into the ocean. It looks safer, but it’s not. It’ll pull you with it, if you’re not careful, and you won’t have any control over where you’re going. You just have to wait for it to spit you out the other end and hope you don’t drown in between.”

  Warsgra pulled a face. “Another reason for me to dislike the ocean,” he growled.

  They each took a corner of the raft, with Orergon next to Dela at the rear, and Warsgra and Vehel at the front. With Vehel knowing the most about the ocean, they were all content to allow him to take the lead.

  Orergon was a fierce warrior with his own kind, leading many men into battle with opposing tribes, riding bareback for miles across the Vast Plains, and yet, as he stepped into the ocean, one hand on his corner of the raft to hold it in place, he couldn’t ignore the churning of nerves in his gut. Was this caused by him dying? Had he lost his bravery as well? But as he glanced over at Dela, also trying to hold her side of the raft still, he knew it was because he was worried for all their safety, but for hers in particular.

  How would any of them continue if something were to happen to her?

  Chapter Ten

  Dela

  AS THEY PADDLED THE raft farther into the ocean, it lifted and fell with the movement of the waves beneath them. The bottom half of her clothing was already soaked from where they’d pushed the raft into the water, and now the spray from the waves threatened to soak the top half. Salt water clung to her lashes and stung her eyes, but it was exhilarating as well. She’d never been on the ocean before, and the closest she’d ever got to doing something like this was paddling around the city’s pond on a summer’s day as a child.

  Now they were on the water, the island suddenly seemed a long way off. They each had poles split down the middle as paddles, and so far the raft seemed to be holding together. Warsgra’s broad, bare back was directly in front of her, and she found herself studying the movement of his muscles beneath his skin as he paddled, rather than watching how the island didn’t appear to be getting any closer.

  “Is everyone okay?” Vehel called out to them from his position on the front, left-hand corner. He was the one most at ease in this situation. Like her, both Orergon and Warsgra weren’t used to the ocean, but Vehel grew up on the coast, his race surviving through fishing.

  “Fine,” Dela called back through gritted teeth. Her arms ached already, though she’d have never admitted so to the men. Getting past the break had been rough, and a couple of times she’d thought the raft was going to get thrown back into her body by one of the waves. But the men at the front—particularly Warsgra—had managed to keep control.

  She kept paddling, digging the pole into the water. It wasn’t the most effective paddle, but it was all they had. They were making progress, even if it was slowly. When she glanced over her shoulder, the shoreline definitely appeared farther away.

  “There had better be a Seer on the island,” she said between strokes. “I’m not going to be happy if we get there and the place is deserted.”

  “Aye,” Warsgra agreed, “and we’ll still have to get back again.”

  Suddenly, something bumped the bottom of the raft.

  Dela froze, a scream trapped in her lungs.

  “Pull in your oars,” Vehel commanded.

  “What was that?” she gasped.

  She peered over the side, almost not wanting to know. Something long and as thick as a human torso swam beneath the surface, its body lazily undulating through the waves.

  Dela sucked in a breath. “By the Gods, did you see that?”

  “Sea serpent,” Vehel said. “Just stay still and it should ignore us.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “Shh.”

  The four of them kept still, holding their makeshift oars in over the top of the raft. They sat in frozen silence as the raft lifted and fell with the waves, just waiting for the next bump that would signal the sea serpent’s return.

  “Has it gone?” Dela hissed.

  Vehel glanced back to her and nodded. “I think so.”

  “Should we start to paddle again?”

  She was desperate to reach the island now. Dela couldn’t bear to think about what manner of other creatures could be swimming beneath them now. The water was too dark and too deep to be able to see more than a couple of feet, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to look, anyway. She just wanted to get back onto dry land. Her arms and shoulders ached from paddling, her legs stiff from having been sitting in the same position for so long. She prayed this wasn’t all going to be for nothing, and that the Seer on the island would be able to give her advice about how to communicate with the dragon properly. She didn’t even want to think about the fact they’d also need to make their way back to the mainland at some point. Hopefully, they’d have figured something out by that point, or Vehel’s magic would be strong enough to move them across the water in a different way.

  “Let’s keep going,” Vehel called back to them.

  Dela took a deep breath then plunged her oar back into the waves. No further bumping came, and the four of them paddled in unison, the motion sweeping the raft forward. The sun beat down on their heads, drying the salt water into white tracks across their skin. She dared to look up to the island in front of them. Did it suddenly look closer? She turned to look over her shoulder at the beach they’d left behind. Yes, they’d definitely made progress. Her heart lifted with hope. They were going to make it.

  “We’re over halfway,” Vehel called. “Keep going.”

  She gritted her teeth and ignored her protesting muscles. If they made it through the next twenty-four hours, she was sure her body would make her pay for the exertion. From the strained expression on Orergon’s face, she knew he was feeling the same way, and though she couldn’t see the faces of Warsgra and Vehel, she could tell by the way Warsgra’s muscles were popping in his biceps and forearms that they were finding this hard work as well.

  A second bump came from beneath the raft again, this one harder, lifting her corner of the raft out of the water. This time, she wasn’t able to hold in her scream, and in her effort not to be toppled, she released her oar and gripped onto the sides of the raft instead. She realized her mistake, and grappled for the lost oar, but she was too late, and the pole slid beneath the surface of the ocean and quickly vanished from view.

  “It’s back!”

  A third knock came from underneath, but closer to Vehel’s corner this time. Her heartrate skyrocketed, and she stared in fear at the others. They pulled in their oars as they’d done before, and sat and waited, praying the sea serpent was only curious and would go away as before.

  The island was tantalizingly close now, near enough that they probably could have swum the distance, though none of them would want to be in the water with the massive serpent. Dela didn’t like to think how big the creature was. She hoped it ate vegetation rather than other sea life, but she had no idea.

  Another bump came from beneath the raft.

  “By the Gods, it’s trying to knock us off!” Sh
e held on tighter, not wanting to look over the edge, knowing she’d catch a glimpse of that muscular body winding silently through the water.

  “It’s probably only curious,” Vehel said. “I doubt it even knows we’re on here.”

  Every muscle in her body was tense. “If it keeps hitting the bottom of the raft, it’s going to find out soon enough, ’cause we’ll be in the water with it.”

  As though the ocean itself had sensed their fear and wanted to add to it, the waves that had been lifting and dropping the raft grew larger. They rode to the top of a crest, and the raft tilted up, so Dela felt sure she was going to fall off the back, and then sloped forward again as it plunged down the other side. It hit the trough, and water flooded over the front of the raft, and the vines they’d so tightly knotted loosened under the impact.

  She thought they’d at least managed to lose the sea serpent, but the familiar bumping from beneath came again, and a moment later, a big wave hit.

  Dela felt a looseness beneath her, and she glanced down to find space had appeared between the poles, and she could see the dark water of the ocean beneath. In the gap, something else moved, something with scales and a long, muscular, twisting body.

  “The vines are coming undone!”

  “We’re going to have to keep going,” Warsgra yelled. “If we don’t, the raft is going to break apart.”

  “It feels like it’s breaking apart anyway,” she cried.

  “Better that we cover some distance while we still have the chance, or else we’re going to be swimming with that thing and the Gods only know what else.”

  Though they’d been trying not to be seen by the sea serpent, the men had no choice but to plunge the poles back into the water and keep paddling. Dela clung onto the raft, trying to hold the pieces together.

  “Come up to the front, with us,” Warsgra growled.

  “I can’t. If I let go of the poles, they’ll come apart, I’m sure of it.”

  Orergon was to the right of her. His vines had held together, so far, but they would be bound to pull apart if her side of the raft came undone completely.

  “Paddle faster!” the Norc instructed everyone.

  Dela wished she could help. She felt useless and helpless, balancing on top of the poles, unable to paddle. Each wave that hit them threatened to pull more of the poles out of her grasp, and she wasn’t sure she could hold on much longer. She could feel her corner of the raft sinking, more water spilling in over her hands, knees, and feet. Where had the sea serpent gone? Had it left them alone?

  She risked looking up to see how much distance they had left to go. They were almost at the island, but it still felt like an impossible distance.

  A sudden jolt from beneath the raft launched Dela into the air. She barely managed to keep her grip on the raft, one hand lashed tight around the pole. But then she realized the pole she held onto was no longer attached to the rest of the raft.

  “Dela!”

  She heard her name moments before plunging beneath the waves. Her hearing grew hollow as water filled her ears. Her chest contracted with the punch of cold, and she fought against the desire to suck in a breath. She was in the water, still sinking deeper, and that serpent was in here with her. Panic clutched her, and she kicked her legs and powered her arms through the water, fighting against the drag pulling her down. She managed to change direction to swim back up. How far had she been thrown from the raft? Was the serpent coming for her now? Or was it preoccupied with the raft? The back of it must have come apart when the creature struck it. Did that mean the others were in the water with her?

  She breached the surface and gasped for breath.

  Waves battered her, washing over the top of her head and pushing her under again. She couldn’t get her bearings. What direction should she look? Where were the others? Where was the island? All these thoughts went through her head in a matter of seconds.

  She was already exhausted from paddling and then trying to hold the raft together. How long would she be able to swim?

  Panic filled her as she twisted one way and then the other, constantly expecting something to attack her legs and drag her down deeper into the depths of the ocean. She was terrified about what might be happening to the others. Were they still on the raft, or had the whole thing fallen apart? She didn’t know how far she’d been thrown when the serpent hit the bottom of the raft, but she hoped if the raft was still together that the men wouldn’t come in after her. There was no point in them all dying out here.

  What little energy she had remaining began to seep away. Her muscles cramped from the cold water, and she suddenly realized she’d stopped trying to swim. She tried to give another burst of energy to keep her head above water, but she wasn’t able to do it. Her brain had lost the ability to connect with her muscles.

  Something bumped against her leg—something strong and powerful—and even though her mind went into overdrive, her body didn’t respond.

  This is it for me, she thought. She was going to die before her life had even properly got started. Her heart ached for Orergon, and Vehel, and Warsgra, and for her parents back home, and how they would never truly know what had happened to her. Overwhelming sadness took hold of her for the bigger story as well, for the war starting in the south, and how it would spread to the other races and how many lives would be lost.

  She didn’t want to die, but, she realized with sudden clarity, people didn’t always get what they wanted.

  Chapter Eleven

  Warsgra

  DELA!

  Warsgra desperately looked around for any sign of her. She’d been thrown into the water, and then a wave had come, and she’d vanished from view. They’d all gone after her, but the rest of the raft had broken apart. All they had to float on were clumps of poles. Some were tied together while others just floated in singles on the surface of the sea. One piece had hit Warsgra smack on the forehead, and for a moment he’d been left dazed and unsure of where everyone was. In the water, when the waves rose up around him, he lost sight of the island and the shoreline where they’d come from. It was impossible to tell what direction he should even be looking, and very quickly he lost sight of the others as well.

  Despite being exhausted, he snatched a lungful of air and purposefully plunged beneath the surface, keeping his eyes open wide. Salt stung his eyeballs, but he forced himself to peer through the murky water. The sunlight only penetrated so deep, and all he could see were a few of the poles from the raft. He didn’t spot any of the others and definitely not Dela. Was he too late? Had she already drowned? He couldn’t imagine things ending like this, but this was certainly the way it seemed to be going.

  There was no sign of the sea serpent either. Had it taken Dela and swum away? With no one else in sight, and with his lungs burning, Warsgra was forced to power his way back up to the surface. His lack of clothing made it easier for him to swim, though his boots had filled with water, and he was at least thankful Vehel had long since rid himself of his armor. If the Elvish prince had been on the raft wearing armor, he’d have been dragged beneath the surface in no time.

  Warsgra’s head broke the surface of the ocean, and he wiped salty water from his eyes before looking around, trying to get his bearings. The waves made it impossible to see if any of the others were near. He opened his mouth to shout out, but was rewarded with a mouthful of salty water. One of the waves lifted him, and he caught sight of the island. It was close now—far closer than it had looked when they’d been on the raft. Though it tore him in half doing so, he struck out toward the island. There was nothing more he could do by staying in the water. He would eventually drown, or else he would become fish food for one of the creatures living in its depths.

  His limbs were heavy, his muscles not feeling like they were working correctly, but he wasn’t going to give up now. He swam forward, kicking his feet. His boots had remained strapped to his ankles, and though they were heavy and filled with water, he didn’t want to kick them off.

&nb
sp; It felt as though he would never reach the shore, but he pushed himself onward, forcing his arms and legs to move through the water. Though he didn’t even realize he was so close, his feet suddenly hit the ocean floor, and he realized the water was shallow enough for him to stand. On trembling limbs, he pushed himself to his feet his shoulders breaching the surface. He fixed his sights on the island’s small shingle beach and crawled through the breaking waves to collapse on the shoreline. A number of the poles that made up the raft had also washed up nearby, and Warsgra hoped against hope that he would see Dela or one of the others also washed up in the same spot.

  But he was alone.

  He pushed himself to sitting. His hair hung like seaweed in wet draggles down his back. Tiny stones and grains of sand had lodged beneath his nails as he’d crawled up the beach, and his forehead throbbed from where a piece of the raft had hit him, but otherwise he was unharmed. Though weakened from his struggle to shore, he forced himself to his feet to get a better look at the ocean. If he spotted one of the others out there, he wouldn’t hesitate to rush back in again. But, other than a couple of the raft poles bobbing on the surface, he didn’t see anyone. Even the sea serpent had vanished. Warsgra just hoped it hadn’t taken one of the others with it.

  The thought of having lost any of them twisted Warsgra’s gut with grief. He experienced the emotion with particular clarity for Dela. What would be the point in all of this if they didn’t have her? She was the glue that bound them together.

  He walked along the shoreline, desperately watching for any sign of the others. What if he didn’t find them? What then? He had no way of getting back to the mainland. Would he need to head deeper into the island and try to find the Seer Vehel had been talking about? After all, she was the reason they’d done this treacherous journey. If nothing else, perhaps she would be able to help him get back to the mainland.