Daughters of Fire & Sea

by Holly Karlsson

  “I’ve had a bag go missing a time or two,” Kell explained. “Curious children have a habit of following me around. I might try to retrieve my bag from your house when this is over.” He remembered the scarf tucked deep inside the pack he’d left outside on Lyric and Runa’s porch. It was all he had left of Triska, his Thendian mother, the only physical reminder of the loving woman who’d raised him. Sadness formed a lump in his throat as he tried to remember her face, her eyes. She was fading.

  The scarf was just a piece of fabric, nothing valuable, and yet the thought of never seeing it again filled him with desperation. He had to go back. Not now, but once Lyric was safe.

  “It’s probably still there,” Lyric said. “I doubt anyone in Elae’s Hollow would steal something off our porch. And the Sireni have probably realized we’re here by now and assume we won’t return, so I think we could stop by when this is done and —”

  “No!” Elaina said sharply, cutting Lyric off.

  Lyric jumped and looked at her mother. Her shoulders tensed, and Kell resisted the urge to reach out and brush his hand over the back of her neck.

  Death will follow, he reminded himself. Was it arrogant to think the Daughter was referring to him? Vara couldn’t have been talking to Lyric, could she? Lyric had no dark secrets. She hadn’t even known about her family or magic until recently.

  “You can’t go back, Lyric,” Elaina said. Her hand cut through the air in a commanding gesture. “I’m sorry you’ve had to leave everything behind, but you can’t risk going back.”

  “But the village,” Lyric said. “They need me.”

  “No,” Elaina said. “They’ll survive without you. You don’t owe them your life, Lyric.”

  Runa turned towards Elaina, her face cold. “Well, we all know how easy it is for you to abandon things,” she said.

  “Runa,” Lyric said, chidingly. “We have lives, Mama. Responsibilities.”

  “You can’t go back,” Elaina said. Her eyes flashed, and her mouth tightened in a thin line. “Don’t forget that I understand the dangers better than you.”

  “Don’t forget,” Runa echoed back, “that we aren’t children. You lost the right to order us around the day you left us.”

  “It’s not important,” Kell said, “my bag.” He could feel their emotions crowding around him, filling the air. That’s a lie, he thought, thinking about his mother’s scarf. It was important.

  “This isn’t about your bag, Kell,” Runa snapped.

  “Right,” Kell said, nodding. “I just ... you’re all she talked about.” He looked at Elaina, saw how hard she was trying to keep it together.

  Runa grunted, perhaps not believing him.

  “We should continue,” Lyric said, sighing. “Ru, can you still feel your body?”

  Runa nodded, her eyes softening as she looked away from their mother. “It’s that way,” she said, pointing, “but I don’t feel any closer.”

  “We need to hurry,” Lyric said, touching her sister’s arm. “We shouldn’t be here. I keep wondering if …” She shook her head.

  Runa nodded, an unspoken thought passing between the sisters.

  Feeling stupidly jealous about their bond, Kell looked at Elaina. She was watching Lyric, her brows furrowed. She was worried, growing increasingly restless the longer they walked. Did Elaina believe they were running out of time? If the Daughters had sensed Runa’s presence, might Valen, the Lord of Souls? Would he try to take her to the Underworld? How dangerous was it for them to travel here? How dangerous for Kell?

  “Let’s go,” Runa said. She glanced sideways at Elaina. “Focus on things we can fix.”

  Lyric nodded. Her shoulders were still tensed, and though Kell had promised himself that he’d stay away, that being near her was selfish, he reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder.

  Runa started walking, followed by Elaina.

  Staying beside Kell, Lyric smiled up at him. Her skin was luminous, her cheeks flushed. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said quietly, for his ears alone.

  “Me too,” Kell said. Regretfully, he dropped his hand from her shoulder and together they started after Runa and Elaina.

  “What will you do after this?” Lyric asked, glancing at him. She twisted her hand in her hair, braiding it absently as they walked.

  “After?” Kell asked.

  Lyric’s blush deepened, and she looked down at her hands as she threaded them through her hair. “After we get out of the Veil. My mother asked you to help us, but she’s here now …” Her voice trailed off.

  Kell breathed in. He didn’t want to think about that, about leaving. Honestly, he hadn’t given it much thought, not since Lyric opened her front door and smiled at him. “I was going to go to Rathgar’s Hold,” he said. “In Raendashar.”

  “Oh, yes. Mama said she’d help you get into our grandfather’s library.”

  “Yes,” Kell said. He wasn’t exactly sure how, considering Elaina didn’t want to see her father.

  Lyric looked at him, a quick flash of her eyes, and then began to unravel her hair. “Maybe that’s where we’ll go too,” she said, her voice light.

  Kell felt a thrill dance through his body.

  “To Raendashar?” Kell asked. “Is that wise?” He winced, hoping she wasn’t offended. He hadn’t meant to imply she couldn’t make her own decisions.

  Lyric raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem upset. “Well, Mama promised to help you, and I can’t imagine her leaving us, not now, so what other choice is there?”

  “Is that what you want? To go to Raendashar?” Kell looked at her curiously. Despite everything Lyric had heard about the war, about the Sireni, about her grandfather, she hadn’t been scared away?

  “Yes, I do,” Lyric said. Her eyes grew distant, and she looked away as if seeing something beyond them. “I worry about our home, our village. There are people who depend on me, on my help. I know they’ll be fine, of course they will, but I ... I wish I didn’t have to abandon them. I wonder if they’ll look for us.”

  “It wasn’t exactly your choice,” Kell said.

  “No,” Lyric said, lips turning up at the corners, “but I also can’t stop thinking about the war. About people dying over land, over old grudges. If I can do something … if I can maybe change our grandfather’s mind …”

  “Trying to save the world?” Kell asked.

  Lyric flushed. “Obviously I can’t save everyone,” she said. “And perhaps it’s foolish to think I can do anything, but … but we’re from both sides.” She looked at him, her eyes bright and hopeful. “We’re proof that Raendasharans and Sireni don’t have to hate each other. They can choose love.”

  Lyric was so earnest, so inspired, and as Kell watched her, he could imagine the possibility of a brighter future. Maybe she could change something. Maybe life didn’t have to end in blood and death.

  “What?” Lyric asked, flushing a bright red. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

  Kell grinned. “You’re inspiring,” he said.

  “Or delusional.”

  They grinned at each other. Lyric's shoulder brushed his as she shifted closer, and Kell found himself grabbing her hand. Touching her was starting to feel right, familiar.

  What are you doing, Kell? He shoved the thought away. He could worry about it later, once they were back in the world of the living. Perhaps things would feel different there.

  7

  Runa

  Runa stopped walking, earning a concerned look from their mother. She ignored the unspoken question and pressed her hand against her belly. She thought about the Soulworm, wiggling through her insides. Where was it now? What was it doing? The worm’s odd directional pull throbbed as if noticing her awareness.

  Looking up, Runa surveyed their surroundings. They’d walked into a small grove, the trees gnarled and gray like flesh-stripped bones. Large rocks lay scattered between them, a few lying in furrows as if they’d been dragged. Had someone been here before? Runa thought about her body l
ying somewhere in the darkness, guarded by strangers.

  Something gurgled behind her.

  Turning, Runa stared into Lyric’s embarrassed face.

  “Sorry,” Lyric said, grinning. “My stomach.”

  “We can stop here,” Runa suggested, pursing her lips. Her sister was always hungry.

  Runa focused on her belly, searching for the once familiar sensations of hunger and thirst, but felt nothing beyond the unsettling pull of the Soulworm.

  “It’d be good to eat,” Elaina said.

  Lyric beamed and flopped onto a low, flat rock, and Kell, following her like a shadow, sat nearby.

  Runa eyed them, watching as they pulled bread and apples from their packs. When would Lyric learn to stop collecting broken things? She couldn’t save everyone. Not even pretty boys with haunted eyes. Kell was trouble. Runa was sure of it. They shouldn’t forget that their mother sent him. What else might Elaina have asked him to do?

  “Do you feel any closer?” Lyric asked, looking at Runa.

  Runa blinked. “What?”

  “To your body.”

  Runa shook her head. “I’m starting to wonder if we’ll walk forever without finding it. How can we be sure the worm is leading us to the right place?”

  “Maybe your body is being moved?” Lyric asked.

  Runa shrugged. If the Sireni intended to distract them, then it made sense to move her body. They might have been tasked not with kidnapping Elaina, but keeping her occupied, getting her to waste time wandering the Veil.

  Or, maybe they hoped Elaina would find Runa's body and were prepared to grab both her and Lyric. Did the Sireni know Runa was here too? Did they think she was dead or did they know she had a Soulworm and was drawing closer? Was she drawing closer?

  "Maybe we're going in circles," Runa said.

  “Mama?” Lyric asked.

  Elaina, biting into an apple, shook her head. “It seems unlikely,” she said. “The Veil is a big, confusing place. It takes time to travel.”

  Growling, Runa wandered towards one of the trees and stared at it. She could probably eat, like the others, but she remembered how the worm felt sliding down her throat. It’d been worse somehow, being unable to taste it as it went down.

  Runa focused on the tree’s spindly branches, peering at the peeling bark. Disturbingly, it reminded her of papery skin, held together by dark, rust-colored sap.

  “Something’s coming,” a voice said beside her.

  “Gah!” Runa hissed, jumping sideways, hand raised to punch whoever had startled her. She blinked. Elenora’s sharp face stared at her. “You’re here!” Runa gasped. “What are you doing here?” She was fairly certain the scowling woman was not a demigod. A ghost then? Someone who knew their mother’s family?

  She looked back at Lyric and Kell, expecting to see their shocked faces, but their heads were bent towards each other. Lyric held her waterskin, and Kell reached out to brush something off her cheek.

  Runa looked at their mother and found Elaina staring in the opposite direction, her hand bringing the apple to her mouth for another bite.

  “They won’t notice me,” Elenora said, gesturing dismissively.

  “You’re not really here?” Runa asked. She looked back at Elenora and then glanced again towards Lyric and Kell.

  “Not entirely,” Elenora said. “Only you can see me. However, they will hear you speak, so unless you want to look mad, I’d be cautious. But enough about that, something is coming.”

  “Something?” Runa asked, looking around.

  “There,” Elenora said, pointing past Kell. “Don’t trust it. It’s a Flesh Eater.”

  “A what?”

  “A creature, like a demon, that eats the living. It’s not particularly fast, so it likes to wear the forms of humans to get close. Be careful.”

  Runa squinted, trying to see. Was it a woman? “It’s an old lady,” she said doubtfully, stepping closer towards the others.

  “Don’t trust it,” Elenora said. She sighed. “I considered seeing how you dealt with it, without my help, but if it eats your sister, I assume you’ll be inconsolable.”

  “What?” Runa gasped. She glared at Elenora, fury bubbling in her chest.

  “Fire, it hates fire,” Elenora said crisply, ignoring Runa’s horrified anger. “Now listen closely.” Elenora spoke a rune word, the sound harsh and guttural on her tongue.

  “But how do I —”

  Elenora disappeared.

  Whirling, Runa stared at the figure ambling forward.

  Lyric, seeing her staring past them, glanced over Kell’s shoulder. “Someone’s here,” she said, surprised.

  Elaina looked up and dropped her apple core onto the ground.

  Kell swiveled atop his rock and followed their gaze. His staff was lying on the ground by his feet.

  The old woman shuffled towards them, illuminated by their magic light as she drew close. She was hunched and small and wrapped in a black shawl, drawn up over her head. White curls frizzed out from beneath the shawl’s moth-eaten fringe, and her rheumy eyes seemed only a shade darker than her hair.

  Runa blinked, staring at the woman's gentle face with disbelief. She looked frail and ancient, hardly capable of hurting someone. Elenora was testing her, right? Subjecting her to a cruel joke, and waiting to see if she’d hurt an old woman?

  Runa repeated the fire rune inside her head, testing the word. She couldn’t attack this woman. What if she was wrong? What if Elenora couldn’t be trusted?

  “Oh my, I am so happy to have stumbled across you!” the old woman said. Her voice wavered as she spoke. “I’ve been wandering, quite lost I’m afraid, and I left my basket somewhere with all my food.” She touched gnarled fingers to the side of her head and laughed. “Constantly leaving things and forgetting them, just like my dear Issac always said.”

  Lyric smiled warmly, unconcerned. “Issac? Is he your husband?”

  “Oh yes, my partner of, oh my, fifty years? The time does slip by, doesn’t it.”

  “Are you hungry? We have bread and cheese,” Lyric said.

  “Ly,” Runa said warningly.

  Lyric glanced at her, frowning at her tone. Then, assuming she’d chastised Runa sufficiently, she returned her gaze to the old woman and smiled a bright welcome.

  Emboldened, the old woman hobbled towards Lyric, and Runa took a step forward, breath catching. Anticipation and fear knotted her muscles and sent her heart thudding against her ribs. Out of the corner of her eye, Runa thought she saw Elaina look at her. Had she noticed Runa's tension?

  The old woman accepted a piece of bread from Lyric, but didn’t sit down. She swayed back and forth on her feet, looking at Kell, Runa and finally Elaina, before returning her eyes to Lyric.

  “Are you lost?” Elaina asked.

  “Oh, I live not too far from here,” the old woman said. “Not too far. I was taking a trip to town, er, the waystation nearby to sell my apples.”

  “You live here?” Lyric asked surprise showing on her face. “And you’re able to grow apples?” She gestured at the gnarled trees. “I thought nothing grows here. Nothing you can eat anyway.”

  “Oh you just need to know how, that’s all, sweet girl,” the old woman said. Her teeth were large and white, and not a single tooth was missing from her mouth. It was strange, her teeth, quite unlike Old Granny Laen, who’d puttered around Elae’s Hollow for as long as Runa could remember.

  Narrowing her eyes, Runa took another step forward, repeating the word for fire again in her mind.

  The old woman glanced at her, smile still plastered on her face.

  “How did you end up living here, in the Veil?” Kell asked.

  The old woman swayed, the motion taking her yet closer to Lyric. She waved the bread around, still untouched in her hand. “Funny story that. Long. Not interesting. Dear Issac says I prattle on so. I’d hate to bore you.” Her eyes darted to Runa, then back to Lyric. She moved another step closer.

  Dread buzzed along Runa's
skin. Something was wrong. She spoke the rune word, hissing it under her breath, her tongue shaping it awkwardly.

  Nothing happened.

  Runa lifted her hand and repeated the word, believing fire would appear. She’d throw it; she’d protect her sister.

  Something inside of her shifted as she called for it, rising to her awareness. The feeling hummed, overpowering the tug from the Soulworm, catching like a spark inside her chest. Runa reached for it, but it slipped away like a fish sliding from her hands. She grabbed for it again, panicked, trying to hold it, use it, but the more forceful she became, the faster it evaded her.

  Runa spoke the word again, louder, more forceful, desperation clawing at her. The power slipped free, surging just out of reach.

  Elaina stood, dumping her pack on the ground. She muttered something fast under her breath and fire flared inside her upraised palm.

  Runa gasped as she felt the presence of heat in the air. She watched fire dance across their mother’s skin, glowing threads coiling into a ball.

  “Step away from my daughter!” Elaina snapped, her voice loud and commanding.

  Runa tried speaking the rune word again, mimicking their mother’s posture. Nothing happened.

  Surprised by Elaina's shout, Lyric tumbled off her rock.

  Kell scrambled upright, abandoning his staff to grab Lyric’s arm and hauled her sideways, farther from the old woman.

  The old woman growled, her face twisted angrily, all friendliness gone. Her eyes glowed a pulsing blood-red. Black saliva dripped from her mouth, as her lips drew back. She snarled and flung the bread into the dark, her fingers flashing into elongated claws.

  Runa shouted the rune for fire, frantic, terrified. Why wouldn’t it work?

  “I’ll strip the flesh from your bones!” the old woman growled, her voice fracturing into a multitude of ear-grating tones. She lunged for Lyric.

  Gasping, Kell twisted, shielding Lyric with his body.

  Elaina reacted, throwing the ball of fire. It smashed into the old woman’s shoulder, igniting her shawl and driving her back.

  The old woman flared like a lit candle, fire exploding across her chest and arms. She flailed, arms thrashing and screamed a horrible, multi-toned scream. Whirling, unbalanced, the woman ran off impossibly fast into the darkness. The red glow of the flames grew smaller the farther she fled until it was no more than a tiny smudge.