“Like the light spell?” Runa asked. “Something you can prepare and use later?”
"Yes, though these are one use. Held spells don't require energy to keep them alive. The glass is spelled to hold them in stasis. Now if we —"
“What do you have?” Runa asked.
Their mother pursed her lips. “Wind, a powerful flash of light, and a web spell … it makes the floor sticky, trapping you in place.”
"You don't always have to prepare spells though," Lyric said thoughtfully. "Like with that old woman. You chanted and created fire."
“Yes,” Elaina said, “but that’s slower.”
“What happens if you break one while it’s on your belt?” Runa asked.
“Nothing good,” their mother said. “Now, our plan. The longer we stay out here —”
“Right,” Runa said. “Kell will go in and then?”
“Kell, try to draw them away from the door,” Elaina said. “Do whatever you have to.”
Kell nodded, his eyes considering.
“Try to yell where Runa’s body is in the room. Maybe you can keep the door from latching?”
“I’ll try,” Kell said. “I can’t be too careful with the door if I want them to believe I’m being chased.”
Elaina nodded. “I’ll use my web spell, hopefully trapping them.” She tapped her belt. “Runa, go straight to your body. We’ll try to buy you time. Once it’s done, we’ll escape through the window. I’ll have to open it shortly after we go in, so we don’t have to wait around for it.”
“Kell and I will protect you,” Lyric said, “while you cast.” She licked her lips. She wasn’t entirely sure how she’d do that. She didn’t have a weapon like Kell. No, that wasn’t true. She knew the rune word for wind. Lyric narrowed her eyes, recalling the pronunciation of the word Gandara had given her. Would it work?
Elaina glanced at her, her mouth opening. Her eyes darkened, and she looked down at her hands, not saying whatever it was that’d been on her tongue.
“All right,” Kell said. He leaned his staff against his chest and rolled his shoulders and shook his arms, as though preparing to step out onto a stage.
Worried, Lyric caught his eye, and Kell smiled reassuringly, just for her.
Shifting his staff back into his left hand, Kell contorted his face into an expression of panic and wrenched open the door. He rushed inside, his scream echoing out to them in the hall as the door swung closed. It thumped against something, maybe his heel, and didn’t latch.
Elaina, Lyric, and Runa crowded close around the edge of the door, listening to the muffled sounds filtering out.
Lyric’s heart thumped inside her chest and she swallowed anxiously. Sweat damped her dress. What if this failed? What if they captured Kell, captured all of them? What if they killed Kell? What if —
“Oh thank the gods!” she heard Kell say. “No, no, no, don’t open the door! It’s out there, some kind of monster. I ran, oh gods, it was horrible. I thought it would — but here you are!”
Kell’s voice trailed off, and Lyric heard a man reply, but she couldn’t make out his words.
“Look at this room!” Kell shouted. “No windows, that’s good. Who’s that in the corner? Is she ok? Oh gods, did the monster get her?”
“Good,” Elaina said, looking at Runa. “Your body’s in a corner. Run there right away, as soon as we go in.”
Runa nodded curtly, her body tensed, ready. “He’s a terrible actor,” she said, half joking.
Lyric laughed breathlessly.
“Oh gods, you’re one of them! You’re —” Kell’s voice cut off, and they heard a loud thump, then the muffled sounds of feet scuffling across the floor.
“Now!” their mother hissed. She wrenched open the door, and Runa ran past her.
Elaina charged into the room, Lyric on her heels. Heart in her throat, Lyric scanned the room. It was the size of a large bedroom, mostly empty of furniture, with a chaise in the corner. Someone was lying on it.
Kell was fighting two men, his staff knocking one in the stomach. The man stumbled back and growled angrily.
The second man grabbed the end of Kell’s staff and yanked, slamming his fist into Kell’s face.
Lyric gasped and her hand flew out reflexively.
Elaina moved in front of her, tossing the green orb from her belt at the man who Kell had knocked away. The man had seen them and was approaching fast.
The bottle shattered and something splattered at the man’s feet, tangling his legs. White strands shot up from the ground and spread across his body like a quickly growing spiderweb.
Lyric’s eyes bounced from the trapped man to Kell. He staggered back, the tall man he’d been fighting with coming at him again, fists raised, voice roaring from his throat. He was speaking a spell.
Joining him, the trapped man began to cast. His mouth opened, eyes small and angry and a shriek ripped from his throat, building in the air.
Lyric staggered against their mother, the bones vibrating inside her skull. The ground shuddered beneath her feet, the start of an earthquake.
Elaina hissed something beside her, rune words tumbling from her lips too quick to follow.
Bracing herself against their mother’s back, Lyric looked again for Kell. He was bent forward, holding his head, his staff dropped from his fingers. The Sireni man approached him, his hand reaching out, and his voice rising with purpose.
No! Lyric thought. She whispered the word for wind and felt nothing. She whispered it again, urgently, prayerfully. Help me! she thought, calling for Gandara and not finding her.
She whispered again and again until something shifted inside. It was tentative, quiet, as if asking permission to move through her. It was like the wind, like water, a flow of something incomprehensible, something beautiful. Lyric opened herself to it, letting it flood her body.
Power flared in her stomach, warm and incredible. Lyric gasped as it unspooled. It felt like sunlight on the prairie back home as it rose up through her chest, her throat, and out her fingers. She could touch it. She could use it.
Lyric fell silent and her hair lifted as if caught in a breeze. The air gathered around her, slipping from her lungs, thickening and pressing against her like a solid thing. She couldn’t breathe. Panic clawed its way up her throat. She was going to suffocate. She was going to —
She breathed out.
The wind rushed away from her, splitting into two currents as it raced towards both of the Sireni.
The man approaching Kell was thrown sideways, his body smacking against the wall.
The trapped man bent backward, unable to fall, as the wind filled his mouth and cut off his casting. Something snapped in his leg and his face went white.
The bone-rattling shrieks stopped. The shaking cut off.
Elaina yelled, and a window appeared at the back of the room, hovering above the floor — a hole in the Veil.
Lyric’s eyes snapped towards it and she gasped, something shimmered beyond the opening as it rippled like a wind-touched pool. Was that a beach on the other side?
She looked sideways to the chaise. Runa was sitting up and swinging her legs off onto the ground. Her sister blinked, looking up, meeting Lyric’s wide eyes, then she gasped and vomited onto the floor.
“Move!” Elaina hissed, shoving Lyric forward.
Lyric stumbled, looking to her right at Kell, past the disoriented Sireni man bent backward. Kell was standing again, moving unsteadily, staring at the man Lyric had thrown against the wall.
I did that, Lyric thought with shock, her legs slowing.
“Lyric!” Elaina yelled, desperation coloring her voice.
Lyric blinked. She had to get Kell’s attention. He hadn’t seen the window. “Kell!” she yelled.
Kell looked at her, and the man between them, turning his head as Lyric pointed at the window. Nodding, Kell shuffled forward, holding his right arm and leaving his staff on the floor.
Lyric ran towards the window.
&nb
sp; Breaking free from Elaina’s trap, the Sireni man watched Lyric as she ran past. He clutched at his leg, dragging it forward.
Elaina reached Runa and grabbed her arm. She scooped Runa’s pack off the floor and hauled her towards the window. Her eyes met Lyric’s and she nodded, then tumbled backward through the opening, carrying Runa with her.
Lyric stopped at the window and hesitated, looking sideways for Kell.
“Here!” he gasped, reaching for her.
The Sireni man lurched forward, trying to catch Kell’s ankle, and Kell kicked his hand away.
Grabbing Lyric’s waist, Kell stared into her face, breathing hard. His eye was starting to blacken and blood trickled from his nose.
“Stop!” one of the men yelled. The second man, the one Lyric had thrown into the wall was standing, staggering towards them.
The man with the injured leg started chanting.
Lyric grabbed a handful of Kell’s shirt and jumped through the hole in the air. It was like being submerged in a deep pool of ice-cold water. She was falling, floating, drowning. She tightened her hand on Kell, felt the fabric twist between her fingers, and then her shoulder slammed down into sand.
9
Runa
Pain exploded through Runa’s head, and she closed her eyes, throwing an arm over her face to shield herself from the light. She cracked open an eyelid, tears leaking down her face into her hair, and tried to focus on the brilliance above her. There was something against her back, soft but firm, shifting as she moved. Eyes finally focusing, Runa realized she was looking into the sun. She gaped; the sky was an unbelievable shade of dazzling blue.
Someone moved next to her, and Runa tilted her head to the side, still shading her eyes. It was their mother, shoving herself upright, her hand pushing against the sand.
Runa watched as she stood, swaying unsteadily. Elaina raised her hand, facing the opening in the air. The Veil! Runa thought. I was falling and —
Lyric and Kell tumbled through the rippling hole and slammed against the sand.
Gasping, Runa pulled her legs away, scrambling up. She swayed, waves of nausea bringing tears to her eyes. Her body felt unfamiliar, sluggish. She could see inside the window and the room beyond. The faces of the Sireni men were angry and coming closer. The unsettling weight of their magic flared out, the scream trying to break inside Runa’s head.
Grabbing something off her belt, Elaina lobbed it through the opening. Light exploded, blinding Runa, and she cried out, shielding her eyes as black spots danced across her vision.
Elaina shouted the mage rune for unraveling, the same one she’d taught Runa before they’d rushed into the room.
There was an audible crack, loud and final, and the pressure vanished. The Sireni’s shouts cut off, and silence fell, heavy as a blanket. Sound slowly returned to Runa’s ears, her own tired gasps and a groan from someone nearby.
Runa lowered her hand and cautiously opened her eyes, letting awareness flare out around her. Their breathing was not the only sound here; she could hear the rush of water. Squinting past their mother, now bent forward, hands on her knees, Runa saw a massive expanse of water stretching away from them. Was it a lake? Where was the opposite shore? She watched white-foamed water surge onto black sand, the sand beneath her feet.
No, this was an ocean, wasn’t it? She’d never seen one before, but she’d heard about the Sea of Screams on Erith’s eastern edge and Hebaria’s Heart in the west. Which one was this?
A gull cried somewhere high overhead, and Runa looked into the sky, wincing as light stabbed down into her skull. Everything was too intense, too vivid. It felt like she’d never been inside her own body before, never used her eyes.
Runa wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, the sour taste of bile in her mouth. She spat onto the sand and wished for water. She couldn’t drink the sea, could she?
Lyric, lying on her side a short distance from Runa, sat up with a groan and reached out to Kell who was lying beside her. They helped each other stand.
“It’s gone,” Lyric said, looking down the beach.
Elaina waved a hand. “I closed it.” She sounded exhausted and sat down as Runa watched, her legs crumpling beneath her. “I just need a minute,” their mother said, breathing in and out.
“I thought they were going to follow us through,” Lyric said. Her voice was shaky, uncertain. “My eyeballs were vibrating in my skull.”
“We’re safe, for now,” Elaina said. “They won’t know which beach we’re on.” She didn’t sound certain.
Runa straightened, eyes still narrowed, her lids attempting to block out the light. She looked around. Black sand stretched out of sight in both directions, and mounded into dunes to her right, speckled with silvery clumps of long, thin grass. Beyond the dunes spread watery marshland that rolled to the far, dark edge of a forest. At least that’s what Runa thought the green smudge was in the distance.
She was staring west, wasn’t she? If so, then this was the Sea of Screams.
“Where are we?” Lyric asked. She had an arm around Kell’s waist.
Runa eyed Kell’s face. There was a bruise on his jaw, and one eye was turning black. He must have fought the men in the room. She hadn’t seen it herself; she’d barely seen anything at all but the shape of her body lying on the chaise.
Kell was staring past her up the coast. He seemed disquieted, his face drained of color.
“We’re in Thenda,” Kell said, his voice thin. He held onto Lyric, as though afraid she’d drift away, and reached up to the tattoo around his throat. It shifted in color and he swallowed, pain crossing his face.
Runa blinked. Had she seen Kell’s tattoo move?
“The Tainted Shore?” Lyric asked, breathing the words.
Runa looked away from Kell’s throat to the north. She didn’t see anything foreboding, just black sand stretching away from them.
“We have to cross it to get to Raendashar?” Lyric asked.
Elaina stood up, her movements slow, tired. “We can head south,” she said, “to Oleporea. We’ll regroup. Decide what to do.”
Kell looked at her, a frown creasing the skin between his brows.
“We need to go to Rathgar’s Hold,” Lyric said. “You promised Kell.”
“The books will still be there if we take time to rest,” Elaina said.
Lyric narrowed her eyes and straightened, looking determined. “We already discussed this, Mama,” she said.
Runa’s chin lifted proudly as Lyric faced their mother. Yes, she thought. You won’t control us. You won’t tell us what to do.
Elaina sighed, her eyes moving between Lyric and Runa. “Your grandfather is not going to welcome you with open arms. There will be no cozy reunion, no celebration in your honor, no loving meeting of family. Going there, to him, means giving up your lives, your freedom.”
“You don’t know that, Mama,” Lyric said. She put her hand on Kell’s chest, possessively. “We’re going to help Kell, and we’re going to talk to Grandfather.”
Their mother’s eyes shifted to Runa, hopeful and pleading.
“I don’t care if I meet your father or not. Sorry, Lyric,” Runa said, “but I don’t want this war hanging over our heads, controlling what we do, shaping our lives. I want to be free of it, and that means getting involved.”
Elaina swore and turned away, scrubbing a hand through her hair. She stared at the ocean for a long moment. Back straightening, their mother faced them, her hair blazing like fire in the sun. She didn’t look defeated.
“Let me first take you to a friend, your uncle Eleden,” Elaina said. “He’s Sireni, but he’ll help us. He can get us to Rathgar’s Hold safely.”
Runa exchanged glances with Lyric. She didn’t like feeling hunted. Maybe their uncle could offer protection against the Sireni chasing them. Going south couldn’t hurt. “All right,” she said, seeing agreement in her sister’s eyes. “Where is he?”
“We can contact him from Yanessa,” their mother sai
d. “It’s a port town south of us, on Oleporea’s border.” She looked at Kell. “I will still honor our agreement, but I won’t put my daughters in undue danger. You can continue, if you wish, and we’ll meet you there. You don’t have to stay with us.” Her eyes flickered coldly. Was she mad at Kell? “I don’t need you to watch over them anymore.”
Kell looked repentant, shoulders slumping. “I’ll stay with you,” he said.
Lyric flushed, a pleased glow in her eyes.
Looking at Lyric, Elaina’s mouth tightened, but she said nothing. Did she disapprove of their interest in each other? Why?
Their mother bent and picked up Runa’s pack, holding it out. Runa took it reflexively, momentarily overwhelmed by sensation as she felt the rough strap slid against her skin. She looked up as she slipped the pack onto her shoulder and found their mother staring at her.
“How do you feel?” Elaina asked.
“Fine,” Runa said.
Their mother raised an eyebrow. “Fine?”
Runa flushed, feeling petulant. Annoyed with her own emotion, she held their mother’s gaze despite the heat in her face. “Everything feels new and overwhelming.”
Elaina nodded. “Did you unravel your spell before joining your body?”
“No,” Runa said. She thought back to how it’d felt, the faint but persistent pull towards herself, the strangeness of staring at her own face, devoid of life, of expression. She’d wanted to abandon her body and drift away, though she was unsure to where or why. Runa didn’t know where the desire had come from. She wanted to be alive, didn’t she?
Runa shoved aside the question. Of course, she did. She was young, had barely experienced anything at all. Her life could not be over yet, not before she did something important, something meaningful. Not before she was powerful, strong. Besides, Runa couldn’t leave Lyric now, not while she was vulnerable.
And what about the Daughters and their mysterious omen? Had they meant Lyric or Kell? Runa had always believed there was truth in the old stories, in the gods and creatures who’d shaped their world. She’d offered prayers like everyone else, shown respect in case the Trinity was still watching and meddling unseen.
Daughters of Fire & Sea Page 11
