Daughters of Fire & Sea

by Holly Karlsson

  Elaina was still conscious, her eyes staring at the sky, but they were unfocused, confused. She tried to speak, her words lost in a gurgle of blood as it bubbled from the corner of her mouth.

  “Meara’s friend should be somewhere close,” Runa said. “We’ll find it.”

  “Kell?” Lyric asked, turning to look at him. “Can you carry her?”

  Kell nodded, stepping close, but Lyric saw him wince and remembered his earlier cry of pain.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked.

  “I’m all right,” Kell said. “I can carry Elaina.”

  “If you’re injured —”

  “I’m fine!” Kell snapped.

  Lyric blinked at him. “All right,” she said slowly. “But if you want me to look at it I will.”

  “Later. We need to move.” He stabbed both torches into the sand and kneeled beside her and Elaina. Lyric moved out of the way, and Kell carefully lifted their mother into his arms. She was still wearing her pack.

  A muscle flexed in Kell’s cheek, and he struggled a little to stand, but when he found his footing, he adjusted his grip and nodded, holding Elaina close against his chest.

  Lyric adjusted the bandage at their mother’s throat and picked up one of the torches.

  “Let’s go,” Runa said, picking up a second torch. She looked like a bloodied warrior, her red hair unbound, her torches raised like swords in both fists. Fury boiled in her eyes and across her sharp face as she clenched her teeth, taut muscles trembling beneath her skin.

  Staring at her, Lyric was equally proud and terrified. She wouldn’t want to be the cause of such fury. Bolstered by Runa’s fierceness, Lyric nodded. “The house can’t be much farther,” she said.

  Runa turned, her shoulders tight, her head swiveling, and began to walk.

  Kell followed after Runa, holding Elaina, and Lyric came last. She watched for more creatures to appear in the dark, adrenaline thrumming through her. Had they summoned more with their magic and fire? If they were attacked again, injured as they were with Kell holding Elaina, Lyric doubted they’d survive. They’d die, slowly, screaming and —

  No. No, they’d find shelter.

  Lyric shoved down her fears and concentrated on Kell’s shoulders, the algae on the beach, the feel of the dying torch in her hand, and the burning in her legs as she pressed on despite her exhaustion. She fell into a stupor as she walked and looked for danger. She was so deep into the mindlessness of her movement that she nearly didn’t hear Runa speak aloud.

  “What?” Lyric asked dully. She stepped up beside Kell and examined Elaina’s neck. The makeshift bandage was soaked with blood.

  Glancing forward, Lyric saw a shed on the sand. It was broken, having fallen off short, notched stilts that laid beside it. Remarkably, the damage from the shed’s fall was contained to its floor, now half-buried in the sand. The roof and walls seemed sound and the door, hanging in its frame, creaked in the wind.

  Runa pushed her torches into the sand beside the shed and whirled back to face them. “Get inside!” she said, rushing towards them. “We’ll stay here until morning. Hurry! Elenora said more are coming.”

  “Elenora —” Lyric said.

  “Yes, Ly, help me!” Runa said, reaching for Kell.

  Lyric’s torch snuffed out, trailing smoke. Dropping the burned stump, Lyric turned and put her arm around Kell’s waist. She gasped as he hissed under his breath and pulled back her arm.

  “Just … higher,” he said.

  Carefully, Lyric put her arm around Kell again, higher on his back.

  Runa grabbed Kell’s other arm and together, they helped him carry Elaina up to the house and through the gaping doorway.

  It was pitch black inside, despite an un-shuttered window in the back wall.

  Runa brought one of the dying torches inside and held it up, revealing the inside of the shed. The wooden floor was shattered on one side and black sand mounded against the wall. Remnants of furniture, battered and toppled, piled in the far corner, presumably left where they’d fallen when the shed fell over.

  Lyric couldn’t see any sign of the Taint and breathed a sigh of relief. “There, away from the door,” she said, steering Kell towards the sand.

  Kell staggered forward, collapsing to his knees and nearly dropping Elaina.

  Lyric and Runa steadied him and helped ease their mother to the ground.

  Elaina groaned, her eyelids fluttering, and Lyric quickly pillowed her head on her knees.

  Something shrieked outside.

  “They’re coming!” Runa said, scrambling towards the door.

  Unable to move with Elaina on her lap, Lyric rechecked their mother’s bandage and smoothed her bloodied hair off her face.

  Kell scrambled up with a pained hiss and followed Runa to the door. They pulled on it together. It took several hard tugs before they could get it closed, the bent door frame resisting their efforts.

  The bar that kept the door closed was missing, and Runa raced back to the mound of furniture. She kicked against a table leg, again and again until it finally splintered free, and she carried it back to the door, barring it shut.

  Kell, meanwhile, had stumbled over to the window and pulled the shutter closed, latching it firmly. Moving back to Lyric’s side, he collapsed next to her, his head flopping back onto the sand.

  Runa backed away from the door, the torch in her hand. The flame was small, barely a flicker in the dark. She raised her hand over it, hesitating, the fire touching her skin, and then she dropped her hand and sighed.

  The torch blew out.

  Lyric blinked, unable to see, trying to make out the shape of Runa by the door. She could hear their breathing, ragged, exhausted, and their mother’s faint wheezing in her lap.

  The howls grew louder, and Lyric held her breath. Her heart thundered in her ears, and she wondered if the others could hear the hot pulse of her blood.

  Something scrabbled against the door. It shrieked, high pitched and frantic, and there was a thud as it slammed against the wood.

  The house creaked, and sand fell on Lyric’s head.

  Another howl, another thud against the door.

  Had they survived only to die here, trapped inside this broken house?

  They won’t get in, a voice said inside her head.

  Lyric gasped, her fingers tightening in their mother’s hair. “Gandara?” she whispered. She willed her heart back into her chest.

  She felt the ancestor’s presence shift inside her head and somehow knew she nodded.

  Lyric winced as the scratching sound came closer on the wall beside her.

  How did the monsters know they were here? Could they smell them? Were they tracking them like hounds?

  “What do we do?” Lyric whispered.

  “Lyric?” Kell asked softly from the dark.

  Lyric ignored him, listening for Gandara’s words.

  Wait, Gandara said. You can’t use magic. They’ll leave when morning comes.

  “Will my mother survive?” Lyric tightened her grip on Elaina’s head and shoulders, pulling her against her stomach like she was holding a child. “I just got her back. I can’t lose her again.”

  Perhaps, Gandara said. She’s strong. The old woman seemed displeased when thinking about Elaina, and Lyric frowned, trying to separate the vague unease from her own worry.

  “How can I help her?” Lyric asked.

  Her ancestor’s presence wavered, slipping away. “Gandara? How can I help her? Gandara?”

  “Lyric?” Runa asked, squatting down somewhere in front of her. “Gandara came to you?”

  “She said to wait,” Lyric said dully.

  “Nothing else we can do,” Runa said. “Try to sleep. Rest while we can. Kell’s passed out.”

  “Is he breathing?” Lyric asked with alarm, thinking of his injury. What if he’d lied and bled to death beside her?

  “Yes,” Runa said. “I think he’s just exhausted.”

  “But Mama …”

 
; “You can’t do anything for her now.” Runa rested her hand on Lyric’s, making her jump. “We’ll leave as soon as it’s light. We can’t be more than half a day from Ivernn. There’ll be a healer there. Mother won’t die, Lyric. She won’t.”

  A creature wailed outside.

  “How can you sleep with them screaming like that?” Lyric asked, looking fearfully in the direction of the door.

  “They won’t get in,” Runa said stubbornly. “And if they do, there’s not much we can do anyway.” She sat on Lyric’s left and leaned against the sand, resting the dun torch on her knee. “Rest as much as you can,” Runa said. “We can’t carry Mother if we’re too exhausted to move. We’ll be fine, Ly.”

  Lyric closed her eyes, feeling Runa’s presence, strong and familiar beside her.

  14

  Runa

  Runa woke to the distant sound of waves washing onto the beach. Her lips were cracked and dry, and when she moistened them with her tongue, she tasted dried blood. A dull pain throbbed behind her eyes; it felt like someone had stuffed her head with wool and slammed a hammer against her temple while she slept. Feeling groggy, Runa swallowed a groan and forced herself to stand, stretching her stiff muscles.

  The abandoned shed was murky with the door and window closed, but light leaked beneath the warped door and through cracks in the walls. Runa cocked her head, listening for the monsters. All she heard was the waves.

  Runa pushed back her cloak and ran her hand over her arm. Her sleeves were stiff with blood and salt from the storm. She hissed as her fingers brushed across torn skin. Aware now of her injuries, pain burned down her arm, but she shoved it away and looked down at Lyric, who was starting to wake.

  Groaning, her sister shifted her feet, unable to move much with their mother still lying in her lap.

  Kell, stretched out on his side next to Lyric, groaned and shoved himself upright. He reached a hand behind his back and looked up at Runa.

  Runa knelt in front of Elaina and Lyric and studied their mother’s pale face. “How is she?” Runa asked.

  Head bowed, Lyric peeled back the edge of the bandage, and pressed her fingers against Elaina’s wrist, taking her pulse. “Her pulse is weak,” Lyric said. “We need help soon. She’s lost a lot of blood.” Her eyes, wide and exhausted from lack of sleep, shifted to the door. “Are they gone?”

  “Yes,” Runa said. “It’s daylight.”

  She looked over at Kell. He looked terrible with blood on his face and clothes. His cloak was torn, and there were rents in the thick fabric of his pack. What might have happened to their backs and arms if they hadn't worn their cloaks and bags?

  “We should eat,” Kell said, looking at Lyric. “Try to restore our strength.”

  Runa nodded and reached for her pack. She’d dumped it on the floor during the night. Her bag bore multiple slashes, but nothing seemed to have fallen out. Not that there’d been a lot inside.

  Raising her waterskin to her lips, Runa nearly drained the whole thing. She hadn’t realized she was so thirsty. She popped a piece of dried gull meat into her mouth, then helped Lyric free her legs from beneath Elaina so she could stand.

  “Can you carry her again?” Lyric asked Kell. She winced and bent over, rubbing her thighs.

  “I’ll manage,” Kell said. He smiled, which made him look even ghastlier, bloodied as he was.

  “Let me check your back,” Lyric said.

  “I’m fine,” Kell said, waving her away with his waterskin.

  Runa narrowed her eyes. Why didn’t he want Lyric to look at his back?

  Lyric shook her head. “No, I need to check it.” She shoved open the window, letting in a beam of light.

  “It’s nothing,” Kell insisted. “What about you? There’s blood on your arms.”

  “You won’t be able to carry Elaina if you’re bleeding out as we walk,” Lyric said. “Stop arguing.” Her jaw set stubbornly, and she knelt behind him, peeling up his shirt to look at his lower back.

  Kell stopped her hand with his, preventing her from pushing it up all the way. “How is it?” he asked.

  Lyric stared at Kell’s back with a curious expression, brows knotted over her eyes. She blinked and looked up at him. “Nothing too serious,” she said. “It’s not deep, and the bleeding has stopped. You’ll end up with a scar.” Her head cocked to one side. “What does it mean, your tattoo?”

  Runa raised an eyebrow. A tattoo? Like the one around his throat or different? She shifted on her knees in a furtive attempt to see but settled back before either Kell or Lyric noticed.

  “A story for another time,” Kell said. He turned his head, giving her an imploring look Runa didn’t understand.

  Lyric blinked and looked back down at Kell’s back, pulling down his shirt. “It needs to be cleaned and bandaged,” she said, “but I think you’ll be fine until we reach Ivernn. Normally I’d advise against lifting anything heavy.” Lyric glanced at Elaina, lying on the floor. “Be as careful as you can,” she said.

  Turning towards her, Kell lifted his hand and brushed his fingers along Lyric’s jaw. “I will,” he said. Standing, Kell rolled his shoulders with a pained expression and walked to the door.

  Runa stood to follow.

  Not waiting for her help, Kell pushed up the bar and wrenched the door open, sticking his head out into the light. “Give me a minute to walk around,” he said, looking back at Lyric. “Then, I’ll be ready to leave.”

  Runa stepped into the doorway and watched as Kell walked around the corner of the shed, then she examined their surroundings. The beach looked different in the morning light. She didn’t trust how calm it was; as if their ordeal the night before hadn’t happened.

  She’d been so focused on staying alive, on moving and fighting, that she hadn’t considered how close they’d come to dying. That she was still here, battered and bloodied, left her with an incredible, heady feeling. Runa breathed in one deep breath after another, feeling the remnants of fear wash over her until she felt her usual determination take root.

  Crossing her arms, Runa looked back into the house at Lyric, who was sitting by their mother and staring at her hands. Lyric’s fingertips were stained as if she’d dipped them in red paint. She tried to scrub them off on her cloak as Runa watched, then gave up and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes. Her hair, a tangled cloud around her shoulders, shifted forward as she bowed her head.

  “Ly, are you ok?” Runa asked softly.

  Lyric jerked and looked up; her green eyes glistened wetly, and bruises darkened the skin beneath them. “As much as I can be,” she said.

  Runa opened her mouth to say something; she wasn’t sure what, but before she could, Kell returned. She shifted to the side so he could enter the doorway. His movements were stiff as he brushed past as if pain had replaced his flesh with wood, rigid and unbending.

  “Should I pick Elaina up?” Kell asked, walking to Lyric and Elaina.

  “Yes, but help me get her pack off first,” Lyric said. “I’ll carry it.”

  Kell slowly kneeled and braced a hand on the floor.

  Runa walked over to them. She helped Kell and Lyric lift Elaina’s shoulders off the ground so they could slip off their mother’s bag. Like Runa’s, the heavy cloth was damaged.

  “Maybe you should transfer her belongings to yours?” Runa suggested as Lyric examined the straps on Elaina’s pack.

  “She’ll still need it,” Lyric said. Her jaw set as though prepared for Runa to argue.

  Runa shrugged. “All right, if you have the strength to carry both together.”

  “Mine is practically empty anyway,” Lyric said, reaching for her own. “I’ll just roll mine up and stuff it into hers.” She did so then pushed up onto her knees and slipped Elaina’s bag onto her back.

  Kell, holding Elaina’s upper body, glanced at her.

  “Ready,” Lyric said.

  Runa moved out of the way, ready to offer assistance if Kell required it, and watched as he lifted Elaina in
to his arms and pushed himself to his feet. Confident he wasn’t about to collapse and dump their mother on the floor, Runa walked back to the door.

  She paused in the doorway, brushing her fingertips across the weathered wood. They’d almost died last night. How had they survived? The shed didn’t look like it could survive much of an assault. Had the gods been watching out for them?

  Thank you, Runa thought, sending it to anyone listening. She promised herself that she’d find a shrine as soon as possible and light incense. With how things were going, it couldn’t hurt seeking the Trinity’s favor.

  The sun burned high in the sky when they reached Raendashar’s border. Kell had almost collapsed twice since leaving the abandoned house, and for the past two hours, Runa and Lyric had stood on either side of him, keeping him upright and sharing the weight of Elaina in his arms. They’d left all traces of the Taint behind, and Runa was relieved as she stared at the clean sand. The sea had washed everything away, including driftwood.

  Breathing hard, Kell stopped and went down on one knee, cradling Elaina against his chest. He took a long, shuddering breath and stared at the sand as if not quite seeing it.

  Runa released Kell’s arm and straightened, studying the land with fascination. It was apparent they’d left Thenda behind. Rough black stone rose like a mountain in front of them, altering the coastline from flat, ocean-washed sand to an obsidian wall of flat-topped cliffs that jutted over the sea.

  The beach narrowed, becoming no more than a thin line of sand between the water and the rising land. Following it with her eye, Runa saw that it disappeared entirely into the water.

  Foamy and dark, the ocean seemed more violent here, crashing against the cliffs as if to break them apart. The wind bit against her face and yanked on her hair. There was no question in Runa’s mind that this seething surf was indeed the Sea of Screams, and if they wanted to continue north, they’d have to climb the cliff.