Daughters of Fire & Sea

by Holly Karlsson

  A knock startled Lyric from their conversation, and she jumped, putting a hand over her thundering heart. “Yes?” she called.

  “It’s Maggie. I have dinner.”

  “Oh. Yes,” Lyric said. She smoothed her hand over her waist and stood up, opening the door.

  Maggie stepped inside, holding a tray with linen napkins, three bowls of broth, thick slices of bread and cheese, and two mugs of dark, foamy beer.

  Lyric cleared their mother’s things from the table so Maggie could set the food down. “Is Runa coming?” she asked.

  “Yes, I believe so,” Maggie said, smiling brightly. “She was settling up with Granny.”

  “And Kell?”

  “I believe your companion is taking his meal downstairs.”

  “Thank you, Maggie. Everything smells wonderful.”

  Maggie beamed. “I brought a bowl for your mother in case you’re able to get her to eat. Granny suggested trying to feed her something.”

  Lyric nodded. “Thank you for your kindness, Maggie. I don’t know what we’d have done without you.”

  “I’m pleased I could help,” Maggie said. She gave Lyric an apologetic look and rested a hand on her hip. “I couldn’t convince anyone to go north to fetch a Dragon Blessed. I did ask.”

  “That’s all right,” Lyric said. She paused, thinking of her earlier conversation with Gandara. “If both my sister and I go, can my mother stay here until we return? We can pay for her care. Maybe your son, Elias, could sit with her occasionally for a copper or two?”

  Maggie pursed her lips, considering. “Yes, I don’t see why not. Jim shouldn’t complain as you are paying customers. And I’m sure Granny will look in on your mother.”

  Lyric nodded.

  “Your companion, Kell, should go with you of course,” Maggie said. “It’s not safe for two young women to travel alone.”

  “Thank you, Maggie,” Lyric said. “I’ll speak with my sister and let you know our plans in the morning.”

  Maggie nodded. “Leave your dishes outside the door, and I’ll return them to the kitchen. Breakfast will be at first light, and I can prepare food for you to take.” She reached for Lyric’s hand, squeezing softly. “I’m happy to help however I can,” she said. “My mother endured a long illness before she passed. I know how difficult it can be.” She squeezed Lyric’s hand again, then released it. “If you need anything, please let me know.”

  Runa and Kell appeared as Maggie was leaving, and exchanged greetings before slipping inside the room.

  “How is she?” Kell asked.

  Runa looked Elaina over, then prowled to the tray of food on the table.

  “The same,” Lyric said, as Kell stepped up to her. She leaned into him, breathing in his crisp, mountain scent. “She’s getting weaker, I think, but the change is slow.” She looked up at him, studying the features that’d become familiar and comforting. “Did you eat?” she asked.

  He looked fatigued. Bathed and wearing another man’s clothes, the only other hints of the horror he’d survived were scabbing cuts on his temples and his blackened eye.

  “Just about to,” Kell said. “I wanted to check on you first and Elaina.”

  “You could eat here,” Lyric suggested. She wasn’t entirely sure how they’d all fit, the three of them together, but she found herself offering regardless.

  “I’ll be fine downstairs,” Kell said. “Unless you want me to stay?”

  Runa snorted and picked up a slice of bread.

  “No, that’s fine,” Lyric said, ignoring her sister. “I mean, of course, I’d like your company but, that’s fine.” She flushed, earning a crooked smile.

  “What are you planning to do?” Kell asked. “Now that we’re here?”

  “Mistress Gertrude, the healer, thinks we need a Dragon Blessed to heal Mama,” Lyric said.

  “Oh,” Kell said, brows knotting over his eyes. “Because of the creatures?”

  “Something happened with her magic,” Runa said. “It poisoned her somehow.”

  Alarm rolled across Kell’s face. “The Taint?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Something else, something a traditional healer can’t fix. I asked Gandara if she knows a spell that can help, but she doesn’t.”

  “I hadn’t thought to ask Elenora,” Runa said, narrowing her eyes. “Though I think she won’t know either. She seems more inclined to destroy something than put it back together.

  “One of us will have to find a mage healer and convince them to come to Ivernn. Maybe the gold will be enough to pay for their journey back.” She looked up, her eyes on Lyric. “I think I should go.”

  Gandara’s warning echoed in Lyric’s head, and she studied her sister’s face without answering.

  “I could go,” Kell offered. “I’ve traveled through Raendashar before. There might be a Dragon Blessed in Heldon’s Rock, a city north of here.”

  “Mistress Gertrude thinks they’ve all gone to the capital,” Lyric said.

  Kell frowned. “The festival,” he said. “Their yearly pilgrimage. I can check along the way; see if one stayed behind.”

  “No, I’ll go,” Runa said. “If the closest Dragon Blessed is in Rathgar’s Hold, then I’ll speak with our grandfather and tell him what happened to Mother. I’m not sure we can trust him, but we are family. I might need more money to return with the healer swiftly, and he can hire a carriage for me or loan me a horse. A king should have fast horses.”

  “A horse?” Lyric asked. “You’ve only ridden one once!”

  “I can manage,” Runa said, sticking out her jaw.

  “No.” Lyric shook her head. “I’m not letting you run off on your own. What if something happens? You’ve never traveled alone before, and you’re not familiar with the land or the customs here.”

  “Taking up Mother’s mantle, are you?” Runa asked.

  Lyric sighed and raised an eyebrow. “You know what I’m saying is true,” she said. “I know you can take care of yourself, but if the Sireni are attacking, the road could be dangerous. What if someone tries to kidnap you or you get hurt?

  “I talked to Maggie, and she said she’ll care for Mama when we leave.” Lyric gestured at the chair beside the bed. “She’ll even let Elias sit with her, and Mistress Gertrude will keep Mama as comfortable as possible. We can’t do any more than she can anyway, not knowing the flora here.”

  Runa pursed her lips.

  “Don’t give me that look,” Lyric said. “I don’t like the idea of leaving Mama any more than you do, especially with strangers, but we don’t have a choice. We can trust Maggie. I’m certain of it.”

  “You’re willing to leave Mother in the care of a woman you just met today?” Runa asked, arching an eyebrow.

  Lyric hesitated, her stomach flipping. Honestly? She didn’t like the idea of leaving their mother alone. What if Elaina died while they were gone, surrounded by strangers? But if Runa went to Rathgar’s Hold alone and didn’t come back …

  Guilt pressed like a fist against her chest. Runa had never abandoned her; why would she now? But after Gandara’s warning, Lyric couldn’t let her sister go off alone, even if that meant leaving their mother behind.

  “We have to stick together,” Lyric said lamely.

  Frowning, Runa twisted the bread in her hands. “It’s true we’ll be safer together,” Runa said, “but you forget, neither of us are exactly helpless.” She wiggled her fingers as though summoning fire.

  “I’d offer to stay with Elaina,” Kell said slowly, tightening his arm around Lyric’s shoulders, “but I worry about you traveling alone. As you pointed out, Lyric, neither you or Runa have visited Raendashar before. Elaina will be safe here. Maggie and Jim seem honest and capable.” He looked at Lyric, then shifted his gaze to Runa. “I don’t want to alarm you, but the Sireni seem to have the upper hand. They recently destroyed the entire Raendasharan navy.”

  “Yes,” Runa said.

  Lyric glanced at her in surprise, her eyebrows raised. “The navy
?”

  “Maggie told me when I arrived,” Runa said. She smiled grimly. “I forgot to tell you. They almost didn’t help us. They thought the Sireni attacked me and I would bring trouble down on their heads. She mentioned the ships then.”

  “One of the men downstairs said they burned a house here,” Kell said. “The Sireni seem to have backed off now, but they’re patrolling up and down the coast, sinking or boarding every Raendasharan ship they encounter. Trade by sea is cut off, and all merchants now travel north of the Katrin Mountains from Chianseia.”

  Kell looked down at Lyric. “Despite the Sireni attack here, in Ivernn, I think your mother will be safer here than we will heading up the coast. They only burned one house. The capital would be their true prize.”

  Lyric nodded. She’d thought the same thing, and it wasn’t safe to move their mother anyway. “We should keep our connection to our grandfather quiet,” Lyric said. “I don’t think Maggie or Jim would voluntarily give Mama to the Sireni, but we don’t want anyone to find out who she is.” Lyric thought about the pendant in their mother’s belt. Had Mistress Gertrude seen it? If she had, what might she do?

  “Fine,” Runa said. “The three of us will travel together.” She reached for a bowl of broth. “We may need to prove our connection to Mother when we seek an audience with our grandfather. He’s a king after all. I doubt they’ll let us into the castle on our word alone.”

  “Mama’s pendant,” Lyric said. “It looks like something special. Perhaps he’ll recognize it?”

  “Or they’ll think we’re thieves,” Runa said.

  “You look Raendasharan,” Kell said, looking at Runa. “I can see Elaina in you. Perhaps King Rakarn will, as well.” He smiled at Lyric. “You, however, look like you could be at home on the deck of a ship with the wind in your hair.”

  Lyric smiled, her cheeks heating. For some reason, she found Kell’s comment intimate. “I look Sireni, you mean?”

  “Enough to give pause,” Kell said.

  “That explains the suspicious looks downstairs,” Lyric said.

  Kell’s lips curved and he brushed his fingers across her cheek. Despite his smile, his eyes were worried. “You look like your mother too,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will chase you away for fear you’re Sireni, but I agree, we should keep your heritage secret.”

  “We’ll leave tomorrow,” Runa said. “We can make arrangements with Maggie in the morning.”

  Lyric nodded. “The sooner we leave, the better. We don’t know how much time Mama has.”

  “I’ll let you eat,” Kell said. “I’ll likely stumble to my bed after grabbing a quick bite downstairs. I’ll find you in the morning?”

  Lyric nodded, and Kell embraced her, resting his chin on the top of her head.

  After he left, Lyric took a bowl of broth and sat down on the edge of the bed. “We should try to feed Mama,” she said, “or give her water. We can soak a napkin, drip some broth in her mouth.”

  Runa nodded. “Eat first, Ly, then we’ll try. We have a long walk ahead of us and need to sleep.”

  “Do you think he’ll help us?” Lyric asked, taking a bite of bread.

  “Kell?”

  “No, our grandfather. What if … what if he won’t?”

  Runa raised her eyebrows. “I thought you were the optimistic one.”

  “What if he won’t let us leave?”

  “Well, then we’ll escape,” Runa said, “and we’ll come back here and heal Mother ourselves. He has secret libraries, doesn’t he? Magic tomes? We’ll bribe a maid. Even secret libraries need dusting, don’t they? We’ll figure it out like we always do. We won’t let her die, Ly.”

  “You won’t leave me, will you Ru?”

  “Leave you?” Runa arched an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing, I’m just tired.” Lyric smiled. “To the end?”

  Runa reached for a mug of beer and held it up. “To the end.”

  It was cold and foggy the morning Lyric, Runa, and Kell left Ivernn. Elaina was still unconscious and being watched by Maggie’s son Elias. Though she hadn’t worsened in the night, Lyric thought their mother felt colder when she’d kissed her cheek goodbye and promised they’d return.

  They paid for a full week of Elaina’s care with the promise of settling the account if something delayed their return. The Dragon Eye pendant and the rest of their mother’s money, including the gold, they’d taken with them.

  Maggie packed food for their trip — freshly baked bread, thick slices of cheese, dried fish, a bottle of wine, and crab and oat cakes, carefully wrapped in waxed paper. She’d also returned their clothes and cloaks, washed and repaired.

  Fingers passing over her mended cloak, the neat stitches reminded Lyric of the creatures’ claws, and she shivered, lost in memories until Kell’s touch returned her to the inn.

  Looking towards the stairs, Lyric saw Runa standing in front of a middle-aged man with angry blue eyes and a thin mustache. He said something, gesturing towards the ceiling, and Lyric watched her sister lean forward and raise her hand. Fire sparked atop the tips of her fingers, and the man drew back, eyes widening and face draining of color. Mumbling something, he moved away and stumbled into Jim who was passing with an armload of wood.

  Lyric raised her eyebrow as Runa stomped past, but her scowling sister didn't seem to notice. Giving Maggie a distracted farewell, Lyric followed Runa out of the inn. She wanted to ask her what had happened, but her sister took off while she waited for Kell.

  The road leading away from Ivernn was not one of the smoother, well-traveled routes of the west, but a pitted and winding path that wandered along the steep, black cliffs. Kell fell into step beside Lyric, his face lightening as he took in the expanse of blue water to the east. Lyric was grateful for his height as a cutting ocean wind had diffused the fog, forcing it to lift, and it seemed quite intent on blowing both her and Runa over.

  Stepping over a large hole, Lyric glanced sideways at her sister. “Did you threaten someone when we left?” she asked.

  “He thinks we’ve brought them trouble,” Runa said. “That the Sireni know us.”

  Lyric frowned, trying to recall the unfriendly faces watching them leave. “Who was he?”

  “I don’t know, a local, but he looked at the stairs and said it’d be better if we all moved on.”

  Lyric pursed her lips. “Maggie and Jim won’t let anyone hurt Mama.”

  “You hope they won’t,” Runa said, face flinty.

  “You danced flame across your fingers,” Lyric said. “That was risky, Ru. The Sireni burned a home there.”

  Runa touched her red hair. “A Sireni, not a Raendasharan mage.”

  Frowning, Lyric stared at her sister’s unrepentant profile. Did Runa truly not see the potential trouble she’d left in their wake?

  “Sometimes people need an incentive to make the right choice,” Runa said.

  “Did Elenora tell you to do it?” Lyric asked.

  Runa looked at her, eyes flashing. “Elenora doesn’t make me do anything, Ly.”

  “It just … it just seems impulsive.”

  “You trust Maggie and Jim?” Runa asked, raising an eyebrow. “Without question? That they’ll choose our mother over their neighbors, their town?”

  Lyric glanced up at Kell, who was listening thoughtfully and met her sister’s eyes again. “I trust they’ll care for Mama,” she said. “They’ll protect her.” She ignored the guilt curdling her stomach. “We had no choice, anyway,” she said. “We have to trust someone.”

  “And now that man will reconsider doing anything that might hurt Mother,” Runa said.

  “Or did you create an enemy where there was none?”

  “Focus your worries on what lies ahead, Ly, not behind us.”

  Runa marched ahead, fists clenched at her sides.

  Disquieted, Lyric resisted the urge to look back, though Ivernn was no longer visible. What drove Runa to display her magic so impulsively? It hadn’t b
een necessary to threaten anyone.

  “Perhaps it will have the desired effect,” Kell said, tucking Lyric’s hand over his arm.

  “Or one we didn’t anticipate,” Lyric said softly.

  “I believe they’re honorable people. I’m sure they’ll keep Elaina safe while we’re gone.”

  “I hope so.”

  Falling quiet, Lyric let her thoughts drift and turned her eyes to the land around them. It was a barren landscape along the road, the black stone sharp and unforgiving. She was grateful more than once for the sturdy boots covering her feet. Occasionally straggly tufts of grass poked up from the uneven ground, having found a foothold in pockets of dark soil. Trees were few and far between.

  Looking west, Lyric saw that the obsidian-like ground stretched away from her in an uneven expanse, rising and falling as though shaped by earthquakes. Far in the distance, she could see the land rise into hills that reminded her of jagged teeth. They were nothing like the pastoral slopes and majestic mountains of Kaliz.

  Lyric spied several scraggly goats standing like sentinels atop the jagged hills, their black coats making them nearly indistinguishable from the rocky ground. She tugged on Kell’s arm, pointing them out, and together they debated what such an animal might eat in Raendashar’s harsh environment.

  Birds were their more constant companions, a collection of seabirds and raptors wheeling through the open sky as if reveling in the strong winds. When one bird dove unexpectedly towards the ground, Lyric was sure it’d kill itself on the sharp rock, but it lifted at the last moment with a triumphant shriek, a small rodent dangling from its claws.

  Around noon, the three of them stopped at a rocky overlook that jutted over the ocean, sharing a simple lunch of Maggie’s crab cakes and small, reddish apples Kell found growing beside the road. Unable to entice Runa into a conversation, Lyric leaned against Kell’s shoulder and ate in silence. She scanned the unending stretch of sea for a Sireni ship but saw nothing on the water.

  Lyric’s thoughts drifted to their mother. Stay alive, Mama. Please hold on.

  She tossed the apple core off the cliff into the roiling ocean below, feeling her lunch settle like a rock in her stomach. Should she have stayed? Should she have let Runa go on her own? She doubted a different decision would have made her feel any better.