by Hylton, PT
And for Syd.
Besides, he had to admit he was starting to get a taste for adventure.
As Benjamin watched, he realized he didn’t feel nauseous for the first time since coming aboard.
* * *
The salty air whipped Dustin as he stood at the prow of The Foggy Day, eyes closed, calling the winds that blew them onward.
He had no idea how many hours he’d been stormcalling. When he was deep in the zone like he was now, time seemed to stop. If he didn’t occasionally open his eyes to peek at the position of the sun, he wouldn’t even know whether it was morning or evening.
It was the second day of their journey to Gren. He’d gone to bed long after sundown the previous night, exhausted both physically and mentally. He was practiced enough that he could keep a low, steady wind going all day without getting burnt out, but he was pushing much harder than that on this journey.
He wanted to reach their destination and get Dahlia off the ship as quickly as possible. Even sedated, she made him nervous. He knew she was dangerous, a living weapon who could cut them at any moment. It had been risky to bring her.
But he knew one other thing: for Dahlia, this was a one-way journey. She would not be traveling back to Holdgate with them, and they wouldn’t be leaving Gren until she was dead.
He heard—or maybe felt—someone approaching behind him. That he noticed him at all through his stormcalling trance meant it could only be one person.
“Hello, Viktor.”
The Barskall Storm Caller came up beside Dustin, “You’ve been at this a long time. Comparatively. At least a few hours, I mean. Seems long. Would you like me to give you a break? By which I mean, take over your spot at the bow?”
Dustin smiled and opened his eyes. Even though he’d only known Viktor a few days, he was already growing fond of the strange way the man talked. “Perhaps a little break would be nice.”
He stepped back from the bow, lifting the tip of his staff out of the seawater housed there. Though he didn’t need the seawater to stormcall anymore, its presence made things a bit easier. Viktor stepped forward and put his toe in the water.
“This would work better if I were submerged,” Viktor said. “Easier, I mean. Perhaps you could hang me off the front in the water of the ship.”
Dustin sighed. “We’ve been through this. We’re not hanging you off the damn prow.”
Although Barskall Storm Callers weren’t as precise as Dustin and his Holdgate peers, they were powerful in their own way. Viktor might not have been able to create the wind and direct it perfectly to send the ship racing toward its destination, but now that Dustin had called the wind Viktor would be able to keep it going. It gave Dustin the opportunity for an occasional much-needed break. He’d slept from almost dusk until dawn, and the ship had barely lost any speed.
“You been down to see our prisoner?” Dustin asked.
“Yes. She’s still asleep. I expect we’ll have to wake her once we get close to Gren.”
Dustin nodded. “She’s the one who knows where we’re going.”
Viktor looked over the sea for a long moment, then chuckled. “You know, it’s funny. Or strange, I suppose. I was afraid of her for a long time. We lived in fear of her occasional visits to the school in Barskall. She was the most powerful Storm Caller we’d ever seen. But, now, sleeping, she looks so small.”
“Don’t be fooled, my man. She’s as dangerous as ever.”
“Dustin, I think we should talk. I mean, we are talking. But about something specific. The way we used our powers in the Farrows against the Barskall fleet. I think that’s just the beginning. We need to practice, to hone our craft. I can teach you things.”
Dustin smirked. “No offense, but I already had a mentor.”
“I know that. I’m talking about a situation where we learn from each other. Hell, I was making up this stormcalling stuff as I went along. I want to learn the Holdgate way of doing things. And I can show you my way.”
Dustin glanced toward the poop deck where Benjamin and Olaf were training. The blacksmith was teaching Olaf the basics of physical magic. Not that Olaf could do anything yet—he’d only been training for a day—but he was eagerly soaking up Benjamin’s every word.
If a stubborn ass like Olaf could humble himself to take instruction, maybe Dustin could too.
“Okay, Viktor. Let’s work together to see what we don’t know.”
Chapter Four
On the afternoon of the third day of the journey to Gren, Syd called Abbey over.
“It’s time. Go get her.”
Abbey nodded. She gathered Clemens, Olaf, and Fannar, and headed belowdecks.
Dahlia was lying on the mat where she’d spent the majority of the trip, awake but very groggy.
Fannar glanced at Abbey, a worried look in his eyes. “Is she going to be able to tell us where to go?”
“We haven’t given her a drink of the potion in six hours. She’ll be all right.” She nudged Dahlia with her foot and spoke in a louder voice. “You hear that? We know you’re faking.”
Dahlia blinked at her absently. “Abbey? You’re the one who killed Tor. You should join my team. It’s much more fun.”
“Thanks, but I’m having too good a time kicking your team’s ass.” Abbey turned to her friends. “Let’s take her topside.”
Olaf and Fannar grabbed her under the arms and hauled her to her feet. They half-dragged, half-shoved her up the ladder to the main deck.
The crew stopped their work as Dahlia stepped into the sun. She’d been brought belowdecks before most of them had boarded. Some of them had seen her sleeping, surrounded by four guards. But for most of them, this was the first they’d seen of Dahlia since she'd attacked Holdgate and disappeared shortly thereafter.
They watched her with anger in their eyes and no small bit of concern. She’d been a legend back in her Thunderclap days, and she was no less a legend now that she had been exposed as a villain and a Storm Raider.
“All right, back to work!” Abbey barked at the crew. “You want to stare at a ratty, past-her-prime, drugged-out woman, I can recommend some taverns in Holdgate. In the meantime, do your jobs.”
The crew went back to their tasks, but not a man or woman among them didn’t frequently glance at the enemy aboard their ship.
Dahlia blinked hard in the sunlight. “This isn’t Thunderclap. Where’s my staff? Take me to the prow.”
Clemens shook his head. “She doesn’t even know where she is, boss. Think we overdid it with the potion?”
“She’s putting on a performance. And not a very good one. Olaf, fetch a bucket of water.”
The man scurried to the quarterdeck and found a bucket. After attaching a rope to the handle, he lowered it into the sea below. A few moments later he returned to Abbey, water sloshing as he hurried across the ship.
Abbey nodded at the bucket. “Give our guest her wakeup call.”
Olaf grinned. “I love my job.”
With that he swung the bucket at Dahlia, drenching her in chilly seawater.
Dahlia gasped. “How...how dare you?”
Abbey smiled. “Excellent. You sound more alert already. It’s time to earn your passage.”
Dahlia glared at Abbey, hate clear in her eyes.
Abbey couldn’t help but smile. The Storm Caller was usually so cool and collected; it was a pleasure to see her off her game.
A few moments later Syd and Dustin conversed with Dahlia, helping her understand their position. A landmass they assumed was Gren was visible in the distant west now. With any luck, they’d reach it in a few hours.
When Abbey said that to Dustin, he grinned at her. “We don’t need luck. We’ve got me.”
Dahlia directed them to angle their trajectory a few degrees south. She was returning to her old self by the minute. That was both reassuring and concerning to Abbey.
“We’re looking for two massive pillars of stone, each rising a hundred feet in the sky,” Dahlia explained. “A h
arbor sits between them.”
Abbey wondered how long it would take them to search the coast for this specific rock formation. By Dahlia’s own admission, she hadn’t been to Gren in nearly a decade. If she couldn’t direct them to the exact location, they might have to search up and down the coast for days.
Not to mention the question of what they’d find when they got there. It was a given that Dahlia wasn’t being straight with them. She was either leaving out information or flat-out lying. And yet, Abbey was convinced Dahlia wasn’t completely lying about Elliot. Abbey believed Elliot was in Gren, or at least that Dahlia believed he was.
Abbey was confident in herself and her friends. Whatever was waiting for them in Gren, they’d face it and they’d overcome it, just as they had in similar situations so many times before.
Dahlia was bound to betray them, and Abbey would have her sword sharpened and ready when she did.
Once they were close to shore, Abbey approached the bow and tapped Dustin on the arm. “Hey, I’ll have a better view from up top.”
When Dustin answered, his voice held the slight twinge of annoyance it always did when he was interrupted while stormcalling. “The crow’s nest?”
“I was thinking a bit higher than that.”
Dustin grinned, finally getting it. “Viktor, take over for me here. Keep that wind steady.”
A few moments later, Abbey soared into the sky, carried on an updraft Dustin called for her.
It had been a few days since she’d flown, and even though she was new at it, she’d missed it. Using magic to change the weight of things made her feel alive somehow. It was as if part of her had been asleep her whole life, until she’d discovered this magic.
How had Liv explained it in the Farrows? Tapping into the Etheric. It made her wonder: if powers as diverse as hers, her father’s, and Dustin’s all came from the Etheric, what else was possible? What hadn’t anyone thought to try?
As she flew, she promised herself she’d keep pushing the boundaries to figure out what else they could do.
She glanced down and saw every pair of eyes on The Foggy Day staring up at her, including Dahlia’s.
Over the next hour they cruised along the coast, looking for Dahlia’s rock formations. Abbey glided on the currents of Dustin’s wind, dipping over the land and then banking back toward the ship. She’d never been aloft this long before. It was exhilarating.
She squinted at something in the distance: two objects that could very well be the formations Dahlia had described. She tilted her body toward the southwest.
As she got a bit closer, she confirmed it.
Towering pillars of stone stood on either side of a harbor city.
She signaled to Dustin, and he brought her back toward the ship. She increased her weight and descended to the deck.
“What do you know?” Dustin said. “Dahlia steered us right.”
Abbey frowned. “Yes, but toward what?”
Syd was unusually quiet as they approached the port. Abbey wondered if the prospect of finally seeing her brother after all this time was weighing on her.
Dahlia appeared to be fully awake now. She wore her usual cocky half-smile. Even with her hands bound in front of her, a stranger might have thought she was in charge.
The Foggy Day passed between the stone pillars. Now that they were close, Abbey could see there was a figure standing on top of each pillar.
“Here it comes,” Dahlia said softly.
“Here what comes?” Dustin asked, his voice alive with concern.
As if on cue, the men on top of the pillars raised their hands. The pillars suddenly shrank, as if they were sinking. At the same time, a six-foot tall stone wall rose out of the water behind them, blocking their exit from the harbor.
“What the hell is this?” Syd shouted.
Abbey gave Dahlia a shove. “Talk. What’s going on?”
Dahlia smiled. “What’s going on is, I’ve brought you to the most dangerous place on Earth. Welcome to the home of the Stone Shapers.”
* * *
Stone Shapers.
Abbey had never heard the term before, but looking back at the stone wall that had suddenly risen out of the water, she had a pretty good idea what these guys could do.
Somehow they’d taken the stone from the pillars and reshaped it into a wall.
“Wonderful,” Syd muttered. “A new kind of magic.”
Abbey drew her sword and pressed it into Dahlia’s side. “Talk fast. What the hell are we dealing with here?”
Dahlia smiled. “I may not have been entirely honest about the political situation in Gren.”
“Chop her damn head off,” Olaf shouted as he marched toward her.
Benjamin followed closely behind his new pupil. “I tend to agree with Olaf, much to my surprise.”
“No!” Syd yelled. “Not yet.” She turned back to Dahlia. “Tell us everything you know, or we start cutting things off.”
Dahlia sighed, as if Syd’s very presence were a mild annoyance she was being forced to deal with. “Fine. I told you the truth about Ragnar. He did lose the war on Barskall, and he did demand some of our stormship sailors before going into exile. He planned to raise an army and conquer Gren, which was perfectly fine with King Elias. As long as he stayed away from Barskall, Elias didn’t care where he went. And I really did help transport him to Gren.”
Abbey looked at the pillars and noticed they were somehow moving through the water toward The Foggy Day as if they were ships. The men standing on the pillars looked serene. They wore loose black sashes that matched their glowing black eyes.
“Physical magic,” Benjamin muttered.
“You ever see anything like this in Arcadia?” Captain Syd asked.
“Not even close.”
Syd turned back to Dahlia. “Talk faster.”
“What I failed to tell you was that Ragnar’s conquest of Gren did not go as planned. After depositing him and his followers a bit north of here, Thunderclap immediately searched for the nearest city. We found this one. My plan was to endear myself to the local chief by providing information about the Barskall warlord now in their midst and revealing his plans for building an empire. It turned out the Stone Shapers were perfectly capable of handling some savage warriors.”
The pillars of stone were growing closer now. In a minute or two they’d reach the ship.
“What do we do, Captain?” Clemens asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
“Nothing yet,” Syd snapped. “Keep talking, Dahlia.”
Dahlia nodded. “While they didn’t need my help crushing Ragnar, I thought I’d check to see if there was any other way I could assist them. It turned out there was. They can mold stone with their magic, if you hadn’t already figured that out.”
“We’re not idiots,” Olaf interjected.
Abbey corrected, “Well, Olaf kind of is.”
Dahlia continued, “They were having trouble with some Gren natives who didn’t want to be ruled by Stone Shapers. These rebels were seafaring people with small, fast ships, and they were putting up quite a fight. That’s where Thunderclap came in. We paid those troublesome rebels a visit. Before that, Gren had never heard of storm magic. Now I’d wager there’s not a man or woman on Gren who hasn’t.”
“What about my brother?” Syd growled.
Dahlia shrugged. “Ragnar and his followers were captured and put to work in the mines deep in the mountains. I’ve heard tell they work them hard there. They don’t expect their prisoners to last long. Elliot may still be alive. Anything’s possible, I suppose.”
Syd grabbed Dahlia by the throat. “I’m going to cut you open and watch your guts grow cold on the deck.”
“I wouldn’t,” Dahlia croaked. “My Stone Shaper friends wouldn’t like that.”
Abbey glanced toward the pillars. They’d almost reached the ship now. With their glowing black eyes, it was hard to tell where the men on the pillars were looking. They seemed to be glaring in Dahlia’s direction.
>
Syd let go of Dahlia and cursed quietly. “You’ll pay for this.”
“These Stone Shapers respect you?” Abbey asked Dahlia.
The Storm Caller laughed. “They practically worship me. They used to call me the ‘Queen of Storms.’ I’ve put you in a bad position. These people value my life quite highly.”
“Good. Then you’ll make an excellent hostage.” Abbey shifted her sword from where she’d been holding it against Dahlia’s ribs and put it against the woman’s neck. “You think you tricked us, but we’ve been expecting something like this the whole time.”
“Well, aren’t you smart,” Dahlia replied. “And yet you still have two Stone Shapers about to board.”
There was a terrible grinding noise, and The Foggy Day came to a stop.
Clemens ran to the rail and looked over the side. “Captain, they’ve encased the hull in stone!”
As the pillars reached The Foggy Day, they began to lean toward the ship so the tops almost touched the rails without the rest of the pillar crashing into the side.
The two men moved almost as one, stepping off the stone onto the rail and then down onto the deck in unison from opposite sides of the ship.
The man on the starboard side was a bit taller than his companion. His hair was so blond it was almost white, standing in stark contrast to his glowing black eyes.
He raised his hand, holding it out palm upward. A perfectly round stone sat quivering there.
His companion mirrored his actions on the port side of The Foggy Day.
The first man spoke in a low voice that seemed to rumble through the boards of the deck. “Release the Queen of Storms immediately.”
Abbey held her sword steady against Dahlia’s throat. “No can do. I know she’s annoying, but her presence makes us feel better about ourselves.”
The man looked confused. “Who’s Captain here?”
Syd took a step forward. She hadn’t drawn a weapon, but she already looked pretty imposing with her twin swords on her back and her shaved head. “I am. And where I come from, it’s customary to ask the captain’s permission before boarding a vessel. Anyone who fails to do so will find himself quickly regretting his decision. I suggest you step off my ship and ask my forgiveness before things get ugly.”
