by Todd Herzman
‘Taya,’ he said. ‘You’re safe now.’
She raised her head, ever so slightly. Her eyes glanced at his then darted away.
He inched closer on the bed. ‘Taya, it’s me. Ruben.’ He looked at her fingers, searching for the ring he’d given her in what felt like a different lifetime. It was gone, of course. Probably taken from her the day they became prisoners. He moved his hand, cautiously, and touched her as gently as he could on the shoulder. She jerked away. He withdrew his hand. ‘Don’t you remember me, Taya?’
She didn’t look at him again, but her eyes moved, slowly sweeping the room until they fell to the food on the table. She stared at it. Ruben could almost feel the hunger in her eyes. He stood, grabbed the plate, and brought it back. He held it in front of her, waiting for her to take a piece of the chicken.
‘Eat,’ he said. That word she seemed to recognise. She took the plate from his hands and ate without any of the manners he remembered her having. Ruben’s own stomach grumbled as he sat next to her, but he was glad to see her respond to something.
He hadn’t imagined their reunion like this. When he’d dreamt of saving her, of breaking her bloodlock and taking her off this island, she’d run into his arms. They’d held each other close and professed their love. Ruben sat beside Taya on the bed and watched as she ate. Had he really been so wrapped up inside his own head not to realise what being a prisoner, being bloodlocked, might do to her? He’d been so worried about her reaction to him changing, he hadn’t thought about how she might have changed.
Taya devoured the plate of food. She ate every crumb, even licked the plate clean. When she finished, she seemed embarrassed. She wiped her face with her sleeve and balanced the plate on her knees. She looked up at Ruben, finally meeting his eyes again. There was a glimmer of recognition. ‘Ruben?’ she whispered in the tiniest voice he’d ever heard her use.
Taya had never been the quiet type. She’d never been timid, shy, or afraid of much of anything. On the night the village had been attacked, she’d punched Malarin in the face after he’d pulled her by the hair and thrown her to the ground.
‘It’s me, Taya.’ He inched closer, expecting her to flinch again. When she didn’t, he moved his arm and slowly picked the plate up from her lap and put it on the floor. Her hands were shaking. The tremor reminded him of Marius. His little brother had lost so much so young, he’d always been prone to fear. Ruben gently touched Taya’s hands, squeezing them. ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you.’
Taya no longer shrank from his touch, but she didn’t squeeze his hand back. Her gaze swept around the room. ‘Where are we?’
‘The castle. Renial—the God King—took me here, the day Malarin presented us to him.’
‘Master was very angry about that.’ Taya moved her hands away from his. She grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled it down to reveal her bare shoulder. It was bruised. ‘He knew you were my betrothed.’ She looked into Ruben’s eyes, her gaze sharp. ‘He took his anger out on me.’
‘Oh, Taya. I’m—I’m so sorry.’ Ruben reached out to touch her on the shoulder.
She pulled away and stood, staring down at him with rage in her eyes. ‘You’re sorry? Where were you?’ She grabbed her head with both hands. ‘I was alone. Lost. My mind…’ She stepped one way, then the other, pulling at her hair. ‘My mind. He took away my mind and you weren’t there.’ She looked around. ‘You were here. I was lost and you were here.’
You weren’t there. Her words felt like shards of ice stabbing his heart. His mouth gaped open but everything he’d wanted to say to her since they’d been separated disappeared from his mind. He stood, reached out for her as she paced back and forth. ‘I—I’m sorry, Taya.’
She stopped pacing and looked him dead in the eye. ‘Is that all you can say?’
He clenched his fist, feeling his own rage bubble up. ‘I was a prisoner, too!’ he yelled. ‘I didn’t have a choice.’ At his shouts, she shrunk away from him, putting her hands up to defend herself. He deflated, feeling an instant pang of guilt. He stepped toward her. ‘Please, don’t shy away from me, I would never hurt you, Taya.’
She stumbled back, almost tripping over the chair that had been pulled out at the table. She glanced back at it, sat down. She made herself small, putting her head in her arms. Her eyes watered, and her body shook as she sobbed.
‘You don’t know what it was like,’ she said, her voice cracked and strained.
Ruben pulled out the other chair in front of hers and sat. ‘I don’t. I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m here now. We’re—we’re together again.’ He hesitated. He wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, but he worried she would flinch again, that she would bat his hand away. Before he could try, Taya flung her arms around him, gripping him so tight he could burst.
‘Don’t leave me again,’ she whispered between sobs. ‘Not ever. Please.’
‘I won’t, Taya. I—I promise.’ He just hoped it was a promise he could keep.
Chapter 47
Ella
Ella stepped out from under the stairwell. She had her hands up as she made her way through the darkened room toward the landing. Light from the hallway flowed down into the dusty storage room. She walked into the light.
‘Don’t hurt her. Please.’
At the top of the stairs, the blood lord held a knife to Reena’s throat. His thralls, all six that Ella had sensed, stood behind him. Reena’s hands were tied behind her back. She looked bruised and battered, her eyes wide, staring down at Ella. The blood lord ran a hand through Reena’s hair. She shivered, her face white.
The blood lord peered down the stairs as Ella stopped at the landing. ‘Was the room not comfortable enough for you? I did try to make it feel… cosy.’
‘Yes, being strapped to a bed always feels so cosy.’
A devilish grin slipped onto the blood lord’s face. Ella cringed at the sight of it—she’d much preferred the bored expression.
‘So.’ He slid the knife’s edge gently along Reena’s neck, his eyes still on Ella. ‘Are you going to behave?’
Ella gritted her teeth and nodded. ‘Yes.’ She tried to restrain her anger. ‘If you let her go.’
The blood lord nodded at one of his thralls. The thrall, a man with greying hair and the sun-kissed skin of a lifelong sailor, threw a pair of manacles down the steps. The manacles clattered at her feet.
Ella knelt and picked them up.
‘Put them on.’ The blood lord put pressure on the knife’s edge, making Reena gasp. ‘No stalling now.’ He pulled Reena’s head up and looked into her wide eyes. ‘I’m not supposed to hurt the little witch, but I can hurt you.’
Ella blinked. I’m not supposed to hurt the little witch. She stopped herself from smiling. He wasn’t supposed to hurt her. Whoever had sent him here wanted her alive. There was no time to think about why, she needed to figure out how she could use it to her advantage. She let out a deep sigh and put the manacles on. They were made of hard iron and rubbed against the burn on her wrist. She’d have trouble melting these off. She snapped them shut, then looked up the steps.
One blood lord, six thralls. All she needed to do was defeat them all and take over the ship, without letting the homicidal mage kill her friend. This wasn’t the showdown she’d planned, not in the slightest.
‘Come up the steps,’ the blood lord droned. ‘Slowly now.’ He nicked Reena’s neck and licked the blood off her skin.
Ella shuddered. She felt power build up in her chest. The last time she’d faced him, on the beach, she’d depleted her mana reserve. Now, it was full. Now, he was going to see exactly what she could do.
‘Let go of her,’ Ella said, before making eye contact with Reena. She took the first step up the staircase, then flicked her gaze to Reena’s neck. Reena looked confused. Ella stepped again and tapped her own chest, just under the neckline where a necklace might sit. She wished she could send her thoughts into Reena’s mind, or
read Reena’s in return.
Reena glanced down where Ella motioned. Ella was halfway up the stairs when the woman gave an imperceptible nod. Deep breaths, Ella thought. Three more steps, and I’ll be right in front of him.
The thralls standing around the blood lord looked as bored as he did, but she knew they would protect their master until their dying breath. Whether the blood lord was supposed to keep Ella unharmed or not, she would only have one chance at this.
If she made a misstep, Reena would die.
One more step.
The blood lord was close enough to touch. Ella pulled herself back to the state of mind she’d been in when she fought on the island. She brought back the rage, the fear and the sense of self-preservation that seemed to let her control her powers.
Ella’s manacled hands still raised, she let out a focused breath and shot a bolt of lightning from her palm straight at Reena and the blood lord. The bolt hit a protective shield, stopping short of the two of them. Whatever protections the blood lord had on himself, along with Reena’s crystal necklace, prevented the lightning from contacting them.
Which was precisely what Ella knew would happen.
The blood lord’s eyes widened at the sudden attack. His grip on Reena faltered. Reena grabbed his arm, pulling it down, and threw him over her shoulder. Ella sidestepped out of the way. The blood lord fell down the stairs, his knife clattering to the ground.
Chaos broke out. The thralls flung themselves at Ella and Reena. Ella jumped in front of Reena, calling fire as she stepped. She thrust the fire out at the thralls as they ran forward into the flames. The flames burned them, and Ella smiled. With the blood lord distracted, he was no longer able to use his protective magic on his thralls—or he’d never cast it in the first place, not expecting her to fight back.
One of the thrall’s swords fell. The narrow hallway filled with their writhing bodies as flames blackened their skin.
‘Ella,’ Reena said behind her, her voice shaky. ‘When did you learn how to—’ She cut her words short, and gripped Ella’s shoulder. ‘He’s coming back up the stairs, we have to run.’
Ella glanced at the woman. Reena’s eyes were wide, looking down at the burning thralls, at what Ella was doing to them, in fear.
‘The more of his thralls that are dead, the weaker he becomes.’ Ella faced the thralls again, some of them still alive. She summoned lightning, launching a single bolt at each thrall that still moved. When the bodies were still, and Ella was sure they wouldn’t get up again, she grabbed the closest weapon with her manacled hands—the sword that had fallen—and thrust it into Reena’s grip. ‘Now, we can run.’
Parts of the hallway had caught fire, but Ella had no way of dousing the flames. They rushed through them, clambering over the dead bodies of the thralls.
‘We need to find Aralia,’ Ella said. ‘She’s somewhere on the lower levels.’
Past the bodies, the hallway was clear. They ran down it, turned a corner, and passed the room where Ella had been held captive.
‘She’s in the brig. It’s where they took me from.’ Reena took the lead, her face grim.
Ella wondered what Reena thought of her after seeing the way she’d burned those people alive. It doesn’t matter, Ella thought. It’s them or us. ‘Lead the way.’
Around another corner, they found a stairwell heading up and down. Reena took the steps down two at a time and Ella followed on her heels. The stairwell was just left of the room Ella had escaped from; if she’d only turned the other way, she’d never have gotten stuck.
As she jumped the last few steps onto the landing, her manacles clanking, she heard heavy stomps from the deck above. Ella hoped it was more of the blood lord’s thralls and not the blood lord himself. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to defeat him without Aralia, especially if he still had power to draw upon. And now that he’d been thrown down the stairs, the earlier bargain of leaving Reena alive was definitely out of the question.
‘It’s through this door.’ Reena didn’t slow her step as she approached. Instead, she quickened her pace and lengthened her stride. She kicked the door open and burst through holding the sword in both hands.
Ella stepped in behind her, arms outstretched, ready to call on fire and lighting to strike whoever they came across. Bars lined each side of the room, and Ella’s first thought was that her brother would’ve been in cells like these. Then she spotted a man sitting down at the far wall.
Reena sprinted toward the man just as he was getting to his feet. He was tall enough that his head almost grazed the low ceiling. He grabbed a vicious spiked club from beside his seat. Reena closed the gap and brought her sword down, but he got his club up in time to block.
‘Reena!’ Ella shouted. ‘Step aside and I’ll handle him!’
Reena slashed at the man several more times before he blocked a strike and used a long arm to push her back. Ella watched, her fingers twitching, ready, hoping Reena would take the opportunity to get out of the way.
She didn’t. She kept fighting, being shoved back only enraged her. Ella shifted her focus away from them, knowing she couldn’t use her powers without risking Reena, and started searching the cells for Aralia.
The cells were full of crew members from the Serpentine. Jacob stood at the bars of the closest cell, a hand thrust out. ‘Ella!’
She sighed in relief at seeing the old sailor alive. ‘Step back.’ Jacob and his cellmates stepped away from the bars. Ella called fire. Ruben used to burn metal all the time in his workshop, she should be able to manage it with magic. If this worked, she’d break the chain connecting her manacles next. She tried to imagine the flame burning hotter and hotter as she put her palm against the lock. ‘Come on, come on,’ she whispered. From the corner of her eye, she could see a dubious look on Jacob’s face.
The clang of sword on club echoed in the background. Ella tried her hardest not to let her attention stray to see how Reena was fairing. She still heard sounds of the fight, which she took as a good thing.
The metal turned red. It began to feel malleable in her grip. She kept her hand on it for a few more seconds, counting in her head, one, two, three. She let go of the lock, stepped back, and kicked it in as she’d seen Reena kick in the door. The cell gate flew open.
The second it opened, she turned back to the fight. Reena ducked under the tall man’s swing. The man had taken a few slashes. He bled from his left arm and his side, but it didn’t slow him down. Reena, on the other hand, seemed weaker. Blocking the larger man’s strikes must have taken its toll.
She’s protected, Ella remembered. Reena’s crystal had stopped her from feeling the shock of Ella’s magic before, she would have to trust it to protect her again. Ella would need to kill the man, just as she’d killed so many others already. She stepped forward, gathering lightning in her palm—
Jacob gripped her arm. ‘Ella, stop.’ Ella stared into the sailor’s eyes, dark bags beneath them from lack of sleep. His face was scratched up, something she hadn’t noticed from seeing him in the darkened cell. ‘Reena’s got this.’
A grunt sounded from the end of the room. The tall man doubled over, Reena’s sword stuck through his gut and out the other end. Reena sidestepped the man’s bulk as he tumbled to the ground. The captain rolled the man onto his side, retrieved her sword with a mighty tug, and snagged the keys off his belt. She unlocked the cell closest to her, then threw the keys to Jacob.
Ella stared at Reena in disbelief. She’d sparred with her before, but she’d never seen the woman fight for real. Ella could have sworn Reena had been about to die if she hadn’t intervened.
‘Ella,’ Reena said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. ‘Aralia’s in here.’ She turned her head to stare into the cell. ‘She doesn’t look good.’
Ella was about to rush over when Jacob stopped her. He fumbled with the keys until he found the right one, then unlocked her manacles. Ella’s burned wrist looked rubbed raw. She nodded to
Jacob, thankful she didn’t have to try and melt them off, then ran to Aralia’s cell.
Aralia lay on her side, her eyes shut. For a moment, Ella didn’t think she was alive, then she saw the woman’s chest rise and fall. Besides, Ella realised, the witch couldn’t be dead—Ella could feel her energy. She rushed toward the witch, knelt and touched a hand to the woman’s forehead, not really sure what else to do.
Ella had tried to touch minds with Aralia before. It had only ended badly. ‘She’s not lacking mana. She’s breathing fine, but her eyes won’t open. She… she took an arrow on the beach.’
‘We’ll have to leave her,’ Reena said, wiping her sword on the dead man’s back.
‘Leave her?’
Reena walked into the cell. She knelt, putting a hand on Aralia’s cheek. ‘There’s nothing we can do for her if we don’t take this ship.’
Jacob, having opened all the cells, picked up the spiked club. ‘She’s right, Ella. We have to go.’
Ella checked Aralia’s wound. Someone, probably Magna, had seen to it.
Reena stood and held a hand out for Ella. ‘Come on. We need you.’
Ella took one last look at Aralia before taking Reena’s hand. ‘The blood lord is protected. He’s drawing power from every one of his thralls on this ship.’ Ella looked at the man Reena had skewered. ‘It’s not their fault they’re being controlled. But if we want a chance at surviving’—she looked at Reena, at Jacob, and the other surviving crew members gathered—‘we’ll need to kill them all.’
She walked out of the cell and down the hall, past the row of cells. She summoned fire and sparks to her hands. The power flowing through her felt so natural. How had she ever had trouble controlling it? When she got to the brig’s doorway, she stopped and closed her eyes. She called on her other senses to determine the position of the remaining thralls and their blood lord.
They were upstairs, all of them. Waiting.
Chapter 48
