“Kerys…” he called. “Eva!”
It was a challenge to keep from spiraling into his worries and literally falling to his knees with concern. He reminded himself that he was the one who’d been knocked overboard and likely the one that deserved to be worried over. It didn’t help much.
Ari slowly started walking, doing his utmost to ignore the scratchy thirst that had taken up residence in his throat and the way his body seemed nearly unable to cope with the basic weight of his clothing and empty sword scabbard across his back. He was tired and weak, but he forced his attention toward what was in his favor, rather than what was wrong. The sky was clear overhead. He was alive, and otherwise uninjured. He wasn’t helpless.
He took careful stock of his surroundings. After ten minutes of walking along the beach and noticing the continuous curve it had, he felt safe in assuming that he was on an island. It wasn’t ideal, as it meant that he’d need a way to eventually get off it assuming that there weren’t any other islands within swimming distance, but there was a thick stretch of jungle toward the island’s center, which would mean food and possibly a source of freshwater.
“Kerys!” he called. “Eva!”
Ari passed beyond a small bend where the jungle pushed further outward and froze at what he saw. A small boat with locked oars, most of which had snapped off at some point during the storm, with a girl sleeping in it. A girl with medium-length blonde hair and a pale green tunic.
He sprinted over as fast as he could, feeling his body protest at the sudden demand he’d placed on it. Kerys was lying across one of the benches with one of the few intact oars still clutched in her small hands. She was sunburned, and she’d taken her leggings off at some point, leaving her with only a pair of the same silkweave panties that her family used to make back in the Hollow covering her lower half.
Eva was there, too, albeit in sword form. She lay tilted up against one of the boat’s other benches, right next to something that made Ari grin with relief. She’d apparently grabbed his pack after he’d taken it off onboard the galleon, just before diving in after Kerys. He opened it, finding that it still contained his full waterskin, his tent, a small amount of food, and everything he needed to start a fire.
“Dormiar’s tears,” muttered Ari. “We’re going to be okay.”
Kerys still hadn’t woke up. Ari double-checked that she was still breathing before gently lifting her into his arms and carrying her up the beach. His tired body obliged him with only a single clumsy step as he lifted a leg over the side of the boat.
He grabbed Eva next, holding the elegant greatsword in his hands and letting a single finger press against the razor-sharp blade.
“Eva,” he whispered. “Can you hear me? We’re safe, all three of us.”
He hesitated, realizing that he hadn’t stopped to consider what had happened to Rin and Leyehl. The storm had been fierce, perhaps fierce enough to keep them from being able to fly as far as they would have normally. He tried not to picture them struggling to maintain altitude over a group of snapping lurkers and hoped they’d eventually turn up on the island, too.
“Lord… searched… couldn’t…”
Eva’s response was muffled and wavering, like trying to make out someone’s voice through the water. Their bond had weakened far more than Ari had realized. He muttered a curse under his breath, knowing that it was his fault for not making more time for her while they’d been aboard the galleon.
He carried Azurelight onto the beach. Kerys had stirred and was sitting upright, wiping flecks of sand off her face with careful fingers.
“Ari,” she said. “You’re okay…”
Her voice managed to sound simultaneously overjoyed and exhausted. Ari set the greatsword down and pulled Kerys into a quick hug.
“Somehow, I think I fared the best of the three of us,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. We have my pack, which includes the tent and everything else we need to survive.”
He gave Kerys a quick kiss and then looked into her eyes. She had a small, sad smile on her face that brought to mind Ari’s own earlier frustrations. It was all going to be okay, up until the next storm, or the next time they encountered people with hostile intentions, or something else went wrong. They had made it through the night, but the struggle was eternal.
“I’m just glad that we’re together,” said Kerys. She took his hand into hers and squeezed it, and the expression on her face continued to break Ari’s heart.
“What happened with Eva?” asked Ari.
“When you fell overboard, she started rowing like a madwoman,” said Kerys. “We circled around over and over again, despite the storm, hoping we’d see you in the water. We… were both crying because we couldn’t find you, and we thought…”
“Give me a little credit, Kerys,” said Ari. “I’m basically invincible, in case you haven’t noticed.”
She rolled her eyes and continued. “Eva kept rowing even after I was too tired to keep going. The storm didn’t last long after we lost you, but she used her hand to feel for the current and then set us on a course in that direction. She just kept going. At a certain point, she passed out, and after a few minutes, she turned into a sword, as though she didn’t even have the strength to stay in her body.”
“That might have well been the case,” said Ari. “I’m going to have to get some essence into her in order to help her recover.”
He carefully gripped the greatsword by the hilt, hesitating as he considered how to do it. Ari had enough practice with channeling his will and essence to know that he could probably give her a small hit of his own innate essence to restore her vitality.
Doing so, however, would run the risk of him overdoing it. It was what had happened when he’d first triggered Ethereal Tower’s teleportation wards, and it was what had stolen his lifespan from him. Ari felt a slight, unwanted tremble in his hand, and he tried not to feel like too much of a coward as he sighed and shook his head.
“Eva,” he whispered. “Can you shift into your incarnate form? Even if it’s just for a few seconds, that should be long enough for me to kiss you and transfer at least a small amount of essence to help you recover.”
Nothing happened for a moment, and then the sword flashed with light. Eva appeared, looking like she’d just awoken from a bleary-eyed, midday nap. Ari immediately pressed his lips against hers, though she barely reacted to the intimacy.
He alternated between kissing her and hugging her tightly, knowing that it was the emotions and the connection that let the essence pass over to her rather than the precise physical contact. He cradled her head against his shoulder after one particularly long kiss and felt her breath against his ear.
“Thank you, milord,” she whispered. “I should… remain in sword form, for now. Until we can strengthen the bond properly.”
“You just get some rest,” said Ari. “Once I’ve set up the camp, I’ll let you know, and we’ll do it then.”
She nodded and then flashed with light. Ari carefully slid Azurelight back into the scabbard across his shoulders, feeling an odd sense of comfort at its familiar weight.
“We should take a look around the area before we set up camp,” said Kerys. “Have you done a complete lap around the island yet?”
Ari shrugged, glancing in the direction he’d come from and then the direction he’d been going.
“Almost,” he said. “I think I started from over there, actually. If I’d been looking more closely at the area this way, I would have spotted you two earlier.”
He walked out to where the boat was beached, gesturing for Kerys to follow him. It would be particularly foolish for them to leave it where it was, given how unpredictable the tide could be. It took nearly all the strength that Ari had, but he slowly managed to pull it high enough onto the beach to be free from the risk of being swept out to sea.
Ari and Kerys headed into the jungle after that. The trees were relatively thin, and there was a distinct lack of the ambient noise of insects and
birds that made him wonder if referring to it as a “jungle” was a slight overstatement.
Kerys observed the vegetation in a way that Ari couldn’t help but smile at. She stopped as they passed by a sharply spiked bush with small, purple berries, plucking one loose and smushing it against her skin.
“I never thought that trick would end up being as useful as it’s been,” said Ari.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” asked Kerys. “If you’re going to eat something, you should know whether it’s going to agree with you before you even put in your mouth.”
“You can always spit the juice out if you don’t like the taste,” said Ari. “Or, you can have the berry warn you before it lets loose in full sweet, sticky glory.”
Kerys looked baffled for a surprisingly long time before finally rolling her eyes and groaning.
“Aristial Stoneblood, you are a complete and utter pervert,” she said.
“You’re just figuring this out now?” Ari smirked at her and sneaked a quick kiss.
They continued at a slow pace, staying alert for any other edible vegetation or huntable wildlife. Ari frowned as he examined a gap in the trees, noting the odd positions of the rocks in the clearing ahead.
“That’s an old building,” he said. “Saidican ruins. Come on, this could be important!”
He hurried forward, stepping into what appeared to be the foundation of a large, ancient building. Despite his initial excitement, there was almost nothing left of it, with only a single wall standing above waist height. He did a slow circle of the area, discovering little other than the fact that at some point in the past, the island had once been inhabited.
“Let’s head back to the beach,” said Kerys. “Unless you have any better ideas?”
Ari shook his head. “No. But let’s take the long way around. If we head through the rest of the jungle and then follow the shore, we’ll basically have explored all there is to see here.”
It wasn’t the comforting thought that it should have been. Ari had been hoping to see a splotch of land in the distance as he’d traveled along the beach, but there had been nothing except endless water. Given how sparse their food and water reserves were, they would likely have to make a blind attempt to reach somewhere other than their tiny island with the boat sooner rather than later.
They cut through the jungle onto the beach, and Ari spotted something that was both new and worthy of his attention. Two light blue glowing spheres were bobbing up and down on a section of the beach that he’d missed before.
“Are those… mesmers?” asked Kerys.
“Yeah,” said Ari. “I’ve only encountered a few before that are active outside of Saidican ruins.”
He waved a hand to Kerys and started jogging toward them.
“Are you sure this is okay?” asked Kerys.
“Of course,” said Ari.
Despite his reassurance, he noticed how her hand rested on the hilt of her short sword, which she’d apparently held onto through the storm. Ari smiled, appreciating her wariness, though light blue mesmers were usually harmless, and her enchanted weapons wouldn’t be able to damage them, regardless.
The spheres flashed and reformed into recognizable figures as Ari drew within a couple of feet. Two Saidican men were mounted on rune sleds, grinning to themselves as they raced down the beach. They only made it a few feet before moving beyond the eerie distance at which mesmers presented themselves as true entities, and Ari felt a sudden urge to jog after them and watch the race progress.
Rune sleds were such an elegant means of travel. Ari felt a sudden stab of jealousy as he followed the mesmers, watching them fly forward a few inches above the sand, unaffected by the terrain below. One of the mesmers wore a cape which trailed behind them, fluttering in the nonexistent wind.
“This island belonged to someone once,” said Kerys, who’d started panting as she jogged to keep up with him.
“A long time ago it did,” said Ari. “Now? Not so much. Though we could always claim it, if we wanted to.”
He smiled at the thought, trying not to consider the possibility that they were hundreds of miles away from any other nearby land. As adrift as they would have been on the boat, just with more space.
CHAPTER 39
He and Kerys returned to their makeshift campsite by following the island’s tiny coast back around. It was later in the day than Ari had realized, closer to evening than afternoon. He took their supplies out of his pack, carefully sorting through and assessing what they had.
His waterskin was almost completely full, and if they were careful about how much they drank, it could easily last them three or four days, given how large it was. The food Ari had in his pack was a combination of smoked meat and purple root vegetables that he remembered tasting a little like sour carrots. They had enough for a single large meal, possibly two or three if they supplemented their supplies with what they could scavenge.
“Do you think we need a fire tonight?” asked Kerys.
Ari nodded. “Less to cook, and more to attract the attention of any ships that might be passing by. It’s possible that we could get lucky.”
He hadn’t seen the galleon that had been transporting him actually sink, though it seemed fairly likely that it would have, given the damage sustained below decks. Still, as remote of a chance as it was, it seemed better than doing nothing.
Ari constructed their tent, spreading the branches and canvas as wide as he could in an attempt to make sure that there would be room for all three of them. The sun was setting as he came back over to the fire, and he slowly unsheathed Azurelight and held it in his hands.
“Eva,” he said, voice a whisper. “We’re about to have dinner. Do you want to eat with us?”
“I can go without, for now.” Her voice was faint, but clearly audible. “We will need to strengthen our bond tonight, however.”
“Are you going to have the strength for it?” asked Ari. He frowned a little. He’d seen Eva while their bond had faded in the past, and she’d never seemed this weakened by the loss of connection before.
“I can manifest in my incarnate form,” she replied. “However, I may not be the most active of lovers. I apologize if that turns out to be the case.”
Ari chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m just glad to have you back with us.”
Kerys had a slight frown on her face as she sat across from the fire, feeding it a small piece of driftwood. It took Ari longer than it should have to realize that she was only hearing his side of the conversation he was having with Eva, and probably felt slighted, or at least a little left out.
“Can I try one of those berries you’ve been collecting?” he asked.
“Sure,” said Kerys. “They’re a little bland, but full of juice.”
She passed him a small handful, and he popped them into his mouth.
“Mmm,” he said. “I like them. Good work.”
Kerys shrugged and gave him a tiny, pleased smile.
“There’s plenty of them on this island, too,” she said. “Not enough to last forever, but at least we won’t starve within the next few days.”
“How many times have you saved us with your berries over the course of our adventure?” asked Ari.
“Is there a reward for that?” asked Kerys.
Ari leaned around the fire and kissed her on the cheek. They split their food supplies into small portions, each taking a small piece of meat, one of the purple carrots, and another handful of berries. He ate his in a few bites, washing it down with a sip of water before passing the waterskin over to Kerys.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, as she took it from his hand.
“I figured we’d go to sleep early,” said Ari. “As soon as the sun finished setting. Save our energy for tomorrow.”
“You know what I’m asking, Ari,” said Kerys. “I feel like we’re back to where we were in the beginning. Like on that first night after we left the Hollow.”
“We’re stronger than we were back then,�
� said Ari. “More resilient. We’ll figure it out.”
She didn’t look like she fully believed him, and at least a portion of Ari’s confidence was admittedly forced. Still, Kerys snuggled up against his side on the sand, and they watched the waves crashing against the shore as they fed the fire in the dimming light of the setting sun.
“Kerys,” said Ari. “I have to build the bond with Eva, tonight, if she’s going to stand a chance at having enough essence to manifest her body again. Do you mind…?”
“Waiting outside the tent?” finished Kerys in an irritated voice.
Ari sighed. “This is about survival, not passion. You know that as well as I do. We’ll need Eva at full strength when we do eventually leave this island, if only to help us row, at the least.”
“I know that,” said Kerys. “I also know that we’ve basically had this conversation before, several times at least. I don’t mind you and Eva… doing what you have to do. At least from a logical standpoint.”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” said Ari.
“But,” said Kerys, “you also know how much it messes with my emotions. I can’t just sit outside the tent and listen to you dirtying another woman. A woman that’s more capable than I am. Better at being passionate than I am. At least as pretty as I am, if not more so.”
“Kerys, if you think about it like that, of course it’s going to bother you,” said Ari.
Kerys placed her hand over the fingers that Ari still had wrapped around Azurelight’s hilt.
“Let me be in the tent, too,” she whispered, her voice thick with embarrassment.
“There’s… barely any room inside of it,” said Ari. “That would just be weird.”
He looked over at Kerys and saw how hard she was blushing.
“Are you saying that you want to be involved with what I’ll be doing?” he asked, feeling his own cheeks prickle with heat.
“No!” said Kerys. “That’s not what I mean! I mean, not really. If I’m there, watching the two of you, I just feel like maybe… I won’t feel so much like an outsider.”
Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Page 24
