Air

by Rosie Scott

  The previously calm waters in the ocean beyond began to roll toward me in trepidation, heeding my call. Even as I forced more power into the spell, waves were lapping up softly along the coasts of the inlet, as if in anticipation of a storm that the full sun above was not privy to.

  BOOM! The defensive cannons were fired again. This time, one of the cannonballs just barely missed me, flying overhead so close that my ears rang, and colliding into the side of the nearby mountain with a burst of gray rock and powder.

  I still stared at the ocean, my gaze unflinching. With the weather and environmental energies depleted and gone, I felt the spell start to drain from my excess reserves. The waves of the ocean were growing in size, each one now a few feet tall as it rushed toward the cove. The remnants of these waves rippled through the inlet, causing the ships in the harbor to rock uneasily. Some of the soldiers asked questions of their superiors out of confusion and uncertainty. I didn't know what the dwarves were thinking, but their earlier plan to send ships out to meet me had evidently been canceled.

  The alarm bell kept ringing. The cannons kept firing. And I kept building, forcing the energy of hundreds of lives into the ocean ahead. Waves rolled over waves until their moody surges thrashed against my boat, rocking it violently and even succeeding in running it into the mountainside of the corner of the cove's bend. I struggled to keep standing as the ship was pummeled below me, but my determination was stronger than the waves.

  ...so far.

  The skies above me and to the west thickened into a layer of light gray clouds, as if the magic I was forcing into the waters below was so powerful it was affecting the environment. A vibration shuddered through the seas, reaching me as the low groan of a demon. It was much too deep and powerful to be the war horns. As the waters ahead began to turn violent and ravenous, I realized it was the ocean itself.

  At this point, the spell had built for minutes. I'd nearly been worried it would disappoint because it'd taken so long to develop and there was little to show for it other than the moody waves in the cove which were larger than usual. As my eyes settled on the looming monster in the west, however, I realized that none of those waves had been part of the spell at all. They were merely a side effect. My magic had been forcing the ocean itself to prepare for a catastrophe, and it had already begun. The smaller waves were nothing but a warning.

  A wall of water that rivaled the skies was rushing toward the coast, curling white at the top with the pull of gravity, only to be reinforced by the endless ocean rushing in from the west. I'd been continuing to force energy into the spell, but now I genuinely feared for my life, and my hands fell limp to my sides. Before, I'd been crying from the pain of my high. Now, tears welled in my eyes from both awe and terror.

  The tsunami wave rushed toward not only the cove, but the coast quite far in each direction. I didn't know how far the village of Dagmar sat to the north, but now I feared for it. The roar of the water was deafening, and my heart fell with fear as I realized the wave carried casualties with it. A broken Eteri galleon was crumbling in its upper wall, soldiers falling from the ship's embrace before being swallowed by the oncoming force of water.

  “Gods.” It was a curse. A plea. I'd had no idea the spell could be this powerful. I'd had no idea I could be this powerful. Nyx was right. I had no clue what I was truly capable of. My arrogant thoughts from the fight with the dwarves on this very battleship came back to mind, taunting me. The prideful thoughts were born out of the power I'd been holding on to at the time, and while I normally would feel ashamed of them, I now only found them to be true.

  I backed over the battleship's deck, in fear of my own spell as the wave stampeded toward the coast. My heart shattered my ribs in panic from the thought that I might have killed my friends. I felt immense guilt for being the cause of allied soldiers, no matter how unintentional it had been. I'd never had a chance to summon a tsunami before, and I couldn't remember a time the spell had been used in any of the wars I'd read about. I wasn't prepared for this, and it was possible even my instructors at the Seran University hadn't known how to prepare the students for it.

  None of that mattered now. I tripped over debris as I backed over the deck and fell to the hardwood, a sharp pain rushing up my spine from the hit. The dwarves were screaming. I heard the word retreat a few times on various panicking voices, and I only wished that I could also follow the order. I wasn't sure where the dwarves thought they'd retreat to. Once that water engulfed the cove, it would infiltrate the tunnel to the city with little problem. After all, that's why I had chosen it.

  I cursed myself for the idea now. I was terrified. My hands scrambled for a hold on the battleship's railing as if it could save me. The battleship was the most enormous vessel I'd ever seen, but now it seemed puny and pathetic.

  I heard the violent crashing of objects on the coast as the tsunami overtook the entirety of the homes and shacks and their corresponding fishing boats on the plains just before the mountains. The wave was so high and close that it now blocked much of the sun, casting the entire harbor and cove in a shadow meant for the night. From my place in the northeastern part of the inlet, I trembled against the battleship railing as I watched the mountains separating the hidden harbor from the coast go dark from the shadow of the wave that promised to overtake them.

  Gods. The wave is bigger than the mountains. My breaths rattled through my head as I prepared to be engulfed. And I didn't even use all of my energy.

  Twenty-nine

  Ocean water descended from the sky like a waterfall from the heavens, cascading over the snowy peaks of the mountains between us and the coast. The roar of the wave cut out any other sounds that my enemies or I made since when I screamed in terror, I only knew because I felt it tearing my esophagus. I held a hand before my nose and mouth and recited a spell which Calder had taught me.

  Oxi del agua.

  I couldn't tell if it worked because I felt no different. It didn't matter since the wave intended to kill us all.

  The battleship was hit with such force that the vessel crashed into the nearby mountainside, and my grip on its railing loosened. I was engulfed in water before I could think, desperately tightening my hold on the ship as it skidded up the mountainside, pummeled by the force of the enraged ocean. Pieces of splintered wood floated in the water around me, brushing softly against my exposed skin like fur. Even underwater, I could hear the roar of the tsunami overhead, screaming like a demon just let out of hell.

  The water vibrated around me, and I couldn't tell why. Perhaps the ship was skidding along the rock still, or maybe the violent destruction of other ships in the harbor was reverberating through the water. I could hear the gigantic vessels crashing into one another, wood groaning as it broke against mountains and structures alike.

  My chest was burning, and I realized it was because I'd instinctively held my breath even though I'd thought ahead with the water-breathing spell. Though I felt fear, I attempted to inhale. Sure enough, pure oxygen pulled itself through my nostrils, taken from the water surrounding me. The crispness of it shocked me; it was not contaminated like regular air. It made sense, but I'd just never experienced it before.

  A groan trembled through the water and then the battleship was falling through the depths below me, pulling me rapidly with it. I immediately felt nauseous by the drop and vomited straight into the water around me, heat waves of sickness rippling through my body. I held onto the railing regardless, squinting my eyes shut both to protect them from the salt of the water and to convince myself it would help me get through the fear of the unknown.

  Crash! The ship collided with something substantial, and pieces of it broke apart, leaving me and only part of the railing swirling desperately through the water. I opened my eyes, but my vision was blurry.

  Enhaun visua. My eyesight was enhanced with the illusion magic, and I peered deep into the abyss. The battleship was broken and frayed, and parts of it were sinking to the ocean floor. A wooden mast was floating
above it, only held to the ship by a sliver of breaking wood. Even with the magic increasing the quality of my eyes, I couldn't see much in the murkiness of the water other than a nearby vertical shoreline, alerting me to the fact that the ship I'd been attached to had been battered against at least two mountains bordering the cove.

  The movements of the water became less chaotic and violent. The skies above me must have cleared because the sun was shining brightly again. I followed its guidance, pulling myself through the water with wide strokes.

  The past few minutes of being battered around in the water had me so flustered that I wasn't sure where I would be when I broke through the surface. I finally reached the open air, pulling my long red hair out of my eyes as I floated, blinking rapidly to take in my surroundings.

  The once beautiful harbor of Narangar was now nothing more than a collection of broken ships and floating bodies. The galleons had all been completely demolished, battered against the natural walls of this cove until they were little more than crumbling pieces. Some of the wood floated away from the destruction in specks of brown. The battleships of the harbor were mostly underwater, having taken in so much water from the initial onslaught that their monumental weight sunk them. A variety of broken belongings floated like trash nearest the tunnel to the city, which was still underwater. I wasn't sure why the water level there was still so high. The initial wave had filled the cove with an abundance of water, but the inlet allowed most of it to flow back out into the ocean. I figured that had happened at the time I'd gotten sick with the power of the drop. Perhaps it was a combination of so many ships having sunk, and the tucked away nature of the land. In either case, I couldn't worry about it now. My attack on Narangar was devastating, but despite the hundreds of bodies floating aimlessly between myself and the mountain that housed the rest of the city, there had been dwarven survivors.

  One of these men snarled as he swam my way, his eyes sharp and crazed with a need for vengeance. I pulled an arm up in the water, keeping myself afloat with the other as I shot death magic at a corpse near him.

  The floating corpse thrashed around in the water, trying to right itself. It swam awkwardly toward my pursuer, its method of swimming a spasmodic paddle. The living dwarf screamed in terror as he found himself trapped with the corpse.

  “No! Songan, no! It's me!” The dwarf completely forgot about me, and frantically pulled water toward him in a desperate move to survive and escape someone he once knew. His fear got the best of him, and his quick movements did little more than keep him afloat and trembling. The corpse caught up to him, grabbing ahold of his torso as the man screamed. The corpse sunk its teeth into his neck, ripping its bite back out.

  I turned away, unwilling to watch the scene. The dwarf behind me didn't die right away, and his voice continued to plead and cry until it finally weakened and stopped. The other survivors did not pursue me as I swam toward the open ocean beyond the inlet, my limbs tired and burning with use.

  The ocean beyond the cove was spotted with wreckage, and it was impossible to tell if the broken wood came from allied or enemy ships. It was further impossible to know whether the debris was recent or from yesterday's long battle. The war horn Altan had given me still hung from my right hip, but I couldn't be sure that when I could take the time to use it anyone would come.

  My eyes settled on a floating body some distance away in the water, and my stomach ached when I realized it was an ally, the yellow of Eteri armor shining in the late afternoon sun. Like after the shipwreck near the wildlands, I tried to remain optimistic. My friends were capable people. The Sentinels were capable people. I hoped to the gods that most of my allies had made it out of this alive.

  I struggled to find a piece of floating wood that could stay above water when I grabbed onto it. Most of the wreckage was little more than shrapnel at this point. Eventually, my eyes spotted a small capsized fishing boat to my left, and I headed toward it. If it could float while upside-down, surely it could float right-side up. After I attempted to flip it over in the water with no luck, I used my magic to aid me.

  Alliv material in masse. The alteration magic sunk into the wood, temporarily relieving it of most its weight. I flipped the boat in the water quite easily then, though I waited to try to board it until the magic was dispelled. After a few failed attempts, I pulled myself into the small boat, letting myself collapse into it to rest.

  The entire ordeal must have tired me more than I initially thought because when I next opened my eyes night had fallen. A million twinkling stars were first to greet me. The night was extraordinarily quiet and dark. Meir was nearly to the end of its trek, so the light it cast over the ocean now did not offer me much visibility. I sat up in the small boat, panicking because hours had passed since the attack and I hadn't yet used the war horn.

  Creatius flectous del electroc rys. A bright light made of illusion magic flickered to life above my right palm, and I directed it to the plank of wood across from me that served as another seat. It gave me a helpful bright white glow as I went to work on untying the war horn from my belt, which was harder to do now that the leather ties had become crusty and thick with seawater. The straps finally broke completely, leaving me only with the horn.

  I lifted the tool to my lips, before taking a deep breath and blowing through it.

  HUUURRRNNNNN!

  I repeated the gesture a few seconds later. I remembered how hard it'd been for me to tell Cyrus's war horn was blown at all. I hoped that no matter where my friends were, either Azazel or Nyx would hear my plea.

  The last remnants of an echo reached my ears, vibrating along the rocky sides of the nearby mountains. I could barely see anything in this darkness, but I could tell that my small boat was floating southward beside the coast of the Golden Peaks because the stars were missing to my right in blocks of shadowed triangles. After a few minutes of waiting, I blew the horn a third time. Moments after that, a large vessel sailed out of the cove ahead, blocking out the stars on the horizon. Black shadowy figures stood on its high decks, surrounded by the orange glow of firelight.

  “Kai!” Cerin was yelling it desperately, his fatigued and hoarse voice rattling off the mountainside.

  I pulled the horn up to my lips and blew it again. The illusion light still glowed brightly before me, giving the ship another method of finding me. As it approached, it was clear it was the battleship. I was overcome with relief that it was safe, and I hoped everyone aboard was okay. At the same time, I saw no other ships over the ocean, so I didn't know how many had succumbed to the wave.

  The battleship slowed as it neared my fishing boat. I heard both Cerin and Azazel relaying orders back to Maggie so she knew when to stop. It finally stalled in the ocean just feet away from my boat, and I heard the hiss of a steam expulsion before it went quiet.

  “We're throwing down a ladder, Kai!” Anto's voice boomed down from above, where a few shadowed heads appeared from over the railing. “I'm going to try to get it close to you!”

  “All right!” I yelled back. The orc threw the rope ladder overboard, the bottom of it swinging back and hitting the iron-side of the ship before he lowered it down to me.

  “Just grab it, I'll pull you up,” Anto offered.

  When the ladder was just before me, I dispelled the illusion light and ensured the war horn was in my hand before grabbing onto the rope. As soon as Anto felt my weight, he pulled the ladder up, and I was hefted into the air alongside the battleship, giving me the ability to see just how bent and damaged it had gotten from cannon fire in the cove.

  As soon as I was pulled above deck, I was grabbed and immediately embraced. Cerin held onto me so tightly my boots left the wood, and his arms shook with the release of hours of anxiety. I expected him to curse me for my decisions or to plead with me to never to do something like that again. In the end, he was simply quiet, holding me until I felt I would break.

  “Cerin. Give me a turn.” Nyx's voice was shaky, which was so rare that I found myself bewilde
red. When the necromancer finally let go of me, I steadied myself on the deck before I turned to my best friend.

  Slap! My left cheek felt like it was on fire. My eyes widened in shock as I realized she'd hit me.

  “I hate you. I fucking hate you,” Nyx rambled, before she sucked an inhale between her lips and immediately pulled me to her in a hug. “I love you. Don't ever do that again.” She squeezed me tight before I heard a heavy exhale at my ear. “I'm sorry I hit you.”

  “I deserved it.”

  “I would say you deserved more than that, but your plan worked. It was stupid, and selfish, and insane, and stupid, but it worked.”

  “But was it stupid?” Jakan asked in jest.

  “It was pretty stupid,” Nyx retorted, finally backing away from me.

  I took my time embracing the others until only Azazel and Cyrus were left. Azazel pulled me into a hug himself, which immediately made me smile. We'd come a long way since he had found my affection awkward.

  “You said friends should be open and honest with each other,” the archer said beside my ear. “I felt you weren't being honest with us, but I said nothing because I wanted to believe you were.”

  An ache clenched over my gut. “I was as honest as I could be, Azazel. I needed you safe. I needed everyone safe.”

  “I know water-breathing as well,” he said. “I could have gone with you.”

  “I would have hurt you with my magic,” I replied, pulling back from him. “I leeched from hundreds. The spells would have killed you.”

  Azazel was quiet. Perhaps he knew I was right but didn't want to admit it.

  Cyrus was last. He'd watched my reunion with my friends with a look of relief. I opened my mouth to ask him about the allied casualties, but he pulled me into a hug before I could speak.

  “Oh,” I blurted before a laugh, hugging him back. “I think this is the first time I'm not the one doing the hugging.”