“Your lot look like sad little leaves next to mine,” Nix teased, jabbing Arc with an elbow.
She was decked out as well, dressed in a new quadrant-cut cloak in the darkest green can be before it becomes black and a split-leg dress to match, embroidered with the symbol of the Breakers. The flame over the talon glittered a deep gold in the sunlight. Her red hair was knotted at the top of her head and her bright eyes scanned the distance like a true predator.
Arc wore a black linen shirt beneath his usual black and silver surcoat. Fully released from his evil cousin’s spellwork, his magic twirled about his head and hands in purple tendrils and gold circles. His straight black hair hung loose at his broad shoulders. The breeze tousled its ebony length, and for a moment, Arc appeared bed-rumpled and vulnerable. But his gaze remained hawk-like, and it held Vahly’s attention for reasons she wasn’t ready to think about.
He was pretty much breathtaking, Vahly had to admit. Not that either of them had the time for romance. There was so much to do and they had no time to do it.
She knew for certain the earth was telling her to visit the region near Bihotzetik. But she had no idea why. Arc and Nix had agreed to accompany her there.
Vahly decided they would tell the world they were busy in meetings with Amona, deep in the Lapis mountain palace, but truly they’d be on a quiet mission to discover the secret her magic was desperately trying to tell her.
Below them, in the meadow, the elves stood well apart from the dragons. They had chosen to gather on the Lapis side of the meadow. A smart choice. The Jades were not yet sold on this idea of including them in the war against the sea. Their Matriarch, Eux, paced the grassy area. She appeared ready to explode in anger at any second. Vahly couldn’t see her orange and slitted eyes from here but she would bet all of last season’s gambling haul that they were darting from Amona to Cassiopeia with complete and utter loathing.
Cassiopeia stood, willowy and grim, before the host of elves. From the small pool of elves with royal blood, the elders had crowned her the new ruler of Illumahrah. And she looked every inch the Queen. Her crown of spinning light and curling darkness was visible even from this distance if Vahly titled her head the right way and slid her gaze side to side. The peaks of the magical diadem stretched higher than Mattin’s ever had. She couldn’t trap anyone with a massive barrier wall or bend minds like Mattin had. Her magic was true. But she could do enough damage with her own elemental wind, piercing light, and controlling shadow. Arc’s power was the only one of their kynd that was nearly equal to hers now that she wore the crown.
Nix raised an eyebrow at Vahly and pointed down to the Jades. “I think you’d better speak up, Queenie Vahl. If they’re bunched up together for too much longer, it’s not going to be pretty.”
Arc grinned and glanced at Vahly from the corner of his eye.
Vahly stepped forward. “Wish me luck, you two. Because if I go down, you’ll likely be salted right along with me.”
“I don’t like my odds against Eux. Or Maur for that matter.” Arc’s eyes widened as he gazed at the dragons.
Vahly waved him off. “You’d give them trouble before you died.”
“Comforting,” Arc muttered.
Nix smiled. “Our Vahly isn’t known for coddling or mincing words, Arcturus.”
“I thought you wished to call me Arc.”
“Well, now everyone is using the nickname,” Nix said. “It fails to be rebellious at this point. I’m going back to Arcturus.”
The ghost of Dramour drifted through the conversation. Vahly could almost hear his laugh and see him adjusting his eye patch. She gritted her teeth. She couldn’t break down again now. That would have to wait as well.
After a meeting with the elves and their elders, Vahly, Arc, and Nix had brought together every elf and dragon who wished to mourn the lost. They’d all visited the burial mounds in the forest and set flowers and pine boughs over the graves. More tears had been shed and none had argued when Arc, Vahly, and Nix joined hands in silence there, as they had before.
Grief had bonded these three and Vahly was so glad to have them. She never could address this crowd without them by her side.
She belonged with them, her small band of Breakers.
Spreading her hands, she spoke as loudly as she was able to the legions of dragons and elves.
“We are united in our fight. From this day forward, we are never enemies. If we fight amongst ourselves, we will fall and fall quickly. For the Sea Queen prepares for the final flood. Her forces are visibly stronger, raising massive waves and churning whirlpools, in the waters off the Lapis territory as well as in the Jade. Her army has grown in power and ability for they practice their maneuvers in many places at once now. Scouts from all corners of our island have reported increased activity and sea levels surpassing every high water mark. Matriarch Eux’s scouts reported an unusual tide this morning. This is unprecedented. We must unite. As the hopeful Earth Queen, determined to wake my powers in full, I ask that, today, all highbeasts take an oath to defend and fight for all others in our midst. That Lapis will support Jade. Jade will back elves. That all will fight together, as determined and led by our strategists, Matriarch Amona, Matriarch Eux, Queen Cassiopeia, and me.”
The dragons lifted their heads and blasted dragonfire into the sky, Nix doing the same at Vahly’s side. The flames crackled and snapped as the elves wove light and dark into spinning clouds like windstorms above their own congregation.
As one, the highbeasts spoke in dragon, the chosen tongue for discussions of this sort. “We promise to fight as one, to respect the wishes of the strategists, to unite against our common enemy.”
The magic of the promise felt like a quick burn of a too-bright sun as it seared the hearts of every intelligent creature gathered in the wide meadow. The red hat flowers danced in the wind, oblivious to the serious nature of the moment.
As if on cue, the dragons and elves began to stream out of the Red Meadow and back to their assigned positions on the isle. Some to scout or begin planning attacks and defenses. A good many to test the new talents of the sea folk army in the North. Groups to gather supplies and move young and old to higher elevations. Battle dragons, both green and blue, shifted and flew into the skies to run drills.
“Ah!” Nix pointed high. “Euskal and Miren are there. With those Jades!”
Sure enough, the cider house Call Breakers had joined up with a unit of Jades and were practicing quick dives and flying rolls. Their bodies reflected the sunlight and were nearly too bright to look at.
“This would have pleased Dramour to no end,” Nix said quietly as Arc and Vahly followed her off the rock and down a winding path bordered by wide, low-branching oaks that humans had pruned for centuries for charcoal.
“And Kemen too, I think.” Vahly braided her hair tightly.
“Ibai would’ve hated it,” Nix and Vahly said in unison.
They shared a sad kind of laugh as they took their satchels from Arc, who’d retrieved them from their hiding place behind a cluster of rocks.
Nix strapped a large, brocade bag over one shoulder and buckled it neatly beneath her wing joint. Her wing had not yet recovered enough for flight, but she didn’t seem overly bothered by pain or discomfort. She had also taken up a long stick that she claimed General Regulus had taught her to use in fighting. Seems they had been busy while Arc and Vahly were meeting Cassiopeia before her coronation. Who could have guessed that a dragon and an elven general could become allies in such a short time? Not Vahly. Surprises, some wondrous and others gruesome, now filled her life. And it wasn’t going to get any easier.
Arc wore a satchel strapped to his back, bow and arrows sticking out from the top near a rolled up sleeping mat. His knives gleamed from where they hung on his wide, black belt. He’d met privately with Vahly last night, during a bonfire to celebrate the coronation. With his hand in hers, he’d sworn full allegiance to her, saying that Cassiopeia had insisted upon it. Arc, royal-blooded elf that
he was, had embraced the ceremony of the situation, going to his knee and presenting his knives to Vahly, hilt first. The gesture was not lost on Vahly. She had kissed his head primly and raised him up, accepting his fealty with pleasure.
“So. Are we ready?” Vahly’s veins pulsed with the beat of the earth’s heart as she looked over her two closest allies.
“We have no idea what we’re looking for,” Nix said, raising an eyebrow, “and no idea what we’ll face when we get there, so—”
Arc interrupted. “Of course we are.” He glanced at Nix and winked.
And so the Earth Queen and her Band of Breakers headed into the wilderness, following the whispers of the world.
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Cast of Characters
Humans
Vahly—twenty-three years of age, the only survivor of her kynd
Lapis Dragons
Amona—Matriarch of the Lapis Clan
Maur—male noble warrior, daughter in line to be next Matriarch
Helena—female healer
Ruda—female youngling
Linexa—female who cares for younglings
Xabier—newly matured male warrior
Elixane—deceased Matriarch with legendary hoard
Lys—female librarian
Draes—male librarian
Eneko—male noble
Rip—male palace guard
Ty—male palace guard
Jade Dragons
Eux—Matriarch of the Jade Clan
Zarux—male noble warrior
Call Breaker Dragons
Nix—female smuggler, spy, and owner of cider house
Dramour—male former warrior who is devoted to Nix
Ibai—male healer
Kemen—male healer and muscle
Aitor—male spy and thief for Nix
Euskal—male former warrior
Miren—female former warrior
Baww—male who manages cider house
Elves
Arcturus—royal male alchemist
Vega—ancient female guard
Pegasi—young male guard
Leporis—male guard
Mattin—King of the Elves
Canopus—the King’s right hand
Cassiopeia—royal female strategist
Regulus—elder and warrior
Rigel—male scout
Haldus—male host and warrior
Deneb—female devoted to the King
Gruis—male courtier
Ursae—female courtier
Sea Folk
Ryton—male consort to the Sea Queen, High General
Astraea—the Sea Queen
Grystark—male General
Venu—male General
Sansya—young female warrior
Echo—female scout
Calix—male scout
Selene—deceased female warrior, sister to Ryton
Lilia—female craftsfolk, wife to Grystark
Excerpt from WATERS OF SALT AND SIN
(Waters of Salt and Sin is the first book in Alisha Klapheke’s bestselling Uncommon World series)
The air, raised by the Salt Magic, shushed gently past my face, and the boat lurched forward. Calev slipped, and I caught him, hearing a thud from the tiller.
Oron had rolled off to one side. He swore as he righted himself. “My mother’s third—”
“Where did you learn to talk like you do?” Calev’s knuckles whitened on the boat’s side, but I didn’t think it was from Oron’s foul mouth. His chin lifted as he scanned the thankfully empty night sky.
“Watch our lean, Oron,” I said. We were heeling to leeward. A little more and we’d be thrown into the water.
“I was raised in a roadside brothel by a mother who fancied traveling theatre players,” Oron said to Calev, his words whipping toward us as the wind rose even higher, and we sped forward. “I speak the tongue of the wicked and witty.”
To keep our conversation off what had happened, to keep myself from jerking the tiller from Oron and turning us back and raging toward the oramiral to battle for my sister and lose, I picked up the distracting thread of talk.
“Surprised you never heard that one,” I said to Calev. “It’s his favorite line.”
Moonlight slipped over Calev’s hair. It rolled down his skull and sat on his broad farmer’s shoulders like a death shroud. I tightened my sash’s knot and pulled my sleeves lower on my arms.
“I’ll take the tiller now.” I moved to aft.
Asag’s Door was quieter, though white caps still curled around the bases of the rocks. With the gusts and Oron at the sail, I pulled the tiller and guided us through the Spires. It was low tide now. The boat responded to me, shifting under my body like a horse. The sea had listened and sent us wind and soon we’d be home. If the Salt Wraiths let us be.
Calev came to the tiller with me and Oron moved to watch at the bow.
Calev tried to laugh. “Oron and I haven’t had the opportunity to talk as much as I would like.”
This was ridiculous, us trying to be brave and making jokes. Black shadows and streaks of moonlight used my imagination to turn the water and rocks into a slithering beast waiting for us to make one wrong move.
“He has the best foul language. I could pick up some tantalizing bits from him to shock Eleazar,” Calev said.
I tried to smile, but all I could think was right now Avi was being led up the steep side of Quarry Isle. They would fit a bell contraption around her waist.
How were we going to persuade Calev’s father to use his influence to get her back? Old Farm had never interfered with the oramiral. At least to my knowledge. It hadn’t come up. Being people of the land, all Old Farms, except their full ship kaptan, stayed clear of the sea. Similar to my aunt’s people in Kurakia, across the Pass.
Avi. My brave little Avi. How are we going to rescue you?
A grin trembled on Calev’s lips but fled when Oron made a choking noise near the mast. We jumped up.
“They’re here.” Oron pointed to the western sky.
All the blood in my head drained into my feet. Salt Wraiths.
I whipped my flint and dagger out of my sash. We had to get the lantern lit. Now.
Calev held the Wraith Lantern’s miniature door open. My flint sparked onto the wick, but it didn’t flame.
A swooping noise like a tree limb swinging through the air stung my ears. The sparkling white of one Salt Wraith whisked between the moon and us, but far enough away that we could barely see it. Its soul-and-mind-possessing shadow didn’t touch us, but it soared closer. I dragged the flint over the dagger again. The wick caught fire and blazed bright. Calev slammed the opening shut to keep the wind from putting out the strange flame.
Seeing the orange, black, and silver flickers, the wraith reared and disappeared in the distance.
Hanging the lantern on the mast’s hook, Calev sighed. “That was too close.”
“It might come back.” As I made my way back to the tiller, I studied the fire encased in the glass. A flash of silver rose and fell, then a glint of orange.
“We need to squeeze into the hull.” Feet first, Oron lowered himself through the square opening.
“We won’t all fit in there.” I raised my gaze to the sky.
“I told you we needed an on-deck compartment for ropes and water,” Oron called out of the space. “If you’d let me buy the wood to build one, you could’ve tucked me in there. Being lesser in stature might be an advantage. Who knows? In one hundred years, we small people might be the only ones left.”
A look dark as the Expanse’s greatest depths crossed over Calev’s face. “Let Kinneret in there first, coward.”
I looked at Calev’s hands as he st
ood beside me. “You’re trembling too,” I said. “I wouldn’t cast labels around so easily.”
“Courage isn’t not being afraid,” Calev said. “It’s standing and fighting through your fear. Protecting those you love.” His eyes softened. “Not that I have to tell you.”
My heart skittered through three quick beats, and I looked away.
“I’ll go down if I think it’s necessary,” I called out to Oron. “Someone has to get us home.”
Whispering the sea’s words over and over again under my breath, I worked with the magic to veer and tug, push and pull our craft toward Tall Man, toward home. Calev stayed by my side. The lantern’s sunset light flickered over his cheekbones and his forearms. He looked made of flame.
Stars pierced the velvet sky. The moon watched, its candle-white glow melting onto the sea. Eventually, Oron climbed out of the hull. Calev stared at him, eyes slitted.
“Oron, will you see to the prow?” I asked. The tiller vibrated against my hand, a current fighting our direction. “I want your eyes on the waters.”
Rubbing his small hands together, Oron nodded but didn’t exactly hurry to his post.
“In case you decide to condemn me for cowardice, you should know I witnessed a wraith Infusing an entire full ship’s crew,” Oron said to Calev. “And yes, I can feel that scornful glare through the tunic on my back.”
“What happened?” Calev asked.
The sail billowed in a gust and the ropes pulled against the blocks. The pulleys knocked against the mast like hammers.
Staring out at the sky, Oron crossed his arms over his chest. “A flock of nine came.”
“Nine wraiths?”
Nodding, Oron said, “They spun around the vessel like the skin of the moon had been peeled away and tossed into the wind. The emotions whisked over me though I was a good league away on another boat. Rage, the desire to inflict control...it was...” He bent his head. “When the wraiths left, I watched their Infusion lights leave the sailors’ mouths and leak back into the sky. We boarded their ship—I rode with a fishing crew then—there was nothing left alive. Men had hung themselves from the boom, their bodies swaying with the movement of the sea, their tongues swollen, eyes popped clean out. Blood covered the decking. I slipped in it. Drew up against a pile of men who’d either fallen on their own yatagans or been murdered by their Infused crew mates.”
Fate of Dragons Page 21
