Arrow in hand, he began searching the surrounding area, soon finding a puddle of blood, and a few strips of discarded cloth. Recognizing the cloth, he continued searching until he found the antlioch prints.
His hand gripped the arrow painfully. Saida and Merwyn had been here, and at least one of them was injured. The cloth was from the cloak he’d given Saida at the Valeroot settlement.
Noting the direction the antlioch had gone, he climbed back atop his horse, urging it to a trot. He kept his sharp eyes on the ground, following the subtle trail. Soon it became clear that Saida and Merwyn had headed back toward the Capital, abandoning their mission to reach Faerune.
He knew Saida would not have turned back without good reason. She likely hoped to reach the Valeroot settlement, only, no one would await her there. Except, perhaps, the Dreilore.
Elmerah
It was midday by the time Thera returned, far too long by Elmerah’s estimate. Saida and Alluin were both getting farther away, perhaps walking right into Dreilore clutches, while she sat around in a tiny storeroom with her sister.
Thoroughly irritated, she stood and waited for Thera to reveal their plan.
After shutting and locking the door, Thera turned to them, her ugly cowl still covering her hair and ears. “I’ve managed to arrange for a boat,” she explained. “Just a small rowboat manned by a single fisherman, but the skies are clear so it should get us to the southern coast without issue, as long as we are not seen.”
Rissine slung her supply satchel over her shoulder, tugging her long braid out from under the strap. “Let us go before Egrin realizes where we’re hiding.”
Elmerah shivered at the mention of the emperor. She realized with a start that she was scared of Egrin Dinoba. She hadn’t been actually scared of anything in a very long time.
She glanced at Rissine. A frown marred her brow, but she didn’t look scared. Nothing scared Rissine, of that she was quite sure, but then again, she’d seen her magic in the shack the previous night. Rissine had filled the entire space with lightning. Who would be scared with powers like those?
Feeling suddenly inadequate, and therefore angry, she focused her gaze on Thera. “Can we trust this fisherman?”
Thera shrugged. “We have little choice but to trust that our coin, and the threat of the guilds will buy his silence.”
Elmerah’s shoulders slumped. She was right. A boat was the only other way to escape the Capital, barring climbing the city walls. While the majority of Alluin’s tunnel might have still been structurally sound, they’d be digging through piles of burnt rubble out in the open to find the entrance.
Each of the women nodded their agreement, then Thera unlocked and opened the door before leading the way outside. Elmerah followed warily, hunching her back beneath her black coat and hood. The chances they’d run into any of the emperor’s men through the poorer areas of the Capital on the way to the South Docks were slim, but she still felt nervous.
Rissine shut the door behind them, then gave Elmerah a light shove to get her moving. “Stop acting like a quavering maiden,” she lectured.
Elmerah straightened her shoulders and started walking. Rissine was right. It was embarrassing to act like a helpless little girl. Something about being around her sister made her feel powerless. She’d always paled in comparison to the almighty Rissine.
Her thoughts dark, she followed Thera down the hard-packed dirt street. There were no other souls to be seen, but that would change soon enough. She could hear the murmur of city folk not far off.
Thera glanced back at them as they walked, nerves showing clearly on her pale, delicate face. It was actually a bit odd given Thera’s usual demeanor.
Elmerah sidled up to Rissine as they walked. “Is it just me,” she whispered, “or does your pet elf seem a little too nervous?”
“She’s risking her life for us,” Rissine hissed, “of course she’s nervous. After last night, she’ll never be able to show her face within the Capital again, lest Egrin remove her head from her shoulders.”
Elmerah accepted her answer with a nod, though she was still unsure. Something felt off. Keeping her continued thoughts to herself, she followed silently behind Thera, keeping her head down.
Miraculously, they soon made it to the South Docks without incident. The wooden planking leading up to the sea was bustling with activity. Several fishing vessels were anchored to the docks with men and women unloading the morning’s catch. Further down, a few larger vessels loaded up with crates of goods likely destined for Port Aeluvaria. The larger ships headed for more distant lands would all be at the more expansive Central Docks.
Few paid them any mind as Thera lead the way down the docks toward the warehouse where Elmerah and Alluin had confronted Vessa. She eventually stopped beside a tiny rowboat. An elderly fisherman sat hunched in the vessel, the sun-wizened skin of his arms and face bare to the elements. He looked up at them with foggy eyes as they approached.
His expression grew wary after observing Elmerah and Rissine, but he still scooted to the back of his vessel and gestured for them to board.
Thera hopped in first, her elven grace barely rocking the boat.
Rissine went next, slightly less graceful, then held her hand up to Elmerah. “I know how blunderous you can be.”
Sneering at her sister’s hand, Elmerah hopped into the small remaining space, then had to quickly plop her rear end down to keep from toppling over into the gently lapping water.
They waited silently while the fisherman unwound the rope from the dock, then sat next to Elmerah, plastering himself against the side of the boat so as not to touch her. She glared at him while she took up an oar and started paddling. Long moments passed as they gained momentum away from the docks, but no one bothered them. It was not unusual for small boats to disembark on their own. Most would just paddle out to deeper waters where larger fish could be caught.
As the dock behind them grew distant, Elmerah exhaled a sigh of relief. They’d made it out of Galterra alive. Once they reached the southern coast, they could find horses at one of the smaller villages. After that, they would go after Alluin, and hope he had not yet run into the Dreilore at Port Aeluvaria.
Beginning to pant, she pumped her oar, anxious to reach the shore. She wished she could see Thera’s face, but she sat ahead of her next to Rissine. Still, the elf’s shoulders were hunched uncharacteristically, her face burrowed in the hood of her ragged cloak. She looks like a sneaky little mouse, Elmerah thought, or some other form of . . . vermin.
Noticing the fisherman repeatedly glancing at her, she turned to glare at him. “What?”
He winced. “I’ve never met an Arthali witch before is all. You’re taller than I’d imagined.”
She sucked her teeth, annoyed with Thera’s choice of fisherman. “Will you be throwing me overboard then?”
“Leave the poor man alone,” Rissine chastised.
Thera still didn’t say a word. In fact, she didn’t even look at any of them.
Elmerah lifted the toe of her boot, tapping the bench beneath Thera’s rump. “Are you afraid of deep water? You’re a lot more quiet than usual.”
“Than usual?” Thera questioned.
“Yes, I’ve known you for ages,” she lied. “I should notice if you’re acting strange.”
Rissine darted a questioning look back at her comment, but didn’t speak.
“I’m just nervous with everything going on,” Thera explained, not arguing the knowing her for ages comment.
“I suppose that makes sense,” Elmerah agreed. “By the way, how did you get that bruised nose? Did you fall down the stairs?”
“Oh, um, yes,” Thera replied. “Quite an unfortunate accident.”
That did it. Not only was this Thera a fake, she’d stolen credit from Elmerah for the bruised nose. Noting a subtle nod from Rissine, Elmerah leaned back on her bench, bracing herself with her hands, then lifted both her feet. She took a deep breath, then shoved them into Thera’s back wit
h enough force to break a board.
With an eep of surprise, Thera launched from the boat, splashing into the serene blue sea.
When she bobbed back up, her hair was no longer white, but red, and dripping wet fox ears perked up from her head. She paddled to remain afloat. “Foolish witches!”
“Foolish Nokken!” Rissine growled back, diving toward the edge of the boat to snatch at the female shapechanger.
“Stop!” the fisherman screeched as the boat rocked violently.
“Where’s Thera?” Rissine hissed, giving up her grappling efforts in favor of drawing the long, curved knife at her belt and coating it in a thin veil of flame.
The Nokken’s eyes widened, then she dove down out of sight.
Rissine stood, darting her eyes around in search of the shapechanger.
Elmerah picked up her oar. “We need to go, now,” she ordered. “If a Nokken knew to impersonate Thera, then the emperor knows we’re trying to escape.”
Rissine turned wide eyes to her. “Curse it all!” she spat, then sat down and picked up her oar. She turned a venomous glare back toward the fisherman. “Start paddling unless you want to end up at the bottom of the sea.”
The fisherman didn’t need to be asked twice, though Elmerah hoped his heart would not burst with fear. They needed him to row.
Rissine positioned herself further toward the bow so she could alternate her oar to either side of the boat, while Elmerah and the fisherman started paddling on their respective sides behind her.
All conversation ceased. Had they realized the Nokken’s plan in time, or would a trap await them on shore? Perhaps they’d be better off diving into the sea and swimming up where they would not be easily spotted.
A splash signaled the Nokken surfacing. She’d swam closer to shore, and would make it there before them at the rate they were going. If the Nokken escaped them, she would take the answers they needed with her.
Rissine glanced back at Elmerah, her intent clear.
“I just finally got dried off after all the rain,” Elmerah groaned.
“You always were a weak swimmer,” Rissine quipped, then stood and dove into the sea, leaving her satchel of supplies behind.
Elmerah glanced at the clearly terrified fisherman, then rolled her eyes. “I hope that Nokken paid you in advance.” Making sure her cutlass was firmly in its sheath, she stood.
Just as she jumped, the fisherman muttered, “She didn’t.”
The icy water encased her body. She used the momentum of her dive to propel herself toward shore, then came up with a ragged gasp. Too bad for the fisherman, but at least he’d gotten a satchel full of supplies for his efforts. Either way, it was no longer Elmerah’s main concern. The water was freezing, and her coat and boots weighed her down like quicksand. Cursing both her sister and the Nokken, she started swimming, aiming herself a little further down the coast from where Rissine and the Nokken were heading. If an ambush did await, she wasn’t about to swim right into it like her sister.
Though her heavy coat weighed her down, she focused on keeping her breathing even, and her strokes smooth, occasionally glancing over the waves to locate her sister. Hopefully anyone on shore would be focused on Rissine, and not her.
She dove below a cresting wave, then came up with her head barely above the surface, then dove under another coming wave. From what she could see of the shore, there was a long stretch of sandy beach, then jagged coral further down, peeking out of the water. Beyond the coral was a dense forest of waxy shrubs, an optimal place to come up unnoticed, but the coral would be a problem. She kicked under another wave, then was yanked back before she could reach the surface. Something had snagged on her boot, though the water below should have been deep enough to spare her from any debris jutting up from the seabed.
Her lungs searing from lack of air, she curled up underwater, reaching to free her boot, then reared away as a knife came slicing toward her, wielded by one of the Akkeri. The foul creature had been lying in wait in the waves. It was an ambush after all, just not the type she’d expected.
She kicked at the Akkeri with her free foot, smashing its hand where it gripped her boot. It let go and she shot up to the surface, sucking in a painful breath before paddling back out of the Akkeri’s path.
Its crudely hammered knife shot up through the water right where she’d been, then the creature crested behind it. With a sickening grin, the Akkeri dove back down.
Panicked, Elmerah threw herself backward through the waves. Though she was a strong swimmer despite Rissine’s insults, none could rival the Akkeri. She had to think of something fast.
She sank beneath the water, opening her eyes in search of her attacker just in time to nearly get a knife in the face. She shoved against the Akkeri’s sinewy body as it passed. If only she had a belt knife. It would be impossible to wield her cutlass beneath the choppy waters.
As her head shot back up between the waves, she noted shouting on shore. Rissine and the Nokken must have made it out, but she couldn’t spare the time to see what was happening.
A splash signaled the Akkeri lunging at her again, but she wasn’t fast enough to move out of the way. The Akkeri’s knife slashed across her side. A sharp sting signaled she’d been wounded, though her body was going numb with the cold.
Desperate, she dove back down, but her blood clouded her vision. Her only option was her magic, but fire would do her little good in the ocean, and she needed a weapon to focus more intricate magic like lightning.
The Akkeri’s ugly face appeared before hers and she lashed out, calling lightning despite her lack of weapon. Instead of coming down from the sky, a vibrant blue bolt erupted between her palm and the Akkeri’s face. The water became alive with electricity, and the Akkeri was paralyzed with it. She watched as his eyes seemed to bulge with the pressure, but she could stay under no longer.
She shot back up gasping for air. She bobbed just above the surface, panting as hot blood continued to seep from her side, warming the icy water around her left arm. She waited, but the Akkeri did not attack again.
She would have liked to take a moment to feel relieved, but there was no time. She forced her tired, aching limbs into motion, propelling herself through the water toward the shore. She no longer cared about stealth, just so long as she reached the shore before bleeding out. Distantly she noted the thunder rumbling overhead, and knew Rissine was in trouble.
Saida
“Thunder,” Saida commented, her eyes scanning the clear blue sky. “That’s odd.”
Merwyn did not reply. He’d long since lost consciousness, and she was afraid to check his pulse.
The antlioch stumbled beneath them, clearly exhausted from lack of rest. Saida was exhausted too, but she could not afford to stop now. She’d sacrificed any chance she’d had of reaching Faerune in time. She would not let Merwyn die along with her hopes of helping her people.
A deep rumble sounded again near the coast, followed by a bolt of lightning cutting across the sky. As she watched, dark, angry clouds rolled in across the sea, moving too quickly for a natural storm.
She knew the storm could only mean one thing. Elmerah was still near the Capital, and she was in trouble.
Guilt twisting her gut into knots, she tapped her feet against the tired antlioch’s sides. The creature hesitated, but finally began to trot, carrying Saida and Merwyn toward the Emperor’s Path, and the growing storm beyond.
Elmerah
Elmerah flopped onto the shore like a dying moss seal, though instead of deadly shark wounds she had an Akkeri to thank for her blood loss. She’d evaded any more Akkeri while in the water, but only because they’d been busy swarming the shore, and the very angry witch that awaited them.
Elmerah staggered to her feet, taking in the score of Akkeri surrounding Rissine as the Nokken who’d posed as Thera stood off to the side. Next to her dripping wet figure were two more Nokken. They must have been waiting further down shore. Someone else waited a little further inland, and E
lmerah gawked as she recognized him. It was bloody Daemon Saredoth. Rissine’s arms were extended skyward, beckoning the darkening storm overhead, but he seemed none too worried about his position.
The hairs on Elmerah’s arms prickled with electricity. Her sister was far stronger than she remembered.
“Kill her!” one of the Nokken ordered, her gaze on Rissine. “Keep the weaker one alive.”
Elmerah frowned. She might have just been thinking it, but she did not appreciate others referring to her as the weaker one.
Lightning struck near the three Nokken, tossing the two females aside, then the mob of Akkeri attacked.
“Ugly muckdwellers,” Elmerah grumbled as she shucked her heavy wet coat, then withdrew her cutlass, wincing at the pain in her side. Though rain had begun pattering across the ocean, she still managed to summon flame to her blade. She would have liked to add to her sister’s lightning, but she had been worn out before her underwater fight with the Akkeri. She could barely manage flame now.
She staggered across the beach as Rissine whirled like a dancer, tossing Akkeri aside with bolts of lightning that flung harsh sprays of sand into the air. The two female Nokken, who’d now righted themselves, turned their attention toward Elmerah, leaving the remaining male to watch Rissine fight the Akkeri.
Elmerah’s hand trembled around her cutlass as the pair of Nokken neared, their fox ears pinned back and their mouths snarled to show pointed canines. Elmerah knew little of their magic except that they could shapechange, and had superior senses. They might have other tricks waiting for her, and it was already two against one.
Oh well, it wasn’t like she had much choice but to face them. She whipped her cutlass through the air, flinging a string of flame long enough to hit both women, though one darted out of the way in time. The other hissed as the flame hit her, then dropped and rolled through the sand to extinguish it. Soon enough she was back on her feet, and the pair approached cautiously.
The Witch of Shadowmarsh (The Moonstone Chronicles Book 1) Page 24
