Ebba focused on what her mind could handle. “Are the pillars still locked away, then? Ye said they were powerful.”
The Earth Mother’s eyes flashed, and the tree behind her split in half and turned a moldy gray. “Their magic feeds off others. They were confined in the darkest pit of the oblivion, and deprived of their food source, they shrunk to an almost catatonic state. They were the weakest when the wall began to crumble. Because of this, they were the first to return to this realm. Fifty years passed before the next of us could follow. So for fifty years, the pillars were free to regain their strength without opposition. We’d hoped that mortals would still be on their guard. But apparently mortal kind does not recollect the dark horrors of our shared past.”
“Well, I still think ye should go after them yerself.” Ebba still couldn’t see what any of this had to do with the crew of Felicity. The Earth Mother was going on about not having enough power, but she clearly had far more than any of them.
“The pillars prefer mortal food—they love a magic-mortal mix most of all, but they can still drain fully magical beings with enough time. Until the powers of oblivion are strong enough to ensure we don’t become their captives, we must bide our time—time that this realm doesn’t have. That’s where your group of eight comes in. You must hold the pillars at bay with the root of magic.”
“Do ye know where the pillars are then?” She sighed.
“No,” the Earth Mother said. “They’ve hidden themselves well.”
“Ye knew what time ye’d arrive in a place seven-hundred and sixty-eight years ago,” Ebba said, jerking a thumb at the sundial, “but ye don’t know where the pillars are holin’ up?” She softened her tone at the end, remembering she’d see the woman on her judgment day.
“The pillars do not have the root. And they have not regained their shadow forms. I know that much. I would be able to sense their power if so, and I cannot,” the woman whispered, her eyes flashing a myriad of colors. “I will never forget that dark cloak and how it covered all it touched.”
A shiver worked its way up Ebba’s spine. This woman, though clearly on the ‘good’ side, gave her the heebie-jeebies. If the pillars scared the Earth Mother, they had to be monsters. Ebba frowned as she contemplated that. Would their hiding spot in Zol protect them from these pillars?
Suddenly the sanctuary on Zol didn’t seem secure enough.
“Is the purgium the root then?” Ebba asked. “We need to use it on the pillars if we seem them?”
“What?” the Earth Mother blurted. She frowned. “No, child, of course not. The purgium is just the purgium.” With a wave of her hand, the Earth Mother conjured a silver cylinder. A pearly sheen sat just under the surface, and looping letters were etched down the side.
“Hey,” exclaimed Ebba. “That looks just like the dynami.” She fished around in her belt, sucked in her gut, and drew out the cylinder.
They weren’t exactly the same. The dynami was rounded at one end. The purgium was solid and had indents at either end, and the letters were different—Ebba assumed this one said purgium—but otherwise it just looked like a solid silver cylinder, too.
“The presence of the dynami gives me much hope that the root will be restored,” the Earth Mother said, smiling widely. “I present the purgium to you. This will heal even the gravest of wounds, inside and out,” the Earth Mother said. “But be warned, it will not do so without sacrifice.”
“Right.” Ebba drew out the word. Her heart pounded as the Earth Mother hovered the purgium over her palm.
The Earth Mother didn’t place it in her hand, however, instead staring at her fathers once more. Stubby was trying to hack his way through the invisible wall with his cutlass. “Do not let your fathers touch this, child of my children. Not if you value their lives.”
“Why not?”
“Their souls cry for absolution,” she answered, a faint crease between her brows. “The purgium will heal them, but the sacrifice it will demand may be more than they can survive. Only those able to heal themselves inside and out may carry this power without paying a price.”
“Okay . . . I’ll carry them both.”
“Of course,” the Earth Mother said. “As is your right.”
Ebba tucked the dynami into her belt. The Earth Mother handed her the purgium.
White light exploded in a binding blaze. A scalding pain hit Ebba with the force of thunder, and she was flung hard against the pearly magical barrier keeping her fathers out. Black spotted her vision as the purgium tumbled from her grasp. She landed with a heavy thud on the ground inside the barrier.
Wheezing, she rolled onto her back, unable to speak. Not sure she could even see after the searing blast. The Earth Mother gasped as she sucked in a painful breath.
As the shock of the eruption faded, the pain from being thrown into the Earth Mother’s barrier took first place. Ebba clutched at her left hip, which had struck hardest.
The pearly wall disappeared, and her fathers dropped to their knees beside her. Someone patted her hair.
Plank and Grubby slung her arms across their shoulders to help her stand.
“Ye could’ve warned me,” Ebba croaked at the immortal woman, wiping sweat from her face as she regained her legs.
“That should not have happened,” the Earth Mother whispered. She stared at Ebba’s chest again.
“Well it did. Here, Grubs,” Ebba said, freeing the dynami from her belt. “Ye need to carry this one. The magic cylinders ain’t likin’ each other.”
He took the cylinder and placed it in his sash, out of sight.
Ebba nervously picked up the purgium, sighing in relief when it didn’t blast her to Davy Jones’ again. She tucked it into her belt where the dynami had been.
The Earth Mother counted their party again and frowned. She stared at Ebba’s chest again.
Black lines on sundials, ancient paintings on cavern walls, and roots of magic. Ebba had heard enough for one day. They had what they’d come for. The rest of the ‘defeat evil or the realm will die’ stuff could wait or just flitter away. Ebba was sick of being peered at like she had tentacles sprouting from her ribs. “All right. We’d best be off, papatoo-koonoo-noo. Good luck with gettin’ the rest of yer power. Get in touch when ye know more.”
Ebba didn’t want her to get in touch. Ever.
“Papatuanuku,” the Earth Mother said calmly. Three rabbits died behind her. “And I will help you on your way.” Under her breath she added, “Or we’ll be doomed sooner rather than later.”
Ebba grimaced. They had a reason for the magic wall crumbling now, but the rest of the Earth Mother’s speech had her mind spinning. There was an ancient evil that fed on mortals and had ruled the world for thousands of years. And she had no clue how the three watchers fitted into things or why the numbers eight and nine were important. Actually, the whole ‘seeing the future and painting it on the walls’ thing threatened to unbalance Ebba completely.
She shook her head and focused on the here and now. There was just one tidbit she wanted to clarify. “Are we meant to find the root o’ power or just stop the pillars from gettin’ their evil mitts on it?”
“Both. We cannot stop the pillars without the root. We cannot stop them if they have it.”
Blimey. There was a lot of talk of ‘we’, but as far as Ebba could tell, the Earth Mother wasn’t lifting a single immortal finger to help other than staring where she shouldn’t—Ebba’s chest. If the purgium wasn’t the only thing which could save Cosmo, she’d be tempted to leave the cylinder here; it had a lot of strings attached.
The Earth Mother floated alongside them to a bubbling stream. An elegant white rowboat bobbed in the water there. Her fathers clambered in.
“The boat will take you to the tribe,” she told them. The woman smiled for the first time. “I suggest you hold on.”
Ebba reached for the rope docking the boat to the bank. “About that evil takin’ over the entire realm. . . Ye weren’t serious about that, were ye?
Some spots, like Zol, will still be okay?”
The woman answered in her thousand-people voice. “None will be safe from the pillars of six. Their evil cannot be controlled. Heed my words: you must heal the fracture in your soul if light is to prevail.”
Was that all?
“Kia Kaha, child of my children. Stand strong. For all of us.”
Ebba peered up from unwinding the rope.
The Earth Mother was gone.
Nineteen
An awkward silence filled the boat. The journey back was taking longer than expected, and they were still in the cavern, though a fair way downstream. The boat bobbed down in the middle of the gentle river, trees and flowers lining the bank. They were pushed by a calm breeze that had no business being in a cave. Surely a lady who could kill a rabbit on a whim could speed this ride up a scant bit? Ebba wanted to get to Cosmo.
She also didn’t want to sit in a boat with her six fathers. When it had been all action and adventure, slipping into old habits was easy. Now they were crammed in a white magic boat for an undetermined amount of time, the events of the last few days had creeped back over them like a scratchy burlap sack.
The awkward quiet was getting to her.
“The lady said none o’ ye can touch the purgium,” Ebba announced, chaffing at her arms. “She said yer souls be bunged up, and the purgium always demands a sacrifice.”
“Aye, little nymph. We could hear,” Plank said.
Oh.
The boat fell silent again.
“I’m bloody freezin’ in these wet clothes,” Stubby complained, shivering as bad as Ebba was.
Sally peeked out from Ebba’s dreads. She wiggled her fingers, and a hot wind swirled inside the boat.
Ebba’s brows shot up as the hot wind heated her hands. “Are ye doin’ that, Sal?”
The sprite inspected her nails and shrugged.
“Wind sprite,” Plank reminded them all.
“My clothes are drying,” Barrels said, smiling widely as he felt the hem of his cravat. “Thank you, Sally.”
Locks held up his pistols. “Don’t s’pose ye could dry our gunpowder?”
“And hurry the boat up,” Ebba muttered.
Sally blew out a breath, rolling her eyes, and then waved both hands in the air. The boat jerked forward, moving noticeably faster down the river.
“Are the pistols done?” Locks asked after a beat. He holstered his weapon after a flat look from the sprite.
“What d’ye think that six pillar mumbo-jumbo be about?” Peg-leg asked, eyeing a rabbit bounding across the luscious meadow to their left.
Plank craned to squint above. “It ain’t mumbo-jumbo. We should be doin’ more to figure it out. And this war with Malice. Ye remember what the soothsayer said.” He glanced around the boat, avoiding Ebba’s eyes. “She said if we didn’t play our part, the war would go on through Ebba’s lifetime and beyond. We be pirates, and pirates don’t seek answers over much, but if Verity’s right, we be in this for the long haul. We should be workin’ to find a way to be rid o’ Malice for good. And at least know more about how to fend these pillars off.”
“Once Cosmo be healed, we’ll be back to Zol and safe again. We won’t be needin’ to fight,” Stubby countered.
Barrels replied, “But the Earth Mother was adamant the evil would spread everywhere. Will we be safe, do you think?”
Grubby cleared his throat. “I be thinkin’ along the lines o’ Plank.” He darted nervous glances about the boat. “But most likely everyone be right.”
Peg-leg snorted. “Aye, Grubs, aye. Well, I’m with Stubby for once. We’ve had too many close shaves, and it be better if we lay low for another stint.”
Locks nodded. “Aye, we ain’t seen this evil magic, aside from the siren and Ladon, which can both be avoided. I’m with Stubby and Peg-leg—this ain’t our battle.”
“I’m inclined to agree with the majority,” Barrels added, straightening his cravat.
The uncertainty of Zol’s ongoing safety unsettled her most, but Ebba would be lying if she said the powerful Earth Mother’s fear hadn’t struck her deeply. Something in her face and her tone had frightened Ebba. Enough to want to figure out more. They didn’t have to fight anyone but Malice—that wasn’t their problem or their battle—but they had to know more to protect themselves.
“We should get to the bottom o’ it all,” she said. “Try to understand what be happenin’.”
There was a pause where those of her fathers in disagreement avoided her gaze.
“Aye, lass,” Peg-leg said. “But our crew still be a votin’ system.”
Ebba clenched her fists. “Is that how ye all made the decision to lie to me for seventeen years? Did any o’ ye disagree then?”
“Ebba,” Barrels said, fiddling with his filthy cravat. “We—”
“I don’t want to hear yer excuses. That’s all ye have to give,” she said wearily, looking across the stream at the opposite bank. “I just want to focus on savin’ Cosmo. How long until we’re there?” The confines and slow pace of the boat were getting on her nerves.
“Little nymph, I don’t think pretendin’ the problem away will work this time.”
“Why not?” She glared at them. “Isn’t that what ye all did? Who do ye think I learned it from?”
Peg-leg said hoarsely, “Aye, and look where that got us. We’ll get through this, though, lass. We’ll spend the rest o’ our lives makin’ up for it, if ye’ll let us.”
That was the thing: Ebba didn’t know if she should let them. They’d left her once, and she’d forgiven them. Ebba now understood that they’d sought to help by dropping her at Maltu. This time, they’d left her, and their reasons weren’t from a good place. Would forgiving them again make her a fool?
She clenched her teeth and didn’t answer. A giant ugly ball sat in the middle of her gut. His words were intended to sooth her hurt, but just made the ball bigger somehow. Ebba wanted to shout and scream at them, but she didn’t want to bother with them either; didn’t want to show them how hurt she was.
“I don’t know any o’ ye, do I?” she said in a hollow voice. “Plank lost his wife, Peg-leg his leg, Barrels is from another place, Grubby used to live on Kentro, I don’t even know what Locks used to be aside from a carpenter and the stuff with Verity, and Stubby’s father was killed. Those were your secrets to keep, but the truth of where I came from wasn’t. Why did ye never tell me about my blood parents? What else are ye hidin’?” The boat bobbed along at a sedate pace. The beauty around her was at complete odds with what was happening inside.
“Ye do know us,” Grubby said, tears in his eyes. “Ye made us who we are.”
“Ye said if I were gone, ye wouldn’t be those people anymore,” she retorted, whacking the side of the stupid magic boat in frustration. “To my way o’ thinkin’, that’s ye pretendin’ for my sake. That ain’t ye havin’ changed. Not really.”
The devastation on their faces nearly undid her anger. Even the always-stern Stubby looked as though he may burst into tears. Grubby was sobbing quietly into his hands, and the sound twisted her heart.
“What do we need to do to make things as they were?” Plank asked in a quiet voice.
Ebba sniffed. The sound was meant to be angry, but even she could hear the tears that wobbled underneath. “Things can’t be as they were. Not now I’ve heard and seen the truth.”
“Would it help if we told ye what happened to us?” Peg-leg said. He avoided her eyes as he asked the question.
She thought about it. Would them doing that help her understand? Or would it make things worse? More than ever, Ebba wished their plan to keep the Pleo tribe from her had been successful. That she and Jagger and Sally had stayed on the ship without being carted off by the warriors, and that her fathers had returned with the purgium to heal Cosmo. They could have sailed off with her none the wiser and returned to Zol.
All the same, when she’d freed her fathers from the prison, it was because she understood tha
t out of everyone in the realm, they loved her most. There had to be a way forward. Peg-leg’s suggestion seemed the only possibility at the moment, unless she wanted to give up on them completely.
And Ebba knew she couldn’t do that.
“Aye,” she said, staring out at the trees and flowers. “I think we could start with that once we save Cosmo.”
They showed no relief at her answer. If anything, the stench of worry saturated the boat. It made her feel better to know that each of her fathers would suffer while dredging up the past.
“I feel like I’ll never trust ye again.” Ebba admitted. “Ye tried to hide things from me because ye knew what ye’d done was wrong. Ye knew ye hadn’t done right by me in keepin’ it all hidden. I freed ye from the prison hut because of anyone in this world, ye love me best, and I know ye’d do mostly anythin’ for me.” She swallowed back the burning in her throat. “But I don’t trust ye anymore. It’s like I’ve been chipped away from a great rock, and I’ll never be part o’ it again.”
There wasn’t a single dry face on the boat now, including hers.
“Ye feel betrayed, lass,” Stubby choked.
“Aye,” Ebba whispered, staring at her reflection in the rippling water below. “That I do.”
Peg-leg took in a shaking breath behind her. “We’re right sorry. Ye’ll never know the regret. We’ll earn back yer trust, I swear it.”
“I hope ye do,” she said honestly. “I just don’t see how right now. Jagger says once the hurt goes, I’ll be glad for not leavin’ ye to rot.”
“Jagger said that?”
“Aye, right afore he told me he was goin’ to enjoy watchin’ Cosmo slowly die.”
“That sounds more like him.”
Ebba chuckled and wiped her face on her sleeve.
Scrunching his face, Barrels said, “Can anyone else hear that?”
Ebba-Viva Fairisles: Stolen Princess (Pirates of Felicity Book 2) Page 22
