by PT Hylton
He reached down and yanked the rope out of Melwin’s hand. His fingers moving quickly as he deftly tied the knot and tossed the line back to the other man.
Melwin stared at it for a long while before he grudgingly said, “I suppose that method does have its advantages.”
Benjamin softly chuckled to himself. He’d seen enough. “Olaf!” he called across the main deck.
The young sailor spun around at the sound of Benjamin’s voice. His eyes were alight with excitement. “Is it time?”
Benjamin couldn’t help but chuckle again. The kid was as eager as a puppy. “Aye, it’s time.”
He led Olaf to the place on the quarterdeck that Syd had designated for combat training. Today, however, he’d be training the young man in something else altogether.
“I’ve been practicing those hand motions you showed me,” Olaf said. “I work on them half an hour before bed and another half an hour when I get up in the morning, just like you said.”
The blacksmith nodded, pleased. “Let me see, then.”
Olaf furrowed his brow and stretched his hands in front of him. One by one, he ran through the complicated motions. Benjamin was impressed. He only had to correct him twice. It had taken Benjamin months to learn some of those forms, but the kid had mastered them in days.
It was the exact opposite of his attempts at teaching Abbey. She’d been disinterested in learning physical magic from the start, and yet he’d tried to force it on her. He wished he’d allowed her to follow her own path. Maybe she would have discovered her strange abilities sooner.
“That’s good, Olaf. Very good.”
Olaf raised an eyebrow. “Wait, I’m doing them correctly?”
“Better than some of the Hunters I knew back in Arcadia.”
“Damn.” Olaf looked disappointed. “I don’t understand. If I’m doing it right, why can’t I produce fireballs?”
For a moment, the question puzzled Benjamin. Then it suddenly occurred to him that he was teaching this all wrong. He needed to rethink his approach.
“Let me ask you a question, Olaf. Why do you want to learn this kind of magic? And don’t give me that shit about loving fire. I know there’s more to it than that.”
Olaf stared at his hand, still held in the final position for casting a fireball. “I don’t know. I guess I just want to contribute.”
Benjamin frowned. He was going to have to push the kid at little if he wanted a real answer. “You contribute already. You do your job. You have your friends’ backs. Almost every time Syd picks a crew for a mission, you’re on it. That’s not because she likes your eloquent conversation, believe me.”
“Okay, look: everybody thinks of me as this big dumb guy who makes jokes and thinks he’s better than he is.”
Benjamin raised an eyebrow. “Wow. That’s actually pretty accurate.”
“And yes, I am all those awesome things. But I can be so much more. I want to be like you.”
The blacksmith was so surprised that he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. “Like me? An Arcadian?”
Olaf waived Benjamin’s words away. “So you’re an Arcadian. Nobody’s perfect. But look at everything you’ve done.”
Benjamin was genuinely baffled. What had he done? He’d hunted magic users in Arcadia. He’d set up a blacksmith shop in a city where he’d been forced to raise his daughter in near isolation. He’d let his wife die. “You don’t want to be like me, son.”
Olaf slapped his arm. “Are you kidding me? You moved to a new city where you knew no one and the people hated you because of where you were from. You built a business that was so good they had no choice but to respect you.” He nodded toward the main deck where Abbey was helping Clemens hoist the sail. “Best of all, you raised her. To produce a girl like that, you must have done one hell of a job.”
Benjamin didn’t know what to say. He was genuinely touched.
“My father was a drunk whose parenting method consisted of hollering and throwing empty mugs at our heads. I know I won’t ever be like you, but if I can learn your magic, that’s good enough. So why the hell can’t I do it?”
“Look Olaf, you’ve got the hand motions down, but that’s only a small part of it.” He tapped Olaf on the chest. “The rest comes from here. The place where you feel things. You know how it aches when you’re looking at a beautiful woman and how it burns when you’re angry? The place where you feel those things is where you need to draw from.”
“So I have to get angry?”
Benjamin considered that. “No—though it might help, especially at first. Magic is tied up with your emotions. They can give it the extra oomph you need at the beginning.”
The sailor sighed. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I can teach you the hand motions and the theories. I can describe how it feels when I cast. But I can’t push you over the final line. You’re going to have to find the strength inside yourself to break through that last barrier. When you do that, you’ll be able to cast. Be patient. It won’t happen overnight.”
Olaf nodded. “Okay. Patience isn’t my strong suit, but I’ll give it a shot.” He paused. “Can you show me a fireball? Maybe if I saw you cast one it would inspire me to break through or whatever.”
Benjamin laughed. “Hell, no. We’re on a ship made of pine boards held together with pitch and tar. No way am I playing with fire here.”
Olaf looked indignant. “Then why were you teaching me how to do it here?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t be able to. Not yet.” He clapped Olaf on the back. “For now, keep working on those hand motions. The rest will come in time.”
“I’m going to prove you wrong. I’ll be casting fireballs the size of your head by the time we get back to Holdgate.”
Benjamin laughed again. “I hope you are. Just do us both a favor and keep the fireballs off our ship. If you set the thing on fire, Captain Syd will have both our asses.”
****
Abbey slept more deeply than she had in weeks. In her dream, she floated over a land of rolling green hills. Even from the height at which she flew, she could see an ancient road cutting through the landscape like a wound.
In the dream, she could control her flight much more accurately than she could in real life, so she decided to follow the road to see where it took her.
The hills grew taller as she went, and soon she was in the mountains. Fog hung thick over their pine-covered peaks. Still she followed the road.
A village came into view. It was small; no more than twenty squat little houses gathered together on the mountainside. Something about it drew Abbey and she hovered over it, watching the people go about their business.
Suddenly every building in town burst into flames at once. Abbey wanted to swoop down, to help the people, but she was frozen.
A woman’s voice spoke, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. “This is happening, and it will happen again.”
Abbey began to move deeper into the mountains, toward the highest peak. She tried to stop, to go back to the village, but her flight was no longer under her control.
“This is just the beginning. The few who died in this village today are the first among many.”
She was moving faster now, speeding toward the peak. “No,” she muttered. “Stop.”
But she couldn’t stop. Up ahead she saw an impossible blackness. It was as if there was a gaping hole in the side of the mountain. The sight of it caused dread to rise in her.
The voice spoke again. “It comes from the darkness, and it will not stop. Those of us here have learned an important lesson. The monsters are real.”
The dream began to fade, but as it did, the voice spoke one more time. “We need help. We need justice.”
****
Abbey woke suddenly, the remnants of the dream still rattling around in her head. Her dreams had never felt that real. She shook it off—it was probably a product of all the strangeness she’d experienced recently mixed with her lack of sleep.
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She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, but when she stepped out onto the deck the sun was high in the sky. It was midday.
The deck was unusually still. Oddly, there wasn’t much to do until nightfall, at which point there would suddenly be a lot to do. The result was a strange combination of restlessness and nervous energy in her chest.
Her father and Gideon were sparring with some of the crew on the quarterdeck. Gideon was showing them the techniques the Stone Shapers would likely use against them during the raid.
Abbey was about to join them, but then she saw Dustin and Syd standing near the bow. She made her way to them instead.
“Captain. Dustin.”
They nodded a greeting to her. She noticed they both wore smiles they were doing their best to conceal.
“Clue me in. What’s funny?”
That just made them smile harder. “Nothing at all,” Dustin said.
“I ever tell you you’re a shitty liar? Spit it out.”
Syd and Dustin exchanged glances.
“Okay, fine,” Syd said. “We were just talking about you and Elliot.”
“Yeah, what about us?”
Dustin grinned at her like an idiot. “Mostly the way you stare at him like you’ve never seen a man before.”
Syd nudged Abbey. “I’m just going to ask. Do you have the hots for my brother?”
Abbey felt her cheeks redden. But what the hell, there was no use in lying. “Is it that obvious?”
“To everyone but him,” Syd replied. “He’s always been wildly oblivious.”
“Huh.” Abbey was surprised to find that awkward as this conversation was, it was sort of a relief to have it out in the open. She looked at Syd. “And you’d be okay with it if we were together?”
Syd scoffed, as if it was ridiculous to even consider otherwise. “Of course. Better you than some dumb village girl who doesn’t know port from starboard. My brother deserves someone who can keep up with him.”
Abbey turned to Dustin. “And you?”
It wasn’t like there’d ever been anything between them. As far as Abbey was concerned they were best friends, and that was enough. But she’d also never checked with him to see if he felt the same way.
Dustin barked a laugh. “Are you kidding me? Don’t get me wrong, you’re hot and all, but if I ever got with you, it would have to be serious. We’re too close to be casual about it, and I don’t want anything serious right now. Besides, you don’t need my permission. You can have Elliot, and I’ll keep all the dumb village girls who don’t know port from starboard.”
“Deal.” An unbidden smile appeared on Abbey’s face. It felt good to have her friends’ blessing, even though it was a bit premature. She didn’t know if Elliot was interested.
Syd’s face grew more serious. “We need to talk about tonight. Are we ready?”
Abbey ran through the plan in her mind. “We’re ready. The key for your team will be to stay on the move. Be unpredictable. If they corner you, you’ll be in trouble. But if you stay in motion, you should be all right.”
“What if they get organized and come after the ship?” Dustin asked.
Abbey had been thinking about that, and it was the most concerning scenario. From what Syd and her father had told her, one Stone Shaper had almost taken out The Foggy Day during their escape from Ammaas.
“The only way that would happen is if we were there too long,” Abbey said. “You two have to make sure we’re not. Protect the ship, no matter what. It’s our only way home. If they start getting organized, paddle back to the ship and get the hell out of there.”
“You want us to leave you?” Dustin asked.
“If it’s that or lose the ship, hell yeah! We’ll pick a spot up north where we can rendezvous if that happens.”
Syd nodded. “I agree. And that goes both ways. If anyone gets delayed, the others have to be ready to leave without them. We have to have faith in everyone’s abilities to make it to the rendezvous point alone.”
Dustin grinned. “Faith in you two isn’t a problem. I feel a little sorry for the Stone Shapers. They have no idea that the two baddest women in the Holdgate fleet are about to crash down on them with both feet.”
Abbey raised an eyebrow. “The two baddest women?”
“Fine, the two baddest people, period.”
“You’re damn right.” Syd thought for a moment. “Are we sure they’ll be keeping Dahlia at the palace?
“According to Gideon, there’s no doubt about that,” Abbey answered. “He said it would be disrespectful to her to house her anywhere else.”
Dustin shook his head. “I still can’t believe that woman convinced stone magic users to call her a queen.”
“We’re going to use that to our advantage. They’re so used to idolizing storm magic that they are going to freak out when you strike.”
“Let’s hope so,” Dustin said.
Abbey wasn’t worried about that, especially with Viktor and the other Barskall Storm Callers at Dustin’s back. He was going to be able to do things they had never seen before. If their luck held, the Stone Shapers would be freaked out enough that they wouldn’t recover until The Foggy Day was on its way back east.
Syd looked toward the coast of Gren in the distance. “I wish the three of us could all be together, fighting side by side. It’s been a while.”
“That it has,” Abbey said, “but we’re just too awesome. We have to spread the awesomeness around.”
“You have your crew picked out for tonight?”
Abbey nodded. “It feels a little strange. We’ve spent so long reacting to Dahlia, trying to stop her plans. I kinda like that we’re going on the offensive.”
There was doubt in Dustin’s eyes. “I don’t know. Do you think we’re getting a bit too cocky here? We’re invading a city of magic users, infiltrating their chief’s stone palace, and trying to take out the Queen of Storms.”
Abbey scoffed at the name. “Please. ‘Queen of Shit’ is more like it. Yeah, it’s a bit cocky, but that’s why it’s going to work. She’s overconfident, and she’d never expect us to make a move this big.
“You sound pretty confident, too,” Syd pointed out.
“I guess I am. Everything we’ve been through has led to this moment. It ends tonight. Tonight we take Dahlia down once and for all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Waiting is always the hardest part,” Hekla growled.
“Really?” Abbey joked. “You always seem so patient.”
Elliot had his eyes fixed on the sky to the east where The Foggy Day would be pulling into the harbor. “Any minute now.”
Abbey and her team had taken a ship’s boat from The Foggy Day and rowed ashore north of Ammaas. They’d go the rest of the way on foot so they could be close to the palace when Dustin gave the signal. But not too close—Gideon was the chief’s brother, after all. He was a fairly recognizable figure.
Gideon eyed Abbey’s black sash. The whole team wore them, but only Abbey’s and Gideon’s had been earned rather than stolen by the Tall Grass Raiders. “You really walked the Path in Horg?”
“Yep.”
“How’d you do it? You don’t know stone magic.”
Abbey shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m just that good.”
A clap of thunder shook the stone around them and Abbey smiled. Good old Dustin, kicking things off with Dahlia’s own calling card.
“Shall we begin?” Fannar was holding his seax, clearly ready to get started.
“Not yet,” Abbey said. “Give them a few moments.”
Fog descended on the city. Then, a few minutes later, she heard the shouts. Bells were ringing, and Abbey smelled smoke. Even in a city made primarily of stone, people feared fire.
A group of thirty Stone Shapers ran past the entrance to the alley, coming from the direction of the palace.
When they were gone, Abbey turned to the others. “That’s our cue. Lead the way, Gideon.”
The S
tone Shaper took a deep breath. “Here we go.”
He stepped out of the alley and began walking briskly toward the palace. Abbey followed right behind him, then Hekla and Fannar, and Elliot was in the rear.
Gideon led them down another alley. “This is a less-traveled route. There are normally at least fifty soldiers in the palace, and based on the number we saw go by, many are either still there or walking these streets. I’d rather we avoid them if possible.”
Abbey couldn’t argue with that.
They rounded another corner and Gideon stopped in front of a nondescript stone wall. “This is it. Ready to get started?”
Abbey nodded. “Elliot and Fannar, you protect our flanks. Hekla and I will be ready for someone inside to attack as soon as the door opens. Gideon, once we’re in, keep moving us toward the throne room. If she’s not in there, we start cracking heads and force someone to take us to her. Be ready for anything. For all we know, they’re wheeling Dahlia around the palace in a bathtub filled with seawater. Any questions?”
There were none.
She gave her team one last visual inspection. It was dark and the fog didn’t help, but she could tell they were ready. She drew her sword. “Go, Gideon.”
The Stone Shaper touched the wall, and almost immediately an opening appeared. The five seconds it took for it to grow large enough for them to walk through felt like an eternity.
When the door was open, Abbey and Hekla stepped through. All they found was an empty hallway.
“We’re clear,” Abbey said through the door.
Gideon rushed in, followed closely by Elliot and Fannar. The Stone Shaper led them down a torch-lit corridor and stopped in front of another wall.
While he worked, Hekla asked, “How do you find your way around in here? I’ve only been here two minutes and I already have a headache.”
“Practice. Also, I helped the design the place.”
Good as his word, Gideon led them through parts of the palace that appeared devoid of life. Abbey resisted the urge to relax; instead, she allowed herself to consider the fight that was almost certainly waiting for them in the throne room.
