Heavy thuds sounded as the guards left me with the executioner. I closed my eyes as the sound of their feet faded away. This was it, the moment I died. Seconds ticked by as I waited the fall of the axe.
Nothing happened. The crowd grew restless, and a murmur moved through them. I held my breath for a few more bated seconds; then I twisted my neck as far as I could to look at the executioner. His lean arms swung back as he prepared for the killing blow. I closed my eyes tight and muttered a prayer to the Goddess.
“Take me into your arms, mother of all!”
I heard the gasp of the crowd, and I clenched my hands into fists and bunched my shoulders up. The swing of the axe brushed air against my exposed neck, and the clang of metal upon metal rang out. I opened my eyes when I realized I had not been struck. The brush of air blew past me followed by a second clang of metal.
I stayed still, expecting a trick, as if the moment I turned to look, he would bring the axe down upon my neck.
“Time to go, Maea,” a voice said, and I dared not believe it to be true.
I sat back on my haunches and upturned my head to the axe-man. His hands thinned and elongated. His thick muscles faded, and in their place, a man of lean stature remained. The axe-man pulled back his mask and revealed his face. I was too shocked to register the features. It could not be. Please let this not be a dream. Johai reached out his hand to me. I took it with a trembling hand, and the shackles, still around my wrists, jingled as I did so.
“How—” but there was no time for words. Guards surrounded us, swords drawn, and shouted commands to seize the pair of us.
Over their heads, I caught Adair’s gaze, furious and perhaps a bit relieved. However, that may have been wishful thinking on my part.
Johai wrapped an arm around my waist and urged me back and closer to the cliff face.
“There’s nowhere left to run. They have us surrounded,” I said.
“Trust me,” he replied, and with no other choice, I did.
He took a step in front of me and shielded me with his body. The guards were closing in, moving lazily, confident in their abilities to apprehend us or force us over the cliff’s edge.
Johai closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath. It came out like a hiss, then a howl as it grew in intensity. The guards’ hair whipped back as if they were in a gale-force wind. Their sword arms were bent back as if made of reeds, and they struggled to close in. The wind whipped my hair around also, and the spray of the sea dampened my gown.
“Kill him!” Adair shouted over their heads.
“Run,” Johai commanded.
I did, without delay. I skirted the cliff’s edge, searching for a possible escape route. I came up short along a narrow animal trail leading down a wending path to the cliff base. I peered over the side dubiously. The crumbled stone did not appear stable enough to hold my weight let alone Johai’s and mine. At the base, tethered to the sharp rocks, a small boat bobbed on the waves.
I should not have, but I looked over my shoulder. At least half a dozen soldiers were gaining despite Johai’s spell.
Johai pulled up to me, his face strained. “Maea, go!” He grabbed me hard by the arm and steered me towards the crumbling path.
“It’s too steep!” I protested.
“I came up it, you can go down it.”
I had a choice between a quick death by fall or a slow one at the blades of the palace guards. I decided to risk it. I stepped gingerly onto the path. Johai followed, and we went as quickly as we dared. The shouting from up above grew louder, but the guards gained no ground. I wondered if Johai’s wind still held them at bay. Johai’s labored breathing and the sweat shining on his forehead concerned me. It must take tremendous effort to maintain the spell, I thought. The sea soon drowned out all other sound as we approached. I did not dare look anywhere but forward. For if I looked down, I am not certain I could have continued.
My foot slipped as a bit of earth gave out beneath me. The ocean below swayed, and I threw my arms out for balance. Johai shot his arm out just in time, pulling me back to safety. My heart pounded rapidly, and I could feel his labored breathing against my back. Twice today, he saved me. I did not deserve it after everything I had done to him. I owed him more than I could ever hope to repay.
I pushed it from my mind. I would worry about it once we were safe, if we were ever safe again. At the bottom of the cliff, there was a small outcropping. Waves lapped up against it, and on a tether was the boat, little more than a two-person rowboat.
“Get in!” Johai shouted. He kneeled down and gathered water in his cupped hands. Once more, he murmured into the water, the sound akin to a gurgling spring before it grew into a sucking hollow sound. If he could hold back the guards with wind, what could he do with water? I shuddered to think of the continued strain on his body. I took a seat and one of the oars. Johai jumped in after me and undid the tether. He nudged me out of the rowing seat and took both oars in his grip.
Our progress was slow, much too slow. Johai, already weak from his craft, had trouble fighting the waves that crashed over us and filled the bottom of our rowboat. I found a bucket beneath my seat and proceeded to bail out the water that continued to fill our small vessel.
Over my shoulder, I glanced back towards the cliff top. The men had retreated, but I had a feeling that was not the last of them. A few, with crossbows, had made it down to the ledge at the bottom, and one long-shot arrow zoomed dangerously close to Johai’s head, zinging by and ruffling his white hair. We had not gotten far, I was already soaked to the skin, and my long confinement and malnourishment had left me weary. I wondered what his spell did and why he had not used it to ease our passage away from the palace.
Exertion stretched his features, and I feared he would collapse from exhaustion soon. I shivered while watching the shore shrink away, the soldiers melding in with the cliff side. Somehow, we made it past the crest of waves just as the sun began to rise far off on the horizon.
“I think we’re safe…” I began.
“Not… quite…” Johai panted, nodding in the direction south of us, where a single ship was coming up around the coast towards us.
“What are we going to do? There’s no way we can out-row them.”
The ship extended sail, and oars lowered into the water. They were cutting through the water at an impressive speed. In just the time since I had spotted them, they had already halved the distance between us.
“Don’t… worry… not yet…” Johai stopped rowing as he panted and clutched his chest. We rocked back and forth on the water’s surface, sitting ducks awaiting capture.
“We cannot give up now!” I urged Johai, but he had closed his eyes as if meditating. I turned to look at the coming ship, close enough now that I could make out the sailors upon the deck. Had all of this been for naught? I could not hear past the howl of the wind and sea, but I imagined they shouted orders demanding our capture. Then everything changed. The wind grew deathly calm, and the ocean went still.
“Watch,” Johai said, and I felt a prickle of dread creep up my spine.
A wave rose from the still waters, rising higher and higher before taking the form of a fist. The sailors stopped rowing to stare and point. I saw it before it actually happened, and I wanted to look away, but I could not. This fist came down upon the ship with a crack, and it split in two. The sailors scrambled across the deck in an attempt to avoid the crevice the wave had created down the middle. There was no escape, however. The two ends of the ship upturned and folded inward.
The crumbling decks tossed men into the sea. A few clambered onto floating pieces of debris and watched as the ship sank into the ocean. I counted the bobbing heads on the water’s surface, at least thirty of them. Then the water began to churn. It span around until a swirling vortex opened up. Our small vessel rocked in the churning of the sea but did not move. I watched in horror as the men tried and failed to out-swim the sucking vortex until one by one they and all that remained of the ship we
re carried to the bottom of the sea.
I stared in disbelief at the place where they had been.
“How…?”
“That is the power I possess, Maea.” Johai stared at me. His hair was falling loose, and strands of white blended with his pale face. This power, this monster inside him, it was terrible. So many lives sacrificed for mine? What was I compared to them?
“Why?” I asked, once more staring out at the empty sea.
“This power is only meant for destruction.”
I looked him in the eye then. His normally blue eyes were dark as night and endless. In them, I saw the smirking face of the specter. Johai’s hands trembled on the oars. The power was killing him from the inside out. I read the message in his eyes: kill me before it does.
Could I? I knew destiny required it of me, and after seeing the extent of his power, it should have been an easy decision, and yet it was not. I had risked everything, given up my past, to save him, and I was not willing to give him up, not yet.
Johai attempted to take over the oars again, but I pushed him aside, and I rowed. I rowed along the shoreline for perhaps half a mile. It was arduous, and I feared my back and hands would fail, but I continued. No more ships came in pursuit. I think Johai’s point had been made. Adair was ambitious but not reckless by any means. He would not come for us until he was certain he could capture us.
After rowing for a time, Johai took over, and we alternated back and forth until we reached a bay, miles up shore from Keisan. By that time, my hands were blistered and sore. On the sandy coast where we landed, a man waited with three horses.
There was no time to speculate on Johai’s accomplice. A gentle wave rose up and brought us to the shore. I heard Johai mutter the spell under his breath and did not need to wonder how. He helped me from the boat and onto the shore. As we approached, I realized the man waiting for us was Beau, Sabine’s guard. The horses he held tethered reared as we approached, and Beau strained to keep them under control.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.
Beau did not answer me and instead tended to the animals, soothing them and murmuring nonsense to calm them. They skittered around, and I looked about to see what had scared them. Johai kneeled in the sand beside the boat and clutched at his skull. He arched his back as if in pain. I ran to his side, but he held up a hand to stop me.
“Don’t come near me.” His voice was not his own, and when he looked at me, I saw the specter’s face overlaying his.
“Johai?” I took another step.
He pressed his palm to his face. “Stay away, Maea.”
I recoiled, but given my resolve to save him, I drew closer despite his commands. I hesitantly pressed my hand against his back. He snatched my wrist and stared up at me through the eyes of the specter. The monster’s message was clear: he is mine.
“I will not give up,” I said.
We stared at one another, the specter and I. For a moment, I thought I heard the sound of his hollow laughter ringing through my ears. Johai relaxed his grip and then slumped onto the ground in an exhausted heap. Beau came over to us, his expression unreadable.
“We should go. They will be sending a search party soon.”
I helped Johai to his feet, and we ambled over to the tethered horses, which pawed at the ground but otherwise were willing to let us mount.
I barely felt as if I could stand let alone ride, but we had no choice. Johai helped me into the saddle, and he withdrew quickly as if he feared my touch. He swung into his own saddle, and I could not help but wonder what was going on in his head. I knew without him telling me that the monster within him had gained a strong foothold on his soul. He had risked his life to save me and with it, I feared, a measure of his humanity.
I realized also that in order to save hDiviner’s Prophecyim, I would need to learn much more about the monster that dwelled within him. There was no time to chase this thought. Though Adair had not sent another ship after us, I knew he did not mean to give up. Adair did not like to lose.
Beau led our group up and out of the bay by a narrow track up a sloping cliff side. I rode in the middle while Johai took the rear. My horse galloped up the rise, and at the top, I pulled back on the reins to survey the city of Keisan far off in the distance, lit orange with the rising sun. This was not the last I would see of it, I was sure. I turned back to Johai, who sagged in the saddle.
I feared what the future held in store for us because if I did not succeed in finding the answers to save him, I would have to choose between his life, the man who had risked it all for me, and that of every living person.
Book Two
Diviner’s Curse
Chapter One
I slipped into a table at the back of the dining room at a crowded inn. The raucous voices gave me adequate cover as did my cloak that I wore pulled forward to disguise my unique features. The day was early yet, and many of the inn’s patrons were breaking their fast. I sat down with my back facing the wall and looked out across the crowded room. Men in groups sat about conversing and eating. The foreign tongue they used fell harshly on my ears. I scanned the room, looking for my companions. Johai, Beau and I had been forced to separate upon entering the city of Sanore, the Neaux capital and home of the Neaux royal family—Sabine’s family. A homesick feeling welled up in me but was quickly tamped down. I could not let my guard down even for a moment.
The barmaid came around to my table. “Can I get you anything, miss?” she asked in Neaux, the common tongue in this country.
“Nothing for now… Thank you,” I replied, struggling to form the right syllables with their proper inflections. I had been practicing since before we crossed the Danhad-Neaux border, but I was no linguist, and though I understood the language well enough, my speech was accented and faltering.
“Wave for me if you want anything,” she said and walked over to a nearby table and talked with another patron.
They were exchanging friendly pleasantries about the weather and their loved ones’ well-being when the patron said something that sent a chill up my spine.
“I saw some trouble at the south gate when I was coming this way from the lower town.”
I did not turn to look at them, as to not reveal that I was eavesdropping, but I leaned my head a bit closer to make sure I heard him clearly.
“Oh, what happened?” the barmaid asked.
“It’s those Danhadine soldiers again.” The man spit onto the ground. “They were harassing the caravans going north, and a fight broke out between the caravan master and the soldiers. Who do they think they are, coming here and making trouble in this country?” he asked the barmaid.
I relaxed in my seat. They are safe, then, I thought. I had been surprised to see Danhadine soldiers at the city gate. Soldiers from my home country in a foreign land should not have power here in Neaux, yet they were guarding the gates alongside the Neaux soldiers. That unexpected complication was the reason we had split up. Did Adair pursue us still? As the king of Danhad, he had the power to send an entire army after us if he so wished. It had been my constant fear since we’d fled from Keisan. Had he anticipated we would journey this far?
If I was correct and Adair had sent these soldiers after us, that meant that he may have an ally within the Neaux palace. Perhaps I gave him too much credit, but I had underestimated him once—I had trusted him before he betrayed me and framed me for the murder of his uncle, the former king of Danhad— I would not make that same mistake again. I did not think if I was caught, Adair would let me get away alive.
Several minutes had passed, and I considered leaving, but we had promised to meet here once we were all inside the city. I drummed my fingers on the tabletop and glanced around the room once more.
The door to the inn opened, and light flooded the dimly lit room. I averted my gaze, my eyes having just adjusted to the interior light. A figure was silhouetted in the doorway for a moment before stepping inside and letting the door swing closed behind him. Johai scanned th
e room. I did not raise a hand to greet him, for fear of drawing attention upon myself from unfavorable eyes. He spotted me in short order and made his way to me, cutting across the crowded room. My stomach dropped seeing him alone. Where is Beau? I panicked.
His pace was agitated, and though no one looked at him, I felt like his forthrightness may draw attention to us. With Danhadine soldiers about, we were no safer here than we had been in Danhad. My fear for Beau, however, made me less rational than I should be. I half-rose from my seat as Johai approached.
“Where is Beau?” I asked.
“Shh. Do not speak names aloud,” he hissed, and I sank back down in my seat, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. Johai took a seat across from me and glanced once over his shoulder before meeting my gaze. “He was alive last I saw him. I think some Danhadine soldiers recognized him, and he went a different way to put them off our trail. We will meet later once things have calmed down.”
I exhaled and prayed to the goddess to keep him safe until we met again. I do not think Johai and I would have made it this far without Beau. Our flight across the Danhadine countryside had taken us nearly a month and had been mostly at night. Given that all three of us were considered traitors to the crown of Danhad, we were not free to purchase and trade freely. It was only by Beau’s skills at hunting that we were able to feed ourselves. Though I was not clear on his motives for joining us on our journey, Johai was, and in the mad dash for freedom, there was no time to question.
The barmaid came back around, her arms overladen with pewter mugs. She looked at us askance. We must have looked strange with our hooded visages. “Are you sure I cannot get you anything to eat or drink?” she said.
[fan] diviners trilogy - complete series Page 26
