by N. M. Howell
“By then I knew I was a sorceress and that I was pretty powerful, so I practiced my magic and learned as many spells as I could remember. It took me almost a year before I thought I was ready. And then I found them. The gang. With my connections, it didn’t take long. By then I was sixteen and legal. I didn’t have to sneak around anymore. I followed them to their hideout…”
Yara paused. The waves against the ship’s hull below now nearly deafening in the silence that threatened to consume the room.
“…and I killed them.”
Andie felt her entire body go tense. She wondered if she’d heard correctly. Did her best friend just admit to being a murderer?
“It was the worst mistake I ever made in my life. Even now, ten years later, it haunts me. Every time I do magic or think about fighting the University, I remember those men. The way they looked when I was finished with them. Andie, you have to understand that I don’t think I’m above you or Carmen or Raesh. Or anyone else. I don’t think I’ve earned your trust or your friendship. But I know what can happen to a person when they come under strain. True, honest strain.”
Yara finally turned to look at Andie, her eyes darker and more haunted than Andie had ever seen. “You don’t have to be evil to be capable of it. All I want is to make sure that every person on this ship is still intact and then find the one person on this ship who’s broken. So, no, I’m not going to trust someone’s intentions just because I know them. And yes, I will make it my duty to personally assess Raesh and Carmen before they’re cleared. And you can hate me for that, but I don’t really care.”
Andie stared incredulously at her but finally nodded. Yara nodded back and returned her gaze back up to the ceiling.
“And one last thing,” Yara added. “I abandoned my parents, and they died. I won’t abandon this group. Not in any way. Not ever.”
Yara leaned back in the bed, covered herself fully with her blankets, and lay there silently. Andie stared at her for several moments, trying to figure out what to say or if she was supposed to say anything at all. But before she could come up with anything appropriate to say, Yara had fallen asleep.
Chapter Six
The next day was a little better for everyone onboard. The chaos of the escape was a little further behind them, but the traitor still had everyone terrified. They didn’t know if the person was just giving information to the University, or if he or she had orders to kill them in their sleep. Everyone was suspicious of everyone except their closest friends, and so divisions grew up overnight. Even then, no one liked to be surrounded by more than three people at a time. Tensions were high, maybe even insurmountable. Rumors of who the traitor could be spread faster than wildfire, and Andie had had just about enough.
Andie was meeting with the captain that morning. They’d already docked in the True Isles, but the order had come up from Marvo that no one was to leave the ship yet. Andie had spent half the morning trying to comprehend the story Yara had told her and trying to separate how she felt about Yara’s past from how she felt about Yara now. She’d spent the other half of the morning thinking of where the dragonborn might go for safety. Both dragons and dragonborn preferred mountainous regions if the history books were to be believed. She certainly felt like it could be true.
Brie was the highest mountain by far, but there was no way they would ever go back there. It would be too dangerous. They had been spotted most recently over Abhainn, which was almost the geographical center of Noelle. She hoped they would be smart enough to seek safety elsewhere.
“You don’t have anything more specific than that?” the captain asked.
“I might,” Andie said. “Where’s your map?”
“Hanging up there.”
He walked with her over to a wall-length window, and Andie saw that it was actually a massive map of the world. It was completely made of loveglass, and shimmered with an iridescent glow. The captain touched the map and the glass changed, zoomed in to show only Noelle. It was controlled by a combination of the user’s magic and the geographic data fed to it through the comm station. It was fascinating, and Andie stared at it as if seeing loveglass for the first time.
“What, never seen a loveglass map before?” the captain grinned.
Andie shook her head and walked up to the map, narrowing it to the regions surrounding Abhainn with her own magic. “It’s incredible.”
“Pretty basic stuff, really,” the captain said proudly. “But I’ve never seen a map so big as this one. Have had it in my care for the past ten years, I’d reckon.”
Andie smiled and quickly steered the conversation back to the matter at hand. “The dragons were last spotted here,” she said, pointing to the map. The captain deflated somewhat, but turned his attention dutifully back to Andie. She narrowed her eyes as she inspected the map closely. “Now it looks like there are at least six different mountain ranges nearby. We don’t know which way they were heading, but these two here don’t have the elevation they’d want, even in these circumstances. That one at the top is too far north; it wouldn’t be warm enough for the dragons.”
“Leaving the three to the southwest here,” said the captain. “I know for a fact that middle one has been taken over by the Glycerinnds after they fled from Brie. Now I know pirates, even a few hundred of them, are no match for your people, but I’m assuming they wouldn’t be looking to cause trouble or start something that could alert the public to where they are?”
“You’d be right. That leaves these two.”
“So, which is it?”
Andie sighed. “I don’t know. They both have the right elevation, the right temperature. They’re secluded. It’s hard to tell.”
“How do we even know they’re still in this region? They were spotted here, but they could’ve gone anywhere. Noelle is almost twenty-three thousand leagues from coast to coast.”
“No, if they were spotted here it means they were coming down to land. Dragons can fly near the very outer layers of the atmosphere, too high to ever be seen from the ground. If someone saw them, it was because they’d found somewhere to land. But where?”
Andie and the captain sat looking over the map, but it wasn’t long before an idea come to her.
“This one. That’s where they are.”
The captain tapped the glass and the mountain range Andie selected was brought up.
“That’s in the Hot Salts of Mithraldia,” he said. “I guess it’d be hot enough. But wait… lightning is constant there, sometimes several thousand times per hour. The clouds never clear there. Don’t your people need sun?”
“Exactly. If these were the only two viable ranges in the area, they must’ve known that eventually someone would put the pieces together and go looking for them. Now both of these mountain ranges are large enough that it would take even a sizable team a long while to search the whole thing, but eventually someone would find them. No one would think to look for them near the Hot Salts, under a constant cloudy sky. They’ll be growing weak, but they could fly above the weather to the sun whenever they really needed it.”
The captain sat back in his chair, looking over Andie with a smile of pride on his face. When she looked back to him, he furrowed his brow and looked back to the map. “The lightning can be treacherous. Are you sure that’s where they’d be?”
“They’re there, I’m sure of it.”
“Alright. I’ll get the new heading into the system.”
“Thank you, captain.”
The captain nodded and immediately set to work inputting coordinates into the ship’s navigation system. Andie watched him work meticulously at the wheel for a moment, and knew the ship was in good hands. With one last look back to the captain, she turned and left and went back out onto the deck, where Carmen was waiting for her with two bottles of something extremely bright.
“What is it?” Andie asked, taking the one Carmen handed her.
“Believe it or not, beer. It’s good, take my word for it. I’m on my fourth.”
> “Your fourth?” Andie laughed, looking Carmen up and down. Carmen’s legs wobbled slightly beneath her, but she quickly steadied herself on the nearby wall. The girls turned their bottles up and started walking back downstairs.
“So,” Carmen began. “How long is it going to take us to get to this mystery location?”
Andie turned to looked at Carmen from the side of her eye.
“Oh, I see. No one can trust the spy. God forbid I send this top secret info back to my clandestine buddies at headquarters.”
“Carmen…”
“Nope, understandable. Must keep everything in ship shape. Lips sealed, files locked, legs closed, the usual.”
“Carmen…”
“But you should know now that I actually do plan on killing you slowly, painfully in your bed tonight. I mean, nothing personal, orders and what not. It’s all very straightforward, really. Wouldn’t do it if it weren’t absolutely necessary. I mean, you are the enemy, after all.”
“Carmen,” Andie said, laughing. “You’re being ridiculous. You know I trust you. And you know that deep down Marvo trusts you, too.”
Carmen sighed and chugged the rest of her beer, wiping the dripping liquid from her lips with her sleeve. “I know. To be honest, it’s kind of refreshing to not have some giant weight resting on my shoulders.”
“You mean, minus the fact that we’re trying to save my entire species from extinction and evil rumors. Not to mention we can’t use magic because the University is tracking us using technology we’re going to have to have surgically removed?”
Carmen grinned. “Yeah. Minus that. Thanks for the reminder.”
The girls laughed as they continued down the hall together.
“So, is there anything you can tell me?”
“Well, Carmen… you’re still pretty.”
“Now we’re talking.”
Carmen put her arm around Andie’s shoulder. They only had a few minutes before they needed to be at the meeting. Raesh had called a meeting to explain a system for the division of information so that no one person knew everything. The girls rounded the corner and passed two rooms before they reached the mess hall. They went inside and it was nearly completely full of Marvo’s fighters. Andie hadn’t realized there were so many onboard.
“Wow,” Carmen said. “I guess we don’t need to be worried about an attack. There must be four or five hundred people in here.”
“Now if we only knew the one person who we can’t trust.”
Carmen looked at Andie and they shared a concerned look.
“That’s funny, I just had an even more terrifying thought,” said Carmen.
“What?” Andie asked, not really wanting to hear another reason to worry.
“How do we know it’s only one spy?”
Andie shook her head, wondering why Carmen had even said that. She knew she wouldn’t be getting any sleep when the time came, but she couldn’t afford to worry about those things now.
“I don’t see Yara,” Andie said, changing the subject. “Although, I guess even if she was in here, it’d take me forever to find her. I can’t believe how many people are on this ship. We’ve still got some time. Wanna check to make sure?”
“Yeah. We could probably find her with Marvo. She’s becoming quite the introvert.”
Andie and Carmen started off down the hall again. What Carmen had said was true; Yara had had lost all social skills and desire overnight, it seemed. Andie hadn’t noticed it when she first woke up, but the more time she spent around Yara, the more she realized that her friend had grown to distrust everyone. The knowledge of a traitor among them had had a heavy effect on her, not to mention the conversation she’d overheard between Carmen and Raesh. She wouldn’t eat in the mess hall or talk to anyone. Raesh said she had been like that ever since Marvo told her there was a spy onboard.
Yara was almost always near Marvo, discussing and planning, or up in the crow’s nest looking down on all the passengers and taking notes on their groups, behaviors, preferences, etc. She talked to Andie and Marvo, seldom to Raesh and Carmen, and never to anyone else. Besides all of that, Andie was certain there were other things bothering her, too. Probably the weight of her circumstance finally catching up to her.
Andie and Carmen reached Marvo’s room. Murakami was standing guard at the door. She’d sustained some injuries during the escape, but only one serious one that Andie could see. A grisly slash that began at her temple and ran down to her chest. Andie hadn’t had a chance to speak with her since they boarded, but by the concentrated look on the woman’s face, she suspected it wasn’t the best time to chit chat.
“Murakami,” she said, touching the woman’s shoulder. “How are you?”
“A lot worse than the Sentinel who did this to me, but I’ll survive. Glad to see you’re up. It’s better for the cause that you’re conscious.”
“Thanks, I think. Are you sure you don’t want that bandaged? It looks deep.”
“No medicine, no bandage. Where I come from stiches are enough. The pain is real. The rest of you can try avoiding it, but it reminds me of everything that’s at stake.”
“I understand. I know you’re not doing this just because of me, Murakami, but I just want to say thank you for being here, and I’m sorry for the friends you lost.”
“So am I.”
Murakami didn’t say anything else or turn away, but there was a certain kind of finality in her voice that told Andie the conversation should end there. She gave Murakami a smile as the woman moved aside. Andie opened the door and she and Carmen walked in. Yara was in there, so were three fighters who had been with them since the battle in the Archives. Their names were Kent, Sarinda, and Lilja.
Yara seemed her usual closed-off self, but Marvo was finally on his feet again. In fact, there was another person in his bed. Andie moved to congratulate Marvo on being able to stand, but just as she was touching his arm she got around Sarinda and saw who was in Marvo’s bed. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t believe it.
“Dad?”
Chapter Seven
A raging, head-pounding thunder pulled Andie into consciousness.
It came again and again, relentless, so close but yet so far away. Something sharp was pressing into the side of her face and her leg was cold. Too cold. She tried to open her eyes, but when she finally did something immediately covered them. Her eyes started to burn. She tried to pick herself up, but she couldn’t move her arms and she soon found she couldn’t move her legs either. It was like she was frozen in the middle of something thick and strong. She couldn’t breathe, there was no light, and no sound. She was all alone, or at least she thought she was. She couldn’t tell. The booming noise got louder, and Andie thought it was perhaps an oncoming storm until she realized it was the sound of her own heart beat raging loudly in her ears.
She struggled and struggled, but could do no more than manage to wiggle a little. Before she’d thought she was lying down, but now she knew she was neither lying nor standing. She tasted blood and soil and an immense pressure built over her skin. She was suspended. In dirt.
Finally, it dawned on her exactly where she was. She was buried. Someone had tried to bury her alive. She felt weak, like she’d been out of the sun for a while. She considered, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. It was only moments ago that she was on the ship, surrounded by people she knew. Her father.
Panic threatened to overtake her, but she forced her mind to remain calm as she puzzled out her situation. Her thunderous heart beat grew louder still, and the pressure in her head built. She knew she didn’t have much time before she suffocated completely. Her body could only heal itself so much.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she squeezed them shut as tightly as she could. She silently counted down from three, and when she hit one, she summoned as much strength as she could. Andie drew her magic inward, and, with one single explosion of release, she propelled it out from her in an effort to free herself from her dirt cage. It
worked. The dirt around her exploded in every direction, and she flew up into open air.
She was suddenly and completely free, and she fell to her knees and coughed up dirt and small roots as her panic slowly subsided. She cleared her eyes. She looked back to see her leg and saw that it was so cold because it was bleeding profusely and was probably broken. She looked around her, her heart threatening to explode from her chest. Her eyes streamed and her breath came in ragged gasps.
It was mere moments before her dragonblood began to heal her, though, and the sight of her leg healing calmed her. She rolled over onto her back and tried to look up at the sun. The air was still clouded with dust from the explosion and the sky was completely clouded over. She lay there for a time, healing. When she was feeling better she stood up and took a look around. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
She was standing on the side of a mountain. She was on one of the lowest peaks, but there were several others surrounding her and the tallest one was huge. There was no way she was seeing straight. She closed her eyes and opened them again only to find that the mountain was still there and she still wasn’t where she was supposed to be. More than that, the sky was completely overcast and green lightning was pounding the earth incessantly in every direction she could see.
Now that she was above ground, the sound was almost unbearable, like cannons going off over and over and over. Though only the faintest suggestion of the sun came through the thick menacing clouds, the land was alive with the terrible, intermittent flashes of light from the lightning. Wherever the lightning struck, great chunks of land were sent spraying into the air and moderate fires were burning as far as her eyes could see. Far, far below, the earth itself was black and smoldering, completely devoid of any plant life. Lightning ruled the land.
