“I’m borrowing this,” I said to Oron as I turned him around and untied his broad sash.
“Hey!” He slapped my hand. As the sash came free, he grabbed his dagger before it hit the deck. “Where am I supposed to keep my blade?”
“Up your nose.”
Oron snorted. “That wouldn’t do at all, kaptan. My nostrils are far too small for such an endeavor.” He tsked and looked to the fighters and Calev. “I’m worried our kaptan has had too much sun. Perhaps we should put this mission off until moonrise?”
“Oron.” Calev put his arms out and I, with Serhat’s help, ran Oron’s sash over the glider on Calev’s back and knotted the ends of the stained, green fabric on his chest.
“Kinneret.” Calev’s words stirred my hair. He smelled warm and spicy. “Look at me.”
I would not.
“Please.” The word was filled with such longing, my gaze flew to his before I could stop myself. He tilted his head and spoke softly as the others steadied the boat against the rocks with bumpers. “Don’t shut me out. We need to—”
“We should disembark, kaptan,” Ekrem said.
Before Calev could say anything else to make my heart beat too quickly, I leaped from the boat and onto the tiny black rocks and clear seawater of the island’s coast. The stones crunched under my feet as I put a hand to my warm dagger hilt and eyed the ascent we were about to attempt. The sun lay on my exposed forearms like a blanket of flame. I turned to see Calev directly behind me. He knotted his headtie. The glider on his back made him look like he had red wings, like he was some creature sent to torment me with his unattainable beauty. But he couldn’t have been sent from any hell. He was too good.
Well, he was until he decided we had no future. I gritted my teeth and ripped my gaze away from him.
Behind Calev, Ekrem stared at the cusp of the cliffs above our heads. A sea bird soared out of a messy cliff face nest and dove into the Pass.
From the look I’d snagged when we were close to the island searching for the map, I knew a spindly path was around here somewhere. It led to the main path that stretched between the slaves’ open-air quarters, the quarry, and Oramiral Urmirian’s fine shelter made of the same rock he quarried.
“Where’s the path?” Ekrem’s broad shoulders blocked most of the glider on his back from view. Only one red and brown-green edge stuck up behind his ear.
Lichen-covered rocks rose like discarded stone doors at the base of the cliff.
“Maybe it’s farther east than I’d guessed,” I said, climbing over a fallen boulder. I jumped over a tide pool of hand-sized lime seastingers. “Watch your step,” I called over my shoulder.
I rounded another collection of head-high rocks. Stepping up onto a smaller boulder, I searched the sea for Oron and Serhat. They had raised the anchor and sails and were working to break free of the crash near the island’s base. They had to. Staying close for too long would allow the tide and the rocks to puncture the hull. So we had no way out now.
As we climbed over a natural wall of seaweed and stone, a broad stroke of dirt appeared. My pulse jumped. It rose like a rescue rope until it disappeared into the clefts of the island’s side.
“The path! Here.” I waved a hand.
A shout punched out from the watch tower far, far above us.
“They’ve spotted our boat,” Ekrem said. “They’ll fire on them.”
Calev hurried to catch up to me, eyes black with fear. “Go, Kinneret. We’ll use the boat as a distraction. Just go!”
Agreeing, I stormed up the path. The sandy dirt ribboned through crevices and past alcoves where sea birds nested. If one flew out, I’d fall to my death on the rocky beach below.
“Don’t look, Kinneret,” Calev said, his voice breathy as we rushed higher and higher and higher.
“Don’t pretend to care,” I shouted over my shoulder. It was mean. Mean felt a whole lot better than scared.
“Quiet, you two,” Ekrem said from the back. “We should be nearing the top.”
He was right. The cliff only reached a jump above us. When we doubled back on the path again, the rocks that had surrounded us dropped away and exposed a valley of extremes.
The quarry was a dip and a crescent of white in the green hill directly across the valley. The oramiral’s house coiled at the base of a black rock outcropping, snug and formidable. It was made of the same stone as the amir’s abode, but this house lacked the columns, mosaic portico, and treed courtyard. To our left, far above the rest of the island’s structures, watchtowers included, the slaves’ turreted castle tower rose into the blue sky.
I could smell it from here.
Avigail.
My feet pounded the path, and we neared the slaves’ quarters without anyone stopping us. But two guards stood sentry at the entrance. Ten foot tall spears stood at their sides and bells hung on the oramiral’s well-known contraptions above their heads. Their shoulders looked every bit as broad as Ekrem’s.
I spun, grabbed Calev and Ekrem by the sleeves, and dragged them into the brush off the path. At the island’s edge, a man with a bell jangling over his head, raised his arms.
“He’s shooting a crossbow at Oron!”
Calev’s face was fingers from mine. “We have to get into the quarters now. Oron knows how to evade crossbow bolts.”
“And how exactly does one do that?”
“They’re well out of range, kaptan,” Ekrem said. “He will go farther out. If you don’t mind my suggestions, kaptan, you should cross the path and head, hidden in the brush, up that side of the path. Calev and I will sneak up this way. When you are near the guard, throw a rock and distract the guards. I will take them down with Calev’s help.”
Calev frowned. “But I’m not a fighter.”
I could tell he hadn’t wanted to say that. And really, the way he’d moved in his dagger dance had shown he was at least capable of the action.
Ekrem put a hand on his shoulder. “I saw you with your dagger onboard the amir’s full ship. You know your way around a blade. Simply strike flesh instead of air.”
“Oh, simply strike flesh.” Calev shrugged dramatically and rolled his eyes. “No problem then.”
I gave Ekrem a nod and squeezed Calev’s hand tightly. Too tightly.
“He’s right, Calev,” I said. “You can do this. You haven’t cowered once during this…”
“Hells,” Calev said quietly. “Because it definitely hasn’t been paradise.”
The mention of our ongoing game with Avi hit me in the throat and I had to look up to keep from releasing a sob.
This was a hell. And if we died here…I had to tell Calev how I felt. If the guards caught me or him and he never knew… Though I was still so painfully disappointed in him and burned raw with his rejection, I had to make certain he knew.
“Calev. I love you. I always have.”
I didn’t give him a second to respond. I took off, running across the path like a lizard and diving into the spindly bamboo trees, crunchy grass, and sandy dirt. Rolling, I came up into a crouch. The growth on this side of the path didn’t provide nearly as much cover as Calev’s side, but the guards remained standing, eyes glazed in fatigue until I was close enough to see the sweat around the metal straps that held their bell bars in place. The bells hanging from the bars over their heads clanked in a gust of wind. An insect buzzed past my ear and I swatted it as I searched the other side of the path for any sign that Calev and Ekrem were in place. Then I caught a flash of red. Gliders. And if I spotted them, the guards would too. Soon.
I had nothing to use as a distraction. The ground at my feet was nothing but grainy earth. Not a rock to be seen anywhere. Not a fallen tree limb. Nothing. Not even a lizard to throw. I took a deep breath of the searingly hot island wind. I felt like I was being slow roasted in this heat.
That was it.
Fire.
The perfect distraction.
It would keep the guards far more busy than the easy-to-scout-out rock noise.
They’d have to deal with finding water in this dry place. If the fire spread, it could eat this entire island before nightfall. Their oramiral would not be pleased.
I smiled.
Pulling my nub of silvery quartzite and my dagger from my sash, I eyed the bushes and ground for kindling. A flaky length of fallen bark from a eucalyptus shading me was ideal for the job. I struck my dagger along the quartzite rock until a spark fell onto the bark. And died. Only a thin line of gray smoke curled out of the bark. Not enough to start a fire.
Groaning, I lifted the tiny stones and leaf debris around my feet. If I could find some fungus…
A man shouted and another grunted. I jumped up to see Calev holding one of the guards from behind with his dagger on the larger man’s throat. Blood trickled down the man’s front. My stomach churned. Ekrem stood over the other guard, holding the man’s hair. Ekrem kneed the man in the face and the man collapsed to the ground. I went hot and cold all over as I ran to them. My heart thwacked my ribs like a sail cut loose of the gaff.
“Did you kill him?” Calev asked, his voice rising.
“Who cares if he did?” I asked, already kicking at the slave quarters’ entrance.
Ekrem took over and blasted a boot through the wood. The odor of urine and fear and desperation raked nails over my face.
We ran into the round, open room and were immediately surrounded by men, women, and children with shaved heads, white-dusted faces, and dead eyes. Their slave bells clanged in a mournful chorus.
“Avi?” Where was she? My heart leaped high, dropped, and exploded. “Avigail?”
Calev and I pushed through the seemingly frozen crowd. They were probably too shocked and in too poor of health to even react to our surprise entrance.
“Avigail!” My throat was raw and my nose burned.
And there she was. Slumped and staring up from the bottom of the stone walls.
They hadn’t shaved her head yet. Her sunlight hair still gilded her skull like a crown and veil, but her ragged tunic hung loose. She was skin. Bones. A living wraith.
Not meeting her gaze, I grabbed her and tucked her under my chin. My body shook so hard I was afraid I might hurt her. She was mumbling, but there was no sun for this. They’d be here any second.
“Did you hit your guard on the head?” I asked Calev.
Calev ran a gentle hand over Avi’s head and down her cheek. Tears were silver in his eyes and hers. My heart contracted and exploded again.
“Did you put your guard to sleep?” I asked him. “We need to fly. Now.” Another smell rose, sharp and lurking, over the odor of the slave quarters.
Ekrem worked his way to us, holding his hands out to keep the slaves from his path. He stopped at Calev’s shoulder and lifted his nose to the air. “Smoke.” He looked at me and my stomach fell into my knees.
My fire had caught.
“Fly. Now.” I set Avi a step away, turned Calev, and began tugging the glider from his back. Ekrem did the same with his own.
“Are you going to take her away?” A woman not much older than me leaned toward me as Calev and I worked to lash the glider supports back together. She had bright blue eyes.
Avi whimpered and put a hand of bones on my arm. I touched her skin briefly, keeping my feelings shoved deep down so I could work. I could not look at her now. I’d lose my every thought, every plan.
My hands were worthless as I tried to tie the lashes. “I can’t get it!”
Ekrem already had his assembled and was climbing the wall with one good hand and his feet in nooks in the stone.
Calev touched my cheek and edged my shaking hands away. He tied the lashes neatly, his wiry hands quick and sure. We stood. Avi kept a handful of my shirt and Calev’s tunic as I hoisted the glider up. The scent of smoke grew stronger. The slaves began yelling and rushing toward the door we’d broken through.
I climbed the wall; it wasn’t so high. Ekrem and I helped Calev lift Avi up to join us. We took the glider from Calev then and he climbed up after. The view from the top of the castle wall was chaos. On the path leading to the quarters, a jumble of guards in gray and the oramiral’s retinue in yellow fought one another. Fire licked at the trees and grass, spreading down the valley like a river of light.
“They turned on the oramiral’s men. Some of the slave guards turned on the retinue!” I shouted and took up the glider.
Now I finally looked Avi in the face.
And I shattered into pieces.
My ears buzzed like an impossible amount of insects had crawled inside to fight and die.
Calev and Ekrem readied the gliders and held them aloft. An arrow zipped past the glider he held. He ducked his head and dipped the silken creation outside the wall.
I cupped Avi’s face in my shaking hands. “No matter what, hold on to Calev. Hold on with everything you have left, Avi.” I was crying. My face felt cold and wet in the wind.
Smoke like acrid wraiths drifted through the air, choking me as I climbed onto Ekrem’s back. Avi did the same with Calev, her foot slipping once behind his bent knee and jerking his tunic. Her elbows were sharp as yatagans at his shoulders. She lay her head between his shoulder blades.
The world dropped away from my feet as Ekrem and Calev jumped from the wall. My stomach floated into my throat. My arm muscles spasmed as I held on and lifted myself up to look over Ekrem’s shoulder. Below us, another clutch of yellow-garbed slaves ran up the path toward the slaves’ quarters. Slave guards in gray tunics raised crossbows at their former comrades and fired. Some came together with yatagans and spears. The sun flashed off their weapons and the bells ringing above their heads.
“What if the slaves burn in the fire?” I said into Ekrem’s ear as he slid his right hand down a bit on the glider’s handle bar. “We can’t leave them there. Those people…”
I shuddered. Their shaved heads. The empty eyes and bones so sharp under their ashen skin. It was wrong to help Avi and leave the rest.
“But what can we do?” Ekrem’s beard scratched against his leather vest as he turned his head to talk to me.
A crowd of slaves—skeletal quarry workers and guards in gray—surrounded the flames and beat on the fire with boots and shed tunics.
“They’re working together to put it out,” I said, pointing back and down.
Calev and Avi soared above my view of that end of the island. Calev’s hair flew behind him like a small cloak over Avi’s head. A shiver of hope danced over me. She might make it out of this alive. But the others like her…
“Maybe the oramiral won’t regain control of the island,” I said. “Maybe—”
“He has weapons,” Ekrem said. “And food. The slaves will not win out. Not unless his retinue goes against him.”
“Why don’t they?”
“They are his children.”
My stomach clenched. “What?”
“The yellow tunics are his children from bedding other slaves. He keeps them in his housing. Feeds them. Clothes them. Warps their minds into believing he is a god.”
The tattered clouds blurred, and I searched the sky for Calev and Avi.
So much evil existed in the world, driven by greed and a thirst for power. Was I like that? Is that why I’d wanted the silver badly enough to risk all my loved ones’ safety?
Looking past us and up, I saw Calev’s red glider and the ends of his tunic flickering behind him like blue flame. As we lifted in the wind, then drifted down, down, down, past the island’s green growth and sand and black rock toward the speck of Oron in the Pass, I was detached from the earth in body and mind. Like arrows, my pains hit me one by one and lodged deep in my heart.
The look in Avi’s eyes, her innocence burned away.
Calev’s rejection.
The slaves we were leaving behind.
The fire I started that might kill hundreds.
The rough landing on the water we were about to experience. Fear for Avi in that crash.
Where we might go when or if we made it on
to the boat with Oron.
It was too much. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the sea sing in my ears. Whispering. Rushing. Questioning. What would my mother have said to do? My father?
They would’ve said the same thing they always did when we had a decision. Stealing the sentence from one another, picking up where the other left off, they would’ve repeated what felt now like the only thing I could remember about their wisdom
“When you don’t see where to go,” Mother would say.
“Put a hand to your stomach.” Father would grin and wiggle his black eyebrows.
“Fingers over your heart.” Mother always gently pressed her own to my chest and smiled.
“Think of your choices. The one that make both heart and gut hurt, that is the true path.” Father liked to rub his knuckles on the crown of my head and make a funny clucking noise before pulling me into his arms.
I set one hand on my head now, remembering the feeling. The sea waters were flying up to us and the drift over the white caps should’ve been thrilling. We had escaped after all. We had saved Avi, unless they shot us down with arrows, crossbow bolts, or spears. But as we plunged, feet first, into the chill water, I was far away, in my own boat, beside my parents and a tinier Avi, smelling the orange Mother had bought as a treat at the market, listening to my parents’ wisdom, and rubbing a hand over my young heart. Calev hadn’t been a problem then. He’d been a surety. Like my family, the sunset, the tides.
My hands released Ekrem as our bodies sunk into the Pass. Above us, both gliders stayed afloat, a red slash against the blue-green sky of water. Blowing air from my nose, I pushed my hands through the sea and twisted. Where is Avi? She wouldn’t be able to swim in her condition.
Ekrem turned, a dark shape against the inconsistent yellow light, and held out a hand. I waved him on and he kicked, bubbles racing from his sandals, rising to the surface. Spinning again in the water, I saw another shape, this one leaner, lithe and familiar as my own hand. Calev. He jetted diagonally down through the blue-green.
Below him, a ghost drifted deeper, deeper.
My heart stopped in my chest.
Waters of Salt and Sin: Uncommon World Book One Page 24
