Mage’s Legacy: Cursed Seas

by hamilton, rebecca

  Gabriel placed his hand on her clenched fist.

  “It’ll be all right,” he promised.

  She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “You heard what the siren said.” She spoke low so only he could hear. “Many died…If Raphael—”

  Gabriel’s jaw clenched. He had to do it, for his clan, and for his sister. He stood.

  Gazes flicked toward him. A hush fell over the crowd. Raphael stared at him, eyes narrowed as if warning him off.

  It was too late for warnings. Gabriel’s lips twisted in an ironic half-smile. “You will not seek out the Legacy Stone, Raphael. Neither you nor your warriors.” His voice carried across the cave. “I will go. Alone.”

  Sirens turned to each other, their voices raised in shock and alarm, but Raphael’s voice carried above all others. “You think yourself an excellent warrior, Gabriel, but you know—all of us know—that I…” He spread his hand to include his four warriors. “We are better than you. Why would we not send our best? Surely, our people deserve it! They deserve to have their homes back, they deserve to have children who sleep contentedly through the night, their bellies full.”

  Raphael did not need to say “we deserve better than you” but Gabriel heard it in the warlord’s scathing tone. All the sirens surely heard it, too.

  “Out there, battling the sea serpent, you only managed to anger it further,” Raphael continued. “I—my warriors and I—drove it off. If anyone deserves the honor of finding the Legacy Stone and returning it to its sacred place, it is me.” Raphael thumped his chest.

  “I am the clan chief,” Gabriel said, his voice even. “And I have spoken.” And his decision would keep Raphael safe, at home, and at Sofia’s side, where she needed him.

  “This is a farce of leadership!” Raphael roared. “You horde power and lay claim to honor you do not deserve at the expense of the clan! At our expense! And you call yourself our chief? You swore an oath to protect us, whatever the cost, but instead you do this?”

  He flung aside the large chunk of shark meat in his hand and swam out of the cave. His four warriors, casting looks of disgust at Gabriel, followed Raphael. Sofia, too, hurried after her Raphael, her mate.

  The buzz of hope subsided into mute misery, and Gabriel was relieved when the meal ended minutes later. Families retreated to their cave corners, huddling down for the night as a defense against the cold water.

  Gabriel alone remained in the communal cave. His fingers brushed against the phosphorescent algae, the faint contact lighting up dazzling shades of blue and green. The water unexpectedly rippled around him, and he stiffened against the intrusion.

  “I know what you’re doing,” Sofia said quietly from behind him. “I don’t know how you think this improves the situation.”

  “There is no point in saving the oceans if there is no one left to save it for,” Gabriel said quietly. He turned to face her. “Raphael is right. He and his four warriors stand the best chance of finding and restoring the Legacy Stone, but I need them here, protecting the clan, feeding the clan, keeping all of you alive—”

  “Until you come back?” Sofia’s voice broke. “You heard the siren. He said—”

  “I know what he said. It’s four thousand miles to Africa, and four thousand miles back. There will be travel, across land.”

  “Land?” Sofia shook her head. “But how will you handle it?”

  Gabriel chuckled, the sound without humor. “Possibly better than Raphael. I do fight above the water, unlike Raphael. My balance is better than his.”

  “But walking!”

  “I’ll get better with practice. I expect I’ll have a lot of it. Remember, our kind originally came from the land, too.”

  Sofia shook her head. “Raphael’s so angry he won’t even talk to me. He wants the honor of restoring the Legacy Stone. He wants it so badly.”

  “But without him and his warriors here, the clan will not survive. Apart from them, there are only four other able-bodied warriors, and three of the four are young—too young. If I send Raphael and his warriors away to find the Legacy Stone, our clan will fall. There will be nothing left of our people to save.” At least this way, he remains with you, beside you.

  Sofia bit her lower lip. “I feel like I’m being forced to choose between the both of you.”

  “I am the only one who can be spared.”

  “But you’re our clan chief.”

  “It wasn’t my time. It should not have been, at least not for several more decades.” Gabriel looked away, but Sofia touched his chin and gently turned his face so their eyes met.

  A sad smile curved her lips. “Our father would have been proud of you.” She drew a deep, shuddering breath. “When will you leave?”

  “Within the hour.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “So soon? You can’t!”

  “If I delay, Raphael will disobey me and depart with his warriors, but if I leave first, his hands are bound. He knows that he must stay with the clan, or all hope is lost.”

  “He’ll never forgive you.”

  “I don’t need to be forgiven. Not anymore.” Gabriel braced against the sharp, sick ache in the pit of his stomach. He stroked his hand against his sister’s cheek. “Help Raphael understand what he needs to do, for the sake of our people. He’ll make a fine clan chief.”

  “You’ll come back, won’t you?” Sofia sniffled back a sob. “That siren…he doesn’t know what a fine warrior you are. Just because others…died, it doesn’t mean…”

  It doesn’t mean it’s a suicide mission?

  Of course it was a suicide mission. Gabriel knew it as well as she did.

  He offered no consolation. He could not indulge in lies.

  “Goodbye, Sofia. Sweet Sofia.” Gabriel leaned forward so that their foreheads touched. For several moments, their heartbeats skittered in unison, bound together by love and the wrenching knowledge of guaranteed loss.

  Then he turned away from his sister, pausing only long enough to pick up his spear. He could take nothing else; his clan had nothing to give him.

  His fingers brushed against the walls of the cave, lighting up a glowing path all the way to the grotto opening. Only then, at the threshold of their home, did he look back. His sister watched him, tears in her eyes, and raised her arm in a tiny wave of farewell.

  Gabriel inclined his head to her, then swam into the bleak darkness. Hope kept him warm in the frigid waters; hope not for himself, but for the remnants of his clan.

  He knew, in his heart, he would never return.

  Chapter 2

  Kerina picked at the dead skin on her lips as she stared out at encroaching death. For several years, the isolated homestead fifty miles north of Ganiaré, in what had once been Liberia, Africa, had thrived in spite of the famine that claimed the rest of the land, but not anymore. In every direction, plants withered, trees wilted, and soil turned to dust. She should have known the earth wouldn’t live forever, but she didn’t expect it to die in her lifetime.

  A hand waved in front of her face. “Miss? Hello?”

  “Hmm?” She pulled her gaze away from the distance, but it took a moment for her vision to really focus on the awkwardly tall, thin man standing in front of the outside sales table. “Yes?”

  His cheeks were reddened from wind burn, mottled, and pock-marked, but his eyes were clear, sharp, and focused on her with a pressure that caused her stomach to twist with unease. Something wasn’t right here.

  “I need some arnica and yarrow,” he said.

  Kerina pursed her lips. He looked emaciated, but she saw no wounds. Did he plan to eat the arnica and yarrow? Those were healing herbs, but no cure for a starving man.

  The man held out a coin. “Please. It’s for my son.”

  Sighing through her nose, she took the coin. She could tell the man was lying. What she didn’t know was why.

  Of course, she couldn’t say that. It was downright villainous to accuse someone of lying about a hurt child. But she knew, in a way she had always
known things. That’s why Anja kept her around.

  “Okay,” Kerina said. “I will make you a deal. If I can pass this coin through my hand, you pay double. If I can’t, you can have the herbs for free.”

  The man scowled at her. “That’s impossible.”

  “Then you accept my offer?”

  “Sure,” he said, his expression turning to boredom. “But be quick.”

  That sealed it. He didn’t have an injured child to worry about. If he did, he would have parted with that coin to get the herbs faster, get home sooner. Instead, he was gambling on a trick.

  Kerina smirked, wishing Anja would get back in time from her trip to see this. She reached into her pocket and tucked a coin between her thumb and forefinger as she distracted the man by twirling his coin in her other hand.

  With her hand angled so that he could not see the hidden coin, she started tapping his coin on the back of her hand.

  “I just need to find the soft spot,” she murmured, moving the coin around from spot to spot with a light tap. “It’s a bit tricky to find.”

  The man crossed his gangly arms and snorted.

  “It’s right…about…here.”

  On the word “here” she tapped the coin hard against the back of her hand, pushing it up between her pinched fingers while releasing the other coin from where it’d been clutched by her thumb. The coin from her pocket clattered to the table. While his eyes were on it, she tucked his coin into her pocket.

  “How did you do that?” the man demanded, lifting his gaze from the fallen coin to glare at her. “It’s sorcery! That’s not possible!”

  “I believe you owe me another coin,” Kerina said, holding out her palm. “And then I’ll get your yarrow and arnica.”

  The man grumbled as he lifted the coin, inspecting it. “Wait a minute. This isn’t my coin!”

  “Sure it is. You saw with your own eyes.”

  “You’re a fraud!” he shouted, tipping over the table between them. Kerina had to hop back to stop it from falling on her feet. “That was a trick!”

  He climbed over the table, reaching for her.

  Her pet African grey squawked from the back room. “Danger, Will Robinson!”

  “Not now!” she chided the bird as she ran toward the storefront herb cabinet, the man chasing right behind her.

  “Later,” squawked the African grey. “Let me finish what I’m doing!”

  Kerina ground her teeth together, more annoyed by the bird’s antics than afraid of the raging man. As Anja always said, “There’s a potion for everything.”

  Unfortunately, Kerina didn’t have time to find the herbs before the man closed in on her. She took a ceramic vase from under the counter and catapulted it at his head. The impact knocked him back and cut his forehead. Blood oozed from the wound, but it did little more than slow him down.

  Now he really would need that arnica and yarrow.

  She scrambled around to the other side of the counter, waiting for the man to follow her. He tipped to the side as he rounded the corner, then stumbled as he righted himself. Kerina used that opportunity to dive for the two herbs she was after: blue floral grass and golden dime flower—both in tincture form.

  With the herbs in hand, she bolted into the next room, their main apothecary, and ducked behind the larger counter there. If need be, she could head down into the cellar from here, but she had other plans.

  She poured the golden dime flower tincture into a small glass tube and corked it, then poured the blue floral grass into a bigger glass tube, put the smaller tube inside, and sealed the two together.

  Then she held her breath and counted the man’s steps as he entered the apothecary.

  “I’m gonna kill you!” the man roared.

  She didn’t doubt that he believed that. Or that he would try. And given how he was acting, she was pretty sure she had an idea what the yarrow and arnica were really for. Well, the yarrow, anyway. The request for arnica was just to throw her—to make her think the herbs were for healing, when really, it was just the yarrow the man was after…to increase his high.

  What drug he was taking, however, she did not know.

  The man’s steps creaked twice more. She held her breath.

  Another step, and then another. Kerina tensed, preparing for what came next. She would need to act fast. She strained to hear his breathing, to get a better idea of where, exactly, he was standing.

  He took another step. The bird squawked, “Tina, you fat lard, come get some dinner!”

  Shut up, stupid bird!

  Now she’d lost track of his steps.

  The man’s next step brought him to the other side of the counter. His grin revealed a broken tooth and decay along the gum lines. “Waiting for me?”

  He lunged at her.

  She threw the potion at his feet. As the glass broke and the two tinctures mixed, the tube exploded. It was every bit the violent explosion she’d hoped for, searing heat blowing across her arms as she shielded her face. When the smoke cleared, she was able to see that she hadn’t just injured the man’s legs, but her own arms and shins as well.

  The man was unconscious, which was a plus, but the stunning explosion had slowed Kerina. And now what? She hadn’t thought this through. She had no intention of killing the man, but something told her he wasn’t just going to walk away.

  Well, now he really couldn’t walk away. At least not easily.

  Kerina peered over at the man, who wasn’t moving but was still breathing. Unconscious. Could she move him before he woke up? She pursed her lips. She would need to do more than that or he would just come back.

  Wincing as she rose to her feet, she limped back behind the apothecary counter and started looking through the herbs. Ironically, she’d need the yarrow and arnica. She shoved them into her pocket and then looked for the other ingredient she would need: nightshade.

  After tucking the herbs away, she hooked her arms under the shoulders of the unconscious man and started dragging him out of the apothecary.

  The African grey squawked as she lugged the man out the door. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

  She glared at the bird and muttered, “Be the fuck quiet.”

  “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” the bird said.

  Whose idea was it to keep such a chatty bird? Oh, that’s right. Anja’s. Anja had brought the bird home a few weeks ago “to keep Kerina company.”

  “But I have you,” Kerina had said.

  “Nobody has anyone forever,” Anja had replied.

  Kerina hoped the bird would be the first of them to go.

  It took a good twenty minutes to move the man far enough away from the apothecary that it wouldn’t be the first place he’d happen upon once he woke up. For such an emaciated man, he was heavy.

  Once she was sure she’d dragged him far enough, Kerina dribbled a dose of the nightshade on his lips, hoping to give enough to affect his memory—if the blast itself hadn’t caused amnesia—but not so much that it would kill him.

  Of course, he had been willing to kill her. She dribbled another few drops of the nightshade on his lips, suddenly willing to take a bit of a gamble with his life, but still not enough to certainly poison him to death.

  Then she applied the arnica and yarrow to his wounds and left him a little extra. He might not remember what happened when he woke, but he was still the same person, and if he didn’t have the yarrow, he’d come right back looking for some. Most of their customers were travelers, so she gave him enough to hold him over to the next town, where he would be someone else’s problem.

  She stood and dusted off her pants, then paused. Someone else’s problem. What would Anja think of that? That Kerina would just let this man continue on, possibly to kill someone else? And who knew how many people he’d killed before.

  Was it wrong, then, to let him live? Or was it more wrong to take his life?

  Kerina wasn’t sure.

  Not my problem, she told herself. It
’s not as if anyone had ever cared what happened to her.

  With that thought in mind, she backed up a few steps, crouched down, and lifted the man’s wallet from his pocket. To pay for the herbs. And the damage to the apothecary. And for the trouble.

  Ah, who was she kidding? She’d planned to take his wallet since she first laid eyes on him. She might not be a killer, but she was no saint, either.

  She shoved his wallet into her pocket and headed back toward the apothecary. Hopefully she would get back before Anja did so she could clean up the mess and apply some yarrow and arnica to her own wounds.

  Anja would have questions.

  And as Kerina headed back, traversing past dead plants and dry earth, she found she had questions of her own.

  Why were the lands dying? And what would happen to the people once everything they lived off of was gone?

  Chapter 3

  Time passed slowly without markers of minutes and hours. Faint slivers of sunlight reached deep in the ocean where Gabriel swam to avoid the exhaustion of battling the waves, but light did not dictate when he swam or when he rested. He swam as long and as far as he could, hunting and eating along the way. He slept little and only when he could find shelter under a sea shelf or in a grotto. Even so, his rest was uneasy and all too often aborted by an unexpected change in the currents.

  It was usually enough to stay hidden until the unseen threat passed and the currents settled. The ripple that awoke him that time, however, was both swift and violent.

  Gabriel jerked upright, blinking sleep out of his eyes, his fingers closing around his spear. He crouched beneath the low rock overhang, painfully aware that he was exposed on three sides. A dark shadow blocked even the thin shafts of sunlight. He glanced around but could not see whatever it was that lurked just out of sight.

  The rock shook. Small pieces of debris drifted down, trailing across his face. A sharp cracking sound whipped his attention around. He stared at a scarcely visible jagged line in the rock. His heart thudded, the beat erratic. No… The shadows around him shifted, then another jolt shook his hiding place. The crack widened, then the rock split.