by SM Blooding
The Zarifa bobbed with the wind at the docks. I’d made Ryo her captain, but he was aboard the Yusrra wedding my sister to the Novokshorovs.
As we drew closer, the sounds of drums filled the air. The suns had sunk below the horizon, and even the great red planet hid. The only thing above us were stars.
The El’Asim Fleet stretched through the sky, brightly lit shadows against the starry backdrop. The Kowka ships flew with us, adding shadows of sky cats.
Dear Sky. I let my head fall back. I was so happy to be home.
Something raised the hairs on my arms.
I looked around, but saw nothing. Listening intently, I heard nothing.
I frowned and watched the glowing Yusrra grow closer. I’d been on edge for so long, it was going to take a while for me to get used to relaxation.
I walked to the rail. The people of the Zarifa prepared for the drum circle, laughing and joking with one another.
A scream from the crow’s nest rent the air.
I looked up, trying to see what might have caught the eye of the lookout. But I saw only shadow and sky.
That’s when I heard it.
A long whistle.
And an explosion that rocked the air.
CHAPTER 38
GONE
The drums stopped beating. The voices stilled. We waited. Watched.
Light punctured the night in a rain of fire. I stared in dawning horror as the ship next to the Yusrra Samma plummeted silently toward the ocean.
Why was it so quiet? Were we under attack?
I ran toward the quarterdeck. “Search for explosives. Look for sabotage. Someone, check our jelly!”
Men and women shook themselves from their stupors and scrambled to obey. The crews of the other ships scurried into action as well.
“Pull even to the Yusrra!”
Eosif stood on the quarterdeck with Ryo and Zara. “Vhat is going on?”
It could be nothing. I could be overreacting. Something could have been wrong with the ship. No. That would never have happened. Not in my fleet. “Check for explos—‘”
Another crack filled the air.
Everyone stopped moving, standing like statues, straining to hear where the crack had come from.
We didn’t have time for that. “Search for explosives!”
“What would they look like?” Ryo demanded.
“I don’t know!” My mind raced. Had I ever seen anything like this? Yes. In Sky City when we’d attempted to take it down. “Small glass containers—”
Fire bombarded the sky. Falcons took flight with cries and screeches. People screamed.
The Suhayl Samma. My heart didn’t know whether to beat frantically or stop. We had to stop this! “Teardrop-shaped glass containers filled with a white liquid!”
Ryo gave the orders to the other ships as Eosif issued orders to his own.
Something snapped. It sounded like splintering flaxboards.
I stilled. Was it the Zarifa?
No. My eyes widened. I couldn’t breathe. I pushed my feet to move. Just move!
I stared at my family, my feet stuck. My hands and mouth worked without me. I issued commands I hadn’t even realized, my hands filling each command with emphasis. Ropes were thrown over to the Yusrra Samma.
Ryo turned to me. His gaze met mine.
Zara reached for his hand.
Eosif gathered his new wife in his arms.
And then the world exploded in fire and splinters. The entire hull crumbled and then raced outward.
So much screaming, wailing. I grabbed the nearest rope and flung myself into the flame. My Mark rose, lashing in fiery ropes of lava. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. I only knew I had to get to my sister and my brother and my new friend.
Isra. Where was Isra?
Sounds that I never wanted to hear again were my only answer.
I reached through the flame, desperate to find someone alive. Anyone. Shadows flailed. The flames roared. My pant leg caught on fire as I swung over the falling wreckage.
A hand latched onto mine.
The heat receded into the darkness of night as we swung toward the Zarifa. Ryo stared back up at me, his clothes nearly gone, his skin burned black with patches of red. I don’t even know what kept him holding on. He looked as though he should be dead.
I watched the Yusrra Samma crash onto the ocean and become engulfed. I stopped yelling and concentrated on maintaining a hold of the rope and my brother, the only survivors of my home, of my closest family members.
More explosions rocked the night. Some were small. The bottles having been found and cast overboard.
Most of them were ships.
Ships filled with people, people I’d grown up with. Friends. Family.
The Kowka gained altitude. They’d sustained some visible damage, but were still able to fly.
I clawed my way to a sail, fumbling to drop my brother to the deck. My heart threatened to burst from my chest. My feet found the deck.
Ryo let out a grunt.
I fell on my hands and knees. I had no air in my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. My throat was raw, my Mark fighting with a will and mind of its own.
“Sayyd!”
I kept hearing that word. Repeated over and over again.
Not me.
Not. Me.
Zara.
Eosif.
Isra.
Not. Me.
Someone braved my Mark and knelt beside me, placing a careful hand on my shoulder. “Sayyd.”
I looked at him.
Bahaa. Sorrow filled his dark eyes, tears streaming down his face. “What do we do?”
I didn’t know.
I didn’t know.
I closed my eyes and breathed, fighting . . .
Fighting to stay upright.
Fighting to stay on the ship.
I stared at my brother. The only person I’d been able to save.
He probably wasn’t going to last the night.
Bahaa cupped my face in his hands and brought his forehead to mine. “Sayyd,” he said firmly. “We need orders.”
I closed my eyes. There were no words. No words. I swallowed and stood, bringing my useless Mark back to my body. “Ensure there are no more explosives. Take us to Ino city. We need a healer.”
Bahaa nodded and issued the orders.
Ryo struggled to sit up, his entire body shaking. “Survivors. We need to—” He stopped, his body convulsing.
There were no survivors. People didn’t survive when a ship crashed into the ocean. Not like that. If they still had their jellies? If they’d been able to slow their descent.
There hadn’t been enough of the ships.
Tears streamed from my eyes. When had they started? My chest could barely stand the pressure. I stared at the empty sky.
Four ships.
I bit my quivering lip so hard, I tasted blood.
Four ships. Out of fifty.
Fury roared through me, my Mark ripping itself from my body, uncontrolled, and unbidden.
Ino City’s glowing medusa grew on the horizon.
This was the work of Nix.
Iszak might have done her dirty work, might have planned this. Maybe.
But the explosives had been hers. She was trying to force my hand, to bring me back under her control.
Four. Ships.
The tears sizzled their way down my steaming face as the docks came into view.
Out. Of. Fifty.
“Get him to the healers,” I said quietly as soon as the Zarifa moored.
I leapt, landing on the dock below.
The lashes of my Mark hissed in the ocean water.
The water where Zara now lay.
She’d had plans.
Her husband drifted beside her. Somewhere.
Isra. Who would never know Ryo’s love.
All of my friends and family.
Gone.
I found myself at the arena, tears still trailing from my eyes, steam
rising around my face, my Mark like lava wings around me.
The party stopped.
People screamed.
I stood in a circle of emptied space.
Mother walked up to me. Her lips moved. I couldn’t hear a word she said.
“Where is Nix?” I asked quietly.
Silence was my answer.
Oki stopped beside Mother. She looked at me, concern filling her expression.
“Where . . . ” I breathed, trying to find calm. My heart beat slowed. It felt like calm, but my body shook and my Mark flared. “ . . . is Nix?”
Oki blinked furiously and walked through the forest of my flame, her eyes tearing as she looked at me.
The calm teetered. Fresh tears spilled over as her hands cupped my face. With shaking hands, she brought her forehead to mine. “Synn. What happened?”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Someone shouted in the crowd behind me.
She glanced in that direction.
I couldn’t make out what was said.
But she could.
Understanding filled her expression, shock opened her mouth. She shook her head. “Synn.”
Her eyes were the only things I could see, her words the only ones that made sense. “Where is Nix?”
Her fingers flinched against my face. “Synn, she signed the treaty. She didn’t do this.”
My entire body shook.
“You did it, Synn,” Oki said, fighting back sobs. “You gained the treaty. We’re at peace.”
That wasn’t possible. The explosives were from the Hands. Nix was behind this. This was her last ditch effort to gain the war she so desperately craved.
“Synn.” Oki brushed her cheek against mine, our tears mingling. “Synn. We’re at peace. We’re at peace.”
“She . . . ” Rage fueled through my veins. “ . . . destroyed my entire fleet. My family is gone. Four ships, Oki. Four ships.”
“Gone?”
I pulled back, snapping into the calm I had been seeking. “That’s all that’s left.”
Oki’s eyes widened in horror. “Zara.”
I closed my eyes and searched the crowds once they were open again.
There she was. Nix.
I pushed Oki out of the way and walked with powerful purpose toward the queen.
The crowd fell back.
Mother stood between me and my target. “Synn,” she said, her hand on my chest. “We are at peace with the Hands. They signed the agreement.”
“They broke it.”
Nix smiled, her dark brows raised. “I assure you, El’Asim. I did not break the treaty you requested.”
I couldn’t believe her. “Then how did you do it?”
She raised a graceful hand. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I stood there. Everyone disappeared. The world was shadow lit only by the fury of my Mark.
I knew she was behind it. I knew it. Just the fact that she’d agreed to sign the treaty without me being in her control sealed it for me. This was her way to get her way.
Soft hands touched my face.
Large, doe-like eyes met mine. “Put your Mark away, Synn.”
I lost myself in the safety of those eyes.
And felt something claw at my heart, tapping against my brain.
I leaned over and looked at Nix. She was trying to snake her way through the blocks I’d put over the bond.
Aiyanna jerked my face back to her, cupping my eyes, shielding them so that all I could see was her. “Put your Mark away.”
I swallowed. And breathed.
“Synn,” she whispered against my forehead. “Put it away. We will fight her another way. Another day, but not this one.”
I nodded and took the calm she offered, cooling my Mark and laying it against my skin again.
The crowd erupted in shouts and chaos.
The little priestess didn’t let go of me.
No one else approached.
“We shall find out who did this, Synn,” she whispered. I felt a tear on my shoulder. “We will find a way to right this wrong.”
I stayed in her hands, my arms useless, my heart empty.
My eyes found Nix.
She smirked as she watched me. She raised her chin and turned.
Her sisters stared at her in horror.
Dyna’s eyes fell on me and something passed between us.
She knew she would die by my hands.
I knew one day I would kill her.
She closed her eyes and followed her sister onto the dais.
My head fell on Aiyanna’s shoulder.
Nix had no idea what she’d just asked for.
CHAPTER 39
EPILOGUE
I pulled the remaining four ships out of the air and docked them in Asim City, taking us below the water to the only safe place I now knew.
I wasn’t alone.
Neira sat beside me in the command center of Asim City, Aiyanna on the other side. Her hand lay on my arm, a constant calm.
Several members of the League of Cities joined us.
Pavel filled in for his brother, though he did not take the leadership position of the League of Cities. Oki was missing, so was the head of the Shankara Family. Most of the other heads of tribes were there, though, without their captains. It kept the gathering smaller.
Neira sat at the head of the League of Cities.
She pounded the table with her fist.
There hadn’t been a great deal of noise to begin with, but now there was complete silence.
“We believe the Hands were behind the attack.”
“What makes you think that?” someone asked.
Neira met that man’s challenge. “We have several witnesses who heard a Tokarz man brag about taking down The El’Asim with the help of Nix, and her explosives were the ones removed from the surviving ships.”
The people around the table were still.
“It’s just Nix,” someone said. That voice was very familiar.
I leaned forward, my eyes heavy with grit, my heart lead. “Ino Yotaka, what are you doing here?”
He sat back in his chair. “I had a feeling my services would be required.”
I nodded slightly and sat back. “How do we attack only Nix?”
“I would recommend carefully,” Yotaka answered. “But you are nowhere near ready for war.”
“We have to do something before the winter,” Yvette said, her eyes filled with anger and sorrow. “We do not want to war through the years of ice.”
I nodded.
Neira raised her eyebrows in agreement. “What would you advise, Ino Yotaka?”
“I would ruddy well recommend,” Joshua said, walking into the room, “that we all put our best heads together and devise some damn good weapons. It doesn’t matter how you hit it, that woman has her hand in the belly of two beasts.”
I stared at my friend in numb surprise.
“Two?” Neira asked.
He jammed his finger in my direction. “Iszak’s and his.”
Neira sighed. “And who’s going to undertake this?”
Joshua met my gaze solemnly. “I will.”
I closed my eyes and nodded.
I would have my revenge.
I would have my justice.
The world would never be the same again.
Later, At Asim City . . .
Zara’s body floated beside me. Her hair blossomed around her fright-frozen face. Her purple dress was ripped and tattered, the edges singed and blackened.
Eosif floated beside her, his legs splayed, his face pointed upward, away from me.
I tried yelling for them, but my mouth filled with water and salt.
Other things fell into the waters around us. Pieces of ships, a falcon masthead, arms, a leg, a boot.
My family.
My friends.
Everyone I’d known while growing up.
Gone.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move to sa
ve my sister or my new brother.
I was dying.
Hands grabbed my shoulders, pulling me to the water’s edge, shouting my name.
No! I wanted to join them, to be with them. I’d failed them all. This was my fault. Things would have been bad, but never like this. If I hadn’t brought the tribes together, providing Nix with a source of power that she craved and could not have, there would have been no reason to destroy so many innocent lives.
“Synn!”
I pulled myself from the dream, feeling my body fill with weight. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling, ignoring Aiyanna standing beside me. I was alive.
Pushing her to the side, I got out of bed. I was drenched with sweat, and headed for the door.
“Synn,” she called after me.
I ignored her like I had for the past three weeks. She wanted me to face my grief. How did one do that? How was I supposed to get over this?
There were no answers, from me, from her, from any of my friends.
Though to be honest, I wasn’t allowing my friends close. Nix still wanted me, and she’d already shown what she was capable of. Now that she’d signed the treaty, there wasn’t much I could do. The League of Cities needed irrefutable proof, and our one braggart witness had conveniently vanished.
I took the elevator down to the docks. When I’d retreated to Asim City, I’d refitted the docks. We were rebuilding the fleet, but not the same way. The ships were being redesigned.
We were out of materials, though, so I’d ordered the dissembling of the four remaining ships. The docks looked like a boneyard.
Sang’s sunlight spilled onto the docks and a light spray filled the breeze. It still felt wrong to be unable to see the sky through the towering medusa, but at least I felt safe. Here in my lethara, it was easier to protect what was left of my family.
Men scurried along the docks, tearing apart their homes with care and precision. They weren’t happy. That was for sure, but I think they all knew that this was the best idea.
Joshua pushed his way through the crowds at the dock and headed toward me, his blue shirt flashing bright against the drab docks.
I frowned and met him halfway. “What are you doing here?”
“What in the ruddy blazes do you think I’m doin’ here, you daft lad?” He clasped my arm and pounded my back in a fierce hug. “I’m makin’ sure you don’ get yerself killed or worse.”
