Born of Water

by Autumn M. Birt

  “All I ever did as a Priestess was water crops and steal children from their families. I’m lethal now, more than I ever was as a Priestess.”

  Ty regarded her for a second, the distance still in his eyes. Niri’s insides wrenched in confusion. For the first time, she thought about walking out and leaving on her own. The desire to run burned through her legs so that she leaned forward ready to sprint from the bench. Ty caught her hand as she stood up.

  “No, Niri, don’t you see?” She struggled against him so that he had to hold her still, wrapping her in his arms as he held her against his chest. She sobbed into his shoulder. “Don’t you see, you did stop yourself. You didn’t kill him. Neither did I.”

  Niri stilled as Ty’s reason sunk through the fog in her. She looked up at him with the first hint of hope in her eyes since the bizarre. She stopped struggling as the tension drained out of her.

  Ty exhaled a sad laugh. He kissed her forehead. The warmth of his lips was a new pulse to replace the doubt. “I’m starting to think neither of us are as bad as we think,” he said softly.

  Niri laughed, the sound rippling from her to mix with the thrum of the falling water. “What, your return to the streets of Sardinia didn’t make you want to come back for good?”

  Ty grimaced then laughed, holding her tighter. “No, I think I’ve realized how much this doesn’t suit me actually. I feel older than Finneous.”

  A knock sounded at the archway to the courtyard garden. Ty and Niri jumped back from each other, both blushing. Niri looked around to see Jistin grinning at the door. He motioned for them to follow, laughing silently at the look on Ty’s face.

  Finneous was coming through the door when Ty and Niri entered the salon. Ria and Lavinia were stretching themselves awake, glancing out the windows to the dimming light. Realizing the hour and that her brother was back, Lavinia sat up quickly.

  “That is the best we can do for today,” Finneous said by way of greeting to Ty. Finneous’ eyes swept over the two girls, whose cheeks were rosy from sleep. “Such beauty and youth, I wish I could have spent the day in your company.”

  There was a hint of sadness in Finneous eyes, changing the flattering tone into something more poignant.

  “I will buy the rest off of you for a reasonable price.” Ty opened his mouth to protest but Finneous continued with a chuckle. “Minus my commission, I assure you.”

  Ty shook his head, a smile playing on his lips while he stared at the floor.

  “I cannot thank you enough, Finneous.”

  “It is a good deed returned, boy. You should go now, before it gets later.” Finneous handed Ty a bag clinking with coin. It was more than Niri had seen them earn in Dion and Kyrron combined. Ty slipped it around his neck. Finneous reached forward and hugged Ty quickly.

  They were down stairs in a hurry after goodbyes to the women with quick hugs from both Jistin and Finneous. Jistin winked at Niri, so that she blushed again. Then they were standing in the nearly deserted road of the bizarre outside Finneous’ store. Ria’s faced paled as she looked down the shadowed streets. Her joints tensed and she leaned towards Lavinia.

  “This way.” Ty set off at a fast pace, Lavinia pushing Ria ahead. Niri felt less fearful and she stayed behind the girls a few steps to keep them, and anyone approaching, in sight. They wove quickly through the darkening bizarre. Merchants cast them furtive glances. Late patrons became less and less innocent looking, hidden in hoods or turning their faces away as they stayed to the deeper shadows. Most barely glanced at them. Those who did let their eyes linger speculatively.

  Ty turned down a narrower side alley. He was halfway along it, the girls on his heels when an arm reached from the darkness of a doorway and grabbed Niri roughly.

  “Don’t!” Niri twisted, wrenching the arm and the person behind it into the alley with her. Her shout resonated from the empty street, bringing Ty up short. Everyone stopped as they recognized Hahri.

  Hahri’s face no longer held the passive distance it had during the morning. It was twisted in hatred as he glared down at Niri, ignoring Ty and the girls. Ria muffled a scream as she pushed herself into Lavinia. Lavinia stepped closer to Ty, blocking his way to Niri. He swore under his breath.

  Niri glared at Hahri, not squirming despite his bruising grip. She met his eyes coldly. His look changed to one of disgust.

  “Priestess,” he spat.

  “I’m rogue,” she answered without hesitation. Hahri paused, considering her again.

  “You trained with them. You are on one of them,” his voice condemned her.

  Niri barked a laugh. “A Priestess of the Church of Four Orders would not have allowed you to touch her, much less be slinking about at dusk with three youths and no escort.”

  Doubt passed like a shadow across Hahri’s face. His eyes flicked to Ty and the girls then back again. “You are not here to poison the rest of the wells?”

  Niri took a step back in surprise, Hahri releasing her. Shock widened her eyes and pressed against her breath. “What? No! How . . . why?”

  Hahri was silent as Niri’s surprised diminished. He looked at her, his face a mixture of amusement and disgust. “Yes, didn’t you know that your compatriots did such things? Poison wells if they did not get the tithes they required? Or burn down houses in the middle of the night? So many things your kind can do.” Hahri stepped forward, his anger tingeing the air around him.

  Niri’s wide eyes showed fear, but not of Hahri. She looked internally and into the past, piecing together things she hadn’t understood until that moment. Niri’s gaze refocused on Hahri with a sick certainty as if she faced her executioner and accepted it.

  The warmth of Ty’s hand against her back brought a spark to life in her again. His presence was the reminder she needed that her path was not dictated by past actions or those of others.

  “No, I did not know that,” she replied, her voice unsteady.

  “My family has had to evaporate sea water to drink for five months.” His gaze was menacing as he towered over Niri. With Ty behind her, she held her ground. Hahri’s glare switched to Ty.

  “And you, do you know they are looking for you? That you are a wanted man with a price on your head? They are waiting to overtake you on the way back to your boat. Gaff told some associates of your former friends that you were here today for a cut of the money promised for you. Tell me why I should not call them now and give you to them?”

  Ty stepped away from Niri, his warmth dissipating from her skin in the cooling night. She turned and saw Ty’s downcast eyes slide towards his sister. He chewed his lip, a plan that pulsed Niri’s heart painfully forming on his face.

  “Because then I cannot purify your well.” Niri spoke quickly before Ty could form the words shielded behind his eyes. Both men looked at her in surprise. “I am a naiad. I can purify water. I can help, but only if you do not let them harm any of us.”

  Niri stared at Ty for a second before looking back at Hahri.

  Hahri opened his mouth and closed it again. He glanced over his shoulder down the alley towards the barely visible gate to the bizarre and docks.

  “You would do this?” he asked quietly. His eyes, a deeper brown than his skin, bore into her.

  “Yes, if you see us safely to our boat after and help us leave. I will purify any well you show me.”

  Hahri looked away. A change in the emotion on his face softened his lips and revealed lines of suffering he had masked with his withdrawn disdain. Wrinkles etched themselves at the corners of his eyes and pulled down his mouth.

  “Yes, if you do this, I will get you to your ship safely. We must hurry.” Hahri glanced back over his shoulder again. The alley had fallen into deep shadows. The sun hung suspended just above the sea.

  “They will come looking for you soon. Follow me.”

  CHAPTER 10

  POISONED WATER

  “Are you sure about this?” Ty whispered to Niri as they walked through the darkened street towards the well. Hahri and his w
ife, Sahrai, were a dozen steps ahead of them. Hahri’s infant son, Kabutu, was snuggled in Sahrai’s shaw against her chest.

  “Do you have any ideas that don’t involve telling us to leave you here to your fate while we keep going?” Niri shot back, lifting one eyebrow slightly as she cast Ty, who walked next to her, a glance from the corner of her eye.

  Ty’s lips twitched as he looked down. “No,” he chuckled.

  Lavinia watched them both at a complete loss. When she had woken in the front salon of Finneous’ house, it had been obvious to her that something had changed with Niri. There was emotion in her normally flat eyes, unmasked expression on her face. Lavinia had wondered what had happened while she and Ria had slept. She was only beginning to see something in Ty had altered as well. There was tension in him, but not anger. Lavinia felt her forehead crease.

  “Ty, I can do this.” Niri paused the space of a breath. “I need to do this.” Her gaze was sober now. Ty held her eye and nodded once. His hand brushed her shoulder but did not stay.

  Lavinia felt the road drop out from under her feet. She reached for Ria’s hand, surprised she did not stumble. But it wasn’t really the dark road that felt suddenly unreal.

  Hahri had led them back through the bizarre to a different gate, one that opened not to the docks but to a small community of one story wooden houses. All had small windows and strong doors. In the early dusk, there had been few other people on the streets here far from the commercial area of the docks. Lights had dimly glowed from the windows of what Lavinia realized were homes.

  They had stopped at one house, Hahri glancing back along the street before he opened the door.

  “Sahrai?” He had called softly.

  Sahrai had emerged from the back of the house wearing a flowing indigo robe belted at her slim waist with an saffron sash. The joy in her face had changed to worry at the sight of Ty and the three women behind him. Their home had been sparse but neat, pleasant in its simplicity. Curious about the lives of people who lived and worked in Sardinia, Lavinia didn’t realize the bundle of fabric in Sahrai’s arms contained a baby until Hahri pulled back the cloth and touched his son’s face.

  The baby had been silent. That was what had struck Lavinia first. Lavinia had seen he was a slight boy, only about five or six months old, but she couldn’t understand the silence. All of her nieces and nephews had gurgled and grabbed for their parents, but not Kabutu.

  Niri’s face had turned ashen when she saw Kabutu. Her nostril’s had flared as she sucked in a breath, her jaw tightening as she blinked. Lavinia had done the math in her head as well. Kabutu must have been born just before the well had been contaminated.

  In quiet tones, Hahri had told his wife about Niri. Sahrai’s eyes had changed from fear to worry and finally to hope.

  “You are a Priestess?”

  “I was, yes.” Niri had paused. “I’m sorry for what happened. I had no idea such things were done.”

  Hahri had stood protectively next to his family. “How do you think the Church pays for their ships, their clothes? Where do you think the food they eat comes from? And what do you think happens when someone cannot pay, refuses?” His voice had been accusing, not granting her innocence due to her ignorance.

  In the silence that followed as Niri had stared chastised at the floor, Sahrai had spoken in her rich voice, “You can really do this?”

  “Yes, but if they come back you should hide what I’ve done to protect yourself. They will be angrier to learn the well was purified.”

  “We can take care of it. Do not worry about us.” There had been a resourceful independence in Hahri’s face. It was a confidence that Lavinia yearned for and had not realized to that moment when she saw it worn by Hahri. Ty carried it as well when he sailed, Niri when she used her skills to call water. Lavinia could not imagine what it felt like to have that certainty.

  “It will be easier if I am near the well.”

  Hahri had nodded and along with his wife and child led them from the house and through the now night shrouded streets.

  “How far is it?” Ria asked, her voice tremulous.

  “Not far, I can feel the vein of water just ahead. It goes deep into the rocks of the peninsula.”

  A flash of yearning clouded Ria’s face for a moment. With a thready exhale, Ria let it go. The ocean glimmered to Lavinia’s left, barely visible tonight without the moon. They were a few hundred feet above a stretch of beach the tide swooshed against, sounding gentle across sand rather than the rocky shore near the docks. Against the whiteness of the beach, dark lines of narrow fishing boats rested above the high tide line. It reminded Lavinia of Mirocyne and the fish mongers there. This part of Sardinia was no different from home.

  Lavinia tasted the tainted water before she saw the well. A metallic tint coated her lips. The air smelled of rotten eggs and bitter almonds. Hahri and Sahrai stopped before an opening between two houses. In the deeper night between the two buildings, Lavinia could just make out the low stone wall of the well. Buckets were scattered across the ground, tipped over and abandoned.

  Niri walked forward first, placing her hands on the waist high worn lip and leaning over to peer into the water. Sahrai shifted uncomfortably and glanced at her husband. Ty stood by Niri’s side. The mortared and fitted stones of the wall came to Ty’s hip. Ria walked to Niri’s other side, as if to learn by watching. Biting her lip, Lavinia hesitated a moment before joining Ria. She looked across at her brother. His attention was on Niri.

  Lavender and aqua blue suffused Niri’s eyes. All of her mind was on the water before her. The sick smell was so strong that Lavinia held her breath, struggling to take in the vile air when her lungs cried with need. Niri shifted, opening her hand and reaching out over the water.

  “It is poisonous. Do you need to touch it?” Sahrai’s dark eyes were wide as she held Kabutu closer to her chest.

  “Do not worry. It will not harm me.” Niri’s voice murmured and flowed, transformed by her skills. Despite her reassurance, Ty shifted uncomfortably when she skimmed her hand over the surface and winced as if the water stabbed her. Niri shook off her hand, opening and squeezing it closed a moment like Lavinia had seen her grandfather do when an old wound troubled his joints.

  “Whatever it is, it is strong,” Niri said to Ty.

  “Can you find the source?”

  Niri’s voice was fainter when she answered. “It is not in the well, somewhere deeper in the bedrock, I think.”

  Niri’s brows knitted together, her eyes not focused on the water in front of her but somewhere else that only she could see. Ria stared at the water as well, a cross look marring her face. Surprise lifted Niri’s brows and she came back to herself, blinking her eyes to focus though the strange pale blue did not fade. Niri looked back toward Hahri.

  “The Priest who came, he was from the Order of Earth?” Niri’s voice bubbled the question.

  “Yes, the ground trembled at his word.”

  Niri frowned at the water before her.

  “What’s wrong,” Ty whispered to Niri.

  “I hadn’t thought the poison would be caused by a different element. I assumed . . . ,” Niri shook her head before glancing at Ty. “I found a fault deep in the veins of water that form the well, a rent in the rocks that has not been worn smooth. It is jagged and the impurities are strongest there.”

  Ty took in her words, his eyes glancing past Hahri to the beach further down the hill as if to judge the distance. Lavinia could see tension lace up his arms. Hahri shifted uncomfortably.

  Niri’s eyes were unfocused again, her mind returning to the source of the problem. “The pocket isn’t big, but I can’t close it. It will take years to dispel, maybe longer since the well isn’t being used.”

  Hahri’s shoulders slumped. He wrapped an arm around Sahrai, his eyes meeting Ty’s. A smile grew across Niri’s face as she leaned further over the water. Her movement brought Ty’s attention back to her, and he reached out to steady her.

 
Niri glanced at him. “I can dissolve them all and flush the well.”

  “Are you sure?” Ty asked at the same time Ria barked, “How?”

  “Stay back and don’t interrupt.”

  Niri closed her eyes and bent over the polluted water. On the surface nothing happened. The hairs on Ria’s arms stood up, Lavinia’s as well. Her skin tingled as though an invisible storm swirled around her.

  A bubble burst on the surface of the well, then a second. Within moments, the water began to lethargically spin. Ty and Lavinia stepped back in surprise. Only Niri and Ria remained next to the well as the water began to spin faster. Ria’s eyes now rested on Niri with transparent awe.

  The well swirled into a maelstrom of turgid water. A funnel formed in the center of the whirlpool. The smell of almonds and sulfur flooded the air so that Lavinia gagged and coughed. Ty covered his mouth with his shirt. Lavinia could not imagine how Niri and Ria stayed so close as the heavy air suffocated her every breath.

  Niri’s eyes opened, the color in them was so intense that it was now the glowing lavender of the deepest and purest water, twin stars in the darkness above the swirling water.

  “All of the poison is in the well now.” Niri’s voice rippled like the pounding tide.

  “Flood it and send it to the sea,” Hahri said from behind her.

  Niri shook her head, glancing back at him. The well water continued spinning and did not slosh despite her break in concentration. “No, it is too much. It will poison the bay and kill the fish. What good returned would that do you?”

  Hahri swallowed and said nothing.

  “It must go deep, somewhere where it will take years to slowly leak towards the surface,” Niri whispered, closing her eyes again.

  The spinning stopped. Not a drop of water splashed towards the rim as if the whole well had frozen in an instant or never spun in the first place. The level of water dropped by a foot.

  “How?” Ty stepped forward again, not believing what his eyes saw.