Wielder's Curse

by Elle Cardy

  He raised the cutlass and charged.

  Jasmine didn’t have time to curse. With the intention to push him away, she drew magic from her ship and—

  Henk slammed his shoulder into her chest and sent her flying. She landed hard on her back and gasped for breath. As she writhed on the deck, he hacked at Finn’s door with his weapon. Wood chips splintered off in all directions.

  “Stop,” she wheezed and staggered to her feet. Where was Gley? She should’ve been there to protect Finn. It was the one job the girl had on the ship.

  Henk went on hacking.

  Jasmine gathered her power. Her magic shied from the storm in the passageway, from the vision of boiling seas threatening to take over, from the madness and wrongness coating every timber, every line, every drop of water in the surrounding ocean.

  The sailor wrestled with the battered door and ripped a board loose, then another. With one final heave, he wrenched the door from its hinges and charged into the room.

  Finn.

  Jasmine leaped to the doorway, expecting to see a scene from a nightmare. She found, instead, an empty room. There was no sign of Finn. Henk swayed in the middle, his shoulders hunched, his cutlass hanging loose in his hand. The cloud of darkness around him had vanished, but not the boiling seas of her vision. The weapon slipped from his fingers and clanged against the deck. The sailor blinked and staggered.

  “Henk?”

  He swung around. “Midge,” he murmured as if he’d just woken. “What am I doing here?” He moved to the shattered door. “What happened?” Unlike Philips, it seemed he had no memory of what he’d done. Perhaps that was for the best.

  She took him by the arm and guided him across the wreckage and into the passageway. “Go visit Cook. Tell him I said you can have my midday rations. I’ll deal with this.”

  Still in a daze, he nodded and lumbered away.

  The door was a mess. She would need to organize a replacement. And quickly.

  “You can’t keep giving away your rations,” Finn’s voice said.

  Jasmine startled, and her hold on the vision slipped. Darkness reared to swallow her. She snatched up the threads and pushed them down. “Finn?”

  Finn and Gley materialized in the room. An unsettling sight. It was as if they stepped through a wound between realms. Was that what she looked like when she appeared after hiding?

  Gley stepped closer, her gaze tracing the spaces around Jasmine. “So much power,” she murmured.

  Jasmine tried to contain her magic along with the visions that continued to shimmer and boil on her edges.

  “All around you,” Gley said, looking pale.

  A haze of tainted smoke swept across her sight. Sulfurous corruption billowed over her. Why wouldn’t the vision stay away? Emergency pealed in her ears.

  “What now?” Finn asked. His hair was unbound and unbrushed, and the dark circles hanging under his eyes said he hadn’t slept in a while. “Why would the ships bells be ringing?”

  The ship’s bells.

  “Stay with Finn,” she snapped at Gley.

  Before the girl could argue, Jasmine ran.

  Chapter 26

  When Jasmine burst through the hatch, a cold wind blasted her, flaying her exposed skin. The crew on deck and in the rigging peered into the wind toward the northwest, their hollowed faces draining of color. Captain Durne stood at the starboard railing with First Mate Cagg. Afraid of what she’d find, she too squinted out to sea.

  Her vision of the boiling seas flared then cleared enough to reveal the ghost ship had sailed closer. It was no more than three or four lengths from the Prize. That close, the wrongness of it was more apparent. Nothing moved on the ship, not even the sails. The lack of life and detail was downright unnerving, and still her gaze kept sliding off when she tried to focus on it. But there was one new detail: cannons had formed down its side.

  The boom of heavy artillery fire echoed across the rough waters. Six dark spheres hurtled toward the Prize. The crew scrambled to brace. In the breath before striking the ship, the cannonballs turned to smoke and vanished.

  A soft curse in another language issued beside her. Jasmine knew that voice. “Gley. I told you to stay below. You can’t leave Finn alone.” There was no telling what could happen, or which crewmate might go after him. Darkness swirled around the whole ship.

  “He’s here,” Gley whispered. “With me.”

  A gentle touch on the small of Jasmine’s back spoke the truth.

  “I need your help,” Gley continued in a rush. “Another crewman is after him. I couldn’t keep him protected down there, and I can’t keep him hidden for much longer.”

  Pressure in Jasmine’s head built to a throb. Visions blew around her.

  “Man the cannons,” Cagg cried, and the command echoed through the ship as the crew scuttled to obey.

  “You need to hide him. Now.” Gley appeared in front of her. Dark circles rimmed her eyes. She looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion, or maybe it was fear.

  “Fire!”

  The Prize’s cannons fired and hurtled through the ghost ship without causing damage. The ghost ship returned fire. Ashen storms swirled in Jasmine’s vision. The Beast’s power sang in her ears and roared across the skies. Again the cannonballs collapsed into smoke. The Beast was testing its strength, adjusting its power. Soon those munitions would remain solid and smash through the Prize.

  Jasmine spun to Gley. “You have to believe me now. This is the Beast’s work. It’s getting stronger.”

  A churning shape of blackness climbed from a hatch. Decker. The crewman had joined the Prize at the same time as Cagg. He was a skinny man made skinnier by the rationing. He liked sleight of hand and often entertained the crew with his card tricks. Quick to smile or tell a joke, he was one of the more easygoing crewmates. Through the dark fumes surrounding him, his gaze locked on Finn.

  “You don’t belong here,” he snarled.

  Gley let out a burst of breath. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t hide him any longer.”

  “Stand aside, Decker,” Jasmine said.

  He didn’t move.

  Captain Durne turned away from the railing and narrowed his eyes at the crewman.

  “You know it’s true.” Decker lifted his chin at Finn. “He ain’t right in the noggin. He’s what’s cursed us. A new star. A ghost ship. And now we’re under attack. He’s a danger to us all. Even you.”

  Gley pushed Finn behind her and lifted her quarterstaff. “Stand aside or I’ll make you stand aside.” The girl wasn’t helping.

  Durne signaled Cagg and approached. “Stand down, sailor.”

  Jasmine waved her captain back. “He won’t listen to you. He’s not himself.”

  “Your captain commands you to stand down, Decker,” Cagg said.

  The sailor drew a long thin blade from his belt.

  A faint nod from Durne brought Arassi and Harris charging at the madman. Decker cried out and slammed against the mainmast. The burly men wrestled his weapon away and restrained him with rough hands. The shadows around him vanished like a plume of dust, and the man blinked as if he had grit in his eyes.

  “What happened? Let me go.”

  A shadow coalesced over Davit in the rigging. The man dropped to the deck and drew his blade. It was a folding clasp knife with a worn handle. Another shadow formed over Curtin. His clasp knife had a clipped point.

  “Has this entire ship gone mad?” Durne asked.

  “Stand down, sailors,” First Mate Cagg shouted.

  The men continued to advance on Finn.

  “Hide him,” Gley hissed.

  Through the storm in her vision, Jasmine pulled magic from her ship. It recoiled from her touch as if it were a living thing afraid to show itself. Corruption smeared across a third crewmate.

  “Do it now.”

  Jasmine went deeper into her ship, crooning to it while fighting off the visions. Magic uncoiled and acce
pted her touch. With the power at her grasp, she hid Finn.

  The shadows over the men lifted. They blinked in a daze. Brusan appeared on deck, glaring at the scene before him.

  “You, you, and you get to my quarters,” Durne said, indicating Jasmine, Gley, and Finn. It seemed she could hide nothing from the man. “Cagg, you have command, but no more wasting ammunition on an illusion. Brusan, find Marcelo and send him to my quarters then help Cagg keep an eye on things up here.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Despite Cagg’s reputation and Brusan’s looming presence, Jasmine feared they wouldn’t be able to keep a check on the crew. A foreign hate burned in the crew’s eyes. The Beast’s power flared around them, fighting for control, fighting for a place in the world.

  With a solid hold on Finn, Jasmine followed her captain into his quarters. All warmth inside had leached away. Little light seeped in through the frosted windows, and outside, vision storms and ash rains blew across the ocean.

  Jasmine moved to the side, wondering if it was safe to reveal Finn. He looked as weary as she felt. When the door closed, she let her magic go. Ready to hide him again, she waited for a dark shadow to appear. Nothing happened.

  Durne glowered from his desk. Gley sank to the edge of the only other available chair opposite. Her skin had paled, and her body bent as if she carried a terrible weight on her shoulders. She didn’t look well.

  “Unnatural forces surround this ship,” Durne said. “I need to know what’s happening. I suspect one or all of you know, or in the very least, have a theory. Why do we have a new star winking at us every night? What is the real reason behind the attack against Finn? Why is a ghost ship following us? A ghost ship. According to Cagg, it’s firing on us. Why?”

  Durne burned his dark gaze onto Jasmine. “Have you learned anything new?” He meant the job he’d given her to discover Marcelo’s secrets. As much as she wanted to give him something, she had nothing. Nothing except the old man’s orchestration of the events at Oakheart and the story of the Beast.

  “Go on,” he said.

  The door burst open, and in strode Marcelo. “Why was I summoned? I’m not one of your crew to order about.”

  With the door wide open, anyone could see in. Jasmine snatched Finn’s hand and wielded him hidden.

  “Close the door,” Gley cried.

  “For that matter, lock it too,” Durne said.

  Marcelo harrumphed, but made no move to obey.

  Gley leaped past him and slammed the door shut. With a click, she secured the latch.

  “Shouldn’t you lot be out there manning the cannons or whatnot?” Marcelo asked. “We are under attack, are we not?” Jasmine would’ve liked to wipe the old man’s amused expression from his face.

  Another boom of the ghost ship’s cannons reverberated against the timbers. Jasmine waited for the strike, but none came. The Beast was still building its power. The vision storm outside blew a gale across the slate seas, churning the waters into white froth.

  Durne turned to her. “You were saying, Jasmine?”

  She hadn’t been saying anything, and she didn’t want Marcelo to know she’d been going through his scrolls. Not only that, she still hadn’t told Finn about the Beast being behind his attack.

  She released her magic from Finn.

  “Five months ago,” she said, filling the sudden quiet in the room, “at Sapphire Cove, Kahld silenced Finn and me.” She didn’t dare look at Finn. Or Gley. This was one of the secrets she hadn’t wanted Gley to find out. This was telling her how much power she truly had, and it could lead the girl to thinking too much.

  “Not this again,” Marcelo said.

  “Let her speak,” Durne said and waited.

  “We found ourselves in a different place.” She shook her head, trying to come up with the right words to describe the vast nothingness that was the void, the right way to explain what had happened so the others would understand, or at least not dismiss her.

  “It was a place not of Erenna,” Finn said. “It was barren of life and substance.”

  “A void,” Jasmine said. “But it wasn’t completely empty. There was an entity in there. A presence.”

  “Yes, yes,” Marcelo said, rolling his eyes, “a nasty beasty made of nightmare.”

  “One more word out of you and I’ll halve what little rations you’re already on,” Durne said.

  Marcelo bowed his head and tucked his hands close to his body. As much as his posture said he would comply, his expression said Durne was in danger of waking up one morning with a nasty itch in his nether regions.

  “This presence, this Beast…” She was reluctant to use Marcelo’s word after he’d done a fine job of scorning it. “It was trapped in that place, and it wanted out. It feeds on the power of wielders who have been silenced.”

  Finn made a noise. It was the kind of noise a person makes when realizing some shocking truth for the first time. He glared at her. “You think this Beast is somehow behind my attack because I silenced a man in Oakheart.”

  It took all her courage to meet his gaze. She nodded. “Silencing feeds the Beast. You knew that. It’s stronger now. It yearns to escape and daily haunts me with its hunger.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You didn’t need the extra worry when the knowledge wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

  “In fear of endangering my crumbs, I must speak up,” Marcelo said.

  Durne nodded.

  “This beast story is hokum. There is no such thing. The practice of silencing has been going on for generations, and no one has ever reported such a creature or even such a realm as the one Jasmine has conjured in her imagination.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  “I didn’t say you were,” Marcelo said. “I’m suggesting that you are mistaken. You aren’t a well-trained wielder. You aren’t familiar with our ways. Most of what you do is by instinct alone. Of course you’re going to find demons around every blind corner. It’s inevitable when the mind doesn’t understand what it’s seeing.”

  “What about Finn? He saw it too.”

  “He saw something months ago when he was under a lot of strain. Being killed can do that to a person. And now he’s under more strain. He is easily influenced by you. That is inevitable when love is a factor, despite a trained mind.”

  Finn rubbed at his temples. “Maybe he’s right.” He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He let his hands drop, and he met Jasmine’s gaze. The weight of the world looked like it was crushing him.

  She turned on Marcelo. “You. It’s your fault. You knew you’d find that wielder in Oakheart. You knew what he was before you’d even left the Prize. You wanted Finn to silence him. Why?”

  The old man shrugged. “He was a wielder that needed silencing. Left to his own devices, he was a danger to Erenna. Of all people, you should understand that.” His bright blue eyes pierced her. She was sure the look was a threat.

  Durne leaned into his chair. “You saw this in one of your visions, then?”

  Marcelo nodded. “The only successful outcome was if Finn did the silencing,”

  “Then why hide it? Why lie about it?”

  The old man gave Durne the same piercing stare. “Because it was no one’s business. As soon as someone thinks it’s their personal concern, they need to ask questions, demand explanations, judge for themselves. Life is too short for that nonsense. Now if we’re done, I’d like to return to my quarters.”

  He reached for the latch. Jasmine wielded so the latch wouldn’t move.

  “Let me out. Now.” There was a desperation in his voice she hadn’t expected.

  A vague shape formed in the center of the room. A shadow. A rend in existence.

  Jasmine pushed Finn behind her. Gley rose and lifted her short staff to a defensive stance.

  “What’s happening?” Durne asked, pushing himself away from his desk as he studied each of their faces.

&
nbsp; “You can’t see it?” Gley asked, her eyes narrowed as if she could dissect him with a look alone.

  “Clearly not. What is it?”

  The shape darkened like an ocean trench leading to oblivion, standing upright like a black pillar. Its edges blistered the air and sent faint smoke trails wisping out in all directions. The vision of the boiling seas bubbled from it, catching Jasmine off guard, threatening to drag her in.

  “It’s a … specter,” Gley said. “An apparition.” She swung her short staff at it, and the pole went straight through.

  “What does it want?” Durne asked.

  The phantom moved toward Finn. Fighting the vision, Jasmine pushed him back until his heels slammed against the bulkhead. There was nowhere to go.

  “It wants Finn,” Gley said as she took up a defensive position next to Jasmine. “Can you hide him?”

  The vision churned through Jasmine like a rough ocean swell. It dragged her through fiery destruction, blackened seas, and acrid smoke. Through the roar in her ears, she thought she heard a mournful wail, a cry of hunger, a snarl of revenge. She couldn’t trust her ears or anything to do with the Beast. She couldn’t focus on it or she’d be lost to it.

  She had to hide Finn. She tried wielding him hidden. It didn’t work. Her magic refused to obey. When Finn had first been attacked, she had blasted the thing. Back then, she didn’t have a vision pulling on her, wanting to drag her down into the black nothingness with it. Back then, she’d used instinct alone. There hadn’t been time for doubts or fears. Now, when she wielded, nothing happened.

  The phantom advanced.

  “Get back,” Gley cried. “Don’t let it touch you.”

  There was no back left to “get.”

  With a hungry fascination, Marcelo studied the phantom, seemingly oblivious to the danger Finn, Jasmine, and Gley were in. Durne remained behind his desk, looking baffled and angry. Over the top of it all, the fierce vision storm blew through the room, bringing with it ruin.

  Jasmine had to protect these people. She had the power if only it would obey her will. She wielded again. Still nothing.

  The phantom was no more than an arm’s length away.