Wielder's Curse

by Elle Cardy

  “Got work for me to do?”

  “Aye, lass.”

  * * *

  Jasmine leaned against the wheelhouse’s doorframe, watching Dras check the lines. While the man was no sailor, he possessed the grace of one. And he didn’t shy from hard work. That, she could admire. She wished she knew more about him though. Every time she asked, he evaded. He was better at dodging questions than Marcelo. For the eight days they’d been cramped on the boat, she’d learned precious little about him.

  “Land ahoy,” Brusan muttered from inside the wheelhouse.

  Jasmine swung around. A dark mass of land on the horizon appeared out of the mists. At last.

  Despite the rough seas, the close quarters, and Gley and Dras’ ceaseless arguments, Brusan hadn’t sounded pleased by his announcement. He caught up a scarf that had been hanging on a hook and wrapped it around his neck, pulling it high over his face. He pushed a woolen cap low over his brow. It wasn’t like a cold snap had come through.

  Jasmine contemplated asking him for his story when the vision of the boiling seas surged up around her. She caught the doorframe before she fell then fought the vision to push it down.

  It didn’t shift.

  Choking smoke billowed over her, hot ash fell on her exposed skin, an acrid stench filled her nostrils. The Beast’s howl echoed through her personal storm.

  She needed to hide. She needed to wield. Power screamed through her. Too much power, snatched from her four talismans, draining them in one hit. She gasped. Alive with power yet dying at the same time, she’d drawn the power from places within her she shouldn’t tap. This was what it was like to deplete herself. This was what it was like to die. There was nothing she could do.

  A great weight knocked her off her feet, and she landed hard on the deck. The vision shattered, as did her hold on her magic. She stared at the dark gray sky and the roiling clouds. Brusan jumped to his feet, hauling her up with him. A phantom stood where she’d been standing. Its blackness threatened to drag up the vision again. A shocking weakness pulled on every limb. Jasmine held on to Brusan for support and thought she might throw up.

  Steel rang as Dras drew his sword.

  If the phantoms had found them, then Finn was in danger.

  Jasmine staggered for the hatch and careened down the ladder. Finn sat on the bench seat in the aft, his shirt off, his eyes closed. Gley leaned against him, her hand covering his mark.

  “You said you’d wait,” Dras cried as he dropped down behind Jasmine.

  Gley was wielding; she was certain. Even as weakness threatened to drag her to her knees, Jasmine soaked up the sight. She craved it. She needed to possess the girl’s magic. She yearned Finn’s as well.

  “You must stop,” Dras cried. “Whatever you’re doing is summoning the phantoms.”

  A black entity materialized in the hold in front of Gley. It crackled as it drew closer to Finn. Seeing it shook Jasmine to her senses. She needed to wield, but she had precious little left. If she wielded, she would deplete herself. She would die. She knew it to her core.

  “Gley!” Dras cried again.

  The boat lurched, sending Jasmine crashing into an empty barrel, a bucket of slop, and a coil of ropes. She didn’t have the strength to regain her feet. Gley’s hand flew from the mark as she lost her footing. Jasmine loosed a voiceless cry. The mark had grown, spanning Finn’s whole side. He’d kept his seat, but sweat gleamed against his taut muscles as he grimaced. Gley scrambled back into position and took on the look of someone deep in concentration.

  “Stop.” If Dras had cried out to Gley or to the advancing phantom, Jasmine didn’t know. He sheathed his sword and took a deep breath. He ran and leapt into the phantom.

  Light flared. Dras cried out in agony. Gley flinched but made no other reaction. Jasmine lay there in a tangle, unable to act. She couldn’t leave Dras to whatever torture had made him scream. She searched herself for the strength she’d felt earlier. Pushing the barrel aside, she clambered groggily to her feet and staggered toward Dras.

  Gley swung around. “Don’t!”

  Jasmine reached into the phantom’s form to catch hold of Dras’ collar.

  Chapter 39

  The cold made Jasmine shiver. She couldn’t stop shivering. Her face felt wet as if she’d been left out in the rain. She opened her eyes to darkness. The sound of the ocean around her and the sway of the boat beneath her kept the panic away. She sat up, and a large form beside her moved.

  “Jasmine,” came Brusan’s voice in the dark. “How you feeling? Are you well?”

  After a rattle and a faint squeak of metal, a light flared then softened. He’d lit a lantern and held it high. Concern and weariness clouded his features as he cast his gaze over her. In the lantern light, she noticed someone had put oversized boots on her feet. She wriggled her toes. At least they were warm.

  “How’d I get up on deck?” She tried to remember what had happened, but for some reason everything was fuzzy. The last thing she could recall was being below, but even that wasn’t clear.

  “I carried you,” he said as if that was obvious. “You don’t remember what happened?”

  Why couldn’t she remember? They’d sighted land. A phantom had appeared.

  “Finn,” she said.

  “The lad’s safe. As is everyone. You saved Dras from… I ain’t sure what, but he was in a world of hurt, and you pulled him out. Or stopped the phantom. Or, don’t know what.”

  “What does Finn say happened?”

  “He wasn’t none too clear neither. They all said Dras was caught in shadow. I heard his cries from up here but couldn’t get past my own phantom. They said you reached into the thing, then… Finns says it vanished. The phantom. Gley agrees. It let go of Dras and, when it moved away from you, it vanished. You wielded it gone?”

  She remembered now. The first part, at least. Dras had been trapped inside the shadowy entity. His cries had sent a shiver through her, but they’d also given her strength. She couldn’t leave him there, trapped halfway in oblivion. Gley hadn’t done a thing to help. Jasmine had no magic left to use so she’d intended to pull the man from his prison with her bare hands. She was certain she was going to be lost to the visions and die or meet the Beast and die. Either way, she had expected to be dead.

  “I didn’t wield,” she murmured. Maybe that was what had saved her.

  The cold damp air of the night set Jasmine to shivering again. Brusan wrapped his cloak around her. The hatch opened and closed.

  “You’re awake,” came Gley’s voice. She stepped into the lantern light and sat on the deck opposite Jasmine. “Good. Tell me what you did. Everything. With as much detail as you can.”

  “Why didn’t you help Dras?”

  “I had to finish removing the mark. It wasn’t easy, but it’s done. Finn is clear of it. I’m afraid that may not help us for long. The Beast knows where we are now and where we’re headed. How did you banish the phantom?”

  Finn was safe now. As safe as the rest of them. She would take the victory however small.

  “I did nothing.”

  “You must have cast magic — wielded. Tell me what you did.”

  “She said she didn’t wield,” Brusan said.

  “I didn’t wield because I couldn’t. My talismans had drained. I had nothing left.”

  Gley took the lantern and held it up to Jasmine’s face. She leaned in close and examined her eyes. “You came close to depleting yourself.”

  “That a bad thing?” Brusan asked.

  Depletion could kill a wielder if they drained their talismans of magic.

  Gley cocked her head to the side. “Maybe not.”

  Jasmine realized what had saved her. The Beast couldn’t sense her magic because it fed on power. She had offered it nothing. Her best defense against it was to walk to the edge of nothingness, draining herself of all power.

  “This confirms it then” Gley murmured to herself. “You und
erstand what happened, yes?” She stared at Jasmine with eyes as intense as Dras’.

  “Aye.” The only way to fight the Beast was to leave herself without a weapon. A fool’s quest. What a great mess. She had no idea why Gley looked so pleased.

  “Get some rest,” the girl said. “We’ll go ashore in the morning. Be prepared for a long trek.”

  Jasmine watched the girl climb down the hatch. When it closed, she turned to Brusan. “That girl annoys me.”

  He rumbled a soft laugh. “Good to have you back.”

  “Why’d you bother bringing me up here when it would’ve been easier and warmer to leave me in the hold?”

  “Up here is where you belong,” he said with a shrug. “In the fresh air and sea spray.” He blew out the lantern, and the darkness of the cold night rushed in. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “To do that would be to lie.” She imagined him grinning in the dark.

  Chapter 40

  Jasmine kept her face down against the cold as she walked along the treacherous snowy path. Below surged the blue-black ocean thundering against the rocks, rushing to beat the cliffs into submission. The air was as sharp as a blade down her throat every time she took a breath. It kept her shivering despite her thick cloak and three pairs of socks.

  With its untamed cliffs of black stone and grim weather, Yactun was more inhospitable than Pruma. It didn’t help that Gley had insisted they avoid the townships. So much for a warm fire and local food before they ventured off on foot.

  The path they walked in single file ran up and down the cliff faces. They had to climb over or shuffle under huge spear-like thrusts of rock. They’d reached an area that had turned into a bowl-shaped cove without a beach, sheltered from the wind but not the cold. Gley led with Dras close behind. Then came Finn, Jasmine, and Brusan at the rear.

  To keep herself from distraction, Jasmine followed Finn’s steps exactly, watching the back of his heels as he picked his careful way forward. Her surroundings were all too familiar. She could be standing in the same location as the vision she’d taken from Marcelo. His warning rang in her head as his vision swam in her thoughts. The land of ice and snow. The black rocky needles reaching for the sky.

  Maybe she was wrong. There was no fire below, only ocean.

  Finn stopped, so she stopped. She blew into her hands, willing herself not to wield warmth into her body. She could no longer guarantee what would happen if she wielded, and she could deplete herself doing the smallest of things.

  “Why have we stopped?” Brusan asked from the back, his voice echoing in the bowl of cliffs.

  “The path gets narrower,” Dras called, his voice absorbed by the rocky spears.

  Peculiar.

  Finn shuffled forward. He leaped ahead and landed on the other side of a crevice. Below, through the gap in the path where the rocks and snow had tumbled, the ocean boomed and splashed. He held out his hand.

  She waved him on and leaped across. It wasn’t a difficult jump. She landed safely, and Brusan followed with ease, his round cheeks and nose rosy from the cold.

  The path climbed up then dropped down again. The curve of the wall showed Gley stopping at the front of the line to study a fallen spear of rock blocking the path.

  While she waited in the cold, Jasmine let out a steamy breath. The bowl of jagged cliff faces closed in on her. Fringed in snow, the spears of black rock pointed at her. The angry ocean surged below. She wasn’t wrong. This place was the vision Marcelo had shown her. It didn’t have the fiery lava, but it was the place.

  A hand fell on her shoulder.

  “What’s wrong, lass?” The hand was Brusan’s large callused hand. Not the smooth hand in the vision before she was tossed into the river of fire.

  “I just had the sense I’ve been here before,” she said.

  “Aye, this place ain’t wholesome. If I didn’t know better, I’d say spirits lived here.”

  He was right. There was something in the air and the stones. Something ancient and unspeakable. The crisscross of black spears around them were soaked in antiquity. The shiny cliff faces gave the sense they’d been there at the creation of Erenna and would be there long after Erenna’s folk had gone.

  “We have to climb,” Gley said.

  “Where are we going?” Finn asked, his voice echoing, unlike Gley’s.

  Gley pointed around the curve of the cliff. The path led down to more tumbled rocks. The ocean pulled back, revealing a wave-cut platform of pocked rock and sand under a natural archway. “Through there.” The ocean surged in, swallowing the shelf and crashing against the archway in a spray of white foam.

  “You’re kidding, yes?”

  In response, Gley climbed over the rocks, snow clinging to her heavy gray cloak.

  Brusan stayed Jasmine with a gentle touch. “We can turn around now. We can go back to the Puffin, sail for Pruma, and book passage to the mainland. No one would judge you.”

  She looked into his hopeful expression. She could do as he suggested. It would be simple enough. No one but Gley would blame her. Gley’s hope to defeat the Beast was a thin one, especially now that Jasmine had been banished from her Prize and her only talismans to draw from were weak substitutes. Even if she had the Prize close by, she still couldn’t trust her magic. She had no control. If she didn’t turn around now, everyone would soon learn about the sorry mess she’d become. More than a sorry mess, she was a danger. She was no good to anyone but the Beast.

  Jasmine took Brusan’s callused hand in hers. She wanted to go with him. But she couldn’t.

  He let out a breath of relief.

  Before she could correct his mistake, movement caught her eye. A trick of the light? Or the snowflakes swirling in the frigid air? A dark shape shimmered on the snow-trampled path behind him. A phantom appeared. It glided up the path like a man taking a stroll.

  Her grip on Brusan tightened. Ignoring his protest, she used him as an anchor and swung over the drop to land safely on the path, putting herself between Brusan and the phantom. She pushed him toward Finn. “Stay back,” she said, sounding calmer than she felt.

  Brusan cursed. “Don’t be foolish.”

  At the far side of the bowl another phantom appeared. It didn’t move.

  “We have to move faster,” Gley called from the other side of the rubble. Dras scrambled across the collapsed rock. Finn picked his way more slowly.

  “You couldn’t fight them on the Puffin,” Brusan said. “Sure as death, you can’t fight them here, alone.”

  “Just go,” Jasmine hissed. The phantom on her path moved closer. The energy crackled above the boom of the ocean below. The entities were creations of the Beast, yet they pushed Jasmine and the others onward. If the Beast knew what they intended, it would be forcing them in the opposite direction. “Go quickly.”

  Brusan cursed again and lumbered across the rocks.

  Reluctant to turn her back on the advancing phantom, Jasmine edged her way to the rocks. The entity drew closer. Blackness and nothingness beckoned. She would not succumb. She spun and scrambled across the rocks. Her foot slipped. As snow tumbled, she caught herself. By the time she landed on the other side of the rockslide, she was shaking.

  Gley had already run on with Dras at her heels. Finn and Brusan had stayed behind. It wasn’t like they could’ve caught her if she’d fallen.

  “Go, go, go,” she cried.

  They hurried on, the path slippery and narrow as it angled down, closer to the surging ocean kicking up clouds of icy spray. The fallen rocks on the path hadn’t slowed the phantom. It had simply glided across. The thing didn’t pick up speed, but advanced at a steady rate.

  Gley came to the end of the path where a section had broken away at the arch. Without another word, she timed the waves and jumped down onto the rock shelf. Despite the long fall, she landed gracefully on her feet. With the waves chasing her, she ran under the arch, disappearing beyond. After the currents dragged the waters out,
revealing the rocky platform again, Dras did the same. He moved faster than Gley and disappeared.

  “Your turn, lad,” Brusan said. “Make it quick.”

  Finn leapt. He lost his footing and landed heavily against the rocks. He staggered to his feet and ran. The waves crashed around him, covering his ankles. He lifted his feet high, pumping his arms for balance as the surge rose to his knees. It caught him around the waist and pushed him the rest of the way beyond the arch. When the ocean pulled away, there was no sign of him.

  Jasmine blew out a breath of relief.

  “Now you,” Brusan said. The phantom had stopped up the path as if it waited. There was no going back. “The tide’s coming in. We ain’t got time.”

  Still Jasmine hesitated. The phantom moved forward. “Don’t argue. Just go.”

  Brusan growled under his breath, checked it was clear, and jumped. He landed with one foot on the rock and one ankle-deep in a pocket of sand. Chased by another relentless surge, he pulled out his caught foot and ran toward the arch, disappearing beyond like the others.

  The phantom drifted in so close she could’ve touched it. It hovered there on the path with her. Waiting.

  “What do you want?” she asked it.

  A powerful yearning for freedom came over her. Darkness clouded her vision. A great maw of emptiness opened below her. She had to escape or it would swallow her whole.

  She had no clue if the rock platform was clear or not.

  She jumped.

  Chapter 41

  Jasmine landed in the same wet patch of sand Brusan had found. Her borrowed boots filled with grit and water, weighing her down. She pulled one foot free then the other. The phantom appeared on the rock shelf with her, blocking her escape.