Olivin’s sister was here.
Ever since hearing Wynry’s words in the stone she’d thrown at Eira before the start of the tournament…combined with the ordeal of saving Yonlin, and learning of the dark relationship Olivin had with his sister in the process…Eira didn’t think she could ever forget the sound of
Wynry’s voice.
She mirrored Ducot’s intense expression. Eira shoved the iron ball into the bag and quickly tied it closed. With a swing onto her shoulders, she was ready to move. Without hesitation, Eira went for the window over where Cullen had sat, pulling it open as silently as possible while the sounds of heavy footsteps filled the hall.
Trusting Ducot to follow, Eira leaped over the window and started back toward the wall that encircled Champion Village. Ducot landed with a heavy thud, the earth crunching under his boots as he raced over to her. Eira adjusted the bag’s strap across her body, making sure it was as tight as possible.
They were out in the open. Pillars were sweeping the houses so there was nowhere to hide. They were going to have to run for it.
Ducot started to speak. “Someone’s—”
“There’s someone here!” a Pillar shouted behind them.
“Coming? I know.” Eira grabbed his hand and pressed it against the back wall that encircled the competitors’ village. The time for subtlety had passed. “Make us an opening!”
Luckily, Ducot didn’t hesitate. With a ripple of magic distorting the air, the stone before them changed its shape from a wall to an archway…facing another building. Eira, still holding Ducot’s wrist, took a step and touched it to the wall of the house.
The Pillar jumped from the window, another following. “Again!” she commanded Ducot.
The Pillar that had first given chase was almost upon them, opening his mouth. He was going to use Lightspinning and she didn’t have her magic to stop him. But that didn’t mean she was helpless.
She crouched down, grabbed a fistful of the dusty earth, and threw it in the Pillar’s direction as he inhaled. It sent him into a coughing fit, disrupting his magic words. Other Pillars burst from the back door of the house, but her deflection had bought them enough time. Ducot had made another opening and Eira led them through.
“Should I close it?” Ducot asked as she dragged him through the house. Eira flipped chairs and pushed over a bookcase behind her, anything to slow them.
“They’ll just shatter it with Lightspinning; don’t waste your time.” Eira burst through the house’s front door, emerging onto a familiar street. They were farther down from where Alyss had made the exit of her tunnel, but close enough for Eira to know where she was.
If only she could make them invisible…
“Follow me!” Her body was past the point of exhaustion, but Eira found new limits as she began sprinting. She had to release Ducot for speed, but luckily the street was empty enough that he had no trouble following her by sense or sound.
An explosion rang out behind them—as expected, the Pillars were shattering her barricades. Eira made a hard right, dashing into the alleyway with Alyss’s tunnel. The rush fueled her muscles, and she hoisted the circular, stone disk off the opening of Alyss’s tunnel and jumped down. Every part of her body screamed as she landed on the hard rock below and Eira bit her lip so hard she tasted blood to prevent herself from crying out.
Ducot was behind her, scrambling down. “Use the shift,” she panted. “Seal it.”
His acknowledgment came in the form of his magic, doing just as she asked. The thin ring of light that had shown where the opening was sealed
up, vanishing. Ducot slowly finished climbing down, kneeling next to her, breathing heavy as well.
“…where…” Voices were muffled through the thin layer of stone, barely audible.
“Thought…they…here…” “… searching…they…far…”
Eira held her hand over her mouth, holding her breath, waiting for them to pass. Wiping away blood from her split lips and praying to the Mother, Yargen, whatever god or goddess might be listening against all odds that the Pillars simply…moved on. Eventually, the voices faded, and everything was still.
“Good thinking back there.” Even underground, Ducot still kept his voice down. They were taking no chances of something echoing back to the house at the other end of the tunnel.
“I do what I can.” Eira pushed herself off the ground. It was harder to stand than before. Even though the Lightspinning had helped mend her flesh, it couldn’t cure exhaustion and she was fading fast.
“Impressive that you’re still useful without magic.” Ducot began climbing the ladder.
The words stung, but they were true. She had no magic, and as hard as that was to accept, she had to, otherwise she’d put herself in dangerous situations expecting her powers to help her get out of them. Eira forced the thoughts away, for now, and rummaged through the bag that she thankfully hadn’t lost to produce one of Cullen’s shirts and her cloak as Ducot created the tunnel cover once more with a pulse of magic.
“Elegant design…” he murmured. “Down to it being easy to shift.”
“Alyss is pretty incredible,” Eira agreed as he pushed aside the opening and scrambled up. She tossed up the shirt before climbing behind him. “I know you’re bigger than Cullen, but it’s better than nothing.”
“They’re going to be looking for us.” He readily accepted the clothing. “Do you think they’ve found Adela?” Eira half hoped they had.
Delicious thoughts of the pirate queen ending the Pillars then and there filled her.
“For our sakes, let’s hope not.” Ducot pushed the stone disk back into place.
“Our sakes?”
“If she senses trouble, or anyone knowing she’s here, she’ll flee.”
“Some mighty pirate queen,” Eira mumbled.
“I don’t know what scared her away from Meru, but it was something significant,” he said with a note of severity. “And anything that scares Adela is worth heeding.”
“Could it be Ulvarth and the Pillars?”
Ducot shook his head. “Ulvarth was around in my childhood and she had no problem pillaging Meru’s coastline then.”
“Do you have any idea what it might have been?” The mystery of something scaring Adela that much intrigued her. If it wasn’t Ulvarth himself, perhaps it was something, or someone, they could use against him.
He shook his head. “But I do know it’s not important right now.” “Agreed, we should keep moving.” Eira held out her hand. “Want me to
lead?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine for now. I’ll take it if I need to.” Ducot motioned for her to carry on.
“Right.” Eira started out of the alleyway.
They didn’t speak a word the entire way back. The docks were quieter than the last time they’d passed through. But Ducot still took her hand when the smoke got thick. The few people out looked more like looters than Pillars. Still, Eira took a few winding back alleyways after the docks, trying to make sure no one was following them. Once or twice, she thought she saw movement out of the corners of her eyes. But it ended up as nothing.
She breathed a sigh of relief that still tasted like a campfire the moment she saw Fen. Eira never thought one of Adela’s pirates could be so comforting by presence alone. But when the alternative was the Pillars, she’d take the pirates.
“I’ll have you both know, I waited an extra”—Fen checked his pocket watch—“ten minutes.”
“Does your generosity know no bounds?” Ducot asked, panting softly from their speedy trek out of town.
“Only when it comes to you.” Fen patted Ducot on the cheek and Ducot waved the other man’s hand away. “Right, then, you have them?”
“I do.” Eira shifted the bag still on her shoulder.
“And then some, it looks like.” Fen had a hungry gleam to his eyes that made Eira keenly aware that Western rubies the size of coins were on her person.
“Nothing for you to be concerned with,” Eira said coolly. “Now let’s go, we don’t want to keep Adela waiting.”
“Oh, Adela?” Fen repeated. “I thought those from Oparium still didn’t say her name for fear of her curse.” The way he emphasized the word showed just how ridiculous he found the notion.
“I might be from Oparium, but my heart was never there.” Eira kept calm, thinking of what was to come next. Adela would demand the books, and there was nothing she could really do to stop her from getting them. But they were also the only bargaining chip she had with the pirate queen. She couldn’t just…hand them over.
“And where is your heart?” Fen asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Eira gave him a sharp look that only elicited laughter. But he didn’t press further. So that counted for something. She used the silence for continuing to think of her next moves.
“Oi, Pine!” Fen called with a wave of his hand, drawing over the other pirate that had disembarked with them. “They made it back.”
“Pine?” Eira couldn’t help but blurt.
“A lot of the crew have interesting names,” Ducot said. “Many of us didn’t have families. Or, if we did, we don’t want to remember or honor them with the names given by them.”
“Right…” Eira looked over her shoulder at the mention of family. There wasn’t any time to make it into the coliseum, what was left of it. What had happened to her parents? The unknown was a deep-rooted pain. Just when she had thought things were improving with her uncle, and when there could be a path toward peace with her parents, it was all ripped from her. Another thing Ulvarth had stolen.
“You gave them extra time,” Pine grumbled as they started into the muck of the riverbank toward where the vessel was still waiting.
“I did no such thing.” Fen raised his fingertips to his chest, as if he were scandalized by the mere suggestion.
“Ducot was always your favorite.”
“Well, can you blame him? Fen has exceptional taste.” Ducot preened. “Fen has all the taste of a blind man,” Pine said.
“Exactly, that’s why we get along so well.” Ducot waved his hand in front of his face with an over-the-top smile. The three laughed.
Their conversation betrayed deep familiarity. These were bonds that were as established, if not more so, as the ones Eira had with her friends.
Ducot had been telling the truth…he was a pirate through and through. These were his allies, friends, and, based on what he’d told her, family. She imagined they’d known him since he was a boy, or even younger than that.
When the water was up to her chest, Eira situated the bag onto her shoulders and head to keep the old, delicate journals dry. She looped the strap down under her armpits and then around her arm, securing it in place. It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but it wasn’t choking her and the journals weren’t damaged.
“Would you like me to hold that?” Fen offered as he was halfway up the ladder. He stretched out a hand. “Here, pass it up.”
“No, I have it.” Eira started up next, making it a point to show him as much. If she had her magic still, she would’ve just walked on ice across to the vessel. Perhaps not doing so would give her away? Eira took the ladder one rung at a time. She couldn’t spend time worrying about things she couldn’t change, just how she would manage them henceforth.
“You gave them an extra ten minutes,” Adela echoed Pine, speaking to Fen, as they emerged onto the deck. She sat on a wooden folding chair, leather suspended between the two sides for her comfort. Even though it was of simple make, with her perched upon it, the chair looked as though it were a throne.
“I figured ten minutes was better than not getting your journals back,” Fen replied.
“The Pillars attacked just as we were leaving; that’s what held us up,” Ducot explained.
Adela hummed, eyeing Eira as she undid the bag strap from around her arms, situating it once more on her shoulder. “That bag looks awfully full for just some journals.”
“I grabbed a few other things, for my friends and me.” Eira didn’t see the point in hiding it. “It took no extra time.”
“Well then, let’s see them.” Adela placed both hands on the top of her cane, leaning forward slightly, her knees spreading to the sides.
Eira shifted the bag, but instead of walking farther, she stepped back and thrust it out over the railing. The other pirates moved toward her but Adela stopped them with a slow raise of her hand. The pirate queen tipped her head to the side, inspecting Eira.
“Tell me, what is it you’re hoping to accomplish, little Eira?” Her words were like the biting frost creeping across the deck around Adela’s feet,
stealing all warmth from the air.
“These journals are pretty old, aren’t they? I imagine a bit of water would ruin the parchment and ink. You’d lose all of your records.”
“I’ve done just fine without them so far.” Adela lowered her hand back down to her cane. She had a slight smile curling the edges of her lips.
“True. But you wanted them badly enough that you wasted time—you lingered here on Meru”—which Eira now knew was significant, thanks to Ducot—“to allow me to go and get them for you. Even if you don’t need them…no one is above being a sentimental fool, not even you.”
“You call me a fool?” Adela stood.
“Don’t come closer.” Eira held out her other hand to one of the pirates who tried to shuffle toward her, hoping that the idea of her having magic could function, at least somewhat, as a plausible threat. “I will drop it.”
“And lose your best bargaining chip?” Adela arched her brows. Eira’s heart sank. Something must’ve shown on her face because Adela continued. “We both know destroying those journals is not advantageous to you. Now, I could take them by force. There is nothing you can do that would stop me. But you’ve intrigued me enough with this little ploy. What is worth so much to you that you would risk the ire of the pirate queen?”
“My friends.”
“Ah, yes. Speaking of being a sentimental fool…” Adela’s tone sounded as though she was scoffing at the notion of being willing to sacrifice for those you cared about, but wasn’t this the same woman who had taken in an orphaned Ducot? From the brief glimpses and knowledge Eira had gleaned, she would bet that Adela had more sentimentality than she was letting on.
“You have to know it to recognize it.”
Adela’s smile grew wider, but her eyes narrowed with annoyance. “You still have not named your price. I grow tired of this game.”
“I want you to free my friends and me,” Eira demanded. “We have no business with you.”
“Eira…” Ducot whispered. She could almost hear what he had said back in Warich. Adela is the one woman who could help you get your magic back.
She felt a little nauseous. He was right. Adela could. But it would come at a cost higher than Eira suspected she wanted to pay. She was better off trying to find her uncle, or getting back to Risen, then Solaris. Someone would be able to help her along the way.
The demand seemed to confuse Adela. “Your friends, yes, but you…you have no business with me? She who stole my name?”
“I told you that I never meant to,” Eira repeated herself from earlier. Though, the way Adela had said “you”… Were Eira’s suspicions that Adela had been lying earlier about being her mother right? Her want to take her chances by staying warred with what she knew what was best for her friends. But Eira remained steadfast in her decision.
“I know what you said. But I have yet to render my judgment on the matter.” The way Adela spoke left little doubt that she was judge, jury, and executioner. Eira prepared a retort but Adela continued before she could get another word out. “Very well. We shall have it your way.”
“Really?” Eira asked skeptically.
Adela shrugged. “I am a pirate, but I am also a woman of my word. It is so rarely given; I might as well be.”
It was too easy. Eira combed through her thoughts. But doing so was hard. She was tired…very tired. Dawn was nearly upon them and she was going on almost a full day of no sleep.
“Now, my journals, if you please.” Adela unfurled her hand, waiting expectantly. “I won’t ask again nicely.”
Eira pulled the bag back to her and dragged her feet over to the pirate queen. Up close, Adela was even more fearsome. Eira didn’t need sorcery to know that murder was in the air. She could only imagine what unfathomable power constantly crackled around her.
“You will let us go?”
“Of course,” Adela assured her.
Eira passed the bag into the pirate queen’s waiting hand. “Now, my friends—”
“Take her,” Adela commanded simply. “But you said—”
“I said I would let you all go. I never said when, how, or in what state.” She leaned forward, looming over Eira, silencing her with the force of her presence alone. “The first rule you must learn, if you’re going to ever hope to be in league with the pirate queen, is to be very specific in your negotiations.”
Eira scowled up at the woman. She balled her hand into a fist and then sprung open her fingers, willing her channel to pop open. But no power came.
And she was far too exhausted, and weak, to fight when a voice behind her uttered, “Loft not.”
Against her will, Eira fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
