Stretched out around the old man were half a dozen bodies, with not a wound on them.
‘What’s going on?’ Nerazime pushed past Ronnyn, striding a couple of steps out onto the mid-deck.
The empowered lads pushed forward, eager to see, driving Ronnyn and Sardeon out onto the mid-deck.
‘Stay back,’ Egrayne called. She was a head taller than the raiders and could see over them, but she was still a good distance from the foredeck cabins. ‘It’s a fiant, riding a Mieren power-worker. Out of my way!’
Nerazime gasped.
The power-worker turned towards them, revealing deep gashes on his chest that went to the bone without bleeding.
‘Back.’ Nerazime gestured fiercely as she and the empowered lads scattered like geese before a wild dog.
The fiant gave a silent laugh, head thrown back. Ronnyn saw its throat and gullet exposed by a horizontal cut that went as far back as the spine.
‘Don’t try anything, Nera,’ Reoden cried from the deck above. ‘It’s attracted to power.’
‘Saro’s focused her gift to save her devotee, Ree,’ Nerazime said. ‘It’s attracted to her.’
The fiant turned from Nerazime at the base of the steps, to Reoden at the rail above, as if following their conversation. It seemed to Ronnyn the beast was sensing their power.
‘Keep your gifts contained,’ Nerazime warned, shoving Vittor and the other empowered lads behind her. A dozen terrified people packed the steps, watching.
‘It’s finally come for me,’ Sardeon whispered, and his gift surged in terror.
Ronnyn felt Sardeon’s body go rigid as he fought for control. In desperation, Ronnyn clutched Sardeon’s arm, only to feel his choice-brother’s power run through his body. It was raw and elemental, and beyond his ability to channel or contain.
And his gift sprang to life, as if a dam had broken.
Power flooded Ronnyn’s body, making his heart pound, his sense sharpen and his mind race. It felt as if his gift drew on Sardeon’s. The more he tried to contain his power, the more it surged to protect him.
His sight shifted and he saw the fiant as it truly was: a seething source of hunger wearing borrowed flesh.
The horror of it held him immobile as the fiant reached for them.
‘No!’ Vittor shoved Nerazime aside, charged across the deck and drove his sword through the fiant’s back, right through its chest.
Quick as a cat, the fiant turned and caught Vittor’s face in its hands. Ronnyn watched, horrified, as the fiant consumed the lad’s gift, along with his life-force.
Nerazime screamed, and sprang towards the fiant.
‘No, Nera.’ Reoden jumped over the rail, dropping to the deck. She landed lightly and caught her voice-of-reason, holding her back.
The fiant’s head swung towards them as it cast Vittor’s body aside. The lad collapsed not far from Ronnyn, an empty husk. Reoden released Nerazime, who fell to her knees, crawled to Vittor and cradled him in her arms.
Dimly, Ronnyn heard Egrayne trying to get through the crowd. His head pounded and his nose stung with the force of their combined gifts.
The fiant rolled its head towards Ronnyn and Sardeon. Dead eyes focused on them.
‘Leave my boys alone,’ Reoden ordered, calling on her power.
Her words held visions for Ronnyn: visions of love and sacrifice. She glowed like a beacon as she stepped forward.
‘No!’ The causare forged through the crowd, as people drew away from her. No wonder... She wore blue fire like a cloak. Flames flickered up her arms, across her shoulders and through her hair, which writhed as if alive. ‘Come this way. I’m the one you want.’
‘No, Imoshen. Wait!’ Egrayne called, trying to shove through the crowd.
Gift-tutor Sarodyti appeared in the passage doorway, hands stained with her devotee’s blood.
The fiant turned its head towards her, sniffing the air, tongue flicking out.
‘Over here,’ Imoshen said, coming closer, wreathed in blue fire.
Egrayne finally thrust free of the crowd. ‘Over here, this way.’
The fiant looked from Imoshen, to Egrayne, to Reoden and then back to Ronnyn and Sardeon.
It chose them. Ronnyn could not move. It was as if Sardeon’s terror held them both immobile.
A cry of protest left Reoden’s lips as she leapt towards the fiant, but she was too far away to do anything and Egrayne and Imoshen were even further.
Gift-tutor Sarodyti sprang out of the passage.
To Ronnyn’s gift-aware eyes she trailed streamers of power as she ran towards the fiant. It lifted its arms in welcome. Instead of the fiant consuming her, a flash of white filled Ronnyn’s vision and his skin stung as if he’d been slapped.
He must have blacked out for a moment, because the next thing he knew, Reoden was dragging him and Sardeon away from the old raider’s body.
Ronnyn scrambled back, shaking.
‘It’s all right,’ Reoden said.
At least, that’s what he thought she said. He couldn’t hear for the rushing in his ears. Ronnyn lifted a hand to his nose. His fingers came away dark with slippery, hot blood. The roaring in his ears ebbed and he could hear Sardeon speak.
‘...the beast?’
‘Gone. The fiant’s gone,’ Reoden said.
‘That’s what hunted me when I went to save Lyxie.’
‘Oh, Sar.’ Reoden cupped his face in her hands. ‘You’re safe now. Sarodyti took it back to the empyrean plane.’
Ronnyn looked for her body. ‘Where –’
‘She’s gone,’ Reoden said. ‘She didn’t just send her awareness, she took her whole body to the empyrean plane. She won’t be coming back.’
As Ronnyn stared at the raider’s body, he recalled Sarodyti in that last moment, streaming power so that the fiant would be drawn to her.
The ship was strangely silent. Everyone had edged away from the causare, who was still covered in eerie blue flame.
Nerazime looked up from the dead lad in her arms. ‘He took on a fiant, Ree. He had no chance. Why didn’t he listen to me? I should have saved him!’
Ronnyn felt Sardeon shudder and moan in sympathy.
Nerazime slid Vittor’s body from her lap and sprang to her feet. Empowered by fury, she grabbed the dead power-worker’s body by his hair, lifting him up.
The surrounding raiders gasped and muttered. Ronnyn saw the causare reach out to Nerazime. He thought she was going to tell her to stop. But she didn’t. Instead, the causare’s blue fire leapt from her fingertips to Nerazime, racing over her head and shoulders as she shook the power-worker like a doll.
‘Is this the best you can do?’ Nerazime demanded of the dead raider. Lifting the body above her head, she ran to the ship’s side and tossed it into the sea.
The sea-vermin moaned as one. In a panic, they shrieked and deserted the ship. Some leapt overboard, others scrambled down the ropes.
The ship’s defenders turned on them as they fled, hacking and stabbing.
‘It’s over,’ Sardeon whispered. Now that they were safe his power had drained away.
Ronnyn could feel his own gift humming deep inside him like it used to. He knew it would not take much to raise it again.
Sardeon turned to him. ‘When I saw the fiant, my gift surfaced, and I couldn’t control it.’
‘Can you call it now?’
He concentrated, then shook his head. ‘It’s there – it makes me feel wild and restless – but I can’t bring it to heel or rein it in when it rears up to defend me.’ He exhaled slowly. ‘I’m worse than useless. I’m a liability. My lack of control nearly got us both killed. I’ll understand if you don’t want anything to do with me.’
Ronnyn ignored him and offered his hand.
‘What?’
‘Just take it.’ The moment Sardeon touched him, he let his gift rise. It travelled through him and into his choice-brother, rousing Sardeon’s power. ‘There. Now can you call your power?’
Sardeon closed his eyes and when he opened them his face was alight with joy. ‘You know what this means? You’re a summoner.’
‘What?’
‘You’re the male version of an empowerer. You can’t actually empower the gift, but once it has manifested, you can summon it in others. This must be why my gift returned.’
‘That would explain why I couldn’t create illusions back on the island,’ Ronnyn said and felt a weight lift from him. ‘I was trying to push my gift in a direction that it didn’t want to go.’
Sardeon hugged him. ‘We should tell our choice-mother.’
But when they came to their feet, they saw the deck littered with the dead and the injured. Now was not the time to trouble the healer.
‘I
MOSHEN
?’
She turned to see Egrayne and Reoden watching her. Nerazime stumbled over, dropping to her knees beside the empowered lad’s body.
All around them the crowd dispersed as the sea-vermin fled, chased by the ship’s defenders.
Imoshen had been ready to take the fiant to the higher plane and kill it, or die trying.
Now that she didn’t have to, her control flickered as her gift surged and her vision wavered.
‘Imoshen?’ Reoden approached her, hands raised as if she was gentling a skittish horse. Egrayne skirted around to come at her from the other side.
What was wrong with them?
She went to gesture them back only to find her hand still shimmered with blue fire. When she tried to disperse it, she couldn’t.
‘Do you need help?’ the voice-of-reason asked, speaking slowly and carefully. Clearly, Egrayne was afraid of the harmless blue flame; yet she’d been ready to confront the fiant. The absurdity of it made Imoshen laugh. Tears stung her eyes.
Egrayne and Reoden exchanged worried looks.
The thought of losing control and disgracing herself made Imoshen feel ill. Sucking in a shaky breath, she went to the nearest mast and embraced it. Using this as a focal point, she sent the power up the mast, along the spars and ropes.
Once it started, it poured out of her in a rush.
At last she felt drained and safe.
Taking a step back, she looked up to discover blue fire dancing from all the masts of her ship, making the vessel glow.
Hand-of-force Kiane came to report. ‘No more sea-vermin remain on the ship. Those in the sea around us are jostling to escape.’
The sea-boar horn sounded, again and again, wailing in retreat.
‘They think their god has abandoned them,’ Egrayne said with satisfaction. ‘Well done, Imoshen.’
‘Your orders?’ Kiane asked.
Imoshen tried to think, but her body seemed disconnected from her mind.
‘Throw the bodies of the sea-vermin overboard,’ Egrayne said. ‘We’ll have to purify the ship and hold the farewell ceremony for our dead. But first send Safi down to tell our devotees they can bring the children up. We’re safe.’
Chapter Forty
T
OBAZIM STAGGERED OVER
a body. His shoulder slammed into the cabin wall. He could barely draw breath. His armour felt incredibly heavy.
No more sea-vermin came through the windows and, above the din, he heard wailing horns.
Eryx tilted his head, listening. ‘I think they’re retreating.’
‘We’ve won.’ Iraayel grinned, then dropped to his knees, exhausted. He bled from numerous small wounds, none life-threatening. But now that it was over, he hugged his ribs and winced with each breath.
Tobazim leant on the desk. With shaking hands, he pulled off his helmet.
Norsasno appeared in the cabin door. His head was bare and his plait had come unravelled. ‘All-father?’
Somehow, Tobazim straightened up and squared his shoulders. Where was Ardonyx? Surely, if his shield-brother had fallen, he would know? Perhaps this was why he felt utterly drained. ‘What is it?’
‘The sea-vermin are retreating. There’s...’ Norsasno struggled to find the words, then indicated Tobazim should come with him.
Out the mid-deck the only Mieren left behind were dead, and the defenders had gathered near the far rail to watch the causare’s ship. Its seven masts glowed with an unearthly blue fire.
Tobazim blinked. ‘What is that?’
‘The Mieren believe it’s the sign from their sea god,’ Ardonyx said, joining him.
Relief made Tobazim light-headed and Ardonyx steadied him.
‘It’s spreading,’ Norsasno warned.
The blue flames now licked the masts of All-mother Athazi’s ship, the
Endurance
.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Tobazim said.
‘A natural phenomenon, untamed power.’ Ardonyx shrugged. ‘All sailors know about it, but I’ve never seen it behave like this before.’
‘It’s almost as if one of us called it,’ Tobazim whispered.
The other two looked at him.
‘It started on the causare’s ship.’ Anger ignited Norsasno’s gift. ‘Why did she wait so long? Why let the brotherhoods suffer?’
‘Our enemy is fleeing,’ Ardonyx said, and Tobazim sensed power behind his words. ‘We have to put the ship in order, see to the wounded and prepare the farewell ceremony for our dead.’
Conviction filled Tobazim as he strode to the rail that overlooked the mid-deck and raised his voice. ‘We’ve routed the raiders and sent them packing. Time to purify the ship, farewell our dead and celebrate our survival.’
His brotherhood cheered.
He ordered the enemy bodies thrown overboard, the decks scrubbed clean and injured taken to sick bay. He set the carpenters to repair the broken shutters and started the purification ceremony.
And all the while he had the feeling there was something important he’d forgotten, just beyond his grasp...
But there was so much to think of.
A
RAVELLE SAT ON
the bottom rung of the ladder, below the hatch. Above her, she heard a shout and running feet. She waited, dreading the moment the hatch opened.
Redravia met her eyes, glancing significantly to Hariorta, who stood fingering the hilt of her blade.
The air in the hold was stale, and the light dim. Aravelle felt as if she’d been down here forever.
Through the deck they heard shouting and more running boots, charging along the deck towards the hatch.
‘Could they have overcome our people?’ Redravia whispered.
‘Of course they have,’ Hariorta snapped. ‘I knew our exile was doomed, knew we’d come to a tragic end.’