Born of Water

  Born of Water

  by Autumn M. Birt

  Born of Water

  Copyright © 2012 by Autumn M. Birt

  Cover art and maps by Autumn M. Birt © 2012

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stores in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious and are a product of the author's imagination. Any similarity to persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  To my parents, whose dreams for me have always been the ladder on which I climbed.

  To my husband for never finding odd the many conversations regarding characters which only existed in my head.

  With thanks to Kym S. for her friendship, encouragement, and always being willing to read very rough drafts.

  And finally to my Dragon. You are no longer by my side, but your light will always guide me.

  Table of Contents

  Maps and Chapter Titles

  Map: Northern Forest of Falin to the Crossing 6

  Map: The Crossing to the Great Desert of Ak'Ashanti 7

  FAILED DUTY 8

  DISCOVERIES 14

  THE SUMMONING 20

  UNWILLING COMPANIONS 25

  HUNTED 29

  RUNNING 33

  THE BIZARRE OF SARDINIA 38

  TY’S RETURN 44

  SARDINIA’S SHADOWS 48

  POISONED WATER 54

  DELAYED HOMECOMING 60

  THE CURSE 67

  ASSESSING THE DAMAGE 73

  THE RUN NORTH 81

  THE KITH 85

  LUS NA SITHCHAINE 90

  DARAG’S PROMISE 95

  TY’S MIRROR 100

  LESSONS 103

  REMNANTS OF THE WAR 109

  COMPLICATIONS 112

  CHOICES 117

  DECISIONS 121

  CHOICES 124

  PARTINGS 128

  THE SOUTHERN CROSSING 133

  THE SOUTHERN SHORE 139

  AFTER EFFECTS 145

  THE TEMPLE OF ICE 150

  THE TEMPLE OF DUST 156

  FIRE AND WATER 165

  FOUND 174

  REUNION 179

  ORDER OF LIFE 185

  LESSON OF FIRE 190

  THE MARSH OF ISHA 196

  THE BAY OF TIAK 201

  THE RIVER DHAZOH 206

  THE TEMPLE OF THE WINDS 213

  FIGHTING THE CURSE 217

  AFTERWARD 221

  Author’s Biography 224

  Map: Northern Forest of Falin to the Crossing

  Map: The Crossing to the Great Desert of Ak'Ashanti

  Chapter 1

  FAILED DUTY

  The guards had not seen her. Still, Niri’s back twitched under watchful eyes as she moved awkwardly through the throng filled street. The summer solstice festival was rising to its height as the sun slowly dipped toward the Sea of Sarketh to the west. Niri was running out of time.

  Frustration as much as fear choked her throat, stalling her already labored breathing. Sweat from the warm afternoon slid down between her breasts, soaking the white priestess robes she wore underneath the plain gray travelers’ cloak. The course fabric stuck to her skin, encasing her so that she wanted to struggle but could not without risking further attention. The heavy braid of her dark brown hair felt like a full sack against her damp back.

  “Out of the way girl!”

  Niri dodged the team of four mammoth birds harnessed to a delicate rose chariot out of instinct. No one had called her merely a girl since she was nine. At her age of twenty-three, girl was a term used for disdain, as if she were a commoner. Anger froze her feet. The jeweled and gilded feathered wings of the birds brushed her face as they passed, she had stopped so close. The iridescent blue crown feathers of their heads towered another foot over her.

  As the carriage passed it was only the clothing of the occupants that kept Niri from betraying that she was a Priestess from the Church of Four Orders and demanding an apology. The golden sun mask worn by a tall youth filled her vision, its visage a mocking telltale of her failed duty at the day’s summit. The reminder of what had led her to sneak out of the public complex brought a cold end to her heated frustration.

  “May the blessings of the sun shine on you!”

  The elegant teenage boy in the sun mask and matching golden robes was jostled by a young woman in violet and lavender, crystals swinging from every conceivable point of attachment including the satiny mask which obscured most of her face. In drunken laughter, the duo rolled onward barely able to stand together on the tiny platform. With sharp pecks of their gilded beaks, the team of harnessed birds sent dawdlers scampering out of the way.

  Embarrassed fear trembled Niri’s form. With hand blindly out behind her, she stepped back, feeling for the warm stucco wall of the nearest building. With gratefulness for her luck, she pulled herself into a deep alcove of a doorway, resting her forehead against the shadowed arch. Resolve crumbling, a tear leaked from between her dark lashes sliding down her deep olive skin.

  I could go back.

  The thought was a momentary comfort. But Niri knew that if she returned to the Temple of Solaire without the girl she’d seen at the noon ceremony, the price would be paid in her skin and blood. It was far better to sneak out into the streets of the solstice festival and hope to find the girl or at least a name, something to take back to atone for her lack of attention and failure. Biting her lip, Niri allowed herself a brief respite of chastisement and pity.

  One moment of indecision as she’d watched the golden haired girl laugh with a dark haired friend had been all it had taken. Potential had danced like a halo around the girl’s curls. Niri had no doubt the girl, no young woman for surely she was near sixteen, had old blood and was an Elemental like herself. But one tiny wish that she did not have to be the one to take the girl from her friends and family back to the Temple and everything Niri had worked for during the years of training as a Priestess threatened to come undone.

  A stumble in time caused by inattention and the ceremony had paused, waiting for her. Panicked, Niri had jumped forward forgetting to call out that the girl had been chosen. It was not until half way through the blessing for good fishing, few storms, and rain for the orchards that Niri had realized what she’d done. As simple as that, Niri’s world had unraveled. She had only ever heard of one other Priestess who failed in her duty. Her screams had echoed through the Temple for days and rung now in Niri’s ears. The Priestess who had come back to the Temple defiant that the boy child could wait another year had never left the Temple again and walked slowly, bent over like the aged ever after as she tried to hide the scars on her face. The only kindness had been deafness so that she could not hear the lessons in duty given to initiates whenever the scarred Priestess shuffled past.

  Niri sucked in a deep breath and calmed herself, letting go of her fears and anger as she had learned to as a young initiate of the Order. I have to find the girl. Niri focused.

  When she opened them, it was with different eyes through which she saw the street fair. A childhood memory from her life before the ceremony, the one where she had been found and subsequently taken away from her family, overlay the world before her. Final tension drained as for a moment she was once again the young daughter of a city official, her small hand held in her father’s as he pointed out the different Houses by the colors and symbols on gowns and flags.

  “Green with gold for Odias and his House of vine keepers, the lavendar-blue is Myath, who is from a sailing House.”

  The voice of h
er father faded, but not the lesson. The disorderly swirl of gowns evinced into House colors and professions. Hope rising in her chest, Niri searched her memory of the girl. Pale skin common of the people along the northern Sea of Sarketh, sunshine gold hair, and a plain olivine dress belted at a slim waist and tied at the shoulders. It told her little. This girl with potential that glowed in Niri’s eyes like an aurora was most likely from the farmland beyond the city. But the dark haired friend that had shared a whispered laugh while the elders read the litany of the year, she had worn a satin dress of indigo blue with gold trim. She was from a sailing House assuredly.

  As if the realization summoned the reality, a jolt of deepest blue flashing between fair goers caught Niri’s eye. Niri dove into the crowd of people, chasing after the small page who scampered among market stalls and musicians like an air sprite. The sight of his cuff adorned with the same interlocking gold crenelations the girl’s friend had worn quickened Niri’s heart.

  The pursuit took Niri further away from the heart of the city. The main piazza, public complex housing the government buildings, and wealthiest homes crowned a red cliff that towered over Mirocyne’s harbor. Lesser houses and businesses tumbled from the height toward the wharfs mostly along the main steep road. Red tiled roofs mimicked the color of the arid soil while the creamy stucco of the buildings defied the heat of the sun. The page’s path took him down a boulevard that though stately was not as wide as those nearest the public complex. The edge of the cliff was not so far away and the lowering sun sent slanted shadows across the street.

  Worry wormed its way back into Niri’s breast. She did not have much time to find the girl. The festival would end at sunset on this the longest day. Patrons would return to homes to sleep off excesses during the short coolness of the night. Already the muted gray of her cloak blended with the shadows.

  Haste had narrowed Niri’s vision to only the indigo shirt of the page weaving before her. Her glance found another splash of blue, then another. Startled, Niri stopped. Around her suspended from balconies and worn on every person were the blues and golds of a sailing House of moderate standing. Niri had found the family she was seeking. Now she just needed to find the girl.

  Her pace slow, Niri slipped along the edge of the thinning crowd scattered across the boulevard. The faces bore a familial resemblance to the girl’s friend: pale skin, blue eyes, dark hair.

  They have to be here. I know it. Hope picked across Niri’s skin.

  It was only a few minutes more before Niri’s narrowed eyes hit upon golden curls amidst the dark. Relief stopped her feet and she leaned a moment against a doorway, watching the girl and her friend. Niri was astonished at her luck. The two girls stood together near the opening of a private courtyard, speaking to a dark haired young man wearing the same deep blue tunic with gold trim as the page and dark haired girl. Both young women seemed enchanted by the story he was telling. The cream colored sailors pants he wore were a shade lighter than his skin. That is what made Niri stand abruptly upright.

  The young man was of an age to have begun his profession, easily older than sixteen. Niri guessed he was closer to twenty. From the looks of the tunic and House, he was by all rights a young sailor. But his hands were smooth, not roughened from hoisting ropes. His skin was pale, not tanned from sun and salt. Long nimble fingers wrapped around a fine goblet, while keen eyes kept watch over his two companions. A thread of anxiety shivered alive in Niri again. Something was not right. A puzzle lay before her: a girl whose potential shone like a star, a young man who was not what he presented himself to be, and the dark haired girl between the two.

  Potential Niri was trained to handle. But while the young man stood close, Niri hesitated to approach the young women. However, she needed to find a name, the House, the girl’s, something to take back to the Church so that the young woman could be located again. His gaze barely left the face of the girl Niri sought. Cheeks flushed with wine below mirth filled olive green eyes and flame gold hair tousled by the wind, her beauty evoked summer fields brought to life. The dark haired girl earned an occasional similarly devoted but more protective glance as the trio shared a private joke.

  Just as Niri considered asking one of the other members of the House for a name, the boy leaned forward and took the two goblets from the girls’ hands. As his back turned, Niri darted across the street endeavoring to blend in with the shadows and few remaining family members. A traveling merchant stood near the girls, her wares of fine silk and inlaid jewelry dangling from the multiple points of her display stick.

  Niri fingered a silk scarf with her back to the girls while the vendor made one last ditch effort to convince a lady of the House the value of an ornate pin. The seller’s quick assessment of Niri as her glance dashed over her plain gray cloak, braided brown hair, walnut colored eyes, and warm skin tone typical of families from the Archipelago judged the lady a better effort.

  Without breaking the cadence of the pin’s many virtues, the seller turned back to the refined woman in blue satin, gilt thread glinting at cuffs and neckline where the embroidered pattern mixed with the flash of golden necklaces and sapphires. A diminutive iridescent dragon perched on the lady’s shoulder glanced at Niri from over its mistress’ head. With one hand on a bejeweled hair pin intermixed in the coifed black hair of its owner, it hissed at Niri and then ignored her as well, moving so that the gilt chain attached to its leg cuff slid down the satin dress like a golden snake.

  “Do you want to head in soon? We can dip our feet in the courtyard fountain.”

  The dark haired girl’s voice resonated like a well tuned violin, catching Niri’s attention back to her purpose. Turning so that she could just glimpse the two girls, Niri saw that the one in House blue hovered at the entrance to the courtyard like a moth caught between the light of her friend and the safety of her family.

  The other girl shook her head, the motion exaggerated by her humid curls as they brushed across her bare shoulders. “I’m just too excited. Grandmother Sanoo had been so sure that I would be called out today. I’m just so thrilled it is over!” She reached over and grabbed her friend’s forearm.

  “Go for a walk with me? I’ll never settle down if we go in now,” she pleaded, her voice dancing higher like a rising flute. She pulled her friend away from the security of the courtyard and into the emptying street.

  “I don’t know. The festival is over. It will be true dark soon.” The House girl, obviously reluctant, was torn between her friend’s desires and the threat of darkness in the city.

  Searching for something that would win her friend’s agreement, the girl with golden hair found the young man returning with freshly filled cups. “Your brother will go with us Lavinia. Won’t you Ty?”

  Ty handed off the cups nonchalantly, nonplussed by the commotion between the two young women. “That is the last for the night, I’m afraid. Everyone is closing up. Now what is you are trying to get me into, Ria?” His deep alto was laced with warm amusement.

  “She wants you to go for a walk with us. Ria says she is too giddy to be cooped up in the house with all the guests.” Lavinia had stopped resisting once her brother had reappeared. She stood calmly sipping her last goblet of wine, hardly looking like she was bothered by the idea of a night walk at all.

  “Well, a bit of a walk it is then!” Ty declared, stepping between the two women and giving them each a push forward. His hands lingered on Ria’s shoulders. Both girls giggled and skipped ahead carefree as windblown seeds. Ty laughed as he stretched his long legs to keep up, the three looking nothing more than childhood friends not yet ready to be adults.

  Niri held back for a moment, no longer pretending to be interested in the silk. She had all she needed really: the girl’s name, her friend’s, the House and location. But Ria’s words stirred something within Niri. Someone knew Ria had potential. Someone had known the Church would notice her. Such a thing was uncommon to be certain. Niri had never heard of such knowledge before.

  It is
n’t possible, is it? But she looked relieved, ecstatic to have not been chosen. The thought turned over in Niri’s mind.

  Niri took in the emptying streets now more filled with shadow than sun. The evening air was cooler and brought with it the smells of the orange and almond orchards outside the city. Trellised flowers encasing colonnades and railings opened their buds into the kinder air. There was no one to tell Niri to return to her chambers. There was no one else from the Church in the entire town but herself.

  Niri’s heart quickened so that she could feel her pulse beating all the way to her wrists. She had not been alone, unchaperoned or without watchful eyes, since she had been nine. The freedom to chose sent tingles down her shoulders and into her belly. The idea of finding a way to speak to the girl, whose potential was as bright as the sun’s light on waves to Niri, in the darkening streets was a thin covering for a sudden desire to walk just a little further without the Church knowing. Like a tamed demi-dragon who had slipped its leash and cuffs, Niri headed after the three youths.

  Her cloak blended with the long shadows as Niri hung back in the nearly deserted streets. The three headed further down the boulevard, away from the public quarter and wealthier houses. The direction suited Niri and she followed with a light step despite trying to be stealthy. Gaps between buildings opened to views of the sky and sea as the road hugged the edge of the hill before looping back to drop quickly to the lower city near the docks. A glimpse of the western sky showed just a faint smudge of light holding onto the day.

  The sound of feet dancing on stairs which leapt from the main boulevard down the cliff and to the lower streets brought Niri over to a narrow alley between the buildings. She had lost sight of the three around the corner of the road, but had not worried until this moment that they would chose a different route other than the relatively safe street.