Born of Water Read online

  “No . . . ,” Niri’s voice was faint and hopeless. The flashes of light showed the ship beaten by the wind and nearly flattened onto its side.

  Ria was slammed by the force of emotions welling from Lavinia and Ty as they saw their parent’s boat seconds from floundering on storm lashed rocks. It opened a floodgate of emotion in Ria as well. Her family was assuredly on the other ship.

  Power buzzed in the air around the Grey Dawn once more. Ria straightened, standing on her two feet without aid despite the surging sea as energy flowed from her, feeding on emotions and Ria’s desire to use what sang in her blood. The air tasted purified for a moment, no longer carrying the heavy saltiness of the sea, and then Ria released the power that had built around her. For one second the other ship was illuminated with its gunwales nearly underwater and torn sail shredding further in the wind. Then it was gone.

  Everyone froze on the tossing, rain slicked deck of the Grey Dawn.

  “What did you do?” Niri whispered, her voice trembling.

  Ria shivered like she had when she stopped the knife. As she came back to herself, her sureness faded. She stumbled, reaching for the cabin to support herself. Ty caught her.

  “They are safe. I . . . I sent them back home. They are just outside the harbor of Mirocyne. It was all I could think to do, to move them somewhere away from the rocks but where they could repair the boat. It is where our families first met.” Ria looked up into Ty’s amazed eyes.

  “You saved them!” Lavinia threw her arms around Ria and her brother.

  Niri stared at Ria. Niri’s breath came quick and fast, tears forming in her eyes. Her face drained of color.

  “Don’t you know what you did? You used your power. We are in worse danger than the other boat ever faced!” Niri’s expression was stiff with fear.

  A shadow passed over Ria’s face, but did not dull the triumph in her eyes. “But we got away last time. There is plenty of time.”

  Niri was shaking her head. Her motion stopped abruptly as her head snapped up, eyes widening as lavender infused them again.

  “There is something huge cutting through the clouds.” It was all Niri had a chance to say as a massive creature plummeted from the sky and slammed into the water two hundred yards to the south. A spray of water rocketed into the air.

  Ty let go of Ria so fast that Lavinia barely managed to keep both of them upright. He raced to the edge of the boat, leaning over the rail in the direction of the watery collision.

  “What is it?”

  Niri closed her eyes, searching for it as it moved in her element. “It is the Curse. It changed to a water serpent so that it could stay under.” Niri bit the inside of her cheek.

  “Can’t you track it?” Lavinia’s voice was starting to shake.

  “It is fast . . . it moves like water.”

  Suddenly, Niri lunged. Her fingers caught onto Ty’s shirt. She pulled him away form the edge as the ship lifted on a wave. A monstrous head reared up out of the sea exactly where the Grey Dawn had been a moment before. They were still too close.

  The scaled head smacked against the side of their ship, timbers giving in under the force. It snapped jagged teeth inches from Ty. The smell of something rotten washed over the boat as it exhaled.

  The golden eyes of the Curse looked over them as it reared up. Its long neck tangled with the rigging of the sails and mast. The boom wrenched, nearly sweeping Lavinia and Ria off the deck as they dove to get out of the way. Ria only just then realized she needed to take a breath as her lungs emptied fully from her scream.

  The monster roared from where it was snagged in the web of robe holding the mast and sails, the sound more deafening than the thunder. Writhing, it crashed against the mast. A sick tearing sounded from its base. But the mast stayed upright as the monster freed itself in the snapping of heavy robes. The boat rolled into its side, pulled toward the Curse by the ripping ropes. The Curse slid back into the water, Ria only catching herself from joining it by catching her foot on the rail of the ship.

  The boat rocked violently back upright and then over to its other side from the force of the ropes letting go. Ria grabbed onto Lavinia, who had managed to grab the rudder post, to slow her descent toward the open water beyond the edge of the boat. Ty held onto one of the cockpit benches, while Niri knelt with one hand on the deck to stabilize herself. Her back was against the other bench’s seat. They were all soaked to the skin by the pelting rain.

  “I didn’t know, I didn’t know, I didn’t know!” Ria’s voice rose like whirlwind. “I didn’t really think it was real. Lavinia, I didn’t know!”

  Lavinia was white as death. Her wet hair twined about her arms was the night. She held onto Ria with one arm, pulling Ria against her chest. From the safety of Lavinia’s arms, Ria looked out across the deck and sea. Ty’s gaze fought a desire to watch his sister to be sure she was safe, to scan the sea for the Curse, or to watch Niri, who seemed oblivious to anything happening on the boat.

  The sea west of them began to roil as if it boiled. Waves pushed the boat with deliberate force, sliding them further east. Ria could feel the hum of Niri’s power wrapped around the boat and glowing in the sea west of them. This time the sensation made her nauseous. Ria bent over, her stomach in knots as she sobbed.

  The Curse reared again out of the ocean. Both girls screamed as its neck danced above the waves like a snake. It bellowed into the air, now nearly five hundred feet away as the boat rode the waves to the east. Bands of water reached up and pulled at the Curse’s limbs. It snapped at the water, the bands breaking and reforming under its claws and teeth. Changed to a denser fluid like honey, the sea wrapped itself around the monster and dragged it back under. It fought to the surface again. Wings whipped the air as it changed forms to a dragon, trying to free itself from the prison of water.

  Ty’s eyes were wide in awe. Niri broke her concentration from the struggle against the Curse enough to slit open her eyes. They glowed like twin violet stars.

  “I can’t . . . this is all I can do. You have to sail . . . .”

  Ty turned and looked at the mess of rope and sail. The boom was high above the deck wrapped in rope and the remaining rigging, which was the only reason it hadn’t gone over the side. The mast was cracked, tilting off to the starboard side. Most of the supporting lines were shredded. He swallowed and looked at his sister.

  “We have to raise the jib.”

  Lavinia nodded and brushed back her rain soaked hair. Lavinia joined her brother at the bow, leaving Ria limp on the deck with her arms barely support enough to keep her from falling prone. Together, they hoisted the jib. Ty paced as the wind caught it and pulled the boat north eastward faster. His eyes flicked from the broken mast, to the jib and back.

  A furious roar sounded again and fire filled the night sky. It was too far away to reach them. Niri whimpered, a shudder racking her form. From where she lay supine on the deck a few feet away, Ria watched Niri in horror.

  CHAPTER 13

  ASSESSING THE DAMAGE

  “Ria, what’s wrong?” The numbness of sleep left Ty.

  Ria stood in the pale morning light that flickered through the cabin portholes. She hesitated between the door to the aft cabin she shared with Lavinia and the bench at the table. Ty rolled over from where he slept on the Captain’s bench near the foot of the stairs to the deck.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you. I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake Vin.” Ria’s lip trembled. Ty sat up, pulling his blankets aside to make room for her.

  “It’s okay. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  Ria’s eyes welled with tears. “It’s just . . . I didn’t know. I didn’t really believe the Curse was real,” Ria’s voice was thick with distress.

  “It’s alright. I don’t think any of us really believed it.”

  “But I nearly got you killed!”

  “Niri pulled me out of the way. Look Ria, I’m fine.” Ty wrapped an arm and his blanket around her, now that she had flopped down by
his side.“Yah, Niri,” Ria’s voice was sullen.

  Ty was silent a moment. “You are the one who saved my parent’s ship from the storm. A storm that Niri caused. No matter what came after, you saved many lives.”

  The tears overran Ria’s checks as she rested her head against Ty’s shoulders. There were no sobs, which surprised him. Only a few moments of silent tears. With his words of comfort to Ria, the nameless unease that had hatched to life the night before began to writhe and grow in Ty’s brain.

  They had sailed the damaged boat heading further north east as the flames the Curse sent skyward became more and more distant. Niri’s concentration had been on fighting the Curse until the darkest hours of the night.

  “Is it dead?” Ria’s tremulous voice had ripped through Ty.

  “No,” Niri’s voice had been hoarse from hours of disuse. “I don’t think I could kill it. But it is tired and has stopped fighting for now. It sleeps held by water at the bottom of the channel.”

  Niri had run a slow hand through her snarled hair, watching the faint trembling in her fingers as if they belonged to another person. Ty’s gaze had fought between Ria and Niri, not winning for long with either.

  With dawn and a sheltered anchorage, sleep had made more sense than assessing the damage to the Grey Dawn. The undefined unease crawling across Ty’s back had faded as his mind blanked to unconsciousness. Now it was awake again and growing.

  “I don’t understand this cursed ‘gift.’ In Sardinia at the market, I wanted to rip Causis to pieces for hurting me. And I could feel it, the same power I felt when I moved the ship last night, but . . . it just evaporated when I tried to use it. Why can’t I protect myself?”

  Ty brushed the golden hair away from Ria’s face with his free hand. The silken curls were as delicate as a spider’s web. Her olivine eyes looked imploringly into his.

  “Maybe it is intent? You saved our parents but you wanted to hurt Causis.”

  “Great, so it would have worked if I’d just wished him to the middle of the sea?”

  “Maybe, or you could have tried changing him to a rat,” Ty’s tone was teasing.

  “I’m serious, Ty.”

  Ria’s momentary fury died. The fleeting tension faded to new tears as Ria relaxed against him. He held her as she whispered how much she hated this power she had, how she had feared it and the Church all her life, how she just wanted to go home. Vaguely he felt the boat shift from the bow, as if Niri were awake or had rolled over. Ria’s soft voice brought his attention back to her.

  “We could sail in the bay around Mirocyne. Remember when you used to take Lavinia and I out fishing, only we’d throw back everything you caught when you weren’t looking?”

  Ty chuckled, “I could never get the two of you to fish. All you did was drive me crazy.”

  “So you flipped the skiff and made us swim to shore.”

  There was a faint smile on Ria’s face as she finally fell asleep in his arms. Ty drifted off moments later, his gaze still on Ria.

  Ty thought he was the first awake. Ria slept still curled in his blankets. He heard a splash while on the stairs and came up into the afternoon air as Niri surfaced like she were kin to a dolphin.

  “How’s the water?”

  Niri looked up at Ty, her hair spiraling out around her in the water. The afternoon sun glinted on the shallow waves lapping the boat. Beyond the small island, some large rocks, and a half submerged circle of boulders that Ty had found to shelter their little boat at dawn, the archipelago spread out to the west, now only silhouettes of islands in the bright afternoon sun. To the north and east the waters of the Ocean of Ilaiya stretched in empty flatness. No other ship or town was in sight.

  “Warm, nice. You should try it sometime,” Niri’s voice was teasing. “You know, for a sailor water seems to make you nervous.”

  The unintentional smile froze on Ty’s lips. For a second Ty was back in the dim cabin and could feel Ria trembling under his fingers as she cried.

  “I have good reason.”

  Niri frowned at Ty’s short answer. She raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, you are a sailor who hates sailing?”

  A smile tugged again at the corner of his mouth. “It is often nothing but work . . . except for a few times recently.”

  Their gazes locked for a second, Ty inadvertently remembering the night Niri pushed the waves and current just so. The boat had glided through the water much as Niri swam now. They both looked away, Ty’s cheeks warming. Niri’s color was high as well.

  “So, you like sailing at night in gale force winds while trying to escape angry sea creatures?”

  Ty barked a laugh. “You forgot the broken mast and shredded sail.”

  “Right, but were we technically sailing then? I mean, it seems more like guided drifting.”

  Ty’s shoulders shook as he laughed. He kicked water at Niri from where he had sat, his foot dangling over the edge of the boat. It showered her in a warm spray.

  Niri laughed. “You can’t upset naiads by splashing them, you know.”

  Ty rolled his eyes. “Right, next time I’ll throw a handful of dirt.”

  Niri stuck out her tongue and dove under. She came up next to the boat a few feet down from Ty. Her hands caressed the cracked wood.

  “I don’t think we can do much about this for now.”

  Ty shook his head. “No, but we can work on the mast and get the boom down at least.”

  Niri accepted Ty’s outstretched arm. With one foot against the hull of the boat, Niri was levered up onto the deck. Just as the escape from Sardinia, Niri and Ty stood eye to eye. She streamed water as she stood on the rail, her hands still clasped in Ty’s. His eyes darkened and he stepped back, letting her go.

  Niri paused as Ty turned away, a faint crease running across her forehead. She stepped down to the deck, the water sliding from her hair, dress, and skin as she used her power. Ty glanced back at her impressed as her dry hair waved in the breeze.

  “Can you do that in reverse?” Niri tilted her head at him. “I should have soaked some leather for the mast before we went to sleep. I wasn’t thinking. Can you?”

  A smile twitched on her lips as she held out her hand without a word. Ty gave her the stiff leather he had brought on deck. Niri knelt down, leaning over the side of the boat. She trailed the leather in the water for less than a minute. But when she pulled it up, the softened mass dribbled water like an over saturated sponge.

  Ty smiled and shook his head as he took the sodden mess from Niri. He carried it over to the mast, wrapping the shredded break with the leather. Fortunately the crack had not been all the way through. Fibers still knitted the sections of the mast together, but it leaned starboard at a gentle angle. When he was done, Ty looked at Niri.

  “Can you dry it now?”

  Niri reversed the process, the water wringing from the leather by invisible force. It ran down the mast in a sheet. The leather tightened as it dried, shrinking until it encased the break. Ty felt the binding and shook his head.

  “That should have taken days, not minutes.”

  Niri shrugged. “Obviously you weren’t doing it right before.”

  Ty choked on his laugh. “Okay, what can you do about the boom then?” he challenged.

  Niri looked up at the dangling wood wrapped firmly out of reach in the rigging. She let out a breath. “I think you need a dryad for that, I’m afraid.”

  “You admit defeat?”

  “Why is Niri defeated? The Curse isn’t loose again is it?” Ria’s confused rose with panic.

  “No, Ria, I was just teasing her,” Ty said as Ria slipped against his side.

  “The Curse is asleep in the crossing. It can’t harm you. It doesn’t know where you are.” Ria’s alabaster paleness did not diminish with Niri’s comforting words.

  “How do you know?” Lavinia asked as she came up from the cabin.

  “I have a water spirit watching it. I called it into being before we slept last night . . . this mornin
g, I mean.”

  “So you would know if it came after us again?” Ty asked, Ria tucked under his arm.

  “Yes,” Niri’s tone tinged with impatience. “I still have it wrapped in dense water bonds. It isn’t even struggling.”

  Ty realized he hadn’t noticed that Niri’s eyes were overcast with a lavender blue tint. In the daylight it was harder to see the one physical sign of an Elemental using their skills.

  Plus, she was helping me with the mast. I didn’t even think about it.

  Ty looked down at his feet.

  “So what are we going to do to get the boom?” Lavinia asked with her chin craned skyward, one hand shielding her eyes.

  “I think there is enough rope left that I could haul you up to free it,” Ty said against his tight throat.

  “Like when we were kids and used to play in the rigging?” Lavinia replied with a grin.

  “Exactly.”

  It took the siblings a few minutes to find rope enough to make a harness for Lavinia. Ty attached the jib line to it and hauled his sister into the air over the boat. She walked up the mast as he pulled the rope, pushing herself nimbly away to catch the rigging near the tangled boom.

  “Don’t get yourself caught,” Ty shouted up at her.

  “You worry too much. I know what I’m doing.”

  Ty sighed at his sister’s answer. “She used to be so obedient.”

  Niri chuckled. Ria glanced between Ty and Niri with worry puckering her brow. She stepped closer to Ty.

  “Watch out below!” Lavinia called before dropping a bundle of rope onto the deck. Ria jumped back a foot. “Sorry, Ri.”

  Lavinia sent down more rope before she managed to free the main line from the shredded sail. She attached one end to the boom while Ty secured the rope to a cleat. Carefully, Lavinia untied the last of the rigging wrapped around the boom. As Lavinia held onto the free end, Ty slowly lowered his sister and half the boom to the deck, one foot against the mast to give himself support from the weight on the rope. Back on deck, Lavinia helped her brother lower the other end.