by Hylton, PT
* * *
Abbey woke suddenly, the remnants of the dream still rattling around in her head. Her dreams had never felt that real. She shook it off—it was probably a product of all the strangeness she’d experienced recently mixed with her lack of sleep.
She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, but when she stepped out onto the deck the sun was high in the sky. It was midday.
The deck was unusually still. Oddly, there wasn’t much to do until nightfall, at which point there would suddenly be a lot to do. The result was a strange combination of restlessness and nervous energy in her chest.
Her father and Gideon were sparring with some of the crew on the quarterdeck. Gideon was showing them the techniques the Stone Shapers would likely use against them during the raid.
Abbey was about to join them, but then she saw Dustin and Syd standing near the bow. She made her way to them instead.
“Captain. Dustin.”
They nodded a greeting to her. She noticed they both wore smiles they were doing their best to conceal.
“Clue me in. What’s funny?”
That just made them smile harder. “Nothing at all,” Dustin said.
“I ever tell you you’re a shitty liar? Spit it out.”
Syd and Dustin exchanged glances.
“Okay, fine,” Syd said. “We were just talking about you and Elliot.”
“Yeah, what about us?”
Dustin grinned at her like an idiot. “Mostly the way you stare at him like you’ve never seen a man before.”
Syd nudged Abbey. “I’m just going to ask. Do you have the hots for my brother?”
Abbey felt her cheeks redden. But what the hell, there was no use in lying. “Is it that obvious?”
“To everyone but him,” Syd replied. “He’s always been wildly oblivious.”
“Huh.” Abbey was surprised to find that awkward as this conversation was, it was sort of a relief to have it out in the open. She looked at Syd. “And you’d be okay with it if we were together?”
Syd scoffed, as if it was ridiculous to even consider otherwise. “Of course. Better you than some dumb village girl who doesn’t know port from starboard. My brother deserves someone who can keep up with him.”
Abbey turned to Dustin. “And you?”
It wasn’t like there’d ever been anything between them. As far as Abbey was concerned they were best friends, and that was enough. But she’d also never checked with him to see if he felt the same way.
Dustin barked a laugh. “Are you kidding me? Don’t get me wrong, you’re hot and all, but if I ever got with you, it would have to be serious. We’re too close to be casual about it, and I don’t want anything serious right now. Besides, you don’t need my permission. You can have Elliot, and I’ll keep all the dumb village girls who don’t know port from starboard.”
“Deal.” An unbidden smile appeared on Abbey’s face. It felt good to have her friends’ blessing, even though it was a bit premature. She didn’t know if Elliot was interested.
Syd’s face grew more serious. “We need to talk about tonight. Are we ready?”
Abbey ran through the plan in her mind. “We’re ready. The key for your team will be to stay on the move. Be unpredictable. If they corner you, you’ll be in trouble. But if you stay in motion, you should be all right.”
“What if they get organized and come after the ship?” Dustin asked.
Abbey had been thinking about that, and it was the most concerning scenario. From what Syd and her father had told her, one Stone Shaper had almost taken out The Foggy Day during their escape from Ammaas.
“The only way that would happen is if we were there too long,” Abbey said. “You two have to make sure we’re not. Protect the ship, no matter what. It’s our only way home. If they start getting organized, paddle back to the ship and get the hell out of there.”
“You want us to leave you?” Dustin asked.
“If it’s that or lose the ship, hell yeah! We’ll pick a spot up north where we can rendezvous if that happens.”
Syd nodded. “I agree. And that goes both ways. If anyone gets delayed, the others have to be ready to leave without them. We have to have faith in everyone’s abilities to make it to the rendezvous point alone.”
Dustin grinned. “Faith in you two isn’t a problem. I feel a little sorry for the Stone Shapers. They have no idea that the two baddest women in the Holdgate fleet are about to crash down on them with both feet.”
Abbey raised an eyebrow. “The two baddest women?”
“Fine, the two baddest people, period.”
“You’re damn right.” Syd thought for a moment. “Are we sure they’ll be keeping Dahlia at the palace?
“According to Gideon, there’s no doubt about that,” Abbey answered. “He said it would be disrespectful to her to house her anywhere else.”
Dustin shook his head. “I still can’t believe that woman convinced stone magic users to call her a queen.”
“We’re going to use that to our advantage. They’re so used to idolizing storm magic that they are going to freak out when you strike.”
“Let’s hope so,” Dustin said.
Abbey wasn’t worried about that, especially with Viktor and the other Barskall Storm Callers at Dustin’s back. He was going to be able to do things they had never seen before. If their luck held, the Stone Shapers would be freaked out enough that they wouldn’t recover until The Foggy Day was on its way back east.
Syd looked toward the coast of Gren in the distance. “I wish the three of us could all be together, fighting side by side. It’s been a while.”
“That it has,” Abbey said, “but we’re just too awesome. We have to spread the awesomeness around.”
“You have your crew picked out for tonight?”
Abbey nodded. “It feels a little strange. We’ve spent so long reacting to Dahlia, trying to stop her plans. I kinda like that we’re going on the offensive.”
There was doubt in Dustin’s eyes. “I don’t know. Do you think we’re getting a bit too cocky here? We’re invading a city of magic users, infiltrating their chief’s stone palace, and trying to take out the Queen of Storms.”
Abbey scoffed at the name. “Please. ‘Queen of Shit’ is more like it. Yeah, it’s a bit cocky, but that’s why it’s going to work. She’s overconfident, and she’d never expect us to make a move this big.
“You sound pretty confident, too,” Syd pointed out.
“I guess I am. Everything we’ve been through has led to this moment. It ends tonight. Tonight we take Dahlia down once and for all.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Waiting is always the hardest part,” Hekla growled.
“Really?” Abbey joked. “You always seem so patient.”
Elliot had his eyes fixed on the sky to the east where The Foggy Day would be pulling into the harbor. “Any minute now.”
Abbey and her team had taken a ship’s boat from The Foggy Day and rowed ashore north of Ammaas. They’d go the rest of the way on foot so they could be close to the palace when Dustin gave the signal. But not too close—Gideon was the chief’s brother, after all. He was a fairly recognizable figure.
Gideon eyed Abbey’s black sash. The whole team wore them, but only Abbey’s and Gideon’s had been earned rather than stolen by the Tall Grass Raiders. “You really walked the Path in Horg?”
“Yep.”
“How’d you do it? You don’t know stone magic.”
Abbey shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m just that good.”
A clap of thunder shook the stone around them and Abbey smiled. Good old Dustin, kicking things off with Dahlia’s own calling card.
“Shall we begin?” Fannar was holding his seax, clearly ready to get started.
“Not yet,” Abbey said. “Give them a few moments.”
Fog descended on the city. Then, a few minutes later, she heard the shouts. Bells were ringing, and Abbey smelled smoke. Even in a city made primarily of
stone, people feared fire.
A group of thirty Stone Shapers ran past the entrance to the alley, coming from the direction of the palace.
When they were gone, Abbey turned to the others. “That’s our cue. Lead the way, Gideon.”
The Stone Shaper took a deep breath. “Here we go.”
He stepped out of the alley and began walking briskly toward the palace. Abbey followed right behind him, then Hekla and Fannar, and Elliot was in the rear.
Gideon led them down another alley. “This is a less-traveled route. There are normally at least fifty soldiers in the palace, and based on the number we saw go by, many are either still there or walking these streets. I’d rather we avoid them if possible.”
Abbey couldn’t argue with that.
They rounded another corner and Gideon stopped in front of a nondescript stone wall. “This is it. Ready to get started?”
Abbey nodded. “Elliot and Fannar, you protect our flanks. Hekla and I will be ready for someone inside to attack as soon as the door opens. Gideon, once we’re in, keep moving us toward the throne room. If she’s not in there, we start cracking heads and force someone to take us to her. Be ready for anything. For all we know, they’re wheeling Dahlia around the palace in a bathtub filled with seawater. Any questions?”
There were none.
She gave her team one last visual inspection. It was dark and the fog didn’t help, but she could tell they were ready. She drew her sword. “Go, Gideon.”
The Stone Shaper touched the wall, and almost immediately an opening appeared. The five seconds it took for it to grow large enough for them to walk through felt like an eternity.
When the door was open, Abbey and Hekla stepped through. All they found was an empty hallway.
“We’re clear,” Abbey said through the door.
Gideon rushed in, followed closely by Elliot and Fannar. The Stone Shaper led them down a torch-lit corridor and stopped in front of another wall.
While he worked, Hekla asked, “How do you find your way around in here? I’ve only been here two minutes and I already have a headache.”
“Practice. Also, I helped the design the place.”
Good as his word, Gideon led them through parts of the palace that appeared devoid of life. Abbey resisted the urge to relax; instead, she allowed herself to consider the fight that was almost certainly waiting for them in the throne room.
After walking down three more hallways and through two more Gideon-created doors they stopped, and the Stone Shaper pointed to a wall.
“This is it.” Even though they were alone in the hallway, he spoke softly. “We’ll come through in the corner of the room behind the throne. I’ll create a door down low, and with any luck they won’t notice the hole until we’re already coming through it. But we’ll have to move fast.”
They’d already planned their attack on the throne room, splitting the room into sections. Each of them would enter from a different angle, clearing the room. Abbey would head straight for the throne.
“We’ve been able to avoid the enemy so far,” she said. “That ends now. Go for killing blows, be smart, and watch each other’s backs. When you’re ready, Gideon.”
Gideon didn’t hesitate. He crouched low and touched the wall. An opening appeared near the floor and blossomed upward. When it was three feet high, he stepped aside.
Abbey gripped her sword and ducked through the opening.
As she entered the throne room, she quickly registered the guards standing at various points in the room. They were all gawking at her dumbly.
She sprinted toward the throne. That would leave her four friends to take out ten guards on their own, so it was a risky move, but taking the leader out of the equation was worth it. This was the plan, and she was going to stick to it.
As she ran, a tall red-haired guard with a bushy beard raced to meet her. Good. That was one Stone Shaper her friends didn’t have to deal with.
The guard raised his stone to strike, but she was ready for him. She brought her sword down hard on his wrist, channeling magic to give it a little extra weight. The man cried out as her sword bit into his flesh and his hand fell to the ground. She buried the blade in his chest, and his body joined his severed appendage.
Elliot, Fannar, Hekla, and Gideon raced past her and attacked the guards.
Hekla surprised the first guard with her speed, reaching him and striking before he could react. Elliot used his twin swords brilliantly, attacking the hand holding the stone with one while the other struck at the mass of the body. Fannar worked his way in close, hacking and slashing with his seax.
Gideon reached a guard just as he was raising his stone, and he put his hand on it. He transformed the man’s stone, turning it into a spike and driving it through the guard’s own hand.
As for Abbey, her focus was on the throne. She ran to it and pressed her sword to Magnus’ throat. “Hands in the air. I don’t want you touching stone.”
Magnus stared back at her wide-eyed. He slowly raised his hands, letting a stone clatter to the floor.
“Tell your men to stop fighting, or lose your head.”
Magnus cleared his throat. “Stop. Stop fighting!”
It took a moment, but the guards complied, lowering their weapons.
“Good,” Abbey said. “Now tell me where Dahlia is.”
Magnus smiled, but there was only malice in the expression. “The damn Queen of Storms. That’s what this is about? She told me you’d come back. She told me, but I didn’t believe her. I figured there was no way you’d be that stupid. I stand corrected.”
Abbey pressed a little harder with the blade, and a bead of blood appeared on the chief’s neck around the tip of the sword. “Where is she?”
“Your friends will find out soon enough. In the meantime, you have problems of your own.”
Abbey grimaced. “What are you talking about? I have a sword to your throat.”
Now there was glee in Magnus’ smile. “Two things. First, look up.”
She risked a glance at the ceiling, and what she saw made her gasp. There were eight holes in the ceiling, each framing two Stone Shapers glaring down at them.
“Second thing,” Magnus said. “My throne is made of stone, and the skin of my neck is in contact with it.”
A stone column shot out of the throne. Abbey got her sword up in time protect her face, but it knocked her backward hard.
As she was falling, she saw more than a dozen Stone Shapers leaping through the holes in the ceiling into the throne room.
* * *
Dustin stood near the harbor on a street in Ammaas, calling fog and watching the city around him burn.
The odd thing, the thing that made the situation so surreal, was that none of the buildings were on fire. These fires would likely do no lasting damage to the city. It was the goods inside the stores and in wagons that were alight.
And yet, the panic in the streets was the same as it would be in any other city. Perhaps the reaction to fire was embedded deeply in humans. Perhaps this was just the way people responded to it, regardless of whether it was justified.
“If we get through this whole raid without me getting to stab anybody, I’m gonna be pissed,” Olaf declared.
Clemens laughed. “Dustin picked us for his personal guard for one reason. We’re the best. Consider it an honor.”
“It’ll be an honor if we get to actually do something.”
Dustin did his best to shut them out. Not that he was doing much calling at the moment; he’d brought the fog down, but Viktor and his Barskall Storm Callers—now standing knee-deep in the harbor—were maintaining it. Dustin had to be ready for anything else. Syd was running point on this mission. If there was trouble in a particular area, she would let him know and he would send help in the form of a devastating blast of wind, a torrential downpour, or some other form of weather-related pain.
But for now, things were going well. He had time to consider how Abbey and her team were doing in the
palace. No doubt they were having a tougher time of it than the raiders running through the city.
Olaf squinted into the darkness of the street in front of them. “Wait, what’s—”
That was as far as he got before the Stone Shapers struck.
A stone wall sprang from the road on either side of Dustin, cutting him off from his friends. It ran far enough down the street that he couldn’t see its end.
Two men ran into sight and set something in the center of the road twenty feet in front of Dustin, and then quickly retreated.
Another figure appeared. He heard a sloshing noise as the figure stepped into the container the men had set in the road.
“You’re a pretender,” the figure said.
Dustin immediately recognized the voice and a chill went through him, starting at the base of his spine and running up to the center of his brain.
Dahlia.
“You figured out one trick. Admittedly it’s an impressive one. Stormcalling without seawater? It’s never been done before, and somehow I suspect you figured it out with the help of that Arcadian bitch.”
Dustin’s mind spun. Now was his chance. If she kept talking, he could take her out. His friends were on the other side of that stone wall, but he had to trust them to take care of themselves against the Stone Shapers. He needed to concentrate on Dahlia—she was the whole reason they were here.
“Without that one trick you’re nothing,” Dahlia said. She was taunting him, trying to throw him off his game. He had to stay focused. “You’re just a below-average, barely-passed-his-testing Storm Caller. I bet your bald captain and the Arcadian bitch laugh about you when you’re not there. About your lack of spine.”
Dustin felt his anger rising, but he didn’t fight it. Anger could be useful in stormcalling.
“I kicked your ass in Holdgate,” she spat. “I kicked your ass in Barskall. And I’m going to kick your ass now.”
He could have debated any of those facts, but instead he focused. He concentrated on the thing he and Viktor had been talking about ever since the battle at the Farrow Islands.
Dahlia cackled, and a massive gust of wind slammed into Dustin. He was ready for it though, his feet planted and his grip strong on his staff.