Wielder's Prize

by Elle Cardy

  Langer grunted at the sight of her. He lowered his hood for the first time and revealed a mess of short bleached hair. It reminded Finn of Jasmine’s hair except hers was dark. Finn’s searching eye caught a glint of metal in his ear. Langer wore an ear cuff. It was a simple piece of silver with no fancy adornments. This was his talisman.

  Langer crouched beside the bed and took Jasmine’s pale hand into his. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and held it. When he released the captured air in a slow breath, he wielded.

  Finn held his own breath.

  “Poison runs through his veins,” Langer said into the quiet room.

  Brusan growled. “My boy was poisoned?” Anger, more than shock raged through him.

  “Perhaps,” he responded with some thought. “Or it could be as simple as food poisoning. I can’t distinguish the difference.” A look of surprise changed his expression.

  “What is it?” Brusan’s eyes were wide and full of fear.

  “Your son is a girl.”

  Finn winced. He hadn’t expected such blatant indiscretion from these wielders. He guessed that this particular wielder must be new to the field.

  “Langer!” Angelica’s voice snapped like a whip.

  “Forgive me.”

  “You’re mistaken,” Brusan growled a warning.

  “Yes,” he stuttered. He let Jasmine’s hand drop and unconsciously rubbed at his ear cuff.

  Doc snorted. “Your secret is safe, Brusan. What kind of doctor do you think I’d be if I couldn’t recognize a female when I saw one?”

  Brusan’s uncertain gaze drifted to Finn.

  “Yes, and he knows too. I assume it’s a wielder thing.” Doc didn’t hide his disgust at Finn.

  Brusan growled but made no further threats. Finn tried to relax his tensed muscles but they refused to unknot.

  “As a part of my humble apology,” Langer said, “I would like to attempt to heal her.”

  “You can do that?” Brusan said with wonder.

  “You can’t!”

  All eyes turned toward Finn. Angelica had been losing interest but Finn’s brash outburst reenergized her curiosity.

  “Explain yourself, Finn.”

  The palms of his hands grew sweaty again. He resisted the urge to wipe them on his trousers. “I’ve heard that this type of wielding, more than any other, requires fine precision.”

  “They do,” she said and waited for further clarification.

  “I’m fearful Langer may harm her further.”

  Angelica smiled. “I have complete faith in Langer’s abilities. He would not travel with me otherwise.” She turned then to Brusan. “What does the father of the patient say?”

  Brusan licked his lips in thought. No one ever completely trusted a wielder but Finn guessed he weighed up Jasmine’s apparent need. His gaze drifted to his daughter lying in the bed.

  “If you can do this, then yes, you must save my daughter.”

  “The poison is powerful,” Langer cautioned. “I will try my best, but I cannot guarantee anything.”

  Brusan nodded.

  Langer picked up Jasmine’s lifeless hand and again held it in his. He closed his eyes and sat very still. To Brusan and Doc he may have looked like he’d fallen asleep, but to Finn it was clear he gathered his power. The amount of power was surprising, though. He noticed Angelica watching him. She had a smug look on her face. Finn ignored it and turned his attention back to Jasmine.

  Langer’s power coursed through her. It flowed like a torrent of icy water that drenched every part of her. Finn was certain the wielder would discover her true secret. No one could hide from that. Sweat rolled down her face and arms as Langer expelled the poison from her body. Still she didn’t move. If anything, she looked pastier and more fragile as if she were made of glass and would shatter at the merest touch.

  Finn noticed sweat beading on Langer’s forehead. The wielder was pushing himself. If he wasn’t careful he would pay dearly. Angelica rested her hand on his shoulder. It was a casual gesture but Finn recognized it for what it was: she was warning her wielder not to push himself too far.

  At her touch, Langer pulled back. His flow of power ceased and he opened his eyes.

  “Did you save Midge?” Brusan asked.

  Langer took a few moments to collect himself. His hands were shaking but it was the look of confusion that worried Finn the most. Did he sense the power in her? Did he suspect Finn’s ploy to hide her?

  “I’ve cleared the poison,” Langer said. He glanced at Angelica and shook his head. It was an almost imperceptible move that no one else would have noticed. Finn wondered what it meant. He supposed Langer had done a deep scan of her and had found nothing. Or maybe it meant there was nothing more he could do for her.

  “Shouldn’t she wake now?” Brusan’s fear for his daughter pulled at Finn’s conscience.

  “She isn’t responding. It’s as if her body thinks poison still courses through it.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying there is nothing more I can do for her. Given time, she will either wake, or not.”

  Brusan turned an angry stare at Finn.

  “I don’t believe the wielder is at fault,” Langer intervened before the large man could attack. “I’ve seen it before. It happens when the patient gives up the will to live.”

  “Right,” Doc declared as if he woke from a dream. “Everyone get out of my infirmary.”

  The doctor shooed all except Brusan out. Finn and the wielders found themselves back on deck with a cold wind blowing from the west. Angelica raised her hood against the chill and smiled. She seemed relaxed for the first time since boarding the Seahawk.

  “I had thought an untrained wielder was aboard,” she confided.

  Finn feigned surprise.

  “But I have scanned this ship many times and found nothing. Then I thought that perhaps you tried to hide one.”

  “How could I do that?”

  “You’re clever…” She coaxed him to work it out for himself. He considered playing dumb but changed his mind.

  “Incapacitation?”

  Her smile widened. “Indeed. It buries them and their power for a short time. But we can see through the ruse. We are trained for it.” She squeezed her hands back into her gloves. “There is an untrained, untalismaned wielder somewhere in these waters. I would recommend caution.”

  “Perhaps the Prize harbors the person you are searching for.”

  Angelica laughed. It was rich and hearty and made Finn think of a barmaid carrying ale to thirsty patrons. “We are not fools, young Finn. We will not get involved in the chase. It is not our concern that you’ve likely met your match.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Angelica tried to pout but the cuteness she aimed for didn’t happen. Instead she looked like a fish again. “Did I say too much?”

  He was about to push her for more information when the Wild Rose pulled up beside the Seahawk. He hadn’t even seen them send a signal.

  “Give the captain our regards,” she said.

  “And please send my apologies to the father,” Langer added.

  Finn nodded. It was a good thing they were leaving, so why did he feel so uneasy?

  Chapter 10

  Quiet voices spoke in the distance like bells ringing across turquoise waters. They shimmered like sunlight through water. Their rays were long arms that reached down to her hidden depths and beckoned. They wanted her to float to the surface so she might join them. But she couldn’t join them. If she moved she’d be seen. The beast hunted her. It could smell her but couldn’t find her.

  “You should rest,” someone said. Not to her. No one spoke to her. She was hidden. She was silence.

  “What if she wakes while I’m gone?”

  “Do as her father does and sleep here in the infirmary.”

  Words. Meaningless words. They tripped around her like motes in the sea.
<
br />   “I can’t leave her.”

  Something changed. It was soft. It was cool. It was a touch.

  “Her pulse is weak, her breath remains shallow, and her color has not returned. I don’t think she’ll wake for some time yet. If she wakes at all.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “Renouncing a truth doesn’t make it any less true.”

  “She will wake.” The touch returned. No, it was a different touch. There was energy in that touch. A spark. A glow of embers. She drifted on a warm current in that touch.

  The beast below her rumbled.

  Fear. Recollection.

  She had to flee. She had to hide. But the warmth had coaxed her to the surface, to the void’s edge. She was exposed. There was nowhere to hide.

  Black eyes opened and found their prey.

  Jasmine screamed and clawed her way out. The void burst and her world became cramped and tangled. She fought her constraints and scrambled into the darkest corner she could find. Could the beast still find her? Could it still smell her?

  “Jasmine!”

  She knew that name. It was a name rarely spoken. It belonged to someone else. It belonged to the open air and the changing winds. It belonged to a cloudless sky that watched over a restless sea.

  “What’s wrong with her, Doc?” Power shimmered behind that voice. Fearful power. She cringed away.

  “She’s in shock.”

  Hands touched her. Held her. They burned into her flesh. She cried out in agony. A ripple unsettled the waters of the void.

  “Back off, Finn. Give her some room.”

  Finn.

  Everything snapped back. The void vanished with a pop. Anger cooled her chaos. She looked around and found herself crouched like a cornered animal against the bulkhead at the back of the infirmary. Finn knelt in front of her. He was smiling as if everything were right with the world again. But he was the one who’d sent her into that hell. He was the one who’d rendered her helpless.

  Jasmine sprang. She knocked him backward and landed on top of him. He yelped in surprise. She screamed at him and hammered her fists into his chest. He took the beating with a pained look in his eye and not a move against her. He didn’t wield. He didn’t even protect himself. His lack of action only made her angrier. Her fingers found his neck and she squeezed.

  “I’m sorry!” he spluttered, but it wasn’t enough. He would wield against her again. He could send her back down to the beast. Fear seized her and her fingers tightened.

  “That’s enough of that now.” Doc pulled Jasmine off Finn and sat her on a nearby bed. She didn’t fight him. Doc helped Finn to his feet and muttered something angry at him. The wielder coughed and rubbed at his neck.

  Jasmine closed her hands into fists to stop herself from shaking. Would she have killed Finn if Doc hadn’t stopped her? She turned her thoughts away from that question because she was afraid of the answer. Finn was meant to protect himself. He was meant to fight her.

  Doc checked her pulse and looked into her eyes. “How do you feel?”

  She wasn’t sure how she felt. She felt spent. She felt unsafe. “Wretched,” she answered in a quiet voice that croaked.

  Doc handed her a skin of water. “Your body needs fluids. Drink all this.”

  The water tasted cool and sweet and fresh. She gulped it down as if she’d never get to drink again.

  “Slowly,” Doc cautioned.

  It was only when he threatened to take the skin away that she slowed down. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and thanked him.

  “It’s good to have you back,” Finn said.

  She turned an angry stare at the wielder. “Get away from me.” She could barely look at him.

  His shoulders dropped and he glanced at Doc. The doctor only shrugged as if to say, “Well, what do you expect?” Finn sighed in resignation. It seemed he wasn’t going to fight her on this either. He left the infirmary without another word.

  The moment the door closed behind him Jasmine relaxed.

  “Thank you, Doc,” she said.

  “Don’t be thanking me,” he said. “I thought we’d lost you.”

  “If you had, it wouldn’t have been your fault.”

  “Finn’s intentions were in the right place…”

  “I don’t care about Finn or his intentions. He can shove—” Jasmine didn’t get to finish her sentence. The door burst open and her father barreled in.

  “Midge!” He lumbered over to them and caught her up in a giant bear hug. Cook had never shown her any kind of affection. He’d never hugged her or held her. She had always assumed he had never liked her and certainly never wanted her.

  He squeezed her close and she gasped for air. When he let her go his eyes were moist as if he were about to cry.

  “Finn told me you’d woken. I would have been here, but I was on watch duty.”

  His excitement, while confusing, was also infectious. She found herself smiling with him.

  “How long was I…?” she wasn’t sure how to finish the question. She didn’t know what story Finn had told her father.

  “Oh, Midge,” he said and sat down beside her on the bed. “You were sore sick. We had wielder visitors while you were… at your worst. One had the power to read the body — or whatever it is they do. He told me you was poisoned.”

  Jasmine’s eyes widened.

  “He did what he could but it didn’t seem enough. You lay there without moving for two days.”

  “Two days!”

  “Aye. They told me you’d lost your will to live.” The agony in his last words was difficult to mistake. She realized he would have grieved her loss. This surprised her more than anything.

  Cook coughed and glanced at Doc. “Can I have a moment in private with my daughter?” Doc smiled politely and returned to his desk. When Brusan turned back to Jasmine there was urgency in his expression.

  “We don’t have much time,” he said in a low, husky voice. “The Prize pulled back while the wielder’s ship was in the area. Now that they’re gone, she’ll attack.”

  A thrill raced through her. More than anything she wanted the Prize back. She wanted her old life back. It was too much to hope for. “How do you know this?”

  He hesitated for only a second. “I know Captain Kahld.”

  “But the Prize tried before and failed. The wielder is too strong.”

  “Aye. That’s where you can help.”

  It seemed this was a day of surprises. “What can I do against such power?” She wondered if her father had somehow discovered she could wield.

  “You can distract him.”

  Jasmine scoffed aloud at his suggestion and hoped he couldn’t see her fear.

  “He’s easily distracted by you,” he insisted. “He stayed by your side the whole time you was sick. He didn’t sleep and he barely ate. He’s weak. This is our best chance.”

  She shuddered at the thought of confronting Finn. She felt sick at the memory of being dropped into an abyss occupied by a hungry beast. He’d left her there for two days. Two days! He had the power to send her back. The void she could bear, but not the beast within the emptiness.

  “He won’t hurt you,” Brusan said.

  But he could, she thought. She couldn’t ever forget that. She couldn’t ever go back to that place.

  The ship’s bells rang. She heard shouts on deck and the sound of running feet. “All hands on deck!” cried the first mate’s distinct voice. She felt the ship begin to turn in the waters.

  “This is it,” Brusan said, his eyes alight with fire. “Will you do this for me?”

  She couldn’t answer him. She didn’t know if she could face Finn. She rose when her father rose and she followed him out onto the main deck. Doc let her go only on the assurance she’d return the moment she felt any illness.

  Jasmine’s first taste of fresh air filled her with strength. She sighed into the cold breeze and let it revive her. The
clouds were high and thin, cloaking the sun in an unearthly mist and changing the sea to the color of lead.

  When she looked around, Cook had already disappeared. She didn’t see where he went and she didn’t know what he planned. A dark shape on the horizon told her he was right about the Prize. The ship, her home, approached.

  Finn stood with the captain and first mate. The wind whipped his brown hair around his boyish face, getting into his eyes. He didn’t seemed bothered by it as he concentrated on something else. She knew what it was. He filled the sails with a stronger wind. He pushed the ship through the waters to escape the Prize.

  How could she distract him except to use her power against him? He always knew when she wielded. It wasn’t like she could surprise him. She couldn’t hide what she wielded as well. He could block her or worse — he could stop her. And then she’d have to pay for it with the weakness that followed any wielding she did. Finn had no such disadvantage.

  She had to try.

  Jasmine took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. She thought again of a giant wall to shield the Seahawk’s sails from the wind. She felt the immediate change beneath her feet. The ship slowed. The sails flapped like a dying bird. She opened her eyes again to see Finn’s fury. He was looking straight at her from across the deck. Her eyes widened. He was going to come for her. She could read danger in his expression.

  She leapt up into the rigging where he wouldn’t be able to catch her. The memory of his smooth hands told her he’d never be able to climb the lines. Like an acrobat, she pulled herself up with ease. Finn could’ve sent men after her, but she wasn’t afraid of them. They couldn’t do to her what Finn could do.

  “Why is the ship slowing?” Captain Inness demanded.

  “Someone get Seaman Midge down immediately!” Finn commanded.

  She smiled down at him and kept climbing. She felt free and alive up there. Nothing held her down. She crouched on the highest yardarm and listened to the chaos below. Two men began to climb. She didn’t know their names.

  “Where’s my first mate?” The captain sounded panicked.

  Jasmine peered over the edge of the yardarm and surveyed the ship. Finn stared up at her. The distance between them made her feel safe. She ignored him for the moment and continued to search the deck. She spied Brusan. He dragged something to the aft. To her horror she recognized the body of the first mate. Rogahm’s head lolled at a wrong angle, his neck broken. Brusan picked the body up and threw it over the railing. No one heard the splash.