by Elle Cardy
In that brief moment Jasmine also read another intention in the room. The captain wanted her dead. That desire pulsed like a fanned flame. Nothing would stop him this time. He would go through Angelica to do it.
“No,” Jasmine said.
Angelica wielded. The captain lunged. The void stirred, but the world tilted for only a second. Jasmine pushed at the Guardian with a strength that went beyond mere muscle. Angelica fell sideways into the bulkhead and cried out in sudden pain. Blood dripped from a gash in her arm. Angelica no longer looked at Jasmine, but at the captain. His cutlass glistened wetly with her blood.
“Lower your weapon, Captain Kahld,” Angelica demanded. Strands of her hair had come loose from their bindings.
The captain smiled. “Make me.”
“Don’t,” Finn rasped.
Jasmine wasn’t sure if he spoke to the captain or to the Guardian.
Power choked the room. Angelica wielded. Her focus was the cutlass. The weapon glowed with heat and dropped from the captain’s hands. The tip of the blade jammed in the timber floor. Jasmine felt the captain breathe in the new power he’d just witnessed. His smile widened.
Fear washed over Angelica’s features for the first time. “You are a Learner,” she breathed.
The captain raised a hand at Angelica. The chain around the woman’s neck glowed. She screamed and threw it off. It clinked against the floor in a melted ruin. The Guardian gasped. A palpable agony seemed to howl from her very core. Jasmine realized Kahld had just destroyed Angelica’s talisman. It had been either a pendant that hung from the end of the chain, or perhaps it had been the chain itself.
Kahld was going to kill the woman. She was no longer just a barrier to go through to get to Jasmine. Angelica knew the captain’s secret. She had to die if he were going to protect himself. And he was good at protecting himself, just as Jasmine was.
Angelica wielded. Her power wasn’t directed at the captain this time. It was a distress call. Her strength failed her as soon as she wielded and the power dissolved as she sank to her knees. The already pale woman looked ghostly. Her only color was blood seeping from her wound.
Jasmine grabbed hold of her to pull her to her feet. The Guardian turned a horrified gaze at her.
“I’m not the enemy.” Jasmine wielded them both hidden. She didn’t know if she could pull it off. It was one thing to hide a small ring, another to hide another person. She didn’t think about it. It was instinct. All she knew was that she couldn’t let the captain hurt Angelica.
The captain roared. He released a burst of power directed at where they still stood. The power slammed Jasmine and Angelica against the door. Their weight splintered the wood at the hinge and the door shattered open with a loud crack. They fell out into the cargo hold. It seemed she hadn’t been able to protect them both from his power as well as physically hide.
Jasmine, still holding onto Angelica, lifted her from the floor. Together they staggered through the fleeces and wools.
Behind them, Finn cried out in a hoarse voice, “You will not harm them.”
She stopped and turned. Angelica used that moment of distraction to wield against Jasmine. She felt the touch before she could do anything about it, but no fog filled her thoughts, even though that had been the woman’s intent. The world remained steady and harsh and fearful.
Jasmine pushed the woman’s hand aside. “You’re too weak without your talisman.” She turned back toward the holding cell.
“You can’t help him,” the woman said as she steadied herself against a pallet of furs.
Jasmine frowned at her. “I can’t leave him to the captain.”
Angelica closed her eyes against a weakness that shuddered through her. “What could you do anyway? You’re untrained. You have no talisman. You are almost as dangerous as the captain himself. Besides, anything you do to Kahld will only make him stronger. And madder.”
Jasmine rounded on the woman. “There has to be something you can do. I called you here because you are supposed to be experienced with dealing with this sort of thing.”
Angelica smiled through her pain. “So, it was you we felt.”
Jasmine didn’t answer the woman.
Finn ran past them. He didn’t stop. He disappeared up the ladder to the upper decks. Captain Kahld ran close behind.
Angelica’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Neither of them saw us?” She grabbed hold of Jasmine to get her attention. “Are you wielding?”
“Apparently so.”
“How do you have the power to hide us both? I thought you had no talisman.”
“We don’t have time for this.” Jasmine shrugged off Angelica’s grasp and headed in the captain’s direction.
Jasmine’s heart raced as they followed the sounds of chaos through the ship. The captain bellowed commands to capture and restrain Finn and the visitors. His officers repeated his orders. The commands echoed through the ship, and fear prickled across Jasmine’s skin.
Jasmine skidded to a stop on the mess deck. She took in everything in one glance. Arassi held Finn down on the floor. Finn fought him until the sailor pushed a knee into his back. Brusan and Fisher restrained Langer and Brill. The captain stood in the middle of the room and gathered power into himself. The power swirled in and through and around him like a storm. The two Guardians stared wide-eyed at the captain. They could sense his building power and they could sense it was directed, not at Finn, but at them.
Angelica pushed Jasmine aside and charged into the mess deck.
“He’s a Learner!” The moment she cried those words she broke Jasmine’s spell and became visible. Fisher jumped back in shock and released his hold on Brill. Brill could’ve run but his gaze went straight to the blood on Angelica’s arm. Even though Brusan’s hold remained firm, Langer wielded his power, forming a shield in front of him.
With the grace of a panther, Angelica leapt at the captain. Her intent was to confuse him or silence him or whatever else the Guardians did to their opponents. She didn’t get the chance. The captain released his gathered power into the room. A wave of energy pulsed out from him and slammed into everyone, knocking them off their feet. Angelica flew backward onto a table, rolled off and landed on a bench. The canary squawked and fluttered. Only Langer and Brusan remained standing, protected by Langer’s wielded shield.
“Wielders,” Arassi swore when he picked himself up off the floor and brushed himself off. Finn also rose. Arassi caught him, holding him at arm’s length. Jasmine thought he may have let him go but it seemed he was more afraid of the wielding captain than he was of the wielding prisoner.
Fisher scrambled to his feet and bolted from the mess deck. When Brill regained his feet, he remained in a crouched position, ready to defend himself. Langer twisted in Brusan’s hold but Cook was too strong for him. Jasmine wondered why Langer didn’t just wield against Brusan and thought he was afraid the captain might learn from it.
Because Langer was the only one who remained standing, the captain turned on him. His dark eyes flashed at the Guardian. Brusan shifted from one foot to the other.
“Leave us,” the captain said.
Brusan hesitated.
“Leave us!” Kahld commanded.
Brusan released Langer and left the mess deck. He headed in the same direction as Fisher. Arassi began to move.
“Not you.” The captain pointed at Arassi without looking at him. “I want you to take the prisoner back to his holding cell.”
Arassi swallowed. “Aye, Captain.”
The sailor gave Finn a pleading look and tugged on him in the hope the wielder wouldn’t fight him. Finn followed without resistance. He kept his eyes down and was the picture of defeat. They walked past Jasmine without seeing her. The canary chirped in a flutter of panic even though everything in the room seemed calm once more. But nothing was calm on the mess deck.
The captain wielded a focused push at Langer. The Guardian flew back and knocked over a barr
el of onions that sat outside the galley door. A mass of brown onions rolled across the deck in a scattered mess. Langer fought to stand among them. Apart from a tremor in his hands, he covered his fear well.
Angelica pulled herself into a seated position. She held her head as if it ached. Her eyes met with Langer’s and she gave him an almost imperceptible nod. Langer wielded. He pushed the captain with a powerful burst that demonstrated a power no one had seen in the wielder before. The captain flew back into stacked wooden boxes. They collapsed in a crash and the captain went down with them. Jasmine guessed it was safe to use that power against the man because he knew it already. She was surprised Langer knew how to wield it. It must’ve been a talent all Guardians learned to protect themselves.
Angelica didn’t wait for the captain to regain his footing. While he was distracted, they had a chance. Jasmine saw her draw strength. She didn’t know where the woman drew it from. The Guardian leapt on top of the captain among the overturned boxes and cupped his face in her hands. She stared into the captain’s eyes and wielded.
Jasmine looked on in horror and fascination. The power Angelica used was a different kind of wielding. It was something she’d not seen before. It was focused and sharp like the tip of a needle and it burrowed into the captain’s mind. There was something powerful, frightening, and dangerous about what she did. Jasmine looked away. She couldn’t watch. Everything inside her screamed against the horror of it. She couldn’t have said why.
The captain gargled. Power howled through the room. Jasmine staggered away and covered her ears as if to block all her senses, especially the sense of ancient doom that lingered in the air.
The captain’s gargle turned into a throaty chuckle. Jasmine spun in time to see Angelica collapse. The power she sensed when the woman had first arrived on the Prize was gone. Completely. It had drained away with her color and there was nothing left.
“Run,” Angelica gasped from the floor. Her voice came out in a broken croak.
Langer and Brill didn’t hesitate. They’d seen what happened. They knew the captain had gained a new and terrible power. They both ran from the mess deck. Jasmine sensed them wielding. They called for their ship.
The captain pushed Angelica aside and got up. There was fury in the captain’s dark expression along with a strange light of madness in his eyes. He drew his cutlass and chased after the Guardians. Jasmine stood alone on the mess deck. In shock, she stared at Angelica.
“Jasmine, what happened?” It was Finn. Somehow he’d escaped Arassi. He probably wielded against the poor fellow.
Jasmine couldn’t answer him. She just stared. Finn followed her stare and found Angelica’s body lying among the boxes. He went to her. With a tender touch, he rolled her over and looked into her eyes. Jasmine would never forget those eyes. They were pale, as if a piece of pale sky had been captured there. Jasmine held her breath. This was what Finn had meant when he could read in her eyes she’d reached her limit. Angelica had reached her wielding limit and had tried to go beyond it. She had used everything she had and more. She had tapped into her own body to draw the power and taken everything. There was nothing left.
Angelica coughed. Pain wracked her face.
“I tried to silence him,” she said.
Finn crooned to her. “Don’t speak. Conserve your energy.”
A faint smile curved her lips. “It’s too late.”
“You just need rest.”
“Liar.” It was nothing more than a breath. Her eyes drifted closed. Her breathing slowed.
Finn bowed his head and held her to him. His hair fell in front of his face.
Angelica stirred. Her eyes fluttered open. She reached a hand up to Finn and said, “Marcelo knew.” Her hand dropped, her head turned, and her eyes closed for the last time.
Finn looked up from Angelica. Redness rimmed his eyes, his cheeks had turned sallow, and he clenched his jaw in a way Jasmine thought he might break his teeth. “We have to leave this ship, Jasmine.”
She blinked. Slowly his words registered in her thoughts. “I can’t leave.”
“How can you still say that? Look around you, boy. We’re no match for the captain. Without breaking a sweat, he has already defeated Angelica.”
She tried not to flinch at the way he’d called her “boy.” He had meant it to hurt. It hadn’t mattered that he’d lashed out in shock and frustration, it still hurt. If she was tough enough to live aboard a ship full of grizzled men, she was tough enough to take a little insult. It just surprised her how much it hurt coming from Finn.
“I can’t leave.”
Finn stood. “You call this place your home, but what’s left here for you? The crew think you’re nothing more than a thief. The captain wants you dead. Even your father beats you. There’s nothing here to keep you.”
Everything Finn said was true, but she still couldn’t leave. The thought of parting with the Wielder’s Prize sent shivers of fear through her. She didn’t know if it was because she was afraid to go somewhere else since she’d known nothing but life at sea. She couldn’t deny her nature. She was born for the sea. She couldn’t turn away from that and pretend she was something else.
“I can’t leave you behind, Jasmine. You’re coming with me.” Finn grasped her arm and began pulling her toward the hatchway that led topside.
Power burned through the ship. An inhuman howl pierced the air. Jasmine’s heart skipped a beat. The captain had wielded. It had been the same type of wielding Angelica had tried to do to him, only now he directed it at someone else.
Finn’s grasp tightened. “No,” he whispered under his breath as he stared at the overhead. “Stay here.” He dropped his hand and ran for the deck.
“Like that’s going to happen,” Jasmine muttered and ran after him.
Her breath escaped her by the time she reached the deck. The dark sea churned, yet only a soft wind blew. The air burned her lungs with cold. A fog had rolled in to turn everything gray and frightening. It seemed to bury the world in a hush as if it wished to smother what it saw.
She turned her gaze to the mainmast where the captain stood. At his feet lay the crumpled form of Langer. No color remained in the pale man. Sealed forever in his staring eyes was a look that Jasmine wouldn’t soon forget. Terror and defeat and hopelessness had been carved there by a vicious hand.
Jasmine covered her mouth. The captain had silenced Langer. Not Langer, she thought in despair. He had tried to help Finn. He didn’t deserve to die this way. No one did. Silencing was horrific. It was frightening. It was wrong. She finally understood why Finn had wanted no part of the Guardians if this was their way.
She found herself shaking as she looked on the scene. Brill backed away from the captain. He raised his hands in surrender.
“I’ll not fight you,” he said in a loud voice. His words seemed to echo against the fog and float in the frosty air. “Let me return to the Wild Rose and I’ll be on my way.”
Word had spread quickly and the entire crew crowded the deck. The shock and bewilderment in their eyes and postures told Jasmine they had all seen the captain kill Langer. The realization that their captain was a wielder shook them. They had followed the man for years and never had an inkling. Curiously, they didn’t rebel when they saw Kahld kill a man. Did that mean they still trusted him? They listened to the dark-haired wielder’s words and watched for every reaction.
Kahld ignored his crew. His green eyes glowed in the strange light as he stared at Brill. “You think me a fool?”
“You are no fool. All I ask is you grant me mercy.” He dropped to his knees in supplication. His body trembled when his gaze drifted to Langer.
The captain wielded. It was a subtle power that drifted to the Guardian like the smell of cinnamon. It hung in the air around him, barely perceptible.
“And if I let you go, will you tell the others about me? Will you strengthen your forces and come after this ship?”
He shook his
head. “No. I’ll never return.”
Jasmine’s eyes widened. He spoke the truth. He had no intention of fighting the captain. His only desire was to flee. The captain’s power pushed him to speak the truth. It was the only answer he could give to remain alive, and he truly meant it.
The captain sneered. “I don’t believe you.”
“I swear! Lock me in your cells, make me your slave, but don’t do to me what you did to Langer.”
“I could never trust you.” The captain reached down and held Brill’s face in both his long fingered hands. Brill tried to push himself away but he couldn’t move from that grasp.
“I beg you.” Tears rolled down his face.
Kahld stared into the wielder’s wild eyes and the screaming began. It was an unearthly howl that scratched and tore at the soul. It was terror. It was monstrosity. Jasmine couldn’t watch the inevitability of it. She closed her eyes and thought of the vast sea around her. The howl intruded on her thoughts. There was no escape from that shriek.
Suddenly the scream cut off with a grunt. The relief of peace almost overwhelmed her. When she opened her eyes, guilt became overwhelming.
Jasmine stared at Brill’s body. It was nothing but a broken, empty shell. All of Brill’s potential, all of his hopes and dreams, everything he was, were gone. A cold shiver ran through her. This was her fault. She might as well have killed Brill and the others herself. She had called the Guardians to the ship. She had been the beacon to guide them to their end.
She searched the faces of the crew looking on. Horror and shock trembled through their strained eyes, their open mouths, their tensed muscles. These were men who had seen a great many things in their lifetime. They were men to be avoided in port. They were rough, quick to anger, quick to fight, but they had never seen such lack of mercy.
The captain stared down at Brill’s fractured form. Blood dripped from Kahld’s cutlass and splashed onto the deck. His broad chest rose and fell in heavy gasps. No shock lived in his eyes. He knew exactly what he’d done. He felt no regret. When he looked up from his work and stared at Jasmine, there was only steely determination to finish the job.