by Nancy Gray
The thought made her sick with anger and pain, and she realized that Captain Morrissey was feeling the exact same thing. He wasn’t trying to fight them because he didn’t want to kill any of them, but his anger was slowly replacing his pain. He wasn’t going to let them kill him either. Mercy carefully aimed her arrow at the back of Tolbert’s leg, breathed in deeply, and tried to replace her anger with the calm certainty of her skills.
The arrow embedded into the back of Tolbert’s knee sticking halfway out of the front. He crumpled over and screamed in pain, dropping his sword. Garnet just continued to whisper under her breath and Mercy quickly discovered why. Garnet made a motion at Captain Morrissey, and he clutched his heart, gagging and gasping for breath. There was a look of shock and pain on his face for a moment and then his eyes rolled backward, he gasped one last time, and he tumbled over the railing and into the sea.
Garnet turned to face Mercy, with a huge smile on her face - but something about the grin was far too wide. Garnet’s mouth was full of row after row of jagged teeth, and her eyes were entirely black. She looked almost exactly like one of the Waterbloods except for her body wasn’t quite as large or as lumpy. Suddenly, her betrayal made sense, and Mercy wished she had seen the signs of it before. On some of the nights where Mercy and the other crewmembers thought Garnet was pleasuring someone, she was swimming to The Knave to report their status. Mercy readied another arrow and aimed it for her chest.
Garnet laughed. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for this. She’s mine, Scrap. Don’t get in my way.”
Mercy glanced behind her and saw Scrap trying to sneak up on her with the knife. The sight made something snap inside of her, and before she could stop herself she shot his knife with the arrow that she had readied, wounding him in the process. The boy’s eyes got wide with terror, and he ran into the captain’s cabin slamming the door behind him. Mercy put the bow away and grabbed her daggers instead, turning to face Garnet. Garnet was still staring at her as though she would wait as long as it took for Mercy to get ready.
Mercy snapped, “What did you do to that boy? How did you get him to be on your side?”
“He wanted to be on the winning side, and boys are so easy to manipulate when they hit puberty. I gave him a special birthday present, and that was all that it took.”
“You’re so disgusting.”
She laughed, circling Mercy as she spoke. “I know that you’ve learned some tricks from Erebus. I’ve wanted to fight you ever since I found out. Let’s do this without weapons. Unleash the beast within you! Fight me with your teeth and claws!”
Mercy frowned. She didn’t want to tell Garnet the truth. She didn’t have any teeth or claws to fight her with. That was one of the abilities that didn’t come with his beast’s drop of blood. She wasn’t about to let Stealer of Secrets gain any more power, but she knew better than to admit any weakness to Garnet.
“I don’t need my teeth or claws to beat you. My daggers will do just fine.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m disappointed that you’re going to make this so easy.”
Garnet rushed forward swiping at Mercy with strange elongated fingers with razor sharp claws on the ends. Her mouth was a maw of jagged teeth. She swatted at Mercy with her hands while she lunged forward, snapping with her jaws at the same time, like a render trying to maul its prey. Mercy dodged to the side, just barely getting out of the way in time, and struck at Garnet with the daggers. Laughing, Garnet simply moved out of the way with unnatural speed and agility, dodging gracefully into a feral crouch.
Garnet frowned and said, “It’s like you’re not even trying. What are you playing at? Use your powers.”
Mercy rushed forward and attacked with the daggers again. She felt as though she was going dangerously slow in comparison to Garnet’s lithe and powerful movements. It was like Garnet was just playing with her, trying to make her feel that she was doing well despite the fact that Mercy knew she wasn’t.
“You don’t have any power at all do you? You’re so pathetic. What could a man possibly see in someone like you?”
“Don’t you dare underestimate me.”
Mercy heard Stealer of Secret’s voice as clearly as if it was being whispered in her ear. “Let me help you. I can make you just as fast as she is. You just have to let me try.”
Mercy thought, “Never. I’ll let her kill me before I’ll accept any more of your help.”
The voice became louder almost to the point of shouting. “I’m asking you nicely, but if you end up nearly killing us because you’re being stubborn, I’ll just do it without your permission! You let me help you with plenty of other things - you just don’t realize it. Either let me do it now, or when you’re dying you won’t have a choice. I’d rather not lose anymore blood today.”
“Is this the sort of thing Erebus has to put up with? No wonder he hates his demon so much. Fine, help me then.”
Garnet leapt forward slicing at Mercy’s throat with her long fingernails. Mercy could feel her bloodlust, as though she could anticipate the feel of Mercy’s blood spraying against her face. Then, she felt her disappointment as Mercy dodged easily out of the way as though her body had a mind of its own. Mercy wheeled around and sliced a deep gash into Garnet’s cheek. Garnet gasped for a moment, touching her face. Her expression flitted between horrified and mystified. She took a step back and her confidence shattered like a fragile mirror.
Mercy grinned thinking, “I’ve got her. She doesn’t want me to hurt her face. She’s vain, like Nicomedes.”
Mercy rushed forward and sliced at her face with the second dagger. Instead of attacking back, Garnet dodged several feet backwards, losing more and more ground as Mercy advanced towards her, attacking her face with the ferocity of a behemoth defending its territory.
Mercy felt herself laughing. “And you were calling me pathetic? You’re afraid of a little scratch on your cheek! Is it because you know that beyond that pretty face you have nothing to offer anyone? Is that why you went after a twelve year old boy?”
Garnet began to whimper and ran all the way to the bow of the ship. Just as Mercy was about to lunge forward to mar her face entirely, Garnet stopped running and grinned. She batted the dagger away with her claws like an unwanted toy, and lunged forward. The sudden movement startled Mercy and she wasn’t able to move away before Garnet bit her on the shoulder. As she instinctively jerked away, hissing with pain, Mercy realized that some of her flesh was still in Garnet’s mouth.
Garnet swallowed loudly making Mercy shudder. “That was very generous of you. I wanted a drink, not a full meal. You were making me so thirsty!”
“What are you playing at, Garnet?”
“Stalling. Listen, do you hear it?”
Mercy frowned, “Hear what?”
“Exactly!”
Mercy gasped and glanced in the direction of Pyron and Nicomedes. Pyron was grasping at his chest. It looked as though he was choking. He clawed desperately at his throat with wide and terrified eyes. Nicomedes began to laugh and bowed slightly in Garnet’s direction. Before Mercy could even react, Garnet took another bite out of Mercy’s shoulder. This time, Mercy felt the pull of the bite, the feel of Garnet trying to steal as much blood from her as possible. She struggled and slashed at Garnet’s face with her dagger until she finally jerked away.
Garnet cackled and Mercy watched in horrified fascination as the cuts on her face began to meld back together like rising dough in an oven. She couldn’t believe how foolish she was to believe that for one instant Garnet was afraid of her, especially when she could heal minor injuries without any scarring by simply expending a little power. Mercy didn’t have the full powers of one of the Blood Wings, and she did it without even realizing it. Garnet had far more power and control than she did.
Nicomedes called from the forecastle. “Garnet, it’s time to go, love. Finish this and stop playing with your food.”
“I thought you wanted her as a plaything.”
“We don’t have the
time. Our contacts won’t wait forever, and they told us to kill everyone onboard.”
“True enough.”
Garnet fixed her black eyes on Mercy and suddenly she felt as though her chest was constricting. She clawed at her throat and chest, but she couldn’t seem to breathe at all. It felt like she was drowning. She could feel the liquid filling her lungs. Soon she wouldn’t have any air. She tried to cough, but as some of the water came up, more water took its place and Mercy found she couldn’t cough at all. She couldn’t even make a sound.
She suddenly remembered Pyron and how it seemed he was choking. Nicomedes had done the same thing to him, but Mercy had a power that Pyron didn’t. She concentrated on her neck, imagining having gills, remembering the way it felt to sift air from the water around her. It was an odd sensation, but her neck split open and water poured from the sides of it. She contracted the gills and expanded them until every little bit of water was out of her lungs. The moment that she stopped concentrating, her neck returned to normal and her gills were gone. She heard Garnet hiss in frustration and anger.
Mercy couldn’t help feeling a little smug and she glanced in Nicomedes’ direction to see if he noticed, but then she saw Pyron’s body at his feet. Despite his strange, gray complexion, Pyron looked very pale. His chest wasn’t moving. She reached out with her mind, caressing the shadows around him trying to hear his heart beating, but she only heard one steady heart rate, and it belonged to Nicomedes.
Mercy screamed. It was a primal sound that seemed more like the shrieking of a cold, gale wind through a hollow canyon. She wasn’t conscious of anything but her fury and a lancing pain that felt as though three spears were attempting to break through into skull. Her daggers toppled from her hands as the pain intensified, and she instinctively reached up, grasping handfuls of her hair, gripping her head.
For a moment, she felt as though she was experiencing the pain from somewhere far away, that somehow she was just observing it. The triple spikes of pain didn’t really feel like they were reaching into her skull, but reaching out. Then, in an instant, the pain was gone, like a splinter being removed. There was an overwhelming sensation as though power was surging through her body replacing her blood. It was almost too much to take, and yet she had never felt so alive.
Mercy glanced at herself over the side of the ship, and in her reflection she saw long, obsidian horns that twisted like the branches of a dead tree. They were almost exactly like the horns of a stag except for their coloration, and she realized they were a strange combination of wood and bone. Her skin was a grayish shade of brown that somehow complimented the murky yellow glow of her eye shine. Mercy turned in Garnet’s direction. Garnet’s eyes were huge with real terror, and she was walking towards the edge of the ship. She looked like she was changing into a more shark-like form, getting ready to jump overboard.
Garnet whimpered, “What are you? Please, please don’t hurt me. I can make it worth your while.”
Mercy stretched out her hand and watched in fascination for a moment as her fingers became long and very sharp. Each fingertip looked sharper than a thorn, and then she realized that was exactly what the tips of her fingers were becoming long, stiff thorns. They turned crimson, as though they were already coated in blood.
Mercy said in a strange echoing voice that she didn’t recognize as her own, “You said that you wanted me to fight with my teeth and claws. Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Garnet was about to jump in the water, but Mercy was too quick. She rushed forward using her elongated fingers to skewer Garnet through her back. Garnet thrashed for an instant like a fish impaled on a spear, and then she went still. Mercy could feel her heartbeat ceasing, and she found that she didn’t care. Her apathy was like that of the forest when one of its creatures died or when a single tree fell. Death was simply part of the cycle. Garnet was trying to destroy her, and she had taken her life instead. Mercy looked at Garnet’s lifeless body with fascination, noting how pale and empty it looked, like a husk left behind when a mind spore left its host. Her interest quickly waned, and she shook Garnet’s body from her fingertips into the water below.
Nicomedes said in an awed whisper, “Garnet, I thought you were stronger than that!”
Mercy grinned. “She can’t hear you now. She’s part of the cycle, and you will be too.”
The feeling of her power was overwhelming. Mercy felt that she could see everything more clearly than she ever had before. The night sky glittered like a diamond; the stars made it glisten with every color of the rainbow. Every bit of light was a beacon painting the world in vibrant colors. It wasn’t like the drab grays that she usually saw in the absence of light. Light was everywhere. Mercy glanced in the direction of Nicomedes, but then her eyes fell on Pyron again.
Pyron’s body was gray. It was so lifeless and still, and so out of place with the vibrant light of the evening. Even though she thought of Garnet’s death was like that of a simple creature or a single tree, Pyron’s was more like the loss of an entire sacred grove. Suddenly, she remembered why she needed to kill Garnet, to stop Nicomedes from escaping his fate. She looked up at him, her eyes burning with fury, and began to walk towards the forecastle.
Nicomedes slowly backed away. “I don’t know what you are, but you’re a fool if you think you can kill me as easily as you did Garnet. I’ll make you pay!”
“I am one of the Blood Kin. You won’t escape my wrath for what you’ve done to my friends.”
Mercy paused for an instant. Even though the she didn’t even know where the words she spoke came from, she knew that they were true. She was one of the Blood Kin. It was the name given to those that were corrupted wood spirits. It was why her people hated the Blood Wings so much. According to their culture, the Blood Kin and the Blood Wings were once allies, just as her people and the Wood Kin were allies.
Mercy heard a quiet voice in the back of her mind. She shivered as she realized it was her normal voice instead of the duel echoing voice that she was using when she spoke now.
The voice was reasonable and familiar. “Remember what Erebus said. They weren’t really corrupted spirits. They were just normal people warped by the magic they wielded, and so are you. The magic is controlling you and if you aren’t careful, you’ll lose yourself.”
Nicomedes interrupted the thought. “Pyron isn’t dead yet, you know. If you really are one of the Blood Kin, you can save him.”
Mercy paused and looked at Pyron. She listened hard but still didn’t hear a heartbeat, but as she stared at the body she found that she could almost feel his body temperature. It was still warm. Something about the thought gave her hope. Even if his heart wasn’t beating, it had only stopped for a minute at the most. She realized that her perception was faster than it used to be. Things that were happening in mere instants felt as though they took place for minutes at a time. Just looking at the stars felt as though it had taken hours, but she had only glanced upward for a moment.
Nicomedes nodded at her as though he somehow understood her realization. “You have our power over blood, and you have the power over life and death, but you don’t have much time or very much energy left.” He grinned at her. “Are you going to kill me, or are you going to save him? You can’t do both!”
Mercy scowled at him, baring fangs that she didn’t even know were there. She could sense his emotions, and she could tell that he didn’t care which way she chose. He was fascinated and enraptured by the fact that she had to make a choice between her bloodlust and her loyalty to her friend. Would one of the Blood Kin choose loyalty? She somehow didn’t think so, but then she wasn’t a Blood Kin, not really. She was Mind of Mercy, but she was also Stealer of Secrets.
The cook, Jonas, shouted, “I’ll make the choice for her!”
From the stairwell, Mercy heard a loud sound like a peal of thunder, and suddenly Nicomedes grasped the side of his chest, gasping for breath. He looked at the gaping hole and the blood pouring over his hand with a stunned expression. Ther
e was another deafening sound and a hole opened up in his leg. He snarled, his eyes becoming black and dangerous, but instead of attacking, he jumped over the side of the ship into the water.
For Mercy, it was as though the sound of the gunshots brought everything back into perspective. She felt her powers melting away and the horns on her head slowly becoming smaller. She immediately knelt by Pyron’s side. His lungs were full of water, so she bent down and breathed air into his lungs. A small amount of water dribbled down his chin. She did it again and again until she was sure most of the water was gone, but it wasn’t enough. His heart needed to start beating again.
With the last of her power, Mercy concentrated on his body, staring at it as though she could see through his skin. As she did, she began to notice the path of his blood would take, glowing blue and red in her vision and stretching through his body like vines spreading upon the stone walls of a building. She traced his veins with her fingers. As she did, she felt the blood being pulled and pushed with her touch. She moved the blood through his heart, and made her hand flutter at the same time, causing one beat. Then she did it again, causing another.
She thought, “My power is waning fast. Breathe, Pyron I need you to help me!”
Mercy willed everything into her motions, trying to force his heart to beat again, but she knew he needed a reason to live as well. From what she knew about Pyron’s life, he didn’t have much of a reason and she couldn’t blame him if he decided not to fight. His wife was dead and she meant everything to him. Wherever he was going, she would be there. For an instant, she wondered if it would be better for him that way, but then she heard someone crying behind her. Mirilee and Kylas were watching her, and Mirilee wasn’t even trying to hide her emotions.