Blood Moon (Blood Rain Book 2)

by Nancy Gray

  Mercy snapped in frustration, “Fine! Keep your secret then. I’ll do what I can to keep Erebus from killing you.”

  Beryl just sighed and walked away. He looked sad, which made Mercy feel bad for her comment. She hated the fact that after all they had been through together he still didn’t feel that he could tell her what he was keeping from them.

  Kylas leaned against the side of the ship and said, “He probably physically can’t tell us. I don’t understand all of the rules these beast folk have, but it seems when the make a vow they take it seriously. I was hoping he would give us a little information, but we don’t have long to wait now.”

  “I understand to a certain degree, but after all I’ve been through, I would think he could tell me. It seems he could at least tell Erebus since he is one of the Beast Folk.”

  “He probably doesn’t want to risk a confrontation on the ship.”

  Mercy shivered. She didn’t like to think about a confrontation between Beryl and Erebus, especially in confined quarters. Even if they weren’t flinging magic at one another, they were easily strong enough to knock someone into the water by accident or to do enough collateral damage to the ship that they could hit an iceberg. She stared into the distance, trying not to think about it.

  Kylas gently shook her shoulder, “Mercy?”

  She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m listening.”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m sorry.”

  Mercy frowned. “Sorry for what?”

  “All this time I’ve been acting harshly towards you because of your power. At first, I just wanted to protect you, but I’ve started to realize you really don’t need my protection. You saved Pyron and Beryl with what you’ve learned from Erebus, and maybe it isn’t just good intentions that are making me resent you for it.”

  Mercy blinked with surprise. “You’re jealous of me?”

  Kylas chuckled. “You really are blunt sometimes, aren’t you? Yeah, I guess you could say that. I wish I was strong enough to protect Mirilee, but I couldn’t even fight off that siren shark. What am I going to do when we find whoever is responsible for the blood rain? Wave a spear at them?”

  Mercy sighed. She never thought about the fact that Kylas might be feeling inadequate. Mirilee’s bravery made her strong. Beryl and Erebus were beast men that could do actual magic, and Mercy was becoming one of them. Even though Pyron had no power, he was trained as a spy. It seemed that since the beginning all Kylas had done was get into trouble, and in his culture his gift was seen as being a curse, something that he was always fighting against.

  Mercy said with a smile, “I told you that when I was being held captive by the Stealer Wings, Mered told me that anyone who has any kind of gift has the blood of a Beast Man somewhere in their veins.”

  “Somehow the thought I have a Stealer Wing as an ancestor doesn’t make me feel better.”

  “I thought exactly the same thing, but honestly, that’s what has made me so powerful. Just because your gift has made life hard on you doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.”

  Mercy grabbed him and pointed in Pyron’s direction. “Look at Pyron, he doesn’t have any beast blood to speak of, but he saved my life. I think you can protect Mirilee, and despite how hard she is on you sometimes, I think she appreciates you being there by her side. She’ll need you more than ever soon.”

  Kylas smiled. “Thank you, Mercy.”

  Mercy said, “Don’t thank me just yet. We still haven’t stopped Mirilee’s vision from coming true, and if we can’t stop Beryl and Erebus from killing one another, I have a feeling that we won’t even get to sail to the islands.”

  Kylas frowned. “Why is that?”

  Mercy said, “Beryl knows the leader of the Northern people. He was guarding the prince that was supposed to marry their chieftain’s daughter. They won’t trust any of us without him, and I need Erebus if I ever want to save my people. If either of them dies…”

  Captain Morrissey shouted, “Mercy, Kylas, I need both of you at your posts, now. We’re halfway to the port. Kylas, keep a watch for thick patches of ice. Mercy, knock any ice off of the ropes so we can secure ourselves to the dock.”

  “Yes, Sir!”

  Mercy immediately went about her task and found that she was done just in time as they reached the dock. She glanced in the direction of the shore, stunned. The stories about the North, it seemed, were understating the truth. Nestled between two mountains, she could see a magnificent castle that looked like it was chiseled into the stone and the rest of it was cut out of the ice. From a distance it was impressive, but the closer they got, the more that she realized the building itself was a work of art. Statuary and reliefs were carved into the ice of the castle, telling an elaborate story that she hoped she would have a chance to give a closer inspection.

  Statues rose up from the ground nearly as tall as the buildings of the Ashen capital. They depicted everything from Mermen and sea monsters to idyllic human beings that seemed perfect in form and feature. Around the dock there were little round houses made of snow, and she could smell meat roasting on cooking fires and the smoke was billowing from the snow chimneys. Mercy marveled at the sight, wondering how the houses remained without melting, or how they could build a fire within them at all. And she was finally seeing snow for the first time. A large flake landed on her finger, and she realized what Beryl meant. It looked like a little crystal that formed a beautiful symmetrical pattern that simply dissolved away in her hand, and every pattern was different and remarkable.

  Mercy nearly stumbled and fell as the ship lurched to a halt. She quickly remembered her job and tossed one of the ropes to Captain Morrissey and the other to Lavirin. They jumped down and began tying up the ship to the wooden dock. Despite the fact that everything else seemed to be made of snow, the long dock was wooden and well cared for with space enough for a small fleet of ships. The ships that were moored nearby also had elaborate figureheads that seemed to depict sea creatures or Mermaids and Mermen in a similar fashion to Morrissey’s. However, their sails were white as the snow around them.

  As soon as they were secured, Morrissey yelled in an excited voice, “All ashore!”

  Lavirin looked as though he was going to jump directly in the water to get there faster, but he swung down with the rope bridge and motioned for everyone to follow him. Beryl went down next with some assistance from Pyron, and Mercy couldn’t wait anymore. She quickly climbed down and began to stare in wonder at not only the buildings, but the people that were starting to come out.

  They were staring with curiosity at the ship, and some of them were pointing enthusiastically as though they recognized it. Many of them had tan skin and hair that was nearly as white as the snow, while others had pale skin and hair color that ranged in nearly every color of the rainbow, but mostly greens and blues with eyes to match. They were Mermen and Mermaids, and they weren’t bothering to disguise themselves.

  Then, Mercy noticed the children. While many had the features of both parents, hair that seemed streaked with bright colors as though dyed with the leaves of some exotic plant, they seemed perfectly human. They were beautiful children. Some were speaking in the rough sounding language of the Northern tribe, while others were chatting in Common. She occasionally heard smatterings of a beautiful language that she had never heard before. It sounded as though it flowed like the sea, and she assumed it had to be the language of Beryl’s people.

  There was something in the air that made the place feel unusual, and Mercy suddenly gasped when she recognized the sensation. Just like in the lands that belonged to the Stealer Wings, the air was charged with magic. It felt even stronger than she ever felt it before, as though the land itself had always been this way. It wasn’t just the land either; it was the people, especially the children.

  27

  Mercy stared in amazement and horrified fascination as she watched a child pointing to a mound of snow while a perfectly roun
d snowball levitated away from it and into his hand. A child across from him giggled in delight and made motions with his hands at the snow beneath his feet which began to form into a circular fort before her very eyes.

  The child with the snowball made a motion as though he was rolling more of them in his hands, but they simply appeared in the snow beneath him. He whisked his arm to the side and one of them soared through the air, hitting the other child before he could duck behind his magical fort. He retaliated, motioning at the snow in front of him and making a moving wave of snow that knocked the other child off of his feet.

  Mercy looked around frantically, wondering why nothing bad was happening with the children casting magic so blatantly. There were no nosebleeds, and there was no pain. It was as though the blood pact never existed here. The Merfolk and the children were all practicing some form of magic involving snow, ice, or water. There was even a man juggling balls of water for the amusement of his five year old daughter.

  Mercy glanced at her companions. Pyron was staring in disbelief. He seemed almost as nervous as she was. Mirilee and Kylas were staring with wonder, but they didn’t seem frightened by the display at all. Mercy heard Kylas saying something about joining in the snowball fight. She finally saw Erebus, still standing at the bottom of the rope ladder. He was staring at Beryl. His face contorted into a mask of shock that was slowly boiling into rage that she felt could melt the snow around him. He turned his head abruptly and began walking purposefully towards Beryl. Beryl was standing right beside Mercy.

  She hadn’t even heard him talking, though apparently he had been talking to her the entire time. “As you can see, Nicomedes was right about one thing. The pact is indeed unweaving. Here, any ill effects of using magic or our abilities are just a mild discomfort. We can even openly discuss the existence of magic in all of its forms.”

  Erebus rushed forward so quickly, Mercy very nearly didn’t see him. He punched Beryl in the jaw with bone-shattering force, but it seemed that his people were hardier than they appeared on the outside. Beryl staggered for a moment, as though simply surprised and then scowled and glared at Erebus.

  Erebus shouted, “FOOLS! TRAITORS, ALL OF YOU! Magic is NOT the plaything of children. Are you trying to kill us all?”

  Beryl said in a mild voice, “Times have changed, Erebus. It’s time for our people to stop lording over magic and treating others as though they’re too unintelligent to use it. The blood pact started fraying the moment the first of these children were born.”

  “Which is why we weren’t supposed to breed with them. We were trying to protect the world from another calamity. Have you forgotten why the pact was created?”

  “Is that why you kept rejecting Mercy? Or why you were keeping her people in the dark? Because you’re such an idealist that you would rather hide in a cave than admit you were wrong about other humans, that you aren’t better than them? Did you think for once that maybe humans can use magic again and won’t start another calamity? You’re people are living in the past because they like lording over other humans as though they are cattle.”

  Beryl looked like he wanted to continue, but then he began to cough and clutch his throat. Erebus began to screech in his own language and pointed more emphatically at Beryl’s chest. Beryl pried his hand away from his throat and motioned towards the ocean. A ball of water flew from the bay with a whispered word from Beryl in his own language and encased itself around Erebus’ head. Erebus’ mouth gaped open in surprise, and Mercy could tell he accidentally inhaled some of the water.

  Erebus scratched at the ball, and it burst in a shower of small droplets, and Beryl seemed to regain some composure. He began to run away from the town, towards a long shoreline near the dock. Erebus was right behind him.

  Mercy tried to rush after them, but Pyron put a hand on her shoulder in a vise-like grip. “NO! Mercy, they’re fighting each other with magic. You’ll just get caught in the crossfire. That’s why Beryl is running towards the beach, so that no one else gets hurt.”

  “We can’t just let them kill each other!”

  “We won’t, but if you try to rush between them, you’ll die.”

  Mercy frowned, and stared helplessly at the beach. Pyron was right, and standing between them was exactly what she was instinctively intending to do. She could feel their anger and rage, as though it was the manifestation of a century of bitter blood, and it wouldn’t subside until blood was exactly what it had.

  While her interference might end the fight, more than likely it would end with her accidental death. Mercy jerked away and ran in their direction all the same. If she couldn’t get them to stop fighting by putting herself in the way, then maybe she could stop them by joining in and somehow putting up barriers between them. Either way, she couldn’t just sit by and watch her friends tear each other apart.

  Mercy noticed Mirilee rushing after her with Kylas trailing behind.

  Mirilee simply whispered over and over again, “No…no…no!”

  Pyron was running right next to Mercy and skidded to a halt just as she did. In front of her the ice and snow was stained bright red with blood. Some was from Erebus, and some was from Beryl. Beryl’s nose was bleeding and so were his ears. Erebus didn’t look any better and was clutching at his side, pulling long icicles the size of daggers from his midsection. They raised their hands over their heads, about to do something else, something that made the air around them feel as though it was charged with the static before a lightning storm.

  Before they could act, though, Mirilee stumbled forward staring with an odd expression at the snow falling from the sky above them. It took Mercy a moment to see what she was looking at, but then she saw the strange black snowflake spiraling down towards them. In comparison to the violence around them, it seemed almost surreal, and Mirilee reached up towards it like she was in a trance. As soon as the snowflake landed on her finger and melted, Mercy realized it wasn’t black at all, but crimson and other dark snowflakes were beginning to fall from the sky as well. Mirilee stared at her hand for a moment in disbelief, and then fainted. Beryl and Erebus released their power at the exact same time, and the force of the blow knocked Mercy from her feet. She realized with horror that she could no longer feel Erebus’ presence, and Beryl’s scream sounded far too final as it echoed in her ears.

  She stood up as fast as she could, looking from Erebus to Beryl. Erebus was lying prone in the snow, a puddle of blood slowly forming beneath him. She could tell by his elongated ears, the fur on his body, and his leathery wings that he was in bestial form when he fell; but his body was slowly changing into that of a human again. She knew that wasn’t a good sign. All beast men slowly reverted back to human form when they died or expended too much magical energy, as he had in the cave when he rescued her.

  Mercy concentrated, trying to reach out with her bestial senses to hear a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was there. Erebus was lost in a dreamless, unconscious state, but he was alive. She fought away the urge to rush up to Erebus’ side. If Erebus awoke he might be so starved for blood that he would attack her before he could even realize who she was. As much as she hated to admit it, Pyron was right. Putting herself in danger wouldn’t help either of them.

  Beryl was curled up as he had been in the belly of the shark, trembling. He was awake, but clearly in a great deal of pain. Blood was also pooling beneath him, and Mercy saw what looked like jagged icicles jutting out of his chest and side Some were piercing all the way through his body. Her heart broke for him as well. Even though she felt conflicted, despite the fact it would be dangerous, she wanted to help Erebus first. If she didn’t act soon, both of them would die.

  As Mercy approached, she saw a huge, jagged wall of ice between the two of them. Even though she knew that Beryl’s magic gave him control over ice and snow, the spell seemed a little too defensive. When they were about to attack one another before, Mercy was sure that both of their spells were meant to strike a deathblow. They weren’t holding anything back. And
yet, somehow a wall of ice and stone had torn itself from the ground between them, explaining the loud sound that she heard.

  Pyron asked, “Are they alive?”

  Mercy nodded. “Yes, but barely. Erebus is unconscious, and Beryl is in too much pain to feel anything else. Where did the wall of ice come from?”

  “I don’t know. It just sprang up out of the ground. When it did, their own spells backfired on them. Beryl got pelted with the icicles he was throwing at Erebus, and Erebus clutched his chest and fell down.”

  Kylas said in wonder, “They really were trying to kill each other, weren’t they?”

  Pyron grunted assent but didn’t say anything else. He pulled out his hand cannon, loaded a large tan colored ball into it and then handed it to Mercy.

  Mercy stammered, “What is this for? I’m not going to kill Erebus.”

  “You should know by now that I don’t want you to do that. The bullet inside is made from the core of a spring tree. It won’t kill anyone, but if Erebus decides he’s hungry, you might need it to subdue him. Aim for something painful and it should knock some sense into him.”

  Mercy stared at the hand cannon in wonder. She knew about spring trees. They were some of the strongest trees in the forest and some of the few that survived most tropical storms. Their core was so pliable that they simply whipped back and forth, bending to even the most powerful wind. The core of the tree also made excellent bows for the same reason. Her old bow was made of spring tree wood. It probably meant that the ball was soft enough that it wouldn’t even break the skin, but the force behind it would be more than enough to knock a person senseless with pain. Mercy hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, but hurting Erebus temporarily was better than the alternative.

  Pyron rummaged through his pack and tossed her a roll of vitula silk bandages and said, “You take care of Erebus. I’ll take care of Beryl. Watch the mountains too. I think that someone else put that wall up between them, and they’re probably still watching.”