And she began to shout.
“HELP! HELP US!”
And then Jasen was adding his voice to her own. “PLEASE! NEAR THE SHORE! WE’RE BY THE SHORE!”
“HELP US!” Alixa waved frantically. She bobbed up and down, and her face dipped under the water, flooding her mouth. But she rose as high as she could each time, flapping her arms above her head madly. “HELP!”
The light had been drawing a slow line level with the horizon. But now it seemed to turn, curving slowly—toward them.
“It’s coming,” Jasen wheezed. “It’s coming this way!”
“WE’RE HERE!” Alixa screamed.
“Wait,” Jasen said suddenly. “What if—”
Scourgey whined as another wave washed over them. Saltwater spilled into Jasen’s mouth, grit floating in it. He coughed it out and grunted, wishing a log had washed out here for the scourge to cling to instead of half-drowning him instead.
“THIS WAY!”
“Alixa! What if—what if it’s not help?” Jasen asked. “What if it’s something else? Something bad? A spirit of the sea? Some—some monster, like them?” He thrust a hand quickly back toward the shore, now vanished in the dark. Still, he knew the scourge waited out there. He could smell them over the salt air, barely.
Alixa clamped her mouth shut, thinking. “It’s—it’s not,” she whispered, strangled. “Oh, ancestors … did we just … did we just lure it over? No …”
It came closer and closer every second, growing from a flickering pinpoint.
Noises drifted too—chatter, in strange tongues.
The hair on the back of Jasen’s neck rose.
It was a sea spirit, bearing down upon them.
Only … the water was moving too, around it; he could hear it breaking, cleaved into channels. Sea spirits floated above the waves, didn’t they? They couldn’t affect the way the water actually flowed.
And then Jasen saw it:
Wood.
The prow of a boat.
Alixa must’ve seen it at the same moment as it came closer, because suddenly she was screaming again—and Jasen was too, doing his best to wave one-handedly, because this was it, this was their survival, the promise fulfilled. This was how they made it out of here alive, intact, escaping the scourge when all seemed lost—
The boat was grand, the sort of thing Jasen had dreamed of one day seeing. Under other circumstances he would have been excited to see it, to catch sight of its sails pulled skyward, blotting the stars not obscured by the cratered mountain’s devastating belch of acrid smog.
This?
This overjoyed him.
Figures stood upon the deck, looking down as the boat pulled up alongside Jasen and Alixa and Scourgey. They were dark in the night, shadowed.
One called something down, words Jasen and Alixa did not understand.
“Please help!” Alixa cried. “The shore is overrun!”
More words, chatter between the figures above. One voice rang above the rest, deep and sonorous.
“Help us!” Jasen yelled, and the instruction was ragged in his throat. “Please.”
More voices … and then something was tossed into the water. Jasen caught sight of it falling, and flinched away as it landed not far from him—then he realized, blinking off the spray that had wet his face, that it was a rope ladder.
“Alixa,” Jasen ordered. “Go.”
She paddled to it. Hands groping, she found the rungs and began to pull herself up.
Jasen swam behind.
Close to the ship, Scourgey leapt off of his back with a shriek. The force of her jump thrust Jasen underwater for a moment then, when he broke the surface again, and coughed away the water in his lungs, he saw the scourge scaling the side of the ship as though it were the easiest thing in the world, her claws driven into the ship’s hull.
When Alixa was high enough, Jasen gripped onto the rungs himself.
Someone on deck called something, two hard syllables.
The rope ladder was pulled up, both on it.
Jasen stopped climbing. He simply closed his eyes on threatening tears, and let them lift him and Alixa aboard.
There, they collapsed onto the deck, wood beneath his fingertips, the rough grain of the wood beneath his palms.
“Thank you,” Alixa was crying. “Th-thank you.”
More talk.
Jasen blinked at it in confusion, looking up at his saviors. Men, by the looks and sounds of their voices, which were low and talked so quickly that Jasen wasn’t sure he could have kept up even if he had understand the language.
Shadows, he thought, looking at them. The night makes them shadows.
Then he realization: no. No light was capable of silhouetting these men. That was their skin Jasen was looking at: a deep, rich ebony. He stared, their eyes on him, curious. His relief was overwhelming, muting anything but his gratitude. “Th … thank you,” he managed to get out.
Where had they come from?
But these thoughts turned to mush. Jasen sagged, falling low against the deck. The fight that had driven him all day was finally gone, and he could give himself over to his exhaustion.
He was alive.
They both were. Somehow, they had survived.
As they lay there on the deck, dripping with water, Jasen’s mind spun in a daze. Voices washed over him, foreign words, not unkind, but entirely alien to his ears. Yet even if he could have made them out, they would have passed through one ear and out the other without him taking them in.
Only one train of thought was clear—and it echoed over and over and over.
He had lost his home today.
Lost his family.
Baraghosa had caused that.
No matter the cost, no matter where it meant going—Jasen would find the spindly devil who had taken everything from him.
And when he did, whatever it took …
… he would make him pay.
Jasen and Alixa Will Return in
A Respite from Storms
Ashes of Luukessia, Volume Two
Coming 2018!
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading! If you want to know immediately when future books become available, take sixty seconds and sign up for my NEW RELEASE EMAIL ALERTS by CLICKING HERE. I don’t sell your information and I only send out emails when I have a new book out. The reason you should sign up for this is because I don’t always set release dates, and even if you’re following me on Facebook (robertJcrane (Author)) or Twitter (@robertJcrane), it’s easy to miss my book announcements because … well, because social media is an imprecise thing.
Come join the discussion on my website: http://www.robertjcrane.com!
Cheers,
Robert J. Crane
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Editorial/Literary Janitorial duties performed by Nick Bowman, Sarah Barbour and Jeffrey Bryan. Any errors you see in the text, however, are the result of me rejecting changes.
The cover was once more designed with exceeding skill by Karri Klawiter of Artbykarri.com.
The formatting was provided by nickbowman-editing.com.
Many, many thanks to my illustrious co-author, whose name is not actually Michael Winstone. You know who you are, and you do magnificent work. Thank you.
Once more, thanks to my parents, my in-laws, my kids and my wife, for helping me keep things together.
Other Works by Robert J. Crane
World of Sanctuary
Epic Fantasy
Defender: The Sanctuary Series, Volume One
Avenger: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Two
Champion: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Three
Crusader: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Four
Sanctuary Tales, Volume One - A Short Story Collection
Thy Father’s Shadow: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 4.5
Master: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Five
Fated in Darkness: The Sanctuary Series, Volume 5.5
Warlord: The Sanctuary Seri
es, Volume Six
Heretic: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Seven
Legend: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Eight
Ghosts of Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Series, Volume Nine * (Coming 2018, at earliest.)
A Haven in Ash: Ashes of Luukessia, Volume One
A Respite From Storms: Ashes of Luukessia, Volume Two* (with Michael Winstone—Coming 2018!)
The Girl in the Box
and
Out of the Box
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Alone: The Girl in the Box, Book 1
Untouched: The Girl in the Box, Book 2
Soulless: The Girl in the Box, Book 3
Family: The Girl in the Box, Book 4
Omega: The Girl in the Box, Book 5
Broken: The Girl in the Box, Book 6
Enemies: The Girl in the Box, Book 7
Legacy: The Girl in the Box, Book 8
Destiny: The Girl in the Box, Book 9
Power: The Girl in the Box, Book 10
Limitless: Out of the Box, Book 1
In the Wind: Out of the Box, Book 2
Ruthless: Out of the Box, Book 3
Grounded: Out of the Box, Book 4
Tormented: Out of the Box, Book 5
Vengeful: Out of the Box, Book 6
Sea Change: Out of the Box, Book 7
Painkiller: Out of the Box, Book 8
Masks: Out of the Box, Book 9
Prisoners: Out of the Box, Book 10
Unyielding: Out of the Box, Book 11
Hollow: Out of the Box, Book 12
Toxicity: Out of the Box, Book 13
Small Things: Out of the Box, Book 14
Hunters: Out of the Box, Book 15
Badder: Out of the Box, Book 16
Nemesis: Out of the Box, Book 17
Apex: Out of the Box, Book 18* (Coming Early 2018!)
Time: Out of the Box, Book 19* (Coming Spring 2018!)
Driven: Out of the Box, Book 20* (Coming Summer 2018!)
Southern Watch
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
Called: Southern Watch, Book 1
Depths: Southern Watch, Book 2
Corrupted: Southern Watch, Book 3
Unearthed: Southern Watch, Book 4
Legion: Southern Watch, Book 5
Starling: Southern Watch, Book 6
Forsaken: Southern Watch, Book 7* (Coming Late 2018 – Tentatively)
The Shattered Dome Series
(with Nicholas J. Ambrose)
Sci-Fi
Voiceless: The Shattered Dome, Book 1
Unspeakable: The Shattered Dome, Book 2* (Coming 2018!)
The Mira Brand Adventures
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
The World Beneath: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 1
The Tide of Ages: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 2
The City of Lies: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 3
The King of the Skies: The Mira Brand Adventures, Book 4* (Coming Late 2017/Early 2018!)
Liars and Vampires
(with Lauren Harper)
Contemporary Urban Fantasy
No One Will Believe You: Liars and Vampires, Book 1* (Coming Early 2018!)
Someone Should Save Her: Liars and Vampires, Book 2* (Coming Early 2018!)
You Can’t Go Home Again: Liars and Vampires, Book 3* (Coming Early 2018!)
* Forthcoming, Subject to Change
A Haven in Ash Page 28