“How many follow you?” Watersend asked, his shoulders stiffening.
“Three.” She needed to tell him the truth. It would only be fair since he’d cast his lot with hers. “I understand if you trust me less when you hear who.”
Watersend raised an eyebrow.
“Syashin Havenash, First Son of General Ashemon Havenash of Weshen. Since the General is dead by the hand of Graeme, Sy holds the highest seat of power over what is left of our country. But he has to remain here in StarsHelm.”
“Why?”
“He now carries the King’s curse.”
Watersend’s eyes widened in alarm. “The curse lives? Graeme’s curse?”
She nodded. “Evidently, the curse was made to transfer to Graeme’s killer. He was so successful at staying alive because none wanted the risk of eternal torture.” None except Sy, she thought, and her heart beat a heavy cadence.
“And who else?” Watersend ground out.
“Syashin’s brother, Reshra. Second Son. And Jyesh, my own brother.” She pursed her lips and stared at the floor, unwilling to add the final piece of information. But Jyesh’s past would never stay a secret. It would be better to tell Watersend everything now. “I once thought my brother was dead, but it so happens he’d been held captive by Mara in Rurok. He is...was... the Lord of Witches.”
A bark of laughter slipped from the General’s lips, and Coren glanced back at him sharply.
There was no humor on his face as he stepped closer, crowding her in the small room. “So, you bring the heads of two enemy countries into our fortress, one of whom is a king-killer, and you wear Graeme’s ring because of a tryst so secret even he didn’t know its results?” He shook his head, and she faltered, her hand moving to clutch at her whip.
But then the ghost of a grin slipped across his face, and he laughed again, softer. “I hope you have a spine of steel, Corentine Ashaden. For though it sounds like you’ve survived much, your trials are far from over.”
Coren gulped down a sigh. She knew it looked bad. And it was - they meant to change Riata forever. But they also meant to change it for the better.
Watersend settled in the chair by the door and gestured to the bath. She had just turned away when he spoke again. “Everything in my training tells me to run you through right now and hang the corpse from the tower. But my training came from Mara, and while it’s kept me safe, it hasn’t made me happy.”
“And what has made you happy?” Coren asked, wishing she hadn’t asked the question when she saw the flash in her eyes.
He ignored her question, staring out the sliver of window. Then, in a voice so low she almost missed it, he said, “Everything in my heart tells me you have what we need to take back our freedom.”
Coren didn’t know how to answer. “I lived all my life on an island, yearning to see the world. Now I’ve seen more than I can understand. I want Riata to be free, so we can all be free. If that fits with what’s in your heart, then I ask your protection and guidance.”
He sat in silence long enough that she chose a dress from the wardrobe and entered the bath.
She wasn’t entirely sure what Watersend’s motives included, but for now, he seemed willing to help her. Sinking into the hot bath with a curse of delight, she added a prayer of thanks to the Magi.
Chapter 5
THE WOMEN OF WESHEN Isle were proving much more adept at finding their magic than the men had been.
Of course, Nik acknowledged this might also have something to do with the growing presence of magic in the world - now that the barrier from the NeverCross Mountains had fallen.
And more than a few of them reminded him it was spurred by an overwhelming cry for revenge for what the Restless King had done to their people for generations and to their men this summer.
It was now the third day of his lessons on the beach. Nik had sworn to Matron Behrenna not to test the women’s powers with the sand or the ocean waves. He was doing better, too, and being surrounded with the open freedom of the sky and the endless sparkling water calmed his nerves and chased back his dark memories.
Here, Nik could imagine a future of love more than pain.
He moved lightly between the pairs and trios of women, his eyes closed, sensing the magic awakening in their blood. With his shifter senses, it was like watching the ocean but seeing beneath the skin of the water to what swam beneath.
New magic always felt so clean. So pure, like the first buds of spring.
Certainly, each Weshen would be capable of enormous destruction, just as he had become. Yet he hoped the world might leave this island alone a while longer, so this broken race could rebuild without twisting their magic into weapons. There were enough children here, both boys and girls, to save the Weshen people one day.
If they could stay hidden here, living a simple life... perhaps he could, too.
“When will we learn more?”
A voice nearby stopped his rippling thoughts, and he opened his eyes. Nik struggled to recall this girl’s name, remembering only that he didn’t really like her aggression.
The girl stood, her eyes nearly level with his. “I’m Amden, and I asked when we will learn more than only finding our magic? I’ve found it. Now I want to do something with it.”
Nik stepped back from her a few steps, flushing because she had read his face so easily.
“Can you show us how to separate the sources?” She stepped toward him, filling the space between them again.
“I can, but you also need to learn to sense each other’s magic,” he began. Something in the glint of her eyes told him she might sully her magic with ambition. She had plenty of power. He could feel it coursing through her.
This was what he had feared, even weeks ago on this same beach with Resh. The same desperation to change her lot in life coursed through this girl.
Amden scrunched her eyes closed, turning in a slow circle, her fingers stretched out to the women around her. Shifter magic wasn’t enhanced by touch or elaborate hand gestures, but Nik knew most newly awakened shifters clung to the idea that magic was a physical manifestation.
“The magic is all in your mind,” he called, raising his voice to remind the others. Amden’s face hardened, but she didn’t change her position. She paused in her turning, opening her eyes and pointing to a young girl.
“She is strong. I can sense her magic.”
Nik moved closer and easily sensed the difference. “Yes, good.”
“So, teach me something else,” she challenged. A few more of the women voiced their agreement, and Nik realized he couldn’t avoid this forever. If they wanted to learn, who was he to keep them from it?
“Start with the water, then,” he said, swallowing through his reluctance. “Look for its sources. They are in constant motion, bright and cool. They’re often easiest to find.”
Amden walked toward the waves, letting the water wash over her bare feet. A few of the others followed, including the young girl Amden had pointed out.
“I feel it,” one called.
There were murmurs from the women still seated, and then Amden gave a bark of triumphant laughter. Nik’s breath was sharp against his lungs. He watched as she drew a thin sheet of water from the sea, lifting it as high as her shoulders before her control snapped, and it splashed down into the sand.
She grinned at him, her eyes fierce with accomplishment.
Nik only nodded, afraid to encourage the gloating he saw there. He should be happy - the women were gaining power. But it frightened him because he knew what dangers the magic would draw from within themselves, and the threats it would draw from the world. Power always drew stronger power.
He walked away from the water and toward a group of women who were still struggling.
“Magic is tied to strong emotion. Love is said to be the strongest catalyst, but you can fuel your power with other things, too,” he told them.
Lorenya came to stand beside him. “But power fueled with rage might be more dangerous
later. I think love is the key the Weshen have been missing for many years.” She glanced up at Nik and smiled, lowering her voice. “Sy told me that a few years ago, and I think he was exactly right.”
Nik smiled, his throat closing a bit. “I miss him,” he whispered, unable to stop the flow of emotions. “I need to know if he lives, if they killed the King... if they’re coming home.”
Lorenya’s arm wrapped around him from the side, squeezing tightly. “Believe in it, Nik. Never lose hope.”
He took in a deep breath and smiled down at her. For the remainder of the morning, he threw all his focus into teaching the women everything they asked for. Some progressed in amazing leaps, while others still struggled to quiet their minds enough to feel the magic in their own bodies.
With each minute that passed without him losing control, Nik felt more confident in his task and his purpose. He was glad Matron Behrenna and Lorenya had encouraged him to begin.
The sun had centered itself above them when the women began to trickle away from the beach, tired and hungry, but beaming with hope and newfound confidence.
Amden approached him again as the others left. “Can you tell the difference between one person’s sources and another’s? Do they feel separate?”
Nik nodded. He’d developed this fine-tuned sense out of necessity during his times in Riata and Sulit, needing to know who would enter his room when the door began to creak open. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m not with child, am I?” It wasn’t really a question, and there was more disappointment than sorrow in her voice.
Nik closed his eyes and searched her body, mentally sifting through the sources of blood and bone, feeling for the smaller versions within her. He’d never been trained in this sort of medic work, but he could tell enough to know Amden was right in her suspicions.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
Amden sighed. “I was too, at first. Now it’s more of a relief. Our world has changed, and the things I want have changed with them. I no longer care about birthing a child by the General’s son. Resh, not Sy,” she added, and Nik felt his cheeks flush. He guessed that by now, all the women knew about the things he wanted.
Amden continued, “I want to leave the island. I want to see the world. I want to see the places only the men have been allowed to see for decades.”
Nik smiled despite himself. “This island is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen, and it’s very safe.”
“But for some, beauty and safety aren’t enough,” Amden countered. “I want to see Weshen City.”
Nik cast his eyes to the sand. “It’s a city of the dead now.”
“I have seen the dead. All of us have. No, not on such scale, I’m sure,” she said, preempting his protests. “If I can gather enough women to make it worthwhile, will you travel to the city with us? You’re the only one who knows the way.”
Nik shuddered at the idea of returning to that broken city full of broken-open men. Yet he knew that if Weshen were to survive, it would take more than women waiting on an island. They would need to recolonize the city, perhaps even passing into Riata to search for their stolen men and Wesh like himself.
Amden waited, watching him while he struggled against the tide of fear. Finally, he forced himself to nod. Sy would want this. Her lips curled in a proud smile.
Nik said, “The boats fit up to six. When enough of you are ready with your magic, we will sail.”
Amden drew herself tall and nodded. “I’ll begin recruiting today.”
DEEP IN THE SOUTHERN Sulit woods, StarSeer sensed how near they were to the quiet cabin waiting for them, a place untouched and unvisited for many sad years.
Nearly a year ago, roving Brujok had turned the clearing and cottage into a tomb. Afterward, Star had crept back, spending many grief-filled days and all her energy weaving the impenetrable spells and warnings now guarding the cabin overlooking a glassy green pond.
It was safe now from Brujok, but returning to it would likely be the most devastating thing she had borne since the battles at Rurok.
But new happiness arrived with her. Star longed to hear the laughter of the young twins she was protecting. Children had become so rare in Sulit since the battles began. All the youngest witches had been spirited away into the woods, hidden in places like this.
She halted just before the tree line cloaking her clearing. “It’s just beyond these branches. Wait here a moment,” she said to Kashar, her voice rusty from silence and sadness. The twins leaned against his sides, eyes drooping with fatigue. They had journeyed hard today. He nodded, sliding down to rest with his back against a broad trunk and gathering the young ones onto his lap. Their heads tilted toward each other, one brown and one pale yellow.
Fighting back the emotions that would compromise her task, Star closed her eyes. First, she sent her magic to search the perimeter for signs of a breach. But no one had entered the space that had once been her sanctuary. Then she walked the perimeter of the clearing, all the way around the pond, adding strands and spirals of magic like a spider mending its web after a storm.
Drained, she trudged back to where Kashar waited, his eyes closed. She marveled at how this man had grown to trust her. She prayed again to the Sulit Mother that she wouldn’t fail him or his children the way she had failed her love, IvenFlame.
“It is safe now,” she whispered. They roused themselves, brushing crumbles of dirt and torn leaves from their clothing as they stood. She gestured for them to enter the clearing just beyond the trees.
“I’ll go first,” Kashar said, pushing ahead.
StarSeer nodded, her heart grateful for a chance to see someone besides IvenFlame in the clearing. She leaned against a tree and closed her eyes, breathing deeply of the familiar merryrose blossoms and allowing tears to gather on her cheeks.
When she finally recovered enough to really look around her, Kosh and Penna were running circles in the ample space and laughing as they chased the butterflies from the bright purple downthistle flowers. It was as though her dream was materializing before her eyes.
Then StarSeer froze, in awe of what she had missed - the hidden details of the dream she had surrendered to each night.
While traveling, the force and cover of the whispering trees had blanketed the truth.
But here before her very eyes, that truth was plain to see. These children were blossoming like the flowers around them, their blood pulsing with a pure, sweet magic.
“How old are they?” she asked Kashar, who had made it all the way around the edge of the clearing and back to her.
“Nearly eight,” he said, and his eyes widened as he realized why she asked.
“The age of shifter magic,” she murmured.
Penna hadn’t yet noticed how the rainbow-hued flamegrass shifted into merryrose flowers just from a brush of her fingertips. Kosh lifted his face to the sun, unaware of how much the leaves above had drawn apart to let in even more of the golden rays.
Their power was as natural as the breeze, but StarSeer sensed even more. Somehow their magic was something beyond the shifter magic she had seen, and different from Sulit spells.
“Twin magic,” Kashar said, awe in his voice as he watched them bend over the pond, their hands entwined between them.
StarSeer’s heart gave a mighty thump, and tears began to stream down her cheeks.
It was true. The prophecy, the dreams of a future without battle.
All of it was true.
Soon, her people and their people and all the races of the lands would be able to look into the sky and see the sun instead of the shadows that had surrounded them for so long.
Chapter 6
“WHOSE ROOM IS THIS? And why am I safe here?” Coren asked Watersend when she emerged from her bath, her damp hair tightly-braided.
The dark green dress she’d chosen fit even better after she’d shifted some of the fabric from the width to make the sleeves longer. She’d rejected the flimsy slippers in the wardrobe. Instead, she
picked up her muddy boots and began to pull the dirt away from the leather. Watersend watched in fascination, not answering her questions until she tugged the boots on and crossed to his post at the door.
“This was my fiancé’s room. She died a few months ago, and none have slept here since. Hopefully, no one will expect me to bring you here.” He stood and stretched, not meeting her eyes.
Coren flushed, realizing she was wearing a dead woman’s dress before the man who still mourned her.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” she murmured. Watersend only grunted, but she thought it was a good sign that he’d brought her to such a personal space.
She sighed, pushing aside the curtain and gazing out at the woods. The sun was high in the sky now, and she wondered if Sy and Resh had made much progress, or if Jyesh was holding them up.
“Why did you come here?” Watersend asked, breaking her reverie. “If Zorander is dead, isn’t Weshen safe? You could return there instead of taking over a throne you clearly don’t want.”
Coren frowned. She hoped that wouldn’t be so obvious to the court. “The last few weeks my life has changed in every way. I’m not the sort of person who ever dreamed of this. Riches and power mean little to me,” she admitted, again hoping honesty would earn his trust. “I wasn’t even particularly devout before my shifter magic returned. Now it seems undeniable that the Mirror Magi are steering my life.”
“I have sometimes felt that way, too. The FatherSun knows what Riata needs. If I am to help, He will place me where I can best do that.”
Coren nodded. “Truly, I’m here to stop Mara from returning, or someone just as bad from claiming the throne. Riata has long been a country of nightmares.” She felt her voice harden. “I have a strange new power to stop the destruction, and I won’t stand back and allow anyone to continue what Zorander and Mara have done.”
Watersend smiled at her then, and the gesture transformed his entire face. “That is an answer I hoped to live long enough to hear,” he said, excitement tingeing his words.
Dream of Darkness and Dominion (SoulShifter Book 3) Page 5