The entire crew stood on deck. The rest of the ship had filled with water.
The island was still a quarter of a mile away.
"We may have to swim the final stretch," Darius said.
His words proved prophetic. The island wasn't far, but the ship would hold them no longer. They all jumped over the railing and plunged toward the cold water. When Markus hit the water, he took in an involuntary breath. The water tried to get down into his lungs, and he came above the surface, coughing and spluttering.
He searched for Nadia, Berig, and Klint but didn't see them. Other members of the crew surfaced and began swimming toward the island. Markus couldn't leave until he found his friends.
At last, the three of them surfaced.
"You all right?" Markus asked.
"This water is bloody cold," Klint said.
They began their swim toward the island. With each stroke, Markus felt as if all his muscles would cramp. The cold knifed into him from every direction. Wave after wave crashed against them. Sometimes, they'd submerge for a few seconds before struggling back to the surface. No matter how much they swam, it seemed as if they'd never reach the island.
Stroke after stroke, Markus forced his way through the water. Beside him, Nadia looked to be weakening. She'd gotten back in the frigid water too quickly.
While Berig and Klint swam ahead, Markus reached out to support Nadia.
"I can make it on my own," she said.
Markus tugged at her arm. "I'd rather not take that chance."
With every wave that crashed over them, Markus felt colder. Every muscle in his body ached. His skin was in so much pain that he couldn't even describe it. No cold winter's day had ever prepared him for this.
"We're almost there," Nadia said.
The rocky beach was perhaps twenty feet away, but right now that looked like a vast expanse. Most of the crew had reached the island already, Klint and Berig with them.
Another wave crashed over Markus and Nadia, plunging them beneath the water. As they descended, Markus lost his grip on Nadia. When he surfaced, he didn't see her beside him. He glanced around frantically. "Nadia! Where are you?"
She didn't surface.
"Nadia!"
Still no sign of her.
He peered into the waves, praying he'd see her struggling nearby, but he saw nothing apart from a few last stragglers from the crew. Chest tight, he plunged beneath the water. The salt water stung his eyes as he looked for Nadia.
He couldn't keep his eyes open no matter how hard he tried. Already, he was growing short on breath, the pressure building in his lungs. He pushed himself back to the surface, but still he did seen't Nadia anywhere.
Then something collided with him. He wrapped his arms around it and felt soft but cold flesh. Nadia's face appeared next to him. She was coughing but alive.
"Let's get to the shore," he said as another wave crashed over them. He clung to Nadia's hand, and this time they weren't separated.
Together, they swam the final stretch to the island. As Markus crawled onto the beach, pulling Nadia alongside him, he felt so exhausted he thought he could collapse right there. But, no, he had a little more work to do. Somebody had started a fire with wood from the island's many trees. Markus and Nadia both staggered toward this fire, then collapsed beside it.
"Remind me never to get on a ship again," Nadia said, scooting closer to the fire.
From across the fire, Berig chuckled. "I could say the same."
Darius stood nearby. He'd removed his shirt, revealing his well-muscled chest. "No offense, Berig, but I'm never taking you anywhere again. You're bad luck."
Bad luck? Markus wasn't so sure about that.
No, it was their nature as Weavers. It was dangerous to be around them. Which led Markus to a very important question.
What was on this island?
Chapter 8: The Search
Rik had never spent this much time among books. Sure, he'd learned to read, but he'd always been more interested in having adventures than reading about them. Now he scoured the great library of Waterside, looking for anything he could find on the Stone of Restoration.
Some of the books mentioned it, describing its great powers, but none hinted at its location. Not that it would have mattered. Cyrus had hidden it somewhere.
But why hadn't Cyrus told them where? Was it that dangerous if the stone fell into the wrong hands?
Rik's frustration mounted as he read book after book. None of this was useful. He threw the last book aside and stormed out of the library without returning it to its location. As a man of action, he hated sitting around while Eliza remained in her death-like state.
He left the library and passed through the streets of Waterside. It was a city unlike any he'd ever seen. The buildings were all fashioned of wood taken from the jungle, and the jungle itself always threatened to grow over the buildings and through the streets. Animals called out in the distance, but most didn't enter the city proper.
The people he passed wore light clothing. Many of the men went shirtless. Most of the women left very little to the imagination. But Rik didn't have eyes for them. The only woman he could think about was Eliza, and she may have sacrificed herself to get them out of the library back in Luminia. He still didn't understand why she'd sent them here.
There had to be a reason. In those last terrifying moments, she must have seen the Webs of Fate as her father would have. She must have known the right path for them.
No one gave Rik more than a passing glance as he walked. Light skin like his was not common here in the jungle, but he did pass a few fairer-skinned people, even some with red hair like his. He didn't meet anyone's gazes, though. He didn't feel like conversing.
What was he missing? There had to be a clue here. Somewhere.
He returned to the hospital, where he followed the familiar path through the wooden corridors, arriving shortly in Eliza's room. Her condition remained unchanged. According to the healers, she had not grown worse, but there was no sign she'd wake up any time soon.
Rik settled down beside her on the bed and stroked her forehead. "I really do think I love you, Eliza. I wish we'd had more time together."
No. He couldn't talk about her as if she were already dead.
A knock came at the door. He turned to see Lara standing in the doorway.
"Are you sure that watching her helps you at all?" Lara asked.
"Nothing else helps me. So what does it matter?"
"I know it's discouraging," she said. "I've been asking around the city, but everywhere I go, I find dead ends. Nobody knows anything about the Stone of Restoration." She leaned against the wall with a tense expression. "I even asked a sorcerer to read the Webs of Fate for me, but that stone back in the library must be doing its job. He couldn't see us at all."
Rik had expected us much. That was why he hadn't bothered to ask anybody. Besides, Lara was better at dealing with people. In the short time they'd known each other, he'd come to appreciate her steadiness and resolve—qualities he didn't always display himself.
"We've gotta be missing something," he said. "Eliza sent us here for a reason."
"You don't know that. You merely hope it's true. Or perhaps it isn't so that we can find the Stone of Restoration. She did send us to the location of the Water Temple after all. Maybe it's a chance for me to become a true sorcerer."
"Doesn't do me much good," he said. He was about to continue complaining, but then a thought came to him. "What if you were looking for the wrong thing in the Webs? We don't need to know the future. We need to know the past."
"I already asked the sorcerer about that. He tried, but the strands were dark."
"Well, it sounded like a good idea."
He'd never felt this frustrated in his life. Eliza was the one person he had left. Markus and Nadia were probably alive, but he had no idea where they were. He figured he should feel grateful to be free of the Shadowed Land, but he felt as if he were in a prison of another sort
.
After all, he couldn't abandon this quest. He'd passed that point a long time ago. Somehow, he would find a way to defeat Krinir. In a way, it was finishing what he, Nadia, and Markus had started all those months ago, back in the Empire. It wasn't about killing Warrick, but rather a quest to defeat the true power behind Warrick.
Rik felt a surprising twinge of regret when he thought of Warrick. He hadn't come to trust him in the Shadowed Land, but he'd seen seeds of goodness within the man.
Lara settled down in a nearby chair. "I keep trying to think of new paths we can follow."
"So do I. But I feel more lost than ever. I have a goal right now, but no hope of achieving that goal. You ever felt that way?"
"Well, I always wanted to leave my clan, but I never thought I'd have the opportunity."
"Yeah, I understand that feeling. I was always looking for adventure. I never wanted the boring life of a commoner. Then I found adventure. I grew to hate it, but then I came to understand what it really meant. Now it's something I have to do." He shook his head. "Doesn't keep me from hating it, though."
Garet stepped into the room without knocking. "Not to mention, adventure don't pay so well." He gave Rik a smile. "Yeah, I've been listening awhile."
"Got any ideas?" Rik asked.
"Never cared much for magic. Give me a sword and I'll try to cut my way through an army. I've really got no idea how I ended up involved in all this."
"Don't think any of us ever expected this," Rik said. After a few moments of tense silence, he turned to Garet. "You think there's some reason Eliza sent us here?"
"I've never thought much about fate or any of that. I've always a figured a man makes his own destiny. Might have been wrong, though."
"Yeah, I know that feeling," Rik said, feeling a sudden weight on his chest. "I've been wrong about a lot of things." He massaged his temples to relieve a sudden headache. "I keep going back in my head, trying to remember anything that might help us. Is there some clue we didn't see at the time that will lead us to the stone?"
"You're going at this blindly," Garet said. "What do you expect to find."
"Something." Rik felt on the verge of tears. "Anything."
"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way." Lara rose from her chair and began pacing. "Maybe the location of the stone is something we'll discover in time. Obviously, no one here knows about it, but that doesn't mean that nobody in the world does."
Rik held back his anger. "Then what do you propose we do?"
"I will go to the Water Temple, and then we will leave this place."
Rik glared at her. "And leave Eliza alone?"
"She's under the best care in the world. Hanging around here will do nothing for her."
Rik wanted to argue, but she was right. If they remained here, he would see nothing but Eliza's death-like state and feel nothing but despair. They had to move on, had to find the stone some other way.
"Okay," he said. "But where should we go?"
"There's another continent to the southeast," Lara said. "It's home to the Fire Temple. Then, if we head farther to the northeast from there, we'll find the continent of Malavia."
Malavia. Rik had heard that name before. It took him a moment, but then he remembered the Spirit of Malavia. That entity, whatever it was, had spoken to Nadia back in the Crayden Forest, and then it had given them a map through the Fire Mountains.
Could such an ancient and mysterious being know where they'd find the Stone of Restoration? It was a wild hope, but it was the best Rik had.
Not that it mattered. The spirit wouldn't show up on command.
"What's on Malavia?" Rik asked. There was no point asking about the spirit.
"The Lightning Temple," Lara said.
Rik tried to rein in his frustration, and failed. "Is that the best you have? Go to three temples and hope we find some answers?"
Lara flinched as if offended. "Do you have anything better?"
"No." Rik thought for a few moments. "But we have to come up with something. We have to figure out why Eliza sent us here."
"Perhaps it was merely so that we could be healed," Lara said. "We all suffered severe injuries in the battle with Krinir."
Rik hated to admit it, but that made sense. "All right, so she solved the immediate issue. But how does this help us defeat Krinir?"
"That's why we need to go the temples."
"I don't mean to sound negative," Garet said, "but even if you do acquire true sorcery, I don't think you can stand against Krinir. At best, it would take hundreds of years. At worst, you'll never have a chance." He leaned forward in his chair, stroking his stubbly chin. "If we're gonna defeat Krinir, we're gonna have to cheat."
Rik stared at him in confusion. "Cheat?"
"That's one thing I learned in my time as an adventurer. You're gonna go up against opponents who're better than you, or they'll have the numbers advantage. If you go into these battles fighting fairly, you're sure to lose. That's why you've gotta cheat."
"Sounds like a great idea," Rik said, "but how exactly do we cheat against a god?"
"I don't know."
"It always comes back to that," Rik said. "We don't know anything." He looked over at Eliza, wishing she'd wake up. She would come up with a creative solution to their problems. Her mind worked in strange ways, and he'd taken her for granted.
A knock sounded on the door, and Rik turned to see the Grand Healer.
"I have some bad news for you," he said. "The army of South Amazonia is marching north toward us. I don't know why they've declared war on us, or if this even is a declaration of war, but it won't be safe for you to stay here." He glanced at Eliza, pity in his eyes. "You'll have to leave her behind."
Rik felt sick. "But won't she be in danger too?"
"They respect healers. They won't attack any healers or patients here, but if you stay, you'll be recognized immediately as foreigners." The Grand Healer shuffled his feet. "In fact, our sorcerers report that the army is searching for you three specifically."
Rik held in a sigh. He should have known it would come to this. No matter where they went, they couldn't escape the fact that they were Weavers.
"How long do we have?" Lara asked, as if this news was no shock to her. Maybe she'd experienced enough of these events to think nothing of them now.
"I'm afraid they should be here within hours."
"Then I need to go to the Water Temple now," Lara said. "Rik and Garet, get our things ready to go. We need to catch a ship that will take us to the Fire Kingdom."
The Grand Healer shook his head. "I'm afraid that may not be so easy."
Lara shrugged. "We'll just have to do our best."
"Go on to the temple," Rik said. "We'll see if we can find a ship."
Lara nodded and swept out of the room. As she vanished from view, Rik felt as if a heavy weight had settled over him. How the hell were they going to escape this time?
He'd just have to improvise, like always.
Chapter 9: The High Mystic
Rik and Garet had attempted to secure passage across the sea, but with the army closing in, no captains were willing to take them. They'd have to hide instead, and pray that the army would leave without them. That didn't seem likely, but it was the best plan they had.
Dispirited, Rik and Garet returned to the hospital. The Grand Healer met them in the main lobby. "You didn't have any success?" he asked. "Did you?"
"None," Rik said.
"Well, I can try to hide you here, but I can't make any guarantees."
"If it comes to a choice between us and your patients," Rik said, "please give us up."
"Thank you for making that decision easier on me, should it be necessary."
Rik and Garet returned to Eliza's room, where they watched her in her death-like state. She did not require food or water, did not do any of the things a living person might do, but she was alive nonetheless—or caught perhaps between life and death.
He prayed that she wasn't aware o
f the passage of time, of everything that happened. After all, he remembered the feeling of being trapped in his own body, and still shuddered when he thought of that time.
Lara returned a few minutes after they settled down in Eliza's room.
"I can use Water magic now," she said. "I've tried a little bit. It's a strange feeling."
"You got anything that can protect us from an army?" Rik asked.
"I doubt it. There was a surge of great power when I first gained the ability, but it has since faded. Now I feel as if I'd produce little more than a trickle. I could help us hide underwater, I suppose. One of my abilities creates a pocket of air underwater."
"That's only a temporary solution," Garet said.
"What do you think they want with us?" Rik asked.
Garet shook his head. "No idea, but I doubt it's anything good."
They waited in the hospital room, glancing out the window every now and then. A few hours later, the army arrived. They were dressed in chainmail and carried a wide variety of weapons. The commanders wore green surcoats over their chainmail.
The citizens of Waterside had retreated into their homes, and Rik didn't blame them. Tension hung in the air. Rik felt as if his heart might burst out of his chest.
One commander turned the army to the left, heading toward the hospital. Rik doubted they'd be able to hide. Perhaps this army didn't want to kill them, though that seemed unlikely based on the number of men who'd arrived in the city.
Soon raised voices came from the hospital lobby, accompanied by the sound of booted steps.
"What should we do?" Rik asked.
"They're gonna search the hospital," Garet said. "We might as well see what they want from us. Safer for the patients that way."
Rik thought it was a bit foolish to give themselves up, but he agreed with Garet. The safety of the patients had to come first. Maybe they could do a little eavesdropping and learn what the army wanted.
"I'm gonna listen in on them," Rik said. "See what they want."
Garet and Lara both accompanied Rik as he made his way to the end of the hallway. He stood now at the top of the wooden stairs leading down to the lobby. Peering around the corner, he saw about a dozen soldiers assembled in the lobby. A commander at the front of the group, was talking to the Grand Healer, whose body language was tight with anger and impatience.
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