Heart of the Ocean (The Equilibrium Cycle Book 2)

by Jason A. Gilbert

  As they approached, Laila could see the crew working on the ship’s deck, unstringing lines and preparing the ship for departure, all in the dim light of a few lanterns that bounced across the deck with those that carried them. The captain led them toward a small gangplank that leaned against the side of the ship. The group stepped up onto the deck of the larger vessel.

  "Captain on deck," shouted one of the crewmembers standing at the rear of the ship. The rest of the crew stopped and turned toward Captain Drachus, waiting for his orders.

  "Back to it men, we've got a long way to go," the captain answered quickly. The crew quickly broke their stance and moved back to whatever task they were occupied with.

  Laila looked at the captain, questions plain on her face. The captain smiled back.

  "I told you, the deal was not made easily. But, well, it is still my ship. The hard part was giving command of the Fuga over to Kristof, my partner. Welcome to the Via." He opened his arms as though to embrace the entire vessel.

  "Wait, this is your ship too?" asked Connor.

  "It is," the captain responded.

  "But, how?" Laila asked.

  "I told you. Not all of us are from the Confederacy. But for a man like myself, it’s easier to make money on the rivers here. But the Via here is my precious one. Kristof uses her most of the time—he's my business partner—to make trips across the bay to the merchant cities. But she's still mine. And I've grown to like your little group. The Via can get you to the Splintered Isles."

  Laila took in the ship. Three masts were spaced equally apart down the center of the ship. Heavy rigging holding the canvas of the sails hung from each one. The ship was narrower than the Fuga, but longer, and much taller, the hull rising several feet above the water.

  "You know this is dangerous?" asked Laila, looking directly at Captain Drachus.

  "I do."

  "Don't argue, Laila-sa," Lunete said, placing her hand on her daughter's shoulders. "Accept what is offered. We have little choice in this."

  "Very well," Laila said.

  "Good. We'll leave as soon as this damnable crew is ready." The captain's voice rose a little with the last, and Laila could see the crew begin to hurry just a little bit more. The captain then reached his hand out to Laila. She took it, but could not shake the odd sense of foreboding that had plagued her since they had left the inn.

  Thirteen

  Affinities

  "I think I can do it," Laila said. "All we're doing now is drifting." She lifted her hand in demonstration, feeling the air; there was no wind.

  It was their fourth day out from Kios. The first two days they had made good progress, passing out of the Red Bay and moving northwest away from the coast of the Confederacy and into the open ocean, and then turning directly west, into the winter clouds. On the third day they had come into a head wind, forcing the captain to perform a maneuver he called tacking, shifting the ship back and forth across the wind. Laila had spent much of the third day helping Dio; the combination of wind and movement had worsened his motion sickness. This morning they had woken up to calm seas, but no wind.

  "Remember what happened on the lake?" asked Icarus, who was standing on the rear deck of the Via with Laila and Captain Drachus.

  "I'd rather not repeat that performance," the captain said.

  "I don't think it would," Laila answered. "That was with this." She held her staff out. "I'd be using something different... I think..."

  The two older men looked at her, both raising their eyebrows.

  "I just don't want to keep sitting here..." she finished.

  "I understand. That's what happens sometimes, especially on the ocean. The wind will likely pick up soon. It's nothing to worry too much about."

  Laila lowered her head. The sense of foreboding she had felt the night they had left Kios had not left her. That was part of the reason she was pushing to make her attempt. Sitting in the dead winds was compounding that feeling. She needed to be moving. She found it ironic that she had struggled so much before leaving Terus, not sure that she even wanted to follow her “path,” as Icarus had put it, but now that she had one, she couldn’t not follow it.

  "All right," she said, her eyes still on the deck. She walked to the stairs and down onto the main deck. The crew milled about, having little to do in the doldrums. She made her way down into the cabins below decks. Their current accommodations were much larger than the single cabin they had squeezed into on the Fuga. The Via was built to house more passengers, and with no other passengers than Laila and her companions, they each had their own small cabin. Laila walked toward her own. She reached out to open the door but hesitated for a moment. Her hand tightened on her staff. She took a deep breath and took her hand from the door, moving down the hall two more doors, to the room they had placed Wyndam in.

  Without knocking, she opened the door and walked in. Wyndam raised his head and opened his eyes. She always wondered what the elemental was doing. He spent almost all of the days sitting in his room, silent and with his eyes closed, as though he were meditating. Other than giving them a heading, he had said little and interacted even less. But he had not tried to escape, not that he could now that they were in the open ocean, which was why they no longer felt the need to keep a constant watch on him. Laila thought back to what Torin had told her in Kios, not for the first time, and wondered when and if the Aurai would act.

  Wyndam's pale eyes regarded her without speaking. Finally Laila broke the silence.

  "Do you know when the wind will return?" she asked.

  He tilted his head to one side slightly, which Laila had decided was his display of laughter. "And why do you expect me to know that?"

  "Your people are Air elementals. I would assume that would make you in tune with the winds, or something like that..."

  "Indeed? You seem to have a lot of assumptions about my people for one who did not know we existed not too long ago."

  "I don't profess to know anything about your people. " She caught herself, feeling that he was trying to draw her into an argument. "Just answer my question."

  "No, I don't."

  Laila sighed. "Fine."

  She turned to leave, but Wyndam's willowy voice stopped her. "Did you have a good conversation with the former Consulari in Kios?"

  She froze. How did he know she had spoken with Torin?

  "What?" she asked, turning back toward the elemental.

  "Torin, the former Consulari who helped spark the war between our people. Did he provide you with informed conversation in Kios?"

  Laila did not know how to respond. There was no way that Wyndam could have known that had happened. She had only told her mother, and Wyndam had been at the inn when it had happened.

  "I..." Laila tried, unsuccessfully, to respond. "He...I..." She felt one of Dio's curses rise to her lips, but cut it off before she could let it out. She did not want to give the Aurai any further satisfaction. Regardless of her inability to read his expressions, she would have sworn his current one was smug.

  "I have no doubt that anything Torin may have told you was only meant to hinder your progress. I would disregard it, if I were in your position."

  The words were so calm and simple. Laila wished she could hear something behind them. Anger, deceit, even amusement would make her feel better. But there was nothing. Wyndam's face did not change. He regarded her with his pale eyes, his strange, elongated ears wrapping around his head like a band, and there was no hint of any emotion.

  "Does the captain have any idea when we might begin moving again?" the Aurai asked. The shift jarred Laila out of her stupor. A thought struck her.

  "No, but I do. Come with me," she said. She pulled at her power from the staff, giving her voice a sudden confidence that she hoped confused Wyndam.

  "Why?" Wyndam asked.

  "Do you have something better to do?" she asked sharply.

  The Aurai considered her for a moment longer before finally giving the slightest shift of his shoulders, a
movement Laila took as his shrug. Standing, the elemental had to hunch forward, as he was a few inches too tall for the low ceilings of the cabin and hallways.

  Laila spun on her heel and walked into the hallway, holding on to her power in order to make her steps more confident. The strangeness of Wyndam's knowledge of her conversation with Torin and his subtle verbal jabs at the hindrance in their progress had finally sparked Laila into action. Regardless of what the captain and Icarus had told her, she had to try.

  They quickly walked onto the deck and found the crew still milling about as they had been before. The ship rocked gently in the water, but it still did not move forward; the sails above Laila's head hung limply against the rigging. Icarus stood to one side of the mid deck and turned as Laila came out. The sounds of Connor and her mother's training echoed from the foredeck. When Icarus saw Wyndam raise himself to his full height as he exited the cabins, he took a step toward Laila.

  "Laila...don't do this," Icarus said, his voice calm but forceful.

  "I won't just sit here and wait!" Laila snapped. She did not mean to respond so shortly, but the frustration she’d felt over her conversation with Wyndam, combined with the intoxicating sense she had holding onto her power, overwhelmed her. The Magus stepped back. She could see his shoulders tense; he wanted to say more, but he knew that at this point it would only be likely to fuel her further.

  Without waiting for anyone else to question her, she turned and faced the elemental. Wyndam lifted himself up to his full height and gazed over the decks uncaringly. Laila did not speak as she reached through her staff toward the Aurai. She had done this before, during the attack on Terus and then during their flight from the Consulate, but both times had been under duress. She was not sure that she could recreate her use of his power now.

  A part of her felt the power from her staff coursing through her. The confidence and power pushed her forward, but she was careful not to draw too much through the staff, remembering what had happened before. She felt her breathing slow and the boat around her begin to disappear. All she could feel now was the power flowing through her staff and the elemental standing in front of her. He was not moving, so she could not see the flows of air the other Aurai had implemented during the battle for Terus, but she felt...something. It was buried deep within Wyndam, a pearl held within the shell of an oyster. She could feel it there, but she feared what it would take to break through that shell. They still needed the Aurai, and she was not sure that she could willingly inflict pain against a being that was not threatening her. At least, not directly.

  She searched and threw her awareness around Wyndam, hoping to find what it was she sought, that sense of air and power that she had found during the battle. But there was nothing. Wyndam was just another person standing near her. She could not sense his magic.

  "Laila, what are you trying to do?" The voice cut through her concentration. It was Connor.

  "I'm trying to help," she said without opening her eyes.

  She continued to probe with her senses, trying to use the power from her staff to augment her search. As she did, she became aware of a feeling from Connor. She had never noticed it before. It was similar to what she had felt from the Aurai, but different, more primal. But before she could explore this new sensation, she suddenly could see the magic that Wyndam embodied. It was as though exposure to something in Connor had allowed her to see other magic. The shell finally opened, revealing the pearl within.

  Laila grasped at the magic before it could elude her further. She immediately became aware of the magic permeating the air all around her. It struck her so powerfully that she nearly fell. The sense of it was so overwhelming that she was surprised that Icarus had not been able to feel it. She realized also that the dead winds were not natural. Someone or something was actively trying to hinder their movement, and they were using Wyndam as a conduit. She did not know whether or not he was aware of it. But there was something that told her he had to know, that the power passing through him was too great for any being aware of such magic to be unaware. Her anger grew with that realization. She could see it all so clearly. Using her staff to steady herself, she reached out into the massive flows of air that hung above her. They were like dense ropes holding the wind itself. She would not have been able to describe it any other way. She grasped at them with her newfound sense, pulling, trying to break them free. She gripped her staff tighter, using its solidity to ground her senses. Still nothing happened. The ropes held tight, preventing the wind from blowing.

  She felt her frustration rise again. She needed to do something. She pulled harder with her mind, trying to force the flows free. Nothing. Distantly she felt her hands raise her staff slightly, just off the deck. Snapping it down against the deck of the Via in frustration, a burst of strength coursed through her from the Earth of the staff. An idea struck her. Reaching through the staff, she felt her connection to the Earth. It was distant, even more so than it had been on Lake Artus, but it was still there. For a moment she elated in the sensations coursing through her. Her awareness of the magic holding the winds, her connection to the depths of the Earth.

  This was what it felt to be the Magusari!

  Forcing her mind to regain some control, she pushed away her excitement and pulled at the Earth through her staff. Feeling it course through her, she felt the now-familiar sensation of it sliding its way over her skin. Strength filled her body. With a deep breath, she redirected that strength, using her connection to the Earth and the strength it provided to pull at the ropes of Air hanging around the ship. She felt them move. The magic around the wind began to shift. A breath of air blew across her cheek. It was slight, but it was a change. She pulled through her staff more, calling on the strength it offered her, grasping onto the ropes and pulling with all the strength she could muster. Her body began to strain, and she could feel her muscles tighten as though she were actually pulling at physical ropes.

  She became aware of the movement of the ship beneath her. It was rocking violently in the midst of her ethereal struggle in the air above. She could hear distant shouts from the crew, from Icarus, Connor, the captain, but none of it mattered at this point. She knew what needed to happen.

  "Almost," she felt herself say, as though a part of her mind was trying to reassure her friends that, this time, she was actually doing the right thing. She pulled, her body struggling with her mind.

  With what had to have been an audible snap, the ropes on the wind came lose. Laila tumbled to the deck with the force of it. The ship jerked violently once again, but this time it was the wind catching in the sails. The ropes had come loose, and the wind returned with all its natural force. Captain Drachus reacted instantaneously, shouting out orders as soon as the wind returned, snapping his crew into motion with practiced skill. The crew moved quickly in response to the captain's orders, loosing lines and letting the sails take in the sudden burst of wind without breaking the rigging. The Via lurched into motion as the wind roared across it.

  Laila slowly became aware. She noticed that, while the wind was strong and moving them once again, it was also chaotic, raging across the deck and shifting directions every few moments. It was all the crew and the captain could do to keep the ship on a true course. She felt the ship rock and roll beneath her, but there was something else. She was not sitting on the deck.

  Suddenly realizing that she had become entangled with Connor, she tried to push herself away. Her power from the staff and Earth still coursed through her, granting her its strength, and without meaning to, she tossed Connor backwards several feet against the main mast. Breath exploded from his lungs, and he slumped against the wood of the mast. She stared down at her hands. Immediately the strength of her power left her and she lost the sense of the magic in the air and from her staff. The exertion she had just endured quickly washed over her and she could not help but drop to one knee as she gripped her staff for support. Icarus rushed to Connor's side. He glanced at Laila as he checked the young southerner. Sh
e felt guilt wash over her as much as exhaustion. Connor had been doing nothing but trying to help.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered. There was no way that Icarus or Connor could have heard her in the sudden roar of the wind.

  She felt a sense of relief when she saw Connor take a deep, shuddering breath and look up toward Icarus in response to something the Magus had said to him. A hand on her shoulder startled her. She was even more surprised when she turned to see who it was. The lithe figure of Wyndam stood over her.

  "That was...impressive." The Aurai's willowy voice cut through the wind effortlessly. Laila could not decide if she was more surprised by the expression of emotion or that it was directed toward her in a respectful way. She shook off her surprise.

  "You did this...?"

  The Aurai glanced around at the chaos of the crew and then looked into the sky before turning back to Laila.

  "I knew. I did not cause it."

  "And you did nothing?" Laila felt the strength slowly returning to her voice.

  "Yes, well..." The Aurai's voice drifted off.

  “Why?”

  “There are greater powers in this world than you realize, Magusari.”

  Laila considered pushing further but doubted it would gain her much. Icarus approached, with Connor leaning lightly on the old Magus's shoulder.

  "That was foolish and dangerous," he said to Laila.

  "I know."

  "But it was something I could not have helped you accomplish. I fear that you are quickly exceeding my ability to teach. Thank you, Magusari." The last was said with a formality that she had not often heard from the old Magus. He even accompanied it with a slight nod of his head as though he were bowing to her.

  She nodded her head slightly in response and then motioned toward Wyndam. "Take him back to his room, please, Icarus. He's not needed up here anymore. I'll help Connor."

  "I'm fine." Connor's voice cut through the wind from Icarus's shoulder.

  Icarus glanced between his two young friends. "As you wish, Magusari."