by Rosie Scott
Calder threw a thumb behind him and toward the swamps. “That'a way, but we won't come across any for awhile. And anyway, we have shit to do. Friends to find. Crew, too, hopefully.”
“You've already found a lot of our stuff. Tell me how to help you.”
He raised an eyebrow at me playfully.
“Seriously, Calder. I am a healer.”
“Yeah, and the first one who's ever offered me anything, if I'm honest.” He exhaled through his nostrils. “Hm. That spell you used on the sailors to give them energy. That would be helpful.”
I used the spell on him, watching as his eyelids fluttered closed with relief. “Is that helping?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
A thought came to my mind. Though I had never used it before, Jakan had taught me his illusion spell a while back to help with pain. I put my hand to Calder's head, and thought, muta te sensa.
“Whoa! Whatever that was, it helped a lot,” Calder said, excited.
“Illusion. Jakan taught me.”
“Wow. Awesome.” He stared up at me with a smile. “You're nice to have around.”
“Thanks.” I nodded toward the stuff on the beach. “Now get your clothes on, and let's find the others.”
Calder and I left most of our things on the tiny island, because there was too much of it to carry on our own. I put on my armor and carried my satchel, and Calder brought Cerin's scythe with him, because he didn't want to have to transform again if we were to come across trouble. We swam to the small, swampy peninsula that tore through the ocean to the north of the island, where we could travel along the border of the wildlands and keep our eyes on the Western Isles off the coast.
The swamps were interesting visually, to say the least, with all variety of trees with long, vine-like branchlets which flowed from above us in ceaseless canopies to the shallow waters below. The plant-life was so numerous and diverse I found it absolutely insane, for with each plant I saw, I swore I'd seen none like it, and nothing but plants surrounded us. There were shrubs with branches that twisted at harsh angles to make it look as if the plant itself was in agony, and there were others which were softer in appearance, with long, thin leaves. Grasses tufted out of the waters between thick pockets of algae.
I soon found that the wetlands were my least favorite land to trek through. There was an uneasiness I felt with every step, for the depth of the water was untrustworthy when one could not see the bottom. The stench was overbearing; it was a mixture of the various gases released into the air by hundreds of species of plants, and perhaps I was correct in thinking it also contained an edge of decomposition. Of plants or animals? I wasn't sure.
The worst parts about walking through the swamp by far were the insects. They were so numerous that there were small clouds of them that hovered collectively in the air, and others buzzed around our faces incessantly, landing on our skin during the select few moments we weren't swiping at them just to gnaw at our flesh.
At one point, Calder leaned over to swipe a finger through the of algae from the surface of the water, before he slipped the goo into his mouth and swallowed. Though I stared at him in disgust, my stomach grumbled.
“Eat some, love. It's good for you.”
“It smells,” I replied, before chuckling because the statement sounded so juvenile.
“It tastes better than it smells. It's saltwater algae, after all.”
I swiped a finger through it, and shivered as I found the squishy green plant-life to be gross. “Nyx has taught me that I should never trust an Alderi to give me food recommendations.”
Calder laughed. “You forget that I am part lizard. Perhaps you will find reptiles more trustworthy?”
“Perhaps,” I replied, before I slipped the finger in my mouth, and swallowed quickly. The bitter edge of extreme salt content slipped down my esophagus, leaving it feeling sore. “Nope,” I finally said, after a cough, to which my companion laughed once more.
I found that though I hated the taste of the algae, it gave such relief to my malnourished body that I ate more all the same. Calder and I continued down the eastern edge of the wildlands, our eyes facing ever outward to the islands.
When the sunlight began to darken to a deep orange through the canopy, a sinking feeling started to weigh down my gut. We'd been searching for hours, and there were still no signs of anyone.
“Calder, what are the chances they made it this far up the coast?” I finally asked the Alderi, before I slowed to a stop, my boots sinking into the mud beneath the water.
He turned to face me, and gave me an apologetic look. “Low,” he admitted.
I swallowed hard and nodded, before I turned back to the south. “Let's head back to the island, then.”
We were quiet most of the way back, though I found the silence to be harmful to my thoughts. My mind insisted on creating what-if scenarios to explain what had happened to my friends, and none of them were uplifting or pretty. I decided to finally start conversation, to keep my mind off of the negative and distract me.
“Why pick a lizard, Calder?” I asked suddenly.
His voice replied from behind me, since I led the way back. “Isn't it obvious? I wanted to sail the seas, and I didn't want to be restricted to the water if I ever needed to transform on land. It made the most sense.” He hesitated. “Plus, I make a damn fine lookin' lizard with my blue skin.”
I chuckled at his antics. “So I'm guessing you became a shapeshifter after you escaped.”
“Yes. I learned how to be a shapeshifter, and Koby learned alchemy.”
“So he wasn't a shapeshifter, like you?”
“No. I went through it first. He took one look at my first transformation and noped his way out of there.” Calder laughed softly, reminiscing. “His alchemy helped my injuries, though. Transformations are hard on the body. I'm always ripping and tearing shit. I wouldn't wish anybody to go through it, but I know I'll never stop. Once something's a part of you, it's a part of you. Besides, my tolerance to pain is better than it ever was. Nothing fazes me anymore.”
“You looked like you were dying today,” I pointed out.
“Yeah. You should have seen how I dealt with it sixty years ago. Cried so hard my eyes bled, and I didn't even know that could happen.”
“It's easy to burst blood vessels in the eye. They're delicate organs.”
“All right, Miss Healer, that didn't really require a reply, but sure, prove to me how smart you are.” He huffed with amusement.
“Speaking of eyes, why are yours red? You're the only Alderi I've seen with red eyes.”
“I'm far from the only one. Red eyes are a genetic weakness. It's a deformity of sorts that traces through the Alderi bloodline to the early Golden Era. Black eyes see better in the dark, and are more sensitive to light. My eyes are closer to human, though my eyesight is somewhere between the two in quality. That's another reason I picked a lizard, by the way. My eyesight is sharpened in reptilian form.”
“Can you breathe underwater?” I questioned, curious.
“Yes, but not because of the lizard thing. I know the water-breathing alteration spell. I can use it underwater, which is helpful for obvious reasons. My lizard blood allows me to hold my breath for an insanely long time as it is, so I can alternate between magic and biology to breathe underwater for as long as I need.”
“Alteration magic sounds useful in general,” I mused.
“It is.”
“What was the goo you sneezed out back on the island?”
“Salt phlegm,” he replied. “Taking in excess salt from swimming in my other form causes that. My blood filters it out and it comes out through my nose.”
“Mm. Tasty,” I commented.
“Yeah.” Calder laughed low.
“You keep mentioning blood, like you actually have a lizard's blood in you.”
“Because I do. It's part of the process of becoming a shapeshifter. Your blood is extracted, the animal's blood is extracted, and the two are mixed to see
how well they adapt to one another. If all goes well, they combine the two into your body. Magic is used to accelerate the blood's capabilities to make transformation fast and easily accessible, which also keeps the animal blood multiplying on its own in your body so further injections aren't required. Assuming the blood mixes correctly, you can transform.”
“That's very involved.” I swept a finger down to the algae below me, eating it quickly, wrinkling my nose up as I swallowed. I was craving it, as much as I didn't want to.
“Very dangerous, too. Some people don't make it past the injection, even if the blood mixes well.”
It was a wonder many people decided to try at all, then. Our conversation ceased for a few minutes, and I took the time to eat some more algae. It seemed like no matter how much I ate, it would never be enough. I was starving.
“Hmm?” Calder's voice murmured behind me.
“What?” I asked.
“I thought you said something.”
“No.” I stopped, before looking out toward the islands. Our walk had taken us almost completely back to the southern edge of the wildlands. To our left, the last island in the string of the Western Isles sat just below the darkening evening sky.
Calder's Alderi ears had to be better than mine, so I stayed still for a moment, hoping he really had heard someone. I swept my eyes over the island, waiting for any signs of life.
Finally, I decided to risk calling attention to myself. I wandered slowly over to the edge of the swamp, holding onto the last tree available before I was lost to the ocean. Facing the island, I yelled, “Hell-ooo?”
My voice echoed out over the calm ocean waters. After a moment, a head popped up over a bush on the island.
“Kai?”
“Nyx!” Excitement swelled in my chest as she waved happily at me. Beside her, someone else rose to standing.
“Kai, where the hell have you been?” Jakan.
“Calder and I have been past here already looking for everyone!” I called back. “We have some of our stuff back on our island! Come with us! Is there anyone else with you?” I was rambling, but I couldn't help it.
“No, just us!” Jakan called back, his form growing closer as he and Nyx came to the edge of the island.
Calder and I waited patiently as the two swam from the island to the edges of the wildlands. My friends and I embraced, happy to be reunited. Having lost people I loved in the past, reuniting with those who were safe now felt doubly as rewarding.
“You haven't come across Anto? Or Cerin?” Jakan asked, his tone pleading.
“No,” I said, sorrowfully. “But we'll continue to look. And now there are four of us.”
Calder pointed in the direction of our smaller island, which sat beyond the wetlands at some distance yet to the south. “There are more islands along the southern coast. We can look over there first thing in the morning.”
Jakan asked, “What are the chances that they ended up over there? Most of the islands are over here.”
“We have a good chance yet,” Calder replied. Given how negative he was the day before, I wasn't sure if he was only saying that to give Jakan hope. “I found Cerin and Anto's weapons in the ocean in that direction. It's possible they lost or dropped them because they are dead, but it's also possible they let the weapons go to alleviate their weight so they could swim easier. Let's hope it's the latter, yeah?”
Nyx cocked her head. “You found their weapons in the ocean? How?”
I huffed in amusement. “Let's get back to the island, guys. Calder can update you on the way there.”
Fifteen
The four of us spent the night together on our tiny island, and Calder woke us up early the next morning. Though he expressed an interest in diving into the ocean to find more of our things, he was going to wait until we found the others, if we could find them at all.
It was a gorgeous and sunny day, and the ocean was calm. The man who had summoned the storm from two days prior clearly had not stuck around long enough to see the extent of damages or casualties. That confused me. If my suspicions were right and he had been a god, he should have wanted some proof of my defeat if he was working with Sirius. Though, who really knew of his intentions? Even if it was another god after me, the gods wanted me dead simply for existing. It was possible I would never fully know which ones were acting of their own wills and which ones were lured with gold.
Calder led the way once we finally started our search, since he was the only one of us who knew the layout of the land by heart. We swam over to the slightly larger island to the west, where we crossed it and swam across a strip of shallow ocean from there to the swamps. Calder insisted there was a larger island along the coast to the west. Once again, we followed the border, keeping our eyes to the seas.
Much of the morning and afternoon passed as we traveled, and like the day before, I grew increasingly worried as time moved on while we found few signs of life. However, just as the blue skies slowly turned into the lavenders of early evening, hope appeared off in the distance.
“Smoke,” Calder said, pointing out toward the ocean, where the brush and white sands of another island were only visible if we squinted. “Son of a bitch. Perhaps some of my crew did make it.”
As happy as I was for him, I hoped that didn't mean that Cerin and Anto hadn't. “Why do you think it's your crew?” I asked him for clarification.
“Because they know to start a fire in case of a shipwreck to draw survivors together,” he answered, before picking up his pace toward the island.
As soon as we approached the edge of the swamp, Calder lifted a hand to his face and whistled. The piercing tone rang out over the waters separating the medium-sized island from us, echoing over the waves and to the smoke of the fire. Within seconds, multiple figures rose as little more than shadows under the darkening skies.
“Captain?” One of them yelled out.
“You bastards!” Calder shouted back, his voice laced with relief and happiness. “I thought you were all dead!”
“You should be so lucky!” One of the sailors called back.
“Is Kai with you?” Cerin.
“Cerin!” I yelled, desperately. I had been doing so well at maintaining my calm demeanor over the past two days, that now I knew for sure he was safe, all of my pent up emotion exploded from within me at once. A sob rolled through my chest as I hurried to the water, not wasting time jumping in to swim over. Somewhere in the air above me, I heard Anto and Jakan's voices intermingling, and I was filled with happiness.
Cerin did not allow me to reach the shore alone. He waded out to meet me, grabbing me into an embrace before I could leave the water, and squeezing me until I felt I would break. I shook against him, letting all of my fears and worries escape my body in waves of energy.
“I am thankful. So thankful.” He turned his face, kissing my cheek once, then twice. “I thought I'd lost you.”
“We've been looking for you for two days,” I rambled, nuzzling my face into his.
“We were looking for you, too. Yesterday. Then the sailors suggested we wait here and cast a signal. I'm glad they did.” Cerin started to pull back, but I clung to him, and he chuckled. “Let's get out of the water. You're soaked.”
“Yes, but it shouldn't bother you. You're used to it.”
Cerin laughed huskily and kissed my cheek again. “Gods, I love you.”
Nearby, Jakan and Anto finally collided in their own embrace. Anto picked the Vhiri up, spinning him around in a hug while Jakan chuckled between kissing his lover's face. Though we had only regained what we had lost, it felt like a victory in a long chain of misfortunes.
We decided to stay on their island for the night, and collect as much as we could in the morning. There were a dozen sailors left alive from the shipwreck. The kraken had been preoccupied with taking the ship and feasting upon the bodies of those who drowned first, which allowed them time to swim to shore. Their island had actually been the closest to our wreck, so they'd had the least troub
le reaching land out of all of us. Jakan had climbed aboard a floating broken mast that slowly traveled to the northeast. Nyx's sense of direction was skewed with the storm, and she had ended up coming across the Vhiri, so they had stuck together and swam to the first shore they saw, which happened to be the southernmost of the Western Isles. After Calder explained his shapeshifting abilities to Cerin and Anto, he told us that after falling off deck, he had immediately used his water-breathing spell before transforming in the middle of the ocean. By the time the transformation was complete, I was the only one left in the vicinity who was still alive. We had probably missed seeing Jakan and Nyx only due to the hazy atmosphere of the storm, which had inhibited distant vision.
It was a chaotic situation which had split us into three groups on three different islands, but the most important thing was that we were alive. There were eighteen survivors in total, and the entire wildlands were before us. Now, there was also the benefit of openness and honesty. Due to our unfortunate circumstances, Calder and I had come to terms with one another and he no longer had to hide his abilities from any of us. My friends and I had been the only people on the ship who were left in the dark about them.
“How far is it from here to Eteri?” Anto asked Calder, while we ate a meal for the first time together in days. The sailors kept feeding the fire with wood they'd been drying out on the sands, and the food was more plentiful than it had been in weeks. During the day they'd foraged and hunted in the swamps while others waited at the island and manned the signal fire, which we were so grateful for now. We were eating charred lizard. It tasted different than the reptilian foods of Nahara, so I knew it had to have been a different breed. I found myself wondering if Calder would have a problem eating it, because of his abilities. As he bit off a chunk of one, however, I decided he didn't have a care in the world.
“It may be farther than you think,” Calder replied, in the midst of chewing, before he peered up to me. “You are surrounded by your friends, Kai. Perhaps now is the time to tell them what we talked about, if you're still interested.”