Born of Water

by Autumn M. Birt

  “I’m pushing it into the bedrock,” Niri replied, but her voice was pained.

  “If it is too much . . . ?” Ty glanced at Hahri, who had a similar worry in his eyes.

  Niri shook her head. “Illusion, not physical. I feel the poison like a knife, but a blade cannot harm water.” Niri’s brow wrinkled, her eyes slight slits. Her mouth frowned with frustration. “The impurities want to precipitate out as I push down and they are so sharp.”

  A tear glinted on her lashes, lit in the lavender light of her eyes. Niri took a deep breath, the slant of her eyebrows changing from pained to angry. The water before her bubbled as if it boiled. Niri leaned forward like she would push the fluid down with her body. The water in the well dropped twenty feet at once, exposing the rough rocks that lined the well below the surface. The force of the water Niri pushed into the ground caused it to shudder like a small earthquake.

  Lavinia looked up across the emptying well into Ty’s eyes. He looked at her just as astonished. The echoing sound of dripping water reverberated up from the well’s depths. The spring that had fed it fell into the emptiness as an underground waterfall joined now by tiny veins as Niri cascaded water down the rocky sides, washing them clean.

  Even in the dark, Lavinia could tell Niri was tired. She no longer leaned over the empty well so much as slumped. Her arms, which had stiffly balanced her from falling in, now barely supported her weight. The sound of falling water increased in intensity as Niri straightened. The sound resounded off the walls and echoed into the night like a small stream at flood. Some of the weariness left Niri’s face replaced by a satisfied calm.

  Lavinia watched the dark water lap the stones as it rushed toward the top of the well. She didn’t know when it had changed, but she realized the metallic taste was gone from the air along with the potent smell. The space between the buildings now held the scent of spring rain.

  As Hahri and Sahrai stepped forward, Niri turned to face them by stepping sideways. Lavinia saw Ty put a hand on Niri’s shoulder, her eyelids lowered halfway over the now fading lavender blue.

  The rising water brushed the rim of the well and spilled over, tumbling onto Lavinia’s feet. She jumped back. But Sahrai tossed back her head and laughed at the feel of the water soaking the hem of her robe as it rushed past her ankles. Sahrai pulled Kabutu from her shaw and set him in the cascade. The little boy giggled as he reached to grab the sheet of water and found it slid through his fingers.

  The permeating smells, rumbling, and running water had brought out other villagers as well. They crowded forward as the water ceased to flow over the rim. In the shuffle, Ria and Lavinia were cut off from Ty and Niri. Lavinia beat down her fledgling of panic.

  “These people are not going to harm us. This isn’t the market,” Lavinia whispered to herself.

  She turned to grasp Ria’s hand and found her frozen stiff. In the darkness, Ria’s face was as pale as her hair, her features drawn tight and eyes wide.

  “We need to get to Niri,” Ria gasped.

  “Everything’s fine Ria. No one will hurt you here.”

  Ria shook her head with a jerky motion. “Only she can protect me. She did something to Causis. I know she did. I saw her eyes.” Ria had grabbed onto Lavinia’s forearm with a bruising grip. It was the second time that day that Lavinia felt absolutely helpless to aid her friend. She swallowed down a bitter mixture of wounded pride and helplessness, covering Ria’s hand on her arm with her own. Without comment, Lavinia pushed through the crowd drinking and splashing in the water as if it were a celebration.

  When Lavinia had made her way to the other side with Ria in tow, she found Hahri talking to Ty and Niri. A modicum of worry left Ty’s face when we saw his sister, Hahri turning at the change in Ty’s expression. A smile flashed across Hahri’s face.

  “I cannot thank you enough,” Hahri said as he turned back to Ty and Niri.

  Niri shook her head with a weary slowness. One hand was on Ty’s shoulder as she leaned slightly into him, his arm around her for support. Lavinia blinked rapidly. Ria let go of her hand and a small sense of relief flooded Lavinia as she anticipated Ria going to Ty’s other side. He would hold her closer than he held Niri with a more tender gesture, Lavinia was sure of it. She didn’t know what to think when Ria grabbed onto Niri’s free hand with the enthusiasm of a child for her favorite aunt.

  “We will get you to your boat now, as I promised,” Hahri was saying as Lavinia stared baffled at Ria. Sahrai heard him and swept Kabutu up from where he still played in the puddles around the well. Her robe was damp to her waist and the sopping wet Kabutu looked ready to soak her top and shaw. Sahrai slicked back her midnight dark hair, the strands sticking to her wet hand.

  “Thank you,” she said to Niri, giving her a half hug. Both were nonplussed by the moisture. “Be careful, my husband,” Sahrai said to Hahri as she kissed his cheek.

  Hahri found three other men to join them as they headed toward the beach. Two of the long and narrow fishing boats were flipped over and hauled to the surf. Lavinia’s feet felt heavy on the pebbly sand. Seeing her hesitation, one of the men misunderstood.

  “We know our way, even at night. We often leave before dawn. Don’t worry.”

  Lavinia nodded not sure she could explain the strange doubts inside of her. One boat was ready and Ty steadied Niri as she stepped in. Ria hopped in on Niri’s heels, leaving Ty blinking. He helped push the first boat into the waves before splashing through the water to join Lavinia where she sat in the other boat.

  Ty, soaked to the skin between the well and the waves, couldn’t help spraying water with his every move. Lavinia shied away from him and he shook his damp hair at her with a grin.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t want to go in Niri’s boat as well.”

  Ty looked at her from the corner of his eye, no longer playful. The boat rose as the bow cut through the crest of a wave. With one man on each end of the boat, they were quickly moving past the breakers into the smoother water of the bay.

  “Sis, are you okay?”

  It wasn’t the defensive response she expected.

  “I . . . ,” Lavinia lost whatever she began to say as the boat took the brunt of another wave. Lavinia fell into her brother. Ty caught her, holding her close like he had done when they were kids when Ria had gone home, or she had tipped her small sailboat and swamped it along the shore. Lavinia held onto her brother, who didn’t seem all that different in the dark, while the small boat floated into an unfamiliar bay full of rocks and night shrouded narrow passages.

  CHAPTER 11

  DELAYED HOMECOMING

  “. . . not in the bizarre, I’m sure of it.”

  “They didn’t leave by the main gate, Gaff said . . . .”

  The voices floated over the sound of the waves slapping stones amid the rickety pilings of Sardinia’s harbor.

  The two boats had navigated between rocks that rose out of the darkness with little warning. They had slipped along the ramshackle wharfs, at times passing directly under the docks between large gaps in the pilings. Niri had looked up to see the stars and sky through the haphazard boards that stitched a path down the docks.

  Everything had appeared empty and silent with just the occasional shout or refrain of music heard from the businesses near the docks. But as they had neared the last set of wharfs, the sound of voices had become more consistent over the waves.

  Niri ached from head to toe as if she had been whipped by razors. The deep sense of right that had come from undoing the sadistic poisoning of the well was being overtaken by exhaustion. She had never done anything like that before. At times while she was fighting with keeping the minerals and impurities in suspension as they stabbed at her power, she had not thought she would be able to do it. The pain and mental challenge as she struggled with the poisoned water while it warped and twisted the humming which liquid caused in her blood had nearly drowned her.

  It seemed no small feat that she was simply sitting in the narrow boat,
knee to knee with Ria. The dawning realization that the dangers of the night were not over barely released the bands of exhaustion chaining her soul.

  Figures, nearly indiscernible from the dark night, moved quietly along the dock. The largest group was gathered near shore. Two left the milling group and moved off up the hill into town. Niri’s heart began to move quicker as she wondered what sort of trouble Ty had gotten himself into.

  The two fishing boats drew side by side under the tenuous shelter of the next to last wharf. For the moment, the hull of a boat hid them from shore. But over one hundred feet of open water separated them from the last dock and the Grey Dawn. Even with the moonless night, the thought of the crossing with the men standing watch for them on shore made the hair on Niri’s neck quiver. “There they are, running down the beach!”

  Niri’s heart was in her throat before she realized the directions did not point to where they were bobbing on the waves. Figures peeled off down the shore path, toward where a few shadowy figures raced over the dim sand. The fishing boats lunged forward in the opposite direction.

  “They were from your village?” Ty whispered to Hahri after he’d pulled himself up the side of their boat where the fishing boat had stopped after the quick paddle across the open water.

  “Yes, don’t worry. They will be quick, blend into the night and the pursuit. But you should leave quickly.”

  “We will, thank you.”

  Ty reached out a hand and Hahri clasped it once. Then Ty reached down and fastened onto his sisters wrists. With a well practiced motion, Ty pulled her up as she pivoted with one foot on the boat’s hull.

  Hahri’s boat drifted away, bringing Niri’s alongside. Niri steadied Ria as she stood uncertainly on the seat of the narrow boat, arms reaching up toward Ty. He caught her just as the boat dropped under her feet in the trough of a swell. She struggled with feet dangling in air and only Ty keeping her from falling. When she was finally on deck, she pulled from Ty’s hold angrily.

  Niri sensed the sea around her as if it were her soul. The bobbing boat could not trip her, for she felt every wave, was part of every drop of water. With the lift of an incoming crest, Niri added to it. The gap between fishing boat and deck closed and Niri made a leap for the deck. She caught the rigging to the mast in her left hand while her feet found the ship’s rail. Waiting for her but not quite ready, Ty instinctively reached out, his hands encircling her waist. Standing on the rail of the boat, she was equal in height to him. They found themselves with a breath of wind between them for the second time that day.

  Ty hesitated just a moment before sliding back to let her step over the rail.

  “Thank you Hahri. Blessings to you and your village.”

  “Blessings to you and your journey, Niri. Stay well.” Hahri’s voice floated in the dark though Niri wasn’t sure which of the four men was him. The narrow fishing boats drifted further away, blending with the dark night and waves.

  “Cast of the ropes, quietly,” Ty whispered to his sister. Lavinia was a not quite so deft shadow of her brother as she moved silently around the boat, dropping the dock lines and freeing the sail. The rigging to the boom creaked like a banshee before Ty even raised the sail. Niri winced.

  Niri put one hand on the rope Ty held, arresting his effort. She put a finger to her lips as her closing eyes flooded azure blue to lavender. Niri concentrated, feeling how deeply the boat sat in the water and the width of the wooden hull. The boat stopped drifting and moved along the harbor channel as if under a ghostly sail.

  Lavinia and Ria sat on the cockpit benches, Lavinia taking the side she had since Mirocyne. Ria sat across where Niri usually rested. Ty stayed next to Niri, one hand still on the ropes for the rigging. The boat picked up speed, slipping by boulders and debris. Twice Niri held a swell at its hight just to give them enough water to pass over rocks, The exhaustion from earlier held its distance as she wrapped herself in her power and became one with the ocean.

  When Niri opened her eyes again, the town was only a faint speck of light on the hill above the peninsula. Beyond the point of land the wind was strong, blowing to the south. Niri stepped away, weariness finding her legs again. She couldn’t imagine changing the tide to pull the boat forward during the long night ahead.

  “Where do we sail?” she asked, weariness filling her voice as her power faded in her eyes. She eased herself down next to Ria, fighting the urge to slouch into the hard but welcoming seat.

  Ty glanced at her with concern knitting his brows. “Tiero, I think. We can resupply there.”

  Niri’s eyes flew open. “Tiero? That . . . that is where I was born.”

  “Your home?” Ria asked as she shifted in her seat next to Niri.

  “I guess. I haven’t seen it since the Church came for me when I was nine. I haven’t thought of it in all this time. Even in all the years I sailed by it on my way to the Sea of Sarketh.” Niri’s voice faded. The blindness forced into her by years of training with the Church chilled her.

  “You haven’t seen your family since then? They must miss you!” Ria’s innocent voice pricked open a longing in Niri she hadn’t known she’d contained. A flood of old memories washed over her so that she did not realize she hadn’t answered Ria.

  Lavinia glanced from Niri to her brother’s exhausted face.

  “Very well, Tiero it is. I can take it tonight then.”

  Ty blinked at his sister as she snatched the rope out of his hand. Niri’s mind was slow to react. Her first thought was that she hadn’t sailed with Lavinia and wondered how it would go. As she gathered her power, Lavinia looked over at Niri.

  “Actually, both of you can go below. Tiero isn’t that far. We can make it in this wind without any aid. Ria and I slept half the day. Ty, did you even eat?”

  Ty continued to stare at his sister until laughter overcame his sense of amazement. He shook his head and kissed his sister on her forehead.

  “Do you need anything?”

  Lavinia grinned into the wind. “I have Ria. We’ll be fine.”

  Sunlight filled the portholes in Niri’s front cabin when she opened her eyes. Her exhaustion was diminished, though something in her blood ached. She would not complain if she did not have to use her power for a day or two.

  She lay in her bunk feeling the Grey Dawn slice through the waves, rising and falling beneath her. It was similar to the connection she felt with the ocean when she used her powers but was separate and less personal. Niri’s mind floated in the brightening light until voices on deck made her realize it was later than she thought and reminded her what the day would bring.

  “Where do you plan on docking?” Ty’s voice rolled Niri out of bed. She did not hear Lavinia’s answer as she wrestled with her clothing, feeling the shock of the cool silk anew after years of wearing the rough woven robes of a Priestess.

  Lavinia looked tired after her night’s sail. Still in command of the ship, she sat with her face to the rising sun. The wind whipped her hair over her shoulder in dark rivulets. Behind her, the early light illuminated the finger of the archipelago which stretched out into this piece of water between the Sea of Sarketh and the Ocean of Ilaiya. The lushly forested green hills and red headlands were tinted gold and scarlet in the brightening day.

  Niri turned toward the bow. Ahead across a stretch of lavender sea was the rising mound of an island. There was Niri’s childhood home of Tiero.

  Captivated by the sight before her, Niri sat on a bench watching the tropical foliage and off white stone buildings with their lofty open walls come into view. She had never sailed the harbor as a child except for the time she left, so no buildings were recognizable. But already the smell of soil and flowers carried across the water was more familiar to her than even the Temple of Solaire. She found her heart soaring.

  Lavinia brought in the ship to dock without a word from Ty. His easy grin was returned tenfold on Lavinia’s face as the ship stalled a hand’s breadth from the well maintained wharf. The old docks were a creamy w
hite stone with arched columns plunging into the harbor’s depths. Carved heads of wild beasts were spaced along the dock’s length, each holding iron rings in its mouth to secure the boats. They tied the Grey Dawn to a rung held by a Lion, the bust so old that tawny brown paint was only visible in the waves of its mane. A chip marred the right muzzle granting the stone beast a battle weary appearance.

  Secured for the day, Ty divided up the money along with the list of needed items. Ria glanced at hers quickly and then around the group.

  “I’ll go to the market with Niri, if that is okay?”

  Hesitancy suffused Niri’s soul. She bit the inside of her cheek in indecision, before turning toward the girl. “My list will take me to the far side of the city, I think. You were helping Lavinia all night, why don’t you just get your supplies and come back and rest? You don’t need to follow me around all day.”

  Ria’s shoulders drooped as she nodded with a downturn to her mouth. “We can go together, Ri,” Lavinia said cheerfully with a nudge of shoulders. Ria flickered a half smile automatically.

  Niri let out her breath, turning to look back at the city. She could hear birds waking and animals calling in the wild jungle that skirted the old stone city, the wildness held back by ancient warding stones. As her eyes dropped to her list, she saw Ty was watching her as if he could read her mind. Niri blushed and looked away.

  Despite what she told Ria, the errands did not take her more than two hours. Her memories of the town grew with each passing street and her feet trod paths she dimly remembered. Finally, Niri directed the last item to be wrapped and waiting for her. She turned her steps up the hill toward the oldest part of the city. Here the streets were so old and worn that the spaces between pavers made of the same shell colored marble as the buildings were invisible. The street appeared one solid piece of stone carved flat by hundreds of feet and myriads of storms.

  The buildings were stylistically more frugal than those near the docks, but rose to towering heights as if mimicking the mountainside on which they were built. Any remnants of paint were in shadowed and protected corners, leaving the natural soft hues of the stone alone to embellish carved accents. Roofs of the same chiseled marble fed into elaborate gutters to channel away the frequent misty rain.