Born of Water

by Autumn M. Birt

  Everyone stared at it for a moment. The boom was still tangled in what remained of the sail and stretched across the entire length of the boat. Cut or snapped rigging lines ran haphazardly across the deck.

  “Should we reattach it? The hardware looks solid.” Lavinia’s voice was doubtful despite her optimistic wording. She was attempting to sort out the damaged sail, eyeing the pieces and stitching. “The sail isn’t too bad. I think I can mend it.”

  Niri choked.

  “No really,” Lavinia said, breathing a laugh. “I’ve seen worse.”

  “I’m starting to wonder exactly what sort of upbringing the two of you had.”

  A ghost of a smile passed over Ty’s lips. Lavinia chirped, “The best sort.”

  “Ignore her, she has always been the more natural of the two of us at sailing. She doesn’t seem to realize it is work for everyone else.” Lavinia blushed at the unexpected compliment.

  Serious again, Ty ran his hand through his hair. “We won’t reattach the boom. Even with what we just bought, we don’t have enough rope to run new rigging. I don’t want to use the main sail, even if there is enough left, unless we have full rigging. We’ll sail by the jib. We can lash the boom to the deck until we can get the ship fixed.”

  “Where will we do that?” Ria was watching from one of the cabin benches.

  Ty glanced around the boat. The mast was secured but damaged as it canted slightly off center. Bits of shredded sail flapped in the afternoon breeze. The deck was a mess of broken rigging.

  “We can’t cross to the Southern Shore with the ship like this.”

  He was the first to say what he was sure everyone already new. He held Ria’s eyes. She blinked and looked down.

  “Where do we go then?” Lavinia asked.

  “We can head back to the Archipelago. There are boat builders on the docks of the larger towns. It will take some time, but we can have it fixed there.”

  Lavinia sat next to the boom with a thud. “And spend the last of the money we made in Sardinia.”

  Niri shook her head, “No.” Three pairs of eyes stared at her. Tension was wrapped around her face and shoulders. “One day in a city like Tiero was fine. But we can’t stay for a week or more in the Archipelago. The towns are basically controlled by the Church. Most of the members of the High Council have houses there. We’ll be found.”

  Lavinia dropped her gaze to the piece of rigging she was twirling in her fingers.

  Ria let out a breath. “We could steal a new boat.”

  Lavinia’s head jerked up and she glared at her best friend with a tight line to her mouth.

  Ty spread his hands, breaking Lavinia’s gaze. She looked away across the sea and hissed, “No, we aren’t stealing another boat.”

  “Then where do we go?” A hostile tone edged Ria’s voice.

  The wind sighed across the deck.

  “I . . . I might know of a place.” Niri said quietly.

  “Where?” Lavinia asked hopeful.

  “There is a place that the Church doesn’t go. Is actually afraid to go. We can run north along the shore.”

  Ty’s brow scrunched. “There isn’t much to the north. Rough towns, not friendly to outsiders. I don’t see how they would help.”

  “We need to go to the Forest of Falin, to Drufforth. The Kith live there. They are dryads and could fix the boat.”

  “You think they’ll help us? You being a member of the Church and all.” Ria said with a sidelong glance towards Niri.

  “Ria, she saved your life, twice.” Lavinia shot back. Ria closed her eyes and lifted her head to the side.

  Niri’s eyes narrowed. “What other choice do we have? We’ll be safe from the Church. They have the skills to help. We just need to convince them.”

  Ty ran his hand through his hair again in frustration. “It is the wrong way.”

  “You’d rather spend the last of our money and days hiding from Priests in the Archipelago?” Lavinia exclaimed.

  “How can we trust her?” Ria said rising to her feet abruptly. “She is a Priestess! How do we know the Kith aren’t something worse? If the Church kept the Curse secret, uses it to kill people, what else is Niri not telling us?”

  “Ria, she warned us about the Curse in Mirocyne. It isn’t her fault we didn’t understand.”

  Ria and Lavinia glared at each other. Ria looked away first.

  “You want to know what the Church can do?” Ty’s voice quivered with anger. The threads of anxiety and doubt itching him since the night before burst into full bloom, Ria’s words feeding his fear and anger. “You want to know why I left my apprenticeship? Why I don’t like swimming anymore? It was because of one of her kind.” Ty slashed his hand in Niri’s direction.

  The anger left Lavinia’s face, leaving it pale. Niri took a step back. Ty’s hostility knocked out Ria’s. She sat down again, eyes glued to Ty.

  Lavinia’s gaze was riveted on her brother. Her mouth worked but no words came out. Some of Ty’s acid anger fizzled. He looked down at his sister and spoke as if she were the only one on the boat with him.

  “It is why I came back to Mirocyne, sis. I wanted to warn you before you left so you didn’t make the same mistake. I wanted you to know.”

  “I was on the Gypsy Empress. She is larger ship than anything our parent’s have. Big enough that a Wind Elemental stayed on the boat.”

  Ty looked away from his sister’s heartfelt stare. He cleared his throat. “Arkira was stunning, short dark hair and light amber eyes. She knew everything about the ship, though she used her knowledge to order everyone around.” A faint smile warmed Ty’s eyes, then faded. “Even the captain did whatever she requested.”

  “There was another apprentice on the ship too. Ryic was nearly finished with his two years. He was her favorite and he worked hard for it. He brought her anything she wanted: the best food, jewelry, anything that caught her eye. She . . . Arkira began to make the gifts a competition between us. I don’t even know how it happened. She would bring us wine when we were left to sail at night, flirting with us and laughing when Ryic got jealous. They next day we would try to outdo each other with something to please her.”

  Ty’s eyes were downcast, his cheeks flushed. “When Ryic left to be assistant captain on a smaller ship . . . she would come on deck and give me wine until my head spun. Every night she would come and laugh, then slip away. I don’t think it took me two weeks until I was willing to steal things to win her attention.”

  Lavinia’s eyes were kind. “She used you, but that doesn’t mean . . . .”

  Sharp voiced, Ty cut her off. “That isn’t the worse of it. If that was all, I could chalk it up to a lesson learned.” Anger coursed through Ty again. Lavinia sat back, her downturned mouth sullen.

  “We were in Portoreayl. It is a big port city in the Archipelago. I stole some choice wine from the captain’s stores for her. I took it to her room and only heard a second voice just before I knocked. I waited outside and listened, jealously trying to find out who was with her.”

  “It was Fistus, another Wind Elemental from a sister ship. I had seen him before - heavy set, older, balding. I know he wasn’t there . . . for the reason I thought. I stayed to hear them talk hoping he would leave soon.”

  “Arkira was saying she was bored. Bored with ‘inexperienced boys’ was how she put it. Fistus laughed at her, asked how she had turned Ryic and what he had sent her. I could hear her haughty pride as she listed things Ryic had taken from his new ship’s stores or had stolen and taken as undocumented cargo for her. Fistus was impressed. Said something like ‘another ship’s captain who belongs to the Church.’ I think I realized then what she was doing.”

  This time Ty looked at Niri coldly. She shook her head, but he continued. “She would win an apprentice over, infatuate him until he would do anything for her. And then she would use him for whatever she wanted. Steal goods, carry secret shipments, all for her use or the Church.” Ty spat the word at Niri. He looked away from her.


  “I was standing outside Arkira’s chambers with a bottle of stolen wine in my hand and realizing how well she had played me.”

  “So you left. One bad Priestess . . . ,”

  Ty cut Lavinia off again. “Stop making excuses for her. It is not one bad Priestess! I didn’t just leave then or ignore her like I should have from the beginning. I turned to go and then I heard Fistus say my name.”

  Ty trembled. He closed his hands to fists. “Fistus had asked how I was doing. Arkira sighed. ‘Fine,’ she said. She expected I would ‘come around’ any day and then she would have to sleep with me, pretend to enjoy it. I wanted to hurl that bottle through the door at her. Do anything to stop that disgusted tone.”

  “Fistus laughed and offered to take care of ‘it’ for her, that night in fact. Promised if I didn’t at least enjoy it, he’d make it something I could be blackmailed with. She could threaten to transfer me to his ship if I didn’t do what she wanted.”

  Ty face was tight, his eyes closed. “She agreed.”

  Lavinia was speechless, her mouth an open ‘O.’ Once again it seemed only the two siblings were on the boat. Tears formed in his sister’s eyes as she shook her head gently from side to side. Ty knelt in front of her and took her hand.

  “I left then, when I heard her agree. When I heard the excitement in Fistus’ voice as he asked where my chambers were below. I heard the scrape of his chair as he stood up. It made me move. I turned and went over the side of the ship with nothing. We were anchored . . . far out.” Ty’s voice choked at the harrowing memory of the night swim.

  “I went between anchored boats, holding onto their chains to rest. It was hard to find the shore between the ships in the dark. I couldn’t see the lights of the city. It felt . . . like an eternity. It was dawn when I washed ashore more than half drowned. Those men you saw in Mirocyne found me in the market half dead and trying to filch something for breakfast. They took me in, gave me food, and a place to stay. Stealing for them didn’t seem so bad at first, until they decided to rob Fineous and kill Jistin. I couldn’t do it so I left again, running from them as well as the Church.”

  Ty and Lavinia were two feet apart, her heart in her eyes as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Ty, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me the day you came home?”

  He shook his head. “I just couldn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”

  Lavinia looked down at the deck, her shoulders slumped. Ty stood stiffly, aware again of Ria and Niri. He walked to stand next to Ria who sat wide eyed and horror struck on the far bench. Ria took his hand.

  “You see why we can’t trust her. It is better to risk the Church and the Archipelago than go with her.”

  Niri blinked, but she did not cringe at the sting in his words.

  “No,” Lavinia jumped to her feet. Ty looked at his sister in surprise. “Don’t you see, that is exactly why we can’t run to a place beholden to the Church? Niri is not Arkira. She has saved our lives. We have to trust her. I say we go north.”

  Lavinia met Niri’s eyes, a flicker of appreciation and its acknowledgement flowing between them.

  Ty was stunned. His face lost all color. Ria twisted against the tightness with which he held her hand. She pulled free, nursing her fingers while she looked wide eyed from Ty to Lavinia.

  “We are going north away from the Church, otherwise we might as well sail Ria and Niri to the Temple of Solaire ourselves.”

  Ty’s jaw flexed. The moment between the siblings was broken by a gull’s cry. Standing alone, Ty looked away first. He stared hard at the deck.

  “Fine, but when we reach Drufforth, Ria and I are leaving.”

  CHAPTER 14

  THE RUN NORTH

  The deck canted under Niri’s feet. A wave of exhaustion washed over her. For one moment, she thought of giving up. Instead, she turned her face into the evening breeze.

  The sun hovered over the hills of the grass and rocky shores of this isolated stretch of coast as if it were the only inhabitant of this barren landscape. They had seen few settlements, nothing that could have been called a town. Stone houses with sod roofs and moss stuck between the boulders to protect from the wind. Niri and Lavinia had gazed at them in the blue light of the greater moon, growing larger and brighter now as its orbit brought it closer. There had been few lights in the villages and no wharfs. What boats they had seen had been narrow and long with deep drafts. They rested pulled up on the rough sand beaches. The smell of peat smoke had drifted from land.

  It was evening and that was the only reason Niri was on deck at the same time as Ria and Ty. It had been a long four days since they had lashed the heavy boom to the deck, put away the broken rigging lines, and raised the jib to head north. Lavinia was heartsick, but would not admit it. The knowledge of what her brother had gone through along with his intent to abandon her in Drufforth left Lavinia’s eyes dark and hollow.

  Ria ignored Niri’s appearance on deck. For the last few days, Ria would not look in Niri’s direction as if she did not exist. Only a lift to Ria’s chin and a squaring of her shoulders showed that Ria was very much aware of Niri’s presence. After four days of it, Niri was tired of such a petty game. She was tired of everything.

  With just the jib, the boat hardly moved unless she pushed the tide. Between the continual binding of the Curse, it’s occasionally struggle, keeping out the water seeping from the crushed timbers of the hull from the Curse’s head, and pushing the boat, Niri’s power was in constant use. There was never truly a moment to rest.

  To add to that was the growing dislike for hard bread, old cheese, and dry meats. Ria’s childishness was a small bother amid the mass, but Ty’s icy distance elicited an ache whenever she thought of it.

  Because he is cold to Lavinia too and it hurts her so, Niri told herself and stubbornly believed it.

  Lavinia was on deck already, sitting with her arms resting on the railing and her legs dangling towards the sea. She looked out at the shore as shadows stretched towards the boat. Lavinia saw Niri and moved to stand. It was time they take over the boat while Ria and Ty disappeared below.

  Niri stepped forward but it felt like her foot sunk through the deck. The world tilted again, rocking under her feet so that she fell to her knees.

  “Niri!”

  Lavinia’s panicked tone swiveled Ty around from where he’d turned to tie off the jib line. He jumped the rudder post with a one handed vault to get across the deck faster. Ty pulled Niri into his arms from where she’d fallen. Her eyes were squeezed closed, but she could see as if they were open. She could feel Ty’s arms supporting her as she leaned against him, but her mind saw a different world. It took a moment to sort out the contradictory sensations.

  “It’s the Curse. It wants free,” Niri spoke in a whisper. Lavinia’s hand was on her shoulder, her fingers tightening with the words.

  “It’s fighting you?” Ty asked with concern.

  “Yes . . . no, it’s not struggling. It’s sort of talking to me.”

  The hazy image in Niri’s mind cleared. She looked into the golden eyes of the Curse. Niri wanted to struggle with it, to get away from however it had brought part of her to it. But she found herself struggling with Ty. He held her tighter.

  The Curse’s power reached out to her. Niri reeled as images and emotions flooded her mind.

  The Curse was tired and hungry. The need for food filled her body. Her lungs ached. Breathing water was weakening it. Magical or not, it was a living creature that was born to breath air, to eat. It needed to stretch its wings and muscles. Every inch of it was cramped and bound by heavy water. The need to move blocked all else in Niri’s mind for a moment.

  Niri’s resolve wavered. The Curse streamed images, flipping them through Niri’s mind. Niri found herself in a cave, dark and mildewed. Chains that bit with more than iron shackled her to the depths. Silhouettes of Priests or Priestesses rose out of the dark, bringing pain. But those were rare. Mostly there was solitary soul crushing da
rkness.

  The cave swept away to a view of the sky and sun, clouds rolling below with flashes of distant fields, trees, and water. For one moment, Niri flew as the dragon, exalted in the freedom of days for the first time in memory even while the compulsion to hunt magic drew it onward.

  “Niri, NIRI!”

  Ty shook her back to herself. She sobbed as the tension and images left her. Only Ty’s arms kept her from collapsing to the deck.

  “It is in pain, suffering so much. Has suffered so much under the Church.”

  Ria was on her feet from where she had stayed alone in the aft of the boat. “You can’t let it go! Kill it. If you can hurt it, you can kill it. Free me from it!”

  Niri looked up at Ria. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I cannot wish it dead. It would die slowly, hungry and bound over years. I cannot do that to anything!” Niri paused and sighed. “Besides, it is too late.”

  “You let it go?” Lavinia asked shocked.

  “Yes,” Niri said straightening in Ty’s arms. He relaxed his hold but kept a hand on her shoulder. His eyes did not leave her face.

  “It is hunting for me again?” Ria’s pitch whirled higher.

  “No,” Niri said quietly. “It doesn’t know where we are and it is too week. It won’t find you again unless you use your power. For now, its muscles are too cramped to fly. It is just floating on the surface of the sea enjoying the sun.”

  “Enjoying the . . . ,” Ty glanced at Lavinia then back to Niri. “How do you know it is enjoying it?”

  “I can feel it humming.”

  Ria glared at Niri, every line of her vibrating anger. Ria slammed the apple she had been eating onto the deck and stormed down into the cabin.

  Ty rubbed Niri’s shoulder, his eyes on the deck. When Ria’s steps had faded, he looked up at Niri. “Are you okay?” Niri nodded. “Are you using your power anymore at all? Are you using it right now?”