Wielder's Curse

by Elle Cardy

  Wielder’s Curse

  Book 2 of the Wielder’s Storm series

  Elle Cardy

  First Published 2020

  PO Box 6162 Woolloongabba, Queensland 4102, Australia.

  WIELDER’S CURSE copyright © 2020 by Elle Cardy

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Lynda R Young

  Email the author at ellecardy@xandory.com

  Join her VIP Club at http://www.ellecardy.com

  Other Books by Elle Cardy

  Wielder’s Storm Trilogy:

  Wielder’s Prize

  Wielder’s Curse

  Book 3 coming soon

  Praise for Wielder’s Prize

  “Adventure. Battles. Magic. Dangers just below the surface. This book was such a breath of fresh air...” Crystal Collier, author of the Maiden of Time trilogy

  “Tension - This book had it. It was tough to put down, and I read it in two sittings.” Tyrean Martinson, author of Champion in the Darkness series.

  “This novel is a lively adventure, peopled with interesting characters and splashed with awesome magic.” Carol Riggs, author of The Body Institute.

  “A tense adventure that will keep you guessing with all of its wicked twists and turns.” Alex J. Cavanaugh, bestselling author of the Cassa Star series.

  “The Wielder’s Prize is a complex and exciting journey from page one to the end.” C. Lee McKenzie, author of The Princess of Las Pulgas.

  “A delightfully enchanting story…” Cathrina Constantine, author of Wickedly They Come.

  “I find well written books can carry me away to the point where I'm not aware I'm reading, but more absorbing the story and letting it flow over me - and this book did that.” Reader review.

  “This was such a fun story! I could not put it down and so stayed up way too late reading it.” Reader review.

  “…I could hardly wait to read the next page. Truly enjoyed it.” Reader review

  “The characters are well written and you find yourself cheering and anxious...” Juneta Keys, author.

  “This is a treat to read.” Reader review.

  “...Robin Hobb come[s] to mind.” Damyanti Biswa, author.

  To Tim

  The reasons are still the same

  but no less wonderful

  Contents

  Other Books by Elle Cardy

  Praise for Wielder’s Prize

  PART ONE Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  PART TWO Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  PART THREE Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Acknowledgements

  PART ONE

  Chapter 1

  Under a dusk-purpled sky, Jasmine chewed on her thumbnail as she paced the deck of the Wielder’s Prize. Yet another of the rowboats headed out. The last to go. She peered toward the glistening lights of Oakheart. No sign of returning boats. No sign of Finn. And there was nothing she could do about it.

  He should’ve returned by now. He shouldn’t have gone at all.

  The harbor town wasn’t safe. She’d warned him as much before he left, but he’d insisted. Or, rather, Marcelo had insisted. The old man hadn’t explained the reason he so desperately needed Finn to go along. She didn’t know why Finn obeyed the man as if Marcelo were still his master.

  If she had to guess, they visited the Order of Guardians, a dangerous group of wielders who loved to meddle. The old man would never admit the secret order had a posting in Oakheart. It made sense, though, given his eagerness and the pile of scrolls he’d taken with him. He probably planned to discuss the events at Sapphire Cove.

  Jasmine shuddered.

  By the time she finished coiling a line that hadn’t been stored right and packed it away, a three-quarter moon had climbed from the watery horizon. Its cold glow glistened on the waters, silhouetting the headlands.

  A pinpoint of light separated itself from the glimmer of the town. It moved toward the Prize.

  A rowboat.

  At last.

  As the boat drew closer, moonlight traced the shapes of two men. Two burly men. The familiar shapes of Hensley and Arassi. Brusan had sent them off to bring back supplies. Finn wasn’t with them.

  Worry had the bitter taste of ashes.

  Why had Finn gone with the old man?

  “Permission to board!” hollered Hensley, his husky voice floating above the waves in the warm night.

  “Permission granted,” she called back and lowered the rope ladder.

  She helped the two men unload. Sacks of flour mainly, plus sacks of onions and other produce. Arassi claimed they got the lot for a bargain price. Several barrels filled with salted beef would also be delivered in the morn.

  “Be sure to tell your father when you see him,” Arassi said.

  “You can tell Brusan yourselves.” Jasmine glanced around expecting the man to appear. He’d want to take inventory, to make sure he got what he’d ordered, to see the supplies were stored in the right place. Not only that, Captain Durne would never let this stockpile stay on deck in the night air.

  Hensley shrugged. “We done what he asked. We’re headed back to town now.”

  “A fine damsel is awaiting my attention.” Arassi winked and grinned, his crooked teeth gleaming in the moonlight.

  “And a fine mug of ale. Or two,” Hensley rumbled.

  “After you help me get this below,” Jasmine said.

  “Sorry, lass, not this time.” With that, they scurried down the rope ladder, jumped into their boat and pushed off.

  “You can’t be serious!” she cried down to them.

  Their only response was a laugh and a splash of their oars as they headed toward Oakheart. Granted, when she had officially joined the crew as a deckhand, a true member of the crew and not just Cook’s apprentice, they had promised not to give her special treatment. Based on their rush to leave, they would’ve done the same to anyone left on board. Anyone except the captain. Or Brusan.

  No doubt they were avoiding Brusan. Cook would’ve made them move the sacks. On top of that, he’d likely give them another list of stock to acquire in town. It was what he used to do to her. She sighed at the pile of supplies.

  A sullen energy rippled behind he
r.

  “What do you want, Aurelius?” she asked, though she already knew. Everything about his presence vibrated with the need to leave, to simply disappear.

  “I need your help,” the kid said. Even though he was older by at least a couple of years, she thought of him as a kid — despite his ability to control magic better.

  She glanced meaningfully at the pile of supplies left on deck. “And it looks like I need your help as well.”

  The kid took a step back as if the supplies were tainted by plague. He ran a hand through his golden hair then scratched a pale eyebrow. Jasmine had come to know it as a nervous gesture. Over the last few months, instead of his complexion gaining color from the sun, it had grown pastier, almost gray. She thought he would’ve overcome his seasickness by now, grown some strength in his weak limbs, and learned to be more useful. No such luck.

  “Once we get to Auslam,” he said. “I’ll be punished by the Order of Guardians for betraying Marcelo to Captain Kahld.”

  The former captain of the Wielder’s Prize had been driven insane by his power, and it had culminated at Sapphire Cove. The kid had been the one to feed the madman’s insatiable lust for power by telling him about Marcelo’s ability to see visions of the future. While Aurelius might not have known the full scope of what he’d been doing, he’d known enough.

  “You betrayed me as well as Marcelo,” she said. “Why would I help you?”

  “I—” He licked his lips and frowned. “I meant no harm.”

  A weak comeback. And a lie.

  “You did mean harm.” She leaned against the sacks of flour. “You were jealous of what you thought was Marcelo’s love for Finn. You wanted both of them to suffer. And now you ask for my help when helping you would put both Finn and me at risk.”

  He scowled at the mention of Finn but didn’t rise to the bait she’d planted. “You don’t know what the Guardians will do to me.”

  “Do you?”

  He bowed his head. Admitting defeat maybe? Fear radiated from him like a blazing fire on a hot summer night.

  That fear pushed on Jasmine’s heart. The kid was out of his element, among strangers in a world he didn’t belong. She figured the only place he’d feel comfortable would be on land, deep in a book.

  “What would you have me do?” she asked. “It’s not like I can talk to Marcelo.” There was no pretending the man was reasonable. What Marcelo wanted, Marcelo got.

  “Get me off this ship,” Aurelius said.

  “Your timing is lousy,” she said with a crooked grin. “You could’ve caught a ride with Hensley, or any of the other crew who left for shore leave.”

  Aurelius scowled as he glanced toward Oakheart. His expression wasn’t pretty on his long face with lashes so blond they looked invisible in some light. “In the very least, don’t let Marcelo take me to Auslam.”

  There was no escape for Aurelius that night. The last remaining rowboat was secured in place in case of an emergency. Even if it was free for general use, Aurelius knew nothing about sailing, or rowing, or anything to do with the sea. He would struggle getting down the ladder, and it was doubtful he could swim if she threw him overboard, which she had to admit was tempting.

  “I’ll talk to Finn,” she said at last, straightening.

  “You can’t tell him any of this.”

  “I’ll tell him what I like.” She was already keeping secrets from Finn. She didn’t want to pile on more. It was bad enough that she had to hide the fact that her father wasn’t Brusan as everyone thought, but Captain Kahld, the mad captain. Because she was a wielding child of a wielder, that meant she had Kahld’s same power, which made her an abomination and a liability. According to every wielder who ever lived, it seemed. Not for the first time, she wondered if her power would drive her insane too. Or worse, drive away the people she cared about.

  No more lies, she’d told herself — except that one necessary lie. She was a changed person.

  “I beg you.”

  Were those tears in his lashless eyes? Surely it was the wood smoke on the breeze.

  With the back of his hand, Aurelius swiped away the moisture. “Please.”

  A shadow flitted to Jasmine’s left. Eager for a distraction from the kid’s display of weakness, she let her gaze hunt for the source of the movement. Moonlight shed a cool glow on the deck while the lanterns flickered patches of gold on the masts and lines. Both deepened the untouched shadows. The Prize swayed gently on the tide, yet nothing moved that didn’t always move on the sea.

  “You see anything just then?” she asked, the discomfort of Aurelius’ plea still hanging between them.

  He shook his head.

  Maybe she was being overly cautious, but she had to be sure. She sent her thoughts into her ship — her prize, her talisman — drawing magic from its timbers to see what was happening.

  In the galley, Cook hunkered on an upturned bucket, nursing a mug of rum. In the captain’s quarters, Durne sat at his desk, filling in forms and studying charts. In the infirmary, Philips coughed in a low cot, his body heat radiating against the ship’s timbers in Jasmine’s mind.

  “Didn’t Marcelo warn you not to wield?” the kid asked.

  Everyone kept telling her not to use her magic, to control it by keeping it leashed. She was getting weary of the old tune. She knew what she was doing. Mostly.

  She sent her thoughts to the surrounding waters. No other boats were returning, and the two crewmen who had dumped the supplies were already halfway to shore with the promise of warmed mead powering their strokes.

  Something stirred out there. In the dark. The murky fingers of a vision crept over her sight. She leaned against the sacks as the night disappeared and a wall of black smoke fell around her. Fire seared the seas, an oily fire tainted by poisonous soot, wounding the ocean. A shadow shifted in the waters beneath.

  Like a drowning victim, Jasmine reached for air, grasping for any kind of purchase.

  This was the old vision of the boiling seas. This was the future she had changed three months ago, the future that wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. They’d defeated the ship’s former captain. Kahld had been the source of the burning seas that might’ve been. A dark future evaded.

  Yet the vision had returned to haunt her. More than that. A mad hunger in the darkness sought her. It searched for her blood and power. The Beast. This was Beast she’d encountered three months ago. Its reach had grown strong and dark and deliberate. Its power buffeted her from all sides, crying out with yearning and rage.

  To find her.

  To feed on her.

  It was on the hunt, and it would not give up until it found its prey.

  “Whatever,” Aurelius said, his voice a beacon to hold on to. “I don’t care why you’re wielding. I just need you to help me. Please, Jasmine.”

  Caught in the middle of the darkness and destruction, she made herself small, made herself hidden. Somehow, she found her way to the Prize’s railing. Concentrating on the smooth wood of her ship under her fingers, she dragged herself from the vision of a boiling sea. It thinned like smoke from an extinguished flame.

  She sucked in a ragged breath of familiar harbor air — sticky pine salted with the faint hint of wood smoke. No fire consumed the seas. No wall of smoke curtained the sky. Nothing monstrous stirred in the waters below, and nothing else was out there. Everything was as it should be.

  Except that the Beast was back.

  And Finn still hadn’t returned. More than ever, she needed Finn to return.

  “Jasmine?” the kid asked.

  “Fine. I’ll see what I can do. No promises.” Anything to get rid of him.

  Why was the Beast back, now, after three months of peace? And where, for all the sunken gold in the seas, was Finn?

  Chapter 2

  Just thinking about the Beast made the edges of her sight darken and shimmer as the vision threatened to rise within her. Jasmine pushed it down and refocused.
The best way to protect herself was to remember she had responsibilities to the ship. That meant dealing with the supplies.

  “Help me with these,” she said to the kid.

  He gave her a half-hearted shrug and shook his head, uncertainty leaking from him like his magic — all jittery and vague. It seemed doubtful he could lift a sack on his own anyway.

  “Mind fetching Brusan, then?” Cook could get his own supplies. According to him, no one else could store them right.

  The kid’s eyes grew round, and he went ghostly pale in the lantern light. Cook and the kid hadn’t warmed to each other. Brusan didn’t help by offering to punch Aurelius’ face in as punishment for betrayal.

  She couldn’t leave the sacks in the night air, and she couldn’t leave the ship unguarded, especially now that the vision was back. The Beast sought her with renewed rigor. It was as if it had somehow caught a whiff of her. How could that be? She hadn’t done anything recently to draw its attention. Or maybe she had and hadn’t realized it. Marcelo and Finn were always cautioning her not to wield. Although she’d never admit it to them, wielding was often nothing more than an instinctual response. As automatic as swinging a fist when caught unawares.

  “Fine. Keep watch, then.”

  When the young wielder still looked frightened, she added, “Just for a minute or two.” All she needed was to make Brusan get his wretched supplies off the deck. “Ring the bell if anything … unexpected happens.” She indicated the nearby brass bell with the ship’s name embossed across it. “Not that anything is likely to happen.”

  She’d said the last part for the kid’s benefit. She wasn’t so convinced. Still the darkness shimmered at the periphery of her vision.

  The kid agreed to keep watch so, with more bravado than she felt, she clapped him on the back and dashed away. As she ran, she toyed with the idea of telling Brusan about the visions then dismissed the thought. He had no real understanding of magic. In his opinion, if he couldn’t fix something with his fist, it couldn’t be fixed.