The rain was completely gone now, and the fires were spreading.
A voice spoke in Abbey’s ear. “Remember when you said this felt like cheating?” She turned and saw Jarvi standing next to her, holding out the shocker, her father’s old weapon from his Arcadian days. “I think it’s time to cheat.”
She took the shocker, but she wasn’t sure what Jarvi wanted her to do with it.
“I’ve done some tests,” he said. “That shocker likes water. A lot. And that Storm Caller appears to be standing in about three inches of it.”
Abbey nodded and turned toward the wagon. Maybe it was time for this weapon to finally do some good.
Sword in one hand and shocker in the other, Abbey charged the wagon. The man guarding Dahlia saw her coming and raised his sword, but Abbey stabbed him in the arm, and he dropped his blade. Her next strike finished him.
Dahlia noticed Abbey approaching the wagon, and her eyes widened. “What are you doing, you filthy Arcadian?”
Abbey smiled. “I’m using filthy Arcadian magic.”
She sank the shocker into the water, and Dahlia jerked once and collapsed. The smell of lightning filled the air.
Abbey tossed the shocker back down to Jarvi, then she started to climb up onto the wagon. Before she could, something slammed into her back, sending her reeling to the ground.
She looked up and saw a Thunderclap crew woman glaring down at her, holding a mace.
The woman raised the mace, preparing to bring it down on Abbey’s head, but Abbey was faster. She sprang forward, driving her sword through the sailor’s stomach.
Abbey turned back toward the wagon. To her surprise, Dahlia was trying to stand. She crouched shakily as she put her weight on her staff.
No. She wasn’t trying to stand. She was trying to Storm Call!
Dahlia’s eyes suddenly glowed blue-green, and a thick fog materialized, obscuring Abbey’s view of the battle around her.
Arms reach into the cart and grabbed Dahlia, lifting her to the street. But was it Storm Raiders or militia members who had her? The fog was too thick to be sure, and Dahlia was disappearing into it.
“Abbey!” It was Dustin. “Get over here. Quickly.”
Abbey kept her eyes fixed on the fog where Dahlia had been a moment before. She wanted to pursue the Storm Caller, but there was a desperate urgency in Dustin’s tone.
“Listen to me,” he said, his voice weak from exhaustion. “I couldn’t figure out why the Storm Callers on the wall weren’t helping. Then I remembered. We haven’t seen Tor.”
It took Abbey a moment, then she got it. “Shit.” She had a choice to make. Pursue Dahlia or try to stop Tor.
“Abbey, he’s going to kill them.
She thought for a moment, then she turned to Jarvi. “Dahlia’s trying to escape. Find my father and Syd, and make sure that Storm Calling witch doesn’t make it out of the city.” She spun back toward Dustin. “You see what you can do about quelling these fires. I’ll go after Tor.”
She turned and dashed toward the wall without waiting for a reply.
Abbey raced up the steps toward the top of the wall. If Dustin’s suspicions were correct, there wasn’t a moment to lose.
It was raining hard now. They’d managed to stop Dahlia, and it appeared the militia and The Foggy Day crew had the Thunderclap crew well in hand. They’d stopped the Storm Raiders. All but one.
The most important one.
She reached the top of the stairs and froze. What she saw made her gasp.
Tor stood alone on the top of the wall, his bloody sword in his hand. He was looking out at the sea. The fog was gone now, and the sun was rising over the city. It was still dark over the water.
The bodies of six Storm Callers lay dead along the top of the wall.
He glanced back, saw Abbey, and chuckled. He turned back toward the sea. “You know, I was sort of hoping it would be your father. I’ve always suspected there’s more to him than meets the eye.”
“It runs in the family.” Abbey’s voice shook with anger when she spoke again. “You’ve lost, captain. We took out your Storm Caller and your crew.”
He turned back to her at that, genuinely surprised. “The boy defeated Dahlia?”
“We did it together. The people of Holdgate.”
Tor scoffed. He gestured at the column of smoke rising behind her. “And yet the city burns.”
“Not for long. The buildings can be rebuilt. You haven’t destroyed anything permanently.” She shook her head, truly disgusted at this man. “What was it all for? All this death?”
Tor thought about that for a moment before answering. “Call it a test run.”
Abbey bristled at that. “A test run for what?”
“I needed to test my theory. I’ve been a Storm Captain a long time, but I’ve never attacked from land. And I’ve never attacked a city as fortified as Holdgate. It’s sad that I lost my ship and my crew in the process. And if Dahlia’s truly dead… Well, I’ll believe that when I see it. But if she is, that’s a greater loss than all the others combined. Still, it was worth it to know how my plan will play out when I attack my real target.”
Abbey was barely able to contain her rage. All this killing was practice? What the hell was he talking about? “I don’t understand. If Holdgate isn’t your real target, what is?”
Tor let out a laugh. “Haven’t you figured it out? A heavily-fortified, land-locked city with magical defenses? My target is Arcadia.”
Abbey gritted her teeth.
He held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong. It won’t be easy. But with my Barskall army, my fleet of ships, and my other allies across the sea, I believe we can do this. I…” He trailed off as he looked at Abbey. “My dear, did you know you’re shaking?”
“Yes, in fact, I did.” She raised her sword and charged.
If Tor was surprised, he didn’t show it. He smoothly stepped into a defensive stance and raised his sword. He deflected Abbey’s attack with the flick of a wrist.
“Not wise,” he said.
He thrust his blade, quick as a flash. Abbey spun out of the way, but the blade bit into her left arm, cutting the skin.
Tor gave his head a slow shake. “I imagine a girl like you is used to winning sword fights with her speed. Am I correct?”
He struck again, and she barely managed to deflect the blow.
“I’ll bet all the boys rely on their strength to beat you, and that’s how you catch them off guard.” He didn’t even sound out of breath.
Abbey tried a feign to the left, but he didn’t fall for it.
“Sadly, you’ll find that’s not the case with me,” Tor said. “I never assume. I test my opponents and find their weaknesses. Only then do I commit myself to an attack.”
He lunged, thrusting his sword toward Abbey’s chest. She dove to her left, again narrowly avoiding his blade.
Tor tisked softly. “I’m afraid you’re not going to beat me, dear. You simply don’t have it in you.”
Abbey struggled to catch her breath, holding her sword in front of her, carefully watching him for any sign he might strike. She hated to admit it, but a tiny part of her thought he might be right. She wasn’t going to give up, but the inevitable outcome was becoming clearer. She’d given her all, and it wasn’t enough. She’d come damn close, but this bastard was going to defeat her.
No. That wasn’t right. She hadn’t given everything. Not yet. She suddenly remembered what she’d discussed with her father after that fight with Olaf in his shop.
There was one part of her she hadn’t used in this fight.
She attacked, swiping at his face with her blade. He took a step back, easily dodging her strike.
He let out another laugh. “I’m sorry, dear. I don’t mean to laugh, but that was just pathetic.”
She held her sword straight in front of her, gripping it with both hands. Then she concentrated, just like her father had taught her. Her eyes went black.
“Captain Tor,” she said,
“come here.”
She reached out with her magic and pulled.
Tor slid forward, his eyes wide in shock, his feet gliding across the blood and rain-slicked stone, and Abbey’s sword went through his chest.
She let go of her sword and let Tor’s body fall to the ground, where he could lay beside the ones he’d killed.
Epilogue
Abbey looked down at the empty wagon. Most of the seawater had drained out by that point. Apparently, the crew of Thunderclap wasn’t as great at water sealing as they claimed to be.
Something else had disappeared, too: Dahlia.
Benjamin shook his head. “We tried like hell to find her, but with the fog and fighting she managed to escape. At least a few of her crew made it out as well.”
Abbey couldn’t help but be angry with herself. She’d gotten the captain, but she’d let the Storm Caller slip away. At the same time, she knew she’d made the right choice. If she hadn’t gone after Tor, she wouldn’t have known about his plans. Or his allies.
Syd climbed up on the wagon with Abbey. “The crew of Thunderclap rallied a bit after you left. They formed up and gave it one final push. If not for Benjamin, we would have been lost.” She gave the blacksmith an admiring look. “The way he combined his magic and his swordsmanship was a thing of beauty. It’s not surprising Dahlia snuck off during the madness.”
“She won’t get far,” Captain Roy said. “Every man, woman, and child on the Kaldfell Peninsula will soon be looking for her.”
Dustin struggled up to the wagon with Syd and Abbey. A knot was already forming on his head from where Randall had clobbered him. The fires in the city were out now, and the poor guy looked bone tired.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” he said.
Abbey answered softly. “It’s not.”
Syd turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“Tor said he has an army of Barskall Warriors hidden somewhere on the Kaldfell Peninsula. He said he has other allies across the sea. Not only that, but we just lost six Storm Callers. That’s six stormships we can’t send searching for Dahlia.” She looked at Captain Roy. “I know you’re optimistic that we’ll quickly catch her, but I’m not so sure. The way Tor made it sound, they have allies everywhere.”
Roy nodded. “Perhaps you’re right. We’re going to give it our best damn shot, though. And even if we don’t catch her, we stopped the threat. Tor’s dead. Thanks to you.”
“No,” Abbey said. She looked at the people around her. Her friends. Her brothers and sisters in arms. “It was all of us. I just happened to be the one holding the sword.”
Syd climbed the gangplank to the now empty Thunderclap. The ship was docked, and the few remaining crew members had been hauled off to the already crowded jail.
She took her time walking the deck, exploring the ship from bow to stern. Then she ventured below deck. She walked through the sleeping area and the cargo hold.
The scorch marks left by the fire Abbey had started were evident both above and below deck, but the ship was structurally intact. The crew must have done an exceptional job of putting out Abbey’s fires quickly. It wasn’t too surprising. After all, no one had ever accused Thunderclap of having an undisciplined crew.
Everywhere she walked, Syd thought of her brother, Elliot. He’d lived and worked aboard this ship. Then he’d disappeared. The one man Syd knew could give her the answers about her brother was dead. Tor had been tight-lipped, but as long as he’d been alive, she’d held out hope that he’d eventually relent.
Syd ran a hand across her bald scalp and looked out at Holdgate. She’d question the remaining Thunderclap crew members, but she didn’t hold out much hope on that front. She’d tried that before. She’d gotten crew members drunk, she’d offered them bribes, and she’d threatened them. No matter the approach, their answers were always the same. Eventually, Syd came to believe that the crew members truly didn’t know what had happened to Elliot.
With Tor gone, there was only one other option. If Syd wanted answers, she needed to find Dahlia. And that’s exactly what she intended to do.
After a day spent cleaning up the city and tending to the wounded, Abbey and Benjamin headed back to the apartment above the blacksmith shop and sat down at the kitchen table.
“You know,” Benjamin said, “when I asked you to go see Jarvi, I thought he’d help you escape south. I never thought he’d send you north with the stormships.”
Abbey smiled. “I kinda figured that wasn’t your original plan.”
Her father looked her in the eyes. “Thank you. For everything. I know you went there to prove my innocence. That sense of justice you have? You get that from your mother.”
“You’re welcome.” She patted the back of his hand.
He looked her in the eye. “Abbey, I’m sorry I never told you the truth about my past. And I’m sorry you had to hear about it from Jarvi.”
“I don’t care about what you did then. I care about the man you are now.”
“That means a lot. I’m done hiding from that stuff. It’s time to start making up for it.” He rapped a knuckle on the table. “Speaking of the future, what’s next for you? Is this old blacksmith shop going to be enough for you now that you’ve seen the world?”
“Now that you mention it, I do sort of have a job offer on The Foggy Day. And I did enjoy sailing.”
Benjamin leaned back and scratched his beard. “Huh. Captain Abbey. I kind of like the sound of that.”
Abbey laughed. “I hardly think they’ll start me at captain. Roy might have something to say about that.”
Benjamin waved a hand in the air as if shooing away the notion. “Eh, you’ll work your way up in no time. Wouldn’t it be sweet? You and Dustin, Storm Captain and Storm Caller. Running your own crew. Fighting Barskall.”
Abbey smiled. “Now that you mention it, that would be pretty sweet.”
The Winter Night slid across the calm, glassy ocean, racing northward. The crew was a seasoned collection of mercenaries, stormship sailors thought long dead, and misfits who’d left civilized life behind for something more exciting. Even this strange group of sea-hardened veterans couldn’t believe how fast they were traveling.
At this rate, they’d reach Bode in a day and a half.
The woman standing at the prow, clutching her staff as she smoothed their waters and hastened their winds, had only spoken one word to the crew since she’d boarded: “Bode.” She hadn’t needed to say anything else.
They all knew who she was, and they knew that if she was on their little ship, things had gone very badly for her. As such, no one spoke to her, and everyone kept their distance.
For Dahlia, that first day aboard The Winter Night was a time of introspection. It wasn’t that she’d lost the battle that bothered her; it was how she’d lost it. Caught off guard by that damned Arcadian girl while she was doing battle with The Foggy Day’s young Storm Caller.
Dahlia had been winning, too. If she’d only had a little longer, she could have broken his mind, she was sure of it.
Years of planning, all undone by an Arcadian girl and a metal rod.
Even more disturbingly, the young Storm Caller had used storm magic on dry land. Which was impossible.
Dahlia allowed herself an hour of moping, and then she decided to move on. There was good that had come from this battle, and she vowed to focus on that.
First, she was grateful she’d had the foresight to keep The Winter Night around in case they ever needed to make a fast escape. The ship had followed Thunderclap at a distance for years just in case. Tor had always said it was a waste of money, but Tor had always been shortsighted.
She didn’t know whether Tor had survived, and, frankly, she didn’t much care. She was done with him either way. He’d served his purpose. Granted, he’d been very handy with a sword, and it had been nice to let someone else be the public face of Thunderclap. And he certainly was easy to manipulate.
But lately, he’d gotten a bit too full of h
imself.
He’d begun to actually believe it was his plans they were pursuing, not hers. It was ridiculous! After she’d spent months trying to convince him to lead his first Storm Raid so many years ago. After she’d had to prod him endlessly to seek an alliance with the Barskall. After she’d spent the day before every Storm Raid carefully explaining the plan to him and worried through every Raid just hoping he wouldn’t screw it up.
She was done with all that.
Bode was a necessary first stop. She’d need to spend a little time with Eril to assure him their plans were still on track and to convince him of who had really been in charge all along. From there, she’d likely visit Barskall itself. It had been too long since she’d seen her old friend there.
She glanced over her shoulder at the crew working on the deck. One of the men caught her looking and quickly became fascinated with the rope he was tying. Dahlia shook her head. These men were pathetic. But they could be a useful weapon to her, just as Tor had been. She wouldn’t throw them away because of their simple imperfections.
Dahlia smiled as she thought about the upcoming voyages she’d make once she claimed a ship worthy of her. It would be nice to rule directly rather than through a proxy.
Now that she thought about it, it was a silly tradition that a ship needed both a Storm Captain and a Storm Caller. It was more efficient to have one person do both jobs.
Just one more thing she’d fix when she ruled the Kaldfell Peninsula.
But she was getting ahead of herself. She needed to keep things simple: get her fleet, get her army, conquer Arcadia, then use the riches of Arcadia to take over wherever she damn well pleased. That had always been the plan, and nothing had changed.
Certainly not because of some blacksmith’s daughter and a rookie Storm Caller.
She added one more item to her list: learn the secret to Storm Calling on dry land. If she could figure that out, it would make the invasion of Arcadia that much easier.
Welcome To The Age of Magic Page 44