by C B Samet
The desk drawer was closed, but I could hear the sound of the contents sliding within it. I reached for the handle, wincing at the light scuffing sound made while opening it. Surely, he couldn’t hear it over the thumping of rain on the window. I glanced back at him. He still faced away from me. Turning back to the drawer, I opened it wider and scrutinized the contents. Quills and paper scattered within it. My dagger lay inside, its jeweled handle glowing in the candlelight. My heart leaped at the site of my stone.
As I reached for the red rock, a large hand closed over it. Icy fear drenched me. I gasped as Porter trapped a fistful of my hair. When he thrust my head down on the desk, I slammed the drawer shut on his hand.
Pain seared through my temple, and I fell to the floor. With my concentration shattered, I was now fully visible.
Porter yanked his hand out of the drawer, pulling the entire thing off of its hinges. The contents flew across the floor, scattering in every direction. He whirled on me, murderous intent in his dark eyes and snarling lips.
My blood ran cold. No stone. No strength. I tried to pull inner strength, to remind myself that I fought as a gladiator without my stone—mostly. Something so treacherous and evil lurked in Porter’s hard stare that I shook with fear.
I forced myself to crawl away from him. Not fast enough. He kicked into my side, knocking the wind out of me. Stars danced before my eyes. I drew myself into a ball, waiting for the next kick. Instead, he pulled me up by my hair and reared back with his hand containing my stone.
When he swung, I reached for his fist, hoping to touch the stone if only for a moment. I caught his wrist instead of his hand and barely slowed the blow. As his fist struck my jaw, pain exploded through my face. I fell back to the floor, blood filling my mouth. Unable to stand, I crawled away from him—weak and defenseless.
“My father wanted his little pet Cross to show Crithos how he’d tamed their Champion.” His voice seethed with malice. “Too bad I’ll have to tell him you didn’t survive the storm.”
I considered the broken star. I didn’t think I had the concentration or time to turn invisible. I needed a miracle to beat a man twice my size when I was unarmed.
I saw my miracle. Various contents of Porter’s desk drawer were strewn on the floor, including my beautiful jeweled dagger.
Hello gorgeous.
Porter leaned over me and rolled me onto my back. His dark eyes regarded me like a rabid wolf regards his next meal. He drew his hand back, but a sudden pitch of the ship took him off balance, and he wasn’t able to swing.
I kicked out my foot into his knee as my hand closed over the hilt of the dagger.
He snarled an obscenity in pain as he dropped to one knee. Then, he lunged at me.
I held the dagger up and thrust it into his chest. It sank to the hilt between his ribs and into his heart. Hot, sticky blood poured over dagger and onto my hand. Porter slouched on top of me, crushing the air out of me. Gasping, I fumbled for the stone still clutched in his hand.
When I contacted the cool, smooth surface, strength surged through me and I heaved Porter off me. His eyes opened wide in surprise—as though shocked I’d defeated him.
That makes two of us.
I pulled the dagger out of his chest. Seconds later, his short, shallow breaths ceased altogether, and his gaze flattened.
Falling back on the floor, I listened for a moment to the pouring rain and rumble of thunder as the ship rocked. My chest rose and fell in labored breaths.
“Tick, tock.” Mal stood over me. “You don’t want to be on this ship when it capsizes.”
I nodded and dragged myself to my feet. Everything hurt.
Mal looked back and forth between Porter and me. “Took you long enough.”
Despite his attempt to lighten the situation, the worry in Mal’s expression ran so deep, I wanted to walk into his arms and hold him.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
I began to rummage through Porter’s cabinets. “Clothes. A woman has to have priorities.” I grabbed a few sets of pants and shirts and a pair of boots. After wiping the dagger clean on the back of Porter’s shirt, I stuffed it inside the boots. I rolled the clothes around the boots, forming a ball, and cinched them with a belt. I used a second belt around my chest like a satchel and secured the clothes to it on my back.
Baird’s Language Stone, small and opal, lay on the floor. I bent to pick it up. Pain shot through my side, causing me to wonder if Porter had broken my ribs when he kicked me.
“How bad?” Mal asked.
“I’ll live. Might need a patch up later.” I tucked the stone into my bag of belongings.
After one last look at Porter’s flaccid body, I yanked the door open and stepped out into the pouring rain.
Cold, hard pellets beat down on me, stinging my open cuts and chilling me to the bone. In the flashes of lightning, I could see men still scrambling on the deck. Some slipped, others tumbled when a hard wave struck. I kept my hand on a rail and made my way toward the stern.
By a dingy, Baird and Corky waited. In another flash of electricity, I saw bodies sprawled on the deck at Baird’s feet. His swollen jaw and blood trickling out of one nostril told me he’d been fighting his own battle.
Corky worked to lower the boat.
When it hung below the level of the rail, I hollered, “Get in! I’ll lower it down.”
“What about you?” Baird asked.
“I’ve got the stone back. I can hoist you down then lower myself.”
Corky shook his head. “That won’t work. We’ll be smashed against the side of the ship with the next big wave.’
“I’m open to suggestions,” I yelled over the roaring ocean and howling wind.
Baird said, “We’ll time it precisely. At the next wave that tips us portside, Abigail can push us off while I cut the rope.”
I dug in my clothes roll and handed Baird my dagger. He and Corky climbed aboard the dingy, Corky carrying a wad of clothes containing who knew what loot.
Lightning blinded me, followed by a thunderclap so forceful my body shook.
When the ship tilted, I leaped onto the rail and half-pushed, half-slipped away from the ship with the dingy out in front. As we became airborne, with angry churning waves below, I realized the idiocy of our plan. I had two choices—let go, and be lost to my companions, or hold on and collide with the boat when it landed.
I squeezed my thoughts around my warrior stone.
Give me the strength to form a shell like an unbreakable nut.
On impact, pain shot through my body and blackness enveloped me.
I shivered as I pulled myself into a ball on the coarse, sandy beach. Every part of my body ached and my head throbbed with each heartbeat.
“Mal?” My voice sounded like the dry whisper of crunching leaves.
“Abigail.”
I kept my eyes closed, but knowing he stayed close brought comfort. “Can you merge with me again? I’m not dying. Don’t exhaust yourself.” I spoke between the chattering of my teeth. “But it would warm me to have you near me.”
“Of course I will.”
“Did everyone else survive?”
“If by everyone else, you refer to Corky and Baird, then yes. If you refer to the other crew, then no.”
“How did we survive?”
“I led Andi to you.”
I smiled, but my dry, cracked lips kept it from being more than a grin. I listened to the sound of the ocean and knew by the black sand beneath me that we’d reached the island of the serpent volcano.
“You saved me again. This is a lot of debt I’m owing you.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” Mal’s voice was a warm, soothing tonic.
“Where are the others?” I shivered.
“Rest Abigail. We can join them in the morning.”
Warmth, glorious warmth, spread through me as Mal sank into me, through me.
“Are you going to leave me again.”
No, he answered.
“
You left me before. You… You were gone for over a year.”
I made a mistake.
“Oh?” My mind grew fuzzy with exhaustion. “So, you’ll stay with me?”
Forever, Abigail.
I relaxed into his warmth and relinquished consciousness to sleep.
I woke to the sensation of warmth and the sound of ocean waves tumbling onto the shore. For a few peaceful moments I enjoyed resting and breathing without pain and without captivity.
As I sat and blinked, my eyes focused on Baird and Corky. They rummaged through the shipwreck on the shore for supplies and argued about starting a fire.
“The wood’s too wet,” Baird was saying. He wore loose black pants and a blue tunic that accentuated his blue eyes.
“I’m not spending another night cuddled in a ball, freezing. I want a fire.” Corky made a pile with strips of splintered planks. His curly hair danced around his head in the breeze. He wore light brown slacks and a frilly white shirt.
“If we lay them out on the rocks, they’ll have a chance to dry.” Baird’s voice remained calm, but I could tell Corky was wearing on his patience.
I lifted one edge of my battered clothing. I was still dressed in rags, but someone, probably Baird, had un-balled the clothes I’d stolen and laid them out on a barrel to dry in the breeze.
“Oh, her highness awakens.” Corky sneered at me. “Brilliant plan, Champion. Jump from a perfectly good ship and end up on a deserted island.” He threw his hands up in the air. “I’ve walked ‘round this entire forsaken place. There’s nothing here but rocks and a dead volcano.”
Baird scanned the wreckage strewn along the shore. “Not exactly a perfectly good ship.”
Corky scowled at me. “What are you smiling at?”
Blissful contentment sang through me despite Corky’s frustrations. This island felt like home—one of my homes—despite being uninhabitable. I swung my arms around three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. “I love this island.”
Corky’s jaw dropped, and his eyes bulged in exasperation. “Are you mad?”
Probably.
I was giddy with freedom, and in love with an apparition. I probably was out of my mind.
Corky shook his head. “You could wipe that ridiculous grin off your face. Wait. You know this island?”
I watched at the pounding waves. “We’ve a long history together.”
“That means you escaped. How do we escape?”
“Andi.”
“What’s an andy?”
“Andonius is a sea serpent. He’ll give us a lift to Misty Isles.” Once we reached the island, I could hold and kiss Rebekah.
I stood and bundled up my clothes, putting the dagger and stone inside them. There was no point dressing in clean clothes when I was going to get wet again.
“Another island?” Corky asked. “What good will that do?”
“Patience, Cornelius. We’ll get to the mainland, though that’s where King Artemis’ forces will be, so I’m not sure why you’re in such a hurry.”
His moodiness couldn’t dampen the light exhilaration flittering along my skin. We were so close to my family.
“I’m in a hurry for a meal.” He followed me along the shore.
“There’ll be food at Misty Isle,” I assured him.
“Next time, lead with that. G’mornin’ Corky, let’s go have breakfast, shall we?”
I chuckled.
Baird caught up with us and walked beside me. “You look better.”
“Mal healed me again. I do need food and water through. I feel lightheaded after standing.”
Ahead of us, the Cave of Souls came into view. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than smooth, obsidian lava rocks—but inside thousands of people had written their names on the cave walls over hundreds of years, as each arrived shipwrecked and destitute. When lit with bioluminescent algae, the cave illuminated like a tomb of souls—magical and morbid all at once.
“Andi!” I called.
The great teal and violet sea serpent half-crawled, half slithered like a salamander out of the cave. As he came into the light, his scales gleamed iridescent.
Corky leaped backward in surprise.
I dropped to my knees and threw my arms around his neck. “I knew you’d save us.” Cool, rough scales brushed my skin.
“I’m glad you’re alive.” His deep voice reverberated through me. “A light guided me to you.”
“Mal.” I’d never seen Mal and Andi interact, but both were bound to this volcano, so it stood to reason they could see each other.
“When I brought you ashore, I wasn’t sure you’d survive the night. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to save more of your crew. By the time I had what was left of your tiny boat ashore, the large ship had capsized.”
Leaning back, I rested my hands on my knees. “The others were soldiers en route to Crithos to conquer my continent.”
“Oh. Then I suppose they’ll not be missed by present company.” His head tilted to one side. “But you traveled with them?”
“We were their captives,” Baird explained.
I stood. “You remember Baird. And this is Cornelius Kronovsky, who goes by Corky.”
“Greetings.”
Corky gaped at the talking sea serpent.
Andi turned his head back toward me. “You’re out of danger now?”
“We are, but Crithos isn’t. King Artemis Stout deployed over a dozen ships. I’m sure many survived the storm.”
“How can someone with your abilities be captured?”
I blew out a breath and held up my palm for him to see. The small scar was still visible on the blue tattoo. “They cut my star tattoo.”
Andi turned his large head to Baird.
“Mine as well,” the monk admitted.
Andi’s gaze roamed over the three of us. “I suspect you need transportation to Misty Isles.”
“Yes. We would be grateful. Can you manage it?”
“Hop aboard, little Champion and friends.”
“We get to ride a sea serpent?” Corky’s eyes went wide with amazement.
“He’s the only way off the island,” Baird said.
“Spectacular!” With a broad grin, Corky tucked his bag of belongings under one arm and climbed onto Andi.
Baird touched the serpent’s head. “We’re grateful and in your debt.”
Andi smiled. “Do you know how many kiloliters of coconut milk Abigail brought me over the years? Enough that there is no debt.”
I sat behind Baird. “I’m sorry old friend. My days of transporting coconut milk have passed.” I also didn’t mention that once he dropped us at Misty Isle, I might never see him again. Andi could only thrive in the warm, sulfuric water around Mulan.
“Not to worry. I survived millennia before you were bringing me coconut milk.”
When we all sat atop him and gripping his dorsal fins, Andi waded into the ocean. He topped each ocean wave, taking us further and further from shore.
As the waves around us smoothed to dark, glassy water, I thought of the times I’d ridden Andi. My husband and I—newlywed at the time—shipwrecked on Mulan. Andi took us to Misty Isle, where I’d found my mother after having lost her so many years ago.
The memory was bittersweet. Joshua had died a year and a half ago, and his absence still stung me on a daily basis. The sweet component of the memory was reconnecting with my mother.
The next time I’d ridden Andi had been after I fought a Hunju warrior. I’d been on the brink of losing the battle when I’d transported the giant into the ocean. He couldn’t swim and became a feast for sharks. Andi helped me back to shore.
I looked over my shoulder at the distant gray land mass, knowing I had no way to ever see the island again.
Farewell, Serpent Volcano.
Mal’s home. No, Malos’ home. Mal’s home was with me, now. He’d promised to be with me, and he didn’t break his promises. He’d remain my companion until we fixed the cracked stone in the scepter. Then, he�
��d be gone again. A strange ache settled into my chest.
One problem at a time.
I couldn’t think of the day I’d lose Mal again—when he’d go back into captivity, a slave to Malos.
First, we had to save Crithos from Bellos.
25
MALAKAI
I watched Abigail, with her friends, drift away from my island on their way to Misty Isle. Standing on the surface of the water, with my hands in my pockets, I felt as though I was losing something—an intangible object, like a dream or memory.
“Why are you sad?” Snake Eyes asked.
“Abigail can't transport back to my island.” She’d spent countless hours there alone or with her children. Her children would never come back.
Snake Eyes frowned as he floated beside me. Then, his face brightened. “But Emerald said the star is damaged, not destroyed.”
I turned and gave a grim smile. “You're right. There's hope then that it can be repaired.” I still worried. Invisibility may be the extent of what Emerald referred to. Furthermore, after Abigail liberated Crithos from King Artemis, she still had my magical stone to repair. Days of leisure on the volcanic shores of my island might a thing of the past, even if her star fully worked again.
Snake Eyes looked back and forth from me, to the sea serpent carrying Abigail, and back to me again. He shook his head.
“Spit it out,” I said.
“She survived an uprising, gladiator battles, and a shipwreck. Shouldn't this be a moment of triumph?”
He made a point.
Snake Eyes put his hands on his hips. “She is safe, for Unideit’s sake. Be happy for once!”
I put a smile on my face. “Better?”
He straightened his hat. “Better. Now leave it there until you’ve thought about all of the things you have to be happy about.”
I chuckled. “Okay, my small friend. Point taken. Let's follow our heroine to her mom’s island of refuge, shall we?”
Snake Eyes was right to take a moment to rejoice, but I also knew this was the eye of the hurricane Orrick had spoken of before we’d departed for Bellos.
An hour later, I watched as Abigail, Baird, and Corky dismounted Andi in the shallow beach of Misty Isle and bid the serpent farewell.