Eira sat, stunned, letting the words seep into her. “You…will?” she whispered.
“Don’t seem so surprised. You practically consigned your life to me. I think I came out with the better end of the deal.”
Still, it somehow felt like a victory. Every day Adela didn’t kill her was a triumph alone. But getting the pirate queen to agree to helping her get her magic back was something Eira never expected would be possible, despite Ducot’s initial optimism. Yet another bit of evidence that might suggest she was right—there was more to Adela and her than met the eye.
“It should be a relatively simple matter. We’ll first need to collect a vessel with your magic. It’ll take a while to get back to Solaris, unless you have one in Risen? Please don’t tell me we have to sail all the way back to Warich simply because you overlooked grabbing one.”
Eira’s racing heart stopped and sank right into the darkest pit of her stomach. Of course…a sorcerer’s channel could be blocked using a Waterrunner’s magic alone, or sometimes even just through extreme trauma. But to remove that block and open the channel once more for magic to flow easily, a vessel was required. The slightest bit of magic would call to the sorcerer’s channel and restore the link to power.
The knowledge had been in the recesses of her mind. So far back that she hadn’t remembered it’d be a requisite for restoring her power. Had she just consigned herself over an impossible task? Perhaps that was why Adela had agreed so easily. She certainly had received the better end of the bargain and then some.
“I never made a vessel with my magic,” Eira confessed in a small voice. Adela sighed heavily and pressed her fingertips into her temple. “The Tower of Sorcerers is still not having their students make vessels as a
precaution?”
“I’ve never had it recommended to me.”
“The fools. I swear, I would run that Tower far better than any.”
The mention of running the Tower brought Eira’s uncle back to the forefront of her mind. Eira struggled to push him away, but the memory of him and the explosion fed on the hopelessness that was growing within her. The monsters of doubt and sorrow were warring to consume and control, feasting on what little hope she’d mustered.
Adela remained oblivious to Eira’s turmoil. Or didn’t care. Likely the latter, given how astute she was. “Very well, it will be done the hard way.”
“What?” Eira blinked, the statement jarring her from the negative spiral of everything feeling hopeless. “There’s a way to restore my magic without a vessel?”
“Child, with enough power and determination there is a way to do anything.” Adela smiled confidently, borderline arrogantly. But there was something inspirational about the expression. Eira wasn’t sure if she had ever met someone with so much blind faith in themselves. “Most sorcerers
—most people are only limited because they believe what others tell them when they hear they cannot do something. Your mind will limit you well before your body, and that is why it is the first thing others will try to control.”
The water flowing past the portholes distracted her. Eira’s thoughts drifted just as effortlessly. “I suppose I understand what you mean. I saw it in the Pillars.”
Adela leaned forward, holding out her hand expectantly. Eira didn’t immediately understand the pirate queen was waiting on her to take it. Trying to conceal her confusion and hesitation, Eira rested her fingertips lightly on Adela’s palm. The pirate queen grabbed her fingers and flipped over Eira’s hand without warning. She ran her frozen fingertips over the lines on Eira’s palm, filling them with frost that quickly thawed in the relative heat of the cabin.
“Tell me of your time with the Pillars.” It wasn’t phrased as a question. Nothing about Adela was that delicate, or tactful. But the demand wasn’t cold or harsh either.
“I was captured because I followed Ducot,” Eira admitted. Ducot had probably told Adela as much, but if he had, she didn’t say so. Adela remained focused on Eira’s hand, leaving her with nothing to do but speak. “Ferro, Ulvarth’s son, murdered my brother. He tried to kill me as well, but couldn’t…”
Eira told the pirate queen of the trials in Solaris. Of the night Marcus died. For a woman the legends painted as a ruthless killer—so deadly that even the utterance of her name would bring a curse—she was surprisingly easy to talk to. Perhaps it was because Adela had that reputation that there was no fear of judgment. If the woman pillaged and murdered for sport, what did Eira have to hide or be ashamed of?
“…and now I’m here.” Eira’s words were slightly raspy toward the end. Her throat sore. She must have spent at least an hour talking and Adela had done nothing but listen. “There are some other details I overlooked. But I suspect you already know them through Ducot.”
“I prefer to get information from the source, whenever possible.” Adela reached for Eira’s other hand and began the process over again. This time, it was her hand made of ice holding Eira’s, sending a chill down her spine. “It’s little wonder you’ve handled my captivity so well.”
“I’ve known hunger, and darkness, and confinement. The Pillars taught me well in those respects.” Eira stared past the slow movements of Adela’s fingertip on her palm. “At least here I see the sun.”
Adela snorted. “Don’t give me an idea to take it from you.”
Eira quickly shifted the subject. “You said you weren’t working with the Pillars now, but…did you ever work with the Pillars?”
“Once,” Adela admitted with a tense expression. She rolled back her shoulders as if suddenly uncomfortable in her seat. “A man sought me out, interested in some goods from Carsovia. A dangerous job and I was a fool to take it with little information.”
“What did he want you to get?” Eira asked.
“Something not worth the cost, in the end.” She wore a grimace, her eyes clouding with an anger that wasn’t directed at Eira. “Once I realized who the man commissioning me was, and his affiliations with Meru, I severed all ties and went back north.”
“Why do you avoid Meru?”
Releasing her hand, Adela leaned back. She rested her hands on the armrests of her chair, tapping them almost restlessly. “I made a bargain with
someone a long time ago. They demanded I cease sailing anywhere close to Solaris or Meru and I have kept my word ever since.”
“Who?”
“Who else? The only person that could make me bend for them…” Adela smirked and answered coyly, “The Goddess Yargen herself.”
Eira rolled her eyes and looked back out the window. If Adela didn’t want to tell her, she could’ve just said so. Though, she shouldn’t have expected the pirate to bare her soul just because Eira had. She brought her attention back to the present. Adela didn’t have to tell her things. She just had to get Eira’s magic back.
“Well, can you open my channel?” Eira flexed her fingertips. “I don’t feel any power.”
“If you wanted this to happen quickly, you should have made a vessel,” Adela said with a slightly scolding note. “But, yes, I believe I will be able to open your channel. Though you might not enjoy the process.”
“I will do anything to get my magic back.” “Anything?” Adela arched her brows.
“Anything.” There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in the word.
“Good. Both hands.” Adela’s waiting palms seemed harmless enough, but like prey before a predator, something within Eira knew differently.
It took actual effort to prevent her hands from quivering as she reached for Adela one more time. Her fingertips slid across the woman’s palms. Adela stretched forward slightly, grabbing Eira by her wrists. Eira mirrored the movement on instinct, meeting the ice-blue eyes of the pirate queen. This close, she could see all the similarities and differences of their features. Adela’s cheeks were sharper than Eira’s, more sunken. Perhaps with age, perhaps as a function of her usual appearance. The bridge of her nose was just as narrow as Eira’s; her brow had the same slope.
“Brace yourself, girl.”
“What are you going to—” She wasn’t given a chance to finish. There was no warning for what came next.
Frost ripped through her.
It raced up her arms and struck Eira square in the chest. With unseen fingers, the cold grasped for her heart. Eira gasped, choking on air. Her lungs spasmed, shuddering. Her body would shiver if her muscles weren’t locking from tension the cold placed them under.
Slack-jawed, she stared at Adela, barely breathing. The invisible hands the pirate held on her lungs slowly drew air in and out, squeezing and relaxing. The chill sank down to her toes. Eira’s body emitted a faint haze as the cold condensed in the air.
Adela was doing to her what Eira had done to others. What they had talked about only a few days ago, debating better practice of. Eira was being turned into a living ice statue. She wanted to curse at the woman—to spit venom. But Adela had an intense furrow to her brow, her eyes half- closed.
If she could still access magic, Eira suspected she would feel the subtle pulses of Adela’s powers through her. Probing. Perhaps trying to force open the channel.
As suddenly as the cold had come on, the magic retreated, sinking back into Adela’s hands. Eira gasped and hunched, half collapsing over herself. Her muscles felt spent, exhausted. The tension they had been placed under made it feel as if she’d run a marathon.
Adela’s grip tightened. She pulled Eira, yanking her to the edge of her chair and jerking her head up to face her. Adela’s fingertips were no doubt pressing bruises into her skin, but all Eira could focus on was her face.
“I took you for stronger,” Adela said briskly.
“I will surprise you yet,” Eira said firmly, still working to catch her breath.
“We will see about that.” Adela’s fingers tensed once more.
Magic flooded her again as frozen, unseen water. Eira was pulled into the icy depths of Adela’s control. Eira’s jaw locked as she held it shut to keep her teeth from chattering so she didn’t risk biting her tongue.
The entire time, she continued to keep her focus solely on Adela. Even if she couldn’t speak, or change her expression, she could show with her eyes that she could handle this much.
This much and more. I welcome it, Eira thought with every bit of determination she could muster.
Just when the frost reached her head, her vision becoming tunneled, Adela relaxed her magic. Eira slumped again, though not as much as last time. She’d known what was coming and had been ready for it.
“Catch your breath.” Adela loosened her grip. “That’s it for—”
It was Eira’s turn to grip Adela. Tight enough that Eira’s skin fused with the ice of Adela’s right forearm. Eira lifted her head slowly, looking through
strands of hair that had fallen into her face. “Again.”
“Do not—”
“We arrive in Ofok in less than two days,” Eira ground out through clenched teeth, already bracing herself. “Again.”
A slight smile crossed Adela’s lips. “Very well.”
 |
On the sixth time, Adela pulled away and Eira didn’t have the strength to hold on to her. She almost doubled over, catching herself by her knees. Eira thanked the Mother for the chair beneath her, otherwise she might be a puddle on the floor.
Adela stood, crossing over to the small writing desk wedged between the bookcases. Eira could no longer see the pirate queen with the curtain of hair framing her face. Her vision was too blurry at the edges to even make it worth trying. She just focused on breathing. On allowing the warmth of the room to sink into her bones and try to expel the chill that now felt like it was a part of her marrow.
A crystal-cut glass appeared in front of her face, held by a frozen arm.
Eira dragged her eyes up, meeting Adela’s. She took it skeptically.
“It’s not poisoned. If I am going to kill you at this point I would give you the respect of letting you know first.”
“Careful, or I’ll think you actually like me,” Eira murmured as she sank back into the chair, bringing the glass to her lips. The amber liquid was heavily spiced with cinnamon, clove, and cardamom. The drink burned all the way down, bringing warmth and instantly dulling some of her aches. Eira tipped the glass slightly, inspecting it. “A warming potion?”
“A very good liquor. The draconi aren’t just known for their silks.” Adela had a glass of her own and leaned forward to tip it against Eira’s. “Good work today.”
“Are you close to restoring my channel?”
“Today was merely the beginning of learning your magical inclinations and pathways. There is still work ahead…and much will depend on your ability to reconnect yourself as well. I can’t do it all. At a point, it will be up to you to restore your connection on your own. Fortunately, our magics are
quite similar…similar enough that I might be able to use my power to call out to yours in place of a vessel. Think of it like a rope—I can swing it in your direction, but you’ll have to catch it.”
Our magics are that similar… Eira took another sip of the liquor. It couldn’t be merely chance. Her heart wouldn’t believe it.
“Adela—”
“Your Banefulness,” Crow interrupted, opening the door to the cabin.
Eira hadn’t heard Adela summon her.
“Take Eira to the crew cabin,” Adela commanded. “The crew cabin?” Crow stole Eira’s question.
“Give her a hammock.” Adela looked back to the windows thoughtfully. “She’ll need it to recover so she won’t be utterly useless tomorrow.”
Eira stood, swaying slightly. Crow crossed the small cabin in a few steps, wrapping an arm around her waist. Eira glanced over her shoulder once, but Adela was focused on something else…something far beyond the here and now.
