I might be able to use my power to call out to yours. Eira continued to repeat the words over, and over, and over again. She wanted to commit them to memory exactly as Adela had said them, and how
she looked while speaking them. She didn’t want time, or hope, to change a single detail.
Crow led Eira to a different hatch at the front of the boat, past her usual spot. They climbed down a ladder, passing through a narrow squeeze where the hold Eira was usually kept in was walled off at their backs. The lower hull of the ship opened up enough underneath where the upper hold was for five hammocks. In the very back of the vessel was a small galley, squeezed into the point. Chests were piled on either side of the ladder.
Two of the hammocks were occupied with pirates Eira only vaguely recognized. Though she couldn’t recall if she’d seen them on this deck, or the other ship. One was an older elfin man with brown skin and rows of braids woven closely against his scalp. The other was a young human woman, fair-skinned, perhaps a year or two younger than Eira, wore a patch over one eye and had her black hair tied in a messy bun at the top of her head.
“We have a guest?” The man sat up, his hammock swaying slightly. “Adela has requested she get a hammock.”
“You one of us now?” the woman asked, twisting her head to look at Eira with her good eye.
“She is certainly not.” Crow bristled. “Adela merely needed her to recover, lest she be useless to our queen.”
“Is joining the crew an option?” Eira asked no one in particular. That notion of another possibility that wasn’t captive or Adela’s experimentation had crossed her mind. But she’d assumed—perhaps wrongfully—that Adela wouldn’t consider it.
“Let’s not get ahead of yourself.” Crow pointed to the hammock in the middle on the right-hand side. “You can use that one.”
“Am I taking it from someone else?” Eira was too tired to stop herself from dragging her feet over to it regardless of whose it might be. It was a wonder she had been able to grip the ladder on the way down here.
“No, it’s just the three of us on this boat,” the man said. “I’m Puck and this is Zaila. Crow you know already.”
“You just go making friends with absolutely anyone, even our captives.” Crow hopped into her hammock with a huff. “Some fearsome pirate you are, Puck.”
“I’m fearsome when I need to be.” Puck had an air of confidence that assured Eira he had the ability to back up the claim. “But Adela clearly sees an opportunity in her if she’s trusting her to be down here with us while we sleep.”
Trusting her to be down here… Eira had only considered her captivity in terms of keeping her confined—tortured, in a mild way. She had thought Adela would put her with the crew because they could keep an eye one her. She hadn’t considered that she could be the one seen as the danger.
“May I ask you three something?” Eira asked, shifting in her hammock. It would be too easy to sink into the canvas and fall asleep. But for all she knew this might be her only time to get information.
“No,” Crow said.
“Absolutely,” Puck said nearly at the same time. He smiled when Crow rolled over, every movement exaggerated with frustration.
“What’s it like being a part of Adela’s crew?”
“You’re not becoming one of us and that’s that,” Crow insisted without facing them again.
Puck acted like she hadn’t said anything at all. “It’s the best life most of us could’ve ever dreamed of.”
“Why is that?” Eira asked.
“She takes the broken ones.” Zaila shifted and swung her legs over the lower edge of her hammock, holding on to either side like a swing as she kicked her feet. “Those of us that aren’t criminals, are orphans, or would be
better off if we had been. We’re the outcasts from society. And that’s why it makes it all the more delicious to stick a thin, sharp blade right between that society’s ribs.” A glint to her eyes reminded Eira that they were still pirates. However lovely the sentiment was in some ways.
“Some of us came from fine families and don’t have warrants out for their heads…they were just called to the seas. To adventure,” Puck said more lightly. “Others have made their families among her ranks.”
“Like Ducot.” Even though Eira knew it was true, it was still strange to accept after being in the dark for so long.
“And myself.” Puck had a warm smile. “By the time we make it back to Black Flag Bay, I suspect my wife will be holding our baby in her arms.”
“Black Flag Bay?”
“Oh sure, tell her all our secrets!” Crow threw her arms in the air, rolling over in the process to pin Eira with a stare. “Aren’t you supposed to be recovering for tomorrow? Less talking, more resting.”
Puck continued to ignore Crow’s moodiness, something that irritated the woman greatly and only amused Eira all the more. “Black Flag Bay is well- known among sailors. It’s hardly a secret,” he said to Crow. Then he continued to Eira, “It’s Adela’s northern hideaway, ever since she abandoned the Isle of Frost.”
“The Isle of Frost was abandoned? I always heard the sailors in Oparium speak of it as though it’s still there.” Eira was grateful she’d grown up familiar with Adela lore now more than ever.
“Adela still holds it with her power,” Zaila said. “She keeps it frozen over—wrapped up in a massive glacier like a present for whenever we might be able to return south.”
“She…has a whole island frozen and is able to keep it that way from this distance?” Eira whispered.
“She is the strongest sorcerer to ever walk among us,” Zaila said proudly, as though Adela’s skill was her own.
Eira leaned back into her hammock, the information heavy. Throughout them working together, Adela exploring Eira’s power, she was also keeping an island frozen solid in the back of her mind. And a ship, as well, if the legends about the Stormfrost were to be believed. That amount of control. That power… “Crow.”
“What?”
Eira shifted enough to face Crow. She looked the woman dead in the eyes and said, “You were right. My power is nothing compared to hers.”
She’d been expecting Crow to snap back with some kind of snide remark. Yet, Crow’s expression softened some and she gave a small nod. “You’re right. It isn’t. But then again, none of our magic is. Now, you need to rest or else she will be cross with us.”
Eira nodded and closed her eyes. She felt a little dizzy, but it wasn’t from the rocking of the ship or swaying of her hammock. Nor was it from exhaustion or Adela’s spiced liquor.
Perhaps they all were right. And, Adela hadn’t been lying. She didn’t have any children. Because…if Eira had been her daughter, she would never have lost her magic. She would’ve mastered the ability to open and close channels without issue.
There was no way Eira was strong enough to be Adela’s daughter. But that wasn’t about to stop her from fighting to be worthy of her training.
 |
Eira worked to catch her breath. It felt as though Adela was pulling out her soul through her fingernails every time she withdrew her magic. The morning had been spent much the same as last night. Freezing and thawing. Eira was all too glad to accept the small glass of warming liquor when it was offered, not caring in that moment for what hour of the day it was.
“You neglected to detail precisely how your channel came to be closed before the coliseum’s explosion.” Adela sat after giving Eira her drink.
“Ferro…he suspected I could close channels. But I also had reason to believe I could open them more. So I—”
Adela lifted a hand, halting her. “Open them more?”
Eira nodded. “I first gain an understanding of the person’s channel by becoming accustomed to their magic. Once I can sense it, I can almost place my own power underneath it and then use that to draw more magic from their channel. It’s a bit like shifting the flow of a tide, and my power acts as the current.”
“You speak as if this is something you’ve done.” Adela rested her elbow on her armrest and leaned forward.
“I have. Twice. I was beginning to get a better mastery of it during the games. But then when I confronted Ulvarth, I attempted to use the magic in reverse to close his channel.”
“And closed yours in the process because you had connected your magic with his by hastily establishing this flow you speak of,” Adela murmured. Eira nodded and took another sip from the glass. Adela had barely poured her half a finger. But it was enough to nurse as the chills stopped wracking her body. “I don’t think I need to tell you that trying to block a channel in that manner was foolish.”
“So I’ve learned.” Eira set down her glass. “But I wasn’t exactly taught how to open or close channels, and when a religious zealot is trying to murder everyone I’ve ever loved isn’t the best circumstances under which to learn.” The thought sobered her. It was Eira’s turn to stare out the windows at their side. Thoughts of her family were distant with shock. Or perhaps she had become completely numb instantly whenever they crossed her mind. It was a different pain than Marcus’s death because she didn’t know, for sure, if they were dead. She wasn’t going to mourn until she did.
But what did that mean if she never found out the truth? Would she live forever with hope? Or would the mourning be a slow, dull ache rather than a sharp stinging wound that could be faster stitched and mended?
“We can work on closing channels once your magic has returned to you.” Yet another reference to a future working together. “It’s this opening of a channel that I am most interested in.”
“You’ve never done anything like that?” Eira was shocked to hear it. Especially after last night. After learning more of the true depths of Adela’s power, and combining that with what was in her journals, Eira thought she could truly do anything.
“No.” Adela wore a thin smile and had a glint to her eyes. “Though I now think I would very much like to. Start at the beginning.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent with Adela working on her channel and Eira telling the pirate queen all the details of her work trying to learn how to open and close channels. The discussion became intense at one point around the theoretical nature of magic. Adela was adamant that channels flowed one way—from the unknown source all magic drew from. For Eira to “reach in” to a channel would require it to go both ways. Eira disagreed with the theory because she had, in fact, done it.
By the time the daylight was turning orange, Eira was exhausted in body and mind. But oddly delighted. Even Adela wore a slight smile as she leaned back in her chair a final time.
“You have more than earned your right to stay alive today. I’ll see you in the morning.” She lifted a hand, summoning her cane.
“Wait.” Eira held out a hand and stopped Adela from calling Crow. The pirate queen arched a brow at her boldness. “I wanted to ask… May I go back to the other vessel for tonight?”
“You try my good will,” Adela said curtly. Though she still wore her slight smile. “Is your life not enough of a reward?”
“You can’t really be surprised I’m trying for more, can you?” Eira cocked her head to the side. “Please? I believe you that they are all right. I have stopped asking after them…but I want to see them before Ofok.” Before they disembarked and Eira stayed on board, a captive of the pirate queen forever.
Adela said nothing and Eira braced herself for disappointment. The surreal sense of sitting back in her uncle’s office overtook her. Waiting for his verdict on her asking for permission to start working in the city, like all her peers had. She struggled but succeeded in sitting tall and remaining calm, not giving in to her nerves and squirming like a girl begging for permission.
“Very well,” Adela said, finally. “But you forfeit your hammock for the night. I can’t be bothered to send you back and forth at your whims.”
