my eyes were fixed on the water, at least until he started to speak.
“Beautiful but mighty,” he shouted over the sound of the spray, grinning. His next he aimed at me. “No sandstorm can rival the fury of the sea, not even in the deepest desert.”
His tone irritated me, as though he were speaking to a child shying from a strange animal.
“When you have lived to see the deepest desert, then I’ll believe you,” I shouted over the crash of the waves. “And only then.”
Morainn laughed, clearly enjoying our banter, and she hooked her arm in mine before leading us both to lean against the strong ribs of the boat. I let her. There was an ease and a swell to this sort of travel that I could prefer easily to traveling by foot or barge. It was almost as though I didn’t know how far or how fast I traveled, as though we were steered by powers far greater than could be contained in the captain’s limited guidance. I could see the ship that carried Gannet and the soldiers at a distance from us, but I didn’t waste thoughts on Gannet. It was exhilarating to lean into the growing wind and I tossed my head back, feeling that more than my hair was buoyed on the air that rushed off of the sea. I wanted it to be fuller, faster, and I felt an answering wish, echoed from the depths beneath us.
A little gasp, part in fear and part in excitement, issued from Morainn’s lips, and she grinned at me.
“It’s almost as though it’s alive,” she trilled, her giddy expression turned on the captain now, who was looking straight at me. In his face there was the Cascari distrust, an ugly mark upon otherwise handsome features. I didn’t like it, and I didn’t think I liked him, either.
I inhaled deeply, spray and salt filling my lungs, and when I exhaled the boat rocked. I was surprised: did this power come from the waters or me? It didn’t feel as it had in Re’Kether, that I was the tool and some distant force the master. I was in control. I knew that what I did was dangerous, if I was indeed doing anything, but when I saw the weak look on Triss’ face, pale and tinged with green, there was in me such an absence of compassion that I was divided from the self that I knew. Eiren would have a care for Triss, selfish though she was, and Eiren wouldn’t have gone on to do what I did then.
But I wasn’t Eiren, not completely.
I breathed again as though my body housed a great well that I couldn’t fill. The sky darkened and the wind spun like a song, pitching the vessel this way and that. I plunged myself into the middle of my power as one might whisk a raw egg, feeling with every sense the brewing storm, the sea. Morainn’s voice came to me faintly, and when I felt the captain’s rough hands in restraint on my bare shoulders, I brushed him aside as easily as one might a little stone. He was to me even smaller still, nothing but a grain of sand.
I thrilled, I thrilled, my hands like cresting waves themselves as my mind dipped beneath the water’s surface. I was more than diving, I was within the sea and I would possess it. The boat rocked violently and I could feel the beams splitting beneath my feet, but all of these things were so distant from the desire that consumed me, the desire so much bigger than my body that it must expand and consume the ship, too. I knew that what happened was my doing, but I was powerless to stop it. I didn’t know how. I didn’t even want to.
My struggle was a tempest, flooding first my heart and then the rest of me, the ship. The cold water shocked me, and though I had raged but a moment before with alien strength I was driven now back to my body. My ankles swam in the sinking ship, needling rain and the screams of my companions pounded against my face and ears. Too swiftly the power fled me, all of my want replaced with horror as Antares and Morainn came suddenly into focus, Morainn dragging Triss to the bow and Antares firing off a crude explosive that flared and stank of minerals. The
“Beautiful but mighty,” he shouted over the sound of the spray, grinning. His next he aimed at me. “No sandstorm can rival the fury of the sea, not even in the deepest desert.”
His tone irritated me, as though he were speaking to a child shying from a strange animal.
“When you have lived to see the deepest desert, then I’ll believe you,” I shouted over the crash of the waves. “And only then.”
Morainn laughed, clearly enjoying our banter, and she hooked her arm in mine before leading us both to lean against the strong ribs of the boat. I let her. There was an ease and a swell to this sort of travel that I could prefer easily to traveling by foot or barge. It was almost as though I didn’t know how far or how fast I traveled, as though we were steered by powers far greater than could be contained in the captain’s limited guidance. I could see the ship that carried Gannet and the soldiers at a distance from us, but I didn’t waste thoughts on Gannet. It was exhilarating to lean into the growing wind and I tossed my head back, feeling that more than my hair was buoyed on the air that rushed off of the sea. I wanted it to be fuller, faster, and I felt an answering wish, echoed from the depths beneath us.
A little gasp, part in fear and part in excitement, issued from Morainn’s lips, and she grinned at me.
“It’s almost as though it’s alive,” she trilled, her giddy expression turned on the captain now, who was looking straight at me. In his face there was the Cascari distrust, an ugly mark upon otherwise handsome features. I didn’t like it, and I didn’t think I liked him, either.
I inhaled deeply, spray and salt filling my lungs, and when I exhaled the boat rocked. I was surprised: did this power come from the waters or me? It didn’t feel as it had in Re’Kether, that I was the tool and some distant force the master. I was in control. I knew that what I did was dangerous, if I was indeed doing anything, but when I saw the weak look on Triss’ face, pale and tinged with green, there was in me such an absence of compassion that I was divided from the self that I knew. Eiren would have a care for Triss, selfish though she was, and Eiren wouldn’t have gone on to do what I did then.
But I wasn’t Eiren, not completely.
I breathed again as though my body housed a great well that I couldn’t fill. The sky darkened and the wind spun like a song, pitching the vessel this way and that. I plunged myself into the middle of my power as one might whisk a raw egg, feeling with every sense the brewing storm, the sea. Morainn’s voice came to me faintly, and when I felt the captain’s rough hands in restraint on my bare shoulders, I brushed him aside as easily as one might a little stone. He was to me even smaller still, nothing but a grain of sand.
I thrilled, I thrilled, my hands like cresting waves themselves as my mind dipped beneath the water’s surface. I was more than diving, I was within the sea and I would possess it. The boat rocked violently and I could feel the beams splitting beneath my feet, but all of these things were so distant from the desire that consumed me, the desire so much bigger than my body that it must expand and consume the ship, too. I knew that what happened was my doing, but I was powerless to stop it. I didn’t know how. I didn’t even want to.
My struggle was a tempest, flooding first my heart and then the rest of me, the ship. The cold water shocked me, and though I had raged but a moment before with alien strength I was driven now back to my body. My ankles swam in the sinking ship, needling rain and the screams of my companions pounded against my face and ears. Too swiftly the power fled me, all of my want replaced with horror as Antares and Morainn came suddenly into focus, Morainn dragging Triss to the bow and Antares firing off a crude explosive that flared and stank of minerals. The
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