Wave-Touched, page 1
DAUGHTER OF VANRIS: BOOK TWO
WAVE-TOUCHED
NIKKI McCORMACK
To all the authors, artists, and other creators who courageously share their authentic selves with the world. Keep making magic.
Content warnings can be found at the end of the glossary or on my website at elysiumpalace.com.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
WAVELORD: PREVIEW
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AUTHOR BIO
OTHER WORKS
COPYRIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
The fort overlooking the ocean at the southwestern corner of Vanris was built of the same black stone used in the border watchtowers and much of the city of Etrion. It was odd how just the sight of that stone made Veyl homesick for the black city even while she dreaded leaving the ocean behind. Weary after the voyage from Thaelis and heartsick from losing Lorek in the Sarketi attack on their ship, she followed her grandfather, Dhomvalen Arhk, through the grounds and into the fort’s main keep. The two Thaelian officers, Jinau and Nalika, accompanied them, along with Arhk’s trio of elite personal guards.
Lorek’s death hung heavy over a brief reunion inside the entrance with Gannon and Ahrin’s father, Darro, and his sharp-tempered tehnaak, Kince. Despite the sorrow weighing on them all, their warm welcomes eased some of the feeling she had of no longer belonging in her own homeland, brought on at least in part by the role she had assumed as an ambassador for Thaelis. These people, members of her father’s tehsheyn—his bonded spirit family—were as much her family in a way as her grandfather. Still, the Thaelian uniform she wore forced a distance between them, so she took her comfort from an unexpected source. Whenever they passed an open window, the rumble of the nearby ocean reassured her, provided she didn’t dwell too deeply on her connection to those untamable waters.
Ahrin, Gannon, and Iyvalin disappeared into a private room where they could grieve. Tath, the twins’ mother, and Nerith, both healers who had firsthand experience losing a tehnaak, followed them inside, bringing food, drink, and an abundance of empathy. Veyl watched them shut the door with an ache of longing. Her new role didn’t afford her the opportunity to join them as they mourned.
Instead, she followed Arhk to a meeting room where some attendants were also delivering food and drink. Kince, Darro, and the officer in charge of the fort joined them. At Veyl’s insistence, Jinau and Nalika also took seats at the table. She hoped to set a precedent for both sides by including them in proceedings from the start. Arhk’s elite guards stood along the wall behind him, their intimidating stares locked on the two Thaelians.
Arhk eyed her new companions. “What discipline of mind-crafters are you?”
“Charmer,” Jinau stated in his concise, less-than-charming way, his amber eyes taking in their company and the stark, utilitarian surroundings.
Veyl caught the faintest hint of a smirk on Arhk’s lips before he schooled it away and shifted his expectant gaze to Nalika.
“I am an Evoker, Dhomvalen.”
Arhk’s expression hardened, and he gestured to one of his guards. “Ahnvaris Zafyr is an Evoker as well. She will know if you use your ability here. Be warned that we will consider doing so a hostile act. I strongly advise against it.”
Nalika’s lips pressed into a tight line. The look she gave Zafyr when she nodded her understanding was far from friendly, but she didn’t seem foolish enough to believe she had a choice now that she was among the minority. Seeing the woman forced to rein in her temper wasn’t nearly as satisfying as Veyl would have liked it to be.
Arhk’s icy regard came to rest on her. “Let me see this agreement, Ahninveth.”
She had an instant yearning to be anywhere else. How would he react to the demands the Thaelian council made in those pages? What would he think of the terms she had agreed to, such as returning to Thaelis when this was over or maintaining the zenyal bond with Jinau? Would he consider her a fool for having signed it? He might be her grandfather, but he would always be Dhomvalen, the military leader of Vanris, first. That was just his nature.
Drawing a shallow breath to brace herself, she reached into the satchel and pulled out the papers, handing them to him. After neatly unfolding them and smoothing them out on the table, he inclined his head to read, some of his long, white-blond hair falling forward, conveniently masking his reactions from the Thaelians sitting off to that side. Veyl followed his progress from across the table, remembering every line from the hours she had spent studying their contents. The others took advantage of the opportunity to drink and partake of the fruit and bread. Hungry though she might be, Veyl’s roiling stomach and dancing nerves aggressively rejected that distraction.
Arhk’s expression remained diplomatically neutral until the exact moment she expected it to change, then darkness crept in at the edges of his eyes and pressure increased in the room. A ripple of tension moved through the group, most of them fully aware of how his Frightener ability manifested. Though his ability couldn’t manifest her fears because she was now a Frightener too, Veyl had somehow become more attuned to its other effects. Was that normal? It didn’t seem like the right time to ask.
Arhk’s gaze rose to Jinau, his voice dangerously calm. “You have the audacity to assume such control over a khesran of Vanris?”
The other three Vanrians at the table looked between Arhk and Jinau now, unspoken questions on their lips, though none of them appeared willing to step in front of Arhk’s anger and ask.
Jinau didn’t flinch before the dhomvalen’s fury or shrink from the darkening of his pale, gray-green eyes. “The Thaelian council ordered me to hold this bond solely as a method of protecting our people from her uncontrolled Frightener ability. I intend Ahninveth Veyl no harm, nor do I desire to demean her.”
Trying to ignore how disconcerting it was to hear Jinau use her title and actual name for once, Veyl said, “I agreed to leave it this way.” She had consented to those terms under duress because she believed she had little choice if she wanted to convince them to send her home, but the circumstances didn’t matter now. She needed to keep the situation from falling apart before negotiations got underway, or her role as ambassador would become meaningless. They hadn’t even reached Etrion yet. “Please, Dhomvalen, Ahndhomen Jinau suffered injuries shielding me from the explosion when Sarket’s ships attacked ours. I believe you can take him at his word when he says he means me no harm.”
Arhk’s nostrils flared as he drew a breath, and he clenched his jaw, the black slowly retreating from his eyes.
“Pardon, Dhomvalen Arhk, but to what control are you referring?” Kince asked, absently brushing some of his long blond hair away from his face, exposing the symbols of the dark blue ke’hanoath tattoo on that cheek.
“They have tethered her to this man using a zenyal bond.”
The three still looked lost.
“It is a type of nonreciprocal bond that allows the dominant half of the pairing the ability to, among other things, inflict debilitating mental pain on the submissive one.” Arhk’s voice was thick with disgust as he explained it. “A method of control that was outlawed soon after the first Vanrians set foot on Pandrea.”
Arhk turned his attention back to the agreement and resumed reading. It was the thoughtfulness that had stolen over Jinau in response to his words that intrigued Veyl now. Intense calculations were working behind his amber eyes, and she itched for insight into what they were.
Arhk folded the document and handed it back to her. “You signed your name to these pages. For now, it seems, you must abide by the commitment you made to Thaelis. We can revisit that, and the other terms discussed therein, once we reach Etrion.”
He turned his attention to Darro and the officer in charge of the fort, apparently not bothered by the scowls the implications behind his words drew from Nalika and Jinau. “Sarket’s attack on any ship in Vanrian waters is a breach of their fealty agreement. Not that it is the first such infraction they have committed in recent months, but it was the most public and one that will necessitate a response sooner than we might have preferred.”
“Is Jaysen here?” Veyl asked before either man could respond.
Arhk’s gaze returned to her. “The crown prince has gone into hiding in Etrion for now. Sarket is not yet aware that he lives.”
“And he did not vouch for the Thaelians who brought him here?” She had asked him on the beach, but frustration compelled her to ask again, hoping that he might at least elaborate on his earlier answer.
Arhk shook his head, confusion furrowing his brow. “As I said before, he did not. In fact, he encouraged us to imprison them and use them as leverage against their country. Why would he have defended his captors?”
Jaysen had not merely ignored her request, he had done the exact opposite of what she wanted of him. Granted, she was never able to explain the entire situation to him in Dagony, but she had asked him to work with Kyril. The Feral ahnkreth must have discussed his intentions with Jaysen on the voyage over. What convinced him to turn against them? Not that the Thaelian attack on Deepwater and their abduction wasn’t reason enough for him to want to. Jaysen hadn’t gotten to know people in Dagony the way she did. They never wanted him in Thaelis to begin with. But she had dared to hope the bond they had shared would be enough to get him to trust her. She was unlikely to understand why he chose not to until she talked to him.
“It doesn’t matter right now. We need to continue to Etrion. We can straighten all of this out there. There are negotiations to be held, and I wish to see the rest of my family.” She stood. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
Arhk rose, gesturing for the others to remain seated. “I would like to speak to my granddaughter alone for a moment. Stay and refresh yourselves.”
Nalika shifted as if she meant to follow, but Jinau caught her arm and shook his head. When she settled, he met Veyl’s eyes, and she nodded, offering him a look of gratitude. He answered with a slight nod of his own. She would grant him her trust, but she expected the same in return, and it appeared as though he would give it, for now.
Veyl followed Arhk through a door and up a narrow flight of stairs to a private study on the second floor. He strode to a window at the back of the room, looking over the outer fort wall toward the ocean. Walking up beside him, she gazed out at the water and the ships moving beyond the shore. The mighty expanse beckoned, and the prospect of leaving it behind sharpened the sorrow she was trying to keep buried.
“We have a Bondmaker here, Veyl.”
She was silent for a moment, considering his words. He was offering to remove the zenyal bond, but it would mean breaking the agreement with Thaelis before negotiations had even gotten underway. Not the most promising place to start from. “No. I will stand by the pages I signed as long doing so doesn’t bring more harm to my people.”
Arhk turned to consider her. “Why? The Thaelians cannot touch you here.”
She faced him, a flush of determination warming her. “Because I want to protect the Vanrians who are still on Thaelis. And because the people of Thaelis are good people, even if their leaders leave something to be desired. I refuse to see any of them harmed by this conflict if I can prevent it. Besides, I know Ahndhomen Jinau will not abuse the power of the bond. Seh’hali ne Kunua means Daughter of the Ocean. The natives on Thaelis, the Qwilki, believe I am blessed by their ocean gods. He is, as best I can tell, more Qwilki at heart than Thaelian. He would not harm me unless he felt he had no other choice.”
“He had best not,” Arhk stated flatly. “It will not end well for him if he does.”
Veyl removed the edge from his words with a fond smile. “I missed you.”
He looked her over, his gaze taking in her garments and the decorations in her hair. “It is unsettling to see you in their uniform, wearing their trinkets on your Vanrian braids.”
She touched the spiral shell, hearing the echo of Jinau’s remark in her head, noting how the one Kyril had given her was always the one she reached for. “These tokens are a Qwilki tradition. As is the hair stain many of the Thaelian crew members use. There is much I could tell you about why I want to protect them, but perhaps it makes more sense to save all that for when my mother and father are also present.”
Arhk drew a breath, sorrow pinching his brows as he considered her. “You are not the same young woman who left for Balarus with her parents. You have clearly grown and learned a great deal in a relatively short time. I hate to imagine what you must have suffered for the experience to have changed you this much.”
Veyl looked out at the ocean again. Memories flashed through her mind. Of the attack in Deepwater and the severing of her renewed tehnaak bond with Jaysen, of the voyage to Thaelis and her struggles with Kyril and her ability, and that moment of despair when she had tried to kill herself. And of when she lashed out at Gannon with her power and shattered the trust of her dearest friends, one of whom she would never have the chance to make it up to.
But it wasn’t all pain and misery. There was her newly discovered affinity for the ocean and the way Ceris had expressed a fondness for her from the start that left her feeling a little less alone. Many people in Thaelis had welcomed her warmly enough that she had felt compelled to protect them from the Ukhen’kya and to save Nagi from the kel’inuk. Through it all wove the thread of that strange and unexpected connection she had developed with the man who had taken her from her home. Her cheeks flushed at the memory of his touch, his kiss, of everything she had given him.
“It feels like years since I left here,” she murmured.
“I am skeptical of your support for these people,” Arhk said, drawing her attention to him. “I will not pretend otherwise, and I do not envy you the task of convincing your parents to negotiate with them after what they did to you and so many others. You have grown stronger out of necessity, I fear. But I will stand by you so long as I believe you are the one behind your convictions, and they are not the product of some outside influence.”
She looked deep into those eyes that matched her own. The one person who could truly understand the challenges she faced with her ability. “Thank you.”
He stepped close to place a kiss on her forehead, then gestured toward the door. “Let us rejoin the others. We have a few days of travel still ahead to return you to where you belong, and I am curious to see what your vision of the future regarding our relations with these people looks like.”
Veyl glanced out the window once more. She was finally back in Vanris, ready to negotiate with her own parents on behalf of those who had taken her from them. She had no intention of letting the Thaelian council come out on top, but she hoped to find a way the people of both countries might avoid more suffering. Whether that was possible didn’t matter. She intended to try.
CHAPTER TWO
The sun blazed down on the desert, making a mirage of the massive black city of Etrion on the horizon for several miles before its edges became more distinct. Veyl could see the towering spires of the palace and a few other structures coming into focus around the time they slowed, letting the horses walk for a bit to rest.
The ride to Etrion from the coast took a little less than three days. Veyl traveled with Arhk, his trio of elite guards, and Jinau. The modest size of their group allowed them to travel at greater speed. They had run into a transportation problem when the time came to leave the fort. There were no horses on the islands of Thaelis, nor much need for mounts of any kind. Most locations were reasonably accessible either on foot or by boat. The bigger islands had a few small herds of large deer called kednu that people used as pack animals and occasional mounts. Jinau professed to having ridden them in races against other children on his island growing up. His quick competence when they put him on a horse supported that tale and made it possible for him to travel with their group.
Nalika, like Kyril, grew up sailing and had no experience handling a mount of any kind. Gannon, Ahrin, and Iyvalin were heading to Etrion as well, but they were traveling along with a wagon carrying Lorek’s body. Darro, Kince, Nerith, and Tath stayed back to ride with them and with Nalika, who would make use of the seat on the wagon. Veyl got the impression that the separation of the two Thaelians pleased Arhk, in that it would give the two Vanrian parties a chance to assess them individually. Nalika had grumbled about it, but Jinau appeared entirely unconcerned.
Arhk kept a demanding pace, allowing five hours of rest at night and a few brief breaks during the day, more for the sake of the horses than their riders. They changed out mounts at each of the watchtowers between the coast and Etrion to avoid injuring the animals with the speed they maintained. With the city and her family so close now, it was all Veyl could do not to push her horse to run ahead, but she stayed with the others, giving the animals a much-needed respite.
