The Lost Child, page 21
I nodded, having no other response.
“Do you … uh, need any help?” I asked rather lamely. The sea witches clearly seemed to have everything in hand. Fifty or so of them worked together to bring the bodies out and lining them up on the shore, while a second group wrapped them up and weighed them down. The third group dragged them out into the ocean, and their ultimate watery graves.
The sea witch lifted one eyebrow sarcastically at me. Before I could blush and stammer, she held out a hand. “I am Meruse. My sister is somewhere inland, organizing. She’s good at that.”
Her hand was cool and smooth, her fingers decorated with pearl and gold rings.
“Nerissa,” I offered back. “And I think you’ve already met Canavar.” I glanced over my shoulder to find him glowering at us.
Meruse laughed. “Yes. He is adorable, in a ‘I will burn the world for you’ type of way. You said you wish to reclaim the island?”
I pushed down my nervousness. Hopefully the request didn’t offend them.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “And reclaim it for the blood witches and the drakens.” I wasn’t sure how much Meruse knew of the Alkdama’s troubles. Surely the coven leaders spoke to each other,
Meruse nodded, her blonde dreadlocks swinging up and done. “That is well. We will push a localized tsunami to break away the remaining ships, and wash them out to see. Then you may begin. Wait on the northern tip if you must be here. Should be a good show.”
A small wave of sadness hit me at the thought of my childhood home crashing into the sea, but I knew it was for the best. My father’s office would be swept away, as well as his belts and the desk he used to force me to bend over.
And Macguire.
It was for the best.
I took a deep breath of the ocean air, free and clear as I sank into the sand beneath my boots. A new beginning was exactly what all of us needed: me, Canavar, the drakens, and the blood witches.
“Thank you for your help.”
Meruse grinned and dove back into the ocean.
Twenty-Seven
Canavar jumped into helping the sea witches finish burying the dead without a word, easily able to carry three bodies where the sea witches could only drag one or two. In no time the beach became a macabre sight of butchered men lying out in the sun, awaiting their turn to be wrapped and dragged out to sea.
I helped wrap the bodies, recognizing men who I’d known since birth. Some had been as cruel as my father, and others had been kind to me. In the end, they’d all died the same. In the end, it hadn’t mattered who’d been kind and who hadn’t.
I shook my head, not allowing such black thoughts to take root. That wasn’t even true; it had mattered. It had mattered to me.
Canavar’s expression didn’t change as he dropped the bodies in the sand. Whether it was a soldier he’d never met before or someone he’d known in the company, he lined each up side by side without emotion.
I wasn’t as unaffected. As I went down the line of bodies and netted heavy rocks around them, I saw their faces and cried.
Gerrick, my father’s right-hand man, lay before me with a bullet hole in his head. I had assumed he’d died in the ocean when I accidentally blew everything up. That meant my father had lied when he said I was the only survivor. That didn’t surprise me.
I wasn’t even angry; just numb.
Gerrick had been my father’s man through and through, and yet he’d ended up on the doom boat with me and my other friends all the same. Perhaps he wasn’t as close to my father as either of us thought. I wrapped the seaweed net the sea witches gave me around him once, then next was a layer of stones. I wrapped them up in the net and repeated this until I could barely make out his face. I rolled him on his stomach, the indication that another body was ready to go.
A sea witch grabbed him by his feet, and started to drag.
I moved to the next body.
Four soldiers later I came upon Jagger, lying like a pale imitation of the lively young man he’d once been, his ripped and faded leathers looking comical next to the rich fabrics of the soldiers on either side of him. His throat was slit from ear to ear, his eyes wide open in disbelief, unseeing as they stared at the sky above me. He was normally a good fighter; perhaps a soldier had caught him unawares. He was a dick, but no one deserved to be ambushed and slaughtered like a pig.
I closed his eyes and wrapped him up. He was another chapter of my life I would close the book on forever.
Faces passed by, and the sun blazed high in the sky. Flies started to gather, the stench of the dead calling to him. Fortunately, there were only a few left. I let the sea witches take over as I took a break to rest on a rock.
Canavar jumped up on top of it, then rested his head on my shoulder, glaring moodily at the world.
“Are you alright with being back here?” I asked him because no one had.
“It will be different. There will be different people. I will build a house and sleep in a bed with my mate.”
He perked up at the thought, already eyeing a few of the trees around us.
I laughed. My man needed a project to always keep him busy, it seemed. Elsewise the dark thoughts crept back in.
“Go on, then.”
He leaped off the rock and spread his wings, gliding a distance away before loping off toward the woods.
I stared out at sea, thinking about the bodies I hadn’t found, and likely wouldn’t.
It wasn’t likely, but it was nice thinking that perhaps some of the pirates had escaped somehow. They weren’t all terrible people; just men trying to live their lives. I smiled slightly, imagining them signing over to the Cantradian Navy and wearing those stiff, powder blue uniforms.
Then guilt swirled in my chest over Toby. He hadn’t deserved to get blown apart in the crow’s nest. Canavar hadn’t deserved to be locked in a cave most of his life.
I turned and faced the future.
“It is easy to forget the power water has. Where I grew up, there wasn’t much of it. There weren't any lakes or large rivers, let alone an entire ocean.”
Kaida watched in awe as the sea witches pushed wave after wave at the east end of the island, smashing away the ships that had served to shield pirate companies for generations. I wasn’t as sad as I thought I’d be.
Nasi put a hand on his mate’s shoulder. He’d been hovering more than usual about her today, which was saying something. “The ocean is very powerful. It kills many every day.”
Kaida swatted away his morose tidings. “It is also very beautiful.”
I snuck a glance at Canavar. “That seems to be the way of it.”
Danger was beautiful. Death could even be beautiful, when looked at through the right lense. My mate (I was still getting used to that word) looked very serious today, watching the ships fall into the water with the somberness of watching a burial.
“My cave will not wash away,” he intoned, a bit stubbornly.
Alkdama turned from where she stood between us and the rest of her coven, watching from atop a high hill on the northernmost point of the island. “The rise of the tide will be permanent, though. The cave will be flooded and impossible for any living creature to access.”
Something in Canavar loosened at that, and I grabbed his hand and squeezed. I shot a thankful look to Alkdama, who only gave me a thin smile.
The leader of the blood witches still held her cards closely to her chest, but I no longer blamed her. Something awful had happened to most of her coven, and I suspected someone had betrayed her. It would explain why she didn’t fully trust anyone, now.
Not even me.
“There goes the last of it,” Alkdama pointed out.
I turned and we all watched the last ship break apart and tumble down into the water, the rest of it sucked out by a greedy tide. Then all was calm, and the waves settled.
“It is kind of the sea witches to help,” I said, still trying to prove to Alkdama that some people could be trusted.
She sniffed. “Getting the pirates off the island and hiding it under blood magick only serves them. They won’t have to worry about the island anymore or any young witches getting captured and raped.”
I knew she spoke from previous experience, so I didn’t try to argue back. Hopefully, one day her heart would loosen.
“Time to set the wards.”
Nasi and Kaida soared down to the shore, Canavar grabbing my waist and diving after them. I squeaked in surprise, wondering if I’d ever get used to being hauled off into the air like a mouse caught by a falcon.
Somehow, Alkdama had beat all of us. “Nerissa. Come here.”
I came at Alkdama’s beckoning, spotting her down at the other end of the beach, near a copse of rocks. She waved me over, impatient with my slow gait. I paused as I saw the entire blood witch coven present, working on sketching out a large diagram on the sand with sticks and their own fingers.
“You’re setting the signs for the blood wards?” I asked rather dumbly, but Alkdama nodded with patience. If nothing else, she was an excellent teacher.
“The sigil is in the shape of the island, which will take a while to get just right. That is why our most seasoned witches are working on it. The younger ones are threading in the signs for protection and sacrifice. I want you to work with them. They will teach you enough basics. If you master them, you can participate in the ritual with us.”
My heart soared at the thought. Real magick with real witches!
“Yes!” I said eagerly. “Show me please.”
Alkdama guided me to a group of witches, including the young blood witch Alina.
“Hello again,” she offered with a grin.
I blushed, and raised my eyebrows at the others. One by one they all introduced themselves, and we got down to it.
Just about an hour later, I was sweating, my head hurt, and my muscles ached from being in the same bent over and cramped position for hours. I was painstakingly drawing a circle around the other sigils to connect them. It was to be one of thirty three other circles just like it.
“Rest if you need,” Alina cautioned, noting how my hand was shaking. “We are only tracing the outline. During the ritual though, you will not be able to stop. None of us will or we risk killing each other.”
Fun.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the three drakens land nearby and watch us quietly. Drakens had supposedly mastered protection wards, but they had grown up outside of their own culture. It was up to Alkdama to plan the ritual and go through with it.
I was so happy that Canavar felt comfortable enough to spend time around his kin without me. Nasi and Kaida would do wonders to help him assimilate into a normal life.
“There! Done!”
I sat back in relief, tumbling over as my numb legs refused to support me. Alina and the others leaned over to check my work, then frowned.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked. I’d just spent an hour painstakingly marking a circle no bigger than my face in the sand!
“It is not symmetrical,” Alina said matter-of-factly. “Try again.”
I jerked in indignation. “Again? A perfect circle? That’s impossible! You–”
“Were taught how to draw symmetrical shapes from birth. You weren’t. Therefore it is expected that you will take more time to practice.” She shot a wry glance at what I had thought had been a pretty solid attempt.
“We will finish this pattern. Why don’t you go over there and practice symmetry in the blank sand?”
She turned away before I could answer, the other girls rushing to fix my mistake.
My shoulders slumped and I swiped at the stick on the ground, walking over to Canavar. He growled immediately at my distress. I plopped down in the sand next to him.
“This is hard,” I complained. I half-heartedly drew another circle. It was too oval-like. I erased it with my hand and tried again. No, the left side was lopsided.
“Urgh!”
I snapped the stick and buried my face in my hands. It was so stupid, but I wasn’t used to this kind of meticulous work. Killing and sailing? No problem. Something small and delicate that required tedious amounts of patience?
“Maybe I’m not meant to be a blood witch.”
Canavar nuzzled into the side of my neck, throwing both ends of the stick away. “Don’t be foolish. Were you sailing the seas when you were five? Of course not! You had to learn. I did not kill my first man until I was twelve.”
I sighed. “That’s nothing to boast about.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is. Being a … blood witch is important to you?”
I thought about it. “Yes, but it’s also a bit like finding a family. Perhaps I should try earth magick.”
Canavar flashed me a toothy grin. “I understand this feeling as well.” He bent down in the sand, hovering over it with one claw out. With one swipe he drew a perfect circle.
My jaw dropped, and I smacked him on the shoulder. “Are you kidding me? What the hell?”
“Let me try!” Kaida swooped down to join us, Nasi curiously trailing behind her. Giving her brother a coy look, she took one claw and drew another circle next to Canavar’s.
I stared in horror and dismay at the two perfect, identical shapes.
Nasi wiggled forward, and I stopped him with one hand against his chest. “No. Uh-uh. Back away. Let me live in the delusion that it’s simply something they can do because they’re brother and sister.”
Nasi wrinkled his nose in confusion, then ducked under me. He drew a smaller, yet none-the-less perfect circle that interlocked the other two.
I threw my hands in the air and gave a frustrated groan. A sudden revelation occurred to me. “That’s why you drakens were so good at this shit! You can draw perfect shapes instinctively!”
I pointed a finger right in Kaida’s chest.
“No, don’t say a word. Draw a square. Right now.”
She only smirked at me, but complied. Before I looked at the results, I whipped around to Nasi. “Triangle.” I pointed at him, then hesitating at Canavar. “Star.”
The three drakens got to work in the sand, and I felt a bit like a stern schoolmaster standing over them as I waited for them to complete their tasks. As one they all sat up on their knees, grinning like loons.
I took a peek. Just as I suspected.
“ALKDAMA!”
The blood witch appeared from nowhere behind me, looking a bit pissed to be summoned. “What is it? Are you hurt?”
I grabbed her by the arm and gestured wildly with the other to the shapes in the sand. “Look! These motherfuckers draw perfect shapes! That’s why their wards were so good!”
Alkdama stared at the shapes, so silently impressed she didn’t even comment on me manhandling her. Which I appreciated.
A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Well then, we must adjust our preparations.” She crooked a finger at the drakens. “Come.”
They all left, leaving me standing there like a simpleton. I rolled my eyes. “Guess I’ll go find some food,” I muttered to no one, but secretly thrilled for the drakens. I’d find my own strengths in no time. I had to be patient. Canavar was right; I hadn’t learned to sail or fight in a single day.
Strangely, I was looking forward to it.
All my life, I’d thought I was seeking glory, and to prove my worthiness to my father. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if the entire time, it hadn’t just been a need to be accepted and loved.
Canavar accepted and loved every inch of me.
In some ways, I still felt like the little girl who just wanted her daddy to love her. I’d been through enough now to understand that sometimes what we wanted wasn’t always possible. My father had been incapable of loving a little girl.
Yet the supposed monster had done it immediately and without question.
My monster.
Speaking of, we needed to be alone tonight. Or did we? Thinking of how we’d essentially had partner sex with his sister and her was getting me hot and bothered again, and in the best way.
I sighed, and started gathering kindling for a fire.
Twenty-Eight
CANAVAR
I was good at something that wasn’t killing.
It meant more to me than I realized it would. Kaida and Nasi seemed to take it in stride, though they were smiling as well. I couldn’t stop. The muscles in my cheeks hurt.
I had a beautiful, strong mate, and together we would build a home here. And I was good at something that wasn’t killing.
Alkdama went on and on about how my people—the drakens—had been masters at wards, likely because of our ability to draw perfect shapes. I believed her, I supposed, though Kaida and Nasi looked just as dumbfounded as me.
She quickly put us to work as blood witches surrounded us, pointing to draw a sigil here, make a connecting circle there, and soon a large, complicated design lay out before us in the sand.
Alkdama stood back and sighed with all of us, a proud look on her face. “Well, that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would.” She glanced at us. “Thank you. Be sure to sleep tonight. We will do the ritual at dawn.”
Alkdama then proceeded to threaten every blood witch within an inch of their life if they so much as looked at the drawn sigils in the sand, let alone accidentally marred it before it was time to do the ritual. I grinned. She was a fierce warrior in her own way.
I thought of perhaps going back to the pile of logs I had started further inland, and working more on the house for Nerissa and I. It didn’t quite feel right to build something on the ground, but perhaps that was just my years in the cave talking.
Kaida plopped down next to me, an intent expression on her face.
“You are staying on the island with Nerissa, right?”
I nodded. That was what we were all doing, wasn’t it? My expression must have given my thoughts away, because she laughed. “Oh don’t worry, we will live here also. It’s just … don’t you wonder if there are more of us out there?”
