The Midnight Sea (The Fourth Element #1) (22 page)

I heard distant screams, followed by sudden silence. Shock echoed through both bonds. The nexus vanished, popping like a soap bubble, and I was back in the courtyard again, a dead man lying at my feet.

“Gods, what did you do?” Victor said softly.

“I…” My left temple began to throb. “I don’t know.” He and Darius were both staring at me like they’d never seen me before. Tijah frowned in confusion, but Myrri studied me with a wary, considering sort of look. Like I was a dog that had seemed tame but turned out to be three-quarters wolf.

Then, in three long strides, Darius was at my side. He gently touched my chin and his fingers came away red.

“Your nose is bleeding,” he said. “You worked water. I felt it. Are you all right?”

“I think so, yes.” I swiped a sleeve across my face. I hadn’t even noticed.

“You linked the three of us together. Holy Father, the surge…we should all be dead.”

Darius glanced around the courtyard. The Immortals were down, their swords scattered where they had fallen in that instant of pure destruction. A few still stirred weakly, including Lieutenant Kamdin, but I found I didn’t want to finish them. I couldn’t stomach any more violence today.

“Leave them,” I told Victor when he raised his sword.

He arched an eyebrow. “You command me, girl?”

I felt his irritation. Holy Father, two of them in my head now…

“Only in this,” I said firmly. “Ilyas is dead. The others were acting on his orders. And you’ll need them later. Let these men carry the tale of your mercy back to Persepolae. It will help to win their hearts.”

Victor frowned, but he saw the logic in my words and lowered his blade. “What you did just now…There is only one other human I have ever known who could touch the power.”

“Did he wear the cuff?” I asked, intrigued.

Victor slowly shook his head. “No. He’s the one who made them.”

“The
Amestris
!” Kayan Zaaykar pointed to the harbor. Her square sails were clearly visible now, driven before a stiff wind that brought her swiftly toward shore.

“We will speak more about this later,” Victor said, pinning me with his predatory black eyes and stalking over to the smuggler. I stood there, wondering if I had really just heard him say the Prophet Zarathustra could wield the power, as Darius swept Myrri off her feet in a one-armed bear hug. She grinned ear to ear.

Then Tijah was at my side, a pained expression on her face. “I’m sorry I didn’t kill Ilyas more quickly,” she said. “He watched me like a hawk. He never trusted me.”

“Better late than never.” I squeezed her hand. “It’s not your fault. I never blamed you for anything.”

“I’m so sorry,” she began, her gaze straying to my pinned sleeve.

“No need.” I kissed her cheek and walked over to Darius. There was one last thing I had to do.

“Give me your sword,” I told him.

He studied my face for a long moment, then wordlessly handed it over. I went to Ilyas’s body. He lay on his back, eyes open and staring into the sun. I tested the edge of the blade against his copper hair. Razor-sharp. The Immortals kept their weapons in good order. I positioned the tip where I wanted it to land. Then I raised it high and brought it down with all my strength, cleaving Ilyas’s hand from his wrist in three strokes. I removed the cuff, feeling its cool weight in my palm.

There was nothing there. No presence. No ghost. But I would still make certain that Tommas rested in peace.

We found the Immortals’ mounts tethered a short distance away and galloped through deserted streets down to the harbor. The residents of the town had shuttered themselves in their beehive-shaped homes. They must have seen the battle raging at the manor house on the hill. I felt hidden eyes on us as we passed, but no one seemed to feel the desire to inquire into our business.

As promised, Kayan Zaaykar had a longboat waiting to row us out. My spirits lifted as we pushed away from shore, although my stomach was less certain. I had never been on the sea before. My only experience with boats was the rafts supported by inflatable bladders that the Four-Legs Clan used to cross rivers during their trek, and those had a tendency to tip if someone scratched their nose.

“Gods, don’t tell me you suffer from seasickness,” Victor growled. “That’s all I need.”

I kept my eyes fixed on the horizon. Wide and blue and undulating like a serpent. I’d heard there were monsters in the Midnight Sea. Things that could swallow a warship in one bite. But the lands of the empire lay behind us, and I wouldn’t look back.

I gave Victor my brightest smile, despite the queasiness in my guts.

“How do you feel about figs?” I asked.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

T
he captain of the
Amestris
was surprised to find his employer presiding over the longboat with torn robes and a goose egg on his eye, but he immediately grasped the need for haste and a minute after we were hoisted aboard, he was shouting at his men to steer the ship out to sea again.

She had two masts, with one large sail and one smaller sail, as well as banks of oars.

“My cabin is yours,” he told Kayan Zaaykar with a bow.

“You are most kind,” Kayan Zaaykar replied solemnly. “I hope you still keep a cask of that strong Attican wine handy? I could use a cup or two.”

The captain grinned. He wore his dark hair at shoulder length, and his skin looked like old leather, with deep creases around the eyes that signaled an amiable disposition. “Always, my lord,” he said.

They went off together, and two sailors showed the rest of us to cramped quarters below decks. I curled up in a bunk and stayed there for the next three days, reluctant to move even my head. Tijah visited each morning and evening to bring me water and change my revolting bucket. She reported that Darius and Victor were in the same condition, and blamed me for it.

When I dreamed, it was always of fire. Sometimes a blazing inferno, other times a single flame wavering in the dark. I felt an irresistible urge to reach for it, to seize that wild energy and let it flow through me. I knew I couldn’t, that it would burn me alive. But the urge would grow until I could no longer stop myself. And then the fire would fill me, and I would hear screaming. I would look at my hands—for in the dream, I still had both—and I would expect to see them charred, but they would appear fine. The screaming came from Victor and Darius, their bodies blackened, smoking ruins…

It made me terrified of fire. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to be found on a wooden ship. But the superstitious part of me wondered if the dream was not a foretelling of events to come. I knew I had to learn to control what I had done, lest I accidentally repeat it. But I had no guide. No one who understood how it worked for a human.

Eventually, I grew accustomed to the constant rocking of the ship and ventured up on deck for some fresh air. The sun polished the water like a silver coin. I made my way to the rail, through a baffling web of ropes, and watched our wake trailing in the distance. The shore was a dark line to the left.

“Feeling better?” Tijah stood at my elbow, looking fresh as a lotus blossom.

“A bit.” I smiled ruefully. “I no longer wish to die at least.”

She laughed. “I never thought there could be so much water in one place.” Her eyes grew pensive. “The world is wide, Nazafareen. Wider than I ever imagined.”

I rested my head on her shoulder. “And I hope you get to see all of it someday.”

Tijah made a small noise of agreement. Her voice lowered as she said, “What did you do back there? Did you really use the power?”

“I think I must have.”

“That’s not supposed to be possible.”

“I know.”

“Myrri says she’s never seen anything like it. Do you think it’s because you bonded two daēvas? Or maybe because they are father and son?”

I shrugged. “Tijah, I honestly don’t know. It just kind of happened.” Which was partly true.

She sighed. “So Victor…what’s he like?”

“Pigheaded. Prideful. Very strong. A little scary.”

“A mirror image of his son, in other words?”

I laughed. “In many ways, yes. Not in others.”

She was silent for a moment. “About Ilyas…”

“You killed him in the end. That’s what matters.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “After you were arrested, he had me locked in my chambers. He knew how close we were.”

“I thought that maybe he had discovered your secret,” I said, glancing at the sailors bustling around on deck. None were close enough to hear us.

She shook her head. “If he had, Ilyas would have handed me over to my father without hesitation.”

I knew she was right. He always did what he thought was correct, no matter the consequences. There were no shades of grey in Ilyas’s moral universe. Only sin and virtue.

“I was out of my mind with worry, but Myrri urged me to bide my time. To convince him of my loyalty. She said it was the only way I could help you.”

“It makes sense,” I conceded.

“I had to beg him to come along on the mission to bring you back. He finally relented, but I saw in his eyes that he was still suspicious. I knew I would have only one chance. So I waited until he was distracted. I’m sorry for what he put you through.” Her face hardened. “He will be punished in the afterlife for it.”

I thought of the cuff I had taken, wrapped in a scrap of cloth and stowed beneath my pillow.

“Ilyas was punished in this one too,” I said.

With my own seasickness passed, Darius and Victor also emerged into the light, blinking like deep-sea fish dragged up from the depths. Each occupied a distinct part of my mind. I was starting to feel like conquered territory, like I was being carved into satrapies, each with its own little despot in charge. At least the two of them seemed to have reached a truce. As strange as it was, forcing them to fight each other might have done more to leech the poison from their relationship than anything else would have.

Victor accepted the bond with surprising good grace. He knew I’d had no other choice. He was trapped in the cuff until it was broken, regardless of who wore it. And I was infinitely preferable to Ilyas, or a Numerator, or the guards at Gorgon-e Gaz. I didn’t hold his power in check. It was his for the taking.

Darius was far unhappier about the situation than Victor. He had no wish to share me with anyone, let alone his father. Darius took his revenge in petty ways, like performing the water blessing on deck each morning in full view of the entire crew. He would conclude the ritual by ostentatiously kissing his faravahar, as Victor shook his head in disgust. But Victor never said a word about it again. We were stuck with each other for the present. There was nothing anyone could do about it short of offering to bond Victor themselves, and I wasn’t getting any volunteers.

I’d been waiting for Victor to make good on his promise, so when the two of them corralled me after breakfast the next day, I girded myself for a lengthy interrogation.

“You used the power,” Victor said without preamble. “How?”

“I don’t know. It’s a bit of a blur.” And it was. That whole awful day was a blur.

“Try it again. Now.”

“I haven’t—”

“Just try.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. Tried to seek the nexus, to surrender to it. I could sense twin pools of power shimmering at the edges of my vision, as always, but when I moved toward them, they receded, like the vanishing point of the horizon. Eternally just out of reach.

“I can’t do it with you staring at me like that,” I said, feeling defensive.

“Leave her be,” Darius said quietly.

I cast him a grateful look.

Victor scrubbed a hand against his jaw. “It was Zarathustra’s intention that the cuffs work in this way. I felt the surge. It should have broken all of us. And yet you walked away with a nosebleed, while Darius and I were untouched.”

“Is it true what you said? That the Prophet had this ability too?” I asked, as Darius looked at me in surprise.

“He concealed it from the other magi, but yes. That’s how he made the cuffs in the first place.”

“Those lying, hypocritical —”

“I don’t disagree,” Victor cut in calmly. “The question is what else you can do.” He paused. “Such as break the link.”

“If I understood how to do that, you know I would,” I said wearily. “In a heartbeat.”

Victor stared at the distant shore. “She was supposed to be on this ship with me.” I knew he meant Delilah. The day before, he’d finally taken Darius aside and told him the truth about his mother. “But as long as she wears the cuff, the King owns her, body and soul. Gods, I’m helpless! You can’t know what that feels like.”

Of course, I did. His pain was my own.

“We will return for her,” Darius said grimly. “And when we do, there will be an army at our backs.”

Victor nodded. Then his gaze narrowed. “Sails,” he said, pointing far out to sea. “The triremes of the King’s fleet.”

They ran to alert the captain. Short and wiry, he exuded an air of calm authority.

“Yes, we just spotted them,” he said. He squinted at Victor and Darius. “The
Amestris
has the wide hips of a matron, Father love her, and those triremes are built for speed. She can’t outrun them on her own.”

“Don’t worry,” Darius said. “I’ll get Myrri. We’ll be gone before they even notice us.”

The captain bellowed orders and the crew leapt to work, trimming the sails and doing all sorts of mysterious things with knots and ropes. The three daēvas gathered at the stern and began to breathe deeply. A wind sprung up, whipping spindrift along the surface of the water. The Amestris lurched forward as it filled her sails. I laughed in delight, grabbing the rail as the ship tilted to one side and plowed through the waves, gaining speed with each minute.

Soon the King’s fleet had disappeared from view. I went down to my cabin and retrieved the bundle from under my pillow. When I returned, the daēvas were still there, flushed with power as they carried us away from danger. I stood silently, watching them.

And for one bittersweet moment, I saw a golden-haired boy, legs spread wide on the rolling deck, laughing as he called the wind. Another, slightly older boy stood at his side, copper curls blowing back from his forehead, his grey eyes alight with mischief.

I leaned over the rail and opened my hand. The cuff gleamed as it fell, snarling lions somersaulting end over end. It hit the waves with the tiniest splash. And then it sank, all the way to the bottom of the sea.