And we repeated the exercise, with different runes and a different incantation.
Nothing.
Three times we ran them, and nothing.
I could see the seamages watching us, and I’m sure I heard the whispers. I felt their scorn. I’m not sure if it was imagined or real, but I felt it nonetheless.
Runechaser.
“Tecton Permeatus,”he said. “I have no recourse if this is not the spell.”
He spoke the incantation aloud, shorter and sharper than the previous two. His hands flared, shaped patterns across the ball, and this time, my runescars danced in response. We leaned into the spell, repeating the words over and over in unison, and I had to admit, it was exhilarating to cast magik with this enigmaticRhi’Ahrcaptain. But still, the chimeric did not take and the shot did not crackle, and soon, we stopped to stare at the ball in my hands.
He thought for a long moment and turned away to the gunport. He pressed his palms into the beams, running his fingers along the wooden frames, and I knew he was talking to theTouchstone.For a moment, my heart ached. For her or for him, I didn’t know. Maybe for all of us, in a war that none of us had started.
Unless, of course, he had.
It’s the only way to survive in Thanavar’s game, Smoke had said. But what if I wanted to play?
I looked down at the shot in my hand. It was heavy and rough, a ball of lead crudely fashioned. Still, it could do serious damage, could shatter a spar or a rail with ease. Could cave in a seamage’s head or shatter his ribs or bust a thigh clean in two. Swift and lethal were the long guns, even without chimeric to burn.
Thanavar swung round, his hair falling across his forehead like strands of sea-dark silk. Suns, he made every movement look like theater. His eyes were bright, the gold flecks gleaming.
“Your chimeric is from aRhi’Ahrship,” he said. “And was likely created and laced in Nethersea. I must teach you the spell inRhi’Ahr.Are you willing?”
My heart thudded.
I was going to learn aRhi’Ahrincantfrom aRhi’Ahrcaptainto incite aRhi’Ahrchimeric. I would be a very different mage if I survived this ship.
I raised my chin.
“I am,” I said.
He smiled at that, a big, bright smile that hit me like a broadsword, catching the breath in my throat at the sight.
Suns. Moons. Forge fog a faun.
I hoped he didn’t see me swallow that breath as he stepped back to me and raised his hands over the ball once again.
“Thre’Ahr Nethaliim,”he said. “Say it.”
“Thre’Ahr Nethaliim.”
I had no idea what I was saying, but my hands began to glow.
He spoke the incantation aloud inRhi’Ahr, and my runescars glittered like embers catching a flame, and soon, the ball itself began to gleam.
“Now, you,” he said.
I steadied my nerve and spoke it the way he had taught me, and at the second phrase, the ball began to hiss. Lines danced along the surface almost as if to crack the shell, and light beamed from within, brighter and sharper with every word I spoke.
By the end of it, I was holding a nine-pounder laced with chimeric. Chimeric that had come from me.
“Well done, Ensign,” he said. “You will begin training with Mr. Fahr at first light tomorrow.”
“Aye, sir,” I said.
“And an extra ration for you tonight.”
