His eyes widened. “She didn’t see you?”
“No. I…I hid and she walked right past.”
He sighed, glancing up quickly toward the sky, half expecting to see Forcina hovering there. “Did you find out anything about the Temple?”
“Yes. I think I can get us there.”
He laughed, bringing a hand down over his face in disbelief, shaking his head. “Skies, you actually did it? You found it.”
“Don’t look so happy about it. I’m not entirely sure I can actually get us there. We need to go east to the Estdar sea.” She looked at the disarray of the ship around them. “Can we even sail?”
“We can, but not at our normal speed. The foremast is resting on the ocean floor and we had to replace some of the sails with the ones you helped mend last week. They will do, but without the foremast, we aren’t going to make much distance. We’ll be lucky to go five knots in a day. We could probably go up to ten knots, but only if the winds are good, and right now, they are almost non-existent.”
Kamira anxiously looked back at the shore. “When can we leave?”
Doraan placed a hand on her shoulder and she turned back to face him. “Forcina won’t come back to the ship for a while. She thinks you are on land now. And if she does come back, I won’t let anything happen to you, understand?” He meant it. He would make Forcina kill him before letting any harm come to Kamira.
She smiled weakly. “We should leave as soon as possible anyway. Just in case.”
“I can’t believe you actually found out the location. How did you do it?”
She smirked at him. “Honestly, it was all luck.”
26
Doraan
Theyhadactuallymadeit. After four days of sailing with patched sails and no foremast—a trek that should have taken no more than two days tops—they were finally in the Estdar sea, thirty nautical miles from the closest stretch of land.
Kamira had been at the bow of the ship all morning, barely moving, sitting upon the Grim Reaper's shoulder, arm wrapped around its neck. Its skeletal outstretched hand had been snapped off during Forcina’s attack. Doraan wished the entire thing had fallen off. He knew Forcina had chosen this particular ship as his prison just for the irony alone. He was dead to the world, dead to his people, and the ghostly grim reaper had taken him and all the other cursed souls on this ship. They were wandering souls, stolen from life too soon. An intense anger suddenly washed over him, his mood changing into something foul as he looked out at the endless expanse of water before them.
Doraan stomped his way to the bow of the ship, grabbing a piece of rigging and leaning out over the side to look Kamira in the face. “There’s nothing here,” he seethed. “I swear to the sky and sea, if the Brothers lied…”
“Doraan.” Kamira suddenly gasped, bringing a hand over her mouth as she pointed out at the sprawling sea in front of them.
Doraan pushed himself back onto the solid boards of the ship and looked out toward where she was pointing, the breath instantly leaving his lungs. In front of them was something out of a story book—it was as if a heavy fog had been lifted from his eyes to reveal a massive gate of shimmering marble where, only moments ago, there had been nothing but water. He looked from side to side, marveling at the sight. The same white stone extended farther than his eyes could see on either side. The wall was colossal. How was something this immense hidden out in the ocean?
To his surprise, the doors of the gate began to open with a booming echo that reverberated around them as the solid stone moved on invisible hinges. Doraan was about to yell out for his crew to hold tight as a tidal wave soared toward them due to the doors' displacement of water, but to his astonishment, the wave parted, moving around them to crash far behind the ship.
As Cormac sailed the ship into the Temple, Doraan caught a glimpse of Kamira beside him grinning from ear to ear, which made him frown before he caught sight of what had her so entranced. A city so vibrant he had to throw a hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from its brightness, sprawled out before them.
The Temple was made of the same shimmering marble stone that glowed with an otherworldly light. The air hummed with an electric energy, the sea swirling around the base of the Temple as if drawn to its power. Doraan felt a shiver run down his spine as he realized the magnitude of the sorcery that must be contained within this place. Something foreign began to buzz beneath his skin as they sailed closer—a tingling spark that began in the center of his chest, spider webbing out into each corner of his being. A new and sudden sensation that felt as if he had just awoken from a long sleep.
He shook it off, ignoring the strange feeling, and surveyed his surroundings further, gawking at its immense structure. It was not an island with sandy beaches lining its borders, but instead, an entirely man—or ratherSorcerer—made-structure of checkered obsidian and white marble blocks floating like weightless logs upon the sea. Marble and glass buildings were scattered throughout the vast city, with turrets that shot up into the sky higher than he could see. Fields of flowing grass and towers of black obsidian with flames flickering from their peaks were evenly dispersed throughout.
How many Sorcerers lived in a place like this? Doraan had expected a few dozen, maybe even a hundred, to be alive, hidden within these walls, but what he saw before him was thousands.
A lump formed in his throat that he couldn’t swallow down.
For the first time he realized that Kamira had spoken the truth—no matter how long and how ferociously they hunted down these Sorcerers, they could never truly be defeated. He had been a fool. His father was a fool. No matter how much they tracked down and strung up in their city, the Sorcerers would always be stronger and more cunning. There was a reason they ruled this realm for so long before his father gained control.
Doraan shuttered as he watched Sorcerers of every element wielding their power so expertly before him. This place was like a training ground for every elemental Sorcerer there was. It was as if he had stumbled into another world—one ruled by sorcery. Just a week ago, he had been so sure of his victory, so sure he could take over his father’s rule and enact the genocide of the Sorcerers, eradicating them from Emmoria completely—something that his father never could accomplish—but seeing this, he understood how futile his efforts would be. The Sorcerers were too powerful, too many, and too well-trained. What the Ungifted had was brute strength and ferocity, but it wouldn’t be enough for what he was seeing here. This place was a force that Emmoria was not prepared for—a force they could not survive. His father had been lucky all those years ago. His entire success was based on the element of surprise. He doubted the Sorcerers would be so easily tricked again.
Cormac brought theCursed Soulalong one of the many docks lining the perimeter of the city. The crew were all frozen in silence and wonder, leaning over the portside railing, staring open-mouthed at the immensity of this place, the impossibility of it. Doraan was prepared to yell out a command for them to throw the mooring lines when he realized that the ship had stopped on its own, now gently floating beside the dock. He looked up to see four men and women in different colored clothing. The one in dark blue was concentrating, his hands held out before him. The reason they didn’t need their mooring lines, Doraan assessed. He was a water Sorcerer.
A middle-aged blonde woman dressed in burgundy stood next to him, one arm crossed over her chest, the other held out, a flame dancing in her palm. On her other side was a very tall woman with black hair slicked up into a perfectly coiled bun, not one hair out of place, her golden cape billowing behind her as if a constant breeze surrounded her. The fourth was a man as tall as the dark-haired woman next to him, clothed in a rich brown, a crooked smile on his face, but no show of his ability, which had to be earth. He just stared with an arched brow, as if interested in how this ship of the Ungifted came to be upon their shores.
“What’s your business here?” the air Sorceress whispered. Her voice carried upon the wind, brushing by each of their ears . Doraan shivered, several of the crew jumping beside him, startled.
