“You intrigue me, Champion. Come aboard, if you dare.”
Vi released the woman’s face and her glyph vanished. The pirate collapsed at her feet, gasping for air and scrambling away. Vi looked down at her, magic surging from a font that would never run dry. It filled her to the point of being overwhelming.
“Take me to Adela, and you may live.”
Chapter Twenty
A surreal senseof familiarity crept up on Vi as she stepped foot on theStormfrostfor a second time that felt like the hundredth. Much like the first time in her own world, the crew had gathered on the main deck. Adela was among them, identical to how Vi had first seen her, down to her icy cane.
Vi stood, motionless. The crew around her rigidly maintained their positions. They were the string of an invisible bow that Adela held in her frigid grip. One word, and they would lunge to strike clean through her heart.
Adela, for her part, wore a slightly amused smile. She stared at Vi and Vi at her. They waited each other out in the stillness, waited to see who gave first.
Vi knew it wouldn’t be her. Time was one of the many things she had on her side. Time had made herverypatient.
“You claim to be the one who broke my magic in Oparium.” Adela’s tone and look told Vi that she sincerely doubted that fact. “I thought the claim insanity. Perhaps just as much as your claim of being Yargen’s Champion returned. Or maybe the real insanity is you willingly coming to theStormfrostlike a sheep to slaughter.”
Adela smirked and the flash of blades being drawn caught Vi’s eye. The crew looked at her like a prime cut of meat.
“I did not come here for slaughter,” Vi said calmly. “I came to strike a deal with you.”
“Yes, so you claim. Get to the striking, girl.”
Vi was discovering one of the greatest annoyances of her current state was perpetually looking like she was eighteen. “Not among your crew.”
“Any deal you strike with me can be done here and now,” Adela insisted. Vi slowly shook her head. “Then I will let them kill you.”
“It’d be a shame for me to raze everything you’ve built and kill every man and woman on this ship simply because you are stubborn.”
“You think you can kill us?” a pirate broke rank and shouted.
“Do you doubt me?” Vi looked to the man and watched as he took a step backward. She turned her eyes back to Adela. “I will not speak among the rabble. This is your last chance. Parlay in private and have everything you desire. Or meet your end. I care not. The vortex continues with or without you.”
Adela narrowed her eyes slightly. “Very well, come to my cabin.”
The crew parted for their captain. Vi could feel their eyes gouging at her throat, making up for what their weapons could not do. But they made no motion against her. As long as Adela tolerated her, so would they.
Adela led her back to an entrance underneath the quarterdeck. It opened into a large cabin with windows lining the stern of the vessel. Ice stretched between beams of wood in place of glass, the world beyond blurred through the frost. A large desk was opposite a bed. Shelves lined the wall to her left, the books and scrolls held in by narrow rails. Two seats were positioned in front of the windows.
“Please, sit.” Adela motioned to one of the leather chairs. “If it’s not too cold for you.” She smiled thinly.
“I’m not one you need to worry about.” Dredging her spark to the surface, the air around Vi crackled, shimmering with heat. As she sat down, the thin layer of frost covering the leather evaporated into steam. She could feel Adela’s magic pushing in against hers, trying to cover the chair once more. But Vi held the ice at bay with minimal effort, winning their first tug-of-war as Adela sat across form her.
“You’re human, a Lightspinner, and you also know the elemental magics of the Dark Isle.” Adela tapped her cane, punctuating each item. “You’re like me.”
“In some ways,” Vi admitted. “I will not stop until I get what I want. I am not afraid to be ruthless. And I did grow up once, long ago, on the Dark Isle, just as you did.”
“Is there elfin in your parentage as well?” Vi shook her head. “Pity, you’ll be dead soon enough, then.”
“I am timeless.”
“Yes, this Champion business.” Adela lifted her icy hand off her cane, waving it through the air as though the notion was nothing more than a fleeting thought. “Tell me what it is you want. And why I should let you leave my ship alive.”
“What do you know of the crystal weapons of Yargen?” Vi asked, ignoring the opportunity to reiterate that there were only two options: Adela working with her, or everyone dying.
“Crystal weapons? Very little.”
“I suspected as much, or you would’ve never left the crown of Solaris unprotected.”
