Frost creeps up my legs, biting into my marrow. I imagine that without the magic woven into me, I couldn’t survive the pressure between my ears, or the rot that clots my nose…and certainly the cold would’ve killed me by now. This far below the waves there is no light, no warmth, no life.
This is a place only for death.
Yet, we are not alone. I can sense movement in the waters around us. Monsters? Wraiths? Large, or small? One or many? Impossible to tell. I can’t see anything other than a night more intense than I have ever known.
The phantom sensations of Krokan’s tentacles wrapping around me have me fighting a shudder. The monster of my imagining cradles me in one of its suckers before it crushes me, bringing me to its toothed beak for consumption as it did my crew. For a brief second, I feel as if I might never see the light of day again.
“Hold steady, Victoria,” Ilryth says, cutting through the grim thoughts. “Don’t let them take your mind.”
“Them?”
“The dead. They’re here.” The words are as solemn as church bells tolling for a funeral. I feel that cold grip sliding around my neck once more, prompting me to glance over my shoulder. But there’s nothing there. “Steady yourself and guard your mind. Don’t let them drag out your thoughts.”
“I know how to protect my thoughts from others.” The Eversea helped—since I first arrived, I was having to be mindful of what I thought, and how. But well before that, I was practicing.Bury it all, deep down. Don’t let anyone—don’t let him—see what brings you joy or it will be taken and destroyed.
“Good. That skill and more will be needed soon.”
“Soon?” The way he said it has me wondering. There was an ominous tone to the word.
“Now!” Ilryth twists, nearly throwing me. If not for my years clutching the deck railing of ships, I might have been. He thrusts out his spear and lets out a sharp sound, followed by a descending trill of notes.
The light flares, illuminating the unraveling, wispy, and tortured visage of a wraith.
CHAPTER19
It isn’tuntil I’m staring into the eyes of a wraith that I realize I’ve yet to see one in person. The first time I encountered wraiths, they had possessed the bodies of Ilryth’s men. The next time, the wraith caught me from behind.
This is the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on one outright. And it’s exactly how I would’ve imagined. The ghostly man is more condensed fog, or mist, than anything corporeal. He moves as if by dissipating and reappearing—parts never quite catching up and floating through the undersea currents as tiny tendrils outlining where details once were.
In life, the soul belonged to a man with long hair, tied at the neck, and a thinly bearded face. I’m almost reminded of my own father from the hair on his chin. But this man wears clothes that would’ve been considered in fashion almost thirty years ago. I’ve only ever seen my father tie a cravat in that tight-necked, stuffy style…
The thoughts evaporate. The memory of my father tying his cravat. Staring in the mirror. A barely eighteen-year-old me kisses him on his cheek, he smiles, and…nothing. Whatever he was dressing up so formally for, I can’t recall.
The wraith retreats with a scream, summoning me back to the present. He shies away from the light of the spear, expression twisting with utter loathing. All the contempt in the world is on his face. As though it is our fault he is no longer among the living.
Rather than continuing to fight, Ilryth speeds away, deeper still into the rot-filled chasm. He propels us mostly by his tail as his arms are occupied with tapping his spear into his opposite palm. With every beat, light pulses around us, scaring away the monsters that lurk in this sea of death. I’m reminded of the bells we use to keep away the sirens. A similar strumming to disturb the singing enough to allow us passage.
“Victoria, I need you to sing.”
I don’t hesitate or falter. This is like all the times in the amphitheater—like with Yenni. My mouth knows the words of the old ones now like my hands know the ropes of a ship. The best thing to do is not overthink.
My eyes flutter closed for a moment. My grip on him relaxes enough that it’s less viselike and more steady. The first note escapes me, as low as a growl. Ilryth joins in. We find the harmony quickly and it sends a shiver down my spine with just how sweet our two voices sound entangled. Even our bodies are moving now in perfect synchronicity.
Consciousness fades into the rhythm. Into the harmonies. I slip into my memories that begin to flash the moment I look for a word of the old ones to sing. Something for protection, to guard and guide… That will do. I settle on a word and I can feel the pull of the power in the back of my mind. Rising from my toes. Swelling through my body to the point that my bones almost ache.
It demands I give something up to claim this power. A price I am all too happy to pay if it keeps us safe. I’ve begun working from the oldest memories of Charles and am going forward. I pick a memory of a cold night, one where I grew so exhausted from maintaining the bell while we were waiting on a part for the mechanism that I fell asleep on the stairs, unable to make it back to the bed. Charles had been gone, again. And when he returned to find the bell not ringing…
It’s gone.
What was I thinking of?
This word. That’s what I needed. “Solo’ko…” I sing the word of power and Ilryth’s staff shines even brighter.
Singing grows easier as we continue our descent. My mouth opens and closes, miming the act of breathing in, as if I still can, as though there is air and not endless water surrounding me. As if I am singing with my lungs and not with magic etched onto my skin. I feel nothing moving through my body. In fact, I hardly feel my body at all.
As the words and the light of Ilryth’s spear wash over me, they scare away more memories. More flashes of moments in my past that are paid as the cost of our safety—paid to part the seemingly impenetrable gloom. Waves of light from Dawnpoint strike against the darkness and clotted rot, making a hissing sound—like water dropping onto hot iron, instantly bubbling and searing away. It accompanies the sounds of distant screams.
Finally, we begin to slow. My eyes flutter open. I don’t remember closing them. The wraiths seem to have left us, for now.
