The floor underneath her was cold and hard. Damp. Saliva had pooled around her cheek—she must’ve been snoring.
Forcing herself to crack open her eyes, Eira blinked into the dimness of a cargo hold. Light stood in narrow columns in the center of the space, streaming through holes poked in a grate of the deck above.
Eira pushed off the wooden floor, rubbing her eyes. She felt as if she hadn’t been knocked out merely by magic, but by potions and a hard hit to the head as well. It wasn’t far-fetchedto think Adela would ensure through multiple ways that she was good and unconscious and would stay that way for some time.
A clanking around her wrist distracted her. Eira looked down, blinking at the flat, iron shackle held in place by a small padlock. A design had been pressed into its surface. But it was difficult to make out the glyphs in the low light. She held up her wrist, squinting.
“Oh good, she’s awake,” Noelle’s voice cut through her focus. The oddity around her wrist was no longer even remotely important.
“Noelle,” Eira breathed, turning. “Alyss!” She lunged forward. Both her friends were right next to her and Eira’s arms flung around both their shoulders, pulling them in tightly. As quickly as she grasped them, she pushed them away, assessing them both from head to toe. It was impossible to stand, the cargo hold was too small, but they seemed as if they were well and in one piece. “You’re both alive.”
“Judging from your reaction, you have a better idea than we do as to what in the Mother’s name happened.” Noelle’s tone was a bit curt, but any annoyance she felt at their circumstances seemed to be lost to a similar relief Eira was feeling.
“I…yes.” Eira explored the small hold with her eyes. Cullen was to the right of Noelle—he still had yet to rouse. Eira shifted to sit closer to him, running her hand down his cheek to rest lightly on his neck. His breathing and heartbeat were steady and strong. The wounds on his body looked equally mended.Thank the Mother… No matter what they were, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him just yet. And she certainly didn’t want him to die for her.
Varren and Lavette were stirring on the other side of Alyss and Noelle. They were still filthy from the Pillars’ attack on the coliseum. But, true to Adela’s word, all of Eira’s friends were still in one piece.
“Tell me as far as you remember.” That’d give Eira a starting place to fill them in.
“It’s not much,” Noelle said. “We had just made it on the boat. You went to Ducot…then it all went dark.”
“I think I heard a noise behind me?” Alyss pursed her lips, clearly frustrated with herself that the memories weren’t clearer. “I can’t—” She made a noise of disgust. “—I can’t remember anything after that. I assume we got on the wrong boat and the owner attacked us?”
“Not quite…” Eira rubbed the back of her neck, trying to figure out what to tell them, and how. They’d find out everything eventually anyway.
“That doesn’t explainthese, either.” Noelle lifted her wrist. Locked around it was the same odd shackle Eira had.
“I have one too.” Alyss held out her fist as well.
Was it some kind of pirate branding?Eira kept the thought to herself for the time being. She had to unravel their situation calmly to avoid panic.
“Where’s Ducot?” Noelle asked. After Eira’s conversation with Ducot, and all she’d seen at the tournament, she was very aware of where Noelle’s worries for the morphi man stemmed from.
“He’s…fine.” Eira hesitated.
“Why isn’t he here? What happened?” Noelle grabbed her hand.
Eira had no hesitation about telling them the truth, but she wasn’t sure where to start. Just when she thought she’d landed on a good collection of words, Lavette and Varren sat up.
“My head is throbbing.” Varren rubbed his temples. “I think I have a lump.”
“You hit the deck hard,” Lavette said grimly.
“You saw what happened?” Alyss asked.
Lavette shook her head. “I only caught a glimpse of movement, Lightspinning perhaps…” She looked down at her own wrist. Sure enough, the many stacked bracelets of runes that those from Qwint used to summon their magic were gone. In their place was an iron shackle identical to Eira’s and Noelle’s. Lavette’s tone turned bitter. “Well, this is simplymarvelous.”
“They have me.” Varren was hunched over, staring at his wrist. His rusty hair fell into his face, hiding the majority of his expression. But Eira could still see his mouth twisting in horror. He drew his hands to his chest, one holding the iron shackle wrapped around the other, and began to rock slightly. “They have me. They found me. They’re taking me back. They?—”
“Varren—Varren, look at me.” Lavette dipped her head and tilted up her face, forcing him to meet her eyes. “What do you see?”
“You. Wood. A ship that’s going to take me back?—”
“What do you hear?” Lavette interrupted him right as his breathing quickened.
“You. The creaking of the ship that’s?—”
“What do you smell?” she interrupted faster this time.
