Page 11 of Dark Heart (Elven Kingdoms #2)

11

The floor still rocked, but not as violently. Water didn’t slap against the outside of the ship any longer. Arya opened her eyes and looked around, half-expecting to find Jai . Or Priya . A quick glance confirmed she was alone. She waited for her stomach to heave. When it didn’t, she pushed into a sitting position. She licked her lips and tasted herbs. It had worked to calm her stomach. No longer did the unbearable nausea hamper her.

Things had gotten so bad there had been a moment when she’d begged for death. She thought she’d dreamed Jai holding her head and feeding her the magical herbal water. His voice had been soft, kind. He had held her gently, tenderly. She touched her lips. Had he really been there? Had he helped her? She wished she could’ve looked up at him. Maybe they could have spoken.

“ Arya ?” Reva called.

“ Aye , I’m awake. Why aren’t we moving?”

There was a noise as if Reva stood. “ I don’t know. We stopped not long after Jai came.”

Elation rushed through Arya . He had been there.

“ I have to say, I really don’t see what you see in him,” Reva said.

“ He’s not the same elf I knew.”

She grunted. “ At least, he helped you. He’s had someone checking on you every few hours.”

Really ? Was it because he still cared? All Arya had to do was look around the prison to remind her of where his interests lay. She’d gotten an answer to a question she had pondered. She needed to be alive when they reached their destination.

“ When did Jai come?” Arya asked.

“ After the male dropped off our food last night.”

And she had been out for all of it. It would’ve been a good time to talk to him. Although , if she was well enough to have a conversation, he likely wouldn’t have come. Then something struck her. “ You said a male. It wasn’t Priya ?”

“ Nay . Not last night or this morning.”

Which meant whoever the crewman was had told Jai she was sick. Had it been Priya , she likely would’ve kept it to herself.

As if reading her mind, Reva said, “ Priya really loved to rub your nose in things. I don’t think much would’ve kept her from continuing that. Either she couldn’t come or was told not to anymore.”

“ Her hatred for me runs deep.” Then again, so did Jai’s . “ How long have we been sitting here?”

“ Hours .”

Arya got a bad feeling. She rose and went to look out the porthole. She had hoped she might see something that would give her an idea of where they were, but she knew very little about the Lotus River . The sound of muffled voices reached her. She could’ve sworn one of them sounded like Jai . She quietly opened the porthole, which allowed the voices to become clearer. It was Jai and Priya , and they stood almost directly over her.

“ I don’t like this,” Priya said.

Jai sighed loudly. “ You know how dangerous this area is. I need the entire crew. I had to give you time to recover.”

Arya smiled at the thought of Priya being injured. It was just too bad she hadn’t been the one to deliver the blows.

“ We should raise the sails,” Priya said. “ The faster we get through, the better.”

There was a long pause before Jai replied. “ Normally , I would agree, but this trip has been anything but typical. Two storms before we even reached the midway point. What if another hits while we’re going through the channel? I won’t take that chance.”

“ The slower we go, the more time there is for something to happen.”

“ I’ve made my decision,” Jai stated, the thump of his boots growing distant as he walked away.

Priya’s footsteps went the other way.

Arya closed the window and hurried to the corner to whisper, “ Did you hear that?”

“ Hard not to,” Reva said. “ What are they talking about?”

“ It could be anything. There are a lot of rumors about the river. I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. I’ve never encountered anyone who would even think of sailing these waters.”

Reva laughed wryly. “ Well , you can count yourself as one of them now. Whatever this channel is, it must be treacherous.”

“ That could be said for the entire river.” Arya leaned her head against the wood, searching her mind for any mention of a channel.

“ Here they come,” Reva whispered.

Arya heard the footsteps approaching. It was more than one person. Her door opened, and she found herself looking into Jai’s light gray eyes. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him. His hard gaze was a dose of reality, though. He motioned her forward at the same time she heard Reva’s door being opened.

Unease filled Arya as she made her way to Jai . She got one step past the threshold before he halted her. Arya glanced to the side to find Reva outside her cell with a Dark male before her.

“ I don’t wish to repeat myself, so I’m only going to say this once,” Jai said. “ The moment the anchor lifts and we start moving, there can be no sound. Not a whisper, not a whimper. Nothing . We’re going through the Whispering Channel . The river is narrow, and the cliffs rise on either side. Wraiths live within the cliffs.”

Arya’s stomach dropped to her feet like a rock. She had heard dozens of stories about wraiths, none of them good. “ They aren’t real.”

“ I assure you, they are.” Jai stared at her for a long moment before looking at Reva . “ All it takes is one sound to draw them out. And once you have their attention, they’ll hold the ship, consuming each and every one of us. You need to be absolutely quiet and still. Can you do that?”

Jai looked at her. Arya swallowed and nodded, unable to find her voice. The wraiths were the monsters of her childhood. The stories told by adolescents, each one scarier than the last.

His gaze slid to Reva . The human returned his stare. Jai glanced at the male. “ If you would rather be knocked unconscious, I can make that happen since magic doesn’t work on you.”

Reva looked away. “ Quiet and still. Got it.”

“ And you?”

Arya jerked when she realized Jai was talking to her. She would rather be unconscious while going through a channel that housed the horrors of her childhood, but she wouldn’t leave Reva awake on her own. “ Quiet and still.”

Jai’s eyes narrowed slightly. Arya held his gaze. She wanted to thank him for removing the seasickness but now wasn’t the time. The sound of a door closing jarred her. She glanced to the side, but Reva was back in her chamber. Arya slid her attention to Jai to find an impatient brow raised. She stepped back into her cell, and he swiftly shut and locked the door.

Arya didn’t budge until Jai and the male were gone. Only then did Arya let her shoulders drop. The wraiths were real.

“ Tell me I’m not the only one weighing my choices.” Reva’s voice carried through the wall.

Arya spun around in shock. “ You can’t be serious? The wraiths are ferocious killers.”

“ Let me see,” Reva said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “enslavement, possible torture, and eventual death versus dying now. I don’t think there’s a choice.”

“ You make that decision? You kill everyone on board.”

Reva gasped. “ Seriously ? These elves are slavers. Haven’t you figured that out? That’s what the cargo is. They were too efficient in how they abducted you and rendered your magic unusable. I thought you were smarter than this.”

“ I am,” Arya snapped.

“ Not from where I’m sitting.”

Arya clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut. Then she released her breath and relaxed, raising her lids. “ I suspected the cargo was people. I just… It’s just…”

“ I know,” Reva said softly. “ I don’t pretend to understand what it feels like to know someone you once cared about has become a monster. This isn’t about them. It’s about us. I’ve been down this road before, and I’m not doing it again.”

Arya turned, her gaze snapping to the wall. “ You were once a slave?”

“ Kidnapped , held against my will, and experimented on. I prayed for death every day.”

“ Did they release you?”

Reva snorted a laugh. “ I saw my chance to escape and took it. I plunged a blade into the throat of the woman running the experiments. I killed two more before I got out. I fought for my freedom, but it isn’t something I can endure again. I’d rather die.”

“ You got free once. You could again.”

“ Did you not just hear me? I’m not going through that again. The endless days, the unending pain. Think of the most horrible things that could be done to someone. Then multiply that by a hundred. Nay , Arya . I’ll die today before that happens again.”

Arya sank onto the floor at the finality of Reva’s words. She had no idea what the human had endured. Nor could she imagine it. But the fear that cracked Reva’s voice told her all she needed to hear. She didn’t want to die, but she didn’t want to be a slave or suffer torture, either. Maybe this was the only way out for either of them. “ Okay .”

“ Tell me about the wraiths.”

It sounded as if Reva was right on the other side of the wall, like they were back-to-back. “ They were just stories told to scare us. I don’t know how many of them were true or what others have added. They say the wraiths are dead elves with unfinished business. Others say it’s because they were murdered, betrayed, or any number of other horrible things. Their confusion and anger keep them rooted to Shecrish , forever unable to cross to the other side. The longer they go without resolution, the more they become…something else. One story said the gods kept them locked away in secluded areas—the ones so dangerous no one dared to enter. Another said the wraiths chose such locations because someone would always seek to prove they could come away unscathed.”

“ What do they do?”

“ There are dozens of differing stories. Some say the sight of a wraith can scare someone to death. One mentioned that the wraiths take control of the person and force them to kill others. The one I always hated the most was the one that said the wraiths eat their victims.”

“ Eat ?” Reva asked in shock.

Arya glanced out the window. “ Aye . The one thing all the stories have in common is that the wraiths come out when there’s sound.”

“ Well ,” Reva said after a long pause. “ That matches with what we were just told. Based on how both Jai and Priya looked, I think this is real.”

“ Me , too.”

Silence fell between them. Arya could hear movement above her, but the voices were low and muffled. As if even now, the crew was worried about voices carrying over the water to the channel.

“ Do you really think the wraiths can hold the ship?” Reva asked, breaking the silence.

Arya brought her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “ Maybe . Probably .” Then , “ Yes .”

“ I swore when I escaped my last prison that I wouldn’t die alone. And yet, that’s exactly what is going to happen.”

The sound of chains rattled as the anchor was slowly drawn up.

“ I’m sorry you were caught up in all of this,” Arya told her.

There was no time for Reva to speak as the ship pitched forward with the current. Arya watched the passing scenery through the small window. She was glad she had closed it. Not that she thought it would keep the wraiths out—the barrier would do nothing to keep a wraith from getting to her.

She felt the tension from the crew above. No one made a sound. Not even the rigging banged. Arya imagined that it had been tied down to prevent any noise. There was only the soft creaking of the ship and the water lapping at the hull.

The minutes stretched to the point where she had to close her eyes. Now that the nausea was gone, Arya could turn her senses to the ship. She heard—and felt—the change in the water as the river narrowed into the channel.

Her gaze returned to the window as she thought of all the things she hadn’t told her parents, Dain , and especially Jai . There was no time for that now. She drew in a shaky breath and waited for Reva to wake the wraiths.