Page 14 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)

I wake up gasping for breath.

There’s a ringing in my ears and a blurriness to my vision that only intensifies my immediate need for air. I take it in great big gulps, my body shuddering with the effort. The gasping leads to a fit of spluttering coughs that have me pushing myself up into a forced seated position.

“That’s twice now in the first three weeks! I thought you’d changed your ways since being sworn in, Captain Boreas,” someone scolds from nearby.

I don’t need to rub the blurriness from my eyes to know the voice. It’s one I’ve gotten accustomed to hearing over the years. Specifically while confused and in the thralls of fading agony. “Leech Vitasan,” I croak, my voice raw and ragged.

She ‘tsks’ from somewhere on my right. There’s a nauseating dizziness in my head that has me placing my skull between the safety of my thighs and squeezing my eyes shut tight.

“Lucky to be alive,” Leech Vitasan continues on in her exaggerated reprimanding .

My voice is somewhat muffled from the current position I’m in while grumbling back defensively, “Two weeks, actually.”

There’s a too-long pause followed by a scuffling of feet that makes me think the other leeches have left the sick bay. A hand comes to squeeze my shoulder lightly, hesitantly. “Three weeks,” Leech Vitasan repeats softly.

My head snaps up from between my thighs and I look at her in bewilderment. The older woman’s sun-spot speckled face is clouded with concern while meeting my puzzled stare. “What are you talking about?” I snap, suddenly angry.

The hard-won age lines around her rheumy teal-colored eyes deepen in worry. “You’ve been out for a week, I’m afraid, Captain Boreas,” she explains. The unexpected information startles me into another fit of coughs that leave me lightheaded and breathless.

“Now don’t go undoing all the work I did here—” Vitasan’s wizened hands press lightly against my shoulders, easing me down to the soft cushions below.

“There we go. I’ll let Davina know you’re awake.

You need another night’s rest, a bit of food, and perhaps you’ll be ready to rejoin classes in a day or two. ”

My gaze trails Leech Vitasan’s movements for the next few hours as she moves from one task to the next. Eventually, she slides from the room altogether on the premise of grabbing a plate from dinner. I keep my eyes closed and my breathing rhythmic as she passes by on her way out.

I wait one minute, then two, before cracking open my eyelids and silently shifting upwards. Sliding my legs over the side of the cot in one swift movement, I quickly gather my belongings from the end of the cot and slip out the unwatched door.

My hands slide familiar blades into place along my hips and thighs and I pick up the pace walking down the winding passageways. It would be just my luck for the seasoned leech to forget something and catch me.

A quick peek down the fresh cotton tank I wear reveals thick bandages bound around my chest, they smell of mint and eucalyptus. I wince at the pain that lingers beneath them and keep going .

I finally make it back to our cabin after what feels like hours.

The journey has left me winded and a bit nauseous.

My sigh is long and low when opening the door to find the others have not yet returned from dinner.

And I half-drag myself to the cushioned chairs before the absent fire, stifling a groan while easing into the plush seat.

It’s so comfortable and I’m so relieved that I haven’t a clue when my eyelids began to close.

“ Captain? ”

My eyes snap open at the sound of a soft, inquiring voice. I find a pair of honey-ringed pupils peering down at me in surprise. Shaking my head, I resituate myself, having slid down low in the chair, so that I’m properly seated one more.

“Nimra,” I breathe, rubbing a hand down the side of my face. I can only imagine what I must look like right now.

“The leeches let you go ? We didn’t even know you’d woken up!” she exclaims.

I twist with a grimace at the sting beneath the bandaging around my chest that follows. “Not exactly,” I admit to my seventh through gritted teeth. “More like… I let myself out.”

“Leech Vitasan is going to kill you,” Nimra states, her soft voice unusually stiff.

Glancing upwards, I discover her petite form studying me closely, her doe-like face cautious. “Where is everyone else?” I grunt out, beginning to stand while ignoring her truthful statement.

Nimra takes a step forward to help me but I stop her with a pointed look. “They’re down at the shore, keeping Herse company while she completes her punishment,” she explains.

My eyebrows lift in question and Nimra tilts her head. “How much do you remember?”

Clearing my throat, I begin sorting through the blurry memories. “I was sparring with Herse and then—then she got me. I was cut by an evening star but—hey wait —they’re not—they can’t be punishing her for that!”

I straighten too fast and abruptly hiss in pain. How fast can I make it to Grand Preceptor Skelm's quarters in this state ?

“No.” Nimra gives a slow shake of her chestnut braids. “She isn’t being punished for hitting you during Oplon’s class.”

The vise around my chest eases.

“She's being punished for attacking a captain,” my seventh explains. “Captain Leporem, the girl from the south order. She used her affinity on you while you and Herse were sparring.”

My fingers come to massage either side of my temples while working to remember. Brief flashes dance in my recollection and they all hold that same strange green-hue. There is an image of retreating raven hair that stands out.

“And then what?” I croak in question.

Nimra exhales slowly, deciding best how to answer. “Well,” she begins, her hands coming to hold one another behind her back while switching her balance from heel to toe. “You know Herse—she, uh—went a little psycho after realizing what the southern captain had done.”

I narrow my eyes in signal to continue.

“She tackled Captain Leporem and started swinging on her, pretty hard. Kleio tried pulling her off until she figured out what had happened.” Nimra grimaces tightly.

“Then Leporem’s second came to break it up, her and Kleio started getting into it.

By the time everyone realized how badly you’d been struck… it wasn't good.”

Nimra's constant movement gives away her nerves and intensifies my current nausea.

“Vash and his crew had already left and Oplon was furious. I thought he was going to strangle the southern girls.” Her words begin to tumble more freely.

“I don’t think anyone knew. Oplon said it only caused paralysis but—” Nimra stops, cutting herself off abruptly, looking like she’s said something she shouldn’t have.

“But what?” I push.

One of her hands begins twirling a braid absently.

“But the other southern captain said something was wrong. He said that you shouldn’t be fading the way you were.

Except no one was paying much attention with all the fighting going on.

So Captain Agni took you to the sick bay himself.

" Nimra’s voice drops to a whisper. “I'm pretty sure he sprinted the whole way there. Davina told us later that night that it wasn’t evening star poison in your system. It was ekhinos.”

Ekhinos .

The name echoes around in my head searching for the information I’m certain I have. It’s on the tip of my tongue but for the life of me, I can’t find it. Looking to my seventh, I shake my head in a defeated sort of confusion.

“We call it the serpent's egg where I come from,” she tells me, her face clouding over. “It’s extracted from the spine of a leviathan’s clutch.

They say even breathing in the poison is a death sentence.

We thought for a minute there that you were a goner .

” Nimra’s voice breaks on the last word.

She clears her throat before blinking rapidly and looking to the hearth behind her.

There’s an awkward silence between us. It’s not in my nature to comfort and it’s not in hers to care. Luckily, we’re both spared the uncomfortable moment.

The door to our cabin bursts open, and the room fills with a cacophony of dark grumblings, swearing, and many chiding words. The cacophony of noise abruptly halts one second later.

I turn to face the rest of my crew with a smirk.

“Miss me?”

We stay up much too late and I’m heavily regretting it by the time morning comes. My limbs feel worn out and sluggish while hauling my body through its morning swim. I’m determined to return to my usual routine, but my brain is still foggy from recovery.

Kleio was stunned, then overjoyed, and finally furious by my unexpected return.

She threatened to drag me back to the leeches if I didn’t let her swipe me a plate of dinner from the kitchens.

Herse was relieved, and exhausted, and soaking wet.

Apparently her punishment for the last week has been to swim across the bay and back at night.

Every night.

The rest of my crew filled me in on the gaps where Nimra left off.

And unfortunately, it appears I do indeed owe a life debt to Captain Agni.

The idea is equally repulsive and confusing and I'm determined to avoid that little reality at all costs.

Though some deeply buried, noble part of me nags from the back of my mind that a ‘thank you’ is in order.

Returning to classes is a relief, even though they add to my stress after being out for an entire week. The first trial is now only seven days away, I’ve wasted so much time. I’ve barely done any research into the many, many possibilities of what our first challenge could entail.

In Preceptor Chie’s class, we start a new lecture series about the early rise of the Sol Republic and their ever-growing crusade bleeding into our world today.

We next practice carrying tender’s along the beach and into the tides during water combat training.

Preceptor Darood makes us drag them until we’re all vomiting lunch onto the black sands.