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CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

“ P ush them to the east!” Mavus bellowed, standing up on a rooftop above the oceanside fence.

I gazed beyond the jagged metal barrier to where Wandershire was being forced to a halt in the water by a pod of ferocious beserker sharks. They were as black as death, their razor sharp tails whipping out of the water and cutting into the metal oars of Wandershire.

I glanced anxiously back at the clifftop I’d descended from, seeking Harlon there but finding a more menacing figure walking to its edge.

“Harl, where are you?” I exhaled, my chest tightening as I whipped my gaze up to Mavus. “We have to move! The Fury is coming.”

He was far away. Surely too far to capture me with his power, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t find a way to follow me out here if we didn’t get moving soon.

“Working on it, lass,” Mavus crowed back then barked more orders at his cohort of elementals as they fought to steer the sharks aside or blast them out of the water entirely.

I hated to abandon Harlon, every part of my being fighting against the decision. But if I tried to go back to him, Kaiser would only seize me and render me useless. He had to be okay, he just had to be.

“We need to hurry, Mavus!” I cried, climbing onto the fence and pushing my hand through a gap to angle it toward the sharks.

The pointed fin of a beserker shark cut through the dark sea below me, making a direct path for one of the giant metal oars of Wandershire.

I sent a torrent of water at it, blasting it off course.

The shark shot back beneath the waves, veering away from the floating town just as a cry of victory went up around me.

“They’re giving up!” someone called and Mavus sang his praises to his crew, descending the wooden ladder he’d cast to reach the rooftop and stepping down onto the street behind me.

Wandershire began to cut smoothly through the waves once more and relief spilled through me.

I leapt off of the fence and staggered a step at the feel of a hot, potent power pouring through my blood.

Dread cut into my heart as I looked back over my shoulder at Kaiser Brimtheon standing tall up on the edge of the cliff, gazing down at Wandershire as if it were a mere fish about to be caught in his net.

Though I couldn’t see his features from this far away, I felt those eyes on me like they were directed upon my soul. I’d hoped I was too far away for him to snare me, but I had been so very wrong.

I tried to fight it, but his possession devoured me, sinking deep into my bones and taking control of me down to my roots.

My legs moved before I could stop them and I was forced to turn away from Mavus and stride back to the fence, my hands gripping the wire as I began to climb it.

Fear consumed me as I stared down into those shark-infested waters, wondering if Kaiser was truly going to send me leaping into them.

“Mavus - the Fury has hold of me!” I screamed and I heard him take chase.

“That’s my smith, Flamebringer,” Mavus snarled, catching hold of my arm and yanking me clean off of the fence so I was hugged against his chest.

My hand flew to my dagger, willed there by Kaiser’s power and adrenaline surged through my blood.

“Mavus – watch out!” I yelled as I was forced to slip it from its sheath and drive it behind me in a vicious stab.

Mavus caught my wrist, jerking aside to miss the strike of the blade at the last second.

I felt Kaiser’s eyes still boring into me from the clifftop and with a flash of power, he made me thrash and fight. My own magic rose in my veins, his wicked possession trying to make me cast against Mavus.

“Tie me up,” I demanded in an angry growl. “Don’t let him take me. Do whatever you need to keep me from him.”

“Fine by me, lass.” Mavus shoved me against a storefront, bending my left arm behind my back, but my right was still free and ice blasted from my palm.

A window smashed and someone screamed in fright inside the store. Mavus dragged me away from the destruction, vines snaring me and forcing my right arm behind my back too. Ice shards exploded from my fingertips again and Mavus cursed.

“That fucker will pay for this,” he spat. “Sorry about this, lass.” He kicked out my knees so I hit the ground, his weight falling over me and his hand fisting in my hair before he cracked my head against the cobbles.

I sucked in air from the pain, dizzy from the impact but the tactic worked to subdue me and keep Kaiser from making me cast again.

My muscles bunched as the Fury’s control still made me fight, but Mavus had the upper hand now, his earth magic forging metal gauntlets over my hands to stifle my magic.

He lifted me into his arms, his green eyes pinned on Kaiser up on the clifftop while I continued to thrash. “You’ll have to pry her from my cold dead hands if you want her, Fury.” He raised his chin, then bellowed to his crew, “Increase speed! Head for the open ocean!”

He turned and marched away toward the clocktower where his bureau was located, kicking the door wide and thrusting it shut again as he stepped inside.

Kaiser’s possession made me buck and kick, but Mavus had a tight hold of me and he clearly had no intention of letting go.

Mavus didn’t head up the stairs as usual, but instead took a passage beneath them that led down narrow wooden steps into a cabin below the streets of Wandershire.

It felt more like a ship in this room with barrels of supplies secured on either side of the space and a few hammocks swinging from the rafters.

“I got you, lass,” Mavus said, holding me tight. “We’re moving away from him. Just hold on.”

I thrashed harder, Kaiser turning me into some feral creature who tried to bite Mavus, but at last, I felt his power weakening.

Slowly, as Wandershire sailed away across the sea, the Fury’s power ebbed from my body and left me panting in the trader’s arms. It seemed I was beyond the reaches of his power now, and that gave me a cautious hope.

As I’d guessed, the soul-tie wouldn’t allow for his possession to cross oceans.

I still had to deal with the Nightfire when it demanded I go to him, but I’d cross that bridge when I was forced to walk it.

For now at least, I was sailing away from my enemy with a chance at freedom.

Perhaps Mavus knew a thing or two that might help me break the magic linking me to that accursed Fury, if only I could tell him about it.

“There now,” Mavus said soothingly. “Has it gone?”

“I think so,” I panted.

Mavus placed me on one of the barrels, touching the welt near my temple where he’d knocked me against the pavement.

“I’ll get ya a salve for that.” He jerked his chin at the wound. “In the meantime, I’ll keep ya tied up down here until we’re well out of the waters of Never Keep, what say you to that, friend?”

I raised my eyes at that word, finding his bright green eyes gleaming at me in concern.

I nodded, muted by the warmth spreading through my chest at all he’d done for me. Perhaps he really did see me as a friend.

I noticed my pack was now hanging from his shoulder. He must have taken it from me somewhere during the chaos.

He smiled widely and swung the bag forward, resting it on my knees and opening it up to peek inside. “I suppose me wares are in here, hm?”

“They’re all in sheaths. Take them if you want.”

He did, rifling through my pack until he had this month’s supply in hand, all the blades Ransom had stolen from me. Mavus tossed my pack beside me on the barrels, and with a flick of his fingers, more vines snaked around my legs and tethered me in place.

“Well, that’s your final payment then. Unless you’ll be wanting to renew the contract? Make it a year this time? Or two?”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “But I’ll probably be too busy going to war and becoming a legend to be making you weapons every month.”

“Fair enough, lass. But if the whole ‘becoming a legend’ business doesn’t work out for ya, you’ve always got a backup plan.”

“It will work out. I’m born for greatness.” I raised my chin. “The rest of the world just hasn’t realised it yet.”

“Alright then, doll. I hear ya. Greatness it is. Tea?” he asked brightly, adjusting the pile of weapons in his arms. “Mrs Fig makes a grand ol’ tea. It’s as sweet as a rose-watered cunt and as tart as a whore’s tit.”

“Sounds delicious,” I said dryly. “But I’m not sure I can drink tea right now.”

“And why’s that, lass?”

“My friend was back there on that cliff,” I said thickly. “I don’t know if…”

I couldn’t make myself finish that sentence, refusing the possibility of his death.

“Ah,” Mavus said. “Well then that’s more of a reason for tea than ever, I say. Ain’t nothin’ a good cup o’ tea can’t soothe.”

He headed back up the stairs with my newly forged blades, whistling an eerie tune that set the hairs raising on the back of my neck.

My mind remained on Harlon, worry seeping through me. He had to be alive. I couldn’t have lost him. If he’d died for me, I’d never forgive myself. I’d never recover.

The room swayed with the movement of Wandershire across the water, but it was unlike a ship.

It moved in every direction, always coming back to centre as the sea-faring elementals worked to keep it level upon the waves.

There was a repetitive, churning slosh of water around me and the persistent hum of magic in the walls.

Wandershire felt alive with it, like a soul bound to haunt every corner of The Waning Lands.

I could only imagine the places this town had visited, the storms it had weathered and the beasts it had survived.