Page 8 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

“Tack to port!” Orion calls out, and the crew of our small boat hurries to obey.

The problem is that most of them don’t know what they’re doing. They come from the kind of social classes that have servants to handle the actual sailing, while they stand at the rails, enjoying the view.

In a naval battle, even a mock one, that’s a dangerous encumbrance.

“Let me,” I say, grabbing a rope from a girl named Cara. She’s bright and pretty, with flowing dark hair, and she seems to have some affinity for the wind, making it fill our sails even though we are facing into the breeze. But she clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing with boats.

I tie off the line she’s trying to pull on, hauling on a different one instead, shifting the configuration of sails as we turn under Orion’s command. Of course he’s the one in charge; everyone hangs on his every word anyway, so it makes sense that, for this, he captains our little vessel.

We swoop around the side of one of our fleet of foes and Cara reaches out with her elemental powers to push too much wind into their sails at the wrong angle.

The other boat teeters for a second and then topples, capsizing to dunk its hapless crew into the bay where we’re practicing.

That’s the aim of this exercise: the last one with the crew still out of the water wins.

Our crew consists of me, Orion, Cara, Nissa, and Aria, who is scampering up and down the rigging with the speed of a squirrel, clearly enjoying herself immensely. She whoops as our opponents go over. Nissa winces, clearly hoping that no one is hurt.

My own feelings fall somewhere in between.

I like that we’re doing well, succeeding at the latest challenge.

I like the feeling that we’re learning how to use our control of the elements together.

I don’t like that we’re being pitted against our fellow students and that the only way for us to succeed is for them to fail.

Another boat closes on us, and rather than skim past in an exchange of elemental attacks, this one tries to lock up with us. One of our fellow classmates reaches out, and the ropes of their craft seem to come alive, tying their boat to ours.

They storm aboard, and it’s hand-to-hand fighting for a moment.

I assume they think they can overpower us, since they have five strong young men as their crew.

They clearly haven’t thought it through enough.

Orion steps in, grappling with one of them, then tossing him over the side with ease.

Aria scrambles around, feints high, kicks low, and trips a second, sending him stumbling enough for Nissa to push him overboard.

One of them comes at me. I realize just how much I’ve learned in my time here when I twist aside from his grab, throwing a punch that doubles him over. He swings a blow of his own at me, but I manage to block it. Orion is there then, grabbing him and tossing him over the side.

That leaves two. One is fighting Nissa, the other Cara. Orion lunges for the one attacking Nissa while Aria moves to disentangle the ropes holding our craft to theirs, which leaves me to go help Cara. I rush in, trying to knock her attacker aside.

I’m too slow. He hauls her to the side of the boat, lifting her bodily, then dropping her into the water the way he might have thrown a sack overboard.

Cara lets out a shriek as she hits the cold water, but as far as I can tell, she isn’t injured.

I slam into her attacker from behind, my momentum enough to send him tumbling over the railing after his victim at the same time Nissa and Orion shove the last attacker overboard.

I want to reach down to help Cara back aboard, but I can’t. That’s one of the rules of the game. Once someone is overboard, they’re out of the battle.

We finish freeing ourselves from the other boat, then swing out into the bay again.

By this point, there is only one other boat that still has its crew.

To my annoyance, it’s the boat with Ash and Sybil aboard, along with a couple of others who seem to spend their time hanging around with them.

Ash is in command, and he points to us, the boat surging forward.

We move to meet them, turning in the hope that we’ll be able to cut back and catch them by surprise. It’s harder sailing the boat with four people rather than five, but I’m confident that we can manage it.

“We’ll try to get a good angle to attack them,” Orion says. “Then Sera? Can you manipulate the waves under them?”

I nod, trying to look more confident than I feel. I haven’t seen the seraphin since it turned and fled from me, and without its presence, I don’t have quite the same easy command of the water. But it is still my gift, still the element I have an affinity with. I have to believe that I can do this.

“All right, you’re our main attack. Aria, you keep the boat on course. Nissa and I will try to keep their attacks off us.”

Orion looks determined, and I hope that he’ll be able to do it. I have no doubt that Ash and the others won’t hesitate to lash out with everything they have.

We close in on our opponents’ craft. They turn, and for a moment, I think that they’re planning to ram us. I reach out with my emotions, trying to stay calm, trying to learn the lesson of the seraphin as I connect to the water around me.

I can feel it. I know that the water will do what I want it to do. I know that I’ll be able to summon a wave to swamp their boat, capsizing it and dumping the crew of the small boat into the bay. If Orion and Nissa can keep them off me long enough, we can win this.

Only I realize, as their boat gets closer, that it’s not aiming for us.

It’s aiming for the spot where Cara is treading water, waiting for the conclusion of the battle.

At first, I think it must be a mistake on Ash’s part, but I can see him at the prow of the boat, pointing the way right toward her.

He means to run her down in the water, and if the boat hits her… it could kill her.

I know that he is doing it deliberately to distract us, to force us to focus on saving Cara rather than defending ourselves.

It is a deliberate ploy, and one we should probably ignore if we want to win, but in truth, there’s no decision to make.

I take the energy that I might have used to swamp their boat and turn it into a wave that pushes Cara out of the way instead, sweeping her from the path of the oncoming vessel.

I try to gather the strength for a second piece of water manipulation, but our foes’ boat is already on us.

Ash raises a hand, and the water near the prow of our boat rises up, tilting us backward.

Sybil makes a gesture and fire leaps up from the deck.

Orion manages to squash that manipulation, but it’s another distraction.

Their boat turns, and it slams into ours now.

With the prow raised like that, we have no chance to stop it.

I feel the moment when our boat starts to capsize, tipping slowly, the angle of the deck increasing little by little, forming a slope where it’s impossible to get any grip.

I see the others tumble from the boat, hitting the water one by one.

Aria falls out of the rigging, Nissa slides down the deck.

Even Orion loses his footing, hitting the water with a splash.

I can’t hold on any longer. I tumble from the deck, plunging into the cold waters of the bay, anger hitting me even as the water does. I swim to the surface and see Ash and the others celebrating on their boat, a triumphant look on his face as he glares my way.

It takes an effort to right the boat, collect everyone, and head back to shore. Ash and his crew are there already, along with Elemental Mistress Halan. The journey back to shore has done nothing to reduce my anger.

“You could have killed Cara!” I snap as I approach.

“But we didn’t,” Sybil says, with a smile.

“You think that’s an answer?” I demand.

Ash shrugs. “We would have turned aside if you didn’t react.”

I don’t believe that for a moment.

Elemental Mistress Halan steps in. “The tactic worked. Had they killed a student with their recklessness, they would be punished for it, but they did not. Instead, they won. There’s a lesson in that. Sometimes, in war, it will be necessary to make sacrifices.”

“So in a training game, I was meant to risk someone’s life to win?”

“You’re meant to learn the lessons the challenge has to teach,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “For now, your opponents have won within the rules, and you have lost.”

“But they—”

“Enough! Remember your place here. Perhaps helping to clear every scrap of damaged boat from the bay will give you time to reflect on that.”

It’s clearly meant to be a punishment, but it’s also a reminder of just how harsh, how ruthless, this place can be. I set off back toward the bay.

Cara steps down from our boat as I pass it. She puts a hand on my shoulder.

“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you didn’t decide to win this one at any cost. Thank you, Sera. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have turned.”

I’m sure too. I just can’t say it without risking the elemental mistress’s wrath.

“Come on,” Cara says. “I’ll help with the clean-up.”