Page 30 of Winds of Destiny
Cam
Embros makes sure I am securely bound from the moment we get on the boats. I should have known it was coming. I should have been more circumspect with my moments of joy, more careful with my smiles every time I checked the bond. Yet feeling and communicating with Turo and Kai overwhelmed my sense of caution.
What a fool I am. What a fucking fool .
“I admire your faith,” Embros tells me even as he binds me. He sounds genuine, too—sick fuck. “To know that those two are still coming for you. It’s the will of the gods. Perhaps they’ll even arrive before we’re out of sight.” He leans in and kisses my cheek. “If so, we’ll give them something to heat their blood and whet their appetites, yes?”
As soon as he pulls away, I feel strange. Woozy, like I’m about to fall asleep, and yet I’m not tired.
Am I drugged? Has he…poisoned me?
“That’s the lightest taste of my toxin I can deliver, Camrael. Don’t fight it too hard, hmm? Much more than that, and you’ll scream.”
I lean hard against the side of the boat—more of a raft than a proper boat, really, but the ones I’m used to are meant for the sea, where even without the wind, you have to deal with waves and tides. This is meant for glassy lakes and has correspondingly low sides. I stare helplessly back at the land we’re leaving behind as the boats are drawn into a current so faint I wouldn’t believe it was there if I couldn’t see the effects.
“Don’t jump in,” Dian murmurs from nearby. She’s not bound, but she isn’t looking at anyone, either—she hasn’t been since we set the lions loose. Embros was all set to kill them, but she convinced him to free them instead so that they might act as a deterrent to anyone who might be following us.
I understand her warning, but in that moment, I hate her too much to pay any real heed.
The water isn’t very deep yet, and I’m a good swimmer—good enough that even with my hands bound and my head dizzy, I know I wouldn’t drown. I might be able to make it if I leaped right now. Embros would send men after me, but perhaps…perhaps…
Better than doing nothing. I ready myself to jump, even get a leg up before Dian is there, pulling me back.
“Let go of me!” I snap under my breath.
“No! Are you a madman? Do you want to die?” She pointed at the water. “Look at the vipers! One bite and they’ll end you!”
“I don’t care!” I’m almost as frantic now as I was when I saw Turo about to be killed. They’re coming, I can feel them—I have to get to them! I have to make it so they can find me!
“You ought to care!” She lowers her voice and puts her mouth beside mine. “As long as you’re alive, you can fight back. Once you’re dead, you’re done. Do you want to let him win so easily?”
“But…”
“There’s movement, my king,” a man on one of the other boats calls out, pointing back toward the edge of the sea.
“So there is.” Embros leaves the front of the boat and returns to my side. “Impressive. These two would follow you to the ends of the earth, Camrael.” He looks at me, and I see intense satisfaction in his face. “But unfortunately for them, no farther, even though they might try.”
He turns back toward his men. “Set javelins!”
“ No! ” I lurch forward, almost heaving myself out of Dian’s grasp before she tightens her grip around me. “No, don’t hurt them! They can’t come any farther. It’s too late!” The truth is painful, but not nearly as painful as the thought of losing Turo and Kai when I can save them. “Just let them go!”
“Oh, Camrael.” Embros sets a cold hand on my face. “For all your supposed cleverness, there’s so much you still don’t understand. Inarime is just the beginning. I’m confident that Eleas will spur one of his ridiculous sheep until it drowns to follow us, but I can’t have your bodyguard do the same. He’s not needed from here on out. The prince’s fire magic will protect him from our attack, but your man…well. Maybe he’s very good at dodging.” He shrugs and lets go of me, turning back to look at Turo and Kai. I can see them in the water now, on the backs of what look like the biggest rams I’ve ever seen. They’re floundering, but they’re not quitting.
Go back! You have to retreat !
“If it makes you feel any better, you don’t have to watch,” Embros finishes. “Loose!”
Almost a score of javelins flies into the air, hissing as they seek their targets. My lovers. They’re mine, they’re mine, they’re mine!
Something inside of me breaks.
My wind whips across the water, nearly strong enough to upend the boat. Spray drenches all of us, but I don’t even feel it—all my focus is on the javelins. The wind catches up to them in the nick of time. They clatter against each other in the air before falling, harmless, into the water less than a dozen feet away from Kai and Turo. A wave follows the wind, and I lose sight of them for a moment.
No, please, please! I summon another wind, this one carving like a blade through the water straight to them. It parts the sea, and as I watch, Kai takes hold of both sets of reins and backs the ram up until they’ve got solid ground beneath their hooves again. Colorful vipers writhe in the mud left behind, red and green and coral-colored, and I know without a doubt that Kai and Turo can go no farther.
I can’t ask them to. I won’t be the reason they die.
Fog seems to float in front of my eyes, obscuring my view of them. My lungs ache and my face is wet and hot, and Embros is speaking, but I will be damned if I’m going to give him any attention right now.
Passing out seems like a much better option, so I take it.