SAKALA
I screamed and wrapped my arms around his neck. Drakens weren’t afraid of heights, but I’d never had my wings clipped before. With bound wings, the open sky was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen.
We fell like a stone, the treehouses of the town below racing toward us. Fane gripped me tightly as we dropped; his eyes ahead on the landscape and screwed with determination. Just when I thought he’d kill us for certain, he suddenly flared his wings hard and cried out in pain.
We caught a sudden updraft and shot over the entire town, around the side of the mountain, and down into the jungle. He kept grunting as he pumped his wings, sweat pouring down his neck and face as he aimed for the soft sands of our western shore beyond the jungle.
We didn’t have enough height and crashed into the trees. Fane curled me closer to him and pushed forward, branches whipping against his face and vines as they tried to snag him. With a final heave, we burst through the canopy and down the sand dunes. I rolled out of his arms as he let go of me, both of us tumbling and coming to rest at the ocean’s edge.
The roar of the waves as they crested in front of us was the only sound apart from our panting breaths. I turned over, toward Fane, a gasp leaving me as I took in his left wing, torn. His right wing joint lay broken and bent the wrong way. Just looking at it turned my stomach, and my own wings vibrated in sympathy underneath the clamp.
The small mercy was that he’d likely passed out from the pain.
“Shit. Shit.”
I had to get us under cover somehow. The king and his guards would tear the island apart, looking for us. We had to get to a hiding spot or at least somewhere they wouldn’t spot us from the air. If I tried to drag Fane, I’d likely damage his wing even more. The pain had to be excruciating, and I wasn’t willing to take the chance that I’d snag his wing on a branch or a rock by accident while trying to move him.
Spotting two large pieces of driftwood on the shore, a plan came into play. I gave myself sixty seconds, counting in my head as I ran up and down the shoreline as fast as I could, seeing what materials were available. Anything over sixty seconds and I’d risked being caught out in the open.
Besides the two logs already near Fane, I spotted a slightly shorter length of wood, likely from a smaller, snapped tree that was nice and bendy. Combined with scraps of an old ship mast tangled up in a rock pool and some old rope, I might just pull this off.
My hands were trembling as I hurried back to Fane, glancing at him to ensure nothing had changed. His face was too pale, but he wasn’t bleeding out or anything like that. The two logs I laid out parallel to one other, then broke the smaller branch in half. I laid both pieces perpendicular to the larger rocks, padding the canvas on top and then tying it all down the best I could with the rope.
Which immediately fell apart in my hands.
“AAARRGHHH!”
The rope hit the ocean with a small ‘plop’ as I threw it as far as I could in anger. If I didn’t figure out how to move Fane and where soon, we’d be caught. We’d—
“What is this?”
I jerked and threw myself over Fane without thinking, twitching in pain as I instinctively tried to flare my wings but couldn’t because of the heavy clamps on my wing joints.
“Easy there. What are you hiding?”
A girl emerged from the water, hair the color of the sun and her eyes blue and green like the sea. I relaxed slightly. It wasn’t the royal guards; it was just a sea witch. They didn’t typically bother with us though technically we still had an alliance; we just seemed to really have no need for each other at the moment. She gracefully shook the water out of her hair as she walked up to me, long necklaces of shells and sea glass clinking gently at her chest, wrists, and ankles. She looked around my age.
I backed away from Fane, allowing her to see. Maybe she could help us!
“Ach, that’s no good.”
Her eyes sharpened when they landed on my clamps after surveying Fane.
“Two drakens who can’t fly. What is the world coming to?”
I lunged toward her blindly. “Help us, please! We have to get away or the king will drag us back. Fane needs help. He’s injured, and—”
A pale eyebrow rose. “If he’s that injured, then get caught. Surely, it’s for the best.”
My heart ached because she was right. I could leave him here, and the guards would quickly find him and bring him to the palace.
But Fane would think I’d left him. I couldn’t do that after I was the reason he’d hurt himself to begin with. If not for him, I’d still be stuck in that stuffy room in the castle.
“Besides, I can’t help. If it’s true you’re running from the palace, then helping you would violate the treaty.”
I grimaced, realizing she was right. The treaty was a gentlemen’s agreement between the sea witch coven and the drakens; we left them alone, and they left us alone. We helped each other when needed, but took no action that would inconvenience or bring harm to the other.
Helping me essentially kidnap the heir to the throne would certainly fall into the latter category.
Shit. What could we do? There wasn’t anywhere we could hide. They’d search us out by scent, turning over every single leaf on this island until—
My eyes hit the water, my lips parting in realization. They’d be searching the island.
I eyed the waves, which were only a few feet away from where Fane lay, and the tide was coming in. It would only take a few drags, and we’d be in the water where he could float once I got past the cresting waves.
I winced, imagining the sting of the salt water on his wounds. At least they would be clean.
Turning my back to the young sea witch, I took the two large logs and lashed them together by ripping the sail fragments into thin strips. I pushed it out in the water, then got behind Fane and lifted under his armpits, keeping his busted wings off the ground as much as possible. I turned us around and dragged as hard and fast as I could toward the water, heaving his stomach first onto the two logs with one burst of energy.
“Make sure we don’t drown. Surely you can handle that?”
Instead of snapping at me, the sea witch grinned. “That would be exactly how I could abide by the treaty.” She trotted into the water after us, diving into the waves. Her legs dissolved into a colorful purple tail that she used to push herself out ahead of us.
A high wave crested right above my head, pushing me down to the sandy bottom. I used my feet to propel myself back up, coughing and sputtering salt water everywhere.
“A little help?” I called out to the sea witch, pushing the logs with Fane as hard as I could through the waves and out toward the open water.
“You’re not anywhere close to drowning,” she replied snootily, watching.
I growled and redoubled my efforts. It would be easier once we were past the waves. My muscles ached, and I cursed, struggling to push the heavy water through the far more powerful waves. I hummed a song Kavni and I liked to sing—one that brought both of us comfort when we missed Mother and got lonely. The familiar tune calmed my mind, and I started singing. It wasn’t like any of the sirens were around to criticize my technique, after all.
“Ach! Can’t fly, can’t sing! What kind of draken are you?”
My eyes shot open: oh, right, the seawitch. A massive wave churned out ahead of us, sucking Fane and I quickly out to deeper waters.
“I’m a bad draken,” I said to no one, feeling worthless.
The sea witch frowned at the massive wave forming. “Magick. Is that you? That’s not supposed to happen.”
I blinked as it disappeared with the absence of my voice.
“Ha. You sing so poorly it rose to stop you. See how it disappears now that you’ve stopped?”
I spun around, glaring at her. “What’s your name?”
“Meruse!” she piped up happily.
My eyes narrowed. “Fuck off, Meruse.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe you’re not a poor draken. Maybe your magick is simply … different.”
Meruse wasn’t kidding. Her eyes were wide and scanning the open horizon for more rogue waves. Hope filled my chest.
“Cover your ears, Meruse,” I growled at her.
“Why?” she huffed.
I gripped the wooden float that was haphazardly keeping Fane afloat, determined not to let go unless I was dead.
“I’m going to sing. Poorly.”
Meruse let forth a colorful amount of swears, slammed seaweed into her ears, and dove under the water.
* * *
At first, it seemed to go well. Large waves rose, sucked us all out far into the ocean, then dissipated when I stopped singing. Meruse followed grumpily, muttering to herself about crazy untrained drakens. The shoreline was fading in the distance, and I was so, so tired.
Just one more wave; a big one, and it would take us where we needed to go if I just believed hard enough.
I took a deep breath and sang as loudly as I could, putting everything I had into it. Meruse squawked and dove under the water again. I ignored her and kept going. A massive wave rose and rose, but I didn’t stop. It pulled us farther and farther and I kept going, knowing the distance to the mainland of Dorea was quite far.
“Draken! Stop! It—”
I stopped singing, but the wave kept coming. Taller and taller, higher and higher; a tsunami that now not only threatened Fane and I, but likely Lyoness as well.
Shit, fuck, witch’s tits.
This was it. This is how I die. At least Fane is unconscious.
The wave broke, rushing at us faster than I could blink. My eyes closed in resignation just as a hand grabbed me and pulled me under.