SIX

It was strange for Daiva to be on a ship that wasn’t her brother’s. At first, she thought her brother was going to tie her up and take her on his ship anyway, since he certainly didn’t trust the Reefborn with her life. Daiva knew, though, to gain trust she would have to show some, even if she didn’t want to.

Most of the ship from the Reef was filled with Fireborn, but she saw her fair share of Skyborn and other Stoneborn like herself. Some of them were more wild and unrestrained than others, but most of them kept their distance. The few who leered at her and tried to test her boundaries or her patience were met with the unpleasant surprise of the stone weapons she carried.

Hassir, for all his congeniality the day before, kept his distance for the majority of their first few days at sea, once he had seen her aboard. He spent most of his time with some of his Skyborn companions aloft in the intricate rigging that accompanied the sleek ship.

For three days they alternated their position with regard to the rest of the fleet. First they would speed ahead of the other ships, showing off their capabilities, before slowing in the middle of the ocean when Destin’s flagship was just out of sight. They would wait for the others to catch up and the ‘game’ would continue. From the way Hassir’s Skyborn constantly laughed at the orders they received on the air, it was obviously annoying the rest of the ships, Destin included. Hassir gave no indication that he cared.

For the last few hours, though, they had sailed in tandem with the rest of the ships. Not because Hassir decided to finally comply with orders to sail in formation, but because that morning they had passed the southernmost barrier islands of the Reef, leaving the volcanic crags behind them. Most of the wolves on the ship stood silently on the deck with their eyes trained on the horizon, waiting for any sign of their intended prey.

“You’ve succeeded in making some of my crew nervous.” Hassir’s voice came out of nowhere, disturbing her watch as her grey eyes swept the horizon.

He sat behind her on the railing of the ship, beside a barrel of lamp oil. He wasn’t looking at her, but was methodically coating each of a dozen knives he wore in the oil and returning them to their sheaths along his arms and waist for later use. The deliberateness of his actions was so casual that he might as well have been preparing a meal or tying up a pair of boots. She had yet to see the man appear anything but perfectly at ease wherever he was.

“Have I?” She was surprised to hear his voice, but she tried her best not to show it. “Good.” Daiva said evenly. She didn’t want anyone, especially his crew, to be completely confident in themselves. That kind of confidence led to error and oversight.

“When I brought you on board, they thought I was doing so for their benefit, so they’d have some sport along the way.” He seemed amused by the smile on his face as he put away one of his knives carefully. “They’re also not accustomed to traveling with someone of your…” he motioned to the stone weapons she carried with her, which he’d admired the entire trip, “creativity.”

“I see.” She watched him carefully and raised an eyebrow just slightly as she kept her hand firmly on a blue stone knife that had a transparent and beautiful blade, with a hilt made of the toughest marble. The blade itself was just as fierce and sharp as anything an Ironborn could make. “I only enjoy sport on my own terms.”

“What terms are those?” He finished with the last of his blades and started walking along the deck toward the prow, a few wolves moving out of his way as he went. After only a few steps he looked over his shoulder at her, clearly expecting her to follow.

Daiva glanced along the horizon once more but did follow after the Fireborn, even though she didn’t like that he expected her to do so. “If I want it to happen, or I am particularly interested in the wolf. No one has yet forced me, and no one will do so. I originally submitted to be matched by the King and the Queen’s choosing, but then they murdered my family, so I do things on my terms.”

“Who would they have matched you with, I wonder.” He replied without looking at her until they reached the prow, where he stood with his arms folded casually over his chest. His red eyes scanned the horizon along with every other pair of eyes on the ship. “Someone lowborn, I’m sure. Another Stoneborn, perhaps, to appeal to the dignity of your kind, but no one of pure breeding. That would not be a risk they would be willing to take with you.”

She couldn’t help but scoff, though she knew he was probably telling the truth. It would be dangerous for the king and queen to put her with someone who was of pure blood. Daiva’s family was just as pure as the royal family, and her blood could produce some very distinguished wolves, with the right match. Daiva looked him up and down slowly even though he wasn’t looking at her, and she wanted to scold herself for being drawn to the Fireborn even for just a thought. She liked their passion, even though the Lord of the Reef seemed very controlled. That also appealed to her greatly. “What they want does not matter to me now.”

“Nor should it.” A smile spread across his face, but it was caused by the sight of a sail appearing in the dim haze of the horizon. A cry went up by the rest of the wolves on the ship, beginning with the Skyborn and spreading to the rest of the fleet. “They are as irrelevant as they are short-sighted. They just don’t know it yet.”

“Yet.” Daiva looked out across the water before she looked over at her brother’s ship. In that moment she wanted to be with her brother and to fight beside him, but she didn’t say anything about how she was feeling. Daiva gripped her knife and took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”

Hassir nodded and looked over her knives again curiously before he turned to face his people. “I hope you survive this, Stoneborn. Truly I do.” He smirked at her and turned his attention to his people awaiting his orders in the rigging.

“Full ahead into them, and tell your gods to wake up and see something worth watching!” His order was met with shouts and howls from all parts of the deck, and the ship lurched forward so violently that it almost threw Daiva and Hassir both off their feet. They quickly jumped ahead of every other ship in the small fleet, their prow pointed right into the center of their enemy’s armada.

More Genovin ships came into sight with every passing moment. From the sluggish response of the Genovin in turning to face them, they clearly hadn’t been expecting an armada, but they gathered quickly, preparing to face the attack.

Daiva could already feel the water churning in response to her brother’s power. Before they even made it close enough to attack, one of the front ships for the Earthborn had been flipped and swept up in an Oceanborn current.

The Reef’s ship turned to trap some of the outside ships, and when they got close enough, Daiva reached into one of her pockets. She had small rocks that she instantly formed into pointed arrowheads, and she threw them across the water with the force of a Stoneborn, strength only rivaled by the Earthborn of the enemy ships. She watched carefully as they rained down on the Earthborn, slicing through skin and rigging alike to cut the Genovin to shreds.

The enemy ships were just as eager for a fight as they were, but every time their ship got close enough to attack, it veered away again, circling past the Genovin ships. The other ships from the Isles sailed right into the Genovin, the sea turning to a churning battlefield under Destin’s power and that of the other Oceanborn captains of the fleet.

Hassir didn’t seem in any rush to fully engage, and his Skyborn kept their ship just out of reach of the Genovin, to the great amusement of the crew. Several Genovin attempted to leap from their ships to attack Hassir’s, but either they fell short and dropped into the ocean, or they landed on the deck and were quickly dealt with by Hassir’s Stoneborn crewmates.

“Your brother’s reputation is deserved.” He said calmly beside her as they slid past a few more Genovin ships, leaving most of their companions from the Isles far behind on the other side of the conflict.

“Of course it is.” She looked irritated as their ship skirted on the outside, avoiding the heart of the battle. “If your plan was to avoid everything the entire time, then it was a mistake for me to agree to board your ship.”

“I am avoiding nothing.” He didn’t seem angry at her accusation, though, and kept his eyes on the other ships around them. The bulk of the Genovin fleet still urged itself forward into the battle. “I just have no intention of permitting this battle to go on any longer than necessary.” He smiled at her again and moved back up onto the prow of the ship, glancing backward at a few lanterns hanging above the deck behind him. A dozen other Fireborn moved out from the hold to the railing along with him, following his lead, and she felt the wind turn the ship violently back into the heart of the Genovin fleet.

They were alone on the far side of the battle from the rest of the ships of the Isles, and their ship was almost laughably small in comparison to even the smallest of the Genovin ships. The Earthborn nearest them were already massing on the decks, waiting for them to get close enough to jump the distance and board. Hassir turned to look at her again, his usual vicious smile on his face. “You may want to take some cover, my lady Daiva.”

There was a flash of heat on one side of her, and a brilliant orange glow drew her attention to a growing ball of fire between the lanterns hanging on the deck, doubling and tripling in size as she watched. Portions of it began to siphon off toward each of the Fireborn standing on the railing, swirling around each of them in turn until they were living beacons of power against the overcast afternoon.

The Earthborn on the nearby ships were no longer eager to board, no longer smiling, and their ships attempted to push away from the Reef ship as quickly as possible.

Not quickly enough.

The inferno leapt from the Fireborn in a living bridge of flames between the Reef ship and the dozen Genovin ships closest to them. Every wolf and every scrap of timber was immediately engulfed, and the Fireborn led by Hassir showed no signs of stopping. There was no mercy in their brilliant eyes, and no restraint.

Even though he warned her to take cover, Daiva found herself moving closer to Hassir and the heat shimmering off of him. She wanted to help, but she knew he didn’t need it. “Very impressive, Hassir.” She spoke from behind him, almost a whisper into the flames.

The other Fireborn assisting him quickly tired and had to step down from the railing to rest, but Hassir was the last one standing on the prow. Fire flowed from his fingertips to catch the stragglers that escaped the initial conflagration. Even when the fire stopped coursing off his skin, it lingered around his shoulders like a mantle of lordship. He wore no jewels or outer ornaments like the king and queen she grew up with, but as she looked at him, she could see the royalty in him. Even if it was of a different kind than she had ever known.

“Pathetic dogs.” He sighed and jumped down from the railing to stand near her as he watched the Genovin fleet burn. “The Skyborn will take us through the wreckage once they start going down, and then you can have your fill of them.”

Why was watching him brutalize Genovin ships so distracting? Daiva felt betrayed by herself yet again, but she couldn’t step away. “It is a shame it takes a Mated pair to partake in something like that.” She wished she had been able to feel that power for herself, and to lend her own to his overwhelming firestorm.

He looked away from his work, even as the ship moved forward under the force of a gale into the center of the burning wreckage of the Genovin fleet.

“It is a shame.” He took out one of the longer blades he carried and easily ignited the oil coating on its surface into flame. The sharp edge of it hummed along the side of her stone knife. She could feel the flames warming the stone, though it was too strong to be melted so casually. “One day perhaps I’ll have the opportunity to witness you bring down a mountainside, and share such a sentiment.”

“Perhaps.” She mused as she looked down at the flames between them, hungrily engulfing his weapon. “Though I do think you’ll be quite busy with the Reef, especially when you take it back from Melyssa.”

“Then perhaps the avalanche you show me will have to be her palace falling into the sea.” His red eyes danced with dark humor at the thought as cruelty twisted his smile in eager anticipation. He glanced back at the ships approaching before he could continue. “First the Genovin. Then, my lady, we will see about the Isles.”

Daiva didn’t say anything else as their ship slid past the still-burning ships of the Genovin. She didn’t hesitate to jump from ship to ship to wreak more havoc on the survivors. After jumping to a second ship, Daiva was injured from fighting with the weakened Genovin, but she didn’t seem to notice the blood or a broken wrist when she made it back to Hassir’s ship as he circled back around.

As she returned, Hassir threw fire into the face of a wolf that attempted to follow her back on board his ship. Their passage left nothing but chaos and fire in their wake as they slid masterfully between the ships. Their position at the rear of the Genovin fleet had made retreat impossible for any of the survivors, but that did not stop some from trying. A few of Hassir’s Skyborn had fallen from the heights under the assault of their enemies, leaving a few friendly corpses on the deck. Still, the majority of his crew was intact.

As they reached the ships of the Isles, it became obvious that Hassir’s ship was the exception rather than the rule. Three ships of the Isles were in various stages of sinking, their hulls smashed out from the inside by the enormous strength of the Genovin Earthborn. Two more were overrun with the enemy, fights still raging on the decks.

Destin’s ship somehow was separated from all the others, and there was no sign of him at the prow in his usual place. The ocean still boiled around it, toppling another enemy ship as Daiva watched, but there was no sight of the wolf himself.

“Does your brother always take to the sea rather than face his enemies directly?” Hassir didn’t sound pleased at Destin’s absence, but the question was rushed and mostly distracted as he engulfed the sails of another enemy ship in flames.

“No.” She responded sharply as her eyes scanned every ship within sight that belonged to the Isles. Daiva was alarmed at her brother’s absence, but she tried to explain it away. “They can cause more damage if they go to the water directly, especially if they are close to the enemy ships.” She did not think that her brother would leave his ship, though, and she gripped tightly to part of the railing that was still intact. Both of them could hear the wood crack beneath her unbroken hand.

“Of course.” He said without convincing her that he believed what she said, but they had too much to deal with at the moment to worry about Destin’s location. The remaining Isles forces were still outnumbered by the Genovin. As they joined up with the other ships from the Isles, the survivors of the Genovin managed to surround them on every side. Earthborn leapt from every rail to gain hold on every ship as the fighters of the Isles tried to hold them off.

A pair of Earthborn managed to land on the deck beside Daiva and jumped to their feet quickly as they got their bearings. Fire engulfed one, commanded by one of Hassir’s Fireborn, but the second wolf managed to whirl around and land a fist in the chest of the Fireborn wolf that commanded it. Bone snapped and flesh collapsed on impact, and the Fireborn fell backward on the deck as the Earthborn patted out the flames on his arms and torso, turning his sights on Daiva.

She stared at the wolf and quirked one eyebrow as they moved closer to her. Daiva didn’t look around, didn’t yell or even move until the wolf was close enough for her to reach, her knife glimmering in front of her. Daiva thought about giving him some kind of warning. She thought about telling him he would be better off jumping out into the water, but instead she leapt at him and went after his throat with her weapon.

Just before the knife connected with his skin, what was one blade splintered into several tiny blades, all connected at the hilt which left the wolf’s throat sliced into ribbons and bleeding profusely. She pulled her weapon out and stabbed him over and over without making any noise. Maybe he had been responsible for her brother’s disappearance, maybe not. He was a convenient target for her rage regardless.

The wolf might have been able to dodge the initial attack, but not her creativity, and his companion met a similar fate as he tried to avenge the death of his friend. Both were laid in a heap on the deck when Hassir looked down at her with an expression on his face that was difficult to read. It wasn’t caution or curiosity, but something between the two, and the slight twinge of a smile at the corner of his mouth showed his approval of her skill. It didn’t last long before something else attracted his attention and another wolf fell onto the deck consumed in tightly controlled flames. They charred the life out of the wolf without so much as scorching the deck beneath the new-made corpse.

More Earthborn followed, landing together to try and gain some kind of a foothold on the Reef ship. Hassir’s fighters spread out along the deck to make for a more difficult target, but the battle was obviously about to take a poor turn for the forces of the Isles. As the Earthborn charged, though, the ship lurched to one side, and half the ocean seemed to crash down on the side with the Earthborn. The water swept some of them immediately off the deck and into the sea, no matter how they struggled.

As the ship began to right itself, they could see a massive pillar of water spiral into the sky, almost as high as the masts of the Reef ship, with Destin at its crest. The water reached out like a living thing to crush the masts and bodies of the Genovin, protecting Hassir’s ship, and the few others ships close enough.

His clothing was ripped to shreds and Daiva could see that he couldn’t use one arm at all, holding it close to his chest at an unnatural and painful angle. She knew her brother well enough to know that even in peak condition, there was no way he could sustain the kind of spectacle he was undertaking for very long, but he was certainly trying.

She felt slightly comforted that he was alive for the moment, but she wondered if he intended to make it through his final attack. Daiva watched him intently, though she felt helpless as he managed to continue his attack without anyone else’s help. There were only a few more Genovin ships that were standing upright, and she assumed some of them had fled.

“We should…” Her thoughts were scrambled as she tried to think about what they should do, especially as she watched her brother. “Help him.”

The look on Hassir’s face as he watched Destin was one of honest admiration, and he nodded in agreement as he pushed himself back up to his feet. He shouted a few orders to the Skyborn who remained in the rigging, and they started forcing back the Genovin ships. Spears and other Earthborn weapons were thrown off their course as they were hurled at the rampaging Oceanborn threat by wild winds.

“I can see why Melyssa and Cadmos declined to kill the two of you.” He mused quietly, his voice almost inaudible against the chaos all around them. Destin’s assault smashed two more of the enemy ships and scared the rest of them enough to fall back, allowing the Isles fleet the advantage again.

“They’ll realize it was a mistake for their reign soon enough.” She growled through clenched teeth, both from pain and anger, and perhaps a bit of fear for her brother. Daiva didn’t look back at Hassir, since all she wanted to do was to finish off the remaining Genovin and drag her brother back to safety.

The tower of water between their ship and the Genovin began to subside as the Genovin fleet was pounded into nothing by the Isles forces, and Daiva could see the moment Destin finally gave up. He turned in the water to look back at her, the water parting in front of him so that he could get a clear look at the ship, and she could see the relief in his eyes when he saw that she was still alive and relatively whole. His eyes closed the next moment as he lost consciousness from exhaustion, and the column of water he’d used as a weapon fell back into the sea, taking him down along with it.

While Destin might have looked relieved, Daiva felt a surge of panic when he disappeared under the water. She knew he couldn’t drown, but she also knew that he was unconscious and she couldn’t lose him to the sea that he loved so much.

“Destin!” It was the first and only moment that any of the wolves from the Reef heard or saw any emotion from her, and she couldn’t stop herself from jumping over the side of the ship into the water, though logically she knew she wouldn’t be able to find him.

Beneath the surface of the ocean, all was peace in the wake of the conflict’s chaos. There were pieces of ships floating everywhere, bodies of wolves falling through the water toward the depths, a confusing jumble of light and shadows that made nothing clear.

She heard it the moment a few other wolves joined her in the water from Hassir’s ship, the few Oceanborn along with him on his journey north. Their power resonated in the water around her as they collectively searched for Destin in a few frantic moments. Two of them, though, swam to Daiva immediately and pulled her up forcibly out of the water to keep her from drowning. The water pushed her into the air at their command until it toppled her back onto the deck beside Hassir.

Her wrist was in blinding pain as soon as she hit the deck, but she still scrambled upright to rush to the edge of the ship. She coughed seawater and her wounds stung from the salt, but she still looked for her brother. “Why did they put me back here? He’s still out there!”

“You are no use to him drowned.” Hassir watched the water as well, no trace of irritation in his voice. The two Oceanborn who retrieved her immediately disappeared again beneath the water at a gesture from Hassir, plunging into the depths to look for Destin. Hassir looked Daiva over as her coughing subsided, then glanced at the ships attempting to retreat in the distance, pursued by the strongest remaining forces from the Isles. “His ocean will take care of him until they find him.”

Daiva turned and glared at the Fireborn but her hands fell to her side before she turned her gaze back toward the water. Her tone was even and emotionless again when she spoke. “I do not know why it matters to you if I drown or not. You have your own plan for your victory. Destin and I had a plan as well.”

“Plans change.” He watched the water for any sign of his fighters returning. “After today, it matters a great deal to me if you drown and if Destin is lost.” He looked over at her again and moved to walk past her. “Watch for your brother. I have my people to attend.”

She moved a hand to her knife where it was still secured at her side, and she wanted to attack the Fireborn with it, but she remained exactly where she was. Daiva thought briefly about her brother and sister back at the Isles and she knew Destin would want them cared for, but all she could think about was her littermate beneath the waves.

She had lost enough.

Her grey eyes watched every wave in front of her, and she trembled with anger as the water dripped off of her. “Don’t you die out there, Destin.”

The remaining ships of the Isles clustered tightly as they each assessed their situation. A few were abandoned as they took on water, overcrowding the four ships that remained when all was done, but no survivors from the Isles were willing to board Hassir’s ship for the journey home, leaving him and his people to themselves.

Hassir ordered the corpses of the Earthborn thrown overboard without dignity or consideration for their burial. Dola, acting as temporary captain of the Guardian, had commandeered one of the few Genovin ships still floating and loaded it with corpses. A small group of prisoners was permitted to take the macabre voyage home for the last rites of their kind and a warning to the Genovin people.

Hours passed as the debris of the battle was sorted out and dealt with. The ship heading south to the Genovin bearing the bodies of the dead had barely pushed away when Hassir’s Oceanborn returned to the ship, climbing up the side and immediately kneeling in front of Hassir.

“He was taken immediately to the depths.” They started explaining, with their faces turned down toward the deck. “We followed him as far as we could, but when he reached the deepest currents, he was taken too quickly, we could not keep pace with him.”

Hassir growled low in his throat at the news, and stepped up to the two of them with a hand outstretched. They seemed to expect what was coming, but they still cried out softly as he put a hand on each of their bared necks, the skin sizzling where he touched it. The red imprint of his fingers began to blister when he pulled his touch away, still snarling down at them. “A reminder of your failure. Get out of my sight.”

Daiva watched as the other Oceanborn moved away, and she felt numb as she realized that her brother was truly gone. She didn’t know what it meant, if he was dead or if he would just be carried away to some other land beneath the water, but she did know that it meant that she didn’t know if she would ever see him again.

She took ragged, deep breaths of her brother’s beloved sea air before she turned her steely gaze back to Hassir. “We have no reason to linger. We should get back to the Isles.”

Hassir held her gaze as he nodded, something like sympathy in his eyes, if he was even capable of such an emotion.

He turned to the rest of his crew standing nearby. “You heard her. North.”

The rest of his crew scattered to get the ship underway, not waiting to be told a second time or for the rest of the Isles ships to follow.