Page 71 of Winds of Destiny

I open my eyes. “Just… How are we moving so fast?”

She can tell I’m not being totally truthful, I’m sure, but she can’t prove anything. No one else knows that Turo and Kai are coming—however they’re doing it—and I’m going to keep things that way. No more helplessness. It’s time to take charge of my own destiny again.

Even if I have to summon a wind that swamps these boats to do it.

“We’ve reached the current,” she says.

I frown. The inland sea is completely flat. “How—”

A heavy hand falls on my shoulder. “Inarime makes its own current,” a sibilant, loathsome voice murmurs in my ear. Embros is suddenly close enough to touch, tosmell. I jerk back, but there’s nowhere to go. “Stand up and I’ll show you,” he says and pulls me to my feet before I can tell him to fucking let go of me.

“Look out there,” he says, pointing out over the glassy, dark sheet of water we’re picking up speed on. It should be flat as anything, but… “You see the spray? The mist?”

“I see it,” I say stiffly. I try to pull away, but he’s still holding me tight.

“Inside of that mist is the lost city of Inarime.”

There’s no way. “You’re insane. Inarimedrowned. It’s underwater!”

“It’s surroundedbywater,” Embros corrects me. “The city is still there, in the center of that great hole in the sea.”

Wait. A hole in the sea? Did he mean—

“The first time I saw the edges of it, decades ago now, I almost fell over the falls,” he mused, his eyes distant as he stares at the mist.

We’re getting closer to it at a rate that makes me very uncomfortable. Not even the vipers are swimming around anymore.

“I didn’t know what to expect. I just knew I had to be down there, to be part of it all. That was the end of my first attempt, but I came back better prepared, and I managed to make my way inside through a crack in the wall that protects it.

“The glory of this city,” he breathes. “The beauty of it. Thepower.I read everything I could find that hadn’t rotted away, and once I found the sacrificial altar, I knew my destiny.”

Was he talking about killing our gods again?

“They’ll never let you kill them,” I say, trying to wrest my shoulder out of his grasp. It’s no use. He’s holding on too tight. Dian’s look warns me against hitting him, so I subside. For now. “Your god will never allow you to sacrifice him in some ill-conceived ritual.”

“My god inspires everything I do,” Embros replies, raising his voice a little to be heard. The closer we get to the mist, the louder the sound of rushing water becomes. “Shevara desires power, the same as I do. Whoever is sacrificed last shall rule the trinity needed to resurrect the power of the chimera. Shevara led me here, taught me the magic to escape this place, and gave me the leverage I needed to bring Dian into the fold.” He laughs and shakes his head. “The only missing piece was Prince Eleas, and how to get him out of his mountain fortress to bring his god here. I just needed the perfect bait to lure him.”

“You and your god are both insane,” I say.

Green flares across his eyes. “No, we simply believe. We have faith in the power of Inarime.”

The people of Kamor never stood a chance against Embros, against his uncompromising ideas and zealous words.

Little rainbows flash to life in the spraying mist ahead of us, and the crashing sound of water on rocks has become a monster’s roar. The other two boats are keeping pace with us, but the men in them don’t look like they’re sharing Embros’s ecstatic experience. They look terrified.

Everyone around us is gripping the rails of the boat in desperation, even Dian. I want to do the same, but Embros won’t let me go. He turns me to face him. “Pray to my god!” he shouts, manic joy in his face. “Pray, and Shevara shall save you as well, Camrael!”

Pray for what?

All of a sudden, the world changes shape. What was a steady surface vanishes from beneath me like a mirage, and my stomach flips as we begin to fall. In the distance, through the roaring spray, I catch a glimpse of pointed white towers and green and blue walls. I have just a moment to wonder at its beauty when all of a sudden I’m—

Crash.

The world breaks apart.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Turo

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