Page 19 of I Summon the Sea

It draws all magic. All power.

And once a year, it draws half the world’s population for this bloodthirsty festival.

More boats and ships have appeared, coming down various rivers to the Central Sea, converging on Sea Palace Island where the king and his retinue are waiting, not to mention the High Priest, a telchin who lives on Temple Island here. It makes sense that he’d be living close to the World Pillar, the nexus of power.

The punters and guards in all those other boats hail one another across streams, canals, and stretches of swampy water, over the flat delta of the river slowly pouring into the sea. Even from a distance, I can make out fae lords and ladies in fancy headwear and colorful clothes seated or standing on the decks.

No wonder Arkin found my claims of being a lady funny. I look nothing like a fae lady, and even before being dragged through muddy water and shredded by reeds, my white, lacy gown had to look cheap and boring to a noble fae’s eye.

Clothes don’t make a lady, isn’t that what they say? Is that true, though? Scales sure make a dragon.

Everyone wants to attend the Games. The faefolk, and especially the fae nobility, are leaving their castles, manors, and estates to come here, dressed in their best finery and displaying their great Houses’ coats of arms on their boats and sails, shields, and mantles.

They come to bask in the glory of their king and the light-giving Pillar. The Houses of Onyx, Amber, Amethyst, Beryl, Ruby, Sapphire, Opal, Topaz, Emerald, Jade, and more, each connected to their chosen earth element and the coloring of the drak squadron they support, all represented in the annual Pillar Festival.

Earth and air, though most fae are solidly of the earth. The power of the air is rarer and much coveted among them.

Humanfolk are also coming, but only the nobility may be invited to enter the Sea Palace, a rare event. The only real chancefor a human to enter the palace is to enter the trials in the sea, in a specially designed flooded arena, and win. For every game won—that is,survived—the human will stay in the palace for a few days, until the next game begins, and so on until the end.

Three games, almost three weeks of entertainment, taking into consideration the final celebrations.

What hopes of survival do the humans in the cages have? They know they will face all sorts of monsters, that they will be used as fodder, sacrificed to the gods of the fae and the Pillar.

When you start your journey without hope, how can you ever win?

Long glistening bodies undulate in the frothy water as we approach the river mouth giving into the sea, the water color slowly changing from murky yellow-brown to green-blue: juvenile sea serpents, big as logs and yet small compared to the average adult specimen.

They leave us in peace, more interested in hunting prey and lazing in the Pillar’s light. I’ve never seen so many together before.

The guards remain on alert, but nothing attacks us as the luxurious boats carrying the fae nobles, arriving from other tributaries of the river, approach us.

That could be the reason we aren’t under attack. Watersprights aren’t good at attackingen masse. They prefer easy targets, lone journeymen and children gone astray, even the occasional boat.

Though let’s not forget we had a sea drak attack us on the river. An unusual event. And let’s also not forget the nokke that tried to drag me into the water.

But they couldn’t have come after me. What would they want with me? Don’t they know who I am?

It’s possible that the faster rotation of the Pillar has affected them, drawing them out. It is the time of the year when the Pillar draws the Eosphors wandering on the firmament close, as well as the dragons, the sylphs, and all the eldritch in existence.

We’re approaching the longest night, the most dangerous time to be near the center of the world.

The other boats hail us, and more greetings fly back and forth. Unlike our unadorned flat barges, only marked by the gleaming cages and the length of our convoy, the other visitors to the festival travel in ornate longboats, their sides high and carved into filigree panels. The fae aristocrats sit on throne-like chairs on the decks, wearing tall headdresses and brightly-colored robes, some even fake wings, in the fashion of their kind.

We’re a flotilla descending from the rivers into the sea, asmena, as the fae call it. A “boat swarm” which describes us perfectly.

The boats rock and sway as we ride the upswell, the sea waves rolling over the river’s placid waters, the currents from the swirling center of the sea disturbing the bottom.

“Hold on tight!” Arkin calls out, and the guards plant their feet and their spears on the deck, swaying with the barge.

On either side of us, the tall filigree boats row in close.Power in numbers, I think, and though I’m surprised the fae nobles allow their vessels close to the human prisoners, I suppose they believe in the cause of sacrificing humans to appease the monsters of the deep and please the Pillar.

Let it drink blood and not let another Reversal upend and destroy the worlds.

As we finally push through the oncoming waves and enter the sea, a cheer rises from the guards, as well as the other boats. Reaching the sea is a feat not everyone starting on the pilgrimage will experience, like the unfortunate guard taken by the mermaids.

Gusts of wind hit us as we finally sail away from the land, the water expanse already widening around us, the shore receding to the distance.

And I was right. No more outposts exist on our way to the Sea Palace. The seashore behind us is empty; too dangerous for any settlement, and we still need to cross an expanse of open water to reach the island.

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