Page 4 of I Summon the Sea

I shift, taking a step on the rotting wood of my sinking boat, splashing water. The boat sinks further into the watery mud as I gesture at them more emphatically. Are they going to leave me here? I was right. The fae are a heartless race.

“Is your village nearby?” the redhead asks.

I shake my head. I point at them and the first barge they’re standing on, then I point at myself, tapping my breastbone. Finally, I turn and point toward the revolving World Pillar.

“You want to go with us? What for?” Pale-Hair is frowning so hard I bet those lines are etched between his brows. “You should wait for a fisherman to take you back to land.”

Wait? In a sinking boat?

I frown and point at the Pillar again. The direction they are heading. The festival, right? The tournament. The games. The trials.

Come on, make the connection.

Gods above, this is hard without words.

“She wants to go to the festival,” the pale-haired one says. “You want passage to the festival, right? Were you on your way there?”

I nod.Finally. Well done, that man. Give him a prize.

So…I lift my hands again.Come on.

“Girl… Won’t or can’t you speak?” His gaze is shrewd. “There’s something about you…”

I tap my lips, then my throat, and shake my head.Can’t.

The barge is now passing in front of me, long and black. Elegant. The barges with the cages filled with the humans follow behind.

Come on, let me aboard.

“She’s completely wet,” Pale-Hair says.

I try not to roll my eyes. Talk about stating the obvious.

“Of course she’s wet. She’s in the water, isn’t she? Who knows what happened to her? A mute human all alone. Come on, girl.” Red-Hair leans over the side to give me a hand up. “Come onto the barge before that wreck you’re standing in sinks completely to the bottom of this swamp.”

A breath of relief escapes me. I reach up, and strong hands grab mine, swinging me up to the deck with ease and dumping me there.

Leaving me sitting on my ass in a growing puddle of murky water.

“Forward!” Red-Hair cries, and the polemen lining the sides at the back of the barge sink their poles into the lagoon, pushing. “Make haste. We need to reach the first coastal outpost by evening.”

Good luck with that.

I look up. The dome of the hollow world glitters here and there. In the distance, the Pillar has begun to phosphoresce as the darkness closes around us.

Gods, I made it. I’m on the barge, heading the convoy to theanaktor.

I let the Pillar’s light fill my eyes and suffuse my dead heart.

To the conquerors of my world, to the fae, I only have to say this: beware, for here I come.

CHAPTER TWO

Our barge slides into one of the slow-moving rivers that pours into the Central Sea. The Pillar is so close it looms over us now, scintillating and pulsing, reflected in the dark waters.

I’m drowsy, sitting huddled against one of the wooden posts on the deck. I’d waited for the convoy to pass for quite a long time, and the fear of not knowing if I could convince them to take me along has taken its toll.

My eyes keep closing.

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