Page 57 of A Forgery of Fate

The boat rocked in its place, and I gripped my umbrella with both hands. “So this is it? We jump?”

“Not yet.” He bent, retrieving a lidded teacup he’d stowed inside the boat. Holding it with both hands, he offered it to me.

I quailed. “What is this?”

“A potion—so you can breathe underwater.”

Oh. Right.I’d been wondering about that.

I peered into the cup. The potion looked like an herbal soup, darker and thicker than the ones Mama used to make for me when I was little, and those had been vile.Deer intestines with black fungus,she’d say, deadpan. I’d never known whether she’d been joking.

“I caution you,” said Elang before I raised the cup, “the taste is foul. The experience after, unpleasant.”

More curious than brave, I brought the teacup to my nose. A mistake. The most revolting smell greeted my nostrils, and Elang grabbed my hand before I dropped everything.

The boat rocked as I coughed. “What is this?” I fanned away the potion’s fumes. “It smells like—”

“Rotted rat liver?”

My entire face puckered. That was very specific.

“It’s not.” Elang’s lips twisted. “You recall the flowersyou trampled? They are known as sanheia roses, and this is a special tea brewed from their petals. It’s called sangi.”

He took my umbrella. “Now, drink before it gets cold. It will burn more when it cools.”

Burn?Hells of Tamra, I should’ve asked for more money.

I lifted the cup once more. A thread of sunlight shone upon its porcelain lip. The last stripe of day I’d see in who knew how long.

This was it.

For Fal’s and Nomi’s futures,I reminded myself.For Baba.

I pinched my nose with my fingers, then poured the potion down my throat.

The taste was bitter, though not utterly repulsive. That was as far as I got, thought-wise, before the teacup fell from my hands and clattered onto the bow of the boat.

Elang took my arm, steadying me as I began to shudder. “Mailoh!” he shouted. “Mailoh, it’s time.”

“What’s…what’s…happening?” I asked.

Elang tilted my chin up. “Look at me. Tru, focus on myeyes.”

My fingers curled into his arm. The world was slipping beneath me, everything blurring into a haze, even Elang’s eyes. They were two disconsonant blobs of gold and gray, like an egg yolk and a stone, deliriously coming together into a dark eclipse.

“That’s it,” he said. “Focus on me. Your body is reacting to the sangi. There will be pain, and you’ll feel like you can’t breathe…”

As soon as he said it, a wave of heat scalded my throat,like I’d swallowed a raging fire. I felt my jaw crack open, muscles stretching into a scream. Except no sound came out. I was drowning—on air!

Mailoh arrived, floating alongside the boat. “We have to get her into the sea,” she urged.

“It’s too soon.” Elang gripped my arm more tightly. “Focus, Tru! Just a little longer.”

The air had turned thicker than sand, and my lungs pinched with panic. All my life, I’d breathed without thinking. Now, suddenly, this most natural act was killing me, and the instincts I’d been born with fled in favor of something entirely new and unimaginable.

Water,I choked in my thoughts. I tried to inhale the rain.Water!

Shani dissolved into a splash over my face, giving me the breath I desperately needed.

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