Page 156 of Witchshadow
At that moment, right as her muscles prepared to evade, the second drill ripped loose. TheLionessrolled sharply to port, flinging Vivia and Vaness out of Kadossi’s path—and instead toward all the sailors who’d realized an attack was underway.
“Free my crew!” she shouted at Vaness. And, for once in her imperial life, the Empress obeyed. She ducked beneath a sailor and flung her hands toward the warship holding theIriscrew.
More sailors stampeded, and Kadossi aimed his flames at Vivia once again. She summoned water from the hungry sea right as flame spewed across her vision. She dove sideways, launching her waters at the captain, but the water hit nothing.
He really was the best.
Vivia pummeled sailors instead. Strong as a shark beneath the sea, she slammed them one by one. No dexterity, no subtlety. Pure force that made the water laugh as it plunged bodies overboard.
Vivia didn’t laugh with it. Already the tides threatened to overwhelm her. Already, they saturated her with power and urged her into chaos. She needed her wits, though for such close combat and a Firewitch on the loose. Nubrevnans were depending on her.
As she leaped up the listing ladder to the half deck, she scoured the battle for Vaness, only to find that the Empress had one arm looped around the balustrade and one arm stretched high. When Vivia squinted toward her crew, she found chains melting off Cam, off Sotar, off everyone from theIris.Then the iron flew toward Vaness, ready to be used and morphing as it crossed the churning sea.
She plucked the iron—now shaped like a flail—from the air, and with a wild spin, the spiked head swung outward and hammered into a sailor’s chest.
Vivia lost sight of Vaness then. Flames rushed toward her, up the ladder, forcing her to splash up a wall of water. Steam hissed. Then Kadossi lunged through. He moved easily despite the ship’s lean. His shaving scar oozed fresh blood. His cheeks were flushed from heat.
Vivia propelled more water, two ropes to splash his face and veil his eyes. But he ducked easily and blasted rounds of fire—a pounding of them, one after the other that her waters couldn’t stop. Each blast created more steam, scalding, blinding. And in the time it took Vivia to rush across the half deck, its angle increasing by the second, her world turned to fog.
The chaotic fight disappeared. The captain disappeared.Baile’s Blessing,the crew from theIris,and even the groaning masts of theLionesswere all hidden within a realm of steam.
If only Vivia were like Stix, then she’d have been able to control it. Able to sense where, in all that mist, the captain lurked. But she was only Vivia. Only a Tidewitch. Only a little fox who’d hunted exactly where she shouldn’t have.
Vivia reached the railing. A pistol fired behind her, cracking loud. Impossible to avoid. Yet somehow, she had the time to turn her head back and look. Somehow, she had the time to think,I am too far from the Origin Well to survive this time.And somehow, she had the time to watch as the round bullet from the captain’s Firewitched pistol cut through steam and careered her way.
Except it was barely moving. As the bullet reached her, as it came close enough for her to grab from the air, the iron spliced into countless smaller shots that sprayed sideways. Then Vaness coalesced in the fog, her nose bloody and gown shredded. Behind her, more shots fired and orange light seared Vivia’s way.
Vaness reached Vivia first, arms flinging wide as she tackled Vivia overboard. They fell toward the sea. Fire ripped out above them, singeing theedges of Vaness’s hair and gown and blasting Vivia with heat. But it was too slow, and now Vivia and Vaness were beneath the fog. Beneath theLioness’s decks.
They hit the waves. Vivia’s breath burst from her as the sea enveloped them. Vaness still held on, though, and when Vivia opened her eyes, she found blood trailing behind them, a stringing silhouette upon a sea gone mad.
She yanked water to her, though she didn’t carry them to the surface. Instead, Vivia let them sink, let the water cradle her and feed her power.
It foamed and roiled as theLionesssank, displacing the water—angering the water.Use us,it told Vivia.Use us and attack.
How?Vivia wanted to ask it.How can I use you to protect my crew? To protect Noden’s Gift?She could try to sink more ships, but those hulls would simply become more skeletons upon the seafloor while the sailors would live on. They would swim ashore, Kadossi at the lead, and they would destroy the Gift anew.How can I use you? Tell me what to do.
As Vivia and Vaness sank, the Empress’s fingers clutched at Vivia’s biceps and bubbles roared from her mouth. TheLionessbore down, a massive shadow from above. They were deep enough now that the waves had calmed. No more currents to spin and dunk. They would hit coral soon or one of the many skeletal ships filling the sea.
Here, Vivia sensed a deep bass thrum within the water. One she’d never sensed before. An undertow that quavered in her belly and trickled up from beyond the farthest shelf. Perhaps all the way from Noden’s court.Become us,it urged.Become us and attack.
The Empress clawed at Vivia, a vague, distant sensation compared to the water’s command.Become us,the water said.Join us and attack.There was no malice in the undertow. Only welcome. Only an element accustomed to being ignored until someone entered its realm.
The Empress shouted, a water-filled burble that hit Vivia’s skin. Blood still streamed from her nose as she shook her head, eyes bulging. Then a hundred tiny pricks pierced Vivia’s biceps. Painful, sudden, and jolting. Vivia blinked, andthistime, she focused fully on Vaness.
The Empress was drowning. She didn’t have the lung capacity Vivia did. She hadn’t spent half her life surrounded by waves or riding rivers to their falls.
Vivia glanced up, at the wild silhouette of theLionessdescending. Even if they could make it to the surface, only pistols and flames would await. Never had she wished for Stix more, to help her, to lift her, to guide herbecause Stix always knew what to do. How to make everything better. But Stix wasn’t here, and Vivia had only herself to do what needed doing.
So she did the one thing she could think of that would keep the Empress alive in this tiny cocoon of safety: she pulled Vaness to her and kissed her.
As the Queen of Hawks and the Queen of Foxes vanished beneath the roiling sea, Stix, Ryber, and Kahina watched in silence from a stretch of gravel beside the Origin Well.
“Are you ready?” Kahina asked. Smoke curled from her pipe, mingling with the acrid stench the battle. She had shed her admiral’s coat and boots.
“Yes,” Stix answered, and she turned to Ryber. “Safe harbors. We’ll return soon.”
“Safe harbors,” the Sightwitch replied, and her lips twitched with a rare grin. Then she held out the Giant card for Stix to see. Its gold back winked in the morning’s coral light. “Do not take too much magic from Her.”
