Page 40 of Take No Prisoners
If Klaus had believed the rumors, he was trying to heal something serious. Efren felt bad for the young man.
Thankfully, they had the land's most powerful healer nearby on Horseshoe Island. The general claimed healing was a poor substitute when death weaving was so much more powerful. She'd made it her goal to eradicate all healers from the land.
Efren disagreed. He'd take a talented healer over a death weaver any day. Death weavers could only kill with consent or when attacked, and assholes were constantly attacking Vadim, thinking they could get the drop on him by hitting him first.
Vadim had just enough healing power to heal superficial wounds. It had kept him alive so far, but Efren worried a day would come when Vadim would meet his match.
As Vadim walked side-by-side with the young seeker, Efren hoped that day was far in the future. If he was lucky, Efren had a second chance at love with Niall. He wanted the same for Vadim, someone who could shed some light on his internal darkness.
∞∞∞
Niall
Elder Beatrice led them to a beach on the west side of the island, where a small skiff was moored beside a rock jetty. The water was clearer than any Niall had ever seen. He couldn't stop staring at the sun's bright reflection off the waves, even though it burned his eyes and left negative imprints on his eyelids when he closed them. He supposed he would have noticed the harsh reflection when they'd been on the open ocean, if he had worked with the rest of the crew during the day instead of staying up all night with Efren.
The skiff was just large enough to carry the nine of them. Elder Beatrice stood at the helm and Tovey and Stan used their weaves to navigate the waves to the island named for its shape, like a horseshoe. The sides curved toward Aquarion as though the sand had piled up between the two islands over the years. The east side of the curve looked substantial enough to be a land bridge at low tide, but they easily sailed past the western curve and into a beautiful cove with dark water and an abundance of fish.
Efren and Hannah moored the boat with ropes along the dock, and the others quickly climbed out. Niall struggled with his balance when exiting the small boat, but Elder Beatrice and Efren helped him. After so long at sea, his legs wobbled beneath him on the dock. He wished Efren would steady him with an arm around his waist the way he'd done on Aquarion, but he walked ahead with the rest of his crew.
"You are your grandfather's greatest secret," Elder Beatrice said. She'd stayed by his side while the others walked ahead. "Did you know he was a grand suppressor?"
Niall frowned. "I remember my grandfather, but I don't know what a grand suppressor is."
"He wanted you to live a normal life, but yours has been anything but normal."
"You knew my grandfather?"
"Oh, yes." She helped him down from the dock with a delicate weave of air. "He and I grew up together. He let me take care of him, at the end. He passed away the winter after your parents died. He wasn't well to begin with, but their deaths broke his heart."
Niall had always assumed his grandfather was no longer living, but hearing the words, and the sympathy in Elder Beatrice's voice, brought tears to his eyes. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here."
"It couldn't be helped," she said. "You were too far away to launch a rescue. Vadim suspected the truth, that you were a weaver of some sort, and Coryn was watching you. She knew your potential as we did. We waited for her to make her move before we attempted our rescue."
"You're calling Vadim's abduction a rescue?" Niall scowled at her.
"It wouldn't have been as harrowing, had Efren recognized it, too. Yes, Efren rescued you and Vadim from the hands of the general. I am forever in his debt."
"Three other weavers died on that ship," Niall said.
"Efren will have to answer for that, but I don't blame him. We kept the truth from him. Vadim thought it best to end their relationship, but betrayal can fester after so long." She patted his arm. "How did you find our brash Captain Efren?"
Niall's cheeks burned. Was his attraction to the captain that obvious? Or had she noticed the careful way he walked?
Her next words caught him off guard. "I hope he treated you well, despite the circumstances."
"Circumstances?"
"He and Vadim split on poor terms. I assume they bickered like children for the entirety of your trip." She smirked. "Not much different from when they were together, or even when they were children."
Niall found his voice before she pressed him for details about their interactions. "Captain Efren was kind to me. I'd like to join his crew, if that's allowed."
She studied him as they walked off the sand onto another boardwalk and into the shade of a grove of leafy trees unlike any near Landale. They were so tall, Niall couldn't see their tops, and the trunks were all bigger around than he was tall.
"There's still a lot you don't know about your power."
"I learn quickly. I stole Vadim's power without knowing what I was doing."
"Stole his power?" She laughed. "You aren't a siphon, Niall."
