Page 15 of Take No Prisoners
The practice had started after the blazing fever outbreak a decade before. Once the fever broke, the person's body temperature continued to drop below what was considered normal, down to room temperature in some cases. If the person's breath was undetectable, they were sometimes laid in the ground while still alive. It was the stuff of Niall's nightmares.
"Come with me." The captain stood.
For a moment, Niall thought he would offer his hand, but that was silly. Niall wasn't a child. He very much wanted Captain Efren's hands on him, but not while they walked across the deck and down the stairs into the hold.
"Vadim." The captain kicked the side of a large wooden crate at the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes, Captain?"
Niall shivered. That voice had haunted his nightmares for far too long.
"The boy's awake."
"I'm no boy," Niall said. "I may be an apprentice, but I'll be twenty-six this winter."
Laughter echoed in the crate. "Far too young to get yourself killed by stealing power from the wrong death weaver, then."
"I didn't steal your power."
Movement, and a solitary green eye stared out at him through a knot hole. "You may not have known what you were doing, but you didn't raise that boy from the dead on your own. How long have you known you had magic?"
Niall shook his head, hoping to convince the captain and Vadim what he already knew. "Ma was so disappointed in me when I didn't have her water or Pa's wind."
"You're a reverse siphon." Vadim's voice was muffled by the crate.
"Stan," the captain called. "Bring me the key to this thing. I need a demonstration."
A pirate with thickly muscled arms, a cherubic face, and short dark hair sticking from a faded bandana unlocked the padlock holding the crate closed. The captain swung the door open. Vadim stayed where he was, just inside the opening, his arms crossed over his chest.
"I'm not giving you shit." Vadim spit on the floor beside the captain's boots. "I'm not letting him inside my head again."
"What do you mean, I'm a reverse siphon?" Niall asked.
"Each of the elements has its reverse," Vadim said. "Your mother was water only, but your father was fairly balanced, if I remember right."
Niall's heart clenched to think of them.
"I'm sorry," Vadim whispered, meeting Niall's glower. "They were my friends. They knew the necessary sacrifice. We all did. You have to believe me."
"You've been saying that a lot." The captain shoved Vadim to the back of the crate and shut the door again.
"You can test it for yourself." Vadim's hollow voice echoed in the crate. "Show him your water trick."
"I don't know how that's going to help." The captain raised his hands to his chest and held them out at his sides like a jester preparing to juggle. Then, a ring of water appeared between his hands and continued around in a circle, the water flowing clockwise in an ever-increasing motion.
"Do you feel anything?" the captain asked.
Niall felt the same calm as he always felt when his mother weaved a spell, but it wasn't anything he could touch or do himself. He shook his head. "Nothing."
Captain Efren released his weave, and the water disappeared. "Nothing," he agreed.
"Touch him," Vadim said.
"Touch him?" Efren scoffed. "What's that got to do with anything?"
"Not you. Niall, touch him."
Niall swallowed hard and reached out his hand. His only relief was that his body didn't react the same way to Vadim's commands as it did to Captain Efren's.
