On the eleventh day, the sun was well on its way to the horizon as they entered the Straight of Bourdony. They hoped to be back on the Souelian Sea by nightfall. The massive sails were full, and the mages lined the deck to speed their progress. The captain had explained that the surface waters of the Bourdony always flowed eastward into the bay, so escaping was a task. After more than a week out of Kielen, Frisha had finally found her voice.
“How could you?” she hollered.
“Would you care to discuss this privately?” said Rezkin, glancing around them. The crewmen and passengers were staring.
“What does it matter?” she said. “They all know. You married her! You had just gotten through telling me you would probably never marry, if not for me, and you go and marry her!”
“Again, Leréshi marriages are not recognized outside of Lon Lerésh.”
“It doesn’t matter! You did it. You signed the papers. You participated in the ceremony. You—you spent the night with her! She is your wife.”
“No.”
“Oh, always with the lies! Stop lying and admit it!”
Rezkin glanced over to see Coledon watching them along with everyone else. He waved the man over and said, “Please explain to her why I cannot do what she asks.”
Coledon crossed his wrists and bowed to Frisha. “Lady Frisha, the king does not refuse in an attempt to deceive you. It is true that Leréshi marriages and claimings are not recognized by the other kingdoms unless the man recognizes it outside of Lon Lerésh.”
“I don’t understand,” said Frisha with a pout.
“If our king is in Lon Lerésh, he may speak of the marriage freely. Once he has left Lon Lerésh, he may never speak of it unless he wishes for it to be recognized. If he acknowledges her as his wife even once while he is out of Lon Lerésh, the marriage becomes valid.”
Frisha glanced at Rezkin. “How would anyone know?”
Coledon said, “The ceremony contains a spell.”
“Ritual magic?” said Wesson.
Coledon nodded, “You do not need to be a mage to perform it. If he acknowledges the marriage, he will be marked and married in truth. It is why he asked me to explain it to you. It would be too easy to slip, and it is difficult to tell what the spell would interpret as recognition of the marriage.”
Frisha looked to Wesson. “But spells don’t work on him. You said so.”
Wesson said, “Do you really want to test it?”
“No,” she said rather quickly. She looked back to Coledon. “So, he’s really not married?”
Coledon shook his head. “Not outside of Lon Lerésh.” Then, he said, “I do not understand. I had heard that you released your claim on him, and you did not claim him at the palace. Please, Lady Frisha, tell me why you are upset so that I may help to remedy it.”
Frisha blinked at him through watery lashes. “I-I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t make any sense.” She glanced around and flushed upon noticing all the people watching her.
Coledon’s expression turned sad. “Sometimes a matria does not want a man as consort, but she does not want anyone else to have him either.”
Frisha’s eyes widened. “Oh no! That’s horrible. Of course, I want him to be happy. I would never—” She stopped abruptly as if she had just come to a realization. She turned her mahogany gaze on him. Rezkin said nothing, but he hoped that she finally understood why he could not do as she asked.
He glanced over at Yserria and said, “Where is Malcius?”
“I believe he and Brandt are in their quarters.”
“Please fetch him,” he said.
Yserria saluted, but her expression soured as she stepped away. Rezkin jumped when something suddenly latched onto his leg, its claws digging into his calf. He glanced down to see an orange-eyed cat staring up at him, its ears laid flat, and its teeth bared. It hissed, then yowled as it released him and shot across the deck. He looked out to sea, but there was nothing.
“Prepare for battle,” he shouted. People stared at him in confusion, and he shouted again, “All hands prepare for battle!”
A sudden impact on the starboard side caused the ship to nearly capsize. It listed so far that water sloshed over the railing. Everything not secured to the deck went tumbling toward the sea. Rezkin crashed into an invisible wall just as his feet left the deck, and then Wesson sailed into him. They tumbled into the other side of the ward as the ship righted itself, bobbing in the other direction. Shouts and horn blasts sounded as the ship rocked. Rezkin looked around for Frisha and was glad to see that Coledon had hold of her, and he and Shezar were trying to pull her into the cabin.
Wesson dropped the hastily made ward and was immediately catapulted into the air as something again collided with the ship. He lashed out with a tendril of power, securing himself to the deck as he tumbled. He had never cast the spell before but had seen Xa wield it against Rezkin once. Rezkin had managed to remain aboard but was tossed into the air with the next collision. To Wesson’s surprise, he reached out and grabbed the tendril as if it were a rope of substance and not raw power.
People were shouting that men had been thrown overboard, while others hollered about a sea monster, but Wesson and Rezkin could not see anything from where they lay clinging to the rocking deck.
Rezkin shouted, “Can you make this rope into a net? Can you cover the deck with it?”
Wesson thought quickly about the spell, trying to modify it in his mind to meet Rezkin’s needs. “Yes, I think so. I do not know how long I can hold it, and you will be the only one who can touch it. Not even I can grab this,” he said as he waved his hand through the tendril to no effect.
“Do it. There, to the mainmast,” Rezkin said.
Wesson wove the net of power across the deck, and Rezkin grabbed hold of it. He got to his hands and feet and climbed across it as the ship rocked. Men and objects went sliding past, oblivious and unaffected by the net. Once Rezkin reached the mast, he grabbed hold of an actual rope, and Wesson dropped the spell. After tossing one end of a line to Wesson, Rezkin pulled the mage toward him. They both looked out across sea but too late. A massive tentacle whipped through the air, smashing through the mainmast. Wesson kept his grip on the rope and was jerked across the deck as the mast fell. His motion stopped when he slammed against the railing, and he glanced back to see that Rezkin had disappeared.
Wesson scrambled to his feet, securing his boots to the deck of the ship with tendrils of power. As the ship was jarred, he caught sight of Mage Threll at the bow lobbing a fireball at something he was unable to see from his vantage. Climbing over ropes and anything secured to the ship, he reached her just as a monstrous creature reared out of the water. Its tough, bluish-red skin was slick around the giant black eye that stared at him right before it lifted its enormous tentacles. Beneath the flailing appendages was a gaping maw filled with row after row of razor sharp spikes protruding from pink flesh.