He had the mask of his helm lifted to reveal dusky skin and eyes that were dark maroon, like old blood. His face was that of a young man; not monstrous, not inhuman. But he smiled at her with a bloodlust that was frightening to behold; she could see it kindled in his eyes, as if the very thought of battle roused him the way a naked woman might rouse another man. He uttered a battle cry in his own tongue and then flew at Selena.
She barely held him off. The ferocity of his blows was incredible and it was all she could do to keep him from bleeding her. He knew he was overpowering her and he muttered something in his language, a parting salute. The killing blow was coming. In this flurry or the next. His burning sword would find her and she would die next to this fallen Vai’Ensai who was so far from his Cloud Isles.
And it was the Vai’Ensai’s wing that the Zak’reth warrior tripped on. His booted feet got caught up in the torn, blood-spattered membrane and he fell backward. Without thinking, Selena flipped her sword in her hand and flew at him. She drove the blade downward, between red armored plates over his chest, with all her weight behind it. He died with blood burbling out of his mouth.
That was red too.
The Vai’Ensai peered up at Selena. His face was more reptilian that human, but for his eyes that were looking at her as though he’d found something he’d been looking for a long while. He smiled with relief as she knelt beside him.
“You saved my life,” he said, his voice hoarse and his accent thick.
“Ssshhh,” she said, studying his wound. “Lie still. I have to help you.”
He smiled sadly, and suddenly it was Selena’s mother lying there in a pool of her own blood. A dagger protruded from her chest.
“You’ll be all right,” her mother said. She tore the dagger free and lunged at Selena.
Selena’s horror nearly killed her; she barely brought her arm up to ward off her mother’s dagger, and felt the blade scrape against her forearm. The pain was bright and helped her focus. She flipped backwards, out of harm’s reach. Her mother lay prone on the ground, swiping pitifully with her blood-stained knife.
“No.”
Selena closed her eyes to that awful vision and inhaled deeply. The healing magic welled up in her, flooding her up to the crown of her head. The gash on her arm closed and the bloody apparition evaporated.
She turned to Accora, her hand clutching the hilt of her sword so tightly she thought her bones might snap.
“Never again,” she seethed, hardly able to find the words. “You will not do that to me again.”
The old woman sniffed. “Then you will die. You did better, but you still healed yourself after the fact. While you dodged your mother’s phantom blade, Bacchus beheaded you with a real one.”
Selena hardly heard her. The horror of those moments in her life did not fade as quickly as the visions. My mother… She had almost forgotten what she looked like, but the phantom of Accora’s creation was culled from her own memories and so perfect down to the last detail. And everything was just as it had been when she’d found Ilior on the Forgotten Isle, during the war. She felt a great wail of grief rise in her. Where was Ilior? Alone somewhere, hurt and betrayed by her suspicion.
Selena snapped her sword back in its sheath for she had unknowingly drawn it halfway out against Accora.
“Where are you going?” Accora called after her as Selena strode away.
“To find Ilior. To find Julian. The lessons are over. We sail to Huerta at first light.”
“The lessons are not over! You haven’t learned all that you need!”
Selena whipped around. “I’ve given you enough! First Julian and now this… lesson? It’s the wound’s horror all over again. I won’t willingly suffer it. I used the healing to make the vision disappear. That is enough. That is all.”
She turned again and stormed away. Accora’s shrill voice followed her.
“You have only begun to use your power. There is much you don’t know…”
Selena ignored her; the woman’s words were drowned in the pounding of her own heart. She found Ilior sitting alone in the feasting hall. His head hung listlessly and his shoulders were slumped. A bowl of uneaten stew sat before him. He looked up dully when she came in.
“I heard a commotion—we all did—this morning,” he said. “The greenhouse is destroyed. I feared for you, but then I saw you in the yard. With that woman.” He looked at her more closely and his face contorted in worry. “Are you all right?”
Selena threw herself against him, holding him tightly.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “For everything.
“Then you will leave her? Or…”
“I need her to tell me where Bacchus is. Then…” Selena squeezed her eyes shut, “I’ll kill them both.”
Awakened
Ilior retired to his room under Selena’s orders. He didn’t seem well, and not even the news that she’d be taking on a new captain and crew on Huerta did much to bolster his spirits.
“Go,” she told him. “Rest. I promise you, my training with Accora is over. I’m in no danger.” She forced a smile. Not until Bacchus. She expected him to have more questions but he only nodded and trudged to his room.
As she watched him go a tiny sliver of dread wedged itself in her heart. Something’s not right. She’d never known her strong friend to look so weathered, not even when suffering the cold of the Ice Isles. He’s tired. It’s been a long strange voyage.
The thought did little to mollify her worry, and she still had yet to tell Julian that his commission was over. Her heart ached in a way that was impossible to ignore any longer.
But instead of tracking Julian down, she distracted herself by helping the Yuk’ri clean the shattered greenhouse. Accora retired to her own chambers, but Ori was there. Selena couldn’t help but shiver as she watched the Haru sweep up the pile of dead insects.
“Accora must be distraught at the destruction of her collection,” Selena said, for the sake of conversation.
Ori turned her sightless gaze on her. “Once, she might have been. But you’re here now and her most fervent wish is almost come to fruition. All else—and all others—no longer matter.”
Selena righted a bench and sat down on it. “What will you do after this is all over? When she is gone?”
“It has not been discussed.”
“Will you return to the Haru cloister?”
“No,” Ori said. “I’ve walked that path already and will not retrace my steps. There is nothing for me there.”
“What of your home isles?”
“My home.” Ori said the word as if tasting something long forgotten but familiar. “The Ho Sun Empire was my home. Isle Sun-Ka. But once one chooses the Haru, there is no going back. I doubt very much my family would welcome me anyway.”
“Why not?” Selena asked, glancing quickly at her empty eye sockets.
Ori sat beside Selena on the bench. “Shaizan is the god of the Ho Sun Empire. The moon god is honored among the sailors and fishermen, but it is not held so high as Shaizan, the God of the Seeing Eye. When my magic revealed itself as healing rather than reading the stones or far-dreaming, my future was forever altered.”