“Go! Go! Go!” Julian cried.
Selena scrambled up the ladder as Julian fought the lone merkind that tried to climb over the side. By the time Selena was aboard the Storm, Julian was alone in the skiff and the waters around it were eerily still. Svoz and the merkind were nowhere to be seen.
Whistle threw down a rope to Julian. He tied it to the skiff and then climbed up the side himself.
Ilior had set Niven down on deck and the young man’s eyes fluttered. “I heard screaming. Did they come again? Did they…?”
“They’re gone,” Selena said. “You’re safe.” She looked to the waters. “Svoz…”
“He died fulfilling his duty to protect you,” Ilior said, unable to conceal the tinge of relief in his voice that the sirrak was gone.
Julian sheathed his blades. “We have to get this ship back on course and out of these waters.” He loped up to the quarterdeck, barking orders along the way to his crew that seemed relieved to be told what to do.
The sun slipped below the horizon and the night swept over the sky. The crescent moon hung like a silver smile, disembodied and sinister. Selena had Ilior bring Niven to her cabin, and offered one final prayer of thanks this day that it had no porthole from which to see the Bazira moon.
The Healer’s Story
Selena knelt on the floor, setting out clean rags, a bottle of vinegar, and surgical implements on her bunk. The Aluren adherent lay on the cabin’s other small bunk, watching her with wide eyes and a green tinge to his cheeks. The Black Storm bounced on choppy waves; the lantern hanging from the deckhead swayed back and forth, casting erratic shadows. Timbers creaked with the ship’s every movement, and though he smiled readily, Selena could see Niven’s eyes darting between her and the metal pincers on her tray over and over.
“I am Niven Mattias,” the young man said. “I may have already told you my name. I can’t quite remember; the night has been so eventful. Have I? Told you my name?”
“You have.” Selena said, taking up a cloth. “Try to relax. This will hurt and I’m sorry, but I have to take the ball out before I can close the wound. Talking will help make it more bearable.”
“Will it?” he asked, pleading.
She smiled. “No, but I’ve been saying that for years.”
“So have I.” He laughed and then sucked his teeth as she dabbed his injury. “I was on Isle Joril when I was kidnapped by pirates,” he said through a held breath. He blew air out of puffed cheeks when she removed the cloth. “Kidnapped by pirates. Heh. It sounds like someone else’s life.”
Selena smiled. With his light hair and eyes, Niven could be her younger brother, had she had one. I should have liked to have had a brother. Or family of any kind besides my father. And my mother. She silenced the thought before it could lead to unpleasant memories and focused on her patient.
“I’ve never heard of Isle Joril,” she said. “Where is it? On the Edge?”
“Yes. In the Farendus Isles…the Forgotten Isles, some call it. Since the war I’ve been on the Eastern Edge to help, to heal. There are many living on those islands who are still suffering the war, even after all this time.”
“So I’ve heard,” Selena replied. “But what I hadn’t known was that there were Aluren so far from Western Watch this long after the war. Did the High Reverent—it would have been Coronus back then—did Coronus decree you should do this work?”
“No, I chose for myself to stay. There were a few of us left over from the war, scattered all over. Some chose to return to Watch. Others, like myself, wanted to help.”
“You must have been a child.”
Niven smiled. “I am only a few years younger than you.”
“I was eighteen when I joined the battle,” Selena said.
“And I fifteen. But I am no Paladin, only a Healer.”
“Only? Don’t diminish yourself or the god’s gifts,” Selena said gently. “There is nothing small about bringing relief to those in pain.”
“As you are doing for me,” he said, with a grateful smile. “I’m content with Healing. I’ve never been much of a warrior. Probably hurt myself worse if they gave me a sword.” He laughed weakly and the laugh degenerated into a pained cough.
Selena squeezed his hand. “Why were you out there for so long?”
Niven closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the sky blue was clouded with memories. “It was near the war’s end when I took passage with an Alliance convoy to the Eastern Edge. You were already at war. The Temple was all but empty. We were the last to Hear the god and join the cause. We were all that was left. And they sent us too, on Alliance brigs. There were ten ships when we sailed the southern route across the Heart Waters. In less than a month, there were three. The Zak’reth were ferocious; it was all we could do to seek asylum on Isle Eleria, also in the Forgotten Isles. In two turns of the moon, those three ships fell too. Defeat was assured. And then…”
“And then Isle Calinda happened,” Selena said.
Niven struggled to lift his head up from the pillow, his eyes shining. “The war ended. Thanks to you.” He gripped her hand in his. “Paladin Koren, I’ve wanted to say…it is a great honor to meet you.”
“An honor?” Selena wrung out the cloth and tossed it on her trunk that served as a table in her small cabin. “Is it an honor to meet the Tainted One?”
Niven sank back. “Is that what they call you? Surely not…”
“You must have heard of what happened to Isle Calinda’s people,” Selena said, more harshly than she intended.
Niven nodded. “Hundreds of innocent lives were lost in the war,” he said. “Thousands. And if the Zak’reth had continued, thousands more would have joined them. The tragedy of Calinda is also its redemption.”
His youthful, open face and how his eyes were filled with warmth for her. His words sounded comforting as well, and had she not worn the wound, perhaps she might have believed them; or at least told herself she could believe them and so find some peace.
“I appreciate that, Niven, but the god did not see it that way.”
“I honor and worship the Shining face for the many blessings it has bestowed on us. But…may it forgive me…” Niven swallowed. “I don’t understand why it would grant you the power of the wave and then punish you after.”