Page 24 of Witchshadow
An explosion blasted behind her. Noise and splinters slashed into her. Vivia slammed against the balustrade. Then she fell overboard entirely. She crashed into the water, headfirst. So fast, she couldn’t comprehend what had happened. So fast, she could not gather breath before she plummeted beneath the waves.
But the water welcomed her—it always welcomed her—and without fully realizing what she did, she gathered her tides to her and launched upward again. Toward the sky, out of the sea, then through the air, droplets shedding.
She hit the deck and found a hole splintered through the main deck. Vaness was sprinting toward it, her arms out, her eyes huge and hair wild. A second later, the cannonball roared upward from the hole. Vaness spun, a whirling dance, and the shot launched back toward theLioness.
“It… did not… break through,” she panted, her gaze briefly catching Vivia’s. “We will not sink.”
Before Vivia could ask why it had hit them in the first place, Vaness was rushing toward the bow and cannon again. All the while, the wind-drum still pulsedba-doom-ba-doomand the Windwitches still heaved their power into the sails.
TheIrisflew.
More cannons blasted—not just from theLionessbut from other ships too. At least five others, now steering this way guided by magic and oars and well-aimed sails. Lights flared across the decks, sailors scurried, and their weapons fired as fast as pistols.
It was too much for Vaness to hold off. It shouldn’t have been—she had toppled an entire mountain—yet for some reason, this was proving too much. So Vivia bolted across the deck. No words for Sotar as she sprinted by. He might have been off the seas for almost two decades, but he wielded the tiller with natural ease. His shoulders bulged as he pushed into each movement. His voice boomed over the madness of battle.
Vivia reached Vaness, braced against the balustrade while two sailors shoved fresh shot into theIris’s cannon. They ignited the tip; light flared and hissed, unmagicked but deadly.
Then the cannon let loose, and iron rocketed outward, guided by Vaness’s magic. Which was wrong—all wrong. She should not have needed fire. She should have been able to launch those cannons by herself.
The cannonball connected with theLioness’s foremast. It snapped in two before colliding next with the mainmast.
“Hold steady!” Sotar bellowed, and theIrislisted sharply to starboard.
Vaness fell. Vivia lurched for her. Caught her right before she went overboard. She was cold to the touch, and when Vivia got her upright again, she found the woman’s face pale. Blood trickled from her nose.
“What’s wrong?” Vivia scooped an arm beneath her.
“Nothing.” Vaness tried to pull free. Tried to reach around and grab at new cannonballs whizzing this way, but Vivia held her back and shoved her at the closest sailor. “Take her,” she yelled.
“Get off me,” Vaness snarled, and suddenly she was at Vivia’s side, glaring death. “Do not interfere with me again,Majesty.” Then, as if to proveshe was fine despite the blood oozing down her chin, she lifted her hands and caught two more iron balls hurling there.
They slung about in midair in sharp, vicious arcs before flying back toward the decks they’d just abandoned and shooting right back into their cannons.
One explosion. Two. TheLionesswent up in flames. Which meant now was the time to sail. “Don’t pass out,” Vivia ordered, but the Empress only bared her teeth. They were bloodied too.
There was no time to fret over Vaness though or wonder what was wrong. TheLionesswas scrambling to stay afloat, and theIriscould not miss this chance.Come,Vivia thought, calling to the waters. Begging to the waves.Carry us high and carry us fast.
All around her, the water seemed to laugh, a buoyant lift in her chest. Of power, of the strength that only water—the most ancient of elements—could provide. It crashed against the hull. Hard enough to steal everyone’s legs. Not Vivia’s, though. She was ready for it, and as soon as the waves collided against the wood, she sent it charging onward. A steed that no one could stop.
TheIrisbarreled toward the sinkingLioness.Wind slammed against Vivia, magicked and natural and thick with spindrift and cannon smoke. Ahead, the warship was a mess of broken wood and blackened fumes. Fires licked across the deck, and sailors sped like rats.
TheIriswas headed straight for it. Faster, faster, higher, higher. And just as she knew he’d be able to do, Sotar leaned into the tiller at the perfect moment. Right when Vivia could see the Dalmotti captain, clad in gold, at his own tiller and bellowing orders while his ship dropped low.
He had witches—Wind and Tide—but they were focused on keeping their ship afloat. They could no more stop Vivia and her ship than they could stop Noden and the Hagfishes.
Screams flickered over the winds and waves. Eyes widened and soldiers gaped at the Nubrevnans rushing by. Vivia smiled. A real grin, alive and throbbing through her. No one could stop her. No one could stop her ship, the sails taut with wind and the hull carried on waves that reveled in their own speed.Faster, faster.
Wood streaked by. TheLionesswas twice the size of theIris,as was the second warship closing in on the starboard side. But it wouldn’t reach theIrisbefore she was past. No amount of magic could move a ship that did not want to be moved.
And theIriswanted to move. All Nubrevnan ships did—it was theirsecret. Why Nubrevnans had kept their shores safe for so long against the empires. They had sleek vessels whose sails were more like wings and whose planks and sails were crafted with Nubrevnan desperation. Not even the Shipbuilder Guild of Dalmotti could match that.
More cannons fired, but Vaness was ready this time. She caught, she launched, and her aim stayed true. Distantly, Vivia heard the drum still pounding and Sotar still shouting. But she was so deeply bound to the water that the beat was meaningless. The words incomprehensible.
Faster, faster.
On and on, the half-galley rode the waves, and on and on, the magic coursed through her. She might not have the Nihar rage—not truly—but she had this. A power no man could ever dominate.
It wasn’t until Sotar stood before her, his hands grabbing at her biceps, that Vivia finally allowed her power to soften. And it wasn’t until Vaness was shoving in front of him, her coat and blouse soaked in blood and her eyes aflame, that Vivia finally let her magic dry completely.
