Page 76 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
Its glow cast an eerie light through the murk of the Maelstrom. The air around it hummed with a magic so strong it consumed me. I could hardly concentrate on steering, the intensity of the Crystal was so extreme. Remembering my training, I separated myself from my own senses. Breathed deeply. Pretended it was nothing more than a regular artifact.
“We’re almost there,” I said, my heart pounding as Marek continued to steady us but no longer battling back the natural currents. It must be difficult for him, not to guide us in the way he knew but instead to allowTidechaserto be pulled closer and closer to the center of the storm.
“Ready yourself, Issa. This will not be easy.”
The ship lurched violently as we crossed into the epicenter of the storm, waves crashing higher, the winds screaming. At the heart of it all, the Crystal remained. Unyielding.
Marek reached out in his first attempt to retrieve the Crystal. He encapsulated the water around it, but as soon as he did, it dropped back into the sea. Again and again he tried, and failed.
My arms were getting tired. My hands raw with the pressure ofTidechaser’s wheel constantly pulling against me. I could tell Marek was getting tired too. But this was no time to give up.
The Crystal’s magic was almost oppressive. I battled not just the wheel but the energy it exuded, as if warning me to stay away. Or maybe that wasn’t the Crystal at all but the Depths surrounding it.
“We need to be closer,” I said, realizing Marek’s last attempt could have seen him retrieve the Crystal if the ship was nearer. Turning the wheel and angling us into the waves, I watched as Marek tried again. This time, the Crystal’s glow came closer and closer as the water surrounding it, like a clear, liquid box, held steady. Bringing it toward him, Marek maneuvered the Crystal until he reached out and grabbed it, its water container falling to the deck below.
“Got it,” he yelled, securing it into the pouch at his side, the one that held his mother’s pearl. “Hold the wheel steady, Issa. Keep us aligned with the current. Don’t fight it.”
I did as he instructed, the ship gliding in the direction the Crystal had been. We were going through the Depths, and not back out of them. Trusting Marek’s decision, I did as he told me.
“Hold on,” he called, running back to the bow. “I’m clearing the path ahead. Just stay on course, Issa.”
Perhaps it was because we had the Crystal. Or because we had learned to navigate the Depths without fighting them. Whatever the reason, despite my exhaustion—and I assumed Marek felt the same—our path out was difficult, but not impossible.
“Keep your eyes on the horizon,” Marek yelled. “Adjust as the waves come.”
We sailed, the oppressive magic no longer encapsulatingTidechaseras if it were to swallow us whole, and little by little, the waves calmed. The winds began to die down and eventually, the skies cleared.
Somehow, we had done it.
Together, Marek and I had retrieved the Wind Crystal and survived the Maelstrom Depths. But… as a distant shore appeared on the horizon, one that appeared desolate, abandoned, Marek still seemed uneasy.
“What is that?” I asked. “Where are we?”
Marek’s expression was not reassuring.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know.”
30
MAREK
Perhaps, after facing down death once today, I should not take us ashore. But as a navigator, I simply had to know more. What was this place? I had sailed the whole of Elydor, many times, and was certain this was not any of the islands off its coast. For starters, the air was different here, thick with an unspoken magic I couldn’t quite place.
“Do you sense anything?”
I could already tell she did.
“Aye. But it’s…”
“Different than usual?”
Issa nodded.
Despite assuring me she was fine, I could tell she was anything but. Remembering my first violent storm, and magnifying that to account for her humanness, in addition to the Depths being much more than any ordinary storm, and I could empathize. Going back through the Maelstrom Depths was not an option. Not one that I relished, at least.
I love you.
We hadn’t discussed it yet. Or the fact that Issa had put her life at risk to help me. There was no doubt, without her, had I fetched the Crystal alone, I would not have made it out alive.
