Page 15 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
The seraphin reacts to that, and the water of the bay…thatreacts to the seraphin.
Almost instantly, the water rises up, lashing at me like a weapon, a sudden riptide tearing my legs from under me. I go beneath the water, and I swallow a mouthful of it. I can’t even think enough to use the elements to let me breathe.
The water continues to batter me. The seraphin thrashes to be free of me. I see a funnel starting in the water, and I don’t have the skill or the power to undo it, not in the face of the natural control of the seraphin. It’s all I can do to scramble backfrom it, grabbing onto the seabed, pulling myself back toward the shore. I manage to get my arms onto dry land, pulling myself onto the shore, gasping for air as I drag myself out of reach of the water.
The water of the bay is like a living thing, frantic and storm-tossed, despite there being no storm. The seraphin is swimming at the heart of it, scales flickering with purples and reds, tail snapping back and forth.
Slowly, the violence of the water starts to abate. The bay calms and the seraphin turns in a lazy circle, flicking its tail once more, then diving, disappearing beneath the waves.
I lie there, trying to make sense of what just happened. I know from the stories about them that seraphin are sensitive to emotions, that they are fickle and potentially dangerous. Clearly, my confused emotions have disturbed it to the point where it is prepared to lash out.
Maybe there’s a lesson in that. Some of the strongest things I’ve done with water have been when my emotions have been heightened. Maybe mastering them is the route to fully mastering what I can do.
I laugh at the thought of it. That’s one thing that is going to beanythingbut easy.
For now, pretending to be Orion’s girlfriend has just seen me tossed about like a cork on the sea. I only hope that it hasn’t cost me the seraphin for good.
Chapter EIGHT
“Tack to port!” Orion calls out, and the crew of our small boat hurries to obey.
The problem is that most of them don’t know what they’re doing. They come from the kind of social classes that have servants to handle the actual sailing, while they stand at the rails, enjoying the view.
In a naval battle, even a mock one, that’s a dangerous encumbrance.
“Let me,” I say, grabbing a rope from a girl named Cara. She’s bright and pretty, with flowing dark hair, and she seems to have some affinity for the wind, making it fill our sails even though we are facing into the breeze. But she clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing with boats.
I tie off the line she’s trying to pull on, hauling on a different one instead, shifting the configuration of sails as we turn under Orion’s command. Of course he’s the one in charge; everyone hangs on his every word anyway, so it makes sense that, for this, he captains our little vessel.
We swoop around the side of one of our fleet of foes and Cara reaches out with her elemental powers to push too much wind into their sails at the wrong angle. The other boat teeters for a second and then topples, capsizing to dunk its hapless crew into the bay where we’re practicing. That’s the aim of this exercise: the last one with the crew still out of the water wins.
Our crew consists of me, Orion, Cara, Nissa, and Aria, who is scampering up and down the rigging with the speed of a squirrel, clearly enjoying herself immensely. She whoops as our opponents go over. Nissa winces, clearly hoping that no one is hurt.
My own feelings fall somewhere in between. I like that we’re doing well, succeeding at the latest challenge. I like the feeling that we’re learning how to use our control of the elements together. Idon’tlike that we’re being pitted against our fellow students and that the only way for us to succeed is for them to fail.
Another boat closes on us, and rather than skim past in an exchange of elemental attacks, this one tries to lock up with us. One of our fellow classmates reaches out, and the ropes of their craft seem to come alive, tying their boat to ours.
They storm aboard, and it’s hand-to-hand fighting for a moment. I assume they think they can overpower us, since they have five strong young men as their crew. They clearly haven’t thought it through enough. Orion steps in, grappling with one of them, then tossing him over the side with ease. Aria scrambles around, feints high, kicks low, and trips a second, sending him stumbling enough for Nissa to push him overboard.
One of them comes at me. I realize just how much I’ve learned in my time here when I twist aside from his grab, throwing a punch that doubles him over. He swings a blow of his own at me, but I manage to block it. Orion is there then, grabbing him and tossing him over the side.
That leaves two. One is fighting Nissa, the other Cara. Orion lunges for the one attacking Nissa while Aria moves to disentangle the ropes holding our craft to theirs, which leaves me to go help Cara. I rush in, trying to knock her attacker aside.
I’m too slow. He hauls her to the side of the boat, lifting her bodily, then dropping her into the water the way he might have thrown a sack overboard. Cara lets out a shriek as she hits the cold water, but as far as I can tell, she isn’t injured. I slam into her attacker from behind, my momentum enough to send him tumbling over the railing after his victim at the same time Nissa and Orion shove the last attacker overboard.
I want to reach down to help Cara back aboard, but I can’t. That’s one of the rules of the game. Once someone is overboard, they’re out of the battle.
We finish freeing ourselves from the other boat, then swing out into the bay again. By this point, there is only one other boat that still has its crew. To my annoyance, it’s the boat with Ash and Sybil aboard, along with a couple of others who seem to spend their time hanging around with them. Ash is in command, and he points to us, the boat surging forward.
We move to meet them, turning in the hope that we’ll be able to cut back and catch them by surprise. It’s harder sailing the boat with four people rather than five, but I’m confident that we can manage it.
“We’ll try to get a good angle to attack them,” Orion says. “Then Sera? Can you manipulate the waves under them?”
I nod, trying to look more confident than I feel. I haven’t seen the seraphin since it turned and fled from me, and without its presence, I don’t have quite the same easy command of the water. But it is still my gift, still the element I have an affinity with. I have to believe that I can do this.
“All right, you’re our main attack. Aria, you keep the boat on course. Nissa and I will try to keep their attacks off us.”
Orion looks determined, and I hope that he’ll be able to do it. I have no doubt that Ash and the others won’t hesitate to lash out with everything they have.
