Page 16 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
We close in on our opponents’ craft. They turn, and for a moment, I think that they’re planning to ram us. I reach out with my emotions, trying to stay calm, trying to learn the lesson of the seraphin as I connect to the water around me.
I can feel it. I know that the water will do what I want it to do. I know that I’ll be able to summon a wave to swamp their boat, capsizing it and dumping the crew of the small boat into the bay.If Orion and Nissa can keep them off me long enough, we can win this.
Only I realize, as their boat gets closer, that it’s not aiming for us. It’s aiming for the spot where Cara is treading water, waiting for the conclusion of the battle. At first, I think it must be a mistake on Ash’s part, but I can see him at the prow of the boat, pointing the way right toward her. He means to run her down in the water, and if the boat hits her… it could kill her.
I know that he is doing it deliberately to distract us, to force us to focus on saving Cara rather than defending ourselves. It is a deliberate ploy, and one we should probably ignore if we want to win, but in truth, there’s no decision to make. I take the energy that I might have used to swamp their boat and turn it into a wave that pushes Cara out of the way instead, sweeping her from the path of the oncoming vessel.
I try to gather the strength for a second piece of water manipulation, but our foes’ boat is already on us. Ash raises a hand, and the water near the prow of our boat rises up, tilting us backward. Sybil makes a gesture and fire leaps up from the deck. Orion manages to squash that manipulation, but it’s another distraction. Their boat turns, and it slams into ours now. With the prow raised like that, we have no chance to stop it.
I feel the moment when our boat starts to capsize, tipping slowly, the angle of the deck increasing little by little, forming a slope where it’s impossible to get any grip. I see the others tumble from the boat, hitting the water one by one. Aria falls out of the rigging, Nissa slides down the deck. Even Orion loses his footing, hitting the water with a splash.
I can’t hold on any longer. I tumble from the deck, plunging into the cold waters of the bay, anger hitting me even as the water does. I swim to the surface and see Ash and the others celebrating on their boat, a triumphant look on his face as he glares my way.
It takes an effort to right the boat, collect everyone, and head back to shore. Ash and his crew are there already, along with Elemental Mistress Halan. The journey back to shore has done nothing to reduce my anger.
“You could have killed Cara!” I snap as I approach.
“But we didn’t,” Sybil says, with a smile.
“You think that’s an answer?” I demand.
Ash shrugs. “We would have turned aside if you didn’t react.”
I don’t believe that for a moment.
Elemental Mistress Halan steps in. “The tactic worked.Hadthey killed a student with their recklessness, they would be punished for it, but they did not. Instead, they won. There’s a lesson in that. Sometimes, in war, it will be necessary to make sacrifices.”
“So in a training game, I was meant to risk someone’s life to win?”
“You’re meant to learn the lessons the challenge has to teach,” Elemental Mistress Halan says. “For now, your opponents have won within the rules, and you have lost.”
“But they—”
“Enough! Remember your place here. Perhaps helping to clear every scrap of damaged boat from the bay will give you time to reflect on that.”
It’s clearly meant to be a punishment, but it’s also a reminder of just how harsh, how ruthless, this place can be. I set off back toward the bay.
Cara steps down from our boat as I pass it. She puts a hand on my shoulder.
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you didn’t decide to win this one at any cost. Thank you, Sera. I’m pretty sure theywouldn’thave turned.”
I’m sure too. I just can’t say it without risking the elemental mistress’s wrath.
“Come on,” Cara says. “I’ll help with the clean-up.”
Chapter NINE
“It’s good to be alone,” Orion says, as we walk down one of Nautica’s paths, arm in arm.
One of the easiest ways to keep the illusion going that Orion and I are seeing one another is to take walks together around the islands of Nautica. The archipelago might be relatively small, just enough to hold the many buildings of this facet of he Elemental Hall, but it still has plenty of hidden places and twisting paths.
I’m determined to explore them, not least because I want to check all the hidden coves and beaches for any sign of the seraphin. I feel somehow emptier when it isn’t close.
“I think we’re out of sight of anyone now,” I say.
Orion looks at me like he’s trying to remember what that means, then lets go of my hand. He looks a little reluctant. I have to admit, I feel some of the same reluctance, and that makes me wonder just how far we’re pushing this fake couple thing. It would be too easy to let it spill over, to allow it to turn into something real.
It’s hard to deny that Orion is good-looking, intelligent, confident. I should hate that he’s the richest and most important person in the whole Elemental Hall, that he has a whole legion of followers among the other initiates who either want to be him or be with him, but somehow I don’t. Maybe it’s the part where he doesn’t seem to like any of that, where he even seems embarrassed by it.
