As the woman’s fingers brushed hers, Elena startled. An electric shock, white-hot in its intensity, blazed up her arm, and she turned, half-confused, half-alarmed, to Maya. Her vision split. She saw the healer through not only her eyes, but herAgni’s. She saw the woman’s seven chakras lined up her spine, the rivers of energy flowing through her nadis like tributaries toward a sea.She saw the map of her.
“You look like you’re going to faint.”
As she spoke, Elena felt a deep and sudden compulsion to reach forward with her Agni and simplytapinto Maya, to bend those streams of heat to her and—
“Hello?” Maya waved a hand in front of her face. “Girl. Where is your mind?”
“A-Aadya,” she stuttered. “M-my name is Aadya.”
“And where are you from, Aadya?”
“I—I don’t remember.”
Maya sniffed. “Well, you’re not an islander. I can smell it on you. But he can’t. So keep your head down and just follow everyone else, and maybe you’ll survive the passage.”
“Where are we going?”
“Tsuana,” Maya said.
Elena froze. Tsuana? And the ship was namedLord of Sea…Phoenix Above! I’m on one of the killdoms.But how had she washed up here, this far out? The last thing she remembered was the cold impact of the waves, Samson’s distant scream. She had tried to kick to the surface, but then a shadowy tendril had grasped her ankle, and everything went dark.
She glanced down at her ankle, and sure enough, a purple gash marred her skin. Fresh stitches held the wound together. Gingerly, she peeled off her clothes and put on the rough uniform, trying not to wince as the pant leg scratched against her welt. Instinctively, she reached inside her pocket, and when she felt nothing, a cold realization hit her at once.
“My holopod,” she said, turning out the pockets. Yassen’s pod. The only memory she had left of him. She whirled around, searching the small room. “Where is it?”
Maya scowled and held up the silver disc, along with a small lotus.Jaya.Elena snatched both. She tapped the pod’s center, but no holos sprouted.
“It’s dead,” Maya said.
“No—no, it can’t— There must be a way to fix it—” Her fingers trembled as she clutched the pod. Distantly, she knew the pod was nothing but an array of holos and codes and maps, that it could not replace the living memory of Yassen himself, but something wild and ferocious beat against her chest. She felt as if she had lost Yassen all over again.
Maya placed her hand on top of Elena’s, her voice oddly gentle. “You can try to have it repaired once we land.”
Numbly, Elena slid the pod and lotus into her pocket. A dirty mirror hung along the far wall. She caught sight of her hair, a tangled mess, but what stopped her was the unfamiliar streak of blue.
She touched her hair. “Did you—”
“Blending in as an islander will make things easier. Now hurry.”
Elena nodded, her throat suddenly thick. She did not know if she should be appreciative of the woman’s resourcefulness or horrified by what it meant—that she was a prisoner on this ship.
Inwardly, she reached for her Agni. It throbbed at her attention, warm, sure. When Samson had tapped into her chakras, she had been overcomeby the sudden uncomfortable sensation of beingless. It was as if he had taken all the bright, essential parts of herself, fused them to his Agni, and lobbed it at the beast. And even as it writhed and screamed, Elena felt as if she had been listening from afar. With ears that were not hers, with a body that felt strange and foreign, as if she had diminished into a shade of herself she did not want to meet.
Maya tutted. “If you move any slower, they’ll chuck you back into the sea.”
Elena rose carefully. “How long have you been on this ship?”
“We’ve only been half a day sailing.”
Half a day, which means the bounders still have time to catch up.A frantic, furious hope fluttered in her stomach, fragile as moth wings. If only she could send them a signal. Let them know where she was…
Maya nudged her. “Did you hear me?”
“Huh?”
“Skies above, you’re deaf and slow.” Maya shook her head and opened the door. “Come, snail legs.”
Elena followed her out into the passageway. Soldiers—Sesharian recruits—walked stiffly by, their zeemirs strapped high upon their shoulders. Maya glowered as they passed.
