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“A vision?” Evya keeps her voice low. I nod. “What did you see?”
“We can’t run away.” I gasp out the words. “I saw what happens if we leave now.”
Evya’s brow furrows. I want to explain more, but I don’t want to give myself a chance to overthink what I saw or to talk myself out of the choice I am making.
“Don’t do this.” I step in front of Evya and glare up at the Seamother. “I didn’t come here to set your people at odds, and I certainly didn’t come to leave my mate without a tribe.”
The Seamother gives a deep growl as I say the word “mate,” but she stays silent, perhaps waiting to see what I will do next.
“I came here to challenge for Evya’s hand,” I go on, “and if I must face the maelstrom to keep the tribes from dividing, then I shall.”
“Keliveth, no.” Evya grabs my arm, her face wild with alarm. “No!”
I wrap my arm around her, still angling myself between her and her mother. Around us, the people murmur at our every word and movement. I press my forehead to hers and speak softly. “Let me do this, Evya. I have to. If we leave now, the tribes will divide, and if that happens they will die. I saw it, and I can’t ignore it, any more than I could have ignored the visions that brought us together in the first place.”
Evya shudders, holding back a sob. I hold her close as I describe the vision, all the while aware of the Seamother looming over us.
The Seamother’s eyes light with a cruel gleam. “So this is how the Creator treats His prophets.”
Evya hisses through her teeth. “No, Mother. This is howyoutreat them. You could stop all of this if you wanted to.”
“Silence.” The word falls like a stone. There’s no point in protesting any further. The vision still rings in my mind. Every temptation to turn around and leave with Evya dissipates as I remember the sight of the world burning.
The Seamother grabs my shoulder and shoves me toward the cliff. I catch hold of Evya and press in for one last, desperate kiss. A growl rumbles from Evya’s throat. She twines her arms around me as if daring the world to tear me away. One moment I’m lost in her firm embrace and the taste of fire and salt water on my lips. The next, the Seamother yanks me away from her.
There’s a shuffle of confusion as I’m jostled into line with the other contenders. My senses seem to blur as my mind races to piece together a strategy. A way to survive this, to make it back to my mate. Vaguely, I’m aware of the Seamother shouting out the order to light the beacon fire. Drums pound out a fateful beat as flames leap from a bonfire built at a nearby point where the ground slopes down to the water’s edge.
A heavy hand lands on my shoulder. My gaze snaps up to meet Arcorlan’s piercing golden eyes. The Fethani warrior looks even more imposing than usual, with his tall frame covered in patterns of red paint and strands of shark teeth around his neck. When he speaks, though, there’s a warmth in his voice that sounds almost like respect. “Whatever you saw must have been terrible, if it drives you into the maelstrom.”
“Are you saying I wouldn’t have had the nerve to do this otherwise?” I manage a grin, a little of my usual bravado emerging in the face of a challenge.
I expect a friendly taunt in return, one rival to another, as he did the other night at the Shantura feast. Instead, there’s no trace of brotherly teasing in his face. He looks deathly serious.
“I’m saying—” The drums pound out a new rhythm, fierce and deadly, cutting off Arcorlan’s words. He steps back and walks to the edge of the cliffs. “When you land, swim down as deep and as quickly as possible. The currents are strongest on the surface.”
Surprise washes over me. I open my mouth to thank him, but a chant rises from the onlookers, drowning out my words. I don’t hear the order to jump, but all at once the rest of the contenders are diving over the edge and into the chaos below. Evya’s shriek of protest is echoed by a chorus of angry shouts. There’s no time for thought.
I leap.
The world drops away. For a terrible moment there’s nothing but cold wind and the sickening rush of falling. Needles of icy pain splinter through me as the waves take me. I grit my teeth and force my limbs to move. As I do, I strip off my robes to give my limbs freer movement, leaving only my trousers.
I try to swim down. If I can get below the waves that churn on the surface, maybe the deeper waters will be easier to navigate.
Yet I cannot discern which way is down. The water is thick with murk, and each stroke leads me into another current that buffets me in every direction. One moment I make headway, and then another wave catches me and tosses me up toward the surface or near the cliff wall.
Let me go!I send the plea out into the water. A foolish request. It isn’t as though the water will answer me, or even hear me.
Yet somehow, the currents ease for the space of a few pounding heartbeats. I dive down, farther and farther into the fathomless darkness of the maelstrom. There’s no sign of the other contenders, and no flash of light from a rune-lantern. I look up, barely making out the orange glow of the beacon fire on the shore.
The deep rumble of the sea’s voice reverberates through my mind, swallowing all my thoughts. The runes on my skin burn with icy fire. My mind and senses flood with the sea. For a terrible, incredible moment I can sense everything around me—each wave that strikes the cliff wall, each jagged stone that waits at the bottom of the trench, and the brutal, striving presence of the other five contenders.
No. Only four now. My heart twinges as one spark of energy is snuffed out. The rage that Evya felt about the challenge sweeps through me as the reality of death looms even closer. This is pointless.
But this is where I am called.
I will not question that.
I reach out my awareness more. All at once I can sense the faint, pulsing magic of the rune-lantern. The object is far, but I know which way to swim now—and none of the other contenders are near it yet.
