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“I shouldn’t. You’ve been nothing but trouble for me. But…” He shrugged helplessly. “You’re Amily’s. And I love you for her sake, despite my better judgment.”
I stared at him in shock.
“I know it’s you, Honor.” Kallus leaned across the table at me, his eyes sparking. “You really thought you were more clever than me, you foolish little girl.”
“How stupid of me. You’re right.” Kallus’s insults shook me in a way that no one else ever did. I lifted my glass of water in response, as if to toast him. “I’m just a girl in need of rescue. So rescue me… I need Caldren alive and well, and Ebba is after him. Perhaps if I assemble the Scourge stone, I can stop chaos.”
He scoffed. “You can’t stop chaos. Caldren is already dead.”
The words burned. I swallowed, murmuring the spell to change my face back. His own face shifted in response, sadness coming into his gaze. Until he showed me Amily’s ghost, I hadn’t known how much I looked like her. “Help me. Please, Uncle.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Honor, but I’m not going to give the Scourge stone to you. When I have the power I need, I’ll use it to look after you. But you’re not ready.”
“Aren’t I?” I poured my glass out onto the table between us, the water pooling out. He watched it, frowning. And then the water trickled rapidly across the table, moving as if it were sent, and it fell off the side of the table, raining down in a steady rush of droplets.
He rose to his feet, sensing the dark magic but not quite sure yet what it was. His gaze was fixed on the eerie water. “Honor, what did you do?”
“We are family. You know that I’ll do whatever I must to win, just like you.” A bitter edge came into my voice as I added, “I’mready.”
Kallus stared at the trickling water in horror, then raised his gaze to meet mine. “You sent Ebba after me.”
“Sorry.”
A wave of water crashed through the window, joining the little trickle of water on the floor. Suddenly there was two inches of water on the tilting floor, and the whole boat keeled to one side.
The water moved like a sentientthing, crashing into Kallus. Kallus fell to his knees as the water moved fluidly up his body, dragging him down, and then covered his face.
Regret twisted at my gut. I couldn’t trust Kallus, but I hated seeing him hurt, too. His eyes bulged, fixed on mine. He tried to say something, maybe my name, and water flowed into his mouth. And down his throat, and he choked.
While Kallus was distracted fighting for his life against the deadly assassin, I snatched his pendant away. He grabbed after it, but I was already spinning away. I plucked the box from the table and checked inside it. There were my mother’s precious items.
Kallus was moving his hands, forming a spell. Another wave of water crashed through the porthole, but Kallus had already worked his spell. He rose up in the air, so it didn’t matter.
“How dare you try to take away the last thing I have of my sister,” he said, his eyes blazing.
“She’s my mother!” I shouted back.
Then the water swept me under too.
Swirling bubbles rolled around me. The water was dark and fathomless, and I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I kept a desperate grip on the objects I’d tried so hard to obtain as I whipped my arms out, trying to swim. It felt as if I were being sucked into the depths. The sound of the ship breaking apart reached me even through the water.
Suddenly, something pressed against me from beneath. Under my palms, I felt slippery skin, and then we broke the surface. As I drew long desperate breaths, my panic ebbed.
The dolphin beneath me moved swiftly through the water, carrying me toward shore. I let my forehead rest on its skin. The moonlight fell across the water, parts of it still peaceful and still even as the sea claimed the ship.
“Thank you,” I whispered to the dolphin.
It stopped, and I realized the water was growing shallow. I patted it goodbye and rolled off its side. I sank up to my chest, treading water until my feet found the rocky ground underneath.
I turned back as the ship disappeared under the water. Kallus’s sailors were calling to each other as they tried to drag their friends up from the waves. The dolphins skirted far around them as they moved through the water back out to sea.
Kallus clawed his way through the water frantically a dozen yards away, trying to drag himself up. He was weighed down by his elaborate, heavy clothes, or maybe Ebba was dragging him down beneath the sea. I glanced behind him at the rowboats. His sailors were coming to rescue him, but they were still far away.
An enormous wave materialized over one of the sailboats. Ebba. The sailors looked up in horror before it crashed down, splintering their boat into a thousand pieces.
“Honor!” His voice sounded desperate. Then his words were lost as he slipped beneath the waves. Sputtering, he broke the water again, but he didn’t dare open his mouth call again. Was Ebba dragging him down?
I didn’t know what to do.
