Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows (25 page)

He laughed. “I got my independence from her.
She knows that in the end I will do what I want. How do you think
she won Father’s heart?”

I frowned, uncertain. “You mean her parents
didn’t want her to marry a king?”

He shook his head. “On the contrary. She was
a duchess with some of the biggest lands in Lysus. They wanted her
to marry King Raden, who was also a prince at the time.”

“
The King of Lysus?” I said
in surprise.

He nodded with a laugh. “Leave it to my
mother to do the exact opposite and marry the prince of Lumini
instead. She knows better than to think she can control who I
marry.”

I laughed, relieved. “And what of Princess
Tiseria? She’ll be heartbroken.”

He grinned. “Oh, I’m sure she’s got a backup
just waiting to better his position in life. Hopefully her mother
won’t drive him away like her last several suitors.”

I remembered conversation between the
Princess and her mother and shuddered; I couldn’t blame Axon in the
least for not considering her marriage material.

Axon settled back on the bed and I rested my
head on his shoulder. He bent his arm to trace patterns softly
across my cheek. The ship rose and fell underneath us, and before
long we both slept with the gentle lullaby of the lapping waves
against the hull.

Living outside of the cage on a ship made
traveling across the ocean much more pleasant. I spent part of the
day sleeping and the rest learning how to climb the rigging, set a
sail, and steer by the shadow compass. I slept half the night, then
spent the other half learning how to navigate by the stars, read
lantern signals from the other ships, and identify sea creatures by
the sounds they made.

One night I awoke to sonar pulses against
the hull. I put my hand against the wood and found that it
practically hummed with the sound. I ran to the deck and found
Captain Josto, a Nathos who wore his dark hair in long, looping
braids and had silver bars woven through his ears that glowed with
the moonlight. He smiled at the look on my face and leaned over the
deck railing. I joined him and saw dark shapes spotting the ocean
around all six ships for miles in every direction.

“
What are they?” I
breathed.

“
Cora.” He said the word
reverently, as one might whisper about the heavens.

“
What are-“

He cut me off with the simple instruction,
“Watch.”

I turned back to the sea creatures just as
the humming from below rose to unite in one single, beautiful
chord. I couldn’t count the octaves, but the notes ranged from both
ends of my hearing spectrum and probably well beyond. The note
hummed in my heart, through my body and bones until I felt like the
ship, alive in every fiber with the one note song.

Then the humming stopped as if on cue. Every
sound died away abruptly as though someone had put cotton in my
ears. I missed it and longed to hear and feel it again, as if I
suddenly realized I had not been quite alive until I felt every
cell alight with the same chord.

But before I could miss it too deeply, the
great beasts in the ocean began to glow. The light was soft at
first, faint yellow, orange, and pink as though brushed with dawn
from the edges of the horizon. Then the colors deepened, became
rich in the middle and pulsing out to the edges of the creatures
and outlining just how big they really were. The animals closest to
us were far bigger than our ship, and by the pulsing I could tell
that those further away were even larger.

They were perfectly round, like the bornons
at dinner, but their backs were curved so that water pooled in the
middle like a shallow cup. With every pulse of light, the water
quivered and sparkled, catching the light of the moon and
reflecting back the light of the sea creatures until it looked like
a thousand colored moons floated around us.

Slight movement caught the corner of my eye
and I looked down to see thin, fleshy material moving at the edge
of the cora closest to us. It waved gently in the water like
seaweed, propelling the animal along in a soft circle as though it
danced to the note that had long since faded away. The cora pulsed
with brilliant red light ebbing and flowing from its center. The
lights were mesmerizing and soothing; just looking at them made me
feel so much lighter as though the patterns took the worry from my
soul.

The colors vanished as abruptly as the note
had. Without another sound, the cora lowered gently in the water
and disappeared beneath the ocean waves. I glanced over to see
every Nathos and Duskie sailor on the ship staring out after them
and wondered if they felt the same longing I did for the creatures
to return.

“
They were supposedly
extinct,” Captain Josto said from beside me, breaking the silence
with his deep voice. “Killed off long ago. I never thought I’d see
one.”

“
What would kill something
that big?” I asked.

The Captain turned to me with a look of
peace and relaxation in his usually wild eyes. “There’s fish in
these waters that would make one of those cora look like a tadpole,
and this ship a flea. Be grateful it’s the cora we saw and not
their fiber-loving relatives.”

The thought sent a thrill of terror down my
spine, but it couldn’t quite chase away the peace that still filled
me from the humming and soothing colors of the giant sea creatures.
I climbed a rigging and knew I wasn’t the only one who hoped that
they would come back.

Chapter 28

Pyth shook me awake just before dawn on the
third day. “Commander, we have a problem.”

I sat up in the tiny bunkhouse that roomed
the Duskies between shifts. It was strangely empty. “What is it,
Pyth?” I blinked groggily. We had finished our shift with the
fifteen dusk Duskies not long ago and the dawn Duskies should be
going on shortly, but shouldn’t have awoken yet.

Pyth’s voice fell to a whisper. “I think we
might be facing a mutiny, Commander.”

My heart skipped a beat and I grabbed my
sword from where it hung on a hook by my hammock. “What are you
talking about?”
Pyth dropped his eyes. “I overheard the dawn Duskies planning to
take over the ship and turn the other Duskies against us as well.
Yaden is leading them.”

I shook my head. “That’ll destroy everything
we’ve accomplished between the races.”

“
I know,” he agreed, a
spark of fire in his green eyes. “We’ve got to stop
them.”

“
But how?” I glanced at the
sky outside the open cabin door. It blanketed the ocean in a velvet
black touched with gray at the horizon. Dread filled my heart. “The
Nathos will retire soon, and the Luminos won’t rise until the sun
does.” I met Pyth’s eyes. “That’s when they’ll attack.”

He nodded, the same dread echoed on his
face.

Steel filled my veins. “Then we have to talk
to them. We have to convince them that they’re wrong.”

“
And how will we do
that?”

I slid my sword into Dathien’s ring. “Any
way we can.”

Pyth followed me down the hall that led to
the Luminos’ quarters. The door to their bunks and the captain’s
cabin were closed and a quick check inside showed no Duskies and
the Luminos still safe and sleeping. We shut the door and climbed
to the deck that was now empty of Nathos and suspiciously bare of
Duskies. I leaned against the mast and waited. The swell of nerves
that had always risen in my chest at Firen Caves before a Sathen
attack made me edgy and I fought to stand still.

We listened to the Nathos turn in for the
day, and I wondered briefly how thirty Duskies planned to control
over two hundred Luminos and Nathos soldiers. The simple solution
would be to wipe out each race when they were at their weakest. My
stomach ached from more than just the roll of the waves. Footsteps
sounded up the ladder. Pyth and I glanced at each other. I cleared
my sword of the ring and leaned against the mast with the blade
resting casually in my hand.

The Duskies stopped as soon as they saw us.
The leader, Yaden, a big, burly man with dark skin and jagged gray
marks along his cheeks stepped forward. “What are you doing
here?”

I shrugged. “Just doing our duty.”

The Duskie glared. “You were with the dusk
crew. Your shift ended several hours ago.”

I met his gaze. “So did yours.”

His eyes widened and a faint blush of color
rose to his cheeks. Then he shook his head and stepped forward. I
lifted my blade so that the point touched his chest. He stopped and
blinked at me in surprise. I glanced past him at the other Duskies.
“You really think this is the right choice to make?”

When no one answered, I lowered my sword and
ran a finger on the back edge of the curve. “You might think you’re
helping your families, taking a ship, going home conquerors and
perhaps what, leading the Duskies in a revolt again the Nathos and
Luminos?”

The thick doubt in my voice made several of
them drop their eyes. I took a breath to ease the tightness in my
chest. “Do you realize what that would do? Do you know how long it
took to get the Luminos and Nathos to trust us? And you’re going to
throw it all away because one lamak told you it could be better?”
Yaden glowered at the name, but it did as I wanted and made several
around him step back a bit.

I met the eyes of all who would look at me.
“What do you really think would happen when you went home? You
really think they’ll let you just sail back in and return to your
lives like nothing has happened, or honor you like soldiers
returning in glory?” I shook my head. “No, because the men aboard
this boat have lives and families waiting for them, too. They
deserve to go home just as much as you do.”

No one met my gaze, but I saw hands drop
from hilts and more distance form between the Duskies and Yaden. I
softened my tone. “I understand what you’ve been through, believe
me. We fought together, and I know how brave each and every one of
you is. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.” I opened a hand. “Rethink
your actions and remember that things in Lumini are changing.
Duskies are gaining equality with the Luminos and Nathos. They
respect you, and our people are meant to work together. We are
stronger as one people. Don’t give them a reason to doubt us. Your
families deserve their trust.”

Several Duskies glanced up at me and the
humility and embarrassment on their faces lifted my heart. “Go back
to your shifts and we’ll forget this ever happened,” I offered.
Others looked up and relief and gratitude showed in their eyes.

Yaden stepped forward and grabbed my sword
arm with his left hand before I could react. “Things aren’t
changing fast enough,” he growled.

I didn’t fight his grip and let my arm go
loose. “Be aware, Yaden, that whatever action you take right now
will mark the rest your journey one way or the other,” I warned
softly.

He frowned as if thinking about my words,
then his blade cleared its sheath and he attempted to drive it
through my stomach, but I was ready and moved as soon as his weight
shifted from his back foot to his front one. I pulled my sword arm
back and he stumbled toward me, then I spun and used my body to
block his blade, receiving only a shallow cut across the ribs
instead of a life-ending wound like he intended.

I stepped back quickly and parried his next
attack, cut low across his thigh, then drove the heel of my other
hand into his face. He grabbed his nose and backed up with blood
dripping through his fingers.

“
Give up now and you still
have a chance to make this right,” I said, hoping he would listen
to reason.

But rage at the humiliation and the way I
had thwarted his plan curled in his eyes. He attacked with several
powerful downward slashes, one of which caught my left forearm and
laid it open to the bone before I blocked his sword to the side,
and caught him in the throat with another heel palm. His eyes
widened and he gurgled out something ugly before he lunged forward
and stabbed me in the shoulder.

A cry of pain escaped my lips and when he
pulled the sword back, I spun and sliced across his throat. He
staggered back with wide eyes. Blood spilled from the gash and he
leaned back against the deck rail, then his feet went out from
under him and he fell over backwards into the ocean. I ran to the
side in time to see his lifeless eyes stare up at me before a dark
creature with smooth black skin and white eyes wrapped four thick
tentacles around his body and pulled him under.

I leaned against the rail, my legs suddenly
weak. My sword dropped from my fingers and I thought for a minute
that I would pitch over after Yaden. Then Pyth’s steady hands
caught me and he carried me back to the mast.

“
I killed him,” I said,
feeling sick and light-headed.

“
He would have killed you
if you didn’t,” Pyth reasoned, checking my wounds.

Someone put pressure against my shoulder. I
tried to pull away, but they held firm, reminding me of Staden. I
closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the mast. “It wasn’t
supposed to happen that way.”

“
None of this was supposed
to happen,” Pyth said with angry rebuke in his tone toward those
around us. “That’s why I chose men I trusted.”

I could feel the remorse in the air without
opening my eyes. I took a breath and felt it pull against the
shallow slice across my ribs. “Freedom and trust take time to get
used to,” I said with the heaviness of experience to my words.
“Commander Thursten told me that trust is based on knowledge. With
all the separation of races, there hasn’t been much time to really
get to know one another. We’re all still learning.”

“
We are deeply sorry,
Commander Nexa,” a voice said. I opened my eyes to see an older man
with gray peppered black hair and a short trimmed beard. “We didn’t
think beyond what Yaden told us.” Several Duskies around him
nodded.