Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis) (4 page)

Kit shrugged and reached for the slices of honey-soaked fruit. “My father wasn’t happy, but he will forget soon enough, I’m sure.”

His words were typical Kit. He usually believed the best of every situation, whether it was likely or not, unless it involved spear throwing.

“Nol lit the first of the pyres,” Kit remarked.

I made a sound that was something between a choke and hiss.

“You need to get over your irrational dislike of him,” Kit advised me.

“It’s hardly irrational,” I said. “He’s insufferable.”

“He’s the mayor’s son. Of course he’s insufferable.” Kit stuffed a piece of dried fig into his mouth and sighed. “Ah, this fruit is like a gift from the Itlanteans.”

Mention of the proper name for the Sea People made me think of the Old One with his eyes full of tears. I grimaced and shifted on the rocks, feeling my stomach twist.

“Nol hates me.”

“He doesn’t
hate
you. He doesn’t think about you enough to hate you.”

I laughed. “Comforting words, my friend.”

Kit shook his head. “You know what I mean. His life is busy with the things he finds important. His father, the village, Tagatha—”

“Losing spear-throwing competitions,” I added.

Kit rolled his eyes. “See? You’re antagonizing. You annoy him, and you take pleasure in doing it.”

Something rustled in the bushes at the edge of the tree line beyond the rocks, where a few scraggly bits of vegetation clung to the side of the rocks. I stood, wary.

“It’s just a bird,” Kit said, and I sank back down.

“My master’s father keeps talking about Sea People,” I said, staring at the water. “He says they’re watching us.”

“People like to have something to be afraid of,” Kit said. He tossed a bone into the sea, and it splashed faintly amid the froth of the surf. “It gives them sometime else to do in order to feel safe. Sea People can be hidden from, locked out of our houses, whispered about around the fire.”

We’d almost finished eating when the gong sounded, snagging our attention. Everywhere the laughter and music faded into a hushed, reverent silence pregnant with energy. This was the one serious note in the whole Lighting.

“Nol will be lighting the pyre,” I said, frowning at the thought of him having that honor. “It’s almost over. You should get back.”

Kit looked reluctant. “What about you?”

I opened my mouth to respond when a shout rang out through the darkness. Torches blazed in the night, and figures appeared at the edge of the rocks. They ran toward me.

I leaped for the water, but hands seized my wrists and legs, yanking me back. I thrashed and twisted, but I was held fast. Someone had grabbed Kit as well, although he wasn’t struggling.

I twisted my neck and saw Tagatha’s triumphant grin at the edge of the sea.

She’d betrayed us.

“I knew she’d be with this one,” she said to the man holding me. “Come on. The spear master wants to see her.”

They dragged us down the path to the center of the village and marched us to where the spear master waited.

He glowered at me. “You little cheat.”

“It was my idea,” I said. “Kit didn’t—”

“Silence,” the spear master barked.

I shut my mouth.

“You will be punished,” he said. “You are, of course, not the winner. Nol received that title and the honors that come with it. You will receive the lashes meant for the loser.”

I’d expected as much when I’d donned my friend’s shirt. I knew this would come, and I accepted that. At least Kit would not be punished. I breathed out a little sigh.

The lashes burned, although not as much as the humiliation that came along with them. At one point, I caught a glimpse of Tagatha in the crowd, shaking her head as she slipped a hand around Nol’s arm and whispered in his ear.

I turned my face away from them both and saw the fisherman from before, Myo. He watched me, his eyes glittering and his face impassive.

I shut my eyes and bit my lip until it bled. I didn’t want to make a sound.

~ ~ ~

Kit found me later as I lay with my back in the sea. His feet splashed as he stepped into the water and sank down onto a rock.

“I’m sorry, Aemi.”

“Well, I did pretend to be you. It was against the rules.”

I sat up with a groan and looked at him. His smile was missing, replaced with a somber look. He sat with his chin cupped in his hand, looking at me.

“Well, I proved Tagatha wrong,” I said. “I won.”

“You did.” He sighed. “Aemi, you’re smart and you’re careful. You don’t get into trouble without knowing you’re doing it. Why—?”

“You know why. You’re my friend. I’d do anything for you.”

He nodded and stared at the water. “But you shouldn’t have to take my lashes for me.”

I lay back down in the water. “One day we’ll go somewhere where nobody gets lashes, where there are no thralls, where you and I will be equals, where our friendship is not strange.”

“Oh?” He was smiling now.

“Yes,” I said. Determination filled my chest. “We’ll go to Perilous.”

Kit was silent. Together we gazed at the sea.

“Tell me again about Perilous,” he whispered.

I rolled over on my side and propped my head on my arm. With a smile, I recounted the tales my mother had told me. Kit listened, his eyes half-glazed and his smile sleepy.

“It sounds wonderful,” he said when I’d finished.

“Someday I’m going to find it,” I said, and the words were half a promise, half a test to see if I even believed them.

“I’ll find it with you,” Kit said, and laughed. “We can live there together, friends and equals. No more lashes.”

“No more lashes,” I agreed.

He reached for my hand and squeezed it, and my chest swelled with a brief burst of happiness. I had a loyal friend, and hope.

It was enough sustenance for now.

I WOKE IN the middle of the next night because the sea sounded different.

The soft rushing sound of the waves over the rocks that surrounded and made up our village had changed. I lay without moving as I listened, trying to understand what had pulled me from my sleep, and gradually, I realized that the sound of the water was much, much louder, as if the shape of the shore had changed.

Pushing myself up from my bed, I smothered a groan at the stinging in my back as I padded to the window that overlooked the interior of the village. I could see the pool in the center of the village, a silent sheet of black water in the night, without a single ripple to mar its surface. I could not see the ocean.

Somewhere in the village, in another window, a light went on. The breeze fanned my face, smelling of sea and stone.

Then, footsteps rang out.

The sound echoed weirdly in the night, and I heard the rasp of heavy breathing, as if someone had almost drowned and had thrown themselves onto the sand at the last moment. My heart stuttered and then galloped against my ribs.

Something was wrong.

I leaned forward, straining to see.

Everything went silent.

Then.

The world exploded.

Fire blossomed outside the window. Heat rushed over me, scalding my face. I fell back with a gasp.

The hanging cloth that served as a door behind me ripped, and shapes rushed into the room. A hand clapped over my mouth, and I couldn’t scream. I kicked and clawed as I was yanked out into the night.

They threw me down on the ground and shone a light into my face. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t speak as the brilliant glare shot pain through my eyes. It was too bright, too pale, too cold, like captured moonlight. I didn’t understand. Someone pressed something hard and cold against my jaw. A roaring filled my ears, and I shut my eyes.

I was about to die.

“Wait,” someone said, in an accent that sounded clipped, strange, and somehow familiar. “Don’t hurt this one. Bring her.”

I looked up and found myself staring straight into the face of the merchant whose fish I’d bought only the day before.

Myo.

I didn’t understand.

“Males only,” the man holding me rasped. “You heard the order.”

He didn’t even look at me. “Bring her,” he said again firmly, as if they had to listen, and the man holding me down let me go. “I want this one.”

There was a brief argument in voices too low for me to make out. The accents were strange to my ears. Finally, Myo raised his voice again.

“Take her to the ship,” he said to another man, who reached down, grabbed my arms, and dragged me away.

Smashing sounds filled the air. People stumbled past, shouting and screaming. Sobs echoed from somewhere to my right. Shadows splintered across the path. Flashing, flickering light. Fire. A house across from me erupted in flames, fire shooting from the windows and licking at the roof. Smoke poured upward into the sky, hiding the stars.

My heart pounded. My lungs were so tight I couldn’t get a proper breath in. I felt like I was strangling.

My legs were tingly and weak as my captors forced me to walk along the rocks.

I had to get away from them and find Kit.

It was a mantra in my head. Kit, Kit, Kit.

I had to get away.

I had to find Kit.

I had to get away.

My ankle turned, and I stumbled. An idea hit me, and I fell the rest of the way, pretending to collapse from fear. When my captors reached down to grab my arms again, I scrambled out of reach, rolling across the stone, scraping my arms and legs as I thrashed in the darkness amid their shouting. Lights swept the shadows as they looked for me. I jumped to my feet, heart thudding, blood roaring in my ears, tongue dry with terror.

I ran.

Kit. I needed to find Kit.

Fire roared in the windows of the stone houses around me. Lights lanced the darkness, searching for me, searching for all of us. I tripped on a stone and went sprawling, and then I was up again, running. I reached Kit’s home and staggered to a stop, bracing myself against my knees to breathe. My lungs burned. My side ached. I pressed my hands against my chest and shouted his name.

“Kit!”

He was a shadow in the darkness, his back pressed to the wall. “Aemi? What’s happening?”

Energy filled me. He was alive. He was here.

We could still get away.

I stumbled toward him as people ran past us, shouting. Flames licked the sky. Smoke filled the air, choking me. I grabbed his hand.

“Come with me. We have to run.”

“What—?”

“No questions,” I gasped. “Run for the sea.”

We ran.

The cliffs loomed ahead, the edge of the Training Rock, the stone white in the moonlight. I squeezed Kit’s fingers tighter. My legs burned from exhaustion. Sweat dripped down my back despite the cool wind. We were almost to the edge.

“We have to jump, Kit.”

He turned terrified eyes to mine. “Jump?”

The bright lights swept over us, catching us.

“Don’t stop running!” I shouted.

Then the men were upon us. Hands grabbed my shoulders, wrenching me back from the edge of the cliff. They dragged us apart, shoving Kit back. He stumbled, and his grip on my hand slipped.

“Kit!” I screamed. “Jump, Kit! They’re taking me!”

He reached the edge and whirled, his eyes searching mine.

“Find Perilous and I’ll find you,” I shouted.

He nodded once and then dove into the water. One of the men lifted his arm and the weapon he held fired a spear after my friend. I heard him shout in pain.

“Kit!” My throat was raw from shouting. I sobbed the word.

Something pinched my arm, feeling like an insect bite. My skin stung, my breathing slowed, and I remembered nothing more.

~ ~ ~

When I woke, the sky was gray with morning and covered in clouds. I realized dimly that they were smoke. The Village of the Rocks was a charred ruin, the rocks stained with black smoke and the interiors filled with ashes. The people were gone. Fled? Slain? I didn’t know.

I didn’t see Kit, and my only hope was that he had gotten away.

I lay on the beach, tied hand and foot, staring at that gray sky. Far away, men in strange gray clothing that clung to their bodies prodded prisoners onto a boat. In the sea was a shape. A ship?

Were these the Sea People? Had the Old One been right?

I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. Everything inside me felt razed to the ground, trampled, burned.

Where was Kit? Where was Nealla? Where was the Old One?

I lay there until someone crouched over me and pricked my skin again, and the world went black once more.

I WOKE ON a cold floor. More brilliant white light poured over me. My hands were tied. I could taste blood on my tongue.

Everything hurt.

I looked up. Smooth gray walls that looked more slippery than stone arched above me, forming a shallow dome. The ceiling was like silver, perfectly melted and smoothed into place.

Still forms lay all around me, people from my village, all young boys and men whose names I didn’t know. They were alive but listless, their arms and legs bound like mine. None of the other captives would meet my eyes.

I was the only female in the group.

I remembered Myo’s words.
Bring this one
.

What had they done to the rest of the village? Were they even alive? I turned my face away, searching for Kit among the prisoners. I couldn’t find him.

The memory of him leaping into the ocean and one of our attackers firing a weapon after him filled my mind.

The figure beside me stirred and whispered for water. He was young. Kit?

I realized with a shock that it was Nol, and I closed my eyes and wept.

~ ~ ~

Our captors appeared after an immeasurable while, bringing us food and cutting our bonds so we could eat. I spotted Myo, standing with some of the others. He wore a dark-colored garment made of just one piece of cloth, and it fit over his body snugly, almost as if it were another skin.

He didn’t look at me.