Witch Born (26 page)

Reluctantly, Reden eased his horse to a stop and dismounted. “We run beside them.”

They jogged on until the heat wrung sweat from Senna’s skin.

Cord came galloping back. “We’re too late! The way back to the ship is blocked.”

“Where’s Mistin?” She should have seen them first and come back to warn them. She should be with Cord.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

By the Creators, Senna had insisted they continue. She steadied herself against Sunny’s sweaty shoulder. Pushing her worry aside, she focused on the task at hand.

The mountain obstructed most of Senna’s view of the ocean. She started to cross the distance. Over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears, she heard the distant boom of cannon fire.

“Senna—” Joshen reached for her. She glanced back at him, and something in her eyes made him drop his hand. “We can’t help them.”

She grunted. “You forget. You have a Creator-touched with you. I can help them.”

Joshen and Reden exchanged glances.

“Are you sure?” Reden asked.

She nodded.

“No! Tartens have no mercy for Witches—especially this Witch!” Cord said as he pointed at her. “We have to get her as far away from here as possible. Now!”

Joshen snorted. “Have you ever tried making her do something she doesn’t want to? I wouldn’t recommend it.” He smiled sadly at Senna. “We can try. If you promise to follow Reden’s orders.”

She nodded eagerly. “I promise.”

Cord cursed them under his breath.

Senna climbed back into the saddle and urged Sunny around the mountain. Their view of the sea opened up. Two ships hemmed the
Sea Witch
in. Senna jumped as cannons fired from both ships.

Before her disbelieving eyes, the
Sea Witch
turned into the wind. But that was impossible. Sailing ships couldn’t move against the wind. “What—”

Reden pointed to the shore. “They’ve mounted pulleys to the sides of the ship and anchored them to the shore. They use the ropes to pull them at the angles they need to fire at the other ship.”

Senna watched as the
Sea Witch
fired at one of the other ships before pulling hard to the side and firing at the other.

“Parknel does have some tricks up his sleeve.” She felt a strange sort of pride in the red-haired captain. It was amazing to watch, but she was distracted from the spectacle by red-orange bursts of musket fire on shore. Sailors had dug in around the pulleys and were defending them from Tarten soldiers.

“Come on.” Senna kicked Sunny. He lunged before twisting around. Why wasn’t he moving? Then she saw Joshen’s hand clamped on the bit. “No closer.”

She kicked her horse. The animal spun in a circle, clearly confused and frightened.

Reden snatched the other side of the bridle. They hemmed her in like the ships below hemmed in the
Sea Witch.
“We’re outnumbered a dozen to one. You go down there and they’ll capture you.”

She opened her mouth to argue. Didn’t they understand she needed to be closer than this for the sea to hear her song? But then she remembered her promise to listen to her Guardians.

She would just have to do the best she could and hope her song was strong enough to save them. After kicking her foot out of the stirrup, she dropped from the saddle. “No sign of Mistin? She could help with this.”

Cord ground his teeth. “I already told you, I don’t know.”

Part of Senna realized how Desni must have felt. If this was the end, then she would see it through to the last. Senna hiked up the mountain and climbed onto a rocky outcropping. “This will take an incredible amount of control. You can’t break my concentration.”

Cord, Joshen, and Reden were already stocking the ground with muskets and powder horns. Following their lead, Senna loaded the pistol Joshen had given her and stowed it carefully so as not to spill the powder.

Reden settled in, his eyes scanning the dead jungle for signs of their enemy. “If I give the word, you get back on your horse and run for it. You have to agree to this.”

Senna nodded.

Joshen bit off the cork on his horn and filled his frizzen with powder. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Senna spread her arms, listening to the Four Sisters’ sluggish songs. She hummed, changing the threads of music. The Four Sisters grew stronger as her song did. She didn’t call for the wind to lift her—she didn’t want to be that obvious of a target.

Instead, she sang for two enormous waves to rise up on both sides of the
Sea Witch.
The Tarten ships slid away from her friends. She changed her song to the winds. Their sails filled, pulling them away. Men scrambled up the rigging, tying up the sails, but not before Senna had managed to move them out of the line of fire of the
Sea Witch.

With a pang, she realized it wasn’t enough. The ships were already moving back to reengage the
Sea Witch.
And in the distance, more ships rounded the shoulders of the bay.

The
Sea Witch
was safe, at least for the moment. Senna turned her attention to the men fighting on the shore. She had the wind channel a song towards them, warning them to be prepared to flee for the ship.

Focusing on a cluster of men wearing red uniforms, she listened to earth song. Using every ounce of her concentration, she manipulated the song, building up a pocket of energy directly below them. The energy naturally wanted to dissipate, ripple outward. She held it tight, keeping it packed. When she couldn’t hold it another moment, she stopped singing. Men and earth flew everywhere.

The sailors abandoned the ropes, scrambling into boats on the shore. They fought their way free and rowed for their lives. Senna kept the soldiers and the ships out of range until they were climbing the rungs.

She started singing again, bending the music until it matched her. She channeled a strong gust of wind at the
Sea Witch.
It shot between the other two ships, gaining speed by the second.

She was so far away, she couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw a man at the stern. And somehow, she knew it was Parknel. They both knew that by moving him to safety, she was cutting off her line of retreat. But if he was any kind of fighter at all, he’d realize their escape had already been cut off by the soldiers on shore and the other Tarten ships.

Reden had said sometimes soldiers had to be left behind to save the majority. Unfortunately, Senna, Mistin, and her two Guardians were the ones who had to be left behind.

Senna locked the song into place so strongly she knew it wouldn’t stop until they were nearly to Nefalie. There was no way a Tarten ship could stop them.

Breathless, she shook away the dizziness threatening to pull her under. She stepped to the edge of the boulder. “All right, let’s go.” She gathered herself to drop down just as everything exploded around her.

She came around on the ground, her ears ringing. Cord was shouting at someone as he dragged her back toward the terrified horses.

“What happened?” she asked.

Cord cast a worried look her way. “Cannon shot the boulder out from under you.”

Joshen and Reden fired at Tarten soldiers who were impossibly close.

“Where did they come from?” she cried.

Cord relentlessly dragged her forward. “Rushed us just after the cannon fired. Must have broken away from the main group and crept closer to us as soon as they heard you singing.”

Joshen and Reden shot and retreated, then shot and retreated again. Both were loading their muskets when another soldier leveled his gun at Reden. Senna screamed.

Out of nowhere, Mistin leapt from the trees, lifted her musket and fired. The soldier toppled backward.

“Mistin, you’re alive!” Senna cried out.

After dropping the empty musket, Mistin emptied both her pistols and shoved them back in her holsters. All three of her guns were empty now. Senna expected her to come back to the horses, but instead, she reached in her shirt. Her motions blurred as she threw a knife. With uncanny accuracy, she cut down the soldiers advancing on Reden and Joshen.

Senna blinked at her friend in shock.

“Get on!” Cord hefted Senna onto the saddle.

She fumbled for the stirrups. Suddenly dizzy, she swayed and grabbed the saddle horn to steady herself.

Under Mistin’s furious assault, the Tartens fell back enough for Joshen and Reden to turn and sprint toward Senna, Mistin, and Cord.

“Go!” Reden shouted at Mistin, who had been steadily pressing forward.

She threw another knife before dashing back. She swept up her discarded musket and launched herself into the saddle.

Senna let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. They were going to make it.

And then her hopes shattered around her feet. Soldiers burst from the trees between Senna and her Guardians, cutting off their escape.

Reden and Joshen fought with their bayonets, but they were forced back, towards the first group of soldiers. They were outnumbered two dozen to one.

For half a heartbeat, Joshen’s gaze met hers. She could see the realization in his eyes, and she knew. He and Reden were trapped. She dug deep, searching for the power she’d held only moments before, but it had abandoned her. She couldn’t sing anything to stop the soldiers—not without hurting Joshen and Reden, too.

Mistin threw a knife, saving Reden’s life. “I only have one left.” She started loading a pistol.

Cord fired his musket. Half of the second group of soldiers turned and sprinted for them.

“Run, Senna, run!” Reden shouted as he blocked a bayonet stabbing at him.

Senna couldn’t move, couldn’t take her eyes off Joshen.

“Senna! You promised!” Joshen shouted, grief already tingeing his voice.

Yes. She’d promised that if they both asked her, she would obey. Horror shot through her, burning away all feeling until she was dead inside. “I can’t.”

Cord reached over and slapped Sunny’s rump. “Move!”

Sunny lunged forward with lightning speed. Senna looked back. The last thing she saw was Joshen grunting in pain, his eyes rolling up, before he fell to the ground amid coats of red.

Senna screamed. The Four Sisters were so in tune with her they reacted. The world trembled.

Collapsing on the hard dirt, Senna buried her face in her palms. Was Joshen’s life the price she would pay for her recklessness?

With a grimace, Cord pulled his shirt over his head. Mistin murmured softly while she examined the splinters sticking out of his back like quills. She pulled them out one by one. Cord winced and grunted each time. Gently, Mistin poured water over the wounds and washed away the blood.

Senna stared. She’d never seen Mistin hold a knife, but the girl’s hands had launched several with unerring accuracy. Knives she’d had hidden all over her body. That kind of ease only came from hundreds of hours of practice.

Without warning, a memory washed over Senna like a wave of icy water. An attacker, standing over her and throwing a knife at Reden, a knife that had cut his arm.

Senna’s breath came in short gasps. Her gaze swung to Cord. Scars riddled his body. It was so much like Reden’s body—more like the body of a career soldier than of an untrained but hopeful Guardian. One scar seemed fresher than the others. It was puckered and purple, newly healed.

She remembered a man chasing her on a moonless night. The gag, so tight it had made her lips crack. Her hand shoving the shard of glass into his guts. Hot blood washing over her skin.

Mistin’s voice was a deep alto, easy to mistake for a tenor. Cord’s voice was a bass.

With shaking hands, Senna primed her pistol. When she looked up, Cord was watching her, his expression wary.

Numb, she rose to her feet. “It was you.”

Mistin glanced up. Some of her long black hair had come loose and partially covered her face. She looked so young, so innocent. How could she have done this?

“It was you two I overheard that night at the tree house. You who attacked me.” She pointed a shaking finger at the wound on Cord’s side. “And you I stabbed.”

Silent, he and Mistin rose to their feet.

It shocked her that they didn’t deny it. “Why?” It came out as more of an accusation than a question.

Cord held up his hands. “We never meant to hurt you.”

He had an accent now. She’d heard it before—furtive whispers in the night. She reached towards the nearly healed bruise on her head. “So the stone wasn’t supposed to knock me unconscious?”

His hand fell. “Well, yes, but we couldn’t very well let you sing, now could we?”

“Why?” Her voice betrayed so much hurt Senna wished she could pull the word back into her mouth.

Mistin held very still, as if afraid any sudden movement might scare Senna off. “We were trying to save your life.” Her accent had surfaced just as Cord’s had.

Senna laughed, but there was no humor in it. She aimed her pistol at Cord’s heart.

He studied the gun before his gaze met hers. “You going to shoot me?”

Her hand held steady. “I haven’t decided yet.”

He stood still, waiting.

Grief and anger made her finger tighten on the trigger. But then she remembered the soldier she’d shot before. The smell of gunpowder. The sudden emptiness. Her muscles went soft. She was not a killer. She backed towards the horses and then took their reins in her free hand.

“Mistin?” Cord said, his voice tight.

She closed her eyes as if listening and whispered, “Just let her go.”

Careful to keep her gun trained on Cord, Senna climbed into the saddle, her foot fishing for the opposite stirrup. Suddenly, she noticed the music around her shifting. But that was impossible. Unless…

There are other Witches here,
she realized with a start.

She didn’t have time to react. The earth beneath her exploded. Sunny hit the ground hard, pinning her leg beneath his barrel chest. She couldn’t draw a breath—her lungs felt paralyzed. Sunny rolled until his feet were under him and lurched to stand. Senna’s leg was free at last.

She gasped a breath full of dust and coughed. Wind pressed down on her, pinning her to the ground, drowning out all other sounds. A golden flash of horseflesh streaked into the trees.