Witch Born (35 page)

“I can only control my actions, not their reactions,” Senna replied. “But I have to live with both.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but voices spoke, close enough she could make out their words over the tempest. Cord pressed her against the mast.

“You may come with me or not, but I’m going,” she said right in his ear.

He felt her despair, as she felt his. He peeked around the mast and said in a harsh whisper, “I could stop you.”

Her breath came fast. “I saved your life. And in return, you have done nothing but hurt and violate me. You owe me this.”

He winced as if she’d punched him. “I just saved you. We’re even.”

She stared at him as water ran down both their faces. “We’ll never be even. If you truly loved me, you wouldn’t have stolen everything I cared about. You wouldn’t stop me from saving the people I love.”

Cord gazed at her as if seeing into her soul, and she realized he was probing the link. “But you love Joshen?”

She felt herself dying inside. “You and Ellesh took him away long before the Tartens killed him. You know that.” It was the truth, much as she loathed to admit it.

He slowly nodded. “All right. But change us quickly.”

Senna hauled her sopping-wet dress over her head and knelt shivering in her shift. Cord ripped off the Tarten red and stood before her, his chest glistening with rain and ocean spray.

She sang softly so the sound of her words wouldn’t reach the Tartens. Her lips tingling with the power of the potion, she rubbed the oils off them and drew lines of the residue from Cord’s forehead to his navel, her finger sliding effortlessly across his hard body.

He looked at her, his eyes hungry, and she realized the water had turned her shift nearly transparent, so much so that she could see the faint outline of her crescent-moon tattoo through the cloth. Cord gripped her face in his big, warm hands. He tipped forward and pressed his lips against hers. The warmth of it was overwhelming, but Senna could only see Joshen, think of Joshen.

“I had to know what that felt like.” Cord pulled back and looked into her eyes. Sadness seeped through the link. Her thoughts had betrayed her. “Someday, you’ll only think of me when I kiss you.”

The idea sent a stab of grief through her. She tipped her head back and watched him. Was he really in love with her? She didn’t think so. With the idea of her, maybe, but not really with her. “It wasn’t the first time we’ve kissed.”

He grunted. “That doesn’t count. You tricked me.” He released her as a shudder of pain took him. The Ioa was beginning to work.

Quickly, Senna sang the potion for herself. She dragged a line of potion down the center of her body.

Cord doubled over, a groan slipping from between his lips.

“What was that?” a voice asked.

A man rounded the mast and gaped at them before reaching for his sword. “What are you doing with the prisoner?”

In one smooth movement, Cord threw his knife. With a grunt, the man collapsed. A second man shouted for help. In two steps, Cord had the knife in his hand again, and the second man’s warning fell silent.

His skin rippling, Cord clenched his jaws shut, a barely contained scream thick in his throat.

More Tartens rushed them. Cord fought them off, his knives flashing. Senna’s skin shivered. She felt the first tremor in her bones. She grabbed Cord’s arm. “Quick! Before it’s too late.”

Keeping her behind him, he backed them toward the banister.

“The Witch is escaping!” Someone yelled.

Wrapping her arms around Cord’s middle, Senna threw them both over the side of the ship.

Senna’s bones thinned and elongated as she plummeted. Half-transformed, she hit the surface so hard her skin stung as if she’d fallen into a bed of nettles. Her bones reformed as she writhed in the sea’s cold embrace. Slowly, so slowly, the pain receded. For the first time in hours, she didn’t feel bone-deep cold.

Righting herself, she gathered her bearings. The sea was dark and full of bubbles, making it difficult to see and harder to swim. The current yanked her furiously this way and that.

Cord curled his tail under him and stared at it in disbelief. She swam to him and bumped him with her nose. He gaped at her with liquid seal eyes. Using her sensitive nose and whiskers, Senna swam toward the smell of seaweed.

When she reached the side of the island, she swam until she found the telltale sign of seaweed growing in the shape of a gibbous moon. She discovered the entrance to the cavern—a black mouth almost completely obscured by seaweed—and swam forward.

Something lunged out of Velveten’s mouth. Senna only had time to register the flash of steel in a burst of lightning before Cord threw himself in front of her. His back arched and he let out a bark of pain.

Pain reeled dizzily through the link. The metallic taste of blood filled Senna’s mouth above the salty, mineral taste of the water. With horror, she saw a harpoon sticking out of Cord’s side. Rich blood clouded the water around the wound. Senna pivoted, searching for their attacker.

Flaring his limbs and then pulling them tight like a frog, Pogg shot through the water. He was already loading another harpoon. Haven must have sent him to guard the entrance from any Witches in a seal’s disguise. She barked at him, but he couldn’t understand.

Gently taking Cord’s flipper in her teeth, Senna pulled him through the water, pumping as hard as she could for the entrance. She shivered. The realization that she felt cold shot through her—the first sign the potion was wearing off. There was no way she could swim the distance as a human. She had to get them out of the water or they would drown.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pogg aim the second harpoon. She dove, taking Cord with her. She bit too hard into his fin. Blood seeped into her mouth, but there was nothing she could do. The harpoon sliced through the water above them. Senna shot forward again. Her skin shuddered and a tingle started in the middle of her tail, where her legs ached to split. Using her fins to steer, she pumped her tail, weaving along the bottom of the sea.

Pogg aimed at her. She put on a burst of speed and shot into Velveten’s mouth as another harpoon embedded itself in the rocks behind her.

It was pitch black inside. Senna had to rely on her keen sense of smell and her whiskers to guide her through the cavern. Far above her, she saw a circle of wavering firelight. The tingling in her tail became painful before her skin split apart. Fins became feet and hands.

Her speed floundered as her spindly legs kicked at the churning water. She gripped Cord under his arms and pulled for the surface. Already her lungs were burning. She wasn’t going to make it, not with Cord’s extra bulk.

He wanted her to leave him—wanted it without restraint. But she couldn’t bring herself to abandon him, and he was too weak to fight her.

Pogg burst into the cavern behind them, the harpoon clutched in his hands. He aimed it at her before his eyes went wide. He dropped the harpoon, then snatched Senna’s and Cord’s shoulders with his padded fingers and burst upward. It wasn’t a steady progression, but one filled with stops and starts.

Senna’s vision was beginning to go black around the edges. She touched Cord, using the link to tell him how sorry she was.

Pogg put on a final burst. Suddenly, Senna broke free of the water and took her first desperate breath. Pogg shoved her toward shore. Her muscles were locking up from the cold. Knowing he would see to Cord, Senna swam for the dock.

“Helps her!” Pogg cried.

“Pogg?” a voice called uncertainly.

“Helps!”

Senna tried to pull herself onto the dock, but her muscles refused to bear her weight. Panting, she dug her numb fingers into the wood. She felt the vibration of footsteps. She looked up to see a dozen muskets pointed at her face. It had happened so much over the past few days that she simply waited for whomever it was to decide whether or not to shoot her.

“Brusenna?”

She forced herself to look past one of the black barrels to the face of the man holding it. “Collum?”

He set the musket down, then gripped her arms and hauled her onto the dock. “Brusenna? What? You’ve been banished. How did you get past the Tartens—swim in this freezing water?”

She pointed to Cord. “Help my Guardian. He’s hurt.”

Two of the Haven Guardians bent to take hold of Cord.

Climbing up beside them, Pogg trilled a high-pitched keening that made her ears hurt. He hugged his knees and rocked back and forth. “Poggs not knows seals was Senna! Poggs not knows!” He repeated it over and over again.

Collum’s eyes widened. “Who’s this?”

Senna crawled to Cord’s side and gaped at the harpoon sticking out of him. “He needs a Healer.”

“You’re the only Witch who isn’t fighting.” She recognized the speaker as Beck, Reden’s second.

Shutting out Pogg’s wails, she searched desperately for some kind of solution, but if she didn’t heal him, no one would.

The harpoon had lodged deep into Cord’s side, and blood leaked out around it. His face was gray instead of its usual warm brown. His lips were a dusky blue. He gasped for each breath, as if he couldn’t fill his lungs.

A mountain of inadequacy crushed her heart. This was so far beyond her skill. “Cord,” she breathed.

He couldn’t seem to focus on her. Confusion and loss rolled through the link. He reached up and touched her face to reassure himself she was really there. She couldn’t help but wince at the sight of the bite marks in his hand. “Senna?”

She studied the harpoon helplessly. “I can try to pull it out. If I can get the bleeding stopped, I might be able—”

Cord winced and took a shallow breath. “No. Leave it.”

She opened her mouth to argue.

“You came to warn them,” he reminded her.

“I have to—”

“Senna, I’m dying.” Each word seemed to cost him.

His words wounded her deep inside. He had to be wrong, and yet she knew he wasn’t. She felt it. His body was slowly shutting down and taking the link with it. There was nothing she could do for him.

He smiled and brushed her cheek with the crook of his finger. “You care. I can feel it.”

She bit her lip to keep from crying. Holding herself together with the last gossamer threads of her determination, she faced Beck. “There are Tartens heading for the cliffs. You have to stop them!”

Her eyes widened as she really took in the dozens and dozens of Guardians—so many that Velveten was full. “Where did you all come from? What are you doing here?”

“Guarding Velveten,” Collum answered.

She pointed toward the nearest stairwell. “They’re not coming through the pool! They’re coming from the cliffs.”

Beck shook his head. “That’s impossible. Any ship that got close enough to use ladders would be smashed to pieces against the cliffs. The only way in or out of the island is that pool!”

Senna gritted her teeth in frustration. “They fitted cannons with some kind of modified anchor and ropes. The Tartens are climbing them towards the cliffs right now!”

Beck gestured to two Guardians. “Tomes and Thayer, go scout those cliffs.”

She shook her head. “You don’t have time for that. They were more than halfway there when we left.”

Beck studied her. “The Heads don’t trust you. How do I know that dozens of Tarten boats won’t surface the moment we leave the caves unguarded?”

She held out her wrists, raw and bruised. “I risked my life to escape and warn you.” She saw by his expression it wasn’t enough. She grasped for anything else that might convince him. “Reden trusted me enough to come with me when I left. He did it because he knew only I could save Haven.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Beck started shouting orders, “Double-time for the cliffs. Keep your musket under your coat until you need it—damp powder means a worthless musket.” The Guardians hustled from Velveten. “Pogg, get back in the water and watch for any more seals who might really be Witches!”

Pogg paused in his mournful trilling to turn to Senna. “Poggs not knows.”

She took a steadying breath. “I know you didn’t. Go. It’ll be all right.”

Pogg jumped into the water and sank, the water cutting off his high-pitched keening.

Beck paused at the cave mouth. “Collum, keep her here and watch the entrance. If she tries to escape, shoot her. If the Tartens come, collapse Velveten.”

“But Leader, that was our last resort.”

Beck shook his head. “If she’s lying, it’s our only resort.”

Senna lifted Cord’s head onto her lap and stroked his hair. His cold hand squeezed hers. “Go. Help them,” he said.

She didn’t know tears were running down her cheeks until one dripped onto his face. She brushed it away. “I can’t leave you.”

He squeezed her hand. “Didn’t. Stayed with me. In the water.”

She felt as if her insides might shatter. A part of her was dying with him. “Cord—”

“Go.” He pressed something into her hand. Senna looked down to find the Ioa potion in her palm.

“You might…need…it.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Now…we’re even. You saved…my life. I saved…yours, twice. Yes?”

She nodded as a tear ran down her nose. She brushed it off with the back of her hand. “We’re more than even.”

He grunted and the corner of his mouth quirked. “You’ll succeed. Known it…from the beginning.” His eyes rolled up and he was still except for his shuddering gasps.

The place he’d gone—she couldn’t reach it through the link. Bending down, she pressed a kiss to his forehead, and this time, she thought only of him. When she pulled away, the link between them was gone.

Thunder boomed. A flash blinded her, but she didn’t blink.

Collum started beside her. “By the Creators, that was close.”

Senna cradled Cord in her arms. He had betrayed her. He had saved her. In his own way, he had loved her. How could she leave him? But the Guardians couldn’t keep the Tartens back forever. There had to be less than two hundred of them—no match for Tarten’s thousands.

If the Witches’ songs were added to the Guardians’ guns, they might be able to slow them long enough to move the island. Senna couldn’t help Cord, not anymore. But she could still help her Witches.