A Jewel Bright Sea. Claire O'Dell
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Название: A Jewel Bright Sea
Автор: Claire O'Dell
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Любовное фэнтези
Серия: Mage and Empire
isbn: 9781635730791
isbn:
“No! I can’t leave—”
“You can, and you will.”
The next moment, Maté and the guards had joined with the brigands.
Raab took hold of Anna by the arm and dragged her toward the sea. “On your knees,” he growled. “We’ll circle around the fighting and—”
“But what about Maté?”
“Shut up. We have no time for a university debate. Go!”
He dropped into a crouch and glided swiftly along the waterline. Anna scrambled after him. Raab had already vanished into the trees before she reached the far edge of the shore. The commotion behind her was louder than before. Sword striking sword, the metal ringing over the sands. A strangled cry, cut short.
She stopped, her pulse hammering against her skull.
You won’t survive this mission unless you learn how to kill, Brun had told her. Over her protests that she was no murderer, he’d hired tutors who specialized in battle and assassination. They had stuffed her head full of spells, only now she was afraid to use them.
A shadow loomed up beside her. “Hah. Found her. Andreas!”
The man grabbed her arm. Panic blanked her mind. Without thinking, she snatched her dagger from its sheath and slashed out wildly.
He screamed. A gout of blood splashed Anna’s face. She doubled over, retching. Before she could recover, another seized her arm and threw her to the ground, so hard her dagger went skittering over the sands. In less than a moment, he’d captured both her wrists and was dragging her over to the other bandits.
“We have our prize,” the man announced. “At a cost.”
“I hope she’s worth it,” someone else said.
“I hope so too. What do you think, Lady Vrou?”
He swung her onto her feet. Anna gulped down a breath as she took in the scene. At least four dozen brigands gathered in a loose circle. Several of them held up torches, so bright that the sands blazed silver and gold. Four men, gagged and bound, huddled in the center of that bright expanse. Three bodies lay stretched out on the ground and the sand around them glistened darkly. One lay on his back, his arm flung over his face.
It was Maté.
“No,” she whispered. Then louder, “No! Ei rûf ane gôtter. Ei rûf—”
Her captor clapped a hand over her mouth. Anna bit down hard. The man grunted and loosed his hold. She spat out the blood and salt, drew a lungful of air, ready to summon the magic current, when a fist struck her skull and all went black.
CHAPTER 2
She woke to the pitch-black of midnight and a vicious throbbing in her skull. Without thinking, she lunged upward, only to be caught by a pair of hands. Anna struggled, but those hands held her steady while someone else inserted a glass vial between her lips. A cold liquid, viscous and bitter, poured into her mouth. She spat it out and twisted away.
“Drink, you idiot child,” said a woman’s voice, low and rough. “Unless you like that headache of yours.”
She gripped Anna’s chin in one hand and forced the vial between her lips a second time. Against her will, Anna gulped down one mouthful, then another. Her vision cleared momentarily and she could make out a collection of shadows off to one side. She wanted to demand where she was, what had happened, but that proved too much of an effort. With a sigh, she dropped into sleep.
* * * *
She dreamed—a dream so vivid, she knew at once this was a memory of a past life.
She stood on the deck of a ship, one arm wrapped around the forward mast, her face lifted into the stiff breeze. Nothing but ocean around them, the waves rolling toward the horizon, great vast swells of indigo that glittered with sunlight and the foam of the ship’s passage. Six more ships followed, each with two masts, two prows, and a great deck in the center. West and west they sailed, the season growing colder, the stars shifting and changing with their passage, and if the gods were generous, if their prayers and visions held true, they would discover new lands over the horizon.
Anna knew this dream, this life. Knew this ship and this crew. Everyone dreamed such things, her father had explained when she woke in terror as a child. Like Blind Toc, who died and was reborn, so did all souls pass over the river of souls from one life to another.
And with each new life, her father said, we are free to make new choices. But remember, we are bound by those choices, life after life.
* * * *
The second time she woke, she saw patches of moonlight that seemed to roll and pitch along with the rest of her world. Her head ached, but not as much as before. Her gut felt sore and pinched. She groaned and tried to lever herself upright. Once again, hands firmly caught her by the shoulders and another vial was placed at her lips. She drank more of that soothing potion, which tasted of the familiar and the strange. She tried to thank the person, but they merely hushed her and laid a hand over her forehead, murmuring words of magic.
The aches unraveled from her bones and muscles. She sighed in relief.
“She’ll do, I think,” said a voice, the same one as before. “But you might want to take precautions.”
CHAPTER 3
She woke the third time to find herself blindfolded, her wrists and ankles tightly bound. The air was hot and close, and vibrated like a plucked string. She could taste the thick salt tang of the ocean on her tongue, the old, metallic flavor of blood, and a sourness at the back of her throat.
What happened?
Fragments of memory drifted back. Sarrész and the jewel. Riding with Raab and Maté along a winding trail toward the coast. Maté anxious. Something about brigands and smugglers—
Oh. Gods. Maté.
The entire episode flooded her memory in sharp, unwanted detail. The splash of fire when Maté threw the lantern. The shadows swarming toward them. Raab vanishing into the dark. Her capture. Maté’s blood-soaked body lying on the sands. She gasped and struggled against her bonds. Mistake. Her stomach heaved against her rib cage. Just in time she flung herself to one side and spewed.
“Steady,” a man said.
He took hold of her by the shoulders and swung her around onto her back. She rocked to and fro in a nest of cords, her stomach still fluttering and her skin drenched with cold despite the heat.
“Huh,” the man said. “I know you had a bad knock on the head, but Thea said you would do. Unless you have a touch of seasickness...”
He rested a hand on her forehead. Anna managed not to flinch, but only barely.
Ei rûf ane gôtter. Ei rûf ane strôm.
The cool green scent of magic washed СКАЧАТЬ