The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Laurius pulled the knife from under his shirt while Tenara was sick off the side of the boat. He admired the blade, listening to Havitharon’s instructions. He thought of the hand he’d bandaged for Tenara when she’d brought Ren into being. The cut had been deep, but at the time the blade had been so hot it had cauterized the wound.

Blood. It would take a lot of blood. Havitharon had warned him not to give anymore in his current state, but he was already useless to help them. Why not bring Ren into the world with what he had left to give? Maybe—maybe—it would help them get to safety.

Laurius grit his teeth and pressed the blade into his hand. He dug deep, and drew out. He heard Lee make some commment but he wasn’t focused on the man. He imagined the bloody hand wrapped around the blade reaching forward and grasping Ren’s. He willed it. Wanted it. Needed it. *Come here, he commanded.

—-

The sudden fuss around her disorientated Tenara. Merry was blotting her cheeks, pulling the blood from her skin onto the rag she’d made with her skirt. Tabatha was wiping her mouth.

Why were they being so kind to her? She didn’t deserve it. Tears burned her eyes. One of them pressed a piece of orange into her hand. How had they found oranges? Her voice didn’t work to ask, but she ate the piece.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's thoughts scattered momentarily as the command pulled him apart. A raw strength clamped around him and tugged. This power felt totally different from the princess's. Her soul had felt like the raw, sensual power of life itself, death and birth, sex and violence. Laurius's energy felt like a dam releasing inside him, all confidence and calculation, unrelenting force. Ren couldn't help but dive into the pressure and let it tug him wherever it wanted.

*Come here* his master told him, and he obeyed.

The phage's tall form flickered into place on the ship, gradually taking his normal shape. Long limbs, grey skin, braided black hair and golden horns materialized. When he was whole, he groaned and collapsed to all fours in front of Laurius, coughing up water onto the floor. He winced his stinging eyes and gasped for fresh air.

Havi jerked upright as the other Ivis appeared half-drowned on the deck. His eyes went straight to Laurius next, glaring at his bleeding hand. "What the hell are you doing?!" he shouted.

[Emora Deen]

Lauirus winced, wiping his dagger on his trousers to clean the blood away. “Another rower,” he said, smirking tightly as he pressed his bleeding hand against his already ruined shirt.

Beyond his nonchalance, Laurius was astounded. He’d done it. He’d done it!

Tenara pushed Merry and Tabetha away slightly. It wasn’t hard. Tabetha was already moving toward Laurius, cursing him while she tore more strips from her dress. Tenara focused on Artisuren, touching his arm, and then his shoulder. She pulled him into a hug, too used to being able to touch Havi as she wished.

Laurius didn’t understand what was happening at first, but she began to cry, and he understood. Artisuren was one more person saved from the ship. One life she’d assumed taken by her magic had been returned.

Tabetha wrapped his hand. She had to stretch awkwardly around where Tenara had pinned Artisuren in a hug. He felt a little dizzy as the woman tied the knot. Was he really that low on blood? Was he really that close to death?

“Fankyou,” he mumbled, watching the wound weep through the bandages.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren felt arms pull him upright, and his first thought was that it was Laurius. He'd done a number on his eyes with that filthy sea water in the coal room, but relief flooded his senses. He leaned in against the embrace and immediately stiffened. A female?

His next thought sent panic zipping through him. "Kisva?" he choked. Every muscle tensed. It wasn't him. Why wasn't it him? He could have sworn, a moment ago...

The small form holding him began to shake. He blinked his stinging vision. Kisva did not shake. He reached out very cautiously and barely touched the sides of her face, exploring the contour of her head. Trembling lips. Wet cheeks. No horns. He could make out silver hair as she clung to him. "Princess?" he murmured in complete confusion, the word making him cough again.

"You've lost your mind," Havi hissed, leaning down next to Laurius so he wouldn't broadcast the argument to the whole boat. "You'll send yourself into shock."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius’s vision fuzzed as his gaze drifted rather drunkenly over to Havitharon’s very close face. “Pshh,” he scoffed. “But your concern is touching.” His good hand fumbled up to give Havitharon a trembling pat on the cheek. “Imma just… rest. Take a snooze. I expect to be on a tropical paradise when I awoken.”

Tenara framed Artisuren’s face in her hands. “He did it. He brought you back. I thought…” Her lip quivered, her already hoarse voice growing tight. She glanced over at Laurius, finding his head lolling on his shoulders, tipping to hang off the side of the boat.

“What a lot we make,” Merry chided. “I have no bloody idea what is going on but I can say, if we carry on as we are, we’re not making it to dry land.”

“Where did he come from,” Tabetha whispered, putting a hand to her cheek.

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren settled down and stared at her, taking in her expression as his vision cleared. Her tears threatened to bring out his own. He was oversensitive, where a Yurivis's emotions were concerned. He couldn't imagine what she was so upset about. Was she worried about him? That didn't make any sense. What a strange Yurivis...

He registered what she'd just told him. He did it. He brought you back.

Longing sprouted in his chest so suddenly that it took him off guard. "Where is he," he wheezed, and followed her gaze to the man half-conscious next to them. His breath halted, body stiffening again in Tenara's arms. "What?" he said softly. His eyes took in the widening stain on his bandaged hand, the vivid red immediately drawing his recovering attention. All sound around him squeezed into an eerie, ringing silence. "Why? Why is he...?"

[Emora Deen]

“I think…” Tenara began. “I think you have to give something to bring souls from the blades. Blood seems to do the trick…”

But, judging by Laurius’s shirt, which was red all around his neck and down one arm, he’d given quite a lot last night. She frowned, slinking forward to peel away the bandage on his neck and have a look at wear the pen had plunged in. It weeped blood, but didn’t gush. How much had he lost?

She glanced at Havitharon. He needed healing just as bad as Laurius. Hadn’t he said Preshton hit him with a hammer? And his hands… why were his hands bandaged?

She looked out at the sea. They weren’t going to make it. She didn’t have the strength right now to heal them both and deal with the consequences her magic brought…. But it seemed the only way to help. She asked Havitharon a silent question, already knowing his answer. He wouldn’t want her to use anymore magic so soon after last night… but what choice did they have?

“Burnin’ daylight,” Lee sighed from his corner, taking up the oars. “Are we rowing or playing nursemaids?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi shook his head at her. "Please, Tenara," he said, the closest he could come to giving her an order. "We'll get them to shore, then figure it out. If worse comes to worst, there's one toothsbane left."

"No... he already had one. It's too soon to have another," Ren murmured faintly.

Havitharon turned to inspect the other man's expression, and winced. He already knew what he'd see there. "You did not do this to him," he said sternly.

Ren shook his head slowly, haunted. "I told him, about the blood."

"Artisuren. Oi!" Havi slapped him. Ren looked at him emptily. "Calm down. We'll deal with it when we reach shore. We need you. Can you row?"

He nodded.

"Good. Stay calm and stay focused," Havi ordered, taking the wraps off his hands and applying them to Ren's. He steered the man out of Tenara's supportive grip and over to the bench. "Tabetha and Merry will back you up from the other bench until dawn. Lee, you rest. You and I are back on in the morning."

[Emora Deen]

When the sun set, Tabetha and Merry took their turn rowing. They did not cover as much ground as Havitharon and Lee had, but it was ground still covered. Tenara and Artisuren took the shift before morning and greeted the sun together while the others rested. Then, Havi and Lee took the day. They rowed and rowed and rowed. One day turned into another. On the second night, they ran out of oranges. The muscles of their arms burned. Their hands, even covered in cloth, began to blister.

Laurius roused every now and then, but, for the most part, he had slept. The sun beat down on them, exhausting and relentless. Their skin, where it wasn't covered by their makeshift protection, turned pink and blistered. The pirate fared better. His skin was used to the unforgiving sun.

On the third morning, just as the sun began to crest the horizon, Tenara and Artisuren spotted land. She almost cried at the black rippled shape on the horizon, with the sun peeking out behind some sort of ridge or mountain or volcano. It was hard to tell. It was there, though.

Tenara began to row with renewed vigor. Suddenly the exhaustion in her arms melted away. She heaved into it, grunting with each pull and push, trying to gather more water behind the oars, to cover more ground.

[Soran Nightblade]

The shift in rowing intensity roused Havitharon from where he'd been dozing at the stern of the boat. He sat up a bit taller to get a look at what Tenara was doing.

Artisuren was at the forward oars and was silently matching his strokes with Tenara's. Just like Havi, he hadn't required food, and his gray skin had been mostly resistant to the sun's effects. He'd given up his shirt to use for bandaging wounds and to protect the others from the sun. The man had barely spoken a word with any of them since arriving two days ago. Havi had considered trying to speak with him, but he didn't have the mental bandwidth or the rapport necessary to pull off such a conversation.

He rose and crossed toward Tenara's side. "Did you find something?" he asked, stepping carefully over Tabetha and Merry's sleeping forms.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara slowed just a hair to catch her breath. "There," she said, raising a shaking arm. "It's there. Land." She smiled at him before placing her hand back on the oar and pushing forward, but she'd been rowing most of the early morning since Merry's arms had given out. Her arms were equally shot. She wasn't even sure what was pushing them forward anymore other than force of will.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi followed the path of her arm and saw the land himself. Perhaps the greater impact was when he looked back at Tenara and found her smiling for the first time since the wreck. Her smile did strange things to his insides, thinning the haze of anxiety that had been hanging over him. "Well done," he praised. He touched her hands gently, turning them over to inspect them for damage. He lifted the fabric wrapped over her hands carefully and lapped his tongue over her blistered skin in a gentle line. "I'm rested. I can take us the rest of the way." He gestured for her to yield him the oars.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara held her breath as he licked her palms, sighing at the relief that followed soon after. She stared at the island a moment longer, before reluctantly slipping off the bench. She wanted to get them there. She wanted to ruin her arms to do it. But Havi was stronger. He would get them there faster. She kissed his cheek as she passed him, sinking wearily down into the bottom of the boat next to Laurius. The movement roused him. His head drifted up, his eyes blinking open before he huffed and leaned sideways, and draped his head on her shoulder.

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren's gaze followed Laurius sharply as the man moved for the first time in hours. Then Laurius draped his head onto the princess's shoulder and stilled again. Ren stared.
His arms completely forgot to row, causing his oars to drag the wrong way. The blunder cast a spray of water up onto Thvoros, mercifully missing the others.

Ren cringed and faced the other Ivis bravely. To his surprise, Thvoros didn't shout at him. If anything, he could swear he the man looked sympathetic.

"We'll be there soon," Thvoros told him, gesturing toward the approaching coastline.

Artisuren looked over his shoulder and just stared, while Thvoros's oars struck up a firm rhythm. A moment later, Ren resumed rowing again, matching his long strokes, and the boat seemed to glide over the water. It was around noontime when the boat finally scraped up on the sandy beach of what appeared to be a rather large island. He didn't need to shout an announcement to the others. Every soul in the boat knew what that sound meant. Tabetha and Merry jumped to their feet and cheered, tipping the boat wildly. Tabetha shrieked and tumbled over the side, landing on her bum in the shallow water and laughing like a madwoman.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara had fallen asleep, resting her head against Laurius's as they leaned into one another. When the boat scraped bottom, and Merry and Tabetha rocked the boat, it startled her awake. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the midday sun, twisting to see the green of trees rising along the shore, and up the steep slopes of a mountain.

She kicked off her shoes and dragged herself up and out of the boat, landing in the water next to Tabetha. She helped the woman to her feet, and then helped Merry out. She and Tabetha wandered up to the beach and fell down on the sand. Merry almost kissed the land, while Tabetha fell on her back and stretched her arms out, becoming a great big star.

Tenara stood on the edge of the shore, where the waves rolled over her feet and retreated back into the sea. She stared out at the horizon. No ships. No other land. There was a reef of some sort... The water was so clear and so, so blue. She could see fish darting through the water, something larger circling in the darkening blue.

They would know in a day or so if the other boats had followed them to this... paradise.

It would be paradise, she thought, if it weren't for why they were here. Tenara looked at her hands, and the tattered strips of fabric from the lining of her dress wrapped over raw skin. She reached up and felt at her neck and the still tender bruising where the pirate's hand had pinned her to the deck, choking her. When she hadn't been rowing over the last few days, she'd been thinking of that moment. She'd played it over and over in her head, rewriting history, trying to do it over again, to find some sort of solution. In the end, to her, the solution was to let Pete leave that piece of himself behind. She imagined him being done with it, leaving her, and retreating to his ship. They would set off into the night, and there would be no sinking. No wild magic. No screaming or death. Just her. Just another part of her taken away...

----

Laurius blinked his eyes open. His mouth felt so, so dry. He was hungry. Thirsty. He felt like every limb had a weight tied to it, even his head. He lifted it, taking in the sight of the mountain.

He was hallucinating, he thought. Surely he was dreaming. But, he heard splashing. Laughter. He twisted in the boat, hugging the edge, and found Tabetha making the equivalent of a snow angel in the sand. Merry was fisting dirt, and pressing kisses to her hands. Tenara was staring off at the sea, but also... somewhere else. Compared to the other women, she seemed in mourning, clutching her neck and existing somewhere else entirely.

Laurius used the side of the boat to push himself to his knees. He attempted to climb out, only to collapse into the ocean when a large wave washed towards shore.