“Here!” Gia thrust a water skin at me, and I used it to clean my face and wash out my mouth.
I handed it back to her with murmured thanks, but my focus was on Zeke.
“We have to get back to shore!” It was a struggle to keep my voice low.
His frown returned. “It wasn’t travel sickness, then?”
I glanced at the others. Nikolas had turned to look over the railing on the other side, toward the dock, and Gia was busy replacing the contents of her bag which she had thrown out in her haste to find the water skin.
I adjusted the protective layer of my ability, making the smallest crack so I could test what was on the other side. As soon as I opened it, I slammed it back into place, cutting off the roiling sickness waiting on the other side. If anything, it had grown stronger.
I grabbed Zeke’s arm with both hands, my nails digging in as my anxiety rose.
“We have to get everyone off the boats!”
“Slow down,” he murmured. “Why? What happened?”
I swallowed, trying to separate my thoughts from the urgency that was more physical reaction than logic.
“It’s the same feeling that lingered around Dara—like tainted power. She said it was whatever power destroyed Calista—the so-called protections. But whatever is here now is much stronger than what clung to her.”
Zeke’s eyes widened, and I remembered we hadn’t had a proper chance to debrief my meeting with Dara.
“Could this be coming from the raiders?” he asked with alarm.
“Maybe. Dara basically told me they’ve been dragging this tainted power into Tartora with them every time they cross the border. That’s why the border regions have started having trouble with it. But it doesn’t really matter if they’ve sent it intentionally or not—either way it isn’t good. And a boat seems like a vulnerable place to be.”
Zeke looked back over his shoulder. “The royals have arrived, along with my mother. They’re boarding right now.”
“We have to stop them!”
“Any suggestions how?” Zeke looked down at me, his mouth twisted.
“There has to be a way.” I tried to think despite the unbalanced feeling that was now leaching through my shield. “Colton! Colton said if you had so much as a hunch, you should report it.”
Zeke frowned. “Colton stayed behind, remember? And I’m separated from my vine network now. How would I explain it?” He hesitated. “Unless you want to tell them the truth?”
I froze. Could I do that? My eyes found Gia, who had been called over by Nikolas, perhaps to watch their parents board. I would love to tell her the truth. But telling Apprentice Gia meant giving the information to Crown Princess Morgiana—and through her, the royal family.
King Marius’s grandfather had attempted to massacre every person with my affinity—down to the last baby. I couldn’t tell him the truth when I hadn’t even found Airlie yet.
“No, we can’t tell them. We have to find another way.”
Our barge lurched as men on the dock unlooped the enormous ropes lashing us in place. Panic rose up in me. We were launching.
“What about the raiders themselves?” Zeke asked, his voice an echo of my own dismay. “Can you sense them along the bank at all? If you can pinpoint them, I could say I saw something out there.”
I grasped onto the idea, sending out my awareness to sweep along the far side of the bank. The barge rocked as the men on the dock used stout sticks to push it away from shore and into the current, but I fought to keep my focus.
After a moment, I looked back at Zeke. “There’s no one anywhere near.”
I turned toward the dock. It was harder to search on this side, given the mass of people, but it didn’t take long to determine no one among them had unusual strength or a power affinity of any level.
I looked helplessly back at Zeke. “I can’t find any sign of raiders.”
He frowned doubtfully. “What about that strange power you felt? Is it decreasing? Maybe we’re moving away from it?”
This time I was more cautious as I manipulated my ability, leaving the smallest of openings for me to sample the environment around me. I immediately closed it, however, shaking my head so hard my brain hurt.
“It’s getting worse.”
Zeke hesitated, clearly torn. “It didn’t hurt anyone at the Guild. Are you sure it’s a danger?”
I glared at him. “Didn’t hurt anyone? Dara died!”
“Sorry.” He grimaced. “But we don’t know what killed her. It wasn’t as if the power was attacking her.” He glanced at me sharply. “Was it?”
Reluctantly I conceded that it hadn’t seemed to interact with her at all. But I couldn’t accept the idea that it was safe to ignore what I felt now.
“I wish you could feel it for yourself,” I whispered. “It feels so…wrong. Twisted and warped. It keeps writhing, and…” I broke off, pulling away from the memory before it became vivid enough to send me back to the side of the barge.
I gestured toward the rail. “Just a moment of its full force made me violently sick. If I wasn’t protecting myself right now, I’d still be retching even though there’s nothing left to come up.”
A curious gleam leaped into Zeke’s eyes. “You’re protecting yourself? How?”
I shook my head. “We can talk about that later. For now, what are we going to do?”
I gazed over the stern of the barge, watching the row of vessels now bobbing in the current behind us. The apprentices in the final boat might still be waiting their turn to launch, but most of the barges were afloat now. I shivered. They looked so vulnerable on the water.
Zeke turned toward the prow, hesitating. “I’ll just have to tell them there’s a danger and think of how to explain it later.”
I nodded, understanding his reluctance but unable to come up with a better plan. Before he could leave, however, we were hit by a surge of the twisted power so strong that I felt it through my protective casing.
Chapter 10
Cadence
The world around us turned upside down.
Water erupted into the air on all sides, spray flying in every direction. The boat lurched, tipping one way and then another, as impossible gusts buffeted it from both sides and the river beneath it heaved and surged.
Screams and shouts echoed around us as we tipped dangerously. I stumbled, losing my footing and sliding hard against the rail. I started to overbalance, my momentum tipping me over the top when another body slammed into me, sandwiching me between him and the boat and anchoring me in the process.
“Sorry!” Zeke gasped, regaining his feet and gripping the rail solidly in both hands with me protected between his arms.
He established his grip just in time. The boat lurched in the other direction, and we both would have slid all the way across the deck without his hold.
When the boat tipped back again, settling flat in the water with a jarring thud, a long green rope appeared. The vine flung itself across the expanse of river from the far bank, latching on to the rail and wrapping itself around like the tentacle of a giant octopus. A second one appeared, but this time it landed on Zeke, winding around his arm.