The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster Read Free Book Online Page B

waited for her on the other side of a storm.
    “Get the compass!” was the last thing she heard.
    * * *
    When Shina came to, the quartermaster was leaning over her. She had one hand on her cheek, the other clasping a leather pouch.
    “Can you see me all right?” she asked.
    Shina went to answer, but her voice cracked in her throat. She swallowed, coughed. “Yeah,” she said. “Did we make it out?”
    “Yeah,” said Chaqal. “Did
you
do that?”
    “I had to,” Shina said. Her face flushed—she felt as if a teacher had caught her bending winds without permission. “I—I have to stop those ships.” She flailed her arms for a moment, brought herself back to a sitting position.
    “I’m not so sure about trying right now,” Chaqal said. “Oh, hold up—”
    Shina was getting to her feet, wobbling and tripping all over herself. Her shass set was soaked and clinging to her skin; something had scraped her arm badly during the storm.
    “I’ve got you,” Chaqal said, taking her by the arm that wasn’t injured. She steadied Shina and walked her to the rail of the ship.
    They were about a hundred yards from the shore—Tazir and Kodin were scrambling with the strong wind, desperate to keep the boat off the harbor’s bottom. The south beach was thick with panicking villagers. They ran for their lives with their little ones and possessions bundled on their backs.
    Shina’s eyes were reluctant to turn northward, but she made herself look anyway. The Dragon Ships were just about to reach the shore. Although the storm might have slowed them a little bit, it had not blown them out to sea. When they’d furled their square sails, their ships had three banks of oars to power them along.
    A shriek of metal on metal came from the northern end of the harbor. A group of huts was consumed immediately in a fireball that spewed wood and sand and smoke and stone. Shina heard screams of pain join the fearful, desperate wails of Kuhon’s people.
    “Was that a fucking trebuchet?” yelled the Captain. “Where in the hell did they get a trebuchet?”
    “I have to sink them,” Shina said, shutting her eyes. She laid her mind down on the storm as if she were curling up in a blanket; instantly, sleep washed over her.
    * * *
    She woke on the deck, Chaqal cradling her head in her hands.
    “Hey now,” she said, petting Shina’s hair. “I told you not to—”
    “I have to sink the Dragon Ships!” Shina said.
    “Sweetie, you’re gonna sink
our
ship if you try to spit a storm in the state you’re in.” The quartermaster brushed Shina’s flailing arm aside and shook her head. “You gotta—”
    With a pained grunt, Shina rolled herself over and got onto her knees. Her whole body was shaking; she swayed on all fours like a drunken goat. For a moment, she thought she was going to throw up, but the feeling passed.
    The thought kept repeating in her head. She crawled toward the railing, and the quartermaster followed her a couple of steps behind. When she finally got there, she grasped the slick wooden rail and panted while she tried to keep her stomach behind her throat.
    The smell of smoke had begun to infect the wind. It filled Shina’s nose, and she finally had to shut her eyes and retch over the railing. “I can’t,” she groaned, clinging to the ship. “Oh,
dammit,
I
can’t—
”
    “It’s okay, sweetie,” the quartermaster was saying. She had knelt beside Shina; she was rubbing her lower back and cooing in her ear. “You’ve done all you can do—the Captain’s gonna take us out.”
    “No, y-you, you don’t understand,” Shina said. It was getting hard to form words, hard to keep her eyes focused. On the shores of Kuhon, flames were spreading like the wings of horrible birds. “I have to sink them—I have to stop them—”
    “We’re gonna get away just fine, sweetie,” said the quartermaster. “Come on, why don’t you relax down below.”
    A louder scream rose above the rest, and Shina knew that the