Daughter of the Devil

Chapter 20

A few days of little water and even less food later, they brought me up to the deck. At first I was relieved. The fresh air. No longer being plagued by memories of the last time I had been in Ridland. No longer scared of the future that waited for me once we got to our destination. I was relieved. At first.

And then they started. A single punch at first, probably revenge for a brother or father that died in the war. I screamed, but only a little. After that, it was not worth it to scream or call out for help. No one was coming. And then I met my brother's eyes.

I saw him standing there, not joining in the abuse, but unwilling to help me. And I felt bad for him. Here I was, once again being abused, and there he was, an unreadable expression of pity on his face, unable to look and unable to look away. And something in me clicked.

Trust. Your. Instincts.

How many times had Callan said those words? And he meant them. Trust your instincts. He always made it sound not like advice from a mentor, but an order from a superior. Trust your instincts.

How many times had my instincts saved me from disaster? How many times did my instincts scream at me that I was in a cage? How many times did my instincts tell me that there were bars, even if I couldn't see them? How many times had I almost frozen only to find that my instincts saved my life? How many times did my instincts yell at me to know more, to learn more? How many times did my instincts tell me that I could do more in the world than cook and bear children?

My instincts had saved my life more times than I could count. They had told me to trust Irene, Kelsa, Solon, and Callan. They had given me a lifeline. But I resisted them at every turn, as if they had ever been wrong.

Trust your instincts.

I couldn't fight them all at once. It didn't matter if I was the best fighter in the world, it just wasn't possible to do without my power. And right now, my power was being stopped by a small bracelet of copper. There was nowhere to go.

Except...My eyes turned to the water, the thing I had spent the last year fearing. I couldn't control my Waterbringer powers. I couldn't even activate them. I could barely stand to have a bath. There was no way I could jump. There was no choice.

There's always a choice. Sometimes you're just too blind to see it. I could die, or I could take a chance and probably die. I was out of options, out of ideas, and most importantly, out of time. I jumped overboard. And nearly died.