Born of Water

Born of Water Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

ASSESSING the DAMAGE

"Ria, what's wrong?" The numbness of sleep left Ty.

Ria stood in the pale morning light that filtered through the cabin portholes. She hesitated between the door to the aft cabin she shared with Lavinia and the bench at the table.

"I didn't mean to wake you. I couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake Vin." Ria's lip trembled. Ty shifted on the Captain's bench where he slept near the foot of the stairs to the deck, pulling his blankets aside to make room for her.

"It's all right. Tell me what's wrong."

Ria's eyes welled with tears. "It's just... I didn't know. I didn't really believe the Curse was real," she said, voice thick with distress.

"It's all right. I don't think any of us really believed it."

"But I nearly got you killed!"

"Niri pulled me out of the way. Look Ria, I'm fine." Ty wrapped an arm and his blanket around her, now that she had flopped down by his side.

"Yah, Niri," Ria said sullenly.

Ty was silent a moment. "You are the one who saved my parents' ship from the storm. A storm that Niri caused. No matter what came after, you saved many lives."

Tears overran Ria's cheeks as she rested her head against Ty's shoulders. There were no sobs, which surprised him. Only a few moments of silent tears. With his words of comfort to Ria, the nameless unease that had hatched to life the night before began to writhe and grow in his brain.

They had sailed the damaged boat, heading further northeast, as the flames the Curse sent skyward became more and more distant. Niri's concentration was on fighting the Curse until the darkest hours of the night.

"Is it dead?" Ria asked. She still trembled though the fight had been an hour before. If he hadn't needed to sail, Ty would have held her.

"No." Niri answered, voice hoarse from hours of disuse. "I don't think I could kill it. But it is tired and has stopped fighting for now. It sleeps held by water at the bottom of the channel."

Niri ran a slow hand through her snarled hair, watching the shaking in her fingers as if they belonged to another person. Ty's gaze fought between Ria and Niri, not winning for long with either.

With dawn and a sheltered anchorage, sleep made more sense than assessing the damage to the Grey Dawn. The undefined unease crawling across Ty's back faded as his mind blanked to unconsciousness. Now it was awake again and growing.

Ria spoke angrily through her tears. "I don't understand this cursed 'gift'! In Sardinia, at the market, I wanted to rip Causis to pieces for hurting me. And I could feel it, the same power I felt when I moved the ship last night, but... it just evaporated when I tried to use it. Why can't I protect myself?"

Ty brushed the golden hair away from Ria's face. The silken curls were as delicate as a spider's web.

"Maybe it is intent? You saved our parents but you wanted to hurt Causis."

"Great, so it would have worked if I'd just wished him to the middle of the sea?"

"Maybe... or you could have tried changing him into a rat," Ty teased.

"I'm serious, Ty."

Ria's momentary fury died, tension fading into new tears as she relaxed against him. He held her as she whispered how much she hated this power she had, how she had feared it and the Church all her life, and how she just wanted to go home.