Find safety, Ta’sradala’s voice echoed faintly around me. If you can.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I screamed as I realized the boat was riding straight up one of those waves. I grabbed hold of the sides and hunkered down as the boat crashed back into the next trough between the peaks, dumping buckets of water onto my head. Desperately, I used a spell to propel the water out of the boat before it could sink, then surrounded it with a strong air shield to keep more from getting in. The waves could try to batter it, but the shield would protect me from the worst of the damage and save me from constant bailing, which I’d have to do with magic since there was no bucket on board.
Panting, I looked toward the horizon, trying to guess where I was. Most likely somewhere off the coast of Manuc, and the position of the setting sun told me that I was headed west. East and south were my best bets, but I had no sail, and the storm was too strong for me to attempt to propel the boat in any direction other than where the current was pulling me.
As the waves continued to pummel my little vessel, I poured more magic into the shield to keep afloat. I wasn’t a weak mage by any means, but I couldn’t keep the shield up forever. Panic began to set in as the sun dipped beneath the horizon. Darkness would descend soon, leaving me with no visibility out here at all. An orca or a shark could come out of the water and try to make a meal out of me. I could only hope the water here was too cold for sea monsters.
Stop that, I ordered myself as I began to shake from the cold. Our high metabolisms meant that shifters didn’t get cold easily, but I’d been out in the freezing water for too long, and I didn’t dare take any magic away from the shield to try and warm myself up. There must be something I can do.
I took stock of the contents of my magical sleeve, hoping to find something that could get me out of this predicament. Unfortunately, I hadn’t exactly packed in preparation for a stormy sea voyage, so there wasn’t much. The novel I’d been reading would be soaked if I pulled it out, as would the blanket, and my weapons weren’t going to do me any good against Mother Nature. I did find a water canteen, which was useful since Fenris knew a desalination spell to make sea water drinkable, so I filled it up. I also found a sturdy rope, which I used to lash myself to the boat just in case the shield spell failed and I was thrown overboard. There was also half a bar of chocolate and a crushed muffin, which I devoured immediately.
I need to pack more food in the future, I resolved once I’d swallowed the last mouthful. Back when I’d been an enforcer full-time, I had always kept a pouch full of snacks for when I needed quick energy. But living at the palace, with access to warm meals and unlimited snacks at any hour, had caused me to neglect to take emergency provisions.
Sitting back in the boat, I touched my serapha charm, wondering if Iannis knew I was missing. I reached for the bond between us, but to my alarm, I couldn’t sense a thing. Had Ta’sradala somehow severed the connection when she had ruined my gulaya, destroyed the sliver of his essence contained in the stone? A surge of anger filled me at the thought—who did she think she was, interfering with Iannis’s and my life like this? It was one thing for her to want to meet me, but to cut me off from him completely?
Would Iannis even know yet that I was missing? As busy as he was, he might not realize anything was amiss until he came to bed and I wasn’t there. But no, the girls would have reported that I’d disappeared and raised the alarm. Maybe one of them had even seen what had happened. Someone had to have alerted Iannis by now.
I only hoped he was able to guess where I’d gone. Because if I didn’t figure out how to pass these so-called tests, I was in big trouble.
9
Hours passed, with no end of this torture in sight. For a little while, the waves abated, and I was able to let the shield down long enough to dry myself, refill my canteen, and attempt a few spells. A location spell told me that I was indeed west of Manuc, but much too far from the coast. If the current kept dragging me in this direction, I was going to be hopelessly lost at sea. I attempted to redirect the current with another spell, but I couldn’t do much—such magic required multiple mages, like the anti-storm spell that Iannis and I had used along with eight other mages during our voyage to Garai.
I did manage to lure some fish close enough to catch them, and I shifted into beast form so I could eat them raw. They helped keep the gnawing hunger at bay for a while, but even so, I was exhausted from my magical exertions. Putting the shield back up, I curled up inside the bottom of the boat and did my best to get some sleep. The sun rose and fell again as the endless hours passed, and I dozed uneasily, unable to sleep for fear that another storm might strike, or that I might actually come close to some land and miss it. Though from Fenris’s geographical studies, this part of the ocean was too deep for any islands—the closest one was a thousand miles to the south.
Part of me wondered if crying uncle would end this madness, if the old Tua would hear me and transport me back to Manuc. But no, she would probably let me suffer out here until my magic was depleted and the sea ended up drowning me. That old crone was as vindictive as they came, and for whatever reason, she had it in for me.
Besides, it wasn’t like me to give up. I might be miserable, but I wasn’t desperate yet. I wasn’t going to give in just because I was afraid, and I damn sure wasn’t going to drown out here like an unwanted kitten. If I was going to go out, I would do it fighting, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give that bitch the satisfaction of hearing me beg for mercy.
Several hours passed, and the weather gradually worsened again. Just as I was about to resign myself to yet another day at sea, I noticed a weak, far-off light. It flickered and disappeared several times, but it was definitely there. Could it be land? Or another boat?
Gathering what energy I had left, I rose a little into the air using the levitation spell to get a better view even as the waves drove the boat from under me. Squinting, I saw it was a fishing vessel just close enough to make out in the foggy dimness. Its sails were furled to ride out the storm as it bobbed up and down on the open water. My heart leapt in my throat as I realized my boat was being carried in the wrong direction by the currents, and the fishing boat would no longer be visible within minutes. As I tried to decide if I had enough magic left to reach the boat with levitation, a huge wave slapped into me from behind, dragging me back into the icy water.