Her lips twitched. “I’d heard rumors to that effect.”
“And some say they’re gone for good. The days of the old gods are over.”
“Some say that, yes, but I’ve travelled too far and seen too many things to believe anything in this world is ever truly gone. They fade, they change or become lost, but rarely do such forces ever truly go extinct.”
I cocked my head to the side. “So you might call yourself a believer?”
The smile she’d been avoiding broke free. “I’m not particularly religious, but I believe there are greater forces in the world.”
I flicked a finger, and lightning flashed, cleaving the clouds. “What if I told you... I am one of those greater forces. I could use a little faith right now, Clarice.”
“I’m not the praying type, my lady.”
“You don’t have to pray. You simply have to believe.” Jackie quirked an eyebrow at me, and I left his side, striding toward the bow. “And if you could convince your crew to join you, there’s a chance we’ll get your ship to Inselgrau unscathed.”
She glanced at the sky.
I called another lightning bolt and let it dance across the clouds.
She dropped her gaze to my face. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Standing at the bow, I spread my feet, lowering my center of gravity. Jackie joined me, and his white-gold hair fluttered in the stiffening breeze. His boots were unlaced, his linen pants wrinkled, and he hadn’t bothered to finish buttoning his shirt—it gaped open at the neck, revealing a glimpse of bandages and smooth pale skin. He looked less like the icy-cold Magician I loathed and more like a young man—a fallible one with cracks and flaws. An earnest emotion burned in his eyes. I would have called it admiration if I believed him capable of such a sentiment.
Closing my eyes, I sank inside myself, focusing on strengthening my connection to the storms. Are you up for this, Grandfather?
In reply, he cackled with delight.
Under normal circumstances, I could command the storms with absolute authority but for only a limited time. The power within me, and my body’s ability to channel it, was finite. Limited. But the faith of my believers replenished my wellspring and kept me from running dry. The more believers, the better.
Clarice, Jackie, Ambrose, Leo, and Mariana were few, but added to the others who believed in me—Gideon, Malita, Niffin, the Fantazikes, my friends in the mechanical circus—their faith might provide enough fuel to keep me charged until we reached Inselgrau. I wasn’t waging war but was merely adding a strong wind to our sails. With concentration, I could perhaps take the wind away from the Council’s ship, as well, slowing their progress considerably. It was an effort of precision, but after all my training and progress, I believed myself capable.
The seas swelled, and the winds howled, but the Velox’s sails held. Clarice’s ship flew. Jackie remained at my side despite the driving wind and heaving waves that dashed against the bow and drenched us in cold spray. He formed a perpetual fireball that hovered close, providing heat to ward off the numbing chill.
If we were running from any regular pirate, even a clever one like Zhou Min, our efforts might’ve been enough to leave our pursuers quite literally in our wake. But the ship trailing us was being propelled by a cadre of fierce Magicians. Perhaps the fiercest in the world. Possibly even fiercer than—
I coughed as an idea hit me hard enough to knock me breathless.
The Council of Magic is fiercer than Le Poing Fermé, Grandfather said. Was that what you were thinking?
Of course they were fiercer than Le Poing Fermé. Otherwise, Ruelle Thibodaux and his cronies would’ve marched through the Basilica di Magia’s front doors themselves. Instead, they’d blackmailed me into doing it. They hadn’t wanted to risk making an open move against the Council. However, manipulating a young woman, albeit a powerful one, must have seemed more manageable. Plus, Le Poing Fermé could claim my throne and me as spoils for the victor.
But oh, how Le Poing Fermé had underestimated me. It wasn’t their first time, either, but it would be their last.
Grandfather, have you ever heard that old wives’ tale about mixing two fire ant colonies together?
The one that says they fight each other to the death, and both colonies are destroyed? he asked.
What if, instead of ant colonies, it’s two Magical cabals?
Your machinations would make Hannah Schulze proud, my dear.
I grinned. Perhaps during my time with her, a bit of her, um, talent rubbed off on me.
***
The Magicians and sailors aboard the Council’s ship must have worked ferociously to keep us in their sights, but we maintained our lead. Our pursuers appeared as little more than a pinprick of shadow on the horizon when we finally reached Inselgrau in the early evening, slightly ahead of schedule. The dark silhouette of her coastline loomed before us, and I gasped a breath of awe and reverence.
Home.
Until I saw those familiar shores, I hadn’t quite allowed myself to believe I’d ever make it back.
Don’t relax yet, Grandfather said. The hardest part is yet to come.
We raced onward, following the shoreline, heading north while the sun slowly descended.
“I can’t hold out much longer,” I said, letting Jackie think I’d burned most of powers away in my efforts to hurry us to Inselgrau. Although my body sagged with exhaustion, the Velox’s crew had remained faithful, keeping my wellspring relatively full. There was still plenty of fight left in me, but Jackie didn’t need to know that. “I’ve got to take a break.”
He signaled to Clarice. She nodded and banged on the boiler’s exhaust pipes. I eased my hold on the winds while, down in the hold, Leo and Mariana started shoveling coal into the boiler. The paddlewheel churned, beating against the water in time with the rhythm of my anxious heartbeat.
Soon after, the sun extinguished itself in the Antellic Ocean. Night bled through the sky like an ink drop on a wet page, and the thickening darkness camouflaged the Council’s ship. Jackie swiped his hand through the air, executing a spell similar to the one Brigette had used to peer through the darkness the night we stormed the Basilica di Magia.
“Can you see them?” Clarice asked.
“They’ll be gaining on us now that we’ve slowed,” Jackie said.
“Ambrose says another hour, at least, until we reach your rendezvous point. Think we can outrun them?”
Jackie tensed. “Looks like they aren’t going to give us that option.”