Even for him.
My eyes search for him as I reach out with my own maegic. I will offer him whatever strength I have, I will—
The wave hits, slamming both ships sideways like children’s toys in a bathtub, one after the other. Plunging our sails into the water. I lose my footing as the world flips over, pitching me offthe deck and into the dark before I have time to draw a full breath. The impact is disorienting, the cold mind-numbing. My body spins out of my control, no match for the raging ocean that tosses us round and round at its whims.
I force my eyes open, ignoring the sting of salt as I look around, trying to get my bearings. Trying to decipher which way is up, which direction to swim.
Where, gods, where is the surface?
My lungs are screaming. The submerged sails float ghostly black in the gloom. Ropes and rigging threaten to ensnare me as I kick blindly, praying my head will break free of the briny waters. By the time I burst into the dim light of day, my head is dizzy from the lack of air. I drag deep gulps into my throat, looking around the frothed surface with frantic eyes. The brig is lying on its side, heavy sails full of water.
“Rhya!” Penn roars somewhere out of sight. “Rhya, where are you?”
“Here!” My voice cracks on the shriek. “I’m here!”
Mabon’s bald head breaks the surface not far from me. Near the stern, where the exposed rudder flaps uselessly, I see Cadogan and Melité treading water. Chari and Xio are with them.
I do not see Deke anywhere.
“Mabon!” I yell. “Where’s Deke?”
“Here,” comes the skipper’s gruff reply. “Right behind you.”
“I’m here, too, don’t you worry about me,” Jac grouses from my left, clutching a floating barrel. He looks mad as a wet house cat, his dark blond mane a snarled mess. “Anyone seen Farley?”
“He was in the crow’s nest.” Treading continuously, I do my best to keep my head above the swells as my gaze traces the length of the mainmast until its tip disappears into the inky waves. “Gods, what if he’s tangled up in the rigging? What if—”
“Skies, woman,” a familiar voice wheezes. “Don’t get hysterical.”
The redhead’s ornery tones have never been so welcome. I spin around and see him swimming my way from behind several floating wood boxes that were swept off the deck. His auburn curls are plastered against his forehead, but he appears unharmed.
“Farley! Thank gods.”
“Thank my fast reflexes, you mean.” He scoffs. “If I hadn’t jumped clear when I did, I’d have been dragged straight to the bottom.”
We all trade relieved glances. The brig is felled, but we are all alive and accounted for. On this ship, at least.
Mabon’s thoughts mirror mine. “Wonder how the others fared…”
The overturned vessel blocks most of our view. Jac pushes up on the barrel, trying to get higher. “Can’t see a thing over these damn swells.”
“More importantly,” Farley says, grabbing hold of an apple as it floats by and tucking it into his tunic, “how the hell are we going to right the ship?”
“She’ll right herself, if you give her a moment,” Deke replies. “Her keel is heavy enough to pull her back upright. Or…mostly upright. So long as the air-holds aren’t compromised, that is…”
Even as he speaks, the capsized vessel is straining toward the surface, fighting against the weight of her waterlogged sails with a low shudder I think might snap her masts clean in half.
That will not do.
“Mabon,” I murmur. “If I pass out, don’t let me sink.”
“What?”His voice sharpens with alarm. “Rhya, what are you doing?”
Ignoring his concern, I send out several thick tendrils of air that wrap around the booms and twine up the rigging. Then, with a momentous pulse of maegic, I heave them skyward.
The water is unfathomably heavy. Almost immovable.
Still waters do not easily shift,Soren told me once.