The word echoes across the harbor, setting off a chorus of fear that rises sharply at our backs from the bystanders. People disperse like they are being shot at with crossbow bolts, scurrying off the docks and away from the harbor as quickly as their feet can carry them. Only a few leather-faced sailors remain, eyeing the hull with a wariness that makes my throat convulse.
The youth barrels down to us, each word cracking with hysteria. “Top deck was abandoned, so we went down into the hold. Thought the crew were asleep in their berths! Wasn’t till we got close we saw they weren’t in their hammocks at all!” Heshoulders past Soren, so terrorized he doesn’t even realize who he is pushing. “Cocooned in webs, they were! Blood sucked out!”
Suppressing a shiver of horror, I grab the boy by the arm. “Wait a minute, you’re covered in blood.”
“Not mine!” His eyes fly to my face, only half focused. I can see the whites on all sides, they’re so wide. “Marcus and Emil! Dead, both dead! Didn’t even see it happen, the fiend was so fast! Just a blur in the dark! I barely made it out of there!” His throat works as he rips out of my grip and ducks behind a barrel. “Gods, we’re all going to die!”
“Perfect,” I mutter.
Evidently, even idyllic Hylios is not exempt from life’s miseries. Death has followed me here as well, effectively as the ugly weather.
Soren is busy barking orders at the few remaining dockhands who have not fled in terror. “You! Get to the tower guards, tell them to close the sea gate. No boat traffic in or out until we have this contained.Now.” He points at another man. “You, get a message to the beacon lighters. Emergency lockdown protocol. I want everyone off the streets, shutters drawn.” His gaze swings to a female sailor. “You, run to the hospital. Tell them to have the antivenin on standby. As much as we have.” He drops down into a crouch to speak to the young man, who is hyperventilating. “You. Get ahold of yourself. I need you to take a message to the barracks and bring a full unit here, battle ready, as soon as they’re able. Make sure they fill their quivers with immolating arrows.”
The boy takes a tremulous breath. His eyes widen as he finally registers he is staring at his king. He squeaks out a faint agreement before he finds his feet, then takes off in what I can only hope is the direction of the barracks.
I watch him go, then glance back at Soren. He is stillcrouched, but his head is angled up to mine. When our eyes meet, his are glowing bluer than ever, awhirl with maegic. I can feel it gathering inside him like a storm, triggering a swell of power in my own chest. It presses violently against my rib cage, a wild animal ready to be unleashed.
I square my shoulders, trying to appear unfazed, though I am relatively sure my expression is pale as the spider silk cloaking the ship’s masts. I brace myself for the inevitable explanation that this situation is too dangerous for me; the subsequent suggestion that I retreat to the villa, where I’ll be safe from harm while he handles whatever horrors await inside the ship. Instead, his lips twist into the specter of a smile as he rises back to full height.
“You!”he barks in the same gruff tone he used with the sailors. “You’re with me.”
Chapter
nine
No sooner have we stepped on board than Soren unhooks the gangplank and lets it drop into the water. When I ask him if he’s trying to prevent anyone from following us, he shakes his head.
“If we’re eviscerated, it’s better to contain the bloodshed to the ship. That way, they can just burn the damn thing and sink it, bodies and all.” I must look horrified, for he tacks on, “Oh, relax, skylark. When death finally comes for me, it will take far more than a few hound-sized arachnidae.” He pauses, crossing his arms over his chest. “You, on the other hand, appear to be the perfect size for a spider’s snack…”
I make a crass hand gesture.
He chuckles, but all humor flees as we turn our attention to the ship. Up close, the signs of infestation are far more apparent than they were from the docks. We follow the bloody trail of footsteps the young soldier left toward the stern. A suspended corpse hangs from silken threads between two lashed barrels by the main boom; another lies by a ventilation hatch, an abandoned sword still in hand. Not the sailors from the docks—these have been dead months, not minutes. Their mummified skeletons stop us both in our tracks.
“Skies.” Soren whistles lowly from my side. He is so close, our arms brush. For once, I am grateful for his proximity. My fingers lift automatically to trace the sigil for the Goddess of Souls in the air. My throat is too thick to speak the invocation aloud.
May you meet the skies with swiftness. May the aether offer eternal peace.
Soren’s gaze follows my hand movements, but he does not mimic them. The grim set to his mouth mirrors the tension in his shoulders as we continue toward the stern. Webs coat everything in sight—clinging like moss to the masts, creeping over rigging lines. They drape the dual stairways that lead to the upper deck where the unmanned steering wheel creaks back and forth in the current. The round portal windows that lead into the captain’s cabin are so thoroughly filmed over, it is impossible to see inside.
We check there first—Soren taking point, me close on his heels. A potent mix of apprehension and fear races through my blood like an elixir. My legs tremble with it as I step over the threshold. The interior is bizarrely untouched by disaster. The desk is cluttered with navigational charts and correspondence. A quill, slicked with dried ink, sits atop the stack, as though someone has only recently set it down. The bed is unmade, blankets rumpled, pillows askew. A pair of boots sit by the foot. A woman’s, judging by the size.
“Imeera,” Soren says, glancing around the empty cabin. “What the fuck happened to you?”
My eyes are on the weapon rack by the bed. Several weighty maces are on display, replete with spikes. I’m not a master swordswoman by any stretch of the imagination, but I figure even an unwieldy blade is better than none at this point.
“Don’t you think we should arm ourselves before we—”
A low thud startles me into silence. Not the distant rumble of the sea gate ratcheting closed across the harbor, but something closer. Far closer. So close, in fact, I suck in a breath as my gaze drops straight to the wood plank floorboards. I cannot hide my flinch when a second thump echoes up at us from belowdecks, followed by a low hiss that makes all the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
“There’s something down th—”
“Quiet.” Soren’s whisper is barely audible. “Their hearing is nearly as good as their eyesight.”
My mouth slams shut.
He jerks his chin toward the door and moves to it. I look longingly at the weapon rack for a few scant seconds before I follow, attempting to copy his soundless gait. No matter how carefully I tread, the soles of my boots boom against the floor.
One day, I will force him to teach me how he moves with such stealth.