Aramaya. Jane Routley
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jug and threw it at him.
His face set into bitter lines.
"Damn you," he shouted. "If that's what you want then I will go."
He stormed from the room, leaving me to kick the furniture and weep enraged tears. I didn’t stop till I heard his horse outside, trotting away down the road. At that sound I was suddenly overwhelmed with terrible shame and sorrow. I knew I had treated him badly. I ran to the window and shouted his name once, twice. He didn't even slow down. Probably he couldn't hear me. After two calls, my pride came back. Accursed pride. Damn him! Let him go! Let him do his worst! I didn't care any more.
I dried my eyes, went back to my tasks and swallowed my disappointment, for I had wanted to go to the Gathering. The Klementari in their green homeland were kind and wise and talking with my old friends and participating in the rituals of the Gathering brought me tremendous peace.
From the very first night I missed Shad, but I began to see that he had been right. Time apart made me think of him more kindly than I had done for a long time. It was unreasonable for me to blame him for our childlessness. We did not know it was his fault. I knew I had acted badly to him. I had the uneasy feeling that I had gone too far this time and maybe really hurt him.
But I never, never expected him to actually leave me. I never expected that just a few days later, a messenger would come bearing his wedding ring, an act which constituted a request for divorce under Klementari law and a terse letter signed by him which confirmed this.
That moment when I first read that letter... Why must the mind grind over old wounds like that? Though I screwed up my eyes against the pain, still the tears leaked out.
Suddenly the ship pitched violently sideways. I found myself, sprawled against the cabin wall clinging to the sloping bunk, all memory forgotten, trying to stop the mattress from falling on top of me. There was a thudding crump of water hitting the deck above us. For a moment it seemed as if the ship was going topple over and then it gave an almighty lurch the opposite way, which threw me onto the other side of my bunk and had me scrabbling not to be thrown to the floor. There was another crashing thud of water on the roof and the ship lurched and pitched again. The timbers around us creaked and groaned with effort. Water was running down the side of the cabin. My God, when had the storm got this violent?
Quickly I brought a magelight to mind and dazzling white light filled the cabin. The floor was covered in inky black water, a miniature sea with waves that splashed around to the violent lurching of the ship.
As I began to use my power, I was suddenly horribly aware of another power all around us - the power of the sea smashing at the tiny ship - a monstrous power, cold, dark and very very deep. Frightened I pressed my hand against the wall of the cabin and pushed a spell of binding into it and down into the timbers of the ship.
"I best see if I can go and help." I cried, sliding gingerly off my bunk and into that inky water. It was ankle deep. When I'd signed on for the journey, I'd signed on using my old name Dion Michaeline, healer. I did not want to travel as Dion Holyhands, Lady of Ruinac. It was too much baggage for what I hoped would be a discreet journey. Had the ships crew known who I really was, they might well have already asked me to help them. I knew nothing about the sea and ships, but I knew all about the use of magic as a brute force. I had fought demons.
Kitten shouted something back at me as she jumped down beside me. Together we heaved open the door.
Kitten's servant, Captain Simonetti was out in the corridor of the ship hanging on to swaying walls as he came splashing and slipping down the corridor towards us. His wife, Suza, clutched the frame of their cabin door looking uncharacteristically anxious. In the brief lull between the crashing waves I could hear others in the communal cabins, crying, praying and being sick. The last made me glad I was a mage and could at least keep my dinner down. Suddenly it seemed stupid for a mage to be walking in water like this. I waved my hand and spoke the words and the water streamed out from under the cabin doorways, back up the corridor and out through the cracks in the hatch way. Kitten turned and gave me a sign of approval.
Then the ship rolled and dumped all three of us on the floor. There was a roar and a thump and water gushed through the gaps in the hatchway again, soaking us as we struggled to our feet.
Suza Simonetti helped Kitten and I get up and together the four of us staggered to the hatchway. The force of the waves had cracked it. Drenched by the streams of water that flowed through the crack, we waited for the right moment and then the four of us pushed the heavy cover open. In a moment Kitten and I were out on the lurching bucking deck.
The deck was covered in torn rigging, and broken spars. The sky above was almost as black as night. Sheets of rain swept into our eyes, driven by the savage wind. Huge waves rose above us. It was as if the ship was flinging itself over mountains. I clung to a nearby rail while Kitten leaned unsteadily over the hatchway, shouting at the Simonettis to stay below. Using magic I pushed the hatch cover shut over them.
Suddenly, a huge black mass of water rose up and up over the side of the boat. Screaming, I snatched Kitten round the waist and flung the two of us against the mast, binding us to it in a panic of strong magic. There was an awful moment as we stared up at the huge wave and then the force of the water came crashing down on us like a blow. Water, water, endless rushing water. I clung to Kitten and the mast and still there was a heavy blanket of rushing water pushing the air out of my lungs. Even through the calming power of magic it was like being buried alive. The mast was shuddering under me. My lungs were bursting. I fought upwards through the tons of water.
Then suddenly it was gone and there was air. Gasping I let go of the magical binding and simply clung to the mast like a bit of discarded seaweed. I must get Kitten below where it was safe. But Kitten was already away gripping the ships rail, slipping and staggering down the heaving, watery deck with surprising speed. I set off after her as fast as I could, leaning into the roaring wind and stumbling over the rubbish on the deck, but by the time I reached her, we were already at the stairs that lead up to bridge.
"Get below!" I shouted, gesturing as best I could without releasing the rail. She either couldn't or wouldn't make out what I was saying and even as we shouted hopelessly at one another in the inferno of roaring wind, another wave broke over the desk covering us waist deep in powerfully dragging black water.
I contented myself with hanging onto Kitten and keeping her magically warm. Together we crawled up the stairs.
The wheel of the Eagle was on the open deck, but wardings surrounded it, designed to protect the helmsman from the fury of such storms. The force of the waves must have been too strong for them this time, for there was the nerve-jangling feeling of broken magic everywhere. Two sailors and the cabin boy were streaming with water as they struggled with the wheel. A fourth was tied by his waist to the mast behind, drooping with unconsciousness or death, blood running down his face. I staggered over to him letting magic hold me to the deck. It was the Captain, unconscious from a blow to the head. He was terribly cold. I stopped the bleeding in his head and set a spell to warm him.
Behind me Kitten was shouting furiously at one of the struggling sailors, who was obviously refusing something, probably our help. I could help them despite themselves. There was no way I could replace the wardings under these conditions, but clinging to the mast I muttered the spells to build a warm bubble of protection around us. Suddenly it was almost as if we were in an invisible cabin. Rain and wind battered against empty air as if it was a roof and the noise of the storm was shut out.
"...the Demonslayer of Gallia, you stupid man," Kitten shouted in the sudden quiet.
He wasn't listening.
"Look out!" he screamed, pulling Kitten against him. A huge wall of tumbling white foam was charging down the ship towards us. It smashed itself like a rock into the protection spell. The spell held, but I felt the waves' force like a winding blow to the chest - felt as well the weight of the water on the ship's deck pushing it down.
"Away! Away!" I cried to the wild waters. Using all the force I could I threw myself on the deck and pushed my being into the ship's straining, creaking, almost breaking timbers, willing the ship to lift its head, willing it to pull itself