“And the trident?” I asked.
“Horix might have desired it,” Labu admitted. “He has always had his eyes on the spirit.”
“What spirit?” I asked.
“The Depthless Dream is bound to the dragon spirit, Yono, whose existence you have clearly missed despite fighting your way through her temple. Yono is an ancient protector of our clan and a powerful source of water magic. That’s a power that Horix might want to tap into—if he really is behind any of this.” Labu snorted a little, as though such an accusation was baseless.
I had seen only a fraction of what the Sundered Heart made available, and the thought of such power in the wrong hands was chilling.
“The guild is a source of strength and guidance,” Labu continued. “They provide us with the power and the skills we need. They are our allies, not our enemies.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Vesma demanded. “They kidnapped your sister!”
“You do not speak here,” Labu snarled and turned back to me.
I slapped the side of the tidal wyrm. The courtiers recoiled at the sharp sound of flesh against scales and stared up into its black and bleeding eye. “Because this looks like a declaration of war to me.”
“Enough,” Beqai said, holding up his hand. “Your concern does you honor, Ethan Murphy lo Pashat, but squabbling here does not. If you are so intent on action, then you and your companions can go with Labu to the guild house.”
Labu glared at his father but didn’t object. “We can travel to the guild house tomorrow morning. Once some order has been asserted here.”
“No,” I said. “We go now. If Kumi is in danger, we shouldn’t delay. If, by some miracle, she’s not, then quick action does no harm.”
Labu looked from me to his father and back again as he weighed his options. His face seethed with resentment when he looked my way, and with barely less resentment when he looked at Beqai. I felt sure that he was going to protest. A battle of torn loyalty warred in his eyes.
“You speak the truth,” he said finally. “Follow me, outsiders.”
He strode off through the city without a second word. Vesma, Kegohr, and I hurried after him. I wiped my weapons clean on a corner of my clothes and sheathed them as we went. My robes were already bloodstained all down one side, so there was nothing to lose. I’d learned a long time ago that not maintaining your weapons could get you killed.
We strode through a city devastated by the attack. The bodies of monsters lay on street corners and in the shallows of streams. Blood coursed into the water and toward the sea as the locals dragged them off the streets. Other bodies were laid respectfully out in front of houses with sheets thrown across their faces. If the whole guild had been behind the attack—and I was just about damn convinced that they were—then they were going to pay for it. And Cadrin was at the top of my list.
We reached the docks, and Labu let out a shrill, warbling whistle. Something stirred on the waters, and a boat drifted in. It was a small junk, painted green and without sails or crew. Labu whistled again, and it stopped at the quay in front of him. He leaped on board and immediately turned to glare impatiently at us.
“Hurry on, outsiders,” he spat.
We climbed down into the boat, and it rocked alarmingly beneath the weight of Kegohr. Labu whistled a different tune, placed his hand on the seahorse carving at its rear, and the boat pulled out into the delta.
It was time to find out what Cadrin’s game was. He’d kidnapped one of my friends and tried to destroy the city. He’d find justice at the end of the Sundered Heart. And if Horix was behind this?
I’d bring down the whole of the Resplendent Tears Guild.
Chapter Thirteen
A storm gathered overhead as Labu guided the ship along the coast toward the guild island. Great black clouds rolled in off the sea and towered over the ocean as they cast everything into deep shadow. The wind whipped my hair around my face and tipped our boat to one side while the pitching waves flung us up and down.
The coast seemed to fly past to our left. In any other situation, I would have been struck by the incredible variety of our surroundings, from the sandy beaches to towering cliffs to swamplands that melted into the sea. To fit such variety into such a short stretch of coast couldn’t be natural, at least not by the laws that governed reality back on Earth. But this wasn’t the time to dwell on my surroundings.
I drew the tidal wyrm core from my pouch, closed my eyes, and pressed it to my chest. It took a moment for the magic to sink in, but when it did, it sent a rush of energy through my veins. The tidal wyrm was clearly the greatest beast I’d slain so far. I attempted to carve a pathway from the monster’s core, but I was only able to fashion a single line that didn’t connect with my water channel.
“What technique did you learn?” Vesma asked me, her voice excited.
“None yet. I’ll need to kill a few more wyrms.”
A snake-like head burst from the water to our right, and I drew my sword. But instead of the thick, muscular body of a tidal wyrm, the creature tapered to a slender neck, then a flippered body bulging with fat. It opened its mouth and sang a mournful note so clear and perfect that my heart stirred. Then, it sank back beneath the waves.
“We won’t be returning to the mainland tonight,” Labu said as he gazed up at the brewing storm.
“We can’t stay on the island. Not if your buddies take issue with rescuing your sister,” Kegohr said. “I just knew something was off.”
“We could barricade ourselves into a room,” Vesma said.
