“Hop in,” I said. “I’ll cast off.”
Kumi shook her head. “I know boats and the sea better than you do. You get in.”
I wasn’t going to argue. I clambered into the swaying boat as the waves crashed around me, then grabbed hold of a ring embedded in the dockside to hold the boat steady while Kumi untied us. It rose and fell with the swelling sea, and it seemed like the little boat might be swamped at any moment, but I managed to cling on tight.
“Wait,” I said. “I can’t leave the others. Can you get back to Qihin by yourself?”
“I can,” Kumi answered.
Before I could disembark the boat, a shout went up from the gates. Vesma and Kegohr were sprinting from the guild house and running toward us.
“Quick!” Vesma shouted as she neared. “We have to go.”
They reached us just as Kumi finished unfastening the line holding the boat in place. Kegohr climbed down into the boat and almost overbalanced it with his weight just as he was followed by Vesma.
“Where’s Faryn?” I asked, ready to leap from the boat and find her.
More shouting came from the guild house as Faryn jumped down from the battlements and started to sprint for the docks. A stream of guards and initiates rushed out of the gates and pursued her. They waved their weapons over their heads as lightning flashed in the sky above them.
Kumi jumped into the boat. As she did, a wave lifted us up before it dropped us dramatically back down. I lost my grip on the boat and fell back against Kegohr. The surging sea carried us away from the dock as Faryn raced toward us.
I looked back at her across a widening gap. The massed forces of the Resplendent Tears Guild closed in behind her, but her face was one of determination and focus. She spread her arms, and leaves whirled around her in a vortex of motion. The mass of leaves lifted her off her feet, and she soared over the waves, leaving a trail of leaves behind her, and landed in the boat.
“Oh, yeah!” Kegohr slapped her on the back so hard that she almost fell straight into the water. “Go, Master Faryn!”
Kumi gripped the carving at the back of the boat. We began to pick up speed and cut through the waves instead of being flung about by them.
No one needed to ask where we were going. We all knew that Qihin City was the target of the guild’s schemes.
Horix had hidden his face from us. We hadn’t faced any guild members ranked above initiate either. I almost wondered whether coming to the guild house to rescue Kumi was all part of some master plan. It certainly seemed that way since we hadn’t faced the Guildmaster or any disciples or masters.
An uneasy feeling stirred in my stomach as I contemplated why Horix might have done this.
The trident. The Depthless Dream. Maybe it was far more powerful than I’d given it credit for.
Now, we were leaving the guild house without the trident, following after Cadrin like a bunch of fools.
But what else could I do? I couldn’t allow the king to die while I waged war on an entire guild with only four friends by my side.
Whether I liked it or not, the next step was returning to Qihin City.
The life of the king and the future of the clan depended on me.
Chapter Sixteen
We raced through the storm-tossed sea. Our little boat leaped from one wave top to the next as Kumi pushed us hard toward her home. My stomach churned as the boat was flung about, and Kegohr leaned over the side as he retched violently. The remains of his last meal vanished into the waves.
Kumi seemed unfazed by the speed or the lurching of the boat. She sat up straight in the back with a hand on the carving and her eyes on the horizon. Her low chant soothed our nerves and the worst of the raging water around us.
Water fountained into the air a hundred feet high. A flash of lightning illuminated a writhing pillar of darkness beneath the waves.
“Tidal wyrm,” Vesma spat as the creature snaked through the water.
“Cadrin’s lure must have stirred it from the depths,” Kumi said
Another writhing shape to our right caught my eye. The lightning flashed again, and revealed the shape to be another tidal wyrm. It moved through the maelstrom of storm and waves like a hot knife through butter. Scales glittered for an electrically illuminated moment, and dagger teeth shone against the howling night.
“They’re heading straight for Qihin City!” Faryn shouted over the roar of thunder.
Kumi’s song grew faster and louder. She bent low, stared across the waves, and both hands gripped the carving behind her. The water ahead was a chaotic blur of movement. Lightning shattered the sky again, revealing a path carved through the waves ahead of us.
We accelerated faster than ever as Kumi’s song rose to a crescendo. Her expression was strained, and her face paled in the roaring night, but she didn’t hesitate for a second. Blood trickled from her nostrils as she clenched her eyes shut.
We left the shadowy shapes of the tidal wyrms behind and soon, they were lost to view.
Lightning struck, illuminating the towering rocks and tall pagoda roofs of Qihin City.
Kumi’s voice cracked, and the waves crashed on the pathway ahead, but she didn’t slow us down. We shot up the side of a wave, flew off the peak, and hit the water less than a dozen yards from shore. The boat sliced to a halt in a heap of sand.
I knelt beside Kumi as rain poured from the heavens and ran in rivulets down her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded wearily
