Chapter Twenty-Five

Tanitha pressed herself up against the railing, leaning perhaps farther than advisable over its side as she strained to see. The water was clear enough that the outlined wreckage of three ships was visible, empty hulls deep and slowly rotting in the Akkenthian's waters. Though from this angle she couldn't see the height of the ships nor the rows of slots from which oars would protrude, from their size she guessed them to be biremes; they were highly maneuverable ships, ideal for striking and then fleeing. The sails were still extant, if only barely, their movement listless in the currents of the sea.

She took a stiff breath, bracing herself. The task was simple enough. Certainly simpler than preserving an entire city's grain supply or purging a city of plague. She just had to retrieve something. Something that could deprive her of her powers without a second's notice. While surrounded by an element over which she had no control, and that could kill her slowly and painfully beneath its surface.

She felt a prickle of elemental magic behind her, and she turned. The three demons were standing in a loose ring about twenty paces down the deck, apparently in conference with each other. A light chill darted over her skin, but not from her apprehension; the temperature was actually falling. Additionally, the air had gone very still, the breeze that had carried them this far slowly dying down to the barest whisper, then withering out altogether. Frowning, Tanitha walked toward the demons.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"We're raising a fog, Lady Tanitha," said Torius with a respectful nod. "It shouldn't interfere with your task, but we are near the edge of demon-claimed waters, and in terms of security, this is a sensitive matter. We should avoid being sighted." He tilted his head toward the wreck. "Since you'll be below, it should not interfere with your task."

Tanitha nodded understanding, then turned back to the ropes she'd been working with. With a grunt of effort, she gathered up the large coil, to which she'd affixed weights at intervals. Staggering slightly under its weight, she crossed to the edge of the ship, then securely tied one end to the rail.

Resting the coil on the rail, she leaned over again, judging their position carefully. They weren't directly over the nearest of the wrecks, but it was quite close.

She seized the loose end of the rope, to which she'd attached two of the heaviest weights. Making sure she had enough slack for what she intended, she swung the end in a loose circle, then released it. The weighted end sailed free of her, and she held her breath as she watched its path. It struck the water, and as it sank, the remainder next to her began to uncoil, slowly feeding more of its length into the depths.

She peered over the edge, straining to see past the thickening hazy mist on the air. To her relief, she seemed to have cast the rope well; it looked to have settled on the sunken deck of the nearest ship.

She nodded to herself, ignoring the settling weight of dread in her stomach, then gathered up the harness she'd rigged together and shrugged it over her shoulders. She could swim passably, even if she didn't enjoy the activity, but she knew she wasn't a strong enough swimmer to overcome her natural buoyancy for enough time to accomplish her task. And so she would need to be weighed down beneath the waves.

She was almost successful at ignoring the knot of dread the thought created.

She gathered up the now-empty satchel that had held the weights and looped it across her chest, then looked around. The demons had done their work well; the sky was grey with unnatural fog thick on the air, putting the shoreline of demon-ruled lands outside the range of sight. It felt as if the grey haze stretched on forever, with only the small ship in the center of it. Despite the presence of the three demons on board, Tanitha wasn't certain that she had ever felt so alone.

She fought down a rise of queasiness, trying to clear her thoughts. She had never liked days like this, days when time and space felt mutable, like they only existed at the whim of the gods. She supposed every day of a person's life was at the whim of everyone and everything stronger than themselves, but the thought brought little comfort when she was directly at the mercy of the likes of Naratha and Alethia.

She forced herself to straighten her shoulders. She was strong. She might not have started that way, but if that were not true, if she was truly just the foundling girl she'd always thought of herself as, Naratha would have no cause to fear her.

And ultimately, it didn't matter. Because Tanitha's choice remained the same as it always had. She could attempt the Trial, living or dying by her success or failure, or she could refuse and put her fate back in Naratha's hands. Her fate had always been in Naratha's hands, even when she truly had been that Sanctuary girl with the small life. And when Naratha had seen fit to extinguish that life, Darius had shielded her. His love was shielding her even now; she was certain that without that, she would be long since dead, child or no.

The buzz of magic on the air was slowly fading, and Tanitha turned to look at the three demons who were talking among themselves.

"How often does the device pulse?" Hathia was asking Alethia, frowning. "I didn't feel any inhibition while we were raising the fog. Is it possible that it's failed since the last attempt to retrieve it?"

"I don't know," Alethia said. Though Tanitha could still feel a sharp, prickling flow of elemental magic from her, and the foggy chill in the air was rising, the demon was looking toward the wreck, her brow furrowed. "I was told that the pulses are frequent, but you're right; I haven't sensed it either. Though it seems strange that it might remain quietly operational beneath the waves in the weeks that we were ignorant of it and then—" She broke off with a sharp gasp. In that second, a strange numbness washed over Tanitha.

It wasn't a sensation of the body so much as the mind. She could still feel the wood of the deck beneath her feet, and the chill of the air, though the artificial fog's steady thickening seemed to pause for a moment. But the prickle of magic in the air had vanished, as had the quiet questing sensations she'd sent out to determine what might be in the area. She couldn't even sense the presence of the three demons standing directly beside her.

She had never felt so blind.

She turned to look at the demons. All three looked distinctly shaken, a fact which startled Tanitha; Darius aside, she didn't think she'd ever seen one lose their affectation of cool control. But then again, why shouldn't they be shaken? They were creatures of magic, born of it and connected to it for the whole of their lives. Tanitha wasn't nearly as entwined with the powers of the elemental Rifts as they were.

And yet, she was the one who was expected to accomplish this task.

No, she remembered, feeling queasy once more. Naratha and Alethia didn't expect her to accomplish this task. They simply expected her to die.

Agonizingly slowly, she felt a trickle of her senses returning. She looked at Alethia, who had regained her composure, though there was still an edge to the set of her posture.

"We'll need to raise the fog thicker between pulses if we're to maintain it; it won't last, otherwise," Alethia said briskly. The other two nodded, and she added, "I'd like to speak with Tanitha alone for a moment."

Hathia and Torius withdrew, though Hathia sent a curious look backward as they did. Tanitha pursed her lips as Alethia came to stand beside her.

"Well?" she asked, anger rising, though she kept her gaze forward on the sunken wreck.

Alethia raised an eyebrow. "Well, what?"

"What is it going to be?" Tanitha demanded. "Some parting barb about my coming death? Insults about my strength to undermine my confidence? Or false concern for my fate, coupled with an attempt to convince me that I should just surrender?" She forced herself to stop talking there; the questions had sprouted from her unbidden, but she found she did want the answers nonetheless. Perhaps it didn't matter with regards to Tanitha's ultimate fate, but in that moment, she didn't care.

"Actually," Alethia said mildly, "I was going to warn you about the sharks."

Tanitha barely managed to refrain from wheeling to look at her. She stayed facing forward, her expression set.

"Sharks," she repeated.

"Yes," Alethia said with a shrug. "There's a large population in this region. Quite vicious. They don't like light very much, so that might help you, but since you're going toward a device that can completely eliminate your ability to generate it…"

Tanitha fought to keep her nausea off her face, and she thought she was being reasonably successful, but inside, her mind was roiling. Gods above and monsters below, no one should be asked to do this alone. The task would be immensely achievable if there was a team involved. Demons beyond the device's range could soul-speak to any dangerous creatures, pulling them away to make the area safer, and then one could send someone trained to work at the depths, like perhaps a team of pearl-divers. Most of them did rely on elemental abilities, true, but there were some who didn't, and most trained without the abilities before incorporating them to reach further depths. Sending one person alone, though, be she human or demon… it was sadistic.

No, she thought, still feeling sick. It wasn't sadistic. Sadism was calculated to cause pain and suffering. This was simply calculated to cause death.

"You can refuse," Alethia said quietly.

Tanitha's temper flared. "Will you stop acting as if I have a choice?" she demanded, rounding on Alethia. "Will you stop acting as if you have the slightest concern for my survival? We both know what this is. We both know what you are, what you've chosen to be by pushing me into this." Her hands were balled at her sides.

"It was not my decision to imprison you and sentence you to a delayed execution," Alethia said sharply. "If I wanted you dead, all I had to do was wait."

Tanitha gave a strained, disbelieving laugh. Perhaps she'd been wrong in her thought that this wasn't sadism.

"But that wasn't what you wanted, was it?" she asked. "My life or death, it's meaningless to you, except where it gets you what you want. Your revenge on Darius." She turned back toward the wreck. "I've played the role you people have asked of me," she said flatly. "You know I have no mastery over water. You could at least do me the courtesy of not pretending the situation is anything different than what it is moments before I drown at your hands."

"Alethia." Hathia's voice was sharp, and both Tanitha and Alethia turned quickly to face her; Tanitha hadn't heard her approach, and neither, it seemed, had Alethia. Torius was at Hathia's side, his gaze slightly incredulous as he looked at Alethia.

"What is she talking about?" Torius asked, jerking his chin toward Tanitha.

"That was a private conversation, and it doesn't concern you," Alethia said coolly.

"I think it rather does," Hathia shot back. Her dusky wings were bristling with anger. "She doesn't have any mastery of water ?"

"I'm more interested in her other comment," Torius said grimly. "Revenge against the crown prince, Lady Alethia?"

"What is happening here?" Hathia demanded. "There have been any number of oddities up to this point, but this ? Trials are meant to elevate, to show strength, and you're using them to— to what? Execute a woman?" She shook her head, her expression growing darker by the second. "This is a travesty. It's an offense against—"

"Do you intend to defy Queen Naratha, then?" Alethia asked, folding her arms. "To interfere with a Trial?"

Hathia gave a loud scoff. "I may be forbidden from interfering with a Trial once it has begun, but I can certainly object before that point," she said. "This is an offense against some of our most honored traditions, and even aside from that, we are meant to lead and protect these people, Alethia! Not do— whatever this is! How could you have lost sight of that?"

"She's not some hapless victim in this," Alethia said, her tone still cool. "There are reasons things have happened as they have."

At that moment, there was a strange prickling at Tanitha's awareness, like the sensation of feeling another person's eyes on her, but somehow more intense, more intimate. A moment later, she realized that she recognized the sensation. It was her sense of Darius , her awareness of his soul, his deepest self, through the ties that bound them together.

The sense that she'd lost when he'd been imprisoned. Her heart stuttered.

Had… had Darius somehow escaped?

A rise of hope was eclipsed almost instantly with an overwhelming surge of fear, and she weighed her situation quickly as the demon arbiters continued to argue. If Darius came here, if he put a stop to this Trial, they'd have to run, and perhaps he could protect her for a time. But not forever; Naratha would never stop hunting them, a powerful demon and the human woman who could turn that wrath on the Ivory Throne. Likewise, if Hathia and Torius put a stop to the Trial, the truth of all that had happened might emerge, and the dangers facing her would only compound.

But if she defeated this Trial, none of that would matter. She and Darius would both be safe.

She wavered. She'd been convinced that if she went into the water, she would never emerge. But now… now perhaps there was a chance that if things went wrong, she had a faint chance at rescue.

Death on one path, and death on the other, with only the tiniest chance of survival somewhere in between. And if that was the case, then Tanitha would take that middle path, no matter how perilously narrow it might be.

She whirled back to face the demons.

"Arbiter Hathia," she said, loudly enough to cut through the argument. All three demons turned toward her.

"You're saying you don't believe this to be a valid Trial?" Tanitha asked, heart pounding.

"It clearly isn't," Hathia said. She turned to Torius. "You'll vote with me to that effect, won't you? She clearly won't," she said, casting Alethia a dark look.

"But once a Trial has begun, you're forbidden from interference?" Tanitha asked loudly, overriding Torius' response.

"Yes, but this Trial isn't going to begin, " Hathia said, then softened her voice. "We'll find a way to put this to rights, whatever has happened. Don't be afraid."

And strangely, in that moment, Tanitha wasn't. But not because of Hathia's reassurance.

She didn't bother responding to Hathia, or even looking at the other two. Instead, she whirled on heel and bolted for the edge of the ship. There were shouts behind her, but she didn't slow. In a fluid motion, she vaulted over the ship's rail, then plunged into the water below.