The Crown of Embers

  “I have to help navigate!”

  “There will come a point when it doesn’t matter anymore, when we just have to survive.”

  I stare up at him, acutely aware in spite of everything of the way our bodies are pressed together. What if I don’t survive? It would surprise no one if I died young, like most of the bearers before me.

  Or worse, what if he doesn’t survive? I lost Humberto before I could tell him how I felt. I can’t bear to do it again.

  “Hector, I need to tell you—”

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” he says, putting a finger to my lips. “No good-byes, no confessions. Because we are going to live. Both of us. It’s faith, right?”

  Lightning streaks the sky behind him, as if in punctuation. “Yes,” I say. “Faith.” He’s right. I need to prepare to live, not to die.

  Maybe I’ve been preparing to die for too long—ever since that day in the desert when I decided it would be better to die in service to God than to live uselessly. And maybe I will. Maybe tonight.

  But I’m suddenly frantic to do something—anything—to prove to myself that I won’t, to feel some kind of power over my predestined future. Hector’s face is very close. It would be so easy to wrap my arms around his neck, force his lips to mine, and kiss him until we are both breathless.

  I want more from Hector than a single ill-timed kiss. No, I want more from life. I clench my fists, and my nails bite into my palms as I think, My supposed destiny can drown itself in the deepest part of the sea. Along with everyone else’s plans for me.

  “Elisa?”

  “I’ll be right back!” I yell, and dash across the deck to Captain Felix’s quarters.

  I bang open the doors, and Mara looks up, startled. She’s huddled on the floor at the foot of the bed, knees to chest, and her cheeks are streaked with tears. “Elisa?” she says waveringly.

  I shed water everywhere as I grab my pack and drop down beside her. The ship rolls while I reach inside for the naked figurine that holds the lady’s shroud.

  “What are you doing?” she asks.

  “Preparing to live.” I put my hand to the stopper.

  Mara grabs my wrist. “Wait.” She reaches for her satchel and retrieves a matching figurine. “Me too,” she says with a shaky grin. “Ready?”

  In answer, I pull the stopper and upend a few seeds into my palm. She does the same. In unison, we toss them back and start chewing. They’re bitter and hard and taste faintly of lemon rind.

  The ship rolls again, and I almost choke on the seeds. The captain’s chair slides across the planking and tips over at our feet. Mara whimpers. I wrap my arms around her, and she does the same right back, mindless of my soaked state. I shouldn’t linger, but I revel in the luxury of stealing these precious moments with my friend.

  “You should go,” she says, disengaging.

  I rise to my feet, and though the floor sways beneath me, I feel steadier than I have in a while. “Stay here. I won’t risk you getting washed overboard.”

  She nods. “Be safe, Elisa.”

  I open the doors to a dark deluge. Water pours from the frame, soaking the entrance. Hector is there already, as if standing watch, and he helps me fight the wind to pull the doors closed.

  My thanks are whipped away as we lurch and slide across the deck. Captain Felix mans the wheel himself. “I need a bearing, Majesty,” he shouts.

  I grab the rail and close my eyes. Wind sends rain stinging into my face, and it’s a moment before I can focus enough to feel the tug, but it’s there, steady and sure. I point toward starboard. “That way.”

  What I don’t tell him is that the Godstone has gone ice cold.

  Felix gives the order and swings the wheel while others adjust the sails, and slowly, gradually, we fight through wind and waves toward a new heading.

  During the next hour, the waves grow higher. The deck tips precariously as we climb and plunge. My hands become stiff with cold, and my grip on the rail slips. I slide to the deck and wrap a leg around the rail instead. Hector takes it as a cue to tie me down. He wraps the rope once around my waist and ties off with a quick but sturdy knot.

  Then he pulls a long dagger from one of his vambraces and plunges it into the planking beside my knee. “If something happens to me,” he yells, “you may need to cut yourself free.”

  I nod, praying, Please don’t let anything happen to Hector.

  Lightning streaks the sky ahead, illuminating the strangest cloud I’ve ever seen. It’s a long, crooked finger poking at the ocean’s writhing surface, sending spray in all directions.

  I tug on Hector’s pants and point. But there is only darkness, and he looks at me, confused. “Wait for the lightning. Watch!”

  The next time lightning cracks the sky, the finger cloud is even closer, close enough for me to understand its Godlike power, how even the mighty sea tossing us about like driftwood is helpless against it.

  “Tornado!” Hector yells, and others take up the cry, but their syllables are washed away by driving wind and stinging rain.

  The ship rolls, so hard and fast that Hector falls hard to the deck. He slips across the planking, toward the edge.

  “Hector!” I reach for him, but the rope at my waist holds me fast.

  He grapples against the planking, finds purchase with his fingertips, but the Aracely continues to tip. Water pours by him, and I know he can’t hold on for long.

  “Felix, help!” I scream, but thunder booms all around us, and he does not hear. He fights with the wheel, straining to turn the ship into the wave before we capsize.

  I grab for the knife at my knee. It takes both hands to pry it from the deck. I start to saw at the rope around my waist, but then I get a better idea.

  “Hector!” I wave the knife to make sure I have his attention, then pantomime what I plan to do. He nods once, his face veined with strain.

  I aim carefully, then let the knife slide toward him. He hangs by one hand as he reaches out to catch it, flips it around, slams the blade hard into the deck.

  I breathe easier, knowing he’ll last longer holding to a knife grip. Hopefully long enough to crest this wave.

  All available deckhands are at the opposite side of the boat, clinging to the rail, trying to use the weight of their bodies to keep the Aracely from going over. Felix continues to battle with the wheel, gesturing wildly to adjust the sails.

  I look toward the masts and see the problem: the mizzen sail has not turned like the others. Something must have broken; it’s dragging us, keeping us from steering into the wave. Two figures hang like spiders from the rigging, sawing at the ropes to cut the sail free.

  Hector has begun a stomach crawl toward me, using the dagger to pull himself up, which means that for the split second it takes to reposition the dagger, he must hang by the fingertips of one hand. I shout at him to stop, but a blast of seawater fills my mouth and chokes me.

  Something claps, like a drumbeat, and the mizzen sail drops for a split second before being snatched away by the wind. Only one man remains in the tattered rigging near the mast. Where is the other?

  Realization dawns. Oh, God. He’s gone.

  But now the ship turns, with agonizing slowness. The prow rises. Water gushes over my face, up my nostrils. I’m hacking and gasping for air as the bowsprit pierces the wave’s crest.

  And then we’re falling, falling into the trough. I feel Hector’s arms wrap around me as we level off at last.

  Thank you, God. Thank you. Hector leans against my shoulder in exhaustion, and his chest lurches against me as he coughs water from his lungs. He clings to me, taking strength instead of giving it for once.

  “Majesty!” Captain Felix yells. “A bearing!”

  The tug is stronger than ever. I point, to port this time, as lightning flashes a portrait of the sky.

  I am pointing directly at the tornado, which is nearly upon us.

  The captain gapes at me, frozen with shock. His beard is plastered to his face, and it seems as thoug
h I stare down a darker, wilder version of Hector. He starts to protest, but a deckhand plunges across the deck to the wheel. “Bilge is to the third mark,” he yells. “We cannot bail fast enough.”

  Felix’s features soften as he nods acknowledgment, and the deckhand disappears as quickly as he came. The captain closes his eyes, caresses a spoke of the wheel. His lips move with prayer, and I know he is preparing to die.

  One arm still wrapped around Hector, I put my free hand to my stomach. The rope at my waist is in the way. I wrestle it downward to reveal my Godstone, and the effort scrapes my skin through my saltwater-soaked blouse.

  I place my fingertips to the stone. What am I supposed to do? I know I should have faith, but this, God, this is impossible.

  The boat is suddenly steady, though spray comes at us from all sides. It’s the tornado, more powerful than even the waves, forcing calm to the nearby water before sucking it up.

  Hector shifts so that I sit between his legs. He wraps one arm around the railing, the other around me, as if he can protect me from the monster bearing down on us.

  I lean back and lift my lips toward his ear. “Pray with me,” I say.

  “I have been.”

  I find his hand, guide it toward my navel, press his fingertips over my blouse to my Godstone. I hold it there as I intone, “Blessed is he who walks the path of God. He shall stray neither to the left nor the right, for the righteous right hand guides him for all his days.”

  Hector is muttering too, urgently, though I can’t make out the words. There’s power in this, something about the two of us praying together; it builds inside me.

  “The champion must not waver,” I say, as warmth floods me until my body sings with it, until I am a goblet about to overflow. “The champion must stay the course. Yea, though he pass through the shadows of darkness he shall not fear, for God’s righteous—”

  A crack, even louder than the storm. I open my eyes to see that the tornado has snapped the bowsprit in two. Needles of water sting my cheeks and eyes. In moments, we’ll be ripped apart and washed away.

  Hector’s hand slips beneath my soaked blouse, his fingers slide across my skin, find the Godstone. He presses down gently. I cover his hand with my own. “The champion must not waver,” he says in my ear. “Yea, though she pass through the shadow of darkness, she shall not fear, for God’s righteous right hand shall sustain her and give her new life triumphant.”

  The warmth inside me becomes an inferno. My body blazes with heat, with desire, with desperation. The Godstone is riotous with it, pulsing with unused power. God, I want to live. I want all of us to live. What should I do? Why did you lead us here?

  Another snap, a sail ripped asunder. The ship begins to pivot.

  And then I sense it, tiny tendrils curling into me. I can’t see them, but I feel them, like will-o’-the-wisps on the wind, coming from every direction. I know them well, for I’ve been living with them my whole life.

  Prayers.

  Everyone on this ship is praying right now, I’m sure of it. And their broken, desperate thoughts flit toward me and feed my stone with even more power.

  The tornado rips into the side of the ship. Planking and splinters fly everywhere.

  Hector’s prayer falters. His grip on me freezes for an instant before tightening, even more fiercely than before. Then his cold, wet lips press against my cheek, just in front of my earlobe.

  He says, “I love you, Elisa.”

  Something breaks inside me. The world flashes brighter than daylight for the briefest moment—debris from the ship spins in the air, and beyond it, the largest wave I’ve ever known looms wicked and black—and then there is nothing but darkness and calm and a stillness like death.

  I can’t see. I can’t feel my limbs. I can’t hear. It’s as though I’ve ceased to exist, save for my thoughts in a vast emptiness.

  And then a heartbeat, true and steady. No, it’s two heartbeats, mine and Hector’s, beating almost as one.

  And then nothing at all.

  Chapter 25

  I’M lying on my side, my cheek mashed into the planking. Hector’s body curls protectively around me.

  Everything is still and bright, so bright that I blink against the pain of it. A soft breeze caresses my face, bringing the scent of hibiscus. A gull cries, a slide of sound from low to high.

  A gull!

  Gasping, I sit up.

  Crewmen lie prone all around me. I worry they might be dead, but then my eye catches movement at the wheel. It’s Felix. His great beard twitches as he mutters and stirs from the place he fell. Others stir around us.

  Alive. All of us, alive.

  I look down at Hector. Sleep has softened his features. He seems so peaceful. So young. Before I realize what I’m doing, I’m tracing the line of his eyebrow with my fingertips, trailing down his cheek, to the shadow of his cheekbone, where a drop of blood has welled. It’s caused by a splinter; it must have speared into him when the tornado hit.

  Alarmed, I look closer to make sure he breathes. Where there is one splinter, there could be more. There could be a whole plank, impaled in . . .

  His eyelids flutter.

  “Hector?”

  When he sees me, he shudders with relief. “We’re alive,” he whispers.

  “I did order you to live, after all.”

  He sits up and looks around. “How?”

  “I have no idea. Something to do with everyone’s prayers, I think, channeled by my Godstone. Be still. I have to pull this out.” I brace his chin with one hand and reach for the splinter with the other. Just enough protrudes for me to grip it with my fingertips. I pull gently but steadily, trying to keep to the exact angle of entry.

  He gazes at me without flinching.

  The splinter is longer than I thought—the length of the first joint of my forefinger—and a good bit of blood wells up after it. I toss it to the deck.

  I’m about to wipe the blood away with my fingers but he traps them, lifts them to his mouth, kisses them. “I thought we were going to die after all,” he says. “Right there at the end.”

  I think about the way he held me, the way we prayed. I remember his fingers on my Godstone, on my skin. And I remember what he said.

  I blink hard against tears. “You might have saved me. Saved us all. I don’t know how the Godstone’s power works yet, or how we survived, but you kept me focused.”

  His gaze drops to my lips. “I shouldn’t do this—”

  “You really should.” And I close the distance between us.

  His lips on mine are so sweet, so gentle, like he’s savoring me. Learning me. But he doesn’t linger there. Instead he kisses the corner of my mouth, my cheek, the tip of my nose. Then he leans back to regard me. His eyes are steady and frank when he says, “I don’t regret telling you what I did.”

  “That’s good, because you did say it, and I can’t unknow it.”

  He lifts an eyebrow, smugly amused, and I marvel that for all his usual stoicism, he seems unashamed to have exposed something so personal. “And I can’t unfeel it,” he says. “I won’t let it interfere with my work. Even though I expect things will be . . . difficult.”

  “Oh, yes,” I agree. “Very difficult.”

  “Land!” someone yells. “Dead ahead!”

  We jump to our feet. People stir all around us. There is no sign of the storm. The sky is beautiful and clear, and the water dances lightly, teased by a breeze. I could almost convince myself I imagined the whole thing.

  Except that the Aracely is a disaster, especially the port side, which has a huge, uneven gouge in the hull where planking was ripped away. Only one sail remains intact, and we sit much too low in the water. In the distance a bluish lump looms on the horizon, and the tug on my Godstone is stronger than ever, pulling me toward it. I just hope the ship holds together long enough to get there.

  “We should check on everyone,” I say.

  He nods. “See to Mara. I’ll look for Storm and Belén.”
>
  We part, reluctantly, me for the captain’s quarters, Hector for the lower deck.

  The quarters are in shambles. Paintings and bits of furniture litter the floor, water streaks the walls, and the glass in one of the portholes is shattered, its jagged edges sparking in the sunlight.

  Mara huddles on her side in the middle of the bed, her knees curled to her chest.

  She looks up when I enter but does not move. “You’re alive,” she says, and it’s almost like a sob.

  Something is wrong. I rush over to her. “What is it, Mara? Are you hurt?” I brush the hair away from her face. “We hit a tornado, and—”

  “Belén? Is he all right?”

  “Hector is checking on him. Mara, tell me.”

  “My scar. It split open again. The ship tipped so far that I had to hang from the side of the bed. . . .”

  “Let me see.”

  “I’m afraid to move. Elisa, I think it’s bad.” She lifts the hand cradling her stomach and shows it to me. It’s covered in blood.

  My heart sinks. “I might be able to stitch it. I watched Cosmé do it often enough. Or Belén! He’s done it lots of times. Did you bring your salve?”

  She nods. “In the satchel.”

  I look around frantically for it. Who knows where it ended up after the storm, or if its contents are still intact? I note my own pack, lodged between the fallen chair and a broken shelf. I give a worried thought to the figurine, hoping it didn’t break.

  “Do you remember where you saw it last? I can’t . . .” Then I get another idea.

  I take a deep breath against the audacity of it. Could I heal her? The way I did Hector? That was sort of an accident. Actually, everything I’ve ever done with the Godstone has been sort of an accident. But I came here, put everyone to extraordinary risk, on the chance that I could figure out how to channel its power deliberately.

  “Mara, give me your hands. I’m going to try something.”

  She does, her gaze trusting. I grab them, trying to ignore how cold and slick they are with her blood.