“Damn it!” Ström cusses as he uses a wave of his internal dragon-energy to heal himself. It works, but even that is slower than usual, as I see the red burns dissipate.
“Well, it’s clear she doesn’t want us getting out that way.” I contemplatethe cursed railing. “Do we smash down through the ship and swim out underwater?”
“We can try it.” Bjorn is up in a moment, cracking his knuckles before he balls one fist.
Then slams it hard into the bottom of the ship.
He’s blasted back just as hard as Ström was by Bloodrunes. As Bjorn is tossed right back up to the bow of the ship, he lands with a hardoof!on Mikkel, who barely shoves the unconscious Lærke out of harm’s way before Bjorn comes down.
They’re dazed in a tangle before Mikkel finally shoves Bjorn off. Sitting now rather than pushing back up to his feet, Bjorn shakes his head several times to clear it.
As I see nasty violet-red sigils dissipate from his fist.
“Well,that’snot going to work, either,” Mikkel says sourly as he pulls Lærke back onto his lap.
“One last thing to try.” I think of a last option for our escape. Picking up a forgotten piece of tackle from the bottom of the boat, I toss it up in midair.
And watch it crackle as it’s hammered back—riddled with Bloodrunes, just like Bjorn’s fist and Ström’s hand.
“Well… we can’t escape this ship even after it goes down.” I realize then that we’re completely, and all-too-fuckedly, trapped. “When this ship goes underwater, we’re going to be dragged down with it. Alfhild has fucked us well and good.”
“Alfhild doesn’t want us to break the curses on the ship to escape.” Ström’s voice is quiet, as I feel him get it. “She wants us tosolvethem… if we can. And prove that we’re strong enough to live. Strong enough to best her… and keep our lives, free from her.”
“You’ve broken free of her before, Ström,” I say as I consider it. “Think you can do it again?”
“I can try.” Ström is thoughtful as he gazes around the ship. Morewater is building in the boat’s bottom, about two inches now. It’s not a fast death, but it’s death all the same if we can’t escape this ship.
With a deep breath, Ström stands from where he was kneeling, healing his hand in the bottom of the ship. A few inches of seawater swirl around his bare feet; he ignores that now, as I feel him pull as his dark Bone Magic deep inside. As Ström spirals deep within, I feel him search for an answer. Because somehow, he broke free of Alfhild Fey, before.
And if he did it once, he can do it again.
I feel it, as a swirling confusion builds inside him now, however. As if Alfhild has hidden her curses deep within our minds, Ström is encountering vast resistance suddenly, to finding it. He was cursed by having sex with her before—as were Mikkel and even Lærke. But this can’t be that, I know, because none of us has had sex with Alfhild recently. She’s used something else to bind us with her unfathomable power.
And with a dark shake of his head, Ström opens his eyes—bereft.
“I can’t find it.” He sets his hands on his hips, scuffing one foot through the water. “I can’t feel what she used to bind us this time, Rikyava. Last time, it was my deep attraction to her, and the sex that sealed her curse on me. She’s done something different now. With just my Bone Magic… I can’t find it.”
“Try with me.” I vault down to the belly of the ship with him, holding my hand out. “Run your magic through our Bloodbond and use mine to bolster it. Our power goes two ways now… use me, use both my Bloodwalker dragons, to build yours. And search for what she did to us.”
“I’ll try.” Ström takes my hand. As Bjorn comes to us now, I know what my big First Drake is going to say before he says it.
“Take my power, as well.” Bjorn holds out his hand to Ström. “Since we’re all bound in a group now, rather than just giving power to Rikyava, you can also take from my dragon. I can’t give you Bone Magic to search for what another Bone Mage did to us, but I can give you power. And power is a language all dragons speak… to illuminate the darkness we’re all trapped in.”
“Well said.” With a hint of a smile now, Ström takes Bjorn’s hand.
I feel our Bloodbonds open between us then, as power surges through our link. We’ve joined hands, and skin contact for a shapeshifter makes every magic we have more accessible.
Though my combined Bloodwalker power whirls in a white, gold, and red maelstrom inside me now to find what Ström’s looking for, pouring through my bond to him in a tirade of darkness and scalding crimson light, pure white searing through me, too, I feel how even that’s not enough.
As Ström’s massive dark red and green drake surges through our bonds, powering up high inside his body, I think he might explode from the force of it. Bolstered by Bjorn’s magnificent gold-red drake, I feel his search expand through us tenfold, as even Aesa’s magic within her Truthstone joins us, the silver stone vibrating hard now upon my chest.
It’s just not enough to find whatever curse the clever Alfhild Fey has put on us. Then I feel my Bloodwalker power suddenly reach out to Mikkel through our new beginnings of a bond, roaring towards him.
To fully Bloodbond him into helping us.
And break all these curses on us, at last.
29
