Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Ninety-OneWyott

Chapter Ninety-One

Wyott

“ F lip the sails!” Cora screamed over the sound of the waves, over the splintering wood on wood of ships colliding.

She spun and her hair whirled behind her as she did. The braids from this morning had loosened and were wet with the seawater that coated each of us now. Curls spun down the sides of her cheeks, across the top of her forehead, pasted down by the water.

Her eyes were bright, attentive on the task at hand, as they landed on the Sorcerers who stood on the rear platform of the ship’s deck.

“Flip the sails, and churn the water left!” she screamed, but the Sorcerers weren’t paying attention to her—they couldn’t hear her over the sounds of war.

Her face contorted into worry, her bronze skin crinkling at the brow, and I turned.

“I’ve got it,” I said, running to the back platform. I felt the rush of gratitude down the bond and looked back to see her jump across the expanse between this ship and the one to our left, to make the same orders there.

She was attempting to fall into a defensive formation, but the chaos around us had erupted too quickly for her to do so with the precision she needed.

I ran to the Water Caster who stood on the back edge of the ship, the same one who’d come to me all those weeks ago and volunteered to fight. His back was pressed to the wall, eyes wide.

“Churn the waters left,” I roared above the sound of the waves slapping the ship’s stern. “We need to spin the ship, to face there,” I raised a hand to point to the mark on the horizon where Cora needed the bow to point.

The Sorcerer looked up at me, his skin paling as he looked out to the ships around us.

“I…I can’t,” he stuttered, hands shaking nearly as quickly as his head was.

Sorcerers had never had to fight in a war with the Kova before. We’d never asked them to. But this morning, when we’d just finished getting all of the ships out into the water, we saw the march of Vasi ships across the horizon.

And there were so many .

More than we could ever fight alone, and they moved faster than ships of that size should, because of the Water Casters aboard, who pulled waves up from the sea, and pushed their boats forward.

The receding waters Cora had spotted, the instinct in her gut, had been this.

The tides of war.

We’d barely had enough time to deploy half the Navy, and myself, to swim back to shore, to fire off the red fireworks, to rally all our troops—to summon the few Sorcerers who’d volunteered—and ferry them to our awaiting ships.

I pursed my lips and wrapped gentle hands around his shoulders.

“Your kingdom needs you,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm but loud enough for him to hear. “I know it’s scary, and I know it’s more than we’ve ever asked. But for the freedom of the Rominians—of the Sorcerers here whose existence Vasier has deemed illegal—we need you to fight.”

His jaw hung open as if he wished he could speak.

I saw movement out of the peripheral to my right, saw Cora’s ship beginning to turn, and pointed to it.

“I need you to do that, just follow.” I looked back to him, felt the way my own hair slapped against my face as I made the move. “Can you do that? Just move the water to turn our bow to her stern,” I said, pointing to the Water Caster who stood upon the platform at the stern of the ship beside us, eyes focused on the water below, her hands outstretched toward it.

His eyes slid over to her, slid to her hands, slid down to the water. Then slowly, he nodded.

“Okay,” he whispered so low had I not been a Kova I would not have heard.

“Thank you,” I said, clapping his shoulder and turning to the Air Caster who stood on the same platform but below the rear mast of the ship.

I ran to her side, saw the exertion on her face as she tried to force air into the sails.

“Follow that ship,” I said to her, pointing. “Our bow to their stern. Then hold.”

She nodded, bit against the exertion, and I straightened, looking for Cora.

She was two ships over now, giving the same orders. To my right, I could see Saxon, doing the same. Ahead, Mitch.

Cora was trying to make a circular formation of the Kova ships, three layers deep. It would take communication and cooperation, but if anyone could lead this formation into place it was her.

She was the only reason Rominia wasn’t already decimated.

If she hadn’t made the call to pull the ships, to deploy them all into open water to protect them from the tidal wave she feared was coming, our ships would’ve been blocked from exiting the marina by the Vasi or torched by Lauden by now.

Our ship bobbed in the rear of our formation, as the Naval Commander’s usually did. But she jumped around them now, all our ships, along with Saxon and Mitch, to get them arranged. To try, against all odds, to withstand the barrage that Vasier had sailing into us. Line by line. No matter how many ships of theirs we felled, there was a new line ready to spring forward, to reinforce it.

My stomach churned as I looked out over the Kova boats out front, the ones that were already crawling with Vasi, that had already collided with their ships, and where the battle had begun.

They couldn’t be helped, other than the Kova who ran to fight on them. But they’d miss out on being in the formation. Now, all we could do was try to pull the rest. If we pulled back into a defensive circular formation, there’d be no head of our Navy for them to attack.

There was movement aboard the rear platform of the ship on my right, and I turned to see my brother, Evaline, Sage and Dean burst onto the ship’s deck.

My heart gave an erratic beat and a breath shuddered from my chest at seeing them here, seeing them safe.

Maddox’s head was already turning for me, and when we met eyes, his face loosened into visible relief, and he grabbed Evaline as the four of them jumped over to my boat.

“Thank the Gods,” I said, pulling him and Evaline into a hug as they landed. “I don’t know what you’ve just been through,” I said, pulling back from them, and then looking out over the carnage. “But I hope you’re not too tired to fight.”

Maddox shook his head and tightened his hand around my shoulder.

“We’ve got your father,” he said, and my head snapped back to face his.

“What?” I asked, barely audible over the sound of a nearby scream.

“He was waiting for us, there was a trap. But we got him back safely, he’s in your room in the manor.”

I nodded, falling back a step as I took in the information, but my attention was pulled back to the battle almost instantly as he spoke.

“Where are my parents?” he asked, and when I raised my eyes to him I could see the worry churning in them.

“Your mother remained on the island, to have one Keeper there,” I said, then turned my head to look out over the ships, trying to spot Kovarrin. “And one out here.”

Maddox turned to look too.

“The last time I spotted him, he was going to look for Vasier.”

“Where’s Cora?” Evaline asked, looking for her.

I explained her plan, that she was out trying to choreograph it. Then ducked my head low to Evaline so the Sorcerers behind me didn’t hear.

“There aren’t enough Sorcerers. We don’t stand a chance if we can’t maintain our fleet, they’ll run right over us and pick us off one by one.”

I pulled back to look at Evaline at the same time I saw her eyes shift to focus behind me, then widen, and before I knew what was happening, she’d raised her hand toward it.

I ducked as she threw her hand toward the left, toward Rominia, and turned to watch as a Vasi that had been jumping from one ship over to land on me was tossed far with her Air, arcing across the sky until his body slammed into the invisible ward protecting the kingdom, then slid down into the water.

I turned, a few Vasi had made it onto the ship beside us, some onto our ship. While the brunt of their forces still remained on ahead, a few of them had slipped through.

“They’re here for you,” I said to Evaline, and she nodded, pursing her lips.

“I know,” she said, then turned away from all of us, and strode to stand at the edge of the platform, the battles of a few Kova and Vasi scrambling below.

She raised her hands out above the ship, fingers spread, and immediately the wind picked up around us.

Clouds descended overhead, clustering to blot out the sun and the world fell into eerie, gloomy darkness.

She turned her head back toward us, her braid swaying in the wind.

“Run to all the other ships,” she screamed above the whip of her wind. “Tell them to tilt the sails, tell them to steer left.” A moment passed before she turned back. “And tell those aboard to hang on.”

The four of us ran off, all to different ships. I caught up to Cora, told her Evaline was here.

We looked back to where Evaline stood, across the expanse. Her brows furrowed, eyes narrowed, her hair and clothes whipped around her.

And as if Merwinna herself grazed a casual hand through the waters beneath us, lazily spinning the sea into an almost cyclone, the water shifted, the air roared, and the ships fell in line.

Cora’s chest moved with a laugh, and I looked down to see a smile on her face, her jaw dropping open, the tears in her eyes relieved.

Cora’s vision, her skillful maneuver that could save our forces, shifted into place.

It was slow at first, the sails on some of the ships farther out in front needed shifting, but once they did, the formation grew around us, and just as the next line of Vasier’s fleet hit ours, it halted in its path.

The strength of Cora’s formation held, and, at least for now, the rest of our fleet was safe.

Cora sprung forward, planted a foot on the edge of the ship, and jumped to join Evaline, and I was right behind her.