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"I'm going to get Ayella Corellis. She should be up by now." I jutted my chin back to the crew. "Get them moving." A look to Engèli. "Get yourself ready. Cause we're going in the Wood."
Engèli's nostrils flared as I turned around, flew to my cabin and went to wake up the Ayella from the sea.
The shore was silent as the grave as Engèli and I floated several paces from the entrance to the Poisoned Wood.
"You know I'm right behind you once you fly in, Cap."
I threw an unimpressed glance at Engèli. He grinned but made no move to fly into the Wood first. The thick, dark forest loomed high and menacing. It took up nearly the entire island, with trees coated in black leaves and emerald sap oozing out of their bark.
Engèli didn't budge.
Coward.
The Ashweaver angels floated several paces behind us, Nyala and Jabari perched at their lead. Both had refused to come. They insisted their presence was needed on shore. Nyala emphasized the importance of her making sure repairs to the damaged parts of the ship remained on schedule.
I was a pirate captain of a bunch of rotting cowards.
"Are you sure we have to go?"
My chest squeezed at the accented, melodic voice. Curious, unsure, but elegant and serene. The voice belonging to one who could sit on any throne, and command armies at will. Ayella Corellis floated to my left. It had been stupid of me to tell her what Engèli and I were going to do. The moment she heard, she demanded to come along. When Corellis said she was coming, Kianga declared she was coming, too.
Engèli was more than happy for Kianga to join us. He looked at her now, eyebrows wriggling at her as she scrunched her nose at him. Skies. When Engèli marked an angel, he never let up. I was of half a mind to tell him to back off. But Kianga was a Seaveiller of the Pearl Palace. If she could handle King Au'Pearls court, she could handle Engèli.
"We already discussed this. We must," I answer Corellis.
My attention snagged on the flutter of her pale blue gown, lifting with the eery breeze floating from the Poisoned Wood. A thin barrier of old ethèr surrounded the Wood. It was said that was the only thing that kept the Konda King from breaking free. I thought it was all a bunch of rot.
"I need alluniem for the hull or else Ashweaver isn't making it to Azizi."
"And the stores of alluniem are in the bowels of the Poisoned Wood's caves," Engèli added.
Kianga shivered and said, "I don't like it."
"Then you can stay, Ayella," I grinned down at her.
Kianga hissed. The sound made Corellis twitch her ears. The slight movement triggered a spike of heat through my chest so hard I nearly went blind from it. I yanked my gaze away, fighting for air.
"Let's go."
I crossed the invisible barrier and flew into the Poisoned Wood.
The first sensation to hit me was the stench of old in the air.
"It's quiet," Engèli remarked.
"Too quiet," I agreed.
"I don't like it," Kianga grumbled.
There was no sound. No flutter of the leaves. Nor chirping of birds. No scuttling of furry creatures littering the floor. There wasn't a sound but the breath coming out of my mouth.
"I have the same feeling I get when I see Sea Watchers in the Pearl Palace," Corellis murmured.
I turned to her and found that she'd drawn on her ethèr. I studied her hands. They were sparkled with a white mist that curled around her wrists as tiny water droplets fell from them.
Something about her ethèr pulled at me. It drew me like bait on a hook. My chest squeezed as I fought to look away. I shook my head, forcing the urge out of me. Skies. What kind of ethèr was that?
Kianga had her own mist stirring, shifting between sea blues and foam greens, curling up her arms as she expertly took in every detail of the Wood. Both sea angels floated, their watery, membranous wings flapping in the quiet.
