Phoenix Rising (The Keeper Origins Book 3) Read online

  “I feel like I don’t have much left to give.”

  Jae nodded thoughtfully. “Your body is flooded with vitalle, but only a little is available to use. The rest is busy keeping you alive. You can access that with a lot of effort, but you can also kill yourself in the process.”

  He turned his hand over and showed the old scars on his palm. “There are limits. When we move too much vitalle, we burn ourselves, then if we continue, we deplete the energy we need to live. How much we have to use varies. Serene has ten times more than I do. Maybe more. She can move tremendous amounts of vitalle at a speed that would kill me.” His words were warm. “And probably kill you, no matter how much you train, but that’s her strength. She is not as good at things that require a low level of steady control.”

  Jae held his hand out, and Sable got the impression of heat flowing out from it in a thin sheet. He waved his fingers toward her, and a swirl of wind blew past. “For instance, she’s horrible at moving air, which requires creating a stable boundary layer that you can push. It’s why she dislikes healing. Directing a thin line of vitalle delicately enough to help a body close a wound takes a lot of energy and a lot of control. Lucky for us, she’s done the hard part in closing Reese’s wound. All we need to do is offer his body more vitalle to help it continue healing.” He looked at her hand. “Show me how you do it.”

  Sable focused on her palm and pushed vitalle into Reese’s skin. Like before, it was only a small trickle.

  “Pushing is the least effective method.” He set his hand on the back of hers. “It’s the natural instinct we have, but we end up wasting energy in the pushing part. Reese is so much weaker than you are, you don’t need to push. Just open a channel, and the energy will flow into him.”

  Vitalle moved from Jae’s hand, through hers, and into Reese. Instead of a shove, it slid like water.

  “It’s like you’re full to bursting, and he’s hollow,” Jae said. “The energy will try to fill him.” He cut off the vitalle and pulled his hand away.

  Sable focused again on her hand, imagining an opening filling her palm. Imagining the vitalle flowing through—

  A rush of energy gushed out of her and into Reese. His arm suddenly flamed with heat, and she yanked her hand back, her palm red and hot.

  “Well done,” Jae said with a smile. “Maybe a smaller channel this time.”

  Sable tried twice more, discovering that it took only a very thin connection before vitalle began to move.

  “If we need more energy than we have available,” Jae said, “we draw vitalle from things around us. There are obvious ethical questions about pulling vitalle out of other humans or animals, but most people are comfortable drawing it out of plants or fire.” He opened the lantern glass. “See if you can follow the heat.”

  They set their hands back on Reese’s arm. Jae opened his other palm toward the flame, and a trickle of heat pulled out toward him. She could almost trace the path it took up one arm, across his shoulders, and down the other arm. A gentle warmth passed from his hand, through hers, into Reese.

  “Fire is a great source of energy, but it can grow powerful very quickly. Stick with something small like a candle or a lantern for now. And, in general, don’t drive vitalle across your chest. You have important things in there like lungs and a heart. If you’re going from one hand to the other, bring the energy up high across your shoulders.”

  He set the lantern next to her, and she put one hand toward it. Once she could feel the warmth of the flame on her palm, she opened up a channel. The heat slipped into her hand, making her feel a bit like she was filling with hot water. It pooled inside her palm until she pulled it higher up her arm. The warmth seeped through her like a mist, and she directed it across the top of her back and down her other arm. Her palm near the flame was painfully hot, but her palm on Reese let out barely a trickle.

  Still, Jae nodded encouragingly. “Good. As you practice, you’ll get better at not letting it disperse inside you. Some people think of a tube that the energy moves down.” His mouth quirked up in a smile. “Serene says it’s not her energy, so why would it go into her body unless she told it to? But for most of us, it’s not quite that simple.”

  Sable tried again to pull warmth from the flame, and this time a bit more of it made its way into Reese.

  “Good. Any questions?” Jae asked.

  Sable shook her head.

  “The more tired you are, the more you’ll waste, and the less will go into Reese, so take your time.” He picked up the pile of bandages she’d rolled earlier. “Besides, if you exhaust yourself, Serene’s going to be mad at both of us.” His gaze dropped to Reese, and he sighed. “Just do what you can.” With a smile that wasn’t particularly reassuring, he headed across the deck toward Serene.

  Sable set her hand on Reese’s chest, but his heartbeat was weak. Innov shifted on the rail above them, but even the sparks of her fire didn’t take away the greyness of his skin.

  “Can you help him too?” Sable looked up at the phoenix and patted her hand on Reese’s chest. “You helped Narine when she was weak.”

  Innov twitched her head, then launched off the rail, tucked into a tight circle, and spiraled down to land in a flurry of fire in the center of Reese’s bandage. Tiny tongues of flame flickered along her feathers as she settled her wings. Her warmth pressed against Sable’s cheeks like she was sitting by a glowing hearth. But more than that, a gentle current of hope seeped into the air, smoothing the jagged edges of worry and fear inside Sable and the aching emptiness left by all the things lost in the battle at Immusmala.

  Sable ran her finger down Innov’s chest. “Thank you.”

  Reese didn’t move.

  What if he never did? What if he never sat up next to her, solid and protective and…alive?

  She swallowed and took his hand again. “I need you to live,” she whispered, the truth of the words warming the air around them. “I thought you were dead once already, when I saw you fall in the battle.” The heat swirled through the air between them, pooling around Reese. She focused on it, willing it to sink into him. “Actually, when you hear what I did after that, you’re going to be really mad.”

  An officer approached and saluted, the motion including Sable as well. “Preparations are almost finished. We’ll be pushing off soon, leading the fleet north up the river.”

  The word “fleet” was too sophisticated for a haphazard cluster of borrowed merchant boats and would have been amusing if everyone boarding them hadn’t been exhausted, wounded, and filthy.

  The officer was looking at Reese, who didn’t move.

  “How much of the army is here?” Sable asked.

  The officer shifted his attention to her. “Everyone well enough to march from Immusmala.”

  “Any news on the Kalesh forces who already went north?”

  “From what we’ve gathered, they have a four-day head start. With the boats, we should shave at least a day off their lead.”

  “Only a day?” Sable asked.

  “We’ll be rowing against the current,” the officer said, his eyes straying to Innov perched on Reese’s chest. “We’ll be moving no faster than someone could walk along the shore, but we’ll row in shifts so we can continue moving through the night. If all goes well, we’ll gain on the cowards a little.”

  “Thank you,” Sable said.

  The man saluted and, with one last glance at Reese, started back across the deck. Atticus’s wagon finally rolled on board, and there were a few moments of commotion as some crates were moved to fit it into the back of the boat.

  Next to Sable, Reese groaned, and she leaned closer, grabbing his hand. His eyes cracked open.

  “Reese?” she whispered.

  He focused on her face. His fingers twitched, trying to squeeze her hand, but she could barely feel the pressure. “Are you hurt?” His voice was whisper quiet and strained.

  “Me?” A breath escaped her, sounding more like a sob than a laugh. “I thought you were dead.”

  His eyes closed. “I hope being dead isn’t going to hurt this much.”

  “Serene says you need to drink. There’s wartroot in it for the pain.” She lifted his head, and Innov flapped her wings, fluttering up to the rail of the boat, dousing them in a shower of sparks.

  Reese took a few swallows before his head lolled to the side. “Where are we?”

  “Back on the river.” Sable gave a quick explanation of how they’d taken a merchant boat from Immusmala to the river, and how they were now readying to row north on the smaller riverboats.

  He squinted up at her. “How did we get merchant boats?”

  Sable shook her head, remember how Kiva had escorted her to his ships. “I’ll save the details for when you’re feeling better and have the energy to be properly angry with me.”

  When he looked like he might object, she continued. “We won the battle, though.” In broad strokes, leaving out her own involvement, she explained the end of the fighting. As she talked, though, his eyes began to glaze over.

  Innov shifted on the railing, and embers cascaded around Sable’s shoulders.

  Reese blinked and focused on her. “You look magical.”

  She let out a short laugh. “I’m too dirty to look mag—”

  “And plain,” he declared.

  She tilted her head. “Plain?”

  His eye slid shut and he nodded weakly. “Plain.” His voice was warm with truth.

  “Thanks, Reese.” She patted his shoulder. “That’s very sweet.”

  He didn’t answer for so long, she thought he had fallen back asleep. Finally, his hand tightened on hers. “Don’t,” he whispered.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t…” The word was slurred. “…leave…”

&nb
sp; She set her hand on his cold cheek. “I’ll stay while you sleep.”

  He shook his head slightly. “Not…enough,” he mumbled. “Not…”

  “Reese?”

  He didn’t answer.

  She slid her fingers down to his neck. His pulse was weak and thready and his skin so cold she reached out toward the lantern and funneled more vitalle into him. The merest hint of warmth flowed between them. Dropping her hand, she leaned back, her arms and head heavy. She closed her own eyes, and the world spun slightly. The groan of some wounded soldier floated across the deck, and she forced her eyes open. There were more bandages to make. She picked up a new piece of cloth.

  As she tore it into strips, the events of the day replayed yet again in her head.

  Ending, like it always did, with the thought of the raven racing toward the Empire. The Kalesh would be returning soon. It was inevitable. When they did…

  Her hands closed around the cloth.

  There was an obvious solution.

  A painful one, but an obvious one.

  She pointedly refocused on the fabric, starting a tear and ripping off a strip. Rolling it neatly in her pile.

  Atticus’s voice rang across the deck again as he climbed on board. His wavy white hair and beard came into view with several familiar faces following him.

  Sable breathed out a long, slow breath.

  As soon as they were all gathered, she’d tell them what had happened.

  They’d see the solution too. They might argue a little at first, but they’d agree in the end.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sable had almost finished rolling the makeshift bandages she’d been given when Atticus’s footsteps stormed toward her on the deck. The sky had darkened to a deep blue, and a handful of bright stars were struggling to shine in the east.

  Jae and Serene came with him, both dropping down gratefully on the deck. Jae’s curly hair was damp with sweat, his robes and hands as dirty as Serene’s and his face almost as exhausted.

  Atticus stayed standing, his arms crossed. “Sable, what is this I hear about Bastian capturing you?”

  Sable shook her head. “He didn’t capture me.”

  Leonis stepped past Atticus, sitting next to Sable and stretching out his legs. “Letting yourself be captured is poor form, Sneaks.”

  Thulan thunked down on the far side of Reese, the evening light picking up strands of red in her short-trimmed beard. “You look terrible,” the dwarf said, nudging his foot with her own. When Reese gave no response, her brow creased.

  “He hasn’t woken yet?” Leonis asked, reaching past Sable to set his fingers on Reese’s wrist.

  “He did for a few minutes,” Sable answered.

  Leonis exchanged a look with Thulan that was so brief Sable almost didn’t catch it before he pulled his hand off Reese’s wrist and sat back.

  Atticus still stood with his arms crossed. His troubled gaze rested on Reese for a moment before he refocused on Sable, his voice more subdued. “What is this I hear,” he repeated, “about Ambassador Bastian capturing you and taking you to General Goll?”

  “He didn’t capture me,” Sable said again. “I…” She glanced around at the people around her. “I asked him to take me to Goll.”

  This was met with a moment of silence before Atticus burst out with, “Goll? Of all people, you went to Goll? When the battle was already won?”

  Flibbet pushed his little handcart up the ramp onto the boat and tucked it against the stern. Sable waved him over, ignoring Leonis’s comments about stupid decisions and badly formed plans. “Have a seat,” she said to the peddler. “You’re going to enjoy this story.”

  Atticus was still glaring down at her.

  “Atticus,” she said, “are you going to make me speak to an audience who’s looming and scowling? You might like this story too. It has some unexpected twists.”

  He frowned at her. “The only reason I’m sitting is because it obviously has a happy ending.” He shooed Leonis’s legs out of the way and sat directly in front of her.

  She watched him get situated. “I’m not sure it does.”

  An officer called out a command, and the wood behind Sable vibrated as the oars clunked into place.

  She looked at the familiar faces around her, a surge of relief rising in her that she was sitting here, with them, on a boat about to start north up the Black River, instead of sitting imprisoned on a Kalesh ship, sailing toward the Empire. She glanced down at Reese, watching his shallow breaths, the relief fading.

  “I suppose Bastian did capture me,” Sable began, turning back to Atticus, “but not the way you might think. At dawn this morning, I was headed to find Rabbit and get out of Immusmala when Bastian met me near the Fallen Gate and invited me to the top of the city wall.”

  “Invited?” Atticus asked.

  The soldiers heaved on the boat, pushing it deeper into the water, making it rock sharply. Innov let out an irritated cry before launching herself into the air. They slid slowly down the sand, the ground rasping under the hull, until they broke free and swung out into the river. The order was given to row, and the boat heaved slowly upstream.

  “There were several Kalesh guards encouraging me to take up his invitation,” Sable admitted, “but it felt more invitation-like than capture-like.”

  Atticus gave an annoyed noise.

  “What did Bastian want?” Leonis asked.

  “To help,” Sable answered with a small smile. Almost every look turned skeptical. Serene merely nodded in agreement. Flibbet’s expression was thoughtful, as though he was fitting together pieces of a puzzle.

  Atticus narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

  Sable’s smile faded. “He said he owed me more than he owed the Empire.”

  Flibbet sighed, as though something unpleasant had been confirmed, but the others merely exchanged confused looks.

  Until Atticus drew in a sharp breath. “Melia,” he breathed.

  Sable nodded. “I told you you’d like the twist.”

  “What does the Ghost of the White Wood have to do with you?” Leonis asked.

  “A bit more than I expected,” Sable said. “It turns out that when Melia left the Empire, she headed this direction and settled on the Eastern Reaches, where she married and had three daughters.”

  Sable waited as the shocked expressions came over them.

  “Melia was your mother?” Thulan asked.

  Flibbet let out a breath was more of a grimace than a laugh. “Your mother is the fabled Ghost who killed the Imperial prince?” He glanced at the others. “Prince Turrn was the current Emperor’s brother.”

  “No wonder they never stopped looking for her,” Thulan said.

  “I look like my mother,” Sable said, “and Bastian recognized me the first time we met.” Bastian’s expression as they’d stood on the city wall together came back to her. The earnestness. The plea to let him help her. “At the very least, he’d harbored a lifelong admiration of her. He claimed knowing her had changed him. Changed how he thought of the Empire and the people they conquered. He said she’d convinced him to mitigate some of the violence the Empire spread.”

  “He was always a voice of peace in Vivaine’s meetings,” Serene agreed.

  “He betrayed the Empire to help you, Sable,” Leonis said, “based only on the memory of your mother. I’d say that signifies more than admiration.”

  Sable nodded. “He tried to find her before the Empire did, to warn her. He said her exploits are still famous. Rebellions rally around her name. Kalesh parents tell their children the Ghost will come visit them if they’re naughty.”

  “More than that.” Flibbet leaned forward. “There’s a town on the far eastern side of the Reaches where a lot of refugees have fled from the Empire and settled here. That’s where I got the book about the Ghost of the White Wood in the first place. They told me stories about her. After Melia killed Prince Turrn, any time the Empire caught even a rumor of her location, they sent hundreds of troops after her. They slaughtered entire villages because they heard she might be there. They burned down a whole forest when they thought she was passing through it.” He glanced at Sable. “I’m not surprised they burned down your town to get your mother. I’m surprised they didn’t burn the entirety of the Eastern Reaches.”