Of Sea and Smoke by Gillian Bronte Adams

Author:Gillian Bronte Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Christian, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9798886050813
Publisher: Enclave Escape
Published: 2023-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

Ceridwen drifted. She felt like she was always drifting these days. Slipping back into that haze of fever and despair that had enveloped her shipboard journey, not to mention most of her time in her cell. One moment, one breath, one nightmare, constantly bleeding into the next.

So when the strange searider with the curious eyes had surfaced unexpectedly in the midst of the temple, she’d been half convinced it was a dream. Less so, when he and his companions staged their escape and dove back into the stream without a trace, for surely only the waking world was so cruel as to force air back into the lungs of a drowning soul but still leave them tied to the anchor towing them down.

Life, she thought, and undoubtedly Sahak.

With a heave and a cascade of water, the searider seized the edge of the canal and flung himself up onto the shore. His sleeveless tunic was torn slightly along the seam of one shoulder, which made it hang lopsided on his neck. He twitched his arm to adjust it. Shook loose the dark hair plastered to his forehead, scattering droplets like rain. Offered a small, companionable grin as he held out a hand.

Her gaze latched onto the iron key ring he held.

There was freedom. There was revenge. It shocked her to discover how much she could still desire such things after giving herself up for dead. But if not for her own sake, then for Liam’s. Rapidly, she evaluated the threat the searider posed. He was tall and lean and looked like he could run alongside a loping steed for a league or more without losing ground. But in close quarters, in sheer ferocity alone, she wagered she could take him in a fight.

Something in his expression told her that he’d seen the calculation in her eyes. “Before you finish deciding how you’re going to kill me,” he said in Nadaarian, “you should know that the list of things that have tried to kill me and failed is fairly long.” He waved the hand with the key ring looped around his fingers, and she could see the thick, reddened scar that cut across—or rather, through—his palm.

“Also, I’m here to set you free.”

Sure he was.

She called his bluff in his own tongue. “Then toss me the keys.”

He shrugged and lobbed them at her, a perfect throw. She caught the ring in her chained hand and gingerly drew the sling over her head, freeing her left arm. Ignoring the dull throb of the wound, she flexed her fingers and found them oddly tingly, almost numb. She took the ring from her chained hand, tried to grip one key between her thumb and forefinger, and nearly dropped it.

“Really, I could—”

A glare silenced the searider.

Exerting all her willpower over her trembling, near useless hand, she managed to line up one key with the lock, but it wouldn’t go in. Wrong one. Blazes.

She tried another key, and something clanked, but it wasn’t the lock. It was far too loud and resonant for that.

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