Shaper of Water by D.K. Holmberg

Author:D.K. Holmberg [Holmberg, D.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Short Stories
Published: 2017-08-17T06:00:00+00:00

15

Elle clung to the mermaid figurehead as the water splashed around them, sending salty spray up and into her face. Trapped as she was, she couldn’t even reach a hand up to wipe it away, so that after nearly an hour, time that she felt each strong pull from the oars as they dragged the ship away from Falsheim, water ran down her face like tears. Around her, the ship creaked, the heavy hull swaying beneath the waves, and she began to wonder whether she could reach for masyn if she were to need help.

“How much longer?” Ley asked.

Elle couldn’t tell. The ship moved quickly, more so now that the massive sails had been deployed and the strong winds blowing out of the east caught them, sending the Xsa ship sluicing through the waves with a new vigor, but she couldn’t really make out where they were.

“I figured it would be half a day,” she said, “maybe more, but now I’m not sure. We’re moving faster than I expected.”

Ley laughed. “Do you really think that we can spend half a day like this?”

“Is there another choice?”

Ley continued laughing. “Maybe it would have been better to try to sneak aboard the ship. That Calah couldn’t have been all that bad, could he?”

Elle tried to look over at him, but the mermaid constricted her. “You said they were slavers!”

“And we’re shapers. That has to count for something.”

Elle fell silent. The ship rode up and down massive swells. Time passed, and she became aware of the sun falling in the sky, though it never really poked free of the clouds. She focused on her connection to the water, straining to listen to the way the waves swelled beneath them. The connection was tenuous and slow, and Elle didn’t recognize anything at first. She shifted her attention to the spray coming off the ship, and the elemental that she’d bonded, and took steady breaths. There, as she focused, she could sense the way that water extended from her.

How far are we to Ophan? Elle asked, sending an image of the village through the connection to the elemental.

There is much water between you and the shore.

Elle felt a moment of relief that the elemental had answered. Her connection to Nimala was difficult. It was there, but at times, Nimala was silent. Elle wondered if she needed to do something different to solidify the connection, or whether that was the way that it would be all the time. Maybe bonding to masyn would never make her a strong shaper, but then, she hadn’t really been able to shape at all before she had bonded.

But how far?

Nimala seemed amused at the question. You would like to know how many waves before you reach the shore?

That might help.

If nothing else, Elle could use the knowledge of the waves and hope to know when it was time for her and Ley to jump into the water from that. Once they did, they would be dependent on her ability—and Ley’s—to shape them to the village.

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