Chapter 19

I only remember the second battle as brief flashes of light as Stormbringer tried to bring the disobedient weather to heel. It wasn’t a winning fight; I’d already burnt through most of my magic on the first go around. Everything was the pull of magic, the shouting of the crewmen, and the salty spray of water everywhere.

When I finally awoke, my head pounded like I’d gone on a three-day bender. I opened my eyes reluctantly as a fresh wave of Wizard’s Desolation rolled over me.

I recognized my room in the Sipadan, which was an enormous relief. Stumbling out of the door was a challenge as the ship bobbed up and down, which was even more encouraging. The ship must not have run aground! I’d done it!

My stomach lurched as my headache combined with the ship’s constant motion. Maybe running aground wouldn’t have been so bad.

My white and green cadet’s uniform was still damp as I made my way to the main deck. I must not have been out too long. I didn’t have time to admire the full moon reflecting off the sea, since I could hear shouting in the distance.

“—one job! Keep the storms at bay, and she couldn’t even do that! Look at it, it’s ruined! The navy’s going to repossess the boat to pay for it!”

Did I really have to go see what was going on? I could crawl back into bed and pretend the world didn’t exist a while longer.

No, denial wouldn’t help anything. Besides, it was better than being tried in absentia.

The full crew was assembled on the back deck near the salvage gear, forming a tight circle. I forced my way through the crowd, gasping at what lay before me. It had once been the Harasser drone, but now it was so much waterlogged plastic and scrap.

“Maybe if you’d secured the box properly, it wouldn’t be in that shape,” said O’Connor, facing down Zhang at the center of the circle. His black uniform was still soggy from before, but he managed to look imposing despite that. Zack was nowhere to be seen, which worried me.

“We shouldn’t have had to storm proof it,” the captain replied, his bushy beard and wild eyes giving him the look of a shaman. “These islands are cursed, and the only reason I agreed to this job was because they told me an experienced weather wizard was going to keep that shit at bay. Instead, I get a trainee, and a woman to boot!”

“That’s enough of that,” I said, stepping into the ring. Funny how being incensed seemed to drive off my Wizard’s Desolation. “I fought off the storm!”

“You fought it off once, and then it boomeranged back around at us!”

“You can’t blame me for that,” I retorted. “That stormfront turned on a dime to get us again! That was completely unnatural.”

“I’m glad we can agree on something,” said Zhang, looking down at me. “That’s why we’re getting the heck out of here as soon as we’ve finished our repairs. Somebody doesn’t want us here, and I’m happy to cooperate.”

“If you do that, you’ll never get a contract with the League again,” warned O’Connor.

“After this, I’ll take my chances elsewhere,” he replied. “If the fabricata was ever there at all, the sea reclaimed it ages ago. This was a waste of everyone’s time, and I won’t hear otherwise.” Zhang turned, his men parting before him like the Red Sea before Moses.

“Now you listen here, you—” I took a step forward, but they had already closed ranks, and I wasn’t going to force my way through the angry sailors again.

I hand landed on my shoulder. “Drop it for now,” O’Connor hissed. “We’re both out of magical energy, and this is exactly when ‘unfortunate accidents’ happen to wizards who push their luck.”

I nodded slowly.

“Hey, you slackers!” I could just see the top of Zhang’s head over the crowd. “We go under way in the morning, so get on it!”

Seeing the wall of men part ways was a relief. Once we were alone, I blurted out the main question on my mind. “Where’s Zakariah?”

“You really were out of it,” replied O’Connor. “He’s still sleeping it off; he kept you both from going overboard for hours.”

My face burned. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. Zhang’s right, blast him. This mission was a failure, and it was all my fault.”

“Stop that,” he said firmly. “The League’s done fine without that fabricata for years. Let’s focus on the bigger question: why was there a storm at all? Was it too big to dispel?”

I shook my head. “I’ve made them that big before.” By accident, sure, but still. “The size wasn’t the issue. That one wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Listen to you?” O’Connor looked at me skeptically, and I realized I’d let slip about my personification. “Come again?”

Oh well, he could think I was a nutter all he wanted. I couldn’t look any worse. “It’s exactly what I said. When I use Stormbringer, it feels like the weather’s reacting to me, yeah? That storm completely ignored me.”

He beckoned me back towards the stairs down to the living quarters. “We might as well have this chat in private. If those clouds wouldn’t ‘listen’ to you,” he asked, pausing to make sarcastic air quotes, “then why was there sunlight at all?”

“That’s thanks to you. If you hadn’t made me practice making different pressure zones, it would have hit us at full blast.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m such a fantastic teacher,” he said, his tone more self-deprecating than I’d ever heard from him before. “What exactly makes a storm ‘ignore’ you?” More air quotes. “Is that where your weather accidents come from?”

“That’s the opposite problem; that’s the atmosphere listening to my emotions and not my commands. Those clouds gave me the cold shoulder, which only happens when…” I stopped, nearly falling over when O’Connor walked right into me. I barely noticed as my mind raced. “When another wizard makes the storm.”

The ruddy-faced wizard studied me closely, the good cheer gone from his analytic eyes. “What other wizards? I sure as heck didn’t do it, so that means only one thing.”

I nodded, a smile spreading across my face despite everything. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.” I felt lighter on my feet as a worry I’d carried for more than a week vanished.

“Let’s get somewhere more private; we wouldn’t want to spook the crew.”

“Spook?” What could possibly spook them about good news? Before I could ask, he was already guiding me away. We ducked into Zack’s room. It wasn’t technically his, since another sailor shared the top bunk. I had never met him, but judging from the pinups on the wall, he was the one who’d decided posters of blonde women in swimsuits were suitable for the command center.

“There’s some devil with your talent in the Spratlys,” O’Connor said darkly.

I took a step back. “What? No! Weather magic is such a rare affinity. The odds of finding another wizard with that talent out here are basically nil. If somebody’s using weather magic around here, it means Albert’s out there somewhere!”

“What’s that about Albert?” asked a groggy Zack as he sat up.

“Zack!” I rushed to his side to steady him. Not that I could do much for the former Scarecrow, but I felt like I had to do something for him. “Thank goodness you’re alright.”

“That’s my line,” he said, smiling broadly.

His throat sounded dry, so I grabbed a metal mug from his nightstand and pointed two fingers into it. “Water Orb.” I had enough oomph left to cast trivial utility spells, at least. My magic drew the moisture from the air into a point, filling the mug with pure water.

“Thanks, Rose,” he said. “I’m glad you’re up and about. You had me worried.”

“Now you’re stealing my lines,” I quipped back.

“I didn’t pass out in your arms, yeah?”

“Right, we’ve established that you lovebirds were worried about each other,” snapped O’Connor. “You can go whisper sweet nothings to each other later. Are you sure it’s Albert Cooper who sent the storm at us?”

“It makes the most sense to me,” I said. “Like I said, there aren’t a lot of human weather wizards; maybe a dozen, and half of them are Coopers.”

“But there are millions of devils with magical talents,” he countered. “Every one of them can cast magic. If they have weather affinities at the same percentage, they’d have thousands running around.”

“It’s still a heck of a coincidence,” I replied. “Besides, I don’t know that there are any devils with weather magic, at least not like I have.”

“There’s scattered reports of devils wielding weather magic.”

“Right, but that’s making ice, or lightning, or just wind. I’m talking about the full spectrum weather control we Coopers or that Holy Sister who impersonated me can do.”

“What’s your evidence there?” O’Connor asked.

“It’s logic, yeah? If there were hundreds of devils who would do that, they’d be constantly using it whenever they tried to land an invasion force. We have bombers and drones, and they don’t. If they could create a storm like that whenever they pleased, they could totally ground our air forces.”

“You’re on the right track, Rose, but you’re thinking too small,” said Zack, shifting so his feet touched the floor. “Why even send ground forces, yeah? They could have kept us constantly dealing with hurricanes, blizzards, or whatever else they dreamed up around the clock.” His face hardened. “You’ve fought them too, O’Connor. They didn’t hold anything back when they were trying to land in Sumatra. Why leave that power off the table?”

O’Connor scratched his chin as he considered our words. “Let’s say I grant your premise. Why would Albert send a storm like that at us?”

That brought me up short. I was so caught up in the origin of the storm itself that I’d forgotten it was an attack. “Maybe he’s stranded nearby, and that was the only way he could get our attention?”

“That’s a bit of a stretch,” said O’Connor.

“What if he’s been stuck for more than a month, and he’s getting desperate?” I asked. “I’ve been sending storms north towards old China, as a little bit of revenge on the Horde. He couldn’t have affected my storms any more than I could his.”

“That would explain a stray cloud, but that was the sort of storm they give names to! What, did Zakariah owe him money?”

“He’d have no way of knowing where we were. The only way to know we’d see it was to make it impossible to miss. He probably detected the pressure zone I put around the ship, then sent it back around to make sure we got the hint it wasn’t natural.” I looked to Zack hopefully. Come on, back me up.

Zack hesitated. “Rose, you have a point about the magic, but that’s a lot of assumptions, yeah? It was a little overkill as a message.”

My heart sank. Fine, I didn’t need Zack for this. “At the very minimum, we know that somebody out there flung a storm at us. If it isn’t Albert, then it’s somebody else the Wizard Corps should know about. I just think he makes the most sense.”

“You want it to be Albert, you mean,” said O’Connor. “Look, we’ve all lost friends and family to this nonsense. It doesn’t mean we should jump into the fire on a hunch.”

“You don’t believe me,” I choked out.

“Don’t cry, Cooper,” chided O’Connor. “You know you’re not going to manipulate me like that.”

“I’m not…” I ran a thumb under my eye, and it came back wet. “Dash it all, I am crying a little, but it isn’t on purpose! He could still be alive and need our help!” I looked at Zack imploringly. Please, let this make sense to someone else. “Zack, if someone got stuck on one of these islands, how long do you think they could last?”

That brought him back into the conversation. “Water wouldn’t be an issue for a wizard, like you just demonstrated. Food would be an issue; he might be able to get himself some fish and coconuts, but the islands at this end of the chain are small and pretty dang sparse. It wouldn’t be easy, but they could last a while at least.”

“Exactly,” I said. “O’Connor, imagine you were stranded on some nothing of an island after a plane crash, and after months of barely scraping by, you realized that there was somebody nearby. You’d do anything you could to let them know you were there, wouldn’t you? What else can he do besides use his affinity?”

“That question makes me wonder what they’re teaching you in Nagoya,” he replied. “I can think of a half dozen surer spells that wouldn’t make my rescue party run off.”

“Sure, if I knew where they were,” I countered. “If all I know is they’re south of me, a huge storm might be the surest way to be seen.”

“Did Albert even have that much magic?” asked O’Connor. “I thought you were unusually good at this.”

“He could, though he probably passed out. It’s easier to convince the atmosphere to get stormy than to stop it, energy wise.”

O’Connor pursed his lips and began pacing back and forth. “You realize this position we’re in. Heck, the position I’m in. Captain Zhang isn’t going to want to listen to a word of this; he’s already cutting and running, and I have a hard time blaming him.”

“You’ve got your laptop and a satellite uplink, yeah?” asked Zack. “How far north did that storm come out of? There’s bound to be weather satellites, in case a hurricane comes south.”

It took O’Connor five minutes to find his answer. “About twenty miles north, or thirty-two kilometers before you get snippy. Looks like it formed over one of the larger islands up there. It doesn’t have a proper name, since it was expanded by the old Chinese navy in the twenties.”

“That isn’t too far out of our way,” I said, starting to pace myself. I’d been bone tired before, but the chance of seeing Albert again had my heart jackhammering. “Is there a lifeboat we could borrow and check it out ourselves?”

“Hell no,” spat O’Connor, shocking me with his language. “Like I’m going to give Zhang an excuse to leave any of us behind!”

“He might, too,” said Zack.

“He would, if he thought he could get away with it,” said O’Connor. “Rose, I’m still not completely convinced it’s Albert, but there’s definitely something fishy going on here. If it’s the source of this so-called curse, this could be huge.” He slammed his fist into the metal wall. “Son of a bitch, I wish I hadn’t talked Rintaro out of giving us a naval escort! I’d feel better with some firepower backing us up.”

“If it’s Albert, the only danger is he’s going to bankrupt us feeding him. He’s going to be starving,” I said, earning a chuckle from Zack.

“But if it’s the Horde, God knows how many demons they might have hidden out here,” he said. He stopped in place, tapping his foot and swaying, animated by his internal debate. “Alright, Rose. I’m game. I hope it really is your brother; I’m tired of reporting losses. If it’s the Horde, though? We need to be ready to cover our escape.”

“We’ve still got to convince Zhang to go north instead of south, yeah? That’s easier said than done.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I can get Rintaro on the horn and try and strong-arm him.”

“That would’ve worked yesterday, but he’s clearly done with us,” said O’Connor. “We can’t force him into it.”

“Hm,” I said, deep in thought. “Asking nicely is out, of course. What do we know about the him? He’s superstitious and a chauvinist. Is there any way to use that against him?”

“I don’t see how,” said Zack. “That just means he won’t listen to you.”

My eyes fell on the swimsuit pinup, and I smirked as a plan took shape. “That’s it!”

Zack and O’Connor followed my gaze. “What, you’re going to seduce him?” asked O’Connor, sounding equal parts skeptical and disgusted.

“What? No!” I nearly threw up right there at the idea. Ugh, all that beard hair… “He and his crew already don’t take me seriously, yeah?”

“Stop saying ‘yeah’ all the time, it’s annoying enough when Zakariah does it,” said O’Connor.

“I just figured out how to use that against them,” I continued, ignoring the lieutenant’s back talk.