Chapter 42

Maybe the beach wasn’t the best place to fall asleep, but I’d barely slept in two nights, after spending a month being half-fed at a slave camp.

I awoke to a familiar face, the beady, compound eyes of the unnamed megapede and her clacking mandibles.

Virgil winced. “You didn’t need to scream quite so loudly. You’ll hurt her feelings.” He reached down, stroking her on the back of the head with his free arm. The other was bound in a sling.

“She’s a good girl, but I’ll never get used to her,” I said, scrambling to my feet a good twenty feet from where I’d started.

“Feelings? She’s a bloody roly-poly!” said Zack, coming up behind.

“You’d best respect Mabel,” replied the half-devil with a haughty sniff. “None of us would be here if it weren’t for her.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” I said. “How did she know to gnaw off that fabricata?”

“Can’t rightly say,” he replied. “I have woken up a few times to her ‘kissing’ me with her mouthparts.”

Zack shuddered. “You sound so calm about it.”

“What’s there to worry about? Ozy—” The cursed brand flared to life again. “Hellfire and damnation, that curse is still active? His charred corpse is right over there!”

I furrowed my brow. “Which means that the mental seeds he planted in Albert and O’Connor might still be active.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He was remote controlling them while he absorbed them,” said Virgil. “He hadn’t really implanted himself in anybody since he got here, once he figured out the chair and the mask. I suppose he thought wizards were worth the effort.”

I gestured at the bunkers and the slave camps. “Then they’re all still enchanted.”

“Yes, and everyone in Haven, too,” he replied.

“I’d hoped that killing the leader would fix things,” I said.

Zack sighed. “It’s never easy, is it? Then again, I got a heck of a wallop. I was basically useless without an order.”

“He snapped out of it, though,” said Virgil. “So, that gives us some hope.”

“The real question is, what’s next?” asked Zack.

The sun had risen on the other side of the island, casting long shadows over my battlefield. I heard the first stirrings of activity in the distance. “Zack, you were with them. What’s the difference between the huts and the barracks?”

“They built the huts when they ran out of space in the barracks, as far as I can tell,” he replied.

“I can confirm that because I was there for it,” said Virgil, glaring at Zack.

“No need to be jealous,” I said. “So everybody on this side of the island is a drone for now?”

“Yes,” said the two at once.

“You don’t know that for sure,” said Virgil. “I’m the one with answers, damn it all!”

“Mind your tongue, devil,” said Zack.

“Do I need to hose you two down?” I groaned. “Virgil, do you still have the Finding Device I gave you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, holding up the golf ball-sized cube.

“Good work,” I said.

“What does it do, exactly?” asked Zack, peering at the artifact.

“My friend Yukiko gave it to me; all of her friends got one. For the last half-day or so, she’s been getting a constant message saying that one of her friends is in trouble, and which way they are.”

“Just a direction? That isn’t much to go on. There’s an awful lot of world out there… or, so I’m told,” said Virgil, peering over the horizon.

“If it were anybody else, I might be nervous,” I said. “Knowing her, she’s been pounding coffee all night and raising a ruckus with anybody who’ll listen.”

“Besides, the League knows about where the Sipadan went down,” said Zack. “That should narrow it down some. Still, it’ll probably be a few days until we’re rescued.” The first of the workers emerged from the bunkers, shuffling over to the nearby fields. “What’s to be done about them?”

I bit my lip. “I hate to say it, but I think the safest thing might be to have them keep up their work. They’ll still need to be fed until rescue arrives. You two take care of them, as well as Albert and O’Connor. It… might be best to leave them tied up.”

“Trust me, there’ll be no complaints from me,” said Virgil, rubbing his wounded shoulder.

“No complaints from you? Not bloody likely. Either way, thank you for everything.” I strode over, giving the devil a chaste kiss in the center of his forehead. A hug would risk aggravating his injury, after all. “If it wasn’t for you, none of this would have been possible.”

“O-of course,’ he said, fidgeting and turning redder.

“What, he gets a kiss?” said Zack. There wasn’t any jealousy in his tone; I think he was amused at Virgil’s embarrassment.

“You’ll get yours later, back in Labuan like you promised,” I said, turning to leave.

“Where are you going?” asked Zack. I think Virgil tried to stammer it out, but the poor boy was too addled.

“This side of the island is a bunch of mindless drones,” I replied. “Haven is going to need a different approach.”

***********

“Rose, you’re back, thank the sea!” said Puja as I emerged from the forest an hour later. She and Sunny were tending to the gardens at the edge of where good Haveners could go. “Hurry, get over here before Kumar sees you were in the woods! Are you mad?”

“Nope, just the opposite,” I said. “Where is your son?”

“Rose, it’s bad luck to see him before the ceremony,” chided Sunny. “That isn’t until tonight.”

I gave the older woman a knowing smile. “You don’t need to worry about that anymore. I did what we talked about last night.”

Sunny’s placid expression didn’t change, but her posture relaxed at the news.

Puja’s brow wrinkled. “What are you talking about? And, what are you wearing?”

“Come with me,” I said. “I have important news.”

I strode through the village, drawing a crowd as I went. It seemed like everyone could sense that something had changed. Finally, we reached the shore, where the menfolk were getting ready for the day’s fishing expedition.

“Rose!” shouted Kumar, sounding legitimately overjoyed. “What brings you over?”

“I have sad news for everyone,” I said. “Ozzie is dead.”

A hush came over the crowd, though it didn’t last long. Everyone, men and women, young and old, spoke up at once. Some let out cries of sorrow, others hurled doubts and insults at me.

Kumar silenced them with a shout. “Explain.”

“Our leader went out to commune with the sea, and the sea found him wanting,” I replied. “I had a vision last night showing me all of it. You’ll never see him again.”

“That’s a bit hard to believe,” said Kumar.

“It’s the truth, though,” I said. “The sea declared that I was its new priestess, and that I would be in charge from now on.”

If the villagers had been dismayed before, now they were on the verge of a riot.

“Who does this girl think she is?”

“Heresy!”

“Nonsense!”

“Burn her! Make her tell us where Ozzie is!”

I held up my hands. “Hold on, I can prove it. The sea and I are now as one.” God, I felt so phony talking like that, but it’s what these brainwashed villagers expected. We’d probably all have a good laugh about it later.

I stepped towards the surf, making needlessly complex motions with my hands. “Oh sea, bring forth a powerful wave to prove my favor with you.”

Stormbringer responded to my orders, and the sky darkened above us. It wasn’t part of the affinity, but it meant that when I began gesturing and willing magic into my hands, the glow would be more visible. A mighty wind blew inland, bringing with it the crest of a wave nearly as tall as me.

Was it necessary to aim it right at Kumar? No, but it was therapeutic seeing him get soaked, after that time he’d tried to take advantage of me on our run.

“By the sea,” he said, spitting water out of his mouth.

“Does anybody still doubt me? I have performed miracles that even Ozzie never commanded.” I said with a solemnity worthy of a vicar.

That had shut them up straight away. Good; I was trying to make this transition as peaceful as possible, not rile them up more.

I turned to Kumar, trying to look apologetic. “And I’m afraid I must be like the last priest of the sea and remain unpaired. The wedding is off.”

Kumar’s face fell. “Oh.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, patting him on the cheek. “In a few days, this will all blow over.”