It was the scream of the wind that woke her.

Cassia opened her eyes. Or, rather, one of them. Her left eye was swollen shut. Her mouth tasted like old copper and salt. Her ribs ached as did her skull. The cell was dark, making Cassia wonder how long she'd been unconscious. She had vague recollections of floating to consciousness, but had never managed to stay awake for long.

This felt different, though. She was fully awake now, and aware of everything. Including the fact that her head was resting on something soft. 

With a soft groan, she shifted her hands and tried to push herself into a sitting position. A callused hand settled on her forehead, gently pulling her back down. Cassia might have been inclined to struggle, but the creak of her ribs and the sharp pain that resulted dissuaded her. She sighed, allowing her head to rest on Askari's thigh.

"Are you among the living again?" Askari asked in Metian, his voice quiet and weary. He tensed as the ship swayed around them. An arhythmic drumming overhead told Cassia it was raining.

She lifted a hand, probing the tight, swollen skin around her eye. "How long have I been asleep?" she croaked, wincing at the pain that lanced through her jaw.

He sighed, catching her hand and replacing it with his own. Cassia held her breath as he felt along the line of her jaw, pressing a little harder at certain points. "I do not believe it is dislocated. Just bruised and painful. However, it seems like a few of your ribs are cracked."

She turned her head gingerly, straining her eye to see Askari. It was too dark. He was little more than a black splotch against the darkness. "That's not what I asked."

"A little less than two days." Some of the usual snap returned to his voice, calming her. Somehow, his concern was far more frightening than his temper.

"Mm." Cassia let her eye fall closed. Overhead, underscoring the pound of rain, she could hear the creak of ropes and canvas. "Does it look terrible?"

A scoff came from Askari. "Does that matter?"

She began tapping the left side of her face, exploring the swollen skin and painful points around her eye and down her cheek to her mouth. She was sure it was bruised, but how bruised was the question. "Yes."

"Yes," he said shortly before muttering in Sorian about ridiculous Metian vanity.

Cassia let that slide, realizing he was the one to have nursed her over the last two days. Her concern was vain, in a way. The prettier she looked, the likelier it was she would end up as a household slave. The clearer her path would be back to freedom.

Her eye flew back open when the ship pitched violently, a swell of water slapping her in the face. Spluttering, she lurched upright just to double over, clutching her ribs.

Askari's arms braced her as the ship lurched again, threatening to send her sliding into the bars of their cage. Her heart pounded a tattoo against her aching ribs as the creaking of timbers came suddenly to the front of her attention.

"What's wrong?" she asked, then shook her head. That was an unintelligent question. "A storm?"

"They turn bad very quickly along the coast of Brunia." Askari helped her sit with her back against the hull. He kept his arm wrapped around her shoulders, helping her stay steady as the ship continued to lurch and roll.

Above, she thought she could hear hoarse shouting and the thud of running feet. Water surged in waves down into the hold, cascading over the stairs at irregular intervals. Beside her, Askari began muttering under his breath. Cassia recognized the cadence of prayer, even though she couldn't make out his words.

The wind rose to a scream, the ship rolling suddenly sideways as a wave hit them broadside. Thunder crashed overhead and lightning cracked.

There was no use in speaking. Cassia would need to shout to be heard, and there was nothing that needed saying that would be worth the pain in her jaw. With no other course of action, she followed Askari's example and began to pray.

She tried to shut her eyes, but that turned every bob of the ship into a vicious plunge and left her disoriented. So, Cassia stared at the hatchway sitting at the crown of the stairs. Sporadic lightning dazzled her vision, leaving the world blurry with every strike.

She prayed to every god she could think of: her patron Corlana, the goddess of the ocean Niseera, the god of the fickle sky Sepher. She even dared to beg Torvan for leniency.

The storm only seemed to grow in ferocity. The ship pitched and rolled around her, making her glad there was nothing in her stomach. Several times she and Askari were sent sliding across the floor by the more vicious tilts as the ship careened up and down. Cassia clung to him, trying desperately to protect her already aching head and injured ribs.

Water rolled in ever increasing waves along the floor, soaking the both of them.

"Here," Askari gasped, standing and offering a hand. Cassia bit down on a cry as he yanked her to her feet, igniting bright sparks of pain in her chest. 

They sloshed their way to the front of the cell and knelt there. Askari pinned Cassia between the bars and his body, caging her with his arms as he gripped the bars to anchor them. In a flash of lighting, Cassia could see many of the other prisoners doing something similar.

It was just in time, the ship tilted nearly vertical from bow to stern. Cassia grasped the bars as hard as she could, pressing against Askari before the ship crested and rocketed down, throwing Cassia into the cage. Her temple collided with metal, her vision going bright, then dimming. Her ears rang.

"Hold onto me," Askari yelled in her ear. "Tight, around my waist!"

Fighting the fuzziness in her head, Cassia wrapped her arms around him. She knotted her fingers into the sleeves of her tunic and buried her face against his chest. Fear was beginning to take hold.

She couldn't fight this. She couldn't out-think or out-talk a storm. A storm didn't care if she was clever or graceful, brave or strong. It didn't care that she was the daughter of warrior kings or the Heir chosen by the gods. She could do nothing but sit here clinging to someone who wasn't exactly a friend, hoping that a man who hated her entire being could save her.

Time ceased to hold meaning. Cassia counted the moments in breaths. In the sways and lurches of the ship. In the cadence of Askari's prayers muttered just above her ear.

It had to end. All storms had to come to an end.

But not necessarily before it killed them.

There was a juddering lurch and a sound akin to an explosion as the ship bashed into something. Cassia was only saved from being flung into the hull by Askari, who grunted, muscles straining as he clung to the bars.

It started as a groaning that rose to a scream. Then, something gave. There was a sharp intake of breath from Askari followed by a vicious, heart-rending crack.

A seam opened in the hull twenty feet from them. Cassia watched in horror over Askari's shoulder as water gushed into the hold. The nearest men were bashed into the bars of their cells and pinned by the torrent, their screams swallowed by those of the ship as it continued to tear apart.

The water hit them, ripping Askari's hands from the bars and crushing them against the wooden hull. Cassia's feet went out from under her, water rushing into her mouth and up her nose as it tumbled her across the cell.

Something jerked her free. Coughs rattled her cracked ribs, her eyes blinded by the salt. The water was already up to her hips. Askari looped his arm around her waist, dragging her back to the bars of the front of the cell. 

"Hold on!" he shouted, guiding her hands to the bars. She peered through her sopping hair, watching as he slammed his shoulder against the locked door. It rattled, but didn't budge.

Everything was shouting and the suck and rush of water and wind. Lightning cracked, illuminating the hold as it rapidly filled with water.

Too rapidly.

Cassia sagged against the bars, understanding that this was how she'd die. As a slave in the hold of an enemy ship, with water in her lungs. Askari continued to batter himself against the cage, shouting at the top of his lungs. Several times his feet slipped out from under him and he would disappear beneath the dark water.

Every time, he popped up, wild-eyed and defiant.

Refusing his fate.

Fight.

The voice in the back of her mind wasn't hers.

FIGHT!

Cassia shook the bars and added her voice to Askari's. "Let us out!" she screamed. "Let us out. You can't kill me like this! Come down here right now, you bloody bastard. Come down here and release me, coward."

The floor twisted beneath her feet as the ship broke further. The rift in the hull wasn't close enough. The bars of the individual cages cut them off. They couldn't escape. Water surged in, suddenly up to Cassia's throat.

Her voice died on a terrified breath moments before her head slipped under. 

A hand grabbed her arm, pulling her up. Cassia gasped in air, her legs kicking frantically as she tried to rise with the water carrying her up to the underside of the deck.

Lightning lashed the sky, illuminating a figure at the top of the stairs. Cassia met coal-black eyes in a smooth, pale face. The Sorveti woman regarded her for a moment.

Cassia's heart skipped. "Please," she whispered.

Silver flashed. Cassia imagined she could hear the jingle of keys as they fell toward Askari's outstretched palm. He snatched them from the wet air with a triumphant cry, diving beneath the water.

Cassia looked toward the hatchway to find the Sorveti woman gone. Then, Askari had the cell door unlocked and was dragging her through to freedom. Others—those still alive—shouted, pleaded.

Askari's face was a mask of pain as he shoved the keys into the closest pair of grasping hands. He grabbed Cassia's wrist and began to swim toward the hatch, dragging her through the water. Leaving his men behind. Saving her.

When she tried to slow, to help, he jerked her forward, barking something in Sorian. Her hands found the steps and they began to clamber toward the deck, fighting the seawater and rain sluicing down over them. Askari kept driving her up, giving no reprieve to her scorching ribs or throbbing head.

Blindly, Cassia pulled herself up, one step after another after another until she tumbled out onto the deck. She slid as the deck tilted down, fingernails ripping on the wood as she fought not to get carried over the side.

A heavy weight pressed the air from her chest and something began tugging at her feet. Cassia thrashed before Askari snarled, "You need them off!"

Twisting as well as she could with him on top of her, she saw he was unlacing her boots. Her mind was bewildered until her gaze swung to the tumultuous sea. Beyond the rain, darkened against the black clouds, she could make out white cliffs above thin shores.

"You mean to swim?" she yelled, incredulous. Waves taller than the ship bashed against the cliffs, rain driving down in sheets that could drown a man on dry land.

"It's either that, or get pulled down when she goes." Askari wrestled one boot off, then the other before taking off his own. He stood and offered his hand. Lightning sparked behind him. "But we need to go now, Cassia. Every second wasted is a second between a slim chance of survival and certain death."

Cassia grabbed his hand without hesitation. That voice still echoed in her head, urging her to try, to fight, to not give up and live. Askari guided her to the railing on the port side, facing the land. They stumbled and slipped as waves swept the deck, staggering back and forth as the wind tossed the ship to and fro.

When they managed to grab the banister, Askari turned to her. His face was pale, eyes desperate and frightened. He placed one hand on her shoulder, bending so they were eye-to-eye. Shouting over the noise of the storm and the dying ship, he said, "You jump far, Cassia. Far. And you swim as hard as you can. You can swim?"

It seemed a little late for that question, but she just nodded.

"You swim and you don't look back. You don't worry about me, or anyone else. You swim until the earth is beneath you and then you walk until you can't feel the rain. Do you understand?"

Cassia didn't reply. She couldn't.

He shook her. "Do you understand? Do you?"

She nodded, teeth chattering. Askari touched her cheek, then helped her up onto the banister. She teetered there on the edge of death for the longest moment of her life. Cold like Torvan's breath chilled the back of her neck.

Swim.

She pushed off with all the strength in her legs. The water came up to meet her, catching her with a hard slap that rattled her teeth as she plunged into the cold depths. Immediately, she thrashed her legs and pulled with her arms, hoping she was swimming toward the surface. The tide ripped at her, pulling her first one way, then another, slowing her progress.

Just as her lungs were about to burst, she broke the surface and frozen air cracked across her wet cheeks. The tide tugged her back down but Cassia struggled up, twisting in the water as she tried to orient herself.

White cliffs flashed, blinding beneath white lightning. Cassia let out a small sob and began to swim. She dragged handful after handful of water to her, fighting sodden clothes and cracked ribs. 

She kicked her legs, her toes beginning to sting and tingle. Images of ancient trees and a back she could never catch flashed before her eyes.

What she wouldn't give for Calix's presence here. Even the prospect of cold death among Niseera's waves wouldn't seem so bad if he was here, just a few feet ahead, taunting and coaxing her.

But, she realized, he wouldn't want a death like this. He wouldn't accept anything less than a grand death.

Neither would she.

Cassia stretched her arms out, cutting through the water as best she could. Her breath sawed at her throat and cut into her lungs.

Soon—much too soon—her limbs grew leaden. Cold, near-starvation and the beating she had taken sapped her strength. Her head began to slip beneath the surface more frequently, each fight back up harder and slower than the last.

She took a breath at the wrong moment, water rocketing down her throat and into her lungs. Her body spasmed and sank as she tried to cough, pulling in more water. She flailed, vision going black then white, her heart slamming around her ribs like a demented bird.

Something burning hot latched around her wrist and pulled. Cassia tried to scream, fighting as Torvan came to claim his prize.

Air shoved down her throat moments before water came spewing up. That same, burning thing slid across her chest, hooking beneath one of her arms. Something solid bumped against her as she began to move through the water.

Cassia wondered why Torvan was saving her.

It shocked her when she turned and found smooth, brown skin and an ear pierced with gold hoops. It wasn't Torvan. It was Askari.

"Swim, Cassia," he panted. "Kick your legs."

She let her head fall against his shoulder. She was too tired. Everything hurt. Her skin stung with cold. Her ribs were molten knives lodged in her sides.

"Weak," Askari hissed. "Weak, Metian whore."

The slur jolted through her. She was not weak.

Weak, weak, weak.

"No."

"Yes," he snarled, fighting as the waves tried to pull them back toward the sinking ship.

"No!" She kicked her legs, propelling herself through the water. With her free arm, she pulled the water toward her.

Fight.

She swam toward the shore, one hand clinging to Askari as he fought through the waves alongside her.

Fight, please.

"Please!"

It took Cassia a moment to realize the second "please" hadn't come from the voice in her head. The voice came above the waves again, thin and desperate. 

"Don't," Askari hissed, but too late. Cassia turned her head and saw the Sorveti woman floating perhaps a dozen yards away, clinging to a bit of driftwood or ship debris. Her dark hair was loose and plastered to her head. She was thrashing, not swimming, as she struggled to stay above the swirling water.

Cassia stopped moving, staring at the other woman.

"We can't, Cassia," Askari said, trying to jerk her toward him. "We're almost there. We're almost there!"

"She saved us!" Cassia yelled, spinning away from him. The space between her and the Sorveti woman was already growing.

"She imprisoned us. Took us as slaves." In spite of his words, he kept pace beside her as she swam toward the Sorveti.

"She gave us the keys. She freed us." Cassia began to swim in earnest, keeping her eyes pinned on the woman. It seemed to take half an eternity to reach her.

It took even longer to realize what she was clinging to wasn't a piece of wood.

Cassia stopped dead, going under for a moment in her shock. When she broke the surface again, the Sorveti woman was right beside her, the unconscious pirate captain in her arms. The woman reached out, grasping Cassia's shirt.

"Ji-ba," she said in Sorveti. Please. "Help me."

Her ribs ached. Her head throbbed. She couldn't see out of her left eye. 

She stared at the man responsible—his blank, unconcerned face. He had taken her as a slave. He had beaten her. Frightened her. He had made her feel helpless, and that above all else was unforgivable. 

When she turned back to Askari—whose face could have been carved from stone—the Sorveti woman let out a desperate cry. "Please, please," she screamed. "Help me. I'll do anything."

Cassia stopped, treading water, fighting her own exhaustion. "Let him go," she said, tugged by her conscious. "Let him go and save yourself."

"I can't." Something in how the woman's voice cracked made Cassia look at her again. Her dark eyes glistened with what might have been tears. "I can't. He saved me."

Understanding jolted through Cassia and bloomed into an idea. Ignoring Askari, she let the tide carry her back to the woman and the captain. Disgust seeped through her as she rested a hand on his chest to check if he was still breathing. 

Much to her displeasure, he was. 

She locked eyes with the Sorveti. "And if I save you?" she asked.

"Me and him," the woman corrected. Cassia grimaced, but nodded.

The woman blinked, understanding and hope lighting her face. "Saeng-un-dok."

Cassia tilted her head. "Saeng-un-dok?"

The Sorveti woman placed a hand over her heart and bowed her head. "I swear."

Much as she despised the man, Cassia knew she couldn't turn down such an offer. She was too thin on allies as it was, and frankly she didn't know if Askari would leave her as soon as he got the chance. He had saved her by pulling her out of that ship, yes, but what happened once they were on dry land?

With a prayer that this was not going to stab her in the back, Cassia hooked her arm beneath the captain's and began to fight toward shore. A glimpse of Askari's face showed disbelief and rage as he splashed back to them.

Cassia clung to the captain when Askari tried to drag her away, yelling in Sorian.

"I know!" she screamed back in the same language. "I know what he did, what he is." She began to swim, eyes fixed doggedly on the thin line of shore. "Help me, and I will explain."

She swam past him, trying to time her breathing with the stroke of her arm. Trying to keep her movements smooth and economical. The shore wasn't far, but the tide was pulling against them.

Cassia's world was reduced to the stretch of water in front of her, and the thin line of rocky sand waiting at its end. A string of jumbled prayers rattled through her head. Her muscles worked, moving slower and slower after so long in the cold water, becoming heavier with unbearable fatigue.

"Swim, Cassia." A familiar, beloved voice whispered in her ear. "Don't stop."

Startled, she turned, but once again found only Askari. He still wore a mask of anger, but he hooked his arm around her. They moved together, conquering one foot at a time as they swam toward shore.

Something solid met her fingers first. Then dragged along her chest. Askari hauled her to her feet and she found she could stand. And just as quickly found that her muscles refused to do so. They wobbled and she fell back into the surf.

Hands beneath her arms pulled her farther up onto the beach. Cassia no longer had the will to resist or to help whoever was dragging her. Once free of the water, she lay on the freezing sand, rain pounding down on her as she simply breathed.

Her fingers dug into the cold earth beneath her. She was alive.

She was alive.

A smile cracked her lips and she began to laugh. Full-bodied laughs that sent sparklers of pain through her ribs, but she couldn't stop. "Gods-chosen, indeed," she said between giggles. "I thought you weren't supposed to help."

"My lady?" A tentative hand touched her shoulder.

Cassia lurched upright, just to find the Sorveti woman kneeling beside her. The woman immediately folded forward into a full bow over her knees, forehead pressed to the sand. Cassia rubbed the saltwater from her eyes, then pushed at the woman's shoulder. "Sit up," she said above the sound of the rain.

The woman obeyed, her eyes drifting to something behind Cassia. She didn't bother to look. She didn't care if he was alive. 

Dragging her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs, suddenly aware of just how cold she really was. Violent shivers wracked her body, making her words unsteady. "Saeng-un-dok?"

The Sorveti woman's eyes snapped back to her. She held very still for a moment before inclining her head. "Yes," she muttered.

"You know what this means?"

"Do you?" the woman snapped.

"I do," Cassia replied, voice grave. "I understand exactly what it entails."

Heavy silence fell. Again, the Sorveti tilted forward into a full bow. "To repay my debt," she promised. "I will serve you."

Cassia placed a hand gently on the back of her head. "In honor of your oath, I accept," she said, the Sorveti words slurred by her exhaustion.

Collapsing back into the sand, she squinted up at the heavens. She was alive.

For that, she wondered what she owed her gods.