When the Sea is Rising Red Read Online Free
Author: Cat Hellisen
changeable. It is the perfect gift.
With my dress plastered to my back by the rain and the wind whipping my hair loose and free so that it blows constantly into my face, I set off back home, away from the stench of congealed fish and seaweed.
* * *
I T IS NOT my mother’s worried face that greets me when I return. A servant ushers me through to the formal lounge, acting as if I am an inconvenient guest in my own home. Only when I see who is waiting for me among the polished furniture and glass statues do I understand why.
Owen scowls, his pale cheeks mottled. His eyes are storm black. Not the best of signs. My dearest brother is ten years older than me, and he has always regarded me as an unfortunate accident. I shiver and tuck my hand into my pocket, curling my fingers around the necklace. It seems to me that if I can keep clinging to it, I’ll somehow weather this. I look to my mother for reassurance, but she is pointedly watching the floor, as if she will find some message or hieroglyph in the carpet.
“Where have you been?” Owen’s tone is soft and calm, almost cajoling. It’s the way he talks to the dragon-dogs when he wants to coax them from their kennels. He might as well be waving a cut of nilly-flesh at me.
“Out,” I say. “Walking.”
When he says nothing, I find myself trying to fill in the emptiness, even though I know this is what he wants me to do. I can’t seem to stop myself, and inside I’m cringing at my own stupidity. “Up in the fields toward the woods.” Under his cold stare, I’m babbling, pulling lies out of nowhere, compounding them. “I was supposed to meet Ilven, we were going to see if the sea-drakes were back—they’re supposed to be heading into the bay, but she didn’t meet me so I headed toward the woods.” Short of clamping my hand over my own mouth, I don’t seem to be able to stop. He didn’t see me with the bat, I’m certain of it. If he had, he would have stopped the coach there and then and hauled me back home like a runaway dog.
“Are there many bats up in the woods these days?” he interjects, and I stutter into silence.
“I-I—”
The magic hits me before I can think of a response. It sucks me forward, pulling all the air from my lungs. The citrus tang of scriv is in the air, and I realize with a vague unfocused horror that my brother is truly angry.
Angrier than I’ve seen him in a long time.
Like me, my brother is a War-Singer, able to control the air. Unlike me, he’s been to university for the full seven years, has trained to control his talent, to augment it with scriv. All my control comes from the little bit of tutoring I’ve been allowed. Perhaps if we were threatened with war, like in the past, I would have been better armed.
More than that, Owen has control of our household scriv. He hoards it, hands out thimblefuls as rewards, withholds it as punishment. And even though my natural talent for magic is greater than his, right now I can barely do more than raise the smallest breeze. Without scriv, I have no way of accessing my full power.
It’s better not to fight, I know, so I let my body slump. The magical wind is cold, sharp as glass splinters, and it pricks into my skin, tearing at my clothes and hair. My eyes burn as I fight to shut them against the needles of air.
No good. He’s keeping my eyelids pried open. The air forces me to face him, but my vision is blurring red and my chest is slowly being crushed.
I want so badly to kick, to lash out, but I know from a bitter childhood full of my brother’s games that doing so will only make him play longer.
He’s not entirely cruel. He gives me back my air before I pass out.
“I dislike leaving my wife,” he says, and flicks at his fingernails before buffing them against his sleeve. He’s not even looking at me anymore, but I know that this too is merely part of his act. I know this because he’s let his magic lift me up so that my head is level with his, and
With my dress plastered to my back by the rain and the wind whipping my hair loose and free so that it blows constantly into my face, I set off back home, away from the stench of congealed fish and seaweed.
* * *
I T IS NOT my mother’s worried face that greets me when I return. A servant ushers me through to the formal lounge, acting as if I am an inconvenient guest in my own home. Only when I see who is waiting for me among the polished furniture and glass statues do I understand why.
Owen scowls, his pale cheeks mottled. His eyes are storm black. Not the best of signs. My dearest brother is ten years older than me, and he has always regarded me as an unfortunate accident. I shiver and tuck my hand into my pocket, curling my fingers around the necklace. It seems to me that if I can keep clinging to it, I’ll somehow weather this. I look to my mother for reassurance, but she is pointedly watching the floor, as if she will find some message or hieroglyph in the carpet.
“Where have you been?” Owen’s tone is soft and calm, almost cajoling. It’s the way he talks to the dragon-dogs when he wants to coax them from their kennels. He might as well be waving a cut of nilly-flesh at me.
“Out,” I say. “Walking.”
When he says nothing, I find myself trying to fill in the emptiness, even though I know this is what he wants me to do. I can’t seem to stop myself, and inside I’m cringing at my own stupidity. “Up in the fields toward the woods.” Under his cold stare, I’m babbling, pulling lies out of nowhere, compounding them. “I was supposed to meet Ilven, we were going to see if the sea-drakes were back—they’re supposed to be heading into the bay, but she didn’t meet me so I headed toward the woods.” Short of clamping my hand over my own mouth, I don’t seem to be able to stop. He didn’t see me with the bat, I’m certain of it. If he had, he would have stopped the coach there and then and hauled me back home like a runaway dog.
“Are there many bats up in the woods these days?” he interjects, and I stutter into silence.
“I-I—”
The magic hits me before I can think of a response. It sucks me forward, pulling all the air from my lungs. The citrus tang of scriv is in the air, and I realize with a vague unfocused horror that my brother is truly angry.
Angrier than I’ve seen him in a long time.
Like me, my brother is a War-Singer, able to control the air. Unlike me, he’s been to university for the full seven years, has trained to control his talent, to augment it with scriv. All my control comes from the little bit of tutoring I’ve been allowed. Perhaps if we were threatened with war, like in the past, I would have been better armed.
More than that, Owen has control of our household scriv. He hoards it, hands out thimblefuls as rewards, withholds it as punishment. And even though my natural talent for magic is greater than his, right now I can barely do more than raise the smallest breeze. Without scriv, I have no way of accessing my full power.
It’s better not to fight, I know, so I let my body slump. The magical wind is cold, sharp as glass splinters, and it pricks into my skin, tearing at my clothes and hair. My eyes burn as I fight to shut them against the needles of air.
No good. He’s keeping my eyelids pried open. The air forces me to face him, but my vision is blurring red and my chest is slowly being crushed.
I want so badly to kick, to lash out, but I know from a bitter childhood full of my brother’s games that doing so will only make him play longer.
He’s not entirely cruel. He gives me back my air before I pass out.
“I dislike leaving my wife,” he says, and flicks at his fingernails before buffing them against his sleeve. He’s not even looking at me anymore, but I know that this too is merely part of his act. I know this because he’s let his magic lift me up so that my head is level with his, and
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