CHAPTER FIVE
▪▫▪▫▪

MORANA HAD MANY SCARS. She collected them like someone would stamps—only in Morana's case she wasn't particularly delighted when she got one. There was a particular one, a long-jagged line down the length of her shin, that she'd gotten when she was around seven years old.

It was years before the plague, before her mother died, and Morana was still living in the Ketterdam, in a little flat out in the Barrel, the closest to the University District possible, as her mother had a job as a librarian there.

She'd met a girl on the street, and they'd become quick friends—her mother didn't like it when she made friends, though, she said they would just end up getting hurt by her. And the little girl, a girl Morana forgot the name of, ended up with a broken arm. They'd been trying to climb up a vine-covered wall in a small alleyway. The girl had fallen from higher than Morana, and the sickening crack of her arm breaking made Morana lose her grip on the vine and fall—she cut her leg on a broken bottle on the ground.

Morana had tried to help the girl and took her to the Fighting Pit where she knew the Healers were honest and kind to the children of the Barrel. Morana had to get stitches on her leg. Her mother never knew about the wound—if she had Morana would probably... Well, the wound on her shin would be the least of her problems.

"Look, monsters do bleed," she could hear her mother saying in her head, taunting her. Only when the tears began brimming in her eyes, Yelena Zoreslava would wipe them away with a smile, "Don't cry, Morana, or I'll give you something to cry about. You brought this upon yourself."

Safe to say, Morana had learned to swallow her pain and keep it to herself. But there was a limit to her pain, and that second string pulling at her every now and then, would wrap itself around her neck and strangle her without mercy. So, yes. Morana was terrified of the pain with every second they traveled further north.

Towards the islands of the Bone Road. Further away from Ravka—the place that the second string was pulling from. Just like she'd been able to get to Novyi Zem, just like she knew that was the place to be, every time the second connection beckoned her, Morana could sense its direction. And every time it pointed to Ravka. It hurt less when she was closer—the pain she'd felt near Novyi Zem was the worse she'd felt so far, and Morana was terrified of how it would feel now that she was farther than she'd ever been.

But she couldn't be away from Alina. She couldn't regret her decision just now. Better an oops than a what-if. But it would be a big oops if the connection beckoned her. Maybe it would even kill her... Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing. Yet, Morana still hoped it wouldn't choose the next few days to make an appearance.

In the meanwhile, she could only listen to Sturmhond yap about like a proper captain, with his charming smirky face—and by charming, Morana meant extremely irritating.

"Thanks to navigation from our Summoner's tracker friend here, we've traversed the Bone Road to the island of Jelka," Sturmhond said as Morana stood beside Alina and Tamar. "As for the Sea Whip, we have some storybook drawings, no telling what it really looks like." He walked over to the curtained wall, "Rule of thumb for the unknown, come prepared!"

He pulled on a rope and the curtains opened showing his arsenal of weapons. Morana rolled her eyes at the dramatics. Mal though seemed entranced by the armory, "Are all pirates this well-armed?"

"Privateer," corrected both Morana and Sturmhond.

"I don't know the difference," said Mal.

"The difference is I have a license," said Sturmhond. Morana rolled her eyes again. "And a healthy love for innovation. Gadgets, marvels, things that go boom. Anything pique your interest?"

Morana's interest was certainly not spiked and as she looked over to Alina it seemed the Sun Summoner was just as bored as she was. Morana gently nudged her with her elbow, "The bastard can go on and on about his little gadgets."

"Apparently so can Mal."

Morana shrugged, "The difference is Mal isn't a prick."

"Morana, darling, I have ears," mused Sturmhond as he looked up at her.

"Congratulations, Captain," replied Morana with a smile, "Are you going to brag about your eyes too?"

"Everyone knows my eyes are lovely already, no need to brag about them," he told them as he waved her off and Morana flipped him the finger as pretended to get something out of her eye. Sturmhond grinned, before turning back to the crew. "So, we'll go in quietly, on Miss Starkov's orders, to injure it for your death blow—"

"I'm not killing it," interrupted Alina.

Morana's brows raised to her forehead, and Tamar frowned, saying, "You have to kill it, to claim its power. That's how amplifiers work."

"It wasn't with the Stag," assured Alina, "I think I can do it without killing it."

Sturmhond chuckled lowly. "As... As lovely as that sounds, I'm not sending my crew in to tame a mythical beast with nets and good intentions."

"This is the job you were hired for, privateer," said Alina summoning all of her saintly authority, "We capture it. Alive."

•••

There's a frequency, was what Mal had said as he led them to the right cave on the island of Jelka. A frequency. What a great way to describe what Morana heard every time she was far away from the two strings pulling at her. And weirdly, she could hear it too. The frequency of the Sea Whip. It was faint, not enough to lead her anywhere but Morana was sure she heard it too and that was... odd.

She hadn't even known the Sea Whip was alive and now she could sense it? As they got closer the more she could, and the fact that she could hear it like Mal made everything even stranger.

They walked through the tunnels of the cave, water up to their knees, arms at hand. Morana kept looking around, she felt it close, but she couldn't see it. Light splashing made them all stop in their step.

"That could be it," said Grevyen, a Tidemaker in Sturmhond's crew.

"Grevyen, tell me. Anything in the water?" asked Sturmhond.

The Tidemaker raised his arms in a circle and then reached down with one hand for the water. "There are holes in the cave floor. So be careful where you step. Otherwise no."

"No, you can't tell, or no, there's nothing in there?" asked Mal.

"Whichever makes you feel more comfortable," said Tolya.

"Comfort's overrated," added Tamar.

Morana sighed deeply as they began walking again. They were chasing a very real mythical creature, in a cold water cave. When had her life come from pillaging merchant's ships and luxury cabins in pirate ships to being a member of a Privateer's crew?

They stopped again as a sharp trilling echoed through the walls of the case, followed by a low gurgling sound. Morana set herself in position to attack as she yielded her sword in one hand—

Screaming echoed through the cave as a man was grabbed and yanked upwards.

"Drop the nets! Aim to kill!" commanded Sturmhond.

"No! Don't!" said Alina.

"I couldn't see it."

"It's toying with us," said Sturmhond, panting. "Conserve your ammo or we'll be dry by the time we need it."

Morana felt something nuzzle against her leg and went still. Her jaw clenched as she tried not to move. The creature curled around her legs, softly, only for a moment. Whatever it was, and she would bet it was Rusalye by what it did next, let go of her side and proceeded to drag another one of theirs through the water.

"It can camouflage," muttered Sturmhond as they all looked around them.

The creature moved again from above them before lunging towards Mal and Alina—the former grabbed the latter and threw them to the side, missing Rusalye by an inch. But it seemed to have it out for Mal, the next moment it attacked the tracker, and he only had time to try and stall it with his weapon jammed between its jaws. Then Alina summoned the Sun.

Morana didn't quite know what happened next but the frequency died, and something inside her burned, like the first time she'd received those pesky little calls from the past. Gasping she leaned against the wall, raising a hand to her chest as she tried to gather herself. She frowned as she looked down at herself and saw no hint of injury.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Sturmhond, his lips pressed into a thin line as his eyes roamed over her body, his brows furrowed. "What happened? Were you hurt?"

Shaking her head, Morana cleared her throat as she breathed in deeply. "I'm fine."

•••

"We hold ourselves bound to this mission. To ensure that our fallen crew did not die in vain. And we honor the ultimate sacrifice that they made in our quest to find the Sea Whip. Let us bow our heads for the crew lost today. Let the sea carry them to a safe harbor, and may the Saints receive them on a brighter shore."

"May the Saints receive them," they all muttered, standing on the main deck of Sturmhond's ship, under the moonlit sky. Then Toly and Tamar walked forward, placing two of Rusalye's scales on top of a barrel.

"Alina, we're ready," said Sturmhond.

"Ready?" Mal asked Alina as they both stood next to Morana.

Alina nodded, "Yeah."

She walked away from Mal and Morana just as Sturmhond joined them. Morana watched as the Fabrikator in Sturmhond's crew grabbed Alina's outstretched arm, placing the first scale atop the girl's wrist as she began to merge it with the flesh of the Sun Summoner.

Alina's head snapped toward Mal, and though her gaze remained on him the longest, her eyes also met Morana's, confusion plastered all over her face. Morana frowned. The day just got weirder and weirder.

"Are you all right?" asked the Fabrikator.

"I'm fine. Second scale, please."

The same process was repeated for the second scale and the minute it was set in place Morana saw light appear from within Alina. Traveling from her arm to her torso to her other arm. The Sun Summoner, in all her might, spread her arms out as she let power consume her being, and light exploded out of her.

Morana's lips parted as the light started pulsating out of Alina, in bursts and twirls and flashes, powerful to the point Morana could taste it. Her fingers urged to manipulate the light Alina was producing under the dark sky, but then the light grew stronger, blinding, and it started drawing them back.

Sturmhond placed himself in front of her, one arm urging her back as he protected his own face from the dark. Morana didn't even have the time to properly process this movement as she raised her arm to her face, squinting through the light as she tried to see the Sun Summoner.

Then Mal made his way to Alina, slowly but surely, until his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her to him, and then the light was no more. Morana sighed in awe, letting out a small laugh as Alina grabbed Mal's face and kissed him deeply.

Sturmhond cleared his throat as he approached the lovebirds. "Well then, where to now, Summoner?"

Alina's head snapped to the side and she smiled. "East Ravka, then the Fold."

Morana stilled. Ravka. The source of the other beacon calling out to her. Ravka. The place her mother had fled from. Ravka. The place where her father lived—if he was even still alive.

Ravka, where the past she'd never met lay, where she would either find answers to her questions or more secrecy upon her existence.

Your father would've loved you, her mother's voice echoed in her head, at least during dawn. He didn't much like weaklings.

Morana hated her father. During dawn. During twilight, night, and day. He'd made her what she was. He'd help her kill her mother. Monsters were born, not created—at least that's what Morana had always been told.

And yet as her eyes fell on Alina, Morana urged the good parts of her to take the reins. To stop her from proving her mother right, from proving she was an abomination. She couldn't kill Alina, not even to sever their connection. If that meant going to Ravka then so be it.

But killing Alina was not an option now. Not when Morana had felt the power brimming off the girl in waves. Not when Morana was sure she could destroy the Fold someday, not when she wasn't even sure if Alina was the one she was connected to. Morana's gaze strayed away from the Summoner and fell on Mal, as he hugged Alina to him.

▪▫▪▫▪