The Black Prism

Chapter 29

Kip watched the Prism head out across the waves with something akin to panic. Gavin was so in control of everything, so fearless, and now he'd left him. With two unfriendly giants.

As Gavin finally disappeared from sight, Kip turned to look at the men. The scarier one, Ironfist, was putting on blue spectacles with large oval lenses wrapped close to his eyes. As Kip watched, the blue luxin filled the man, but it was almost invisible against his coal-black skin. The whites of his eyes already looked blue when you saw them through the blue lenses, so it wasn't until the skin under his fingernails turned icy blue that Kip was sure he hadn't just imagined the Blackguard was drafting at all.

"Grab a rope," Ironfist told his brother. "With the float on it." Tremblefist disappeared, leaving Kip with his brother.

"I don't know why you've been trusted with this island's secret," Ironfist said, "even if you are his… nephew. But now that you know, you're a guardian of it like the rest of us, you understand?"

"He did it so if I betray him men like you will come kill me for him," Kip said. Was he never able to keep his mouth shut?

A look of surprise flitted across Ironfist's face, and was quickly replaced with amusement. "A deep thinker, our friend," he said. "And a young man with ice water in his veins. How appropriate."

From the "our friend," Kip understood that they weren't even to say the Prism's name here, not even now, with the wind whipping around them and the possibility of eavesdropping nil. It was that kind of secret.

"The story is you and your master, a scribe, came out on a friend's boat to… hmm."

"To study some local fish?" Kip asked.

"Good enough," Ironfist said. "He didn't account for the waves and had no skill with boats. He tried to bring you here for shelter. Your dory capsized and he was lost. We pulled you out of the sea."

"Oh, to account for why he isn't here if any of the others saw us coming in," Kip said.

"That's right. Hold tight."

Kip was holding a luxin oar up between himself and Ironfist, but he almost didn't get what the big man meant until too late. With a quick, snapping punch, Ironfist lashed a hand through the luxin and stopped it so close that Kip flinched. He barely even noticed the luxin crumbling to dust in his fingers. He had a sudden urge to urinate.

"I don't know if you've given your sire reason to suspect you," Ironfist said. "But if you betray him, I'll tear your arms off and beat you with them."

"Good thing I'm fat, then," Kip shot back.

"What?" Incredulous.

"Soft arms." Kip grinned, thinking Ironfist had been kidding. The stony, flat, willing-to-kill look on the big man's face made Kip's grin break and disintegrate like broken luxin.

"That fat'll make you float, too. Get in the water," a cold voice behind him said.

Kip flinched. He hadn't even heard Tremblefist approach. The man was carrying a hollow log with numerous knotted ropes and loops attached. The wood was carved with several handles too, so it would be easy to throw into the sea. A swimmer could then grab for whatever length of rope he needed.

Tremblefist handed the log to Kip and Ironfist rang a loud bell. "Man overboard!" Ironfist shouted. "We've got two in the water!"

"Move it," Tremblefist said. "And you'd better get completely wet. Fast. Help will be here in seconds."

Kip clutched the hollow log and jogged down the ramp between the rollers. The first big wave knocked him cleanly off his feet. His head smacked one of the great wooden rollers and he saw stars. Then the water was over him.

The water was shockingly cold at first. It was a cold that you quickly got used to-the Cerulean Sea was fairly warm-but Kip didn't have moments. He gasped and inhaled salt water as another wave passed over him. As he coughed his lungs clear, flapping his arms like an injured bird, he could feel the riptide grab him. Where was the log? He'd lost it. It was gone.

Someone was shouting, but he couldn't hear what they were saying over the crash of the waves. The swells were only a pace high, but it was enough to blot out Kip's vision. He turned in a circle.

There was a bell ringing, ringing. Kip turned toward it, and despite the swells, he could see the looming black of Cannon Island. It was still receding. He started swimming. A wave pummeled him, drove him under the water and spun him. He kicked, kicked, trying not to panic. Failing. He had no air. Orholam, he was going to die. He kicked, desperate.

He bobbed to the surface like a cork, but he was lost once more.

His panic receded. He'd floundered somehow to the side of the riptide, and now the waves were bringing him in toward Cannon Island, but not toward the boat ramp. He was headed for the rocks. He swam hard sideways toward the sound of the bell.

He was rising with one of the swells when he saw something impossible. Ironfist, with a rope tied around his chest, was running-through the air. He was wearing blue spectacles, and both of his hands were pointed down. He was hurling blue luxin toward his feet, sprinting, making a platform to stand on even as he ran.

As Kip watched, the blue luxin platform-anchored only somewhere back on Cannon Island-cracked with a report and began to crash toward the waves. Ironfist leapt as the platform fell, releasing the luxin and executing a perfect dive.

He surfaced right next to Kip, his spectacles and ghotra ripped off by the waves, and grabbed Kip with one arm. Then the men on the beach began pulling in the rope as fast as they could. In less than a minute, Kip and the big man were staggering up the ramp. Well, Ironfist was striding, one hand holding a fistful of Kip's shirt in case he fell, and Kip was staggering on jellied, naked legs.

"We couldn't save your master, son. I'm sorry," Ironfist said. There were a dozen soldiers crowded on the narrow portico outside the back door of Cannon Island. One threw a blanket over Kip's shoulders. "Take this young man inside and take care of him," Ironfist commanded. "I've got business on Big Jasper, I'll take him with me and notify the family. Ten minutes."

As the soldiers ushered Kip inside, he heard Ironfist swear quietly, "Damn, those were my best blue specs."