Page 92 of Valour

“An…aquiline?” Hester choked the words out.

He laughed, the sound piercing.

Hester’s whole world creaked and snapped around her.

“I don’t understand.” She looked between her mother and Orcus. So many questions. “How did you find me? My magic is drained.”

“I felt your pain in the currents, tasted your fear blowing on the wind. Come now, why should you listen to her?” He stabbed the harpoon into the ice, and cracks radiated from it. “I can give you everything. Whatever your heart desires, I can give you. I could raise your ship. I could give you revenge on those who cast you aside. I can teach you to control your power. It would all be within your reach. All I’d need in return is your power. Melt the ice from this world, feed me with the souls of the drowning.”

But Hester stared at her mother. Hardly heard Orcus through the million questions bubbling inside of her. She whispered, “Why did you leave me?”

Her mother reached for her, eyes full of pain, but her hand passed through Hester’s shoulder. “It was not my fault.”

“But—”

“It matters not,” Orcus said. “Because you are coming with me.”

He grasped her arm, and a thousand needles of frost pierced Hester’s skin. She cried out, but he dragged her towards the crack in the ice floes.

“No!” She pulled back against him, desperate to get away. The magic in her chest flared, the wind stirring, sparks snapping in the frozen air.

A shot rang out over the ice, sharp and loud. Orcus dropped to his knees, clutching his side, releasing his grip on her. Black liquid oozed between his fingers and splattered to the floe. Another shot rang, and he thrust a hand up, catching the second bullet just before it met his temple. His eyes narrowed in the direction the bullet had come from, and he let it drop to the ice.

Hester swivelled to find Septimus taking aim. His pistol fired again, this time hitting Orcus in the shoulder. She staggered back a step, and another, his control on her released.

“Hester, run!” Septimus bellowed.

She almost complied. But she held a hand up to him. Could not have a man save her. Drawing her own pistol, she pointed it at Orcus. Magic sparked in the air. Overhead, the sky darkened and crackled with lightning and the wind built, whipping her hair around her face. “I will not go with you.”

Own your fears. Embrace them.

“I don’t take no for an answer,” he rasped, thick, black blood still gushing through the wound in his stomach. “Think of all we could do together. Perhaps you will be more amenable when you’ve thought over my offer. I will return.”

He began to morph, and it was the most grotesque thing she’d ever seen. Worse even than Odette’s transformation. He became larger. Monstrously large. Fins and sleek, black skin. The ice beneath them trembled and cracked.

“Run!” her mother cried.

But there, just out of reach on the ice, the harpoon. The weapon. The wolf man’s words suddenly piercing her mind. Take from him a weapon that he has touched.

Hester tried to find purchase on the ice, her feet sliding before she found the momentum and traction to run forwards. She seized the harpoon, and then spun, her vision narrowing to where Septimus raced towards her, narrowing to his outstretched hand, his face a mask of terror as the cracks in the ice rumbled past. She started to run towards him, the cold metal of the weapon biting into her palm.

“Faster!” he yelled.

She put every scrap of energy she had into her legs. The roar of water as the enormous orca slid into the sea pushed her onwards. A towering wave raced for her.

Faster. She had to move faster. Her breath came in ragged gasps, the frozen air shredding her lungs. And then he was by her side, running for the sleds, the dogs. Hester looked over her shoulder, looked everywhere for her mother. Where was she?

Her feet faltered, but Septimus was there, a hand on her lower back, urging her forwards, the harpoon still clutched in her hand. The wave crashed behind them, the foam sliding under their boots. Hester flung her arms wide, sliding until she hit the back of the sled, and Septimus leapt on behind and pulled on his snow goggles. He snapped the reins, the black dogs barking and surging forwards. She crouched beneath him, stowed the harpoon safely, and then sat with her head in her hands as they sped over the ice, back in the direction of the camp, Snowball and Romeo following.

Hester sobbed, sucking in mouthfuls of frigid air. Her mother. What did it all mean? Questions were rising and falling in her head. So many questions. And she was nowhere to be seen.

She had appeared thrice now. After Orcus had attacked and she lay dead, in the Underworld when she had almost frozen to death, and now again. What was the link?

“Stop!” Hester cried. “Stop. I have to see her. I have to ask her…”

But Septimus did not stop, looked at her like she had gone mad.

Maybe she had.