Born of Water: Elemental Magic & Epic Fantasy Adventure
Autumn M. Birt
Born of Water
by Autumn M. Birt
Copyright 2012 Autumn M. Birt
Cover art and maps by Autumn M. Birt
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Other books set in the world of Myrrah!
Rise of the Fifth Order Series
Born of Water Novel Companion
Born of Water
Rule of Fire
Spirit of Life
Games of Fire Trilogy
Spark of Defiance
Gates of Fire and Earth*
A New Goddess*
Learn more about the novel, access larger maps of the world, discover Untold Stories, and find out about upcoming sequels online at AutumnWriting.com and the Rise of the Fifth Order
*Release is scheduled for 2016. Sign up for news and updates at https://eepurl.com/bTWN15.
Dedication
To my parents, whose dreams for me have always been the ladder on which I climbed.
To my husband for never finding odd the many conversations regarding characters which only existed in my head.
With thanks to Kym S. for her friendship, encouragement, and always being willing to read very rough drafts.
And finally to my Dragon. You are no longer by my side, but your light will always guide me.
Table of Contents
Map: The Forest of Falin to the Crossing
Map: The Crossing to the Great Desert of Ak'Ashanti
Chapter 1: Failed Duty
Chapter 2: Discoveries
Chapter 3: The Summoning
Chapter 4: Unwilling Companions
Chapter 5: Hunted
Chapter 6: Running
Chapter 7: The Bazaar of Sardinia
Chapter 8: Ty’s Return
Chapter 9: Sardinia’s Shadows
Chapter 10: Poisoned Water
Chapter 11: Delayed Homecoming
Chapter 12: The Curse
Chapter 13: Assessing the Damage
Chapter 14: The Run North
Chapter 15: The Kith
Chapter 16: Lus na Sithchaine
Chapter 17: Darag’s Promise
Chapter 18: Ty’s Island
Chapter 19: Lessons
Chapter 20: Remnants of the War
Chapter 21: Complications
Chapter 22: Choices
Chapter 23: Decisions
Chapter 24: The Dance
Chapter 25: Partings
Chapter 26: The Southern Crossing
Chapter 27: The Southern Shore
Chapter 28: After Effects
Chapter 29: The Temple of Ice
Chapter 30: The Temple of Dust
Chapter 31: Fire and Water
Chapter 32: Found
Chapter 33: Reunion
Chapter 34: Order of Life
Chapter 35: Lesson of Fire
Chapter 36: The Marsh of Isha
Chapter 37: The Bay of Tiak
Chapter 38: The River Dhazoh
Chapter 39: The Temple of Winds
Chapter 40: Fighting the Curse
Chapter 41: Afterward
Rule of Fire
About the Author
Map: Forest of Falin to the Crossing
Map: The Crossing to the Great Desert of Ak'Ashanti
Chapter 1
FAILED DUTY
The guards had not seen her. Yet, Niri’s back twitched under watchful eyes as she moved awkwardly through the throng-filled street. The summer solstice festival was rising to its height as the sun slowly dipped toward the Sea of Sarketh to the west. Niri was running out of time.
Frustration as much as fear stalled her already labored breathing. Sweat from the warm afternoon slid down between her breasts, soaking the white priestess robes she wore hidden underneath a plain gray traveler’s cloak. The heavy braid of her dark brown hair felt like a full sack against her damp back.
“Out of the way, girl!”
Niri dodged the team of four mammoth birds harnessed to a delicate chariot out of instinct. No one had called her merely a girl since she was nine. At her age of twenty-three, girl was a term used for disdain. Anger froze her feet. The jeweled and gilded wings of the birds brushed her face as they passed, she had stopped so close.
As the carriage rolled by, only the clothing of the occupant kept Niri from betraying that she was a Priestess from the Church of Four Orders and demanding an apology. The golden sun mask worn by a tall youth filled her vision, its appearance a mocking telltale of her failed duty at the day’s summit.
“May the blessings of the sun shine on you!”
Niri backed away from his innocent mockery. He didn't know, couldn't know, who she was or what she had failed to do and now must set right. But the reminder of what had led her to sneak out of the public complex brought a cold end to her heated frustration. Niri stumbled against the warm stucco wall of the nearest building. The archway of a recessed doorway offered a shadowed reprieve from the crowded street.
She could go back.
The thought offered a momentary comfort. It would be a relief to abandon her hasty search. But Niri knew that if she returned to the Temple of Solaire without the girl she’d seen at the noon ceremony, the price would be paid in her skin and blood. It was far better to sneak out into the streets of the solstice festival and hope to find the girl, or at least a name, something to take back to atone for her lack of attention and failure. No matter how impossible the task seemed.
One moment of indecision as she’d watched the golden-haired girl laugh with a dark-headed friend had been all it had taken to undo the order of Niri's life. Potential had danced like a halo around the girl. Niri had no doubt that the girl - no, young woman, for surely she was near sixteen - was an Elemental like herself. The girl was meant for a life serving the Church of Four Orders as Niri did. But the girl had laughed in carefree gaiety. Niri didn't want to be the one who took that away.
Attention lost to that fleeting wish and the ceremony had paused, waiting for her. She'd missed her cue. Panicked, Niri had jumped forward, speaking the blessing for good fishing, few storms, and rain for the orchards. It was not until halfway through that Niri had realized what she’d done. She'd forgotten the girl. The time to proclaim the young woman as having been chosen by the Goddess to serve in the Temple of Solaire had passed. As simply as that, Niri’s world unraveled.
She had only ever heard of one other Priestess who had failed in her duty. Her screams had echoed through the Temple for days and rung now in Niri’s ears. The Priestess who had come back to the Temple defiant that the boy-child could wait another year had never left the Temple again and walked slowly ever after, bent over like the aged as she tried to hide the scars on her face. The only kindness had been deafness so that she could not hear the lessons in duty given to initiates whenever the scarred Priestess shuffled past.
Niri fidgeted with the hem of her cloak. There was no other alternative. She had to find the girl. Niri closed her eyes, seeking focus and calm as she'd learned when an initiate.
Instead, the noise of the street fair surfaced an older memory.
“G
reen with gold for Odias and his House of vine keepers, and the lavender-blue is Myath, who is from a sailing House," her father once told her, pointing out the different Houses by the colors and symbols on gowns and flags.
For a moment she was once again the young daughter of a city official, in a time before the Church had claimed her and taken her away from her family. The voice of her father faded, but not the lesson. The disorderly swirl of gowns of the fair goers represented House colors and professions.
Niri searched her memory of the girl, finding hope at last. The girl had the pale skin common of the people along the northern Sea of Sarketh, sunshine-gold hair, and a plain olivine dress belted at a slim waist and tied at the shoulders. It told her little. This girl with potential that glowed in Niri’s eyes like an aurora was most likely from the farmland beyond the city. But the dark-haired friend who had shared a whispered laugh while the elders read the litany of the year, she had worn a satin dress of indigo blue with gold trim. She was from a sailing House, assuredly. She would live in Mirocyne.
As if the realization summoned the reality, a jolt of deepest blue flashing between fairgoers caught Niri’s eye. She dove into the crowd of people, chasing after the small page who scampered among market stalls and musicians like an air sprite. The sight of his cuff adorned with the same interlocking gold crenellations the girl’s friend had worn quickened Niri’s heart.
The pursuit took Niri further away from the heart of the city. The main piazza, the public complex housing the government buildings, and the wealthiest homes crowned a red cliff that towered over Mirocyne’s harbor. Lesser houses and businesses tumbled from the height toward the wharves, mostly along the steep main road. Red-tiled roofs mimicked the color of the arid soil, while the creamy stucco of the buildings defied the heat of the sun. The page’s path took him down a boulevard that, although stately, was not as wide as those nearest the public complex. The edge of the cliff was not so far away and the lowering sun cast slanted shadows across the street.
There was not much time left to find the girl. The festival would end at sunset on this, the longest day. Patrons would return to their homes to sleep off excesses during the short coolness of the night. Already the muted gray of Niri's cloak blended with the shadows.
Haste had narrowed Niri’s vision to only the indigo shirt of the page weaving before her. Now, her glance found another splash of blue, then another. Niri stopped. Around her, suspended from balconies and worn on every person, were the blues and golds of a sailing House of moderate standing. Niri had found the family she was seeking. Now she just needed to find the girl.
Niri slipped along the edge of the thinning crowd scattered across the boulevard. The faces bore a familial resemblance to the girl’s friend: pale skin, blue eyes, dark hair.
They had to be there.
It took a few tense minutes more before Niri saw golden curls amidst the dark. The two girls stood together near the opening of a private courtyard, speaking to a dark-haired young man wearing the same deep blue tunic with gold trim as the page and dark-haired girl. Both young women seemed enchanted by the story he was telling. The cream-colored sailor’s pants he wore were a shade lighter than his skin. Which didn't make sense.
The young man was of an age to have begun his profession, easily older than sixteen. Niri guessed he was closer to twenty. From the looks of the tunic and House, he was by all rights a young sailor. But his hands were smooth, not roughened from hauling ropes and hoisting sails. His skin was pale, not tanned from sun and salt. Long nimble fingers wrapped around a fine goblet, while keen eyes kept watch over his two companions.
A puzzle lay before her: a girl whose potential shone like a star, a young man who was not what he presented himself to be, and the dark-haired girl between the two. Elemental potential, Niri was trained to handle. But while the young man stood close, Niri hesitated to approach the young women.
The young man’s gaze scarcely left the face of the girl Niri sought. Cheeks flushed with wine below mirth-filled olive green eyes and flame-gold hair tousled by the wind, her beauty evoked summer fields brought to life. The dark-haired girl earned an occasional similarly devoted, but more protective glance, as the trio shared a private joke.
Niri considered asking someone on the street for a name of the House or the girl, something to take back to the Church so the young woman could be located again, but the boy leaned forward and took the two goblets from the girls’ hands. As his back turned, Niri darted across the street, to finger the wares of a silk merchant. She shifted to stand as close to the two young women as she dared.
“Do you want to head in soon? We can dip our feet in the courtyard fountain.”
The dark-haired girl’s voice resonated like a well-tuned violin. She hovered at the entrance to the courtyard like a moth caught between the light of her friend and the safety of her family.
The other girl shook her head, the motion exaggerated by her humid curls as they brushed across bare shoulders. “I’m just too excited. Grandmother Sanoo had been so sure that I would be taken today. I’m just so thrilled it is over!” She reached out and grabbed her friend’s forearm.
“Go for a walk with me? I’ll never settle down if we go in now,” she pleaded, her voice dancing higher like a rising flute. She pulled her friend away from the security of the courtyard and into the emptying street.
“I don’t know. The festival is over. It will be true dark soon.” The House girl, obviously reluctant, was torn between her friend’s desires and the threat of darkness in the city.
Searching for something that would win her friend’s agreement, the girl with golden hair found the young man returning with freshly filled cups. “Your brother will go with us, Lavinia. Won’t you, Ty?”
Ty handed off the cups nonchalantly, nonplussed by the commotion between the two young women. “That is the last for the night, I’m afraid. Everyone is closing up. Now, what is it you are trying to get me into, Ria?” His deep alto was laced with warm amusement.
“She wants you to go for a walk with us. Ria says she is too giddy to be cooped up in the house with all the guests.” Lavinia said, no longer resisting the idea once her brother had reappeared. She calmly sipped her last goblet of wine, hardly looking like she was bothered by the idea of a night walk at all.
“Well, a bit of a walk it is, then!” Ty declared, stepping between the two women and giving them each a push forward. His hands lingered on Ria’s shoulders. Both girls giggled and skipped ahead, carefree as windblown seeds. Ty laughed as he stretched his long legs to keep up, the three looking like nothing more than childhood friends not yet ready to be adults.
Niri held back, no longer pretending to be interested in the silk. She had all she needed, really: the girl’s name, her friend’s, the House, and location. But Ria’s words stirred something within Niri. Someone knew that Ria had potential. Someone had known the Church would notice her. Such a thing was most uncommon; Niri had never heard of such foreknowledge outside the Temple's walls before.
Niri took in the emptying streets, now more filled with shadow than sun. The evening air was cooler and brought with it the smells of the orange and almond orchards outside the city. Trellised flowers encasing colonnades and railings opened their buds into the kinder air. Not a single person around her wore the robes of a Priest or Priestess.
Niri’s heart quickened so that she could feel her pulse beating all the way to her wrists. She had not been alone, unchaperoned or without watchful eyes, since she had been nine. The idea of finding a way to speak to the girl was a thin covering for a sudden desire to walk just a little further without the Church knowing. Like a tamed demi-dragon who had slipped its leash and cuffs, Niri headed after the three youths.
Her cloak blended with the long shadows as Niri hung back in the nearly deserted streets. The three headed along the boulevard, away from the public quarter and wealthier houses. The direction suited Niri and she followed with a light step despite trying to be ste
althy. Gaps between buildings opened to views of the sky and sea as the road hugged the edge of the hill before looping back to drop quickly to the lower city near the docks. A glimpse of the western sky showed just a faint smudge of light holding onto the day.
The sound of feet dancing on stairs which leapt from the main boulevard, down the cliff, and to the lower streets brought Niri over to a narrow alley between the buildings. She had lost sight of the three around the corner of the road, but had not worried that they might choose a route other than the relatively safe street.
Voices floated up, carried on the sea air, as the sound of footsteps disappeared.
“Come on, Ty! I want to see your boat,” Ria said, her voice overflowing with laughter.
Higher on the stairs replied a reluctant Ty, “It is late, Ria. We should go back. The lower city is no place for unescorted young women.” He was only a few dozen steps below where Niri stood.
“You’d better hurry, then!” Lavinia shouted, voice faint as the fading light. They had to be near the bottom.
Ty cursed under his breath and started down the steps at a quick pace to catch his sister and her friend.
Reality bit deeper into Niri’s earlier childish joy of freedom. She glanced along the empty street. Darkness oozed from between buildings and from the mouth of every portico, as inescapable as the Church. It wasn’t just the two young women who needed to be worried. Niri was far from the safety of the public complex and barely recognizable as a Priestess from the Order of Water. She itched to touch water, hold water. The power of her blood thrummed through her veins, spurring a need that burned beyond desire.
Reflexively, she reached out with her mind and sensed immediately the sea beyond, its vastness a calm comfort to her nerves. Pulling in, she could feel the dampness in the air now that the sun had set. Moisture clung in a shimmering wall on the tiles of the street and the stucco of the buildings. The entire city was outlined in Niri’s mind by a thin line of water.
A wet world was alive around her, a sensation that Niri had never experienced before. Born as a Water Elemental, the Church had taught her to purify water, to bless it, and to call it for crops. But never to see the world, to sense it, like this. Niri realized the legacy of her birthright held far more potential than what she had been told. A little dazed but far less nervous, she slipped between the buildings and started down the stone steps, following the three.
