“This is the Selan Cost Guard. Major Deaniu of the Second Watch. Do you copy?” The radio crackled to life.

  Kael tensed in surprise at the receiver between his propped-up feet.

  Joshua slung Beasley over and shoved his face an inch away from the microphone, and Kael’s shoes.

  “This is Battleship Grora, Captain Beasley of the Royal Taerose Navy,” the Captain fumbled with the radio, desperately trying to keep his voice level.

  Kael’s hands clasped Beasley’s shoulders and shook him slightly. “See my man, this is what patience gets you. We’re almost off your ship. Bring it home.”

  “We have been monitoring your ship for some time now and be advised: entering the waters of Sela will be met with an immediate military response. Over.”

  “Understood,” Beasley answered calmly, finally finding his groove. “The Taerose government recognizes your sovereignty and will not violate your waters. Now that we have the rigmarole established, you will facilitate the removal of five Selites from our ship. We picked them up from the wreckage of a fishing vessel,” Beasley finished, repeating Joshua’s story to perfection.

  This gave the speaker on the other side of the radio pause.

  “Very well, heli in route. Stall engines in the meantime and proceed no further.”

  “In compliance,” Beasley said. He nodded to a woman towards the front.

  “T minus thirty,” the voice fizzled out over the intercom.

  “Hey hostage, is it off?” Joshua whispered.

  “Yes, and I would appreciate it if you quit calling me your hostage,” answered Beasley.

  “Okay jerk,” Joshua said once again at full volume, “then let me congratulate you on a job well done. Before the ‘heli,’ arrives, you should probably fill in your troops outside on the situation. I expect they are jumpy after being gassed.”

  The Captain’s hand inched towards a button.

  “Wait.”

  It stopped.

  Joshua pointed straight down. His brow skewed, as if realizing the state of things for the first time. “No one got hurt, right? No dead people from the tear gas stunt?”

  “I haven’t checked yet,” Beasley’s words whistled through clenched teeth, “given my current preoccupation. An estimation, perhaps? Oh yes, wholesale slaughter.”

  It was a simple conclusion, one Kael had seen hobbling along the catwalk.

  Joshua faded immediately.

  Kael had years to come up with the right words for a haphazard maiming without being able to comfort his brother. This would be months of sulking and misspent emotions, but honestly, what other choice did they have?

  But even empty words were like washing your hands after using your own bathroom. You just had to do it: “Don’t think about it. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  It was obvious Joshua disagreed. He fundamentally, absolutely, irrevocably disagreed. But if he had words to express what was churning down there, Kael didn’t hear them. Joshua walked to the corner and sat down, quiet.

  Manhandling Beasley appealed, but Kael let the man sit; he knew his place.

  The crew still contemplated murder, looked at him like he was subhuman. Good. He preferred it that way.

  Emilie was settling into the life of a pirate. She pointed at doodads and blinking lights one at a time in her father’s arms. From what little Kael could hear, Bartholomew’s knowledge of sonar seemed plausible.

  A sigh of relief flooded the room as the radio sparked back to life. “This is the pilot of chopper A0-87, do you copy?”

  “Affirmative,” Beasley answered penitently, head bowed over the receiver.

  “We have been cleared to take your five passengers and are on route. E.T.A. fifteen minutes.” The pilot’s voice rang through the room.

  “Copy,” Beasley replied. “Be advised: Bit of a strange sight around these parts. You’ll pick up the friendlies from the bridge catwalk. Do not land. Disregard all else.”

  “Understood” came after a pause.

  The next fifteen minutes passed slowly. Joshua leaned against the wall tapping his foot. From his peripherals, it looked as if Gianna was dancing in place, but he never managed to see her doing it directly. Bartholmew and Emilie sat together in a rare harmony that hadn’t existed in months, maybe longer. The truth was, though, the wait was killing Kael—the short reprieve let him get some strength back, but he was close to collapsing on the spot. He crossed the shattered windows, grinding the bits of glass under his shoes, and watched as the sun dipped low on the horizon, casting a blood-orange haze on the sky.

  Joshua smiled, seeing his brother appreciate something for its beauty.

  And then the whirling blades sounded overhead.

  The group put their back to the catwalk, keeping an eye on the crew—and guns. Kael grimaced, seeing Joshua look down to the deck, the red smears there.

  Kael cleared his throat. “No one wants an international incident here, so we’ll just leave each other in peace?” Kael paused and looked back smugly. “And maybe our story should be the official story. No one is going to believe what really happened.”

  “And to sweeten the pot,” Joshua paused for dramatic effect, a hollow roll of the hand, but Kael could see his heart wasn’t in it, “if we don’t make it to shore, the ship blows up.” Joshua fished a button-looking gadget from his fifth pocket, which Kael knew not to be there originally. Could Joshua have taken more than the smoke grenades from the convoy?

  The ensigns grew visibly pale.

  Joshua had to go first after that stunt. As he backed onto the catwalk and waited for a rescue basket to lower, Kael strutted forward and met Captain Beasley eye to eye. Kael reeled back and socked the captain straight in the nose. Kael spat on the ground and move back to the window.

  Joshua shouted down, from halfway up the basket, “Could you stop punching people from Taerose?”

  Then Bartholomew got to go up with his daughter.

  Then Gianna.

  Kael boarded the yellow basket that spun slightly in the salty wind, looked back at the Taerosians holding their breath. He had more important things to do; Bartholomew waited.

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  Kael had never ridden in a helicopter before; never seemed safe. As he was pulled aboard, his gut felt ready to confirm that hypothesis.

  He took a seat facing forward between Joshua and Gianna (who shied away as their arms brushed). On the other side, Bartholomew and Emilie had their own seats with a man in a wet suit across from Kael.

  Said man slid the door shut.

  ###

  Below, the Captain’s upper lip quivered as he turned to look at his crew, blood dripping from a broken nose. The silence hung heavy in the air and sank into their being. Finally, Beasley bit his lip and said, “Shoot them down.”

  “The helicopter?” the man who had tried to sneak to the weapon pile earlier asked.

  “Yes, you idiot. Someone, I don’t care who, make sure he’s confined to his cabin barring court martial. I give orders, and orders are nothing if not followed. As your captain, my orders not only enshrine the prestige of this navy, but of this ship.” The captain marched forward and pulled his uniform down with one curt tug, smoothing the wrinkles. “And your new orders are to turn about and put every gun we have in range of that helicopter.”

  “But the bomb.” The insubordinate somehow stumbled over one syllable words.

  Oh, descent was running high. Reasonable, perhaps, but it was his duty to prune the weeds all the same.

  “Moot. Black magic, vague threats. It means little in the face of instant death, and the flag of another country will not save them from that.” Wiping the layers of sweat built up over his face, the Captain sat down at his chair. “In war, accidents are simply inevitable.” His hand reached for his scalp and massaged the burnt patches.

  ###

  “What is that button, anyway?” Bartholomew shouted to Joshua over the whirl of spinning blades.

  “No clue, I was just poking through rooms and drawers before finding you.” Joshua slipped the doohickey back into pocket #5. If it got them out of another jam like that, it would be seeing a promotion to #4 real quick.

  Reading the room and finding only exhaustion, Joshua sighed and pushed his forehead against the window, eyes glaring emptily into the ocean, his breath leaving smudges. The battleship ran parallel as its engines churned.

  Nothing to do about the others trapped on the boat. Back to Tyré with y’all. Joshua had moped in the corner, considering how to help the refugees, but couldn’t think of a single scheme. Bartholomew, Emilie, Gianna. He’d have to be content saving those lives. But it’s not enough, is it? Joshua looked to his brother. We need to do something about Taerose; heck, I thought we were going to until Bartholomew came along.

  Joshua watched the turrets on the battleship move. All of them. A picosecond away from jumping out of his seat, kicking down the door, and shoving everyone out into a deathly plummet, something happened. And that something couldn’t possibly be real.

  “Go back!” Joshua screamed over the din.

  “What’s he on about?” the pilot asked.

  Kael leaned in, trying to speak to Joshua, but Joshua couldn’t answer. He fell back into his seat, let the confusion run over him. Kael pushed himself over Joshua’s lap and looked to the battleship as well, and it was only the look on his face that confirmed to Joshua what he had seen was real.

  Even now, the ship sank, crumbled like a cardboard tube. The middle was in the water, both the bow and aft rose in the air. The entire thing was violently acute, in a purely mathematical sense. It stood suspended there for a few seconds more, and then violently plummeted into the depths as if yanked down by the hand of some ancient leviathan or sea god.

  As the two boys stared at one another in bewilderment, they rapidly signed theories. Joshua settled on a homemade hand sign, that he signed over and over: Syche. It was clear Kael wasn’t getting it.

  Wham! The helicopter jerked, and the metal screeched. The vehicle tipped left as Gianna slid into Kael, who slid into Joshua pinning him against the door. Bartholomew, Emilie and diver across the isle mirrored.

  The pilot fought with the controls attempting to level the vehicle. They weren’t moving now.

  Despite their altitude, a red liquid seeped through the door and crystallized, causing the door to groan on its hinges. With a gust of wind rushing into the cabin, the door was ripped away out into the mixing dark blue abyss of sky and sea.

  As his body slid and his feet hung out of the copter, Joshua looped the seat belt he had neglected to wear around his hand. Kael landed on top of him, and then Gianna as well. Their weight was tremendous, threatening to rip Joshua’s hand off at the seams.

  Emilie and the diver were screaming alike. The helicopter continued to roll left. Any further left and the blades would lose their lift.

  They all stared into the abyss now.

  The first thing in view was a man. A large man, dressed in the Element’s colors and in their robes. He stood on a pillar of blood that rose from the ocean, like a waterspout, and inched closer to the helicopter as it was dragged down. Right hand raised towards the chopper as if he were trying to grab it, tethers of blood ascended high into the air and grabbed around the helicopter holding it in place.

  One tether streaked in, snagging Bartholomew by the ankle. Luckily, he had fully buckled in and couldn’t be yanked out. Luckier still for all of them: the assassin needed one of them alive. If he could sink a battleship as easily as stomping on a tin can, then they may as well be dandelions in the wind up here.

  So much blood.

  Joshua's mind raced trying to understand. Animals didn't have the same life force humans did, and Syches could rip their blood right out. In an ocean, a Blood Syche could pool a nearly endless supply. Joshua briefly looked to where the ship had been seconds earlier. Easy enough to collect blood from the dead as well.

  “Kael! Burnout!” Joshua screamed at the top of his lungs, competing with the thump of the helicopter's blades.

  “Can you hold my weight?” Kael yelled back.

  “Go for it!” Joshua yelled without a moment’s hesitation.

  Joshua extended his free arm out of the helicopter and clenched his fist around the belt. Kael rolled into the aisle and slid down into open air, grabbing Joshua’s free hand. In the air was where no Blood or Combustion Syche wanted to find themselves, but if this assassin could manage it, so could Kael.

  “Pocket #2!” Joshua screamed. “Gianna! Toss it to Kael.”

  Joshua felt her crawling through his many pockets, he directed her to left-inner. He could feel her small fingers clasp around it! She pulled out a sooty clump of black earth, the size of her fist. Firmly buckled in their seats, Barthlomew and the diver hung mouth agape, as if seeing the most wondrous thing they ever would in their life.

  Coal: pure anthracitic Combustion fuel.

  Kael began focusing his mind, waiting for the handoff. He was almost tapped, so he would have to put everything into it. Every molecule had its limit for how much energy could be released, and Kael needed to meet that limit.

  Gianna shouted something, and the black mass fell from her towards Kael’s open hand.

  He reached up and it hit his palm, but his fingers were too slow to secure the ammunition. He slapped it upwards, juggling momentarily. Kael’s hand sprang out like a viper, but that only knocked it well and truely out of his reach.

  Joshua and Kael watched in horror as it fell.

  And then another shape rocketed past; with one hand Gianna clamped down on Kael’s outstretched hand, with the other she swung like a pendulum and snagged the weapon—the coal. And now she was feet away from the Blood Syche, that massive man. Assassin to assassin, but one assassin was a Combustion Syche holding coal.

  A blast ripped the sky in totality. A ball of heat and light and power and death bore down on the Knight of the Dark Element in a deluge of heat and sound. It grew brighter and brighter as the flame expanded. The assassin disappeared into the inferno. The firestorm began to circle and grow in a grand spinning sphere. The blaze rounded and spun, engulfing everything in the air between the helicopter and ocean. The sea glowed and the bloody tethers grabbing the helicopter snapped and fell back into the sea. Their vehicle pivoted, the helicopter snapping to. Joshua hit the far side, followed by Kael hitting him, followed by Gianna pancaking them both.

  Gianna, Joshua, and Kael unknotted themselves from each other as Joshua latched onto Kael, laughing hysterically.

  “We’re alive!” his lips moved, drowned by the roar of the blades.

  Kael, winded, tried to shrug out of the overzealous embrace, just trying to take a full breath. They both turned their attention to Gianna. Neither could be sure how much was her and how much was the coal, but considering the injuries she had received today, that girl got all the credit in the world regardless.

  As they plotsed over the sea, the beach in sight, Kael became somber. That had been their only reserve. Three years Joshua had held onto that lump of coal, and now it was no more. Kael needed it; needed it to kill the man he hated most in this world.

  Perhaps he could do without, but that was a surety in his life he no longer had.

  The copilot radioed in a frantic message. The pilot fought with the machine as the dashboard lit up with every warning it was made to show, which represented a failure in its ability to communicate the dire straits it found itself. The vehicle uttered telltale guttural noises. It seemed to shake and sway on the wind. The assassin may not have destroyed the helicopter outright, but the prognosis was terminal.

  Land appeared under them quickly, and Joshua, Kael, and Gianna buckled up for the first time. They hit the sand hard, but honestly, compared to what they had just been through? It was nothing. The pilot killed the engine or the engine killed itself, and everyone spilled out on wobbly legs. The helicopter’s tail was slightly bent, it was missing a door, and the landing gear was more than a little mangled; it looked more modern art than vehicle now.

  As the pilot guarded the radio, the diver rummaged the helicopter for a weapon and came up with flares. As he finished peppering the beach with orange light, he returned to find the site abandoned by the group.

  Nearly a mile away, Joshua looked back at the ocean with Kael riding piggyback. It was clear now that the Dark Element wouldn't let them go, and if he couldn't come up with something, they'd be dead by week's end.