Page 85 of Crown of Flame

I hear the crew of the ship panicking as we approach.

Igniting it, he hurtles it through the air, a veritable brick ball firing toward the dark elf at impossible speeds.

The dark elf dodges out of the way, but Cinis reorients, bending the trajectory.

I hear a crash as the projectile collides with the target, and the elf is bludgeoned unconscious.

Readying myself to hide in the shadows, I sprint out of view, ready to infiltrate the ship. Cinis is both the perfect forward force and the perfect distraction for me to hide.

Their voices are still audible to me.

“Now you try, sweetheart,” Cinis urges Hesta. “Just try to grip the soft stuff with your mind. Feel the world around you, like I taught you.”

I watch as Hesta lifts an imperfect blob of clay and then hurtles it through the air. She doesn’t ignite it, and it splats on the side of the ship. It sounds like it might have hurt the ship, but not significantly.

“Prepare to make a landing somewhere else! We can’t dock here!”

I hear the voices of somebody aboard the ship, and note the anchor hastily lifting back up onto the ship.

There’s no way we’re letting you get away that easily.

I’m only sad I might not have a chance to attack.

I watch as simultaneously, two balls of clay are lifted into the air, then set on fire. Not only do they destroy the ship on impact, the ship is set aflame.

If I’d gotten the chance, I might have climbed up the ramp or used the rope to scale the ship, then hidden, isolating each member of the crew as I stabbed them individually.

But my way was slow and risky, and there was a very real chance one of the dark elves could have gotten away.

And it only takes one dark elf to ruin Prazh again.

“You should have at least let me attack,” I complain upon meeting back up with Cinis and Hesta. “I was in a position to strike. I could have taken out a couple of them.”

Hesta laughs with delight, clearly proud of her work.

“Sorry, dear,” Cinis says. “I felt like maybe today, Hesta should have gotten a chance to learn.”

He looks out toward the shoreline, then speaks with caution.

“But it looks like you might get your chance after all, Serena,” he says.

My eyes follow his trajectory, and I see one dark elf, stumbling out of the ship’s wreckage toward us.

I know that they’re not in any real danger, but as I run, I think of what the dark elves jeopardize by coming here.

Grabbing my dagger and brandishing it, I rush up to the stumbling figure. He lifts his hand, and a blue light illuminates it.

He utters an incantation.

But before he gets the chance, I jab my dagger into him, driving it as hard as I can into his spleen.

He taunts me with his dying breaths.

“You’ll never get away from us.”

He chuckles a pained, raspy laugh as his hand falls to his side, the spell gone.

“I heard how you stole our ship… crashed into the shore and killed your slaver,” he says. “Pretty gutsy move.”