Imprison the Sky Read online

  For my sister, Alisa,

  You are not only one of the most strong, thoughtful, funny, and kind women I know, you’re also so incredibly generous with your heart—I am so honored and grateful that I get to call you family. I love you.

  ALSO BY A. C. GAUGHEN

  Scarlet

  Lady Thief

  Lion Heart

  Reign the Earth

  Contents

  A Black Circle

  Cursed Thing

  Mothers Always Know

  Crewmates

  Spaces between the Elements

  A Sword and an Arrow

  Falling

  Stay Together

  The Tri Queen

  Hope Was Ash

  A Terrible Dream

  Serobini

  The Language of Hope

  Seven Percent

  Words Aren’t Enough

  Bleeding and Bruising

  Child’s Play

  The Unsung Hero

  Count the Hours

  Kamaria Save Us All

  Little Shards

  Betrayed

  Everything That Matters

  Pray to Whatever Gods You Believe In

  Worst Possible Time

  The Magnitude of Grief

  Rewrite a Path in the Stars

  Acknowledgments

  A Black Circle

  “Pirates,” I called. “Aim for the skies.”

  Behind me, Ori and Bast knew what that meant, and a heavy black sailcloth fell over the name Ancora carved into my stern. I reached out with my power, securing the lines on the bottom of the cloth to cleats on the side.

  “Anika,” I called.

  “Right here, Captain,” she said. She was ten and came up to my shoulder, but she was the only other air power I had on board, and I needed her help.

  “Up,” I told Anika.

  She took a deep breath and held out her palms, and I put mine under them. I could feel the threads that united everything in the natural world, connecting my power to hers, to water, to earth, to fire. The threads trembled for me, waiting for a command from their captain the way everything else did.

  I pushed, and the threads unfurled, splitting and multiplying to fasten to Anika’s power and splice ours together. This wasn’t something she could do on her own yet. Maybe ever.

  The deck lurched, the bow lifting upward like we were cresting a tall wave. But we never came down, my power and Anika’s pushing up on the sails, sliding under the hull, using the threads of the natural world to raise the ship up out of the water. I heard the telltale sound of water streaming off us as we left the ocean altogether.

  Flying. The relentless tattoo of my heartbeat accelerated in triumph as we sailed higher, propelled by nothing but the will of two small girls, bending the natural world to our command.

  Anika trembled with concentration, but the thrill of power rushed through my veins, feeding me, egging me on. They’ll be there, I told myself. This time, they’ll be there.

  I wasn’t sure if my brother and sister would be considered children still—Gryphon would be sixteen, and Pera would be fourteen. But it was a stone I hadn’t turned yet, and that, more than anything, was why I was a damn fool for returning to Liatos.

  “They nearly caught us last time,” Navya reminded me, low in my ear.

  “We’re far enough away from the harbor,” I countered. We were down the southern coast of Liatos, a few miles from the communes and the Oculus where I had almost lost a crewmate and the whole damn ship last time we were here.

  “We’re not losing anyone else,” she said, and I wasn’t sure if it was a promise or a question. I looked over at Ori, but he had been the first to vote for this plan. No one knew who I was searching for here, but we all knew Ori was hoping to find his twin sister, Dara, alive and well.

  I couldn’t imagine that an enemy Elementa had lasted very long in the hands of the Trifectate.

  Last time, it had been the moon that had given us away. We had already waited two days for a darker night, lurking outside the harbor where we couldn’t be seen, but our supplies wouldn’t have held out. We had to risk it or return to Cyrus empty handed, and we lost Dara and nearly our lives for that mistake.

  Tonight, the sky was dark and clouded, the moon only a sliver behind the clouds, a strong easterly wind filling our sails. Perfect for my purposes.

  The communes here sat higher up on the cliff, so there were no guards or protection from me. Guiding my ship, which had stopped dripping water, I went first for the enclosure that I’d heard was full of children.

  They never used to guard their slaves at night, but I expected that might have changed after our last engagement, and I had to be prepared. I tightened my belt, heavy with crossbow bolts and a few knives. I looked at Bast, armed with several knives and a large sword on his hip.

  “See you in the skies, Aspasia,” Bast told me with a grin.

  “See you in the skies,” I responded. “Steady,” I told Anika. She took a deep breath, and I eased my power away from hers. The ship trembled in the air but drew to a halt, the wood creaking as we held still, the air curling in circles around the hull to hold it aloft as the sails luffed gently without the forward propulsion.

  I nodded to Bast, grabbed a long line, and jumped off the edge of the ship with him.

  The air flew through my clothing and the long, heavy ropes of my hair as we fell. I was invincible, master of the sky and air, and none could dare defy me, hurt me, enslave me.

  I looked over at Bast as I slowed our descent, and his smile was vicious and eager. Slaves no longer, here we became the masters.

  We landed softly in one of the gray stone walled communes, each a large, dismal cell all its own, leaving the lines hanging behind us. No one knew we were here yet. I signaled Bast to stop, and I sent a gentle puff of air like an exhalation searching out through the enclosure, feeling along the threads into the dark building. There were long lines of beds with small bodies in them, and at the end of the room, a man sat upright, dozing but not fully asleep. Probably a guard.

  I tested objects with my power—something round and hard on the floor was either a stone or a heavy pot, and I lifted it, sending it slamming into the guard’s face. It landed and he fell as I walked into the room.

  Pain would always precede my entrance, and it followed too in my wake, my ever-faithful shadow.

  A few of the children heard the noise, waking but staying in their beds, staring at me, not knowing if this shape in the darkness was devil or savior.

  I could take six. It was an impossible task, every time, and Bast made some of my decisions for me by plucking two children close to the door. Quickly, I stalked the length of the room, hoping, as always, that I’d see some kind of recognition in someone’s face.

  The truth was, I had no idea if I’d recognize my siblings if I ever found them. So I searched the only other way I knew how, and sent my power rushing through the room, feeling for the spark that would indicate another Elementa.

  There wasn’t any, and my heart sank, so I called, “We can take four more. Who’s coming with us?”

  There was a moment where no one moved. Then, like they agreed on it, several leaped from their beds. A boy pleaded with another boy not to leave, but he shook out of the other’s grasp and came with me. Outside, the crew lowered the rowboat by ropes, and we stuffed it full of children. Six, but there was one more trying to climb in, so I took seven.

  I pushed the boat up until my crew felt it, and then they hauled it by the lines, lifting the boat full of fear-faced children into the sky. Bast and I took the loose hanging lines, and I pointed toward the port wall.

  Left wall. I hated that even the words changed when I was on land.

  Bast took a rope
and wound the line around his wrist, and I called the air to twine one around me as well. We started running at the wall, and I leveraged the air and the tension of the rope to swing us up and over, using the momentum to launch us into the next enclosure.

  Bast and I landed quietly, letting go of the lines. He drew his sword, and I pushed back my leathers to expose the row of crossbow bolts at my waist.

  I didn’t need the bow. I was the bow.

  There were two buildings in this larger enclosure, and my heart pounded with the unknown. We had up to six slots for men, and this was by far the more difficult part. “Quick and quiet,” I reminded Bast in a whisper.

  He licked his lips. “This one first?” he said, pointing his knife at the first building.

  I sent my power searching out ahead of us, using where the air broke to sense walls, bars, beds, sleeping bodies that would feel a breeze on their faces. “Both are full of locked cages. No guards, but I imagine they’re close.”

  He cast his watchful eyes around the enclosure. “Lead the way.”

  We moved forward quickly, going into the first building. Unlike when we raided the enclosures with the children, we had no expectations that these men would come easily.

  Navya and Ori came in behind us, which meant that the rowboat was lowered down and ready to be filled. I searched with my eyes and power along the walls, finding a large ring of keys. As soon as the keys shivered in my hand, the men inside began to take notice.

  “Who are you?”

  “Someone’s here!”

  “We’re going to be free!”

  “You’re not going to be free,” I snarled. “But you will be taken out of here, if I like the look of you.”

  I stalked down the center aisle, flipping through the keys. I’d been through the communes enough to know roughly the kind of key that would open the doors, and I narrowed it down to three. Navya, Bast, and Ori flanked me as I found the first person I’d take—he was a large, scarred man who would fetch a fortune at the market.

  “Open that door, little girl,” he growled to me. “And see what’s waiting if you think you can enslave me.”

  The lock clicked on the second key, and he charged the door as I stepped clear, pulling the keys away. I used my power to trip him, and it was all Bast and Ori needed to tie him with rope and blindfold him as Navya leaped over him to the next cell with me.

  We had two more slaves secured when I heard an oily voice from deeper in the building. “Might I volunteer? I could use a change of scenery.”

  With a chuckle, I went to the voice to find a lanky man leaning against his cell door. “A change of scenery,” I repeated.

  “Mm,” he agreed. “The Trifectate is so dull this time of year.”

  His voice had a lilt to it that I couldn’t quite place. “Very well,” I said. “I’m still tying you up.”

  “Promises,” he murmured. But when I opened the door, he turned around and presented his hands behind his back so we could bind him.

  I had just finished tying a blindfold on him when I heard a brutal roar from outside. “Hells,” I growled, dragging the volunteer with me as I ran to the doorway.

  “Handled,” Bast snapped, nodding to a slave who was slumped over in his seat.

  Then an alarm bell started ringing hard and loud. “Faster!” I yelled at my crew.

  Ori and Navya dashed back into the cells, and I looked around for the door to this enclosure. I found it, shoving the air against it hard to block it.

  The ship above us jerked, and I could feel Anika’s power waning.

  “Bast—” I started, and he ran forward, jamming a knife into the ground in front of the door as bodies heaved against it.

  “Hurry,” I told him, and he nodded to me.

  We ran back inside, and Ori and Navya had one more slave trussed and ready. “I’ve got it,” Bast told me as Navya tossed him the keys.

  “Get back to the boat as soon as you can,” I ordered. “No one’s getting left behind tonight.”

  I didn’t wait to see their reaction. I went outside to the door, and my breath tangled in my chest.

  The heavy, iron-reinforced door was starting to smoke, glowing red from the center where a black circle was developing.

  The circle grew wider, and ash fell out of the door. In its place, I saw a young man standing there, his face sweaty and intense, his eyes finding mine as he continued to burn the door down.

  Elementa.

  No. The Trifectate did not employ Elementae—they killed them. Murdered them and made it a holy feast day.

  But here was a young man using his power to burn through a door to get to me.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Navya and Ori were crossing the enclosure with the last slave, and Bast jogged over to me with his sword drawn.

  “Get on the boat!” I snarled. “I’ll take care of myself.”

  He hesitated—he hesitated—and I nearly paid for it as an arrow flew out of the hot, ashen void in the door.

  “Go!” I bellowed, and this time he obeyed. More arrows came at me, but I flung them away with my power, like swatting flies.

  Then water came and cooled the ash, and four guards stepped carefully through the ruins of the door.

  I backed up, but the guards didn’t chase me.

  Between the guards with their shiny steel were three people who didn’t belong. They weren’t in chains. They weren’t in armor. One was a girl my own age. Another was a man. Another was a woman older than me.

  The girl held up her hands, and the white stones in the enclosure started to rip up, tearing a straight line toward me.

  There was no way in any number of hells that I would be captured again. Not by one of my own kind, for certain.

  I whipped out a line to catch me, wrapping around my wrist and jerking me upward like I was flying. A trail of fire and a guttural yell followed me, but only me.

  My crew and captives were halfway up to the ship, and I just needed to distract the Elementae a little longer.

  Enough arrows were lying around now that I didn’t even need to use up my bolts, and I picked up the discarded weapons with my power, hurling them at the guards faster and with more precision than a bowman. The guards broke formation to cover themselves, distracting their Elementae for precious seconds.

  The rowboat inched higher.

  A ball of water flew at me, tracking me better than I expected, and slammed me in the chest.

  I was almost thirty feet in the air, and I fell. The water pressed hard on my body, not breaking, slamming me down to the earth.

  But my power had always reacted to me. It listened to me, reacting first to my emotions and second to my conscious commands. So before my bones shattered against the white stone ground, my power stopped me, cushioning me and blasting the water off my chest.

  Someone gasped, but I didn’t have a moment to care. The line grabbed my wrist again, and using all the focus I could muster, I pushed the ship off hard in the air, flying high as the ship moved forward. I heard yelps from above, but my crew was used to this—they would recover.

  A blast of fire nicked my ankle, but then I was out of range, trailing behind my ship as it raced full sail for the ocean.

  I lowered the ship onto the surface of the ocean with a satisfying crash, dunking myself into the water behind it.

  I let water fill my ears and used the sudden quiet to suck in a deep breath before my head went totally underwater.

  The Trifectate had Elementae working for them. I’d heard for months now about the sick experiments going on in the Trifectate, which were terrifying enough. But if they were employing Elementae to fight for them, it meant I might not be able to return to those shores to find my family.

  Damn it all.

  I came back onto the surface, swimming to the side and calling a line to me. It pulled me up on the deck, and I watched my crew march about, practiced and efficient. Navya was at the wheel, and Anika was collapsed on the deck beside her, breathing slowly as Navya told he
r little sister to eat something to get her strength back. Navya called out to the riggers to trim the sails, and they scampered up the shrouds. Ori and Bast were belowdecks, no doubt securing our new cargo, and some of our littler ones were coiling ropes and securing the rowboat.

  We were shipshape in no time, and I ducked belowdecks. “Is the cargo tucked in?” I asked Sophy, our cook, as I passed through the galley.

  She looked up from where she was chopping carrots. “Quick work. I’ll have a meal ready soon.”

  I opened the door at the end of the galley that led to our hold. Jogging down the stairs, I saw Ori and Bast working together to chain up the men first, two to a cell in our converted brig.

  “He’s a problem,” Bast muttered to me, glancing at the big one with scars.

  I sighed. “Figured he might be. There’s always one, and he’ll be worth the price.”

  Bast grimaced, but he led the cooperative volunteer down to the end of the row. The Ancora wasn’t meant to be a slave ship—we didn’t have a massive hold that held rows and rows of slaves, but we could carry up to about fifteen. Of course, almost half weren’t going to make it to the slave markets at Sarocca.

  “Make sure he’s locked down,” I warned Bast. The volunteer gave me an innocent look.

  I nudged Ori’s shoulder and took over his duties, wrestling back the men who tried to fight me, getting them into their chains as Ori gently herded the children into two cells without shackling them.

  It had been seven years since I was taken from the communes, my home, sold by soldiers who wanted to line their own pockets by selling children they thought no one would miss in the chaos of the end of the war. Lined up on a gangplank, pushed forward and chained down with a hundred others in the fetid belly of a ship.

  I couldn’t stand to shackle the children. It was bad enough that we had to put them in the brig, but they needed time to adjust. It had taken two children throwing themselves overboard and one trying to burn down the ship from the galley to recognize that they wouldn’t trust me until they were free and off the boat.

  Freedom meant nothing until you could run with no one chasing you.

  No matter what the reason, keeping them in the brig was cruel. My life had always been a careful balance between cruelty and hope.