Siren Song (The Fated #1)

31 | The Serpent Charm

After the training, and surprisingly tasty stew, the crew were split into sleeping shifts. Nuri and Heron volunteered for the first. Most everyone else settled down on their bedrolls following the conversation. Some to sleep, others to chat, or care for the weapons and armor on their persons. Iliana had even seen Lykos pull a book from his bag to read by firelight before she curled up beneath the fabric of her own roll.

Sleep was the last thing on her mind, however, as she carefully curled her fingers around a charm on her anklet. With everything else going on, she'd decided that night time would be the only chance she had to try and practice pulling herself into that other realm. A task which seemed impossible, given the lack of detail in Koun's explanation of it all. Still, with no better ideas of how to go about it, she ran her thumb along the serpent charm.

That faint, unplaceable draw tugged at her once again. It seemed to come from everywhere, but nowhere at the same time, pulling her soul towards something unseen. Unlike before, she drew in a deep breath, and tried to sink into the feeling.

Nothing happened.

Seconds, minutes, then more passed as she tried her best to follow the charm into that white-washed world. Several times, she shifted her fingers to a new charm, then to the string itself, but found it no easier to follow.

At some point, the night took her. A calm, dreamless sleep carried her through the night, and she woke no closer to the other world. Her body protested each action she took, however, proving that at least some events of the previous night had been fruitful.

That day, then two more, passed in the same manner. She would run, walk, ride, whatever Lykos demanded of her. Then, when the sun began to sink beneath the horizon, they would find a good campsite. More often than not, Nuri would begin to cook something over the fire, while the others busied themselves with varying tasks. Every night, Lykos pulled Iliana and Callias aside to train.

She never whined as he worked her. At least, not aloud.

Iliana wouldn't risk Lykos changing his mind about sharing his knowledge. Her mind and body found the training easier and easier as the days passed, even Lykos seemed surprised by how, by the third night, she only needed to be shown something once, maybe twice, before she could copy it with near perfect replication.

The ease in which she learned, however, did nothing to help the way her body ached. Bruises coated her olive skin. She had new calluses on her feet, and a bandage on her brow from where she fell wrong and hit a rock. Eumelia'd offered to heal it, but after confirming the mark would cause no lasting harm to Iliana, Lykos had waved her off saying it served her right for getting cocky when they fought. Iliana'd taken the words in silence, even if the faint unspoken warning in his words rubbed her wrong.

She had gotten cocky. While they spared, she'd forgotten that her new skills were little to nothing when measured against experience, and threw herself at him in an attempt to pay back even some of the rage burning beneath her skin. First Lykos, then Callias--when she'd fought him, her bruised ego pushed her much how rage had done--had quickly set her straight. And, some part of her knew it was a lesson better learned now, in training, then one day in a critical fight.

Each night, after they finished training, then eating, she would curl up in her bed-roll and attempt to send her mind to the other world. Nothing seemed to do it, and she could almost physically feel her fraying temper begin to feed her growing dislike for the gods.

Couldn't Koun have given her clearer instructions? Or, any instructions, really, about how the anklet worked?

On the third, unremarkable evening, she cursed him under her breath. Then, shivered as a bodiless, whispered laugh seemed to grace the air. Within that same second, something nudged the part of her that was being tugged, that... nothing, but everything. 'Her soul,' she thought. Or, no. She hadn't thought that.