Volkra

The darkness surrounded her but this time felt different, it felt as if the shadows were claiming for her and that really terrified her.

Alina made her light appear and Kaida could feel relief all over her body, not just her relief but the people around her too.

But then the nightmare started.

The Volkra were coming and as the last time Kaida could feel them, she could read their feelings and they were hungry, really hungry.

"They are coming," Mal said. "Listen,"

Kaida heard over the distance the cries of the Volkra and then they were, trying to get through the circle of light that Alina had created.

Alina spreaded her arms making the light wider making Kaida feel more comfortable.

"No" Sturmhond said. "Bring them close,"

"What?!" Kaida asked in surprise.

"What? Why?" Alina asked.

"They hunt us," he said, raising his voice so everyone could hear him. "Maybe it's time we hunted them."

"No, please,"Kaida said.

"Pull back the light," Sturmhond told Alina.

"He is out of his mind," Alina said looking at Mal.

Mal hesitated. "Well..."

Well what?" Alina asked, incredulously. "In case you've for- gotten, one of those things tried to eat you!"

"Maybe that's why I'd like to see what those guns can do," he said.

"Jake, take another gun," Sturmhond told him.

"Jake, no, no, please don't do it," Kaida begged.

"One of them almost killed me. I want my revenge," Jake said, taking his place behind one of the guns.

"Just for a moment," pressed Sturmhond. "Indulge me."

"Alina, don't do it," Kaida begged.

They all were looking at Alina, all the crew did want to kill the Volkra and Kaida couldn't stand it.

"All right," Alina said. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

"No, please," Kaida begged in a whisper.

Alina made the light smaller. "All the way!" Sturmhond demanded.

"Please, Alina," Kaida begged to herself but then the Fold went dark.

Kaida closed her eyes, overwhelmed because of all the emotions coming from the Volkra and from Sturmhond's crew.

"Now, Alina!" Sturmhond shouted. "Throw it wide!"

Alina made the light appear again, letting them see all the Volkra around them.

"Fire!" Sturmhond cried.

They all started firing and pain started running towards Kaidas body. She didn't want to scream but it was too painful. She felt as if she was dying.

"You can feel them. Don't you?" it couldn't be. That voice, it couldn't be. Kaida opened her eyes and there he was in front of her. The Darkling.

"How?" she asked in surprise.

"You can feel how they are killing them," he said again.

"You are not here, you are just a product of my imagination," Kaida said.

"Please, Kaida, you know better than that," he said.

"What do you want?" Kaida asked with anger.

"I know you can feel the Fold calling you, the same happens to me,"

"I'm nothing like you," she said.

"No, of course you are not. But you helped me to expand the Fold and now the Fold recognized you, your small science and it's claiming for more," he said with a smile.

Kaida bit her lip trying to hold the pain, but it was too much.

"Come with me. Join me, I can help you,"he said, offering her his hand.

"I don't need your help," she said, gritting her teeth.

"No one here cares about you. They heard you begging them to not kill the Volkra and they ignored you. They don't care, but I do. Come with me," he insisted.

"I don't care if they care about me or not. I will never go with you," she said firmly.

A sharp pain appeared in her head causing her to throw her hands to her head and scream out. Too much pain. She screamed again, she wanted to break the connection with the Volkra but she didn't know how and that was killing her.

"You are dying, too much pain to handle,"he said.

"Then I'll die," she snapped angrily and then he disappeared.

The pain was gone and the Volkra too.

"Do you think we can draw another flock?" one of the Squallers asked.

"Maybe," Sturmhond said. "But we should probably head east. It's almost dawn, and I don't want us to be spotted."

"Let's just leave this place," Kaida thought. The feeling of the Fold calling her was weird and she didn't like it, but in some way she also could feel her small science stronger.

"There are more of them," Mal said suddenly. "A lot more."

"How do you know?" Sturmhond asked.

"I just do," Mal said.

"I swear I will kill this tracker,"Kaida thought, looking at Mal angrily.

Sturmhond hesitated. Between the goggles, his hat, and the high collar, it was impossible to read his expression, but Kaida knew and she didn't like it."Where?" he said finally.

Just a little north," Mal said. "That way." he said pointing at the dark.

"I will cut that hand of yours," Kaida gritted her teeth angrily.

Sturmhond called the bearing. Kaida's heart skipped a beat.

The Hummingbird dipped its wings and turned as Mal called out directions and Sturmhond corrected our course.

"This can be true, Sturmhond! The fact that you can kill Volkra doesn't mean you have to!" Kaida screamed.

"They are monsters, they have to die," Sturmhond said.

"Monster," she remembered his words.

"Then you should kill me too," she murmured.

They reached the place Mal had pointed and it was a nest of Volkra. Again, they started firing and the pain in Kaida's body started again, but this time was stronger.

She could feel every bullet going through the Volkra's body, she could feel their pain. She knew that if they let them they would kill them without hesitation, but she couldn't stand it.

Kaida was growing weaker, the pain was too much, and the call of the Fold wasn't helping.

Suddenly, the light disappeared. Kaida could hear how the crew were screaming terrified. But she didn't care, she was too tired and they had hurt her.

"That's it Kaida, feel how your friends die. Let them suffer what you had suffered because of them" The Darkling said. "If they don't care about you, why would you?"

"Yes," Kaida said.

"Kaida!" Sturmhond desesperate voice screamed. He was screaming for her, he was worried for her.

Kaida opened her eyes feeling regret, how could she have believed him. They cared about her, they had done a lot of things to help her, they had made her smile and laugh. How could she have thought they didn't care about her?

Kaida screamed and a wave of purple mist went out of her body. The Volkra that were attacking them stopped moving.

The light went on and all the crew turned to see Kaida who had three Volkra behind her, but they weren't attacking her.

Kaida turned to look at the Volkra. "I'm sorry," she said and with just a move from her hand the Volkra were dead, but this time she didn't feel it.

The Hummingbird started to fall, the squallers were trying to maintain the control of the boat, but the Volkra did too much damage to it.

"Everyone get low and hold on tight!" Sturmhond screamed.

Kaida fell to her knees almost unconscious and she was about to fall out of the boat but Sturmhond reached her hand and pulled her into his chest, protecting her whole body with his.

"Get ready!" Sturhond screamed. They were going to crash.

There was a loud splash and suddenly they were skimming across the water. Sturmhond was holding an unconscious Kaida and trying to take her out of the water.

"Come on Kaida, wake up," he said, leaving her on the ground. "Open those beautiful gray eyes, please,"

Sturmhond could hear his crew men arguing with Alina about what happened and the fact that because of her loss of control they almost ended up killed but he didn't care.

"Tolya!" Sturmhond screamed when noticed she wasn't breathing. Tolya appeared in a matter of seconds.

"She is not breathing, she might have water in her lungs," Sturmhond said. Tolya nodded and put his hand over Kaida's chest trying to make her spill the water.

Finally Kaida started coughing and breathing, making Sturmhond sign in relief.

"Darling you are not leaving this world just yet," Sturmhond said with a smile.

Kaida looked at him with a frown, his usual red hair now was blond, his broken nose wasn't broken anymore and his green eyes were now hazel.

"Why don't you ask your captain what happened?" they heard Alina.

"She is right," Sturmhond said walking away from Kaida who stood up with Tolya's help. "I should have given her more time and I shouldn't have gone after the nest."

"What the hell is this?" Mal said, his voice low and dangerous, when he saw the differences on Sturmhond's face.

"You have a Tailor," Alina said.

"I am not a Tailor," Tolya said angrily. Kaida looked at him

"No, Tolya, your gifts lie elsewhere," Sturmhond said soothingly. "Mostly in the celebrated fields of killing and maiming."

"Why would you do this?" Alina asked.

"It was essential that the Darkling not recognize me. He hasn't seen me since I was fourteen, but it wasn't something I wanted to chance." Sturmhond answered looking at Kaida who turned her gaze away.

"Who are you?" Mal asked furiously.

"That's a complicated question."

"Actually, it's pretty straightforward," Alina said angrily. "But it does require telling the truth. Something you seem thoroughly incapable of."

"Oh, I can do it," Sturmhond said, shaking water from one of his boots. "I'm just not very good at it."

"Sturmhond," Mal snarled, advancing on him. "You have exactly ten seconds to explain yourself, or Tolya's going to have to make you a whole new face."

"Answer," Kaida demanded and Sturmhond or who she thought it was Sturmhond, turned to look at her.

Then Tamar leapt to her feet. "Someone's coming."

From the distance, Kaida could see officers of the First Army approaching them.

Sturmhond groaned. "I knew we'd been sighted. We spent too long on the Fold." He heaved a ragged sigh. "A wrecked ship and a crew that looks like a bunch of drowned possums. This is not what I had in mind."

Kaida and Alina got ready to fight when they saw the men arriving.

"Easy, love," the privateer whispered. "Let me handle this."

"Since you've handled everything else so well, Sturmhond?"

"It might be wise if you didn't call me that for a while."

"And why is that?" Alina bit out.

"Because it's not my name," he answered.

"In the name of the King of Ravka, throw down your arms." one of the said while the other raised their weapons

Sturmhond stepped forward, placing himself between the enemy and his wounded crew. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Our weapons are at the bottom of the lake. We are unarmed."

"State your name and business here," the one ahead of the group said. Slowly, Sturmhond took his sodden greatcoat from his shoulders and handed it to Tolya. Kaida opened her eyes with surprise seeing Sturmhond wearing the Ravkan military uniform.

"Explain yourself, boy!" the colonel commanded. "State your name and business before I have you stripped of that uniform and strung up from a high tree."

Sturmhond seemed unconcerned. When he spoke, his voice had a quality Kaida'd never heard before. "I am Nikolai Lantsov, Major of the Twenty-Second Regiment, Soldier of the King's Army, Grand Duke of Udova, and second son to His Most Royal Majesty, King Alexander the Third, Ruler of the Double Eagle Throne , may his life and reign be long"

Kaida gasped in shock feeling her heart going a mile a minute being broken once again.

"You listen to me, you disrespectful whelp," he said, his hand already on the hilt of his sword, his weathered features set in lines of fury as he strode directly up to Sturmhond. "Nikolai Lantsov served under me on the northern border and..."

His voice faded away. He was nose to nose with the privateer now, but Sturmhond did not blink. The colonel opened his mouth, then closed it.

Abruptly, he dropped to one knee and bent his head.

"Forgive me, moi tsarevich," he said, ground before him. "Welcome home." All the soldiers did as his colonel.

It was true, it was him, all this time Sturmhond was Nikolai. Kaida looked at him amused and with pain, her lip was shaking, she wanted to cry, but she wouldn't, not in front of all this people. All this time Nikolai was in front of her and he never told her he just let her believe he was another person.

"You've got to be kidding me," Mal muttered.

"Rise," Nikolai said. "It's been too long since I was home. But I did not return empty handed." He stepped to the side, then threw his arm out, gesturing to Alina. "Brothers," he said, "I have brought the Sun Summoner back to Ravka."

Kaida said nothing, she just started, everything was distant, she felt as if she was living a dream, a bad dream. Soon, Nikolai turned to look at her and he looked at her with regret and sadness.

"Kaida—" he couldn't finish the sentence when Alina punched him on the face.