Tide | Tide Book One (Free Sample)

Four

Tidespeople.

Tidespeople.

The word circled me like a storm of its own. My heart pounded at the sound of it, racing in my fingertips. The crowd around me dropped away to nothing.

No one stirred, repeating the realization again and again like that would make it any better, but then the village burst to life. People bolted away, shouting for their families. Some raced to gather weapons. I could do nothing but watch, my feet sealed to the spot and body numb.

They were coming. Fifty years ago, they'd failed to destroy this shore, and now they had returned to finish the job. Those who remembered the last attack spoke of the way they had slaughtered the last village they'd reached before being stopped, wreaking havoc for no apparent purpose but their own entertainment. No care of the lives they took or destroyed. They spoke of how it had taken an army of men to repel them .

Our village didn't have an army.

"Hania, we need to go," Edrick was saying, but I hardly heard him. "Hania!"

I blinked. There wasn't time to worry about what had happened before or what might happen in the future. Only right now, this moment. The time we had to do something. "Where's my brother? And my father?" I demanded. I knew Edrick didn't have the answer, but I needed to ask.

"I don't know." He was already moving, hauling me behind him. After a few lurching steps, my feet recovered and rushed to catch up to him. If the tidespeople were coming for the village we needed to get out. We couldn't hope to fight against them, not tonight—not without time to gather numbers and supplies and plans, to send for help—so we had to find somewhere safe to wait them out. That was our one option.

"I need to find them!" I paused to scan the crowd. Panic was setting in fast; people were rushing this way and that, frantic to get out of the open. The clouds above us thickened and lightning struck again, turning the village a blazing white, searing my eyes for an instant. The wind swelled, bringing with it the salt of the ocean. I couldn't leave Tobin or Papa in this. I needed to know they were safe.

"They'll find us when we're safe, let's go!"

"But—"

But I didn't have an argument. He was right. I tore my gaze from the others and to the path Edrick had chosen, choking down a sob. This wasn't the time or place. I forced all thought but the direction of my feet out of my head. I could worry about everything else later.

He stopped in the middle of a cluster of houses, and I pulled up short behind him. Rain began to fall, sprinkling around us. Each drop felt like a little dart of ice piercing my skin, colder than it should have been for summer. Somewhere in the dark of the village a man screamed, and my skin raced with goosebumps, breath quickening.

"Where do we go?" I asked, voice hushed. I didn't know if they were here yet. I didn't know where they were. I didn't know anything and I hated it.

Edrick looked right, left, right again. "I don't know where might be safe."

"I've heard before...w-when they attacked the last time, they raided the entire village. It's not safe anywhere here."

His eyes flashed to me. "Your farm?"

The farm. Was it far enough? Would they think to look there?

What would happen if they did?

I couldn't think of anywhere else, save for diving straight into the woods. I may be able to navigate the immediate area, but not in the dark or rain. I nodded, swallowing a lump of terror in my throat. "Maybe."