Someone was leaning over a woman who lay in the bed, and from a nearby bassinet, a baby cried softly.
And then, without moving of her own accord, Aiden was at the side of the bed. She recognized the woman seated at the bedside. It was Venn. Only she was much younger.
Aiden’s chest seized; she could barely breathe. She placed her hand over her heart and balled the fabric of her shirt into her fist. She didn’t understand how, but she could feel the agony, the grief etched across Venn’s handsome face.
The woman lying in the bed extended a pale, slender hand to caress Venn’s face, and Aiden felt the warmth of the touch as if it were her cheek.
“Leave us.” The bedridden woman dropped her hand to the bed, as though the effort had exhausted her, then spoke to the room. The two women who’d been tending to her nodded and left, and she returned her attention to Venn.
“If you truly love me, you will do this for me.”
Venn’s voice broke with emotion. “Isla, don’t ask this of me.” She wiped at tears with her hand. “Please don’t ask me to leave you. Not when you need me most.”
“I’m…I don’t have long.” She lifted her hand again, and Venn grasped it and held it against her cheek. “My dear husband is dead, and I’m to follow him. Balak will kill the baby. You know he will. He wants the throne for himself.”
“Don’t give up, Isla. You have time. This can’t be the answer.”
“Venn, if you love me, then save my soul.” She rotated her head toward the infant in the small crib. “Hide the baby. Protect her. Her birth has not been announced. If you take her away from here, she’ll be safe.”
“I can’t leave you. Don’t ask me to.”
Aiden felt tears trail down her cheeks. The sadness pulsing off Venn’s hunched shoulders was palpable. She took a shuddering breath but couldn’t tear her attention away from the scene unfolding in front of her.
“I’ve named her Aiden.”
It was then that Aiden’s knees almost buckled. This woman was her mother. She examined the woman closely. Yes, a fair complexion, blue eyes, and dark wavy hair. Isla was her mother. She’d never known her name before.
Venn broke down, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. She pressed her face against the bedding beside Isla, and Isla tenderly stroked her hair. But it was obvious that Isla was extremely weak. Her hand shook with each feeble movement.
“Will you give me this gift, Venn? Will you save my baby?” Isla’s spoke in a hoarse whisper.
Venn nodded, wiping her face with her sleeve. “If this is your wish then I will see it through.”
“Thank you.” Isla was fading fast. “Take her. Go now before it’s too late.”
Venn kissed Isla’s forehead and then pressed Isla’s slender, pale fingers to her lips. “I love you, Isla. With all that I am, I love you.”
“I love you.”
Venn scooped the infant in her arms, swaddling her in a blanket. She opened the front of her jacket, which Aiden now realized was a red uniform coat of some kind. She tenderly tucked the baby inside.
Venn looked back at Isla one more time before she opened an unmarked door with no visible handle and slipped into a passage concealed in the wall.
Aiden watched her mother draw a few shuddering breaths. She was beautiful and fragile and pale. Aiden shut her eyes tightly. To find her mother and see her last hour in the same moment was almost more than Aiden could bear.
When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer in her mother’s room.
It was still dark and she and the wolf were outside somewhere, skimming across an open grassy space. Aiden gripped the wolf’s fur. Now they were in a stable. Venn was preparing to leave. The wet paths of tears glistened on her cheeks in the lantern light.
She gently touched the baby’s forehead and whispered to her. “I’m so sorry, little Aiden. You will never know how amazing your mother was. You will never know the safety of your father.” She kissed the baby’s forehead. “I will make sure you are safe, and someday, we will return here. This is your birthright.”
Venn mounted her horse with the infant tucked inside her jacket and the dark cloak she’d pulled on over it. She angled the horse toward the large stable door and disappeared into the night.
Aiden felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She clutched at the collar of her shirt, and as she did she let go of the wolf and tumbled backward into blackness.
Chapter Sixteen
Kathryn left her cabin and paused in the narrow passage, confused. It was well past daybreak; why wasn’t the ship moving? She thought she’d go up on deck and ask, but first she wanted to locate Aiden and apologize, or try to apologize, for her outburst the previous night. She had no idea what she was going to say to explain herself, but she held out hope that inspiration would find her once she saw Aiden.
She knocked softly on the door to Aiden’s room. After waiting for an appropriate amount of time, she knocked again. Nothing. Not to be denied an audience for her apology, she eased the door open and peeked inside. Aiden’s bunk looked as if it hadn’t been slept in. That seemed odd.
She hurried down the passage and up the stairs to the quarterdeck.
Raised voices greeted her as she stepped onto the deck of the ship. The sun had only just crested the horizon an hour ago, and already the air was beginning to warm.
“Why aren’t we underway?” Venn and Nilah paused their intense discussion and turned to her as she walked toward them.
“We’re missing a passenger.” Nilah was annoyed. “Aiden is gone.”
“Gone?” Kathryn swore her heart seized for a few seconds. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She’s not on the ship.” Strain was evident on Venn’s face.
“Someone explain to me what’s going on.” Kathryn wanted answers. Venn, Nilah, and two of Nilah’s crew stood in a small cluster near the gangway. All of them faced her but none spoke. Finally, Venn broke the silence.
“Aiden left the ship last night for some reason.” Venn gave Kathryn a purposeful glare that cut right through her. She apparently wasn’t intimidated by Kathryn’s status as a monarch.
“What do you mean she left the ship?” She realized she was repeating herself, but she couldn’t help it. Panic filled her lungs. She focused on breathing.
“It seems last night she left the ship to take a walk and hasn’t come back. There was a change in the watch. The first crewman reported Aiden’s departure to the second watch.” Nilah’s recap was matter-of-fact. As if she were relaying the weather report for the day.
“So, the prince of nothing has left the boat.” Gareth had joined the group, his arm still in a sling.
“That will be enough.” Kathryn didn’t appreciate his sarcasm.
“Well, we have to go look for her. She could be hurt.” Kathryn began to run through scenarios in her head.
“What person in their right mind walks into the desert at night?” Gareth ignored Kathryn’s glare.
“I don’t like your tone.” Venn faced off with Gareth.
“Deal with it. My concern is Kathryn’s safety. And sitting here, stalled in the open while we wait on Aiden to return, puts her at risk. For all we know, you and Aiden planned this together. You might still turn out to be a backstabbing spy for Balak.” Gareth barely finished the taunt before Venn punched him in the face. Her fist caught him in the jaw and caused him to stumble backward. He lunged at Venn with his good arm, but Nilah stepped between them.
“Enough! This isn’t helping.” Nilah’s hand was on the handle of her dagger. “I’m in command of this vessel, and what I say goes. Stand down!”
Gareth and Venn glared at each other, but backed away.
“Can we send out a search party for Aiden?” Kathryn was annoyed at both Gareth and Venn, but her main concern was finding Aiden.
“We’ve checked from the eagle’s nest in every direction, since sunrise. The moment I knew she was missing, I initiated a search. She’s not here or within a mile of the cr
aft in any direction.” Nilah nodded at the two crewmen who’d stood at the ready in case Gareth and Venn had more blows to exchange. “Dismissed. Back to your duties.”
“Well, what can we do?” Kathryn asked.
“We wait.” Venn rubbed the knuckles of her hand.
“For how long?” Gareth asked.
“I leave that to Kathryn. Your Highness?” Nilah was in command of the ship, but she was obviously willing to defer to Kathryn for the moment.
“As long as it takes.” Kathryn shielded her eyes with her hand and scrutinized the horizon. As she scanned the empty landscape, dizziness threatened to overwhelm her. Thoughts of Aiden lost or injured filled her head. Kathryn thought she was going to be ill. She swayed on her feet. Venn caught her before she crumpled to the deck. She scooped Kathryn up and carried her close to her chest into the shade of the main cabin wall.
Venn filled a cup with water and brought it over. “Here, drink this.”
Kathryn took a few sips in between shaky breaths.
“Better?”
Kathryn nodded. But really she wasn’t better. She was very afraid for Aiden’s safety. The desert was no place to get lost. And worse, she worried that Aiden’s late night departure was all her fault. She should have gone back and talked with Aiden. She should have tried to explain her emotional outburst. But how could she have done that? She didn’t understand it herself.
*
Aiden coughed and squinted against the harsh light. She blinked a few times and then opened her eyes to the pulsating orange orb just above the western horizon. It was nearly sunset. She sat up and tried to swallow. Her throat was as dry as the brittle soil that surrounded her.
Where was she? Oh yeah, the salt flats.
She searched the landscape and tried to get her bearings. In the distance, she saw a shimmering shape. From this distance, it was nothing more than a lump on the shoestring that signaled the edge of the earth in front of her. That had to be the ship. She began to walk in that direction.
She’d taken a few steps when she remembered the wolf. She glanced around, but the wolf was nowhere in sight. She flexed her shoulders, which were stiff and sore. Was that real? Aiden had experienced something she wasn’t sure she’d be able to describe in any sort of believable way. It had been an out of body experience where she saw her mother on her deathbed, and as far as she could surmise, felt what Venn felt in that moment twenty-one years ago. Venn had known her mother. They’d evidently been quite close. That was a revelation.
She clutched at her shirt again. She gathered a fistful of cloth in her fingers and pressed her closed fist against her chest. Her heart hurt. It ached. A knot rose in her throat, and before she could swallow it down, she felt tears on her face. They evaporated almost as soon as they materialized in the arid breeze so she let them come. She wailed into the nothingness that surrounded her. Aiden gave over to the despair she’d felt from Venn and let the tears fall.
She walked toward the boxy outline of the wind ship on the razor thin horizon. Maybe there was power in grief. If so, she would harness herself to it.
Chapter Seventeen
The hours had dragged by, and the not knowing and the what ifs kept Kathryn from being able to settle into any sort of comfortable rest during even the hottest hours of the afternoon.
Nilah and her crew had done everything possible to make them comfortable. All the shutters had been opened to allow what little breeze there was to circulate through the lower decks. Doors on all sides stood wide open so that the interior temperature wouldn’t rise any higher than the outside air. The dark stalls where the horses stood were actually the coolest part of the ship, so that eased Kathryn’s mind somewhat.
But where was Aiden? As time dragged on, she feared the worst.
In the late afternoon, the breeze began to pick up. Dust devils appeared on the horizon, dancing and whirling until they depleted themselves and disappeared.
Kathryn was seated on a bench anchored to the main wall of the cabin. Long shadows fanned out across the polished plank deck of the ship. Rowan took a seat beside her.
“What happened last night?” Rowan had left her alone all day, but Kathryn had known that questions would come. Rowan could always tell when she was upset.
“I’m not sure.”
“Did you two argue?”
“I wouldn’t call it an argument.” Kathryn closed her eyes and sighed. “We kissed. And then I got upset and left.”
“Okay, I’m not really following. Explain.”
“Well, after dinner I went to Aiden’s room and we kissed. And I mean we really kissed and then things were progressing…”
“That sounds promising.”
“Then I noticed the stitches on her arm and I asked how she got cut.”
“And?”
“She got in a pub fight because she flirted with some woman.” Kathryn heard herself relay the story and couldn’t help thinking she sounded more like a sulky teenager than a twenty-four-year-old monarch. Now that she’d recounted the details, the whole thing sounded silly and stupid.
“And what did you do when she told you?” Rowan wasn’t judging her. Kathryn was harder on herself than Rowan ever was.
“I acted like a jealous brat and stormed out.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
“Yes, it was.” Kathryn covered her face with her hands. “It’s all my fault. I should have gone back and apologized.”
Before Rowan could respond, someone shouted from high in rigging. A lookout stationed at the yardarm for the topgallant sail was waving and pointing north. Kathryn stood and strained to see into the shimmering distance. Now she saw it too. Someone was walking toward the ship. Heat waves rising from the ground made the image blurry, fuzzy, but someone was definitely walking toward the ship from the north.
Venn crossed the deck from somewhere behind Kathryn’s position and trotted down the gangway. Kathryn and Rowan followed. Kathryn stood, breathless, until she could see the approaching figure more clearly. Minutes lasted an eternity until she was at last certain it was Aiden.
Tendrils of dark hair swirled around her face. Her shirt hung loosely about her, untucked and fluttering in the wind. Her face and arms were pink from the sun, but she wasn’t horribly sunburned. How was that possible?
“Something has happened.” Rowan had spoken softly so that only Kathryn could hear her.
All eyes were on Aiden. Nilah and the members of her crew that were above deck gathered at the railing above them and watched Aiden’s approach. Venn stood apart from Kathryn and Rowan.
“What do you mean something has happened?” Kathryn asked.
“Look at her face.”
Rowan was right. There was something different about Aiden’s face. Her expression was serious, and her focus was locked on Venn as she approached and stopped to stand before Venn. Kathryn had done nothing but think of Aiden every minute of the day, but Aiden hadn’t so much as glanced in her direction. Kathryn chided herself for even thinking such a selfish thought.
“Aiden, it’s foolish to walk into the desert alone. You could have been hurt or killed.” Venn’s words were stern, but her expression was more hurt than angry. Venn had obviously been worried, too. That realization surprised Kathryn a little. “Where have you been?”
Aiden stood within arm’s reach of Venn, her expression unreadable.
“I’ve been with my mother.”
“That’s impossible, Aiden. Your mother is dead.” Venn’s voice was raspy with emotion.
“It is possible. I have seen things.”
“Aiden…”
“Venn, I was there, with you, with her, in the room that night.”
Venn coughed. No, she hadn’t coughed; she’d choked back a sob. Kathryn and Rowan stepped closer. Kathryn wanted to go to Aiden, but she was stopped by Rowan’s hand on her arm.
“I’m telling you the truth. I can’t explain exactly how, but I’ve been with my mother. I know what you did for her.
I know what you did for me. I know the truth.”
Venn dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs. Aiden placed her hand on Venn’s head. It was a touching gesture that made Kathryn press her fingers to her own lips to hold back a sob. To witness a warrior such as Venn on her knees and in tears sliced through Kathryn’s heart. Her own throat began to close with emotion.
Aiden put her hand at the back of Venn’s head and drew her into an embrace. Still kneeling, Venn wrapped her arms around Aiden’s waist and gave over to her tears. She buried her face in Aiden’s shirt, and Aiden spoke softly to her as she stroked her hair. “Thank you. Thank you for my life.”
“I didn’t want to leave her.” Venn’s words were barely audible between sobs.
“I know.”
“I loved her so much.”
“I know. She loved you, too. I could feel it.”
“Oh, God, it still hurts so much.” Venn pressed her face against Aiden.
“Let it go. You’ve carried this too long. It’s time to let it go.”
She bent to kiss the top of Venn’s head as she stroked her hair and then looked up to meet Kathryn’s gaze for the first time. Her eyes glistened, and Kathryn sensed no anger from Aiden. Whatever had happened in the desert, Aiden had seen things. Rowan was right. She was strangely different, older and more mature somehow, and exuding a new sense of peace.
Relief washed through Kathryn. Aiden was back. Aiden was safe. Everything was going to be okay now.
*
Aiden held Venn until the sobs subsided. Finally, Venn released her. She took several deep, shuddering breaths before she got to her feet. She didn’t look at Kathryn or Rowan. Aiden was sure that Venn never allowed herself to feel the things she’d just felt, and she’d done so in front of strangers.
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