by Andi Van
“No. And yes.” The words were still slurred, but Shan managed a small smile for her. “I just hurt.”
“He can barely stand,” Reikos told her. “Don’t let him fool you.”
Firea let out a tsk as she pressed various places on Shan’s head, watching his face for any sign of additional discomfort. “You poor child.”
“Not a child,” Shan corrected, making Zaree bite back a laugh. He had no idea what he’d just done.
As she’d predicted, Firea scowled at him, her eyes narrowed. “I am centuries older than you, young man,” she said in her sternest tone. “You are all children to me.” She looked at Mistral, who had turned her head to watch the exchange and seemed amused by the whole thing, if her quiet chuffing was any indication. “Would you be a dear and help me get him upstairs to a bed? Once we get him seen to, you and I can get to know each other and you can introduce me to your adorable brood.”
Mistral fluffed herself up, obviously pleased with Firea’s appeal to her motherly pride, and bowed her head in a slow nod.
“But she doesn’t speak,” Reikos said, perplexed.
Firea’s expression made Zaree take a step back, and the matronly elf was suddenly a spitfire. She poked Reikos’s chest, and he winced. “Words are not the only way to communicate.”
“Take him with you,” Zaree suggested, earning her a look of horror from Reikos. “They’re brothers.”
“And there’s one other thing,” Kelwin said hesitantly. Zaree sighed to herself. She’d hoped he would keep it to himself for a while longer, but she supposed now was as good a time as any. She just didn’t want Firea upset. “It’s a long story, but… we saw Piren.”
Firea went still, so still she might as well have turned to stone. Zaree swallowed hard, hoping they hadn’t done the wrong thing by telling her. “I thought Piren was dead,” she finally responded. “Are you telling me he’s been alive this whole time? That he abandoned his wife and child?”
“Oh,” Zaree exclaimed, holding up her hands to forestall Firea’s rage. “No no, nothing like that. He’s definitely dead. Like Kel said, it’s a long story. I promise we’ll tell you later.”
Firea nodded slowly, her face not betraying whatever she might have been feeling. “All right, then. And what did my brother have to say for himself?”
“That he’s sorry, first of all,” Kelwin answered, looking worried. Whether it was because of Firea’s previous anger or her current emotionless state, Zaree wasn’t sure.
“I see.”
Zaree cleared her throat, gaining Firea’s attention. “Tasis hit him for you.”
That made Firea blink, and the confusion that slowly slid onto her face was a far sight better than the coldness that had been there. “Excuse me?”
“He’s… where Piren is. Kind of. Not physically, obviously. But he apparently hit Piren and yelled at him for hurting you.”
“And you’ll explain this later?”
They nodded in sync, and her mouth lifted into a wicked grin. “He’s such a good lad,” she said cheerfully, turning to smile at an astounded Reikos. “Well, come along. Let’s get your brother seen to.” She whistled as she left the room, and Reikos looked at them in concern. Zaree waved at him to go, and he shook his head before turning to follow after Firea.
“I probably should have waited, but it seemed important, I suppose,” Kelwin said softly. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. We got to see her smile when we told her Tasis got violent on her behalf.”
“Yeah. I love the woman, but she scares me.” Kelwin took a deep breath and let it out slowly before forcing a smile of his own onto his face. It was the least genuine smile Zaree had probably ever seen, but it would do. “Come on, let’s check on Tasis. Then we can talk to Vashk.”
“I wonder if Triv ever came back,” Zaree said quietly. She’d been worried about Triv before they’d even left, but with so much going on she hadn’t really been able to think about her beyond their conversation with Nirena and in fleeting moments hoping Triv was okay. And at that moment, she was more worried about Falcon, who was still so upset, and Jorget, who was likely to do something without thinking first. Thank goodness he had Emlynn with him.
That gave her pause, and she turned to Kelwin. “I’m going to see Nabiha first,” she said. “You go ahead and sit with Tasis. Likely Josephina is with him, and she’d probably be happy to hear that we spoke to him.”
“You’re sure?” Kelwin asked, though he’d already begun walking toward the rooms, the same direction Firea had taken off to.
“Yeah, I’ll be there shortly,” she answered before darting down the hallway that led to the library. As she had guessed, Nabiha was surrounded by books, her baby brother babbling happily to himself nearby. He squealed when he saw her, and Nabiha looked up just as Malik babbled again, making morning glory vines twine around her horns. She looked up at them as best she could and considered the sight before nodding. “I like them. Good choice, Mal.”
The boy squealed again, waving his hands happily as Zaree joined them and leaned down to pick him up. Nabiha stared, but Zaree couldn’t really blame her for that. “I know,” Zaree said with a sigh. “The horns clash horribly with the new hair color, but what could I do?”
Nabiha gave a nervous titter of shock. “How did this happen?”
Clearly, then, Jorget hadn’t had a moment to contact the isle before he’d been whisked away to the guild Falcon had claimed as her own. She’d guessed as much when Firea had been surprised at the sight of her, but Nabiha had just confirmed it. “The Maker happened,” Zaree admitted. “It’s a long story, and I’d rather tell it when we’re all together.”
“Okay,” Nabiha agreed as she stood and wrapped her slender arms around both Zaree and Malik in a hug. “We were all so worried about you when Jorget contacted us to say you’d been poisoned with bloodbane. I’m relieved to see you so well.”
“The parts I remember weren’t pleasant,” Zaree told her, returning her hug with one arm. “I think it’s probably best that I don’t recall much.”
“I read up on the symptoms after I heard,” Nabiha confessed, her face turning red. The girl was a bookworm through and through. “And I agree. If it was half as horrible as it sounded, I’m glad you don’t remember.” She let go of Zaree, taking a small step back and cocking her head to one side. “Did you see Sireti?”
“Sireti?” Zaree asked. “Why on earth would I have seen him? We didn’t go anywhere near the Gyrn.”
“Not while you were away,” Nabiha said. “Here. Arin got word to your people and he apparently set sail immediately. They arrived this morning.”
Well, miracles did happen after all. “Did he say anything about the king?”
Nabiha frowned at the question, only to have butterflies appear overhead at another round of babbling from Malik. That made her smile, and Nabiha leaned in to kiss her brother’s forehead. “Sireti said they caught no sign of the king, or any of the king’s ships,” she said at last. “He says it’s likely the king took another route.”
“What do you think?”
“I think Denekk is on that ship,” Nabiha said slowly, as though she was turning the theory over in her head. “I think if he could do so safely he’d make sure they were off course. If the king is relying on him knowing how to find us, then it would be fairly easy. He doesn’t have exact coordinates to give out, even if the king were to try to force them out of him. If the king already knows where we are, there may be other ways to divert the ship. But regardless of what happens, the diversion won’t work for long. The king will be here.”
“Yeah,” Zaree agreed with a sigh. Thinking of the king reminded her of the king’s sons, however. “Reikos is here. With Shan, the friend that helped us the first time we found Falcon.”
Nabiha looked at her wordlessly, and Zaree fidgeted under her stare. Sometimes when Nabiha did that, it felt like there was nowhere to hide. “Does he know?” she finally asked.
Oh. Right. Zaree w
as still wearing her choker out of habit, so Nabiha had no way of knowing that the telltale lump at her throat no longer existed. However, since Reikos had found out prior to that…. “He knows,” she answered. It wasn’t a lie, and she’d explain everything when they’d all gathered.
“How do you feel about that?”
“I don’t know,” Zaree said truthfully. “We haven’t had a chance to discuss it. I like him well enough, obviously, but we’ll have to see what happens.”
“There’s no rush,” Nabiha agreed. “There’s plenty of time.”
The girl had no idea how right she was on that, given that Zaree had a feeling her lifespan had been expanded drastically. “There is. I guess part of me is a little envious of everyone around me seeming to have found their someone.” She paused and gave Nabiha a grin. “Or their someones, in your case. But that’s no reason to rush.”
Nabiha, whose cheeks had gone adorably pink, gave her a fond smile. “You’re aware I like to read stories,” she said.
“If by ‘read’ you mean ‘devour entire books whole in the span of an hour,’ then yes,” Zaree teased.
“I was a book-devouring monstrosity in my previous life,” Nabiha said loftily, making Zaree laugh at her silliness. “That aside, you’re also aware that my favorite stories have happy endings, yes?” When Zaree nodded, Nabiha patted her on the cheek. “Not all happy endings are about the princess finding their one true love, Zaree. Some of my favorite happy endings are about the heroine finding and accepting her true self.”
Chapter 18
THE STORMS started that night, while they were gathered in the grotto. Sireti’s ship was taking up a good deal of space, but Vashk was still able to maneuver in and out, and most of the merfolk were there, Triv among them. There was still obvious tension between her and Vashk, but Zaree tried to ignore it as she told them the story of all that had happened.
“Falcon is here?” Triv asked when she’d concluded.
“Yes, though she flew off when we got here. She wasn’t handling it well. Yldost is with her.”
“I hope I get a chance to speak to her,” Triv said softly, looking away as her eyes grew distant. “We should clear the air between us. For a very long time, I’ve regretted how things were when we parted.”
“Hopefully she and Yldost have found someplace to hole up,” Kelwin said. “No one should be out flying in this weather.”
Zaree knew exactly where the harpy was, but she wasn’t going to point out Falcon’s perch high on the cavern’s wall, where she’d wrapped her wings around herself to help her blend in. Yldost, once more in the tiny form they’d been in when they’d been freed from their prison, was perched on her shoulder. Zaree had to make a conscious effort to keep from looking at her. “I’m sure they did,” she said. “I wouldn’t worry. If we don’t hear from them in a while maybe Daro would be willing to go sniff for them.” But hopefully Falcon had heard Triv’s words and would make her way down in her own time.
Daro looked at her askance, but thankfully only said, Yes, I can do that should it become necessary.
“And you’re…?” Sireti looked at her, his lip curled. The rest of his men were comfortably resting on his ship, and Zaree was glad for that if Sireti was just going to argue as he usually did. “You’re not even human anymore? Bad enough you’ve spent all this time cross-dressing, now you’re—”
Reikos calmly reached out and shoved him, hard, knocking him off the walkway and into the water. As Sireti surfaced with a splutter, Reikos bent over to look at him. “Sorry, I thought your attitude meant you could use a little cooling off. From what I gather, you raced over here as fast as you could, which tells me that you care about your sister. But that garbage you’re spouting also tells me you’re the type to be afraid of what you don’t understand. Maybe put that aside until after the danger has passed, hmm?”
Sireti scowled at him without answering, but he accepted the hand Reikos offered him, letting Reikos help him back up.
“Our mother is furious with you, you know,” Zaree said. It felt a little strange to refer to Zizi as her mother, given that she’d only heard stories about the woman, but she assumed she’d get over that eventually. It was less strange than thinking of the Maker as another mother. “I got the distinct impression she feels she taught you better than that.”
Sireti winced, and it was probably only partially because he was now sopping wet during a cold night. “Did she seem happy?” he asked softly as he pulled off his shirt and wrung it.
“She’s with our father,” Zaree said, taking one end of the shirt to help squeeze salt water out of the fabric. “Of course she is.”
“I’m glad you got to meet her.” Sireti glanced at her, then focused again on the shirt. As a peace offering, it was weak, but Zaree would take it. Now wasn’t the time for fighting.
“Hand me that,” Josephina said, pointing at the shirt. Sireti surrendered it to her, and she held it before her in both hands. “Tezel.”
And like that, the shirt was clean and dry. She handed it back to Sireti, who held it at arm’s length. “It won’t bite you, lad. I just always hated doing laundry the hard way and learned that one early.” As Sireti hesitantly pulled the shirt back over his head, Josephina continued. “Reikos is right. We can’t afford to be arguing with each other right now. We need to be concentrating on the king. The last time we had a king on the isle, I lost everyone I held dear with the exception of Aria, however temporarily. How do we intend on avoiding that this time?”
“First, I think we should wait and see what happens with the shield surrounding us,” Kelwin said, gesturing toward the mouth of the cave. As they looked out, they could see the faint shimmer of magic that surrounded the isle. “We know he has at least one magic user with him, but we have no way of knowing if Denekk is the only one. Tasis said the spell couldn’t be undone, but it could be broken. I’ll be honest, I’m not certain what the difference is, but there seems to be one.”
“Undoing a spell would be like canceling someone else’s magic,” Josephina explained. “Breaking it is like reaching in and tearing pieces of it off until it can’t hold itself together. It’s labor-intensive and takes a lot out of the person doing it. If the king expects Denekk to quickly break something of that scale, even with other magic users to help him, he’s likely going to be disappointed.”
“In which case there’s still a problem, because we want to keep Denekk and any other innocent party safe,” Zaree said as she rubbed at her face. It was an impossible situation, and she didn’t know where to go with it.
“And we can’t wake Tasis?” Triv asked. “He’s strong enough that it would be a help if he were here.”
Zaree felt that same clenching in her chest that she got every time she thought of what Tasis had said about waking him. “No. We were told it would take a powerful burst of magic to wake him.” It was close enough to the truth that she’d leave it at that. To be honest, she didn’t want to give any of them ideas. She wanted Tasis to wake up, but she didn’t want to have to live with herself if something she said caused someone’s death, however selfless it may have been.
“I can think of a couple things we could try, once Jorget and Emlynn have returned,” Josephina said in a thoughtful voice.
“You’ll need to conserve your magic,” Triv reminded her before returning to the topic at hand. “When the king breaks through—because I don’t think this is an ‘if’ situation—what do you intend to do then?”
“Face him,” Zaree said. “Same as you did. But this time, we’re prepared for it. All of us are well aware he’s here to kill us if he can, so there will be no surprises. The elves, the giants, and the Gyrn stand with us, as well as the Forest’s Edge contingent.”
“As does Mountaindeep,” Falcon said from her perch. “Although it is but one member strong.”
Zaree let out a sigh of relief as the others turned to stare at Falcon. The harpy ignored them and whispered something to Yldost, who leaped from her shou
lder to glide effortlessly down to the dock, growing in size as they did. Once they were clear, Falcon followed them down, landing on the wooden platform directly in front of Triv.
“Falcon,” Triv said, her chin trembling a little as she made a valiant effort not to get emotional. “Your new look suits you.”
“As does yours,” Falcon said with a bow. The two stared at each other before Falcon let out a sigh. “We will speak of it later, yes? You, Josephina, Corrin, and me. I owe apologies to all three of you.”
“I rather think we owe you some ourselves,” Corrin suggested. “But you’re right, it will need to be later.”
“I’d like to make a suggestion,” Zaree said, getting everyone’s attention. “I’d like to suggest we have Firea, Nabiha, Malik, and Aldris move to one of the rooms in the lowest levels for their own safety.”
“Aldris could help us,” Kelwin countered, looking unsure. Like her, he was probably seeing the common sense in having the two nonmagic residents of the guild sequestered in a safe place, but he also knew they’d need all available people.
“I know he could,” Zaree agreed. “And really, I even think Malik could protect Firea and Nabiha if he understood they were in danger. But Aldris….”
“His magic isn’t necessarily the kind of magic we need tomorrow,” Josephina concluded. “And he’s not a young man. I realize I’m older than he is by a few centuries, but my magic is stronger and I have the right to see this finished. Besides that, the girl is comfortable with Aldris and Firea. Likely if anyone can keep her calm while Jorget and Emlynn are facing the king with the rest of us, it would be them.”
“Shan will have to go with them, as well,” Reikos said. “He’s in no shape to fight.”
“If you’re going to use his magic as an argument as to why Aldris shouldn’t be here, you may as well include me in that,” Kelwin pointed out. “I didn’t even know I had magic until recently.”