Page 39 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

He was as bad as Rency—perhaps worse.

“My kingdom is on the precipice of destruction,” he said more quietly. “I was sent to save them. You were my hope for salvation, Reva. In you, I saw a future for both our peoples. Side by side.”

She turned then, slowly, her fingers trailing down the wall and falling idle at her side. He stood just as she had imagined, shoulders hunched as his hands gripped the back of the chair. “What threatens your people, Jareth?”

He wouldn’t meet her gaze, focused on the tabletop before him. “Old age,” he said with a bitter laugh. “Old age and old prejudices.”

She held her breath as he lifted his head to look at her. In his youthful eyes, made midnight blue by the dimness of the cabin, she saw someone much older. Someone, like her, who carried heavy burdens, ones much too heavy to bear.

Yet neither of them had a choice to walk away from their burdens. Too many people depended on them.

Too many kingdoms.

“Old age?” she asked as she crossed the room and seated herself on Rency’s chair with a heavy sigh. She motioned for him to sit as well. “You might need to explain.”

He exhaled slowly and straightened. Instead of pulling out the chair, however, he held one hand out to her. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to walk the deck. Walls make me…nervous.”

Reva hesitated and bit her lip. She would have preferred to have this difficult conversation with the safety of a table between them. But if walking would help him open up and answer her questions, she could work with that. So she shoved back her chair and circled the table.

She left his hand hanging in the air, however, and stalked from the cabin unaccompanied.

Jareth followed her in silence.

The Andromeda, too, was quiet with the crew either in their bunks or at the lookouts. To make sure the ship remained hidden in the cove, the lanterns had been shuttered or extinguished. Reva searched the shadows around the quarterdeck but saw no sign of Rency or Isla.

“So.” She cleared her throat and glanced up at the sea elf. “Old age?”

“It’s difficult to explain to a human.” He matched her whisper with one of his own. “Your world is one of science and logic. Of tangible things you can see and touch.”

“Your world isn’t?”

He braced his forearms against the railing and smiled out at the darkness. “No, Reva, it isn’t.”

She waited for him to continue.

“The magic that keeps my kingdom safe is dying. The mother kraken…is dying.”

“Kraken?” Reva echoed in surprise. “That’s where your magic comes from?”

He shifted to press his hip against the railing. “No, Reva, she provides us a haven in her realm. Our magic is of the sea.”

“But…she’s dying? The mother kraken?”

“Yes. Calypso is dying. And when she dies, the magic that keeps my world intact will splinter. The streets will flood, and my people will be lost to the waters we love so much.”

“Then swim away and find some new place to live.”

A cloud passed over the crescent moon and cast Jareth’s face into deeper shadows. “It doesn’t work that way, I’m afraid. Some of us would survive. But the little ones…they can’t control the magic of the sea yet. And the old and the infirm…we would never have time to save them all.”

“Then evacuate before the kraken dies.”

He took a step closer, reaching for her so suddenly she only had time to gasp before he caught her elbows in both hands. “Reva,” he said tightly, “that’s what I’m trying to do! My people need a new home. We need some place to go. No one else will take us in. There are too many memories, too much bad blood between our peoples. You are my only hope, Reva.”

Sand and pearls!

He stood so close, staring down at her with such agonizing earnestness she couldn’t look away.

“I will do what I can for your people, Jareth, but I can’t marry you. Etthan cannot support refugees. Our own future is so uncertain…”

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