Page 15 of Bound and Tide

Again, silence.

Xander sighed and ran a finger along the out-of-place decorations. They were smoother than he expected, as if not done with a chisel but something much more precise. Maybe even something magical. He worked his jaw in thought and cringed at his next words. “We have a common enemy in your father, so do you not think it prudent we consider…friendship?”

Finally, the door cracked open.

“Costa!” Xander threw arms out, and the teen-aged boy took a hefty step back. The space was all he needed to sweep into the hovel, but he immediately regretted it. “Darkness, it reeks worse than the docks in here.” A small stove was the culprit, a fillet of something grey and fishy heating up—not exactly what he would call cooking, but he could only guess that was what they thought they were doing.

The boy’s head swiveled to where Maia stood opposing the door, a rusty axe over her shoulder, though it would certainly drag her to the ground if she swung.

“I didn’t expect such a warm welcome.” Xander waved a hand at her and risked the arcana. A shadow tugged pathetically on the axehead, but it was more than enough to throw her off balance, and her anxiety did the rest, taking her to the ground with a screech.

Costa’s dark eyes were wide as he pressed himself to the wall, arms crossed tightly over his chest. “How do you know my name?”

“Arcana.” Xander’s nose wrinkled as he inspected the room, the stove’s glow the only thing lighting the place and casting long shadows over the walls and ceiling. There were many planks and nails boarding up halls and doors so that the two were protected in the singular space, but each had been carved into with images of fish and boats and filigree patterns. “You’re familiar with it, yes? Your sister is, but she’s certainly not adept enough to craft all this.”

The two traded glances, Maia snorting on the floor as she gripped the axe in her lap. Costa gave Xander a weak nod.

“Good, not that I’m here to talk about either of you anyway, I’m here because of Stavros.”

“This is the man you said knows Dad?”

Maia hissed at her brother, and he clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Come off it, it’s obvious.” Xander waved again and rubbed at his temple, the smell or the fact giving him a headache, probably both. “I just want to know where to find him.”

Maia grunted, wobbling up to her feet under the axe’s weight. “I already told you, he owes more than we can deal with as is, there’s no point.”

“Yes, clearly he’s gotten himself into debt providing for the two of you.” Xander took another disapproving look around. The chamber’s windows were boarded, the stove’s chimney was cracked, and the pile of linens and straw that was their bed had Xander itching from just a glance at it.

“We haven’t seen him since the river thawed last spring and the first ships left port.” Costa shifted against the wall, ignoring Maia’s clicking tongue.

“Spring?” Xander straightened. “You mean he’s been gone the entire year?” Xander bit down on the last word and the anger he wasn’t expecting.

Both nodded, though their faces remained unchanged.

He cleared his throat. “Is this…normal?”

Maia shrugged.

“He was gone all winter three years back,” said Costa with an equally thoughtless lift of his shoulder. “Spent it in Nicosa, I think?”

“Sounds like a delightfully warm way to escape responsibility,” Xander muttered, arms crossing to contain the noxscura that had suddenly bubbled along his flesh. “Well, fine, can’t count on him coming back, but the two of you, you’re here.”

Costa’s thin throat bobbed with a swallow. “We really don’t have anything. Whatever he owes you, we can’t pay it.”

“Abyss, the two of you are obsessed with these debts of your father’s. If I make them go away, can I then have your undivided attention for what I really need?”

At this, their dark eyes met, and there it was, the shrewdness he knew they had to have within them if they were truly his kin.

“Then we’ll owe you,” spat Maia with such force she almost toppled under the axe, her thin arms quivering.

“Brilliant deduction. Now put that thing down before you really do lose a finger.” Xander caught himself mid-yawn, the loss of his arcana weighty. “And yes, you will owe me, but I’m a delight, and if this depressing existence you’re muddling through tells me anything, it’s that the two of you could do with a little fun.” He put on his toothiest grin.

Maia’s shoulders drooped, and she let the axe swing slowly for the ground as Costa pushed off the wall, inching closer. That’s it, give in…

The young girl reached out and drummed fingers on that box she’d had in the alley.

“That one of Stavros’s debts too?”

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