Page 48 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

“I’m not sure I should be the one to share that with you.” Her eyes softened at Katrin. She could tell Thalia wished she could, but it was not her place. Apparently, it wasn’t anyone’s place. “Let me tell you something else though. Maybe—well maybe then you might look at him differently.”

She uncorked a bottle of a deep crimson wine, pouring them each an unusually large glass. Katrin did not mind. She took small sips and picked away at the food as Thalia sat up, took the small white cat in her lap, and breathed a deep and soothing breath. She turned, pulling her hair away from the nape of her neck. What Katrin saw—she almost dropped the crystal wine glass, her limbs freezing at the site. Burned into the space between the bottom of her neck and her shoulder blades were two intertwined snakes.

“You were right to question how a seer could be so far from Delphine.”

Katrin began to reach for her dagger. That mark, that mark, that mark. But Thalia’s face was dull and her chin began to tremble. Not in anger. Not threatening. Just sorrow. Katrin slid her hand back to the glass, shaking as she brought it to her lips.

“Two years ago I was requested to join a group to give a prophecy to a baby born in Voreia. It was strange a seer of my age would be allowed to leave the isle without a guide. Usually the younger acolytes kept to the temples, offering sacrifices and prayers to the gods. But he was supposedly sick, and I had shown promising healing ability much beyond my years, so I went. As you could guess, I never made it north. Instead I was taken here by the Lernaean Legion, a group from their lands who traffic and sell women and men into slavery. I was brought here, to Lesathos to be sold to one of the many brothels. A maiden seer. I was on the market for quite a fair amount of coins. But when I was given over to my new owner…”

Katrin could see the twitch in her neck as she remembered.

“I never expected it to be him—Ander. I was petrified. I assumed he had purchased me for the same reason, but instead he wrapped me in his cloak, brought me to the ship, fed me, gave me this room—and time. Time to process. Time to come to terms with what the men did to me those days between Delphine and here. When I finally was able to be around people again—gods, it must have been a month—he told me I was free. He would take me back to Delphine or anywhere else in the world I wanted to go. But I couldn’t go back, not after what I lost, and I hadn’t known anywhere else. So I stayed on The Nostos, and Ander and Leighton and the crew, they became my family. All because he saw me and thought I was worth saving.”

“How did you do it?” Katrin’s voice was raspy.

“How did I do what, my dear?”

“How did you forget? What they did to you…”

The seer sat up on the chaise, moving over toward Katrin. “Oh, Princess…I will never forget. You should never forget. But I can not change what happened and I can not let my life be consumed by that pain. Otherwise, what hope do I have for love? For happiness?”

Katrin began to sob, tossing her arms around the small seer. Her brown hair became entangled in Thalia’s white. She sat and she cried and the seer let her, until her eyes were dry and the black streamed down her face. Until a little piece of her put itself back together.

“Hush, hush, Princess. Let me take you somewhere you can forget, at least for the moment.” Katrin cocked her head to the side, still wiping the tears from her rosy cheeks. Thalia’s violet eyes twinkled. “You didn’t think I would let the men have all the fun, did you?”

Thalia led Katrin by the hand into a seedy looking tavern in the middle of the market. Disheveled sailors and fisherman lined the worn wooden tables within the dining space, the floor so sticky Katrin had a hard time lifting her boots. The smell of stale mead and piss and sweat filled her nose. If this was Thalia’s idea of fun, she was not sure she wanted to hang out with the seer again. The old men whistled at them as they slid through this room to a smaller one, jingling their small purses of coin at them like they were prostitutes.

In a smaller room sat a thin young man dressed in red and green with a feathered mask. He clacked his long nails against the table where he sat.

“Láthe biósas,” Thalia whispered to the man. He nodded at her before she pulled two masks of her own out of a small satchel she carried. One was covered in a deep violet silk, edged in black lace, its sides curling up in swirls, tied together by a silken black ribbon. The other was a sparkling gold, not made of fabric, but carved straight from some pliable material Katrin had not seen before. It sparkled in the light, catching every flicker of the flame in that small room like a star glowing in the night sky.

“Put this on, Princess. We wouldn’t want the crew to catch us.” She winked before tying the violet mask around her own face. Thalia looked devilish behind it, her eyes narrowing to just the slit of her pupil in the low light, her lips painted a bloody red in contrast to her moonlight skin and hair. Katrin took the golden mask in her hands and lifted the delicate material up to her eyes.

“It’s remarkable, but where are we going?” Katrin asked.

“We are going somewhere where you, Princess, can be anyone.” Thalia ticked up a feline grin, taking her by the hand once more as the man pushed a single book on the shelf behind him and a hidden door slid open. “Welcome to Hades.”

Katrin gazed in front of her at the stark difference between the tavern they just walked through and what lay before them. The room was dimly lit with torches surrounding the outer walls. A small orchestra of musicians playing in the corner. The music fluttering from the stringed instruments was intoxicating and sensual, as were the individuals dancing in the center of the room. Each person wearing a different mask, a different persona, as they hid their true identity. Wine and liquor were flowing openly into chalices by women dressed in tight, lacey garments, their black feathered masks like ravens in the night.

Small, low-lying tables lined the perimeter of the room, surrounded by lucious and pillowy chaises and chairs also colored that dark as night black. Sumptuous velvet curtains draped in front, with a sheer material hiding details from onlookers. Both men and women inhabited those dark corners, indulging in activities that sent a rosy hue across the bridge of Katrin’s nose.

One blocked-off section in particular caught her eye. The sturdy male that leaned back against a mountain of pillows, clad in dark leather, his shirt unbuttoned at the top. The woman with fiery red hair cascading down her back and lucious lips grazing against his neck as his hand inched slowly up her silken dress. Those swirling tide eyes that locked with Katrin’s as he ticked up a feral grin, the red-haired woman shifting her body against his thigh.

“Come, I want to dance.” Thalia knocked her out of her daze.

The lithe seer dragged her through the crowd until they reached the center, staying there for hours dancing and drinking and laughing. All the while, her eyes kept glancing back at that man as he became further enthralled by the red-headed woman. Curiosity built low in her stomach.

Katrin hadn’t been that free, without burden, in some time. Her body swayed with every note as she sipped from her drink. Her eyes closed as she took in the swirling colors of the people around her, spinning and spinning until she felt like a leaf caught in the wind.

Air escaped her lungs as a hand slid delicately around her waist to her stomach, pulling her tightly back against a muscular body. Every hair on her stood on end as a warm and soothing breath tickled her neck and soft lips grazed her ear.

“You didn’t think I’d let the most ravishing woman wander about alone all evening, did you?” That predatory voice enchanted her. She was not sure if it was the heat, or the music, or the many glasses of wine she drank, or simply what Thalia had told her, but she leaned fully into Ander’s embrace. “Care for a dance?” His lips tickled her ear.

He whipped her around until her body was planted firmly against his, her chest heaving in that tight golden gown. The grip on her lower back softened as he took her hand in his. The orchestra began to play another song. This one was not as sensual as those prior. It did not make you lust after an idea of someone. It was not intoxicating and vengeful. No—this one was sad and dark, bringing forth every emotion all at once. It made you long for something you never had. Like your entire world was there sitting in front of you, but just out of reach. A feeling of loss for a person that would never be yours.

Katrin did not dare look Ander in the eyes. His stare could be felt over every inch of her as they moved about the dance floor. If she did, if she looked into those captivating crystal irises, she might lose it. Might melt into the ground they swayed upon. She was lost. Lost in the music. Lost in her mind. Lost on the seas, never to return home. And for a moment—just this one fleeting moment—she did not care. She wanted to be lost. She wanted to forget. Because forgetting was better than the world that surrounded her.

The reverberating string melody came to a close and just then did she allow herself to really look at the man in front of her. His black waved hair, his sea-torn eyes, tan olive skin hidden behind a navy scaled mask. The way his lips parted just slightly as he leaned down toward her. She did not stop him as he brought those lips to her cheek and kissed her gently. When they parted his face looked pained, his eyes darker, his full brows narrowed in. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it once more and began to turn. Ander strode away one pace before he halted, clenching a fist so tight Katrin could see the vein pulse. He looked back over his shoulder.

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