Page 144 of The Iron Flower

“Marina,” Alder calls out as she strides toward us. She’s in full battle gear, her posture reed straight, and she’s leading two horses. A slim young Selkie girl walks beside Alder, holding tight to her arm.

Marina’s sister.

I reflexively attempt a smile at the girl Marina has named Coral in the Common Tongue, but my smile falters. There’s trauma in Coral’s eyes, which seem almost pinned into a widened state.

Marina motions to Alder to give her a moment. Then she turns to me, and my eyes well up, my throat stitching tight. I hug her one more time, and she kisses my forehead, my tears spilling over my cheeks. She holds my gaze for a long moment, then turns to Diana and embraces her, as well. “Goodbye, Diana Ulrich.”

“Goodbye, Marina the Selkie,” Diana says, stepping back and grasping Marina’s arms. “It has been an honor to know you.”

Marina’s eyes take on a look of longing as her gaze is drawn west. “It will be good to meet with the ocean after all this time. To be home again.”

“I understand,” Diana says. “It is like this for us. With the forest.”

Marina nods. “Goodbye, my friends.” She takes one long, last look at us. “I will never forget you.”

Sadness hollows me out as I watch them go, Diana standing beside me, and I’m overcome by a fierce urge to go with them. To meet with the ocean and be pulled down into its icy blackness—and disappear from the Western Realm forever.

* * *

A dark depression claims me upon my return to the North Tower, and I let it pull me under. I retreat to my bed, refusing to eat or drink, avoiding the others. I only want to lie there and cry.

“What’s wrong with the Gardnerian?” Ariel asks Diana, her wings figeting.

“She’s upset about what was done to the Selkies,” Diana tells her, “by her own people.”

Ariel snorts in response. “Should come as no surprise.”

“You weren’t there,” Diana counters. “It was very bad.”

“I didn’t have to be there to know how bad it was,” Ariel snipes back.

“You were right,” I say to Ariel, my voice flat. “Gardnerians are evil.And I’ve got their evil magic pulsing through my lines.I’mevil. You were right to try and drive me out my first night here.”

My statement is met with silence, and I continue to cry late into the night.

I’m thinking on how the Gardnerians should be completely obliterated from the face of Erthia when I feel something warm being gently placed beside me.

One of Ariel’s chickens.

“Let her roost near you,” Ariel says, her voice sharp and unfriendly. “It’s...soothing.”

The small bird is warm, and she’s making a gentle cooing sound that’s oddly comforting.

I turn over to find Ariel sitting beside me, her brow deeply furrowed, her black wings flapping rhythmically in agitation.

“Why are you being nice to me?” I ask her, my voice hoarse and my nose stuffed shut.

Ariel stares at me for a long moment, struggling with the answer. “I’m not,” she finally snaps. She gets up and goes back to her side of the room, sitting down on her bed with her wings wrapped tight around herself. “I just want you to shut up so I can get some sleep.” She lies down and angrily turns her back to me.

But I’m too stunned to cry anymore.

I reflect for a moment on how comfort sometimes comes from the oddest places, from the least likely people—like an Icaral, in spite of herself, choosing to offer comfort to the granddaughter of Carnissa Gardner.

Life is truly strange. And very confusing.

I put my arm around the soft chicken, its warmth and rhythmic breathing eventually cutting through my misery and lulling me to sleep.

PART FOUR

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