Page 53 of The Sea-Ogre's Eager Bride

I bite back my impatience, because my mother has always been like this. It is no surprise that she refuses to accept my marriage to Vali. I knew she would be difficult about it. “I told her I would marry her, and I do not lie.”

Mother sighs heavily, just as Daidu yanks out a stitch, making me grimace silently with pain. The healer glances up at me, two of his hands pinching at my wound while the other twomove to pull the next stitch. “These are crooked and clumsily done.”

“My wife stitched me up after I was injured. She has not done it before.”

“It shows.” Daidu wipes away a bit of welling blood. “But it was smart of her to attempt it anyhow. I imagine you’ll keep the leg, thanks to her.”

I want to squeeze my wife against my side for her quick thinking. “She saved my life in more ways than one,” I tell them. “I owe it to her to marry her.”

“Well, that’s it, then.” My mother seems displeased. “I will let your father know, and he will tell the chieftain.”

I doubt either of them will care nearly as much as my mother, but I just nod as she leaves the tent, wincing as Daidu yanks out yet another stitch and then another. He tuts at the jagged line of my scabbed wound, now bleeding from his ministrations.

“Can you give me anything to help with the healing?” I ask him.

“You’re lucky it’s healing as well as it is.” He pulls dripping seaweed from a jar nearby and places it on the angry wound. “But yes, I have something to help. Essence of seaworm and the ground heart of a scaly eel, left to ferment for a hundred days.” Daidu pauses. “It won’t taste good.”

“It never does.” Daidu’s potions are effective, though.

“I’ll prepare it for you.” He pulls another stitch and then straightens. “Ignore your mother. She dreams of grandchildren with taller head sails than her own. It clouds her vision.”

I nod. Vali and I might still have children—halflings are not unheard of—but it is not a particular concern of mine. I care more that she is safe and happy. Strange how I am focused on her needs now, when a month ago all I could think about was how much she would slow me down. How quickly minds change.

How besotted am I that the thought of not waking up with Vali tucked against my side makes the future seem incredibly bleak? Every time I tell myself that I should find a nice safe human settlement to send her to I…just can’t bring myself to do so. It’s selfish, but I want her with me, wherever we end up.

“I need fresh water,” Daidu says, unfolding his legs and getting to his feet. He puts two hands at the small of his back as he stands, bones creaking. “Be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

Our healer loves his own jokes. I bite back a sigh. “Funny.”

Then I’m alone with Vali. All is quiet for a time, with nothing but the sound of sea birds calling to one another and the gentle lap of waves against the shells of the flotilla’s turtles. There are distant murmuring voices of others, likely the chieftain’s family and my mother. Akara’s thoughts brush against mine now and then, calm and distant. She does not mind waiting, and will sun herself and enjoy the waters here. She will grow restless if I stay here long-term, and our bond will weaken without close connection, but for now all I need to do is heal up and tend to Vali.

My Vali.

I glance down at my wife. Her eyes are open and full of worry. I know my wife’s penchant to lie to protect herself, but for some reason I’m not annoyed that she might have been pretending to be asleep through my conversation with my mother. “Have you been awake long?”

“I heard everything,” she whispers. “Should we not marry? Is it wrong?”

I shake my head. “No, we will marry. I said we would.”

She hesitates, her fingers moving along the spiny fin on one of my arms. “I just…they don’t seem happy you brought me. I want your family to be pleased with me as your bride. I wantyouto be pleased with your bride.”

Her words irk me. After all we’ve been through, she is yet uncertain? “You don’t pleaseme.”

She flinches, gasping. Her eyes immediately fill with tears and she sits up. “Oh.”

By Vor, will my mouth ever stop getting me into trouble? I must learn to think before I reply. “No—wait. I misspoke, Vali.”

“It’s fine,” she says, but I can hear the tears in her voice. She stands and won’t look at me, her arms hugging her chest, a length of fish-hide tied at her waist to clothe her nudity that she hates so much. “I should have known?—”

“You should please yourself, not others. That is what I meant.”

“And notyou.” There’s a wealth of hurt in her words.

“Just yourself,” I repeat again. “No one else matters.”

“Maybe not in your world,” she says, voice small. “But my survival has been about pleasing others.”

She’s right, and the more I talk, the more of a mess I make of this. “You have to understand, Vali. No one will be pleased you’re here. Not because you are human, or because you are you. They simply do not understand. Among my people, the young marry to bring new blood into the flotilla. They expected me to take a bride from a neighboring chieftain’s tribe, and not for a while yet.”

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