Page 17 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
“If my lady so desires.”
“I could say, ‘I desire to know why you’ve come to Hawthorne Manor,’ but cannot as we are clearly”—she waved her arm around my cabin—“not at Hawthorne Manor.”
My very small cabin, as it turned out, even though it was the largest on the ship. Having Issa ride behind me all day was difficult enough, but being this close and facing her?
It would be the first and last time I found myself in here alone with her.
“No,” I agreed. “We are not.”
Footsteps overhead signaled Mev and Kael’s return.
“I will leave you to get adjusted in your quarters, my lady. If you care to join us on deck, my plan is to set sail after a quick evening meal. To that end, I typically take meals in here but we can dine in the tidehall beside the galley. Or, when weather allows, on the main deck. Though I will warn you, without the cook, meals will not be elaborate.”
“I didn’t expect them to be but will admit”—Issa’s big brown eyes scanned my quarters—“this is larger than I expected for a ‘fast, sleek ship.’”
She’d remembered the words I used to describeTidechaserafter so many years. I thought perhaps her commander had been exaggerating. Even after the slap she’d delivered at The Moonlit Current, I’d convinced myself our few days together meant very little to Lady Isolde, and that leaving as I did likely had not affected her.
Clearly, I had been wrong. And there was a part of me—a diseased, flawed part of me that put my desires above anything, or anyone—that was glad for it. Which was precisely the reason I left Hawthorne Manor.
“I will endeavor to make this as smooth a journey as possible.”
“There you are.”
Kael. Normally, I’d welcome the Gyorian warrior’s presence, but now that Issa was speaking to me again, I’d been stalling.
“I was settling Issa into her quarters,” I said, usually not one to explain myself. But everything about being around her made me feel as awkward as, well, a human.
Or most humans. Isolde was more sure of herself than most twice her age. Having such a responsibility thrust on you at a young age tended to do that.
Kael crossed his thick arms. “The one you said no one sleeps in but you?”
I faced the esteemed prince, who was clearly determined not to aid me in winning over Isolde.
“Also the one,” I said, wondering why everyone liked the Gyorian so much, “I offered to Mev, who refused to take it.” Turning back to Issa, I added, “She refused to be separated from him, though I can’t imagine why.”
This time, I was able to elicit a smile. I would be taken by the Maelstrom Depths, gladly, for that smile. It suddenly occurred to me how dangerous this journey would be with a more amicable Issa. Perhaps it would be easier to garner her anger instead.
“Speaking of beds,” an irritated voice behind me continued. “I could be sleeping in one on land if it weren’t for your insistence we sail out ‘at once.’”
Reluctantly pulling myself away from Issa, I left the cabin with Kael and made my way above deck, asking myself, not for the first time, if soliciting Issa’s aid was the wisest of decisions. For even if the Depths did not take me, something darker and more dangerous threatened to do just that.
8
ISSA
“Have you sailed before?”
Not wanting to be left behind as we pushed off, I followed Marek and Kael above deck. Joining Mev along the side railings, apparently called gunwales, which Mev confessed to learning recently herself, I watched as Marek, above us on the quarterdeck, flicked his wrist.
“I have, but never with a Thalassarian.” We began to move slowly away from the dock. “How did he do that?”
“By creating a current,” Kael said, coming up to us. “That nudges the ship away from the dock.”
Slowly drifting away from port and the lights of Valewood Bay, the clear night sky full of stars, the same surging of excitement I’d always gotten when leaving shore bubbled within me. I turned once again to watch Marek. To say he looked at home up there would have been an understatement. All Thalassarians felt most comfortable surrounded by water, but he was not just a water-wielder. Marek was a Navarch with the Tidebreaker Fleet, and the captain ofTidechaser, his pride and joy. Watching him take to the rigging was a sight to behold.
“What is he doing?” Mev asked before I could.
“Releasing the topgallant sail,” Kael said as it unfurled. “Marek is as territorial as any ship captain I’ve met. Won’t let me help.”
