Page 27 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
The water woman actually looked at me. And then smiled. She actually, truly, smiled.
And then, was gone, as quickly as she’d formed.
The mist cleared, and as usual, Marek was grinning.
“The Spirit of the Tides is an ancient Thalassarian legend… part myth, part warning, part blessing. Some say she is the soul of the sea itself, watching over those who respect its power and punishing those who do not. Others claim she was once a Thalassarian woman, a navigator who defied the gods and was bound to the ocean for eternity.”
“And you… summoned her?”
The thing I liked most about Marek’s smile? How it always reached his eyes, crinkling at the sides just enough to distinguish him from a human of my age.
“Not truly. That was an echo, a fragment of her presence that only those with an affinity for the sea can call upon.”
“So all Thalassarians can do that?”
“No.” His chuckle, from Marek’s chest, would have made me feel foolish for asking if it were anyone but him. “All Thalassarians have an affinity for the sea, it is true. I should have been more precise. A reverence, more like. And you do not have to be Thalassarian to be deserving of her presence. As for the summoning… it is a rare and, some say, dangerous skill among Thalassarians. Some revere it. Others fear it.”
“Why would one fear such a thing of beauty?”
He looked at me for so long, and with such intensity, that it would have become uncomfortable. Except, somehow, it was not.
“That you would ask such a question,” he said finally, “is the reason I brought her forth.”
11
MAREK
As I tied off the ship with Kael’s aid, the women were nowhere to be seen. Though I normally remained on the ship at port, this eve was different. After spending my days teaching Issa how to sail, and my nights mostly sleepless, waiting for her to emerge in the morn, one thing had become clear these past days.
Isolde deserved to see the Spirit of the Tides, a sight typically reserved for those who had given themselves to the sea for many years. Convinced she must have Thalassarian blood somewhere in her ancestry, I was amazed how quickly she had taken to every aspect of sailing. Not a hint of sickness, even yesterday during a brief, but violent, storm.
“If you stare at the deck harder, she’s not any more likely to appear.”
Ihadbeen staring. Finishing the knot, I stood beside him, waiting. “They know we are in port, aye?”
As the words left my mouth, the women appeared and made their way toward us. Handing Kael a satchel, Mev took the Gyorian warrior’s hand. She was so slight standing beside him, but they partnered well together.
Issa and I would partner just as well.
It was that sort of thinking that prompted me to flee Estmere in the first place. I reached forward to take Issa’s satchel as well.
“You don’t have to carry it for me.”
“I don’t not have to carry it either.”
Her expression made me smile. It was never difficult to tell what Issa was thinking at any given moment.
As we made our way onto the dock, Mev asked about the port town. At dusk, it was a sight to behold, its weathered, wooden piers, lantern-lit alleys, and harbor filled with ships of questionable allegiances were a unique blend of human construction with Aetherian architecture mixed in.
“Technically, we are in Estmere, but just beyond the town is the northern border of your kingdom, my lady,” I said.
“Oh God, no. Please. I get enough of that back home.”
“Home? That is the first I’ve heard you call Aetheria home,” Kael commented as we walked down the dock toward town.
“Is it?” she asked.
“Do you miss the human realm?” Issa asked.
