Page 70 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
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“How long will you wait?”
We stood in front of Virdelan’s Rest, Issa having gone inside. Giving her privacy for the hot bath she’d arranged, Adren and I continued the discussion we began many meads ago. Dusk had fallen, lights dotting the mountain behind us where caverns and dwellings had been carved into it by skilled Gyorian stone-wielders. In front of us, the sea in all its wild and untamed glory. A storm was coming, one that I’d have enjoyed navigating.
How long would I wait? It was a question I’d been asking myself.
“There is no guarantee Mev and Kael will learn anything. I’ve been hunting for information on the Depths, and phenomena like it, for many years to no avail.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Gyorians. Their bluntness was universal.
“A few days, perhaps.”
“Days? Marek, that seems ill-advised.”
“Issa needs to get back. She worries for Hawthorne Manor, and I have few words of comfort for her. I’ve sent a man to inquire as to Draven’s standing since we last made port, but I fear the worst.”
“He will have more than Galfrid’s men to worry about if he aims too high.”
Having heard his story, now knowing Adren’s ties to Hawthorne, I wasn’t surprised to hear him say as much. “When I leave…” I swallowed, knowing my second question was inevitable but wishing it didn’t have to be asked. “You will stay here to watch over her?”
“Of course.”
“And if I don’t return?—”
“I will see her back safely.”
I nodded, assuming as much but wanting to be certain.
“There are others that are nearly as skilled as I am. Nerys will know who to send next, who to trust with the information.”
“Nearly?”
“I said what I said.”
And then pulling my mother’s pearl from my belt, I handed it to him. “You are not the only one who carries a token of your mother’s. Give this to Issa.”
He took the pearl. “I’ve never seen a pink pearl before.”
“They’re extremely rare.”
He lifted it, and it took everything inside me not to snatch it back. She had died for that pearl, and now someone I hardly knew held it in his hands.
Trusting did not come easily, or naturally, to me. But I had little choice.
“Why not give it to her yourself?”
“She won’t accept it,” I said simply.
He opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. An understanding passed between us as Adren put it in his leather pouch. Accepting the pearl was an acknowledgment I may not make it back from the Depths.
“When will you take Issa to verify the Crystal’s presence?”
“Depending on this storm,” I said, “tomorrow or the following day. I see no reason to wait. When we return, if there’s not been word from Kael and Mev…”
“You should wait for them.”
