Page 85 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
“You look beautiful,” Marek said, before I could ask the obvious question.
“Thank you. I would repay the compliment. You are every bit the dashing Thalassari Navarch this eve. A role you will be giving up?”
“With the role comes many responsibilities,” he said. “I took it because it was my mother’s dream, for me to rise through the ranks. I never desired fame or riches, though. Freedom,” he said, “is worth more than coin to me. Sailing with you reminded me of earlier days when I had no crew to command. Exploring, letting the wind take me…”
He let his words hang there, and I understood the deeper meaning.
“It is different for me,” I said finally. “If left to its own devices, Hawthorne would fall into the hands of Gyorians who still resent that land being taken from them.”
“That land was King Galfrid’s to give when he first opened the Gate.”
“I would agree but many Gyorians would not. Prince Terran?—”
“Can rot in the Depths. He is becoming more like his father every day. It’s a wonder Kael was able to get out from Balthor’s grip on a bitterness that has infected his people for too long.”
A conversation of Elydorian politics only masked the deeper discussion. One I was not yet prepared to have. Marek’s resignation was surprising, but as I said, our circumstances were not the same.
“Shall we eat?”
I could tell the question disappointed him, but Marek did not press the issue. Instead, he rose and held his hand out to me.
I took it, falling easily into his arms for a kiss that was sweeter and softer than most others, one touched by the breeze and blessed by Thalassa, who must surely be out there, looking after us, Marek and I having survived such an ordeal.
A kiss that felt a bit too much like goodbye, the talk of his future a reminder that our paths were anything but intersecting.
34
MAREK
“She is a lovely woman,” Rowan said.
He and I watched Issa and Nerys as they spoke animatedly. We had broken our fast in Nerys’s private courtyard, and Nerys was now giving Issa a tour, telling her of the various enchantments like the mosaic floor that shimmered with shifting constellations tied to Thalassaria’s tides.
“I assume Nerys told you everything?”
“The important parts, aye.”
A part of me had hoped to remain with Issa last night, but it was clear she struggled with our path forward, if indeed there was one.
“I hurt her, badly,” I said, more sorry for it than anything else in my life. “We met before,” I admitted. “A long story, and one that doesn’t reflect well on me.”
“The past is over, Marek. The future is uncertain. Look to the present if you wish to truly live.”
“Wise words,” I said. “Now that you are a king, I suppose I must heed them.”
Rowan laughed. “You’ve settled well into your new position.”
“One I never expected, admittedly.”
“I had a vision?—”
His words were cut short by a royal attendant with a message. Rowan moved toward her as they spoke. He nodded and looked toward Issa. Sitting straighter, I watched his face carefully, convinced the message had something to do with Issa. When the attendant left and Rowan returned, he called for the ladies, who were at the far side of the courtyard now.
“Something is wrong?” Nerys asked.
Rowan didn’t confirm it, not needing to. His expression did that for him.
“Is the name Ilyas Rho familiar to you?” he asked me.
