Page 88 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
There were casualties among those who opposed him.
I had no doubt Warren would be among Draven’s opposition.
“Take this,” Nerys said. I’d seen the leather satchel she carried and wondered at its contents.
“What is it?”
“Something I believe you will need. Open it after you decide.”
Could I wait that long? I was already intensely curious.
“Thank you for escorting her here,” Marek said, reaching us and embracing his friend. “And for your support. I was just at the docks. You ordered the Tidebreaker Fleet to follow us.”
“I did,” Nerys said.
What did that mean?
“Thank you.”
“Be safe,” she said, letting him go and indicating to her guard she was coming. “I am confident you will prevail.”
I wish I could share Nerys’s confidence.
Marek took the satchel from me. “What is this?” he asked as Nerys left, and we made our way to the ship.
“I’m not certain. Nerys gave it to me and said to open it.” I paused, not wanting to use her exact words. “Later.”
His brows drew together, but Marek said nothing. He held out his hand as we scrambled across the rocks and didn’t talk again until we’d readied the ship and cast off. Though it was cloudy, there were no signs of a storm, thankfully.
“Have you realized,” I asked as we passed the palace harbor, “I knew what to do without your guidance as we set sail?”
Marek steered us expertly through the water, not using any magic. On a day such as today, none was needed.
“I have,” he said, pointing toward the palace. “The balcony, where we sat last eve. Do you see it?”
It was far into the distance, but I could see the portion of the palace he referred to.
“Aye.”
“A high-ranking Navarch stayed there, when I first came to the palace, who resigned not long after. He never got on with Queen Lirael. They called him the Warden. He was as respected as any sailor in Thalassaria. They say when he was put through the Stormcaller’s Rite, his instructors thought he might be our next king, he was so powerful. But the Warden’s magic, he told me once, wasn’t stronger than the queen’s; he knew better how to listen to the sea than most. He advised me to feel the rhythm of the waves, the shifts in the wind, and understand the sea’s will. I thought of him when we were in the Depths, when you correctly reminded me not to fight the storm. To let it guide us.”
“What happened to him?”
“The Warden lives in Ventara, a beautiful, clifftop village north of Corvi.”
We were quiet for some time, sailing past first the palace and its harbor and then the capital. I could understand how the Thalassari had become independent, complacent to the struggles of humans and disconnected from Elydorian politics. These lands were a paradise, untouched by our troubles.
“I cannot stop thinking of Warren, and Edric, my maid?—”
“Rowan offered wise words to me, just this morn,” he said. “‘The past is over. And the future is uncertain. Look to the present if you wish to truly live.’ I’m sorry for it, Issa. So very sorry. But what’s done is done. We will face what comes next together.”
Wise words that were easier to agree with than to practice. Nothing could change the signs I had not seen, or the warnings I ignored.
“My father became infallible after his death,” I said, not wanting to admit the truth, even to myself. “If I am honest, we had a difficult relationship while he was alive, though I loved him very much. I believe my memories are clouded by guilt that I could not save him, or my mother. I trusted Draven because he did, convinced my father had never made a wrong decision. He was the most honorable, and loyal, man I knew.”
“We all have flaws, sereia.”
“Father too.”
