Page 155 of Silverbow
She pressed her lips into a thin line. Some of the tightness around her eyes had slackened, but they both knew it wouldn’t last. “I’m not taking it off your debt,” she ground.
“I know.”
“So why do you keep doing it?”
Oryn didn’t dignify that with a response. The gold in her eyes seemed to glimmer.
“Andwhydid you see fit to tell Liam what the witch revealed?”
Ah.Oryn sighed. “You’re right. It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
She blinked in surprise.
“I bargained for it. What you weren’t telling me for what you weren’t telling him.”
“You had no right,” she hissed.
“Add it to my debt, Silverbow.”
As if it would be that easy.
thirty-eight
Liam
“Land ho!”
The call drew Liam to the deck rail.Thank the bloody light.AboardThe Seabird, he’d managed to lose Enya all over again, even if she was right there. As the week dragged on, Liam was fairly sure he was losing his mind too. A wind he couldn’t feel kept the sail taught, and the mists…there werethingslurking in the mist. Or there were until Oryn bloody Brydove glowered at them enough that even they found somewhere else to be. He wanted off this bloody ship.
In the distance, hazy blue peaks rose up out of the shimmering expanse of sea. Boots stomped all around the deck as men readied mooring lines and fenders. Captain Bailer had long since given over command to Elred’s Eagle but he stood by the helm wearing a scowl that almost rivaled the demi-elf’s. There had been an uproarious argument over this landing. The captain had insisted they could not dock at Wayforge and the demi-elves, whose names Liam had to relearn, insisted they could.
“Men can’t dock anywhere but Shorewatch or Stonescale!” Captain Bailor had shouted.
“Dock where you’re told!” Bade barked.
Colm tried to smooth things over with only moderate success. “We can land in Wayforge, Captain. We’ll see to it that you have the supplies you need before you push off again.”
Enya appeared at the rail beside him, her face less gray than it had been the last time he took a good look at it, but he didn’t think the way she squinted was only because of the sun.
“How are you?” He asked tightly. Her arm was still bound in a sling despite Oryn’s healing. He’d reluctantly experienced it himself for the blow he’d taken to the ribs. It was bloody brilliant, but Liam wasn’t sure it was worth brushing against a wielder.
“Fine. And you?”
He wasn’t entirely sure. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and cast around for an answer that wouldn’t drive a wedge in the gap between them. “Bloody glad to be getting off this boat. The mist has teeth, En.Teeth.”
She furrowed her brow and looked out at the sun gilded sea. “You sound like Wil Sheahan telling tall tales.”
“Cross my heart,” Liam answered. “Teeth, I’m telling you.”
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
He shook his head in disbelief. As the mountains drew nearer, the blue turned to browns and grays, and brilliant white caps stretched up to pierce the clouds. The high peaks of Tuminzar made Greenridge look like mole hills. The wonder in Enya’s stare told him she was thinking the same.
“The adventure we always dreamed of,” Liam mused. “Did you ever think we’d make it this far, En?”
She huffed. “Do you think the heroes of song ever got homesick?”
He considered. “I imagine when they first set eyes on the beasts of the Vale, they bloody wanted to go home.” A slight smile flitted across her face and it reminded him of a question he’d been pondering for months. “Do you think dragons get lonely?”
