Page 17 of Sea of Stars

Me too, I thought, but the words didn’t come out.

Chinook’s angry hoot made us both jump.

Breghton cleared his throat. “Um, we should get going.”

All I could do was smile. He intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled me through the narrow strip of tunnel again. I put my hand to my forehead and mouthed the words “what?” to myself, embarrassed that I didn’t know what to say to him.

When we stepped out of the tunnel he was smiling down at me and I was smiling up at him, but Chinook was standing right by the exit, glaring angrily at both of us. Her low growl brought us back to reality. Breghton pointed toward a small dock in front of us, trying to show Chinook what we were up to. Chinook gave us both one last angry look and hopped over towards the boats.

I had heard stories about boats, but I had never seen one before. They were small and wooden and didn’t look very sturdy. I jumped onto the nearest one and quickly realized that they were extremely unsteady as well. I sat down with a thud and Breghton laughed at me. Chinook looked like she was smiling. The boat was just big enough for the two of us, but Chinook didn’t seem to mind. Although she wanted to keep an eye on me, I think she preferred doing so at a distance from Breghton.

Breghton tossed me a strange wooden pole that had a wider, flat piece of wood at the end. “It’s an oar,” he said, rightfully assuming that I had no idea what I held in my hands. He sat down in front of me, placed one of the oars in the water, and pulled. The boat moved to the left. “We have to do it at the same time in order for the boat to move forward,” he added with another laugh.

After several minutes of turning in circles, we finally developed a pretty steady forward pace. Every now and then we’d veer slightly left again when I’d start to stare at him. I had to focus hard so he wouldn’t realize how easily he distracted me from our paddling. I glanced back at the island. It felt like we had been rowing for a long time, but we had barely made any progress at all. Chinook was circling above us. I was so happy to have my mother back, even if she couldn’t talk. It was nice to know that someone was looking out for me again, even if she was wrong about Breghton. He was looking out for me too.

I risked looking over at him. This time he caught me staring, but it was only because he’d already been staring at me. The smile on his face was contagious. His eyes dipped to my lips and I found myself focusing back on the oar in my hands. He was my dreams come to life and I didn’t know how to act around him in real life. I tried to focus on rowing instead of my nerves.

Eventually the island disappeared from sight and only the ocean was in our horizon. The sun had set. The stars and the moon, with their reflections on the water, were our only source of light, but the glow emanating off the water was brilliant.

"It's amazing isn't it?"

Breghton didn't answer.

"Normal water reflects the stars, but it doesn't glow like this," I added.

"Just a constant reminder of how insignificant we are."

"I know what you mean." After I said the words I wasn't so sure though. It made me feel small to look out and see the unknown. It made me think of the Lords. But Breghton said it in a spiteful way, like he hated feeling insignificant. I saw his point, though. For years, Mortwar had made me feel puny and insignificant and I hated how that felt. I continued to look at the glowing ocean as we rowed.

Our pace slowed as we went. My arms ached, but I didn’t dare stop paddling. If we paused to take a break I knew I’d fall asleep instantly, and when I awoke who knows which way our boat would have turned in the current while we slept. We’d be lost at sea.

My hair heard the crashing of waves before my eyes could make out the large cliffs. After a few minutes they finally came into view, towering above us, just as menacing as the last time I saw them. When we finally reached the beach I stepped out of the boat and collapsed onto the sand from exhaustion. Breghton lay down right beside me. For a moment we both lay in silence, staring at the stars above.

The stars disappeared above me as he leaned over, blocking them out. My heartbeat kicked up a notch. For a second I thought he was going to kiss me again, but then he grabbed me and rolled back, pulling me on top of him.

My nerves caught my laughter in my throat. So I just stared down at him, our lips only inches apart. I wanted to tell him that I had dreamed of this too. That I had been waiting for him to kiss me ever since we first met. I had thought about Breghton when Jeremody’s arms had been around me every night. My dreams of Breghton had blinded me to what I had. So why didn’t this feel like a betrayal? Why didn’t it feel wrong? Breghton put his hand behind my head and drew me toward him, kissing me deeply. It felt anything but wrong.

But then an image of Jeremody filled my mind. It should have been his lips. His hands. His heart beating beneath mine. I slid off Breghton and into the sand. I needed to sort out my feelings. And I desperately needed sleep. He rolled toward me and placed a kiss on my check. He rested his hand on my stomach. I could feel his fingers playing with the tears at the bottom of my shirt. His touch made my skin tingle. I was beginning to think he had something else in mind besides sleep, but then he began lightly snoring.

I was just falling into slumber when I felt myself being lifted into the air. Bre

ghton was also flying beside me, and I was flooded with the feeling of relief. Maybe Chinook was finally beginning to trust him. She dropped us gently on top of the cliff and then nestled in between us. I sighed and snuggled into her warm feathers. “Thanks, Mama.”

Several hours later, I was relieved to wake up to a beautiful sunny day instead of the menacing mountain dwellers attacking. My arms were stiff and sore. The pain was easily forgotten when I saw Chinook and Breghton eating breakfast together. They looked very tense and uncomfortable, but at least Chinook wasn’t growling again. I sat down beside them and took the chunk of bread and the huge, whole blumberry that Breghton handed to me. Instead of eating it in slices like yesterday, I just took a large bite out of the juicy fruit. Only after I was done did I realize that Breghton was staring at me. I suddenly felt very self-conscious of how I must have looked. My hair was messy and there was sticky juice all over my face. I laughed awkwardly and pulled a small cloth out of my bag. I wiped away the juice and dirt from my face and managed to comb my hair a bit with my fingers.

“So have you convinced Chinook to take us to the closest divinare village yet?” I asked hopefully. Chinook was definitely strong enough. She had lifted us both through the air last night.

Breghton raised one of his eyebrows at me. I continued to look imploringly at him until he shook his head.

I was hoping that her assistance last night would have been a turn in her attitude. I guess she just wanted us on higher ground so we wouldn’t be killed in our sleep. The ocean may have been just as dangerous as land. I pulled the maps out of my knapsack and laid them out on the rock.

“So why aren’t any of the divinare villages marked on here? I mean, Swishel made the maps, didn’t she know where they were?”

“Well, actually, she probably didn’t. We move a lot. There are abandoned villages all over the place that we drift in and out of. We don’t want to be found. And even if she did know where they all were, she wouldn’t have pinpointed them like that. If she had written them down and someone else had gotten a hold of these maps, there wouldn’t be many divinares left.”

That made sense. Swishel was a very wise old woman. I couldn't help but picture the divinares who had looked so relieved when they hadn't been chosen for the whipping. My friends were all dead, but I wondered if any of the others were still alive.

“So where do you think the closest divinare village is then? We’re going to have to walk, so I’d like to take my chances with the nearest one,” I said.

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