Chapter 11
ARIEL
S adness unlike anything I’d ever felt dragged me down.
I needed to escape before the weight of the Minyades’ hopes and expectations buried me deep beneath their barren ground. The responsibility I felt was unbearable, and I fled the children’s tiny home as quickly as decency would allow. I wanted to bury my face against Hemming and sob until I couldn’t stand any longer—wanted him to hold me up and tell me everything would be fine—but that was a luxury I couldn’t afford, and a lie I couldn’t stomach. Not when I knew I had no idea how to be the savior they needed.
Not when I knew I was likely to fail them.
So instead of turning to the one I could always count on, I flew far up the rocky coast to find isolation. Once I landed on a narrow sliver of stone carved deep into the tidewall, I stared down at the vast, dark sea and screamed. I screamed until my throat burned, my lungs ached, and my body collapsed to the stone beneath my feet.
“What are we going to do?” I asked the whitecaps crashing against the rocks below me, but they gave no answer.
Someone else did instead. “We will do what we must, as we always have,” Hemming said as he approached me from behind.
“Except we have no idea what that entails, Hemming.” My harsh tone cut through the din of the ocean, but Hemming stood there like the rock it crashed against, unfazed by its force.
“I understand your frustration, Ariel?—”
“Do you?” I snapped at him. “Because I have the weight of an entire people pressing down on me right now, and I feel like I can’t even breathe.” I clutched my chest to try to ease the grip fear had on me, but it was in vain. As the pressure increased, panic surged through my body.
Hemming was at my side in a moment, his hand pushing mine aside to rest over my heart. “That weight doesn’t have to rest solely on you, because you have me. And I know this burden feels like yours alone, but it isn’t. Together, we will find a solution.”
I leaned into his touch and rested my forehead against his chest. “I cannot fail those children, Hemming. I just can’t.”
“And you won’t.”
I exhaled hard and pulled away to face the ocean once again. “That sounds wonderful in theory, but the Minyades are literally dying from disease and starvation because of me.”
“That’s not fair, Ariel?—”
“Fair or not, that doesn’t make it any less true, does it?” His lack of immediate response spoke volumes. “Those boys might die because of me, directly or otherwise.”
“Maybe Kaplyn could help them somehow.”
“The being they think is responsible for my mother’s disappearance and death?” I countered with a bit more tone than intended.
His expression soured at the truth in my words. “We will find a way to help them,” he said, digging in hard on that conviction—one I didn’t share. Because every time I tried to let myself believe it, the image of those three children clinging to one another in their tiny bed flashed in my mind. Faith wasn’t a luxury we possessed, nor one they could rely on.
If I was to be their savior—their princess—then I needed to act like it.
With renewed purpose, I turned to head back to Shayfer and the others, but Hemming caught my arm, tethering me to the stony outcropping, and the frustration deep within me churned like the white-capped waves below.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to talk to Shayfer.”
He eyed me tightly as the moon cut sharp angles in his expression. “Not in front of Eldrien.”
“Why not? He’s as responsible for these people as I am. He’s suffered alongside them all this time in my absence?—”
“Exactly,” he said, his eyes narrowed with suspicion, “which means that he, more than anyone else, would do anything to make it stop.” His grip on me was unrelenting, and he used it to pull me closer. “I don’t trust him, Ariel, and you shouldn’t either. We know nothing about this curse or why it happened beyond what Eldrien and Lyselle claim. For all we know, the gods cursed them because they drove your mother out of here, and now they are grasping for any solution they can to save themselves.”
His words fell heavy upon me, giving me pause. Kaplyn and my father had both claimed that it was the Minyades that had attacked the village where we’d lived in the Midlands. Maybe her death had been an unfortunate side effect of their attempts to get her back. But that version of the truth didn’t account for the one Kaplyn said was hunting me—the very reason he’d feared my journey to Anemosia in the first place.
Once again, I found my mind swimming in a sea of contradictory information that made our current predicament all the more confusing.
“Have you considered the possibility that I don’t trust Eldrien?” I asked as I pulled my arm free of his hold. “That maybe I realize he would do anything to save this land and its people? That maybe I would do the same if it came down to it?” His eyes went wide as fear tightened his features. “All I know is that I will never forgive myself if those children die because I cannot undo the curse that befell them because of my mother—and me. And that is my decision to make, not yours, or Shayfer’s, or Eldrien’s. Mine. ”
I hadn’t realized I was pacing and shouting until Hemming closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me, crushing me against him. “It is yours,” he said, rustling my hair as he rested his cheek against my head, “but you cannot ask me to blindly accept it, because just as you would never forgive yourself if anything happened to these people, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you in the process. Because you are mine , Ariel—from now until the very end.”
The fear and frustration driving my words slowly dissipated as he held me in his arms, and I leaned into his strength as mine wavered. “Then promise me we won’t fail them,” I whispered, afraid to even say those words aloud.
He lifted his head and leaned back enough to look me in the eyes. “We won’t. I promise.”
The sound of a throat clearing in the distance startled us both, and we pulled away from each other just in time to see Shayfer making his way down to us, Eldrien close behind him.
“Is everything well, Ariel?” he asked. Though his tone was casual, there was nothing casual about his keen stare. I quickly took a step away from Hemming.
“You left the gathering quite a while ago,” Eldrien added as his wary gaze turned to the warrior looming near me.
“I wanted to come see the coastline after taking the boys home,” I said with a smile, hoping it would appease his suspicion. “Hemming insisted upon chaperoning me.”
“Always business with that one,” Shayfer said as he swooped down and took my arm to guide me back toward Eldrien. “I take it all went well with the boys?”
My hand tightened around his arm as I took a breath to steady my nerves. “Other than the fact that they didn’t want me to leave, yes.”
“They’ve lost much,” Eldrien said as I stepped off the outcropping to join him, “but seeing you has been good for them.”
“As it has been for me. But that is not enough.” I felt the pull of the blessing stone again, and I took it out to crush it in the palm of my hand. A tug from the east, out in the depths of the sea, was impossible to ignore. Which was no help at all.
“What are you looking at?” Eldrien asked as he turned to stare out over the blackened water.
“Nothing,” I said with a sigh. “I was just thinking about what Lyselle said—about the Oracle. It’s as though I can feel it out there somewhere, but all that fills the horizon is endless sea.”
“Why do you say that?” Eldrien asked.
I turned to find him staring curiously, and I grappled with how best to answer in a ‘basic and fluid’ way that Shayfer would approve. “I get these strange feelings sometimes—connections to things that I wish to find. So I believe that the Oracle is out there somewhere, but I don’t understand how or where.”
His head turned back to the vast sea. “Sail for the sun, where sea meets sky, to a distant land where secrets lie…”
“What does that mean?” I asked, pulling him from the corners of his mind.
“I thought that was just a foolish lullaby Lyselle used to sing to us as children,” he said, voice tainted with disbelief. “But now…now I wonder if it was more than that.”
“You think there’s something out there?” Shayfer asked.
The Minyade leader leveled his gaze on the spy. “I think we have to find out.”
“And I think we need more to go on than a Minyade lullaby and an old woman’s story,” Hemming said, doing nothing to hide his skepticism.
I wanted to argue that the blessing stone fulfilled that requirement, but I couldn’t, given our company. Instead, I took a breath of sea air to clear my mind and let it out slowly. “Did my feelings not deliver us to where we needed to go in the Midlands?” I asked with a look that begged him to understand what I could not say outright.
His expression tightened. “Not without consequence.” Memories of all the harrowing situations we’d narrowly escaped in the Black Forest flashed in my mind, just as he’d clearly intended. But Kaplyn had said the stone had taken us down the very path we’d needed to travel, near-death encounters or otherwise. I had to trust that it would once again.
“We have to try, Hemming. I have to try.”
“We’ll have to go by boat,” Eldrien announced. “We have no idea how far we’ll have to travel, and given that we’ve never encountered this land in our ever-expanding search for food, it must be a considerable distance—if it does indeed exist.” His eyes shifted to where Hemming and Shayfer stood. “We cannot carry them that far. Unless you would prefer to leave them behind?—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “They go where I go, unless they choose otherwise.”
“Which they won’t,” Hemming said as he edged closer.
Eldrien’s countenance soured at his words. “Then by boat it is. I will tell my men to ready the sturdiest of our remaining vessels and pack whatever implements and provisions can be spared at first light. Until then, you should get some rest.”
“Rest is a plan I can endorse,” Shayfer said with a small bow of his head. “The night is quickly disappearing, and we will need sleep to face whatever is to come.”
“Then allow me to show you to your accommodations. I regret that they are not much.”
“We’ll settle for anything warm and horizontal at this point,” I said as Eldrien led the way off the rocky outcropping and back to the cliffs lined with stone homes. In silence, we weaved through the winding pathways until we reached a large, black stone jutting up high above the others.
Eldrien stopped by the wooden door and hovered there for a moment with his hand on the knob. “This is my home, Ariel. Please use it—it’s all I have to offer you.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly?—"
“ We graciously accept,” Shayfer said with a bow. Eldrien’s brow furrowed in confusion as the three of us all started toward the entrance.
“We’ll be staying together,” Hemming said as he stopped in front of the Minyade leader. His gaze fell upon the closed door, then back on Eldrien. “I’m sure you understand.”
The two stared at one another for longer than seemed comfortable until Eldrien submitted and opened the door. Hemming entered first, presumably to ensure it was safe, then popped his hand out to guide me inside.
“Until the morning, then,” Shayfer said as he followed me in.
“Until morning.” Eldrien closed the door behind us, leaving us in his home. Though it was considerably larger than the one the boys shared, it was by no means large. The way Hemming took the place in, I could tell what he was thinking: that it was much like his cabin back in Daglaar.
I slipped my hand in his and squeezed lightly.
“I must say, as far as plans go,” Shayfer began in his formal tone, “I’ve encountered worse.”
“I’m not sure how,” Hemming retorted. Shayfer shot him a look from the corner of his eye.
“The Minyades don’t have the luxury of time,” I said to stifle the brewing argument, “and while their demise might not be immediate, it’s imminent. I mean, did you see how few their numbers are? I can’t even imagine how massive the celebration would have been had it been in the Midlands or Daglaar.” For a moment, the two looked sheepish. “I understand that this feels like a fool’s errand, and it very well could be, but given who and what we are, we are not wholly without options should something go terribly wrong.” I let those words linger for a moment so that they could make the proper inferences without me having to spell them out.
“A fair point, Ariel dear.”
“It is,” Hemming replied, “unless you consider the fact that this could all be a trap of sorts. Especially since he was so quick to agree to it.”
“That seems a touch dramatic, Hemming,” Shayfer argued, “even for you.”
Hemming’s features hardened. “I don’t trust Eldrien or his motives, and you shouldn’t either. His sole focus is saving his people at any cost, and that could include Ariel’s life, regardless of his ridiculous betrothal claim. Mine is keeping her alive.”
“Which brings me back to what I just said. We are not without options should something go awry; as in your beast and Shayfer’s abilities.”
Hemming’s jaw flexed as he stared at me. “Let’s hope it does not come to that.”
We stared at one another in silence, our frustrations mounting. Then Shayfer cut through the tension with a morbid idea. “If it would make you feel better, I could cut out Eldrien’s eyes and take them to the Seer—have a little peek at what this young Minyade lord might really be up to.”
“Do it,” Hemming replied without hesitation.
My jaw fell wide open. “No! Absolutely not.” I punched Hemming in the shoulder, which likely hurt me far more than it did him. Shayfer merely laughed at our antics. “Promise me you’ll be on your best behavior until there’s a reason to not be,” I demanded of him. “ Swear it .” When he said nothing, I leaned in close enough that my breasts brushed against his arm. “You promised me that we would not fail those children, Hemming. Children who are orphaned and scared, just like I was when I met you. We need Eldrien’s assistance to find this faraway land, should it exist, whether you trust him or not. But what I’m really asking of you is to trust me and to keep your word.”
His body was rigid with all kinds of emotions he couldn’t dare release, so instead, he took a deep breath and released it slowly before he replied. “I swear it.”
“Excellent,” Shayfer said as he looked around the candlelit space. “Now that Hemming is on a leash again, I’ll leave you two to do whatever it is you’re planning on doing. I’d like to get some sleep.” His eyes fell upon the far corner of the room that held the only bed, and a mischievous smile curled the corners of his mouth. “Unless…it should be big enough for all three of us if we’re creative.”
“Which we won’t be,” Hemming said in a grumbling tone.
“Now, now, Just Hemming . No need to get all feral about it. I’m simply discussing the logistics of the situation.”
“The logistics involve you lying in front of the door to bar it while I guard Ariel.”
“I’m not sure I need to be guarded?—”
“But I need my beauty rest,” Shayfer argued with a straight face. “I cannot sleep on stone?—”
“You’re a clever one,” Hemming replied without an ounce of remorse. “You’ll figure it out.”
Shayfer made a sweeping gesture with his arm as he backed the short distance away from Hemming to the door and made as much of a spectacle as he could lying down and trying to get comfortable.
“I’m sorry, Shayfer?—”
“Worry not, Ariel dear. It’s Hemming’s death I’ll be plotting in my mind as I attempt to sleep, not yours.”
I stifled a laugh, knowing he was joking, but Hemming stared at the spy’s turned back for a moment longer than I was comfortable with. I quickly sat down on the edge of the bed and wiggled backward until my back pressed against the wall, then patted the vacant half. “Are you going to keep looming over the bed brooding, or do you plan to join me? I’d say you could keep me warm, but we both know that’s hardly your specialty.”
“You haven’t seen my specialty yet.” The corner of his mouth curled as he sat down next to me. “But this is hardly the time.”
“Thank the gods for that,” Shayfer muttered under his breath.
Before Hemming could react, I leaned forward and pulled him close enough for our noses to touch as I whispered, “or maybe it’s the perfect time. Maybe you could pin me again like you did by the campfire.” A deep, thunderous sound echoed through the room as I brushed my lips lightly against his. With painful slowness, I eased myself onto his lap, straddling his thighs as his hand wound its way into my hair.
“If we start that now, I won’t be able to stop,” he replied in a low, husky voice that sent tingles up my spine.
“I’m not asking you to,” I whispered in his ear.
“I am,” Shayfer said, “and that’s really saying something, considering the source.”
Hemming ignored him altogether and fisted his hand in my hair. A guttural sound of frustration and need escaped him. “It pains me to say this, but Shayfer is right. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring?—”
“Which is all the more reason to enjoy this moment,” I argued as I pressed forward to kiss him.
But he pulled away. “This is not how I want our first time to be, Ariel. In some other man’s bed—a man who thinks you are betrothed to him—in a strange land, with Shayfer in attendance.”
“My presence could work to your advantage under other circumstances?—”
“I have waited for what feels like a lifetime to be with you, Ariel. Another night will not be the death of me.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me softly.
The way that chaste kiss sparked a fire in my belly had me ready to argue. Instead, I exhaled hard and flopped back on the bed next to him. “I’m glad you’re going to make it, because I’m not certain I will. I feel like I’m going to explode.”
“Thankfully, I know you will not.”
“How can you know that?”
Silence.
“From many, many years of experience.”
“Such a cruel form of torture,” I said as I attempted to nestle into the rather unforgiving mattress.
“Yes. It is.”
With nothing left to say, Hemming laid down next to me and looped his arm beneath my neck. It took some rather inelegant jostling to get settled into something that resembled comfortable; with my wings and Hemming’s size, the odds were not in our favor, but in the end, we made it work. I fell asleep with my head on his chest, listening to the sure and steady rhythm of his heart while everything else in our world hung in the balance.