38. Sybilla
Chapter 38
Sybilla
T he market bustled with anticipation for the first rainfall. The gentle rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance. No droplets had fallen yet, but I looked forward to the cool reprieve that the rain would hopefully offer tonight.
“Isn’t this marvelous? Why would you leave? ” Elsedora said as she spun around me once before taking my hand. She’d hugged me when I told her of my agreement with Krait and promised to be there whenever I needed. However, she wasn’t subtle about her dislike of my conditions.
It only seemed right to return to Luz. I could continue my training with Cassidee, and my advisors were more than capable Source-wielders.
Darvanda and I could see a healer each month until the prophecy was fulfilled. It was my plan—my terms. It removed my heart from the matter.
A marriage of convenience didn’t require cohabitation, and I knew that if I stayed, I’d only desire more from Krait than he would ever be willing to give me.
Happy for a day of distraction, I let El pull me through the crowds. The vendors were setting up for the night festival—what I’d been told was the biggest celebration of the season.
“I need to go back to my people,” I reasoned. No one else knew yet, not even Krait, and something made me hesitate against writing Asterie.
The tonics were barely keeping my pain at bay, and with no certain path forward, it was hard to stay in the moment. If we had until the next black moon, then it was a few years before Caym was at his strongest…We had time. But would my body allow me to carry on at this pace?
We moved through the street parallel to the main canal. The thoughts of the people around me swirled in a frenzy of happy sensations and a few surprised exclamations. One such thought I picked up repeatedly.
“Renai.” It was always followed by a gasp. Some kissed their fingers and extended them to me, a gesture that I returned.
“What does ‘renai’ mean?” I whispered to El.
“It’s Brennac. It means ‘lovely,’ or when used as a proper title, ‘Queen,’” Elsedora explained before getting distracted by some shiny baubles and jewelry in a charmed floating tent. “How much for these?”
My heart tugged. These people accepted me as their Queen and soon I’d leave them.
The street grew darkened by the overcast of clouds. Colorful banners flailed in the wind, backdropped by the mixed tilework of a row of arched buildings. Balconies draped with both the Luz and Sahlmsaran flags lined the canal. Awe and hope flooded me.
Leaving this realm would be bittersweet.
“Are you about to cry, Sybilla?” Elsedora asked as she put on a pair of gold dangling earrings.
“What?” I wiped at the corner of my eye. “No, don’t be silly. It’s the dust.”
“Riiight.” She exaggerated the vowel in her breezy way.
It had grown dusty since the winds had begun to kick up this morning, bringing dark clouds in their wake.
“Oh it smells like rain,” El said with glee. The vendors’ tents flapped around, and thorn-like bushels of vegetation tumbled down the roads.
Elsedora carried on to the next booth, where beaded clutches too vibrant for my taste were piled atop a wood table. She tried one that suited her.
A small group of children formed a circle around a spigot of water on the street’s corner. Their attention was held on a boy wearing tattered linens. A clay bowl lay in front of him to collect coins. He faced the others, away from me, but looked familiar. I stalled while El continued through the market.
The boy reached into the pail below the spigot and took a handful of water. He lifted the water toward a young girl who giggled as the liquid suspended and moved in a circular motion just above his hands. He spun a finger, and the water began to ebb and flow, settling into the shape of a single butterfly that flapped toward the young girl. Her eyes went wide with disbelief—mine matched.
A Water-wielder right here in the Sahlms. This could solve Krait’s drought problems.
While none of the texts of Henosis acknowledged the Sources as entities, some of the texts that Krait had since read to me claimed that Origin Aquas had been the first to lose his mortal form. Water-wielders had been rare for centuries, and it was thought none had survived the Great Wars.
I made my way through the crowds, catching attention as I bumped into leisurely shoppers. When I’d nearly reached the boy, the other children looked up, and one gasped, “Renai!”
The Water-wielding boy turned to me with a panic-stricken expression.
Hurley.
It was the young groom who had sold out my location to those men from Sahlmkar. The butterfly fell with a splatter. Hurley took off running down the street.
“Not this time, you little shit,” I muttered, sprinting after him.
“Sybilla, wait!” I heard Elsedora call from behind me as I turned down an alley to follow Hurley. He’d slammed into the chest of a man there and ended up flat on his back.
“Watch it, kid!” the man growled, kicking at Hurley as the boy scrambled to his feet and continued to outrun me. My ankles ached, every step feeling like a sharp jab.
Fire formed in my throat, and my legs burned.
“Stop!” I commanded. A rippling feeling shot from my mind, and suddenly Hurley froze.
I needed to start thinking of that first.
Finally catching up to him, I grabbed Hurley by the shoulder and spun him around to face me. He was lanky and had a boyish roundness to his cheeks.
“You...” I gasped for air. “You brought those men to attack me.”
“I didn’t know.” Tears streamed down this face. “I swear to the Sources. They told me they wouldn’t hurt you. They said they needed to deliver a message and that I’d make twenty coins.”
“They delivered a message, alright,” I grumbled as Elsedora’s footfall landed behind me. We were in the shade of the alley, with buildings stretched up above us.
“Sybilla, what the—”
“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “This is Hurley.”
“The groom boy? The one who—”
I interrupted her again. “Yes, yes. He’s harmless and potentially very useful to us.”
Hurley’s eyes widened. “I’ll do anything. I owe you whatever debt. Please, please don’t hurt me.”
“Hurt?” My brow scrunched, and I shook my head. “You listen. If I wanted to hurt you—I wouldn’t have let you run off and escape that night. Now, if I let you go, will you promise me not to run?” Holding his feet there was surprisingly fatiguing.
Hurley nodded through his tears.
I looked at Elsedora. “You’ll take him to Luz.”
She balked. “Luz? Why?”
“Because...he’s a Water-wielder. And if we bring him back to Umber House, then Krait will have his head.” I reached down and ruffled the boy’s brown waves. “And you wouldn’t be able to pay off your debt without a head, would you?”
“I can only do stupid tricks. I can’t do anything to help...” Hurley tried to deflect.
Elsedora cut in, “Water-wielders could once part oceans, wield rivers at their fingertips, and make rain fall even when it wasn’t due.” She seemed to be catching up now.
I added, “You could help us, Hurley. In fact—that is your punishment for nearly getting me killed. You owe your Queen a debt. I’d say that a comfortable life learning how to use your Source magic in Luz is a better punishment than the gallows. No?”
“Okay, yes, yes.” Hurley finally breathed out, wiping away his tears on a dirty sleeve. “Please don’t send me to the gallows.”
“Do you have family here?” Elsedora asked.
My heart clenched when he shook his head. The toes of his boots were broken through, his feet outgrowing them, and his clothing looked as though he hadn’t changed since he’d been working in Umber House.
I put one hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Promise me, then, when my advisors, Asterie and Fenris, teach you all they can—you will come back here. You bring the rains; you help this place remain habitable. Do you accept that duty?”
“Yes, my Queen.” Hurley nodded.
Elsedora eyed me. “I will take him to Luz before Krait catches wind of him. Head back to Umber House and get ready for the festival,” she said as she glanced up at the threatening sky. “What should I tell Asterie and Fen?”
“Tell them he is their ward until I return.”
Elsedora kept her promise and delivered Hurley to Fen and Asterie and then met me to get ready for the first rain festival. She’d brought a note back with her, which I set down on the desk in the bedchamber that I still platonically shared with Krait.
Sybilla,
At your request, we will teach young Hurley everything we can about wielding his Source power. I only ask that the next time you drop a child on our doorstep, you give us a bit of warning. And wash them first.
Your friend,
Asterie
I smiled at the familiarity of her cursive. We’d written often, with me providing guidance on everything from the sheep trade to land disputes between nobles in the Central Corridor. With her keeping me so well apprised of the goings-on in my Corridor, it was as though I’d never left.
Yet my heart yearned for home.
“Hold still,” Elsedora said, feigning annoyance as she tied the fabric around my body in ways I couldn’t imagine ever repeating.
I glanced down at the rust-colored dress she had wrapped me in. It was a too-sheer silk ensemble that gathered into a flowing skirt and showed off far more skin on my torso than I felt comfortable with.
“Dancing skirts!” El exclaimed and spun me around by my hand. Her own golden wrap dress caught the wind as she twirled too.
My Luz-blue ribbon lay across the bed. Instead of pulling my hair back with it, I left my curls down over my shoulders. It didn’t match this particular ensemble, and wearing the Sahlms’ colors for their annual celebration seemed more fitting.
A rap at the door startled us. I called, “Who is it?”
“It’s Ryn—are you ready, Princess?”
Feeling guilty about not carrying the Luz color on me, I stuffed the silk ribbon into the bust of my dress. Elsedora burst out a laugh, watching me.
“Yes, come in!” I called out.
Ryn pushed the door open. He stilled and gave me an appreciative once-over. “You are absolutely bewitching. Are you sure you want to marry this grump?”
Krait stepped up behind him. “I suppose swapping out a King for a Prince is still on the table. What dowry do you come with, Ryn?”
Elsedora stifled a giggle, and Ryn glanced her way with a sheepish shrug but the lines around his eyes pinched when they landed on her.
The brooding King looked entirely unamused with the ribbing as he shouldered Ryn. Krait was dressed in a deep-red formal tunic that had gold-threaded seams; the way it hugged his shoulders and tapered at his waist caught my attention.
Source-damned man with his Source-damned muscular build. Everything he wore suited him . Yet I’d bet a good number of coins that he looked divine in nothing. I’d only gotten a good view of the backside…
It was time to leave this place because lust made me a damned fool.
“I’d like to keep my head,” Ryn said. “And I make a better tryst in the dark.” He winked but it wasn’t at me. He was dressed similarly tidy—a cream silk tunic and dark breeches tucked into leather boots.
“Enough,” Krait grunted at his friend, which only caused Ryn to give me a wide-eyed, knowing smirk. He wanted me to listen.
I obliged. “ It really is too easy to get under his skin when it comes to you.” Ryn’s thought slipped into my head.
I smirked back and curled one brow up.
Krait observed us and let out an exasperated huff of air. “First Elsedora, now you too? Can at least one of my officers remain loyal to me?”
“With an attitude like that, I wonder why,” I teased before meeting Krait’s stare.
The slow drag of his gaze down my body felt like a hot brand over every inch of bare skin. Which was quite a lot of skin since I wore one of Elsedora’s dresses.
“Is it too much?” I asked, picking at one of the fine crystals that lined the seam at my bust.
“No,” Krait answered too quickly.
“Told you,” Elsedora mused as she marched out of the room.
Ryn cleared his throat and before trailing after her, he said, “We’ll make sure the carriage is ready for us.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I snapped as soon as Ryn and El rounded the corner.
“Like what?”
“With...heat.”
The corners of his mouth turned up, and I placed my hands on my hips, which only seemed to ignite his interest.
“I’m serious, Krait. That better be a ‘filet me’ stare. We discussed this.”
“Did we?” he asked with one raised brow.
“Yes,” I shot back.
Things were about to get complicated enough in the upcoming years. Yet Krait made me feel safe, protected, heard, and wanted in his own toxically grumpy way. I hated admitting that I’d miss him.
He sighed and said, “You are ravishing—you can’t expect me not to notice. Your terms never stated I couldn’t appreciate the sight of you.”
Fuck.
I was falling for the King of the Sahlms.
We had no time for heartache or petty, girlish crushes. Not when our realms were at stake, not when my people were at the fingertips of the Death Origin if we did not succeed. Not when we would have a child that deserved a stable upbringing. I knew the limits of what he could offer me.
While my mind rattled, he’d drawn his eyes up to catch mine again.
I needed to change the damned subject.
“I sent Hurley to Asterie,” I blurted.
“What is a ‘Hurley’?” he asked.
“The boy—the one who led the men from Sahlmkar to my room…when I was attacked.”
All of the steam in his gaze evaporated. “You did what?”
Now, that was a tone I could work with.
“He is a Water-wielder,” I explained.
“He should be a dead Water-wielder along with his company that night.”
Popping a hip out, I said, “He is a scared boy—one that may solve your drought problems when I send him back to you. I believe you were looking for the words ‘thank you.’”
He ground out, “Thank you.” When I slipped into his mind, he was roiling with distaste for what I’d just revealed. “Stubborn woman.”
Fighting a triumphant smirk, I took his offered arm. As he led me down to the carriage, I wondered if I’d ever find another man with whom I so enjoyed arguing.