Chapter Seven #2
Sighing, Ione let the rest of the water return to the rockpools. “Our break was fun while it lasted, I suppose.” She tilted her head at Lina when she didn’t respond. “Right?”
Lina was still hugging her arms, her expression faraway.
Frowning, Ione stepped closer. “Lina?”
At the touch of her fingertips against Lina’s sleeve – damp, Ione registered, contrite; it was cold in here – Lina flinched.
Released a shallow, startled breath. “Sorry,” she mustered, retreating a step.
“I was… daydreaming.” She lowered her head, her shoulders hunching a little as Kai and River neared.
“Actually, I – I’d love to have a look at the wall. The mosaics, I mean.”
Ione had scarcely uttered an I’ll come with you by the time Lina excused herself and hurried away.
From her.
Ione stared after her, her shoulders falling.
Had jokingly asking if Lina was actually a spellcaster hurt her feelings?
Ione chewed her lip, chilled. This was far from the first time she had accidentally upset someone, and while she was keenly aware of the differences in their stations, Lina was kind and patient and the last thing Ione wanted was for her to feel belittled.
Friendship was difficult. Ione wished she was better at it.
River reached her first, sending an irritated look back at Kai, who was batting moonglows away like they were toys. “Sorry,” he said. “I made the mistake of suggesting he was afraid of caves.”
“How dare you,” Ione returned, humourless. She nodded to Lina in the distance, making a show of inspecting the grimy mother-of-pearl tiles. “Walk with her, please. The floor is slippery there.”
River hesitated, glancing back and forth between Ione and Lina – especially as Kai ambled up to them. He pointed at Kai and snapped something in the gods’ tongue, a warning, Ione guessed, to be good.
“Yes, Mother,” Kai shot back, laughing as River sighed and skulked after Lina. As soon as River was out of earshot, he blew out a breath. “Gods, that man’s a ride.”
“Eugh.”
He started, like he wasn’t aware he’d said that out loud. And then, recovering, “Ah, don’t be jealous,” he said, nudging her. “You’re a ride, too.”
Ione sent him a withering look that he didn’t even have the decency to notice. “What a comfort it is that both River and I are in danger of you.”
He ignored that, too. “Your one’s being cagey today,” he said, jutting his chin at Lina at the end of the cavern. “You really ought to consider keeping better company.”
“Agreed. And yet, here you still are.”
Kai chuckled, although his eyes were mirthless; his face, gaunt in the light of the moonglows. From what Ione had heard, the warden still wasn’t sleeping at night and had made that River’s problem. “You don’t trust her, either,” he noted. “If you did, you’d’ve told her who you are.”
“Most of Oseidos doesn’t know, and if you’re smart, you’ll keep your mouth shut about it as well.”
“Saros told only those he trusted about your… predicament.” He said this delicately, as though her divinity was a disease.
He further pushed his luck by brushing her hair off her shoulder, fingering the strand his ice had cut short a few weeks prior.
“My offer still stands.” He grinned, wolfish.
“Just say the word and we can bring the world to its knees. Artem and Mahina; goddess and weapon.”
Ione yawned. “You’d be better suited to preaching. You do like to hear yourself talk.”
He flashed her a smile. “Like me or not, I’ve proven myself trustworthy.”
“To Saros. Not to me.” She slapped his hand away from her. “I’m not blind – don’t you dare laugh – I see well enough that all you do is for that man and whatever he’s promised you.”
Kai popped open his pocket watch and read the time. “You’re close. Everything I do is for me.” He twirled the chain, the silver gleaming in a blur. “I know my chain of command. The Archpriest is the Archpriest, but you’re apparently a god.”
Ione sighed, grateful to finally hear River’s footsteps – and Lina’s, close behind.
“Warden,” River cautioned, and Kai stepped back.
“Swords,” Kai returned genially, hands up. “Don’t fret, Ineen’s after saying we can share.”
“My hopes and dreams,” River said flatly, “finally come true.”
Lina crowded up beside her and Ione released a small breath, feeling forgiven.
“Did you enjoy staring at the wall?” she asked, uncomfortably aware of how close Lina’s hand was to hers.
Ione grabbed her seleneschals’ hands with reckless abandon on the best of days; she had held Lina’s on occasion, but usually to drag her somewhere.
Was it appropriate to touch her hand for fun? Did friends do that? Ione was certain they did. She had read about it.
She had just about made her move when Lina clasped her hand as easily as anything. Ione’s pulse flickered. She heard us, Menon, I told you!
“It was a very nice wall,” Lina said dryly. “Almost as nice as the coffin.”
“Oh, the coffin is the main attraction.”
River made a small, chiding noise that Ione took to mean, Please be respectful.
Silver whirred in her periphery, Kai, twirling his pocket watch. “Arright, Ineen, you’ve had your field trip. I promised the Archpriest you’d be flooding cities by the end of the season, so you’d better work on that or I’ll look stupid.”
“You do a good enough job of that yourself, Warden.”
His countenance cooled, a hint of impatience rising.
Lina’s hand tensed in hers. She had never spoken at length about her past, about whoever it was she was running from.
As much as Ione wanted to know – wanted to be trusted with knowing – she hadn’t asked.
Lina would talk when she was ready, Cynthia had said once of it.
Still, Ione couldn’t help wondering. Kai said that he wasn’t the person Lina thought she was, but he was clearly similar enough.
Ione lifted her chin, drawing strength, as Lina had suggested, from protection over hatred. She would show Lina that there was nothing to fear.
The murky rockpools trembled as she opened her palm. She envisioned with a new, startling clarity each and every drop. Felt them conjoin and build, and build, and build, the temperature in the room dropping in response to Lina’s presence beside her, the gentle weight of her hand in hers.
Kai uttered a particularly filthy curse when the water in the pool nearest him shot upward, blasting a hole through the hem of his long jacket.
One by one the other pools followed suit, connecting to the ceiling in a dozen frozen white columns.
Vapour drifted from each of them in puffy clouds, and Kai gave one an experimental kick.
“Let me guess,” he said, “‘Say another word and I’ll aim for you next time’?”
“I was aiming for you. I just missed.”
River snorted, and even Lina suppressed a smile. At least Ione was funny if not successful.
Ione’s reward for attempted murder was an argument-free exit from the cave before the incoming tide locked them in – a treat, in fairness, as Ione dreaded the day Kai decided to make good on his threat to drag her to the sea floor to see what happens.
Kai’s voice ricocheted off the craggy walls as he led them out, some complaint about his poor sleep and nightmares and how peacocks really are the worst birds because of the godsawful noises they make at night.
River bravely bore the brunt of the warden’s attention, leaving Ione and Lina in peace at the rear.
And although it was just a kindness that Lina kept hold of her hand, just the same ounce of help she offered on the way into the darkness, all Ione could focus on was the heat of Lina’s skin, the pulse in her thumb dancing against hers.
She hears us, Menon. She likes us. Ione bounced a step, exhilaration at once making her nauseous and giddy.
I’ll save you, I’ll save you, I’ll save you.
The sun outside hit them like a brick wall, making Ione stumble back and clap her hands over her eyes. Grumbling, she rubbed the stream of tears from her face, glad only when it resulted in Lina offering her a handkerchief.
Kai was still harassing River. “I’m telling you – Ha, Ineen’s incapacitated – I’m telling you, I’ve been in there before. I distinctly remember someone opening the coffin and letting me look inside. Mam might’ve brought me; I think I was seven or eight when I was last here.”
“That altar’s closed to everyone but Llyr’s blood. Always has been.”
“I definitely touched bone.”
“What you do in your spare time is none of my business.”
He went silent, thoughtful. “Huh,” he said, his voice muted; he’d turned back towards the mouth of the cave. “Maybe I dreamed it?”
“Yes, please, tell us more about your stupid godsdamned dreams,” River groused. “You know, you dream an awful lot for someone who apparently never sleeps, you prick.”
There was another heavy lull, punctuated by the roaring sea. And then again from River, an exhausted, “What now?”
Seafoam lapped at Ione’s feet. She squinted out at the encroaching tide, one hand poised above her eyes to shield from the worst of the sun.
Kai, some feet away from them, had gone uncharacteristically quiet. He tilted his head, his energy sharpening as it did sometimes, and peered up the summit behind them towards Oseidos proper.
“What?” Ione demanded as well when he offered no explanation.
He hummed, not sounding particularly pleased. “Someone,” he began, closing his eyes, “is trying to get into the ward.”
Silence, dense and cold as fog, settled over them. Lina’s breath quickened and Ione clasped her hand, her own heart pounding in her ears.
Was this her time? Had Sowelan’s Moths finally come to Oseidos?
“It’s all right,” Ione whispered, leaning into Lina’s line of sight. She had gone pale, her eyes wide and haunted.
Protect her. All of them.
She could do this.
“Ah.” Kai waved a hand at her, that sharpness dulling somewhat. “Panic over. For yous, anyhow.” He patted Ione’s shoulder and moved past her. “It’s the Leviathos.”
Ione frowned, searching his profile for more information. The Leviathos was the Mahina clan’s largest ship, captained by Kai’s eldest brother – but Kai looked grim, his eyes stormy.
River stirred. “That’s good, then, isn’t it?”
Kai scoffed. “I’d nearly rather a couple of flaming comets,” he said brusquely. “Anyhow, if Etan and Nalu are here, it won’t be with great news.”
He straightened his jacket, his hair. Peered at his pocket watch. He looked more like a captain himself, now, darkness roiling beneath a callous surface.
“Sit tight while I let the ship in.” With that, he pivoted and strode up the narrow expanse of beach towards the promenade.
River stared after him, his posture tense, as he disappeared up the path leading to the plaza.
“It’s fine, River,” Ione said, nudging him onward. “You can go.”
He started, looking sorry. “You’ll be fine?”
“Of course not; long walks on the beach are famously treacherous.”
Smiling apologetically, he withdrew, leaving them to wonder what had happened to bring the Leviathos of all things to their tiny isle.
Another desecrated shrine, doubtless. Ione closed her eyes, breathing through a haze of guilt. With Lina’s help she was growing by leaps and bounds, but not fast enough. Never fast enough.
Lina still hadn’t spoken, her knuckles white as she gripped Ione’s hand. “I’m sorry,” she whispered finally, swallowing another shaky breath. “I’m sorry, just – I thought it was…”
Ione rubbed her back. “We’re safe,” she soothed, although it sounded so hollow. Baseless. “It’s not the Moths.”
A gust of sea breeze passed over them, bringing with it the scent of hydromancy, bracing and wintry. Similar to Kai’s, but swelling with malice – his brothers’. Ione shivered, felt Lina curl closer into her.
“Come, before the tide gets too high.” Ione tugged her along. “We’ll go inside. Visit Cynthia at the library – or see if Ami can get a break from her lessons.”
“I’m sorry,” Lina repeated. She shook her head hard as though to clear it, her hands fussing at the sleeves of her dress, pulling them as she often did to cover her burned wrists.
“It was enough of a shock thinking he – the Moths were here.” She mustered a weak laugh.
“Etan and Nalu Mahina aren’t much better, though, are they? ”
They rounded a bend, the turquoise sea between Oseidos and the mainland stretching before them. An enormous black streak marred the jewel-blue waters – the Leviathos, menacing even with its sails furled. Another icy wind ghosted past them and Lina screeched to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” Ione asked, frightened when Lina merely stared, a hand clamped over her mouth.
She fumbled for her monocular and scanned the mainland, her vision jittery, nervous.
Even with it she struggled to focus, to parse building from land, sky from distant slate-blue mountain.
She located the ship first, its ebony figurehead carved into the shape of an albatross, its deck teeming with crewmen in midnight uniforms.
Lina edged closer, fingertips guiding Ione’s wrist, until –
There.
There, jutting out from Lodestone’s low skyline, shrouded in bitter white mist. Storeys-high spikes of ice glistened in the sun, cracking out of the shell of a ruined building.