Chapter 7 Caspia #2
“I hate flying,” Xandra said on a dry laugh.
“I can’t believe I said that out loud, but it’s true.
I hate it. Hara took me once. She laughed the entire time, and all I could think about was how badly I wanted the ground beneath my feet.
If I ever go through the ritus, I want to change into something with a little more bite. ”
“A marroweel?” I asked.
“Depends on how things go with your pirate.” She gave me a mischievous grin.
“Oh, I think he’s your pirate now.”
“Was it intentional, choosing Max’s brother?”
I scrunched up my nose. “I didn’t think you’d notice.”
“Please.” She huffed. “Give me some credit. They look exactly alike. Are you hoping Max might have told Cap where he and Emery went?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “That, and Cap agreed to do this without many questions.”
“Do you think he’s searching for Max while you’re looking for Emery?”
“It’s possible.”
Xandra tapped her fingers on the ship’s wall. “Let’s say your vision is wrong. That Emery wasn’t killed by the silver-eyed warrior. And let’s say that we find her and Max.”
I didn’t like the seriousness in her voice. Or where she was going with this hypothetical scenario.
“What if she doesn’t want to leave him? What if she refuses to come home?”
“I pray to the Divine my vision is wrong,” I told her. “But if it’s not, and if she won’t return with us, then I don’t know. I hope, for Graciella’s sake, she does.”
I hoped, for Graciella’s sake, that Aunt Oleana was wrong about Max’s influence over Emery.
Oleana believed Max had corrupted Emery’s fidelity to the Starling. That he’d poisoned her mind against our family and traditions.
Maybe my aunt was right.
Max was not Graciella’s father, nor was he Nelfinex. He was from Beesa, and though he’d left his homeland as a child when his parents deserted their country, they were our sworn rivals.
I had faith that Emery would not be deceived by a handsome face. She was five summers older than me and had always shared Oleana’s pragmatism. She was realistic and logical in almost every way, usually agreeing with our aunt on most topics.
The only exception was my visions.
When I was five, I dreamed of a theft in the palace.
A man disguised as a Royal Blade had stolen one of the bejeweled elfalter eggs on display in the queen’s auditorium.
The robbery had been such a shock that the entire castle had been abuzz.
I’d told Emery of my vision and described the man.
He had a long, jagged scar that cut from his ear across his cheek.
When my aunt’s Blades caught the thief, he had that scar.
When I was twelve, Saskia was called to her ritus. Two lunes after she left, she still hadn’t returned. We’d all begun to fear that the rite had taken her life. Then I’d had a vision of my sister in the desert, flying over the western sands. She returned two suns later.
Other visions had come and gone, some I could prove and others I could not. But Emery had always believed I had a special gift to see glimpses of the past. She believed my visions were more than mere dreams.
It was the only thing I’d ever seen her argue with Aunt Oleana about. Then Max came into her life. And the arguments became a constant.
I didn’t blame Emery for needing an escape. But I wished Graciella had not lost a mother. I wished I still had my older sister.
“Do you think she went to find the swift’s mating grounds?” Xandra asked. “She was always curious where they went. Maybe that’s where she met the silver-eyed warrior.”
“It is forbidden.”
“All the more reason that she might have gone there. Simply to spite Oleana.”
Every generation, the swift left Nelfinex to breed. They flew across the Marixmore and returned to lay their eggs.
The swift were only born once every thirty summers. The mystery of where they went to breed was one never solved. Maybe they simply flew to the edge of our world and back. The few times a Starling had attempted to follow the flock, the shifters had never returned.
In my lifetime, it had always been forbidden.
“But Emery didn’t leave during their migration,” I said. “She wouldn’t know which direction to fly.”
“Unless Max had an idea.”
The Starling weren’t the only ones curious where the swift migrated. If they’d found a place unknown beyond the horizon, it might be an opportunity for the Beesan king to expand his tyranny to a foreign land.
“I don’t know what to think about Emery. All I know is that I mourn for her. And in my heart, it feels as if she’s gone.”
“Then our quest remains unchanged. Vengeance.”
I nodded. “Vengeance.”
The silver-eyed warrior’s suns were numbered.
A yawn stretched my mouth as a fresh wave of exhaustion crashed against me like water against the ship.
Xandra put her hand on my shoulder. “You should get some rest.”
“What about you?”
“I also need some rest.” She batted her eyelashes, then turned to scan the deck. “I guess that means I’ll have to talk to that pretty pirate about my sleeping arrangements.”