Chapter Fourteen
THE SKY WAS THE SOFTEST BLUE WITH FEATHERS of pink when I knelt on the hastily built temple floor by the sea.
Overnight, the fisherfolk of Renedith had come out to leave offerings to the three sisters.
Copper coins, flowers, wreaths of grapevines with small bits of greenery woven amid the dark brown canes.
Stubby candles—not many, for they were costly—rested amid nuts, homemade wine in terracotta jugs, small bags of flour and grains.
Small birds—ducks and quail—plucked cleanly by nimble fingers.
Tiny urns of incense. A raggedy doll with one button eye.
Simple offerings from simple people, but far more heartfelt than the gold coins tossed into the tithe at the temple of Ihdos, I was sure.
The large, flat stones were dry, but the tide was creeping closer.
I sat back on my heels, my bag several feet behind me resting in the sand, and closed my eyes.
The lucent thrummed softly in the pouch dangling from my belt.
The wind played with my hair as the grunt of a mottled gray pelican floating past on the waves reached my ears.
It had been ages since I had prayed to the ones who had blessed my line.
I would have to do better or risk their wrath again.
Tasting their displeasure once was enough for me.
Whatever boon they had granted my kin so many seasons ago remained a mystery, but did it matter truly?
Perhaps the reason had faded from memory over time.
Perhaps it was a dark deal, which none spoke of due to shame.
I may never know. What I did know was that the ocean was a part of me, sure as my lungs, my legs, my cock, my heart.
I could never be far from it, and that, sadly, was the bane of a seafarer’s existence.
I could feel the pull to return to Le’ral and live my life with him on land, but that whisper of want was, and would always be, drowned out by the song of the sea.
I shifted slightly to touch the coral crown atop my head as I cleared all thoughts of Le’ral from my mind to focus on the sisters three.
“O three who dwell beneath the tides, sisters of brine, storm, and shadow, hear the prayer of one who walks the shifting line between moonlit shore and the hungry deep. Tidebound Prince, I may be, but my soul belongs to the dark deep seas. Guide my keel through waters unseen, fill my sails with your breath. Turn your watchful eyes from my frail bones so that the deep may claim other prey on our journeys.” I dug into the pouch on my hip, my fingers brushing the deep blue lucent, and pulled out my offering.
“I offer salt, silver, and song to your names. Mark my vessel as one in your favored sight. Guide my hand, sharpen my sight, power my resolve as I captain my crew into unknown waters. Return me to the shore when my journey is done, to the arms of loved ones, who you have cradled in your embrace. By moon, by tide, by the stars that guide us, and by the endless sea, so I ask most humbly, and so it may be.”
I sprinkled the coarse salt over the stones, dropped ten silvers into a clay pot, and then lifted my voice to song.
An old shanty my father would sing on dark nights when he was plagued with memories of love lost. A lady left behind who had won his heart, yet he had sailed away just the same.
A song about pale moons in a witch’s sky, of three old sisters of foam and storm, dark waves, salt and coin, and laughing seas.
When the song ended, my eyes opened to find the sea lapping at the temple, just a narrow section of blue-green water rolling over the stones to pull the offerings back into the brine.
The lucent throbbed strongly as the waves began to wash the homespun oblations back into the depths.
A streak of blue flew past my face, scaly tail slapping my cheek, startling me from my reverent state.
Jaculi landed with a tumble on the temple floor, wet stones sending him skidding into the water momentarily.
“What the hells are you doing?” I barked at the wyrmling as he righted himself.
With a shake that sent saltwater flying, he raced at the silver coins I’d left.
“No! Those are for the goddesses!” We both lunged at the tiny red pot.
His teeth latched onto one of my fingers, sharp teeth going to the bone by the feels.
He tugged. I tugged. “Miserable thieving…lizard pustule these…ow be damned…are for the goddesses!”
He sniffed as if that mattered to him. The druids considered him a divine being, a god with scales and wings, as it were.
Cold air blew over my bloody finger. He cracked me across the nose with a wing.
Seeing stars, I released the pot. Off he went into the air, flapping madly, his prize in his mouth.
“Fucking shitful nuisance,” I snarled, rubbing at my cheek with a mangled finger.
Using my other hand, I dropped more silver into the sea.
The waves swept it back into the deep as I rose to my boots, my gaze raking over the docks, stalling when the sight of crisp, new sails filled with the gusts of the new day grabbed my attention.
I’d deal with the dragonling later. A new belt sounded dandy.
“I assume you are happy with the offerings granted, sisters three?” A porpoise leapt from the water, arcing gracefully into the air before diving back into the depths.
“I take that as a yes. The good people of Renedith will see that your temple is completed with all due haste and that tithes will be offered. I have laid out laws to be written in my absence to ensure overfishing of larger vessels is kept to a minimum. Keep the lands dry and those I love safe. I, my ladies, have a ship to catch.”
Cutting a fine bow while holding my stinky crown on my head, I straightened, gathered my personal bag, and hoisted it over my shoulder.
The ship was a new sloop, a gorgeous she devil cut from dark woods that glistened in the morning sun.
The blue and white flags of Melowynn snapped in the burgeoning winds.
My heart sped up as I made my way to the docks, my sight never leaving the ship as she put into port.
God, what a glorious thing she was, virginal and untried.
I would guide her gently on her maiden voyage to Light’s Keep and beyond.
As she was tied off and planks laid out, I paused to study her name.
TMS SEA WARDEN
The majesty’s ship. Well, that certainly let the world know who owned it.
But Sea Warden? That sounded quite directly named to me.
My crew filed off the sleek sailing vessel after she was safely secured, surrounding me with bright eyes filled with the excitement of a new adventure.
Beiro and Asdren among them. I patted the backs of my people as goods from Renedith were beginning to be taken onto the Sea Warden.
Prescott thundered down the plank to hug me so tightly I couldn’t breathe well.
Once he released me, he wandered off to pluck flowers from a young girl’s basket in exchange for a pink painted rock.
Hyla went over to pay the flower seller properly then led my guardian back to the ship lest he terrify the dockworkers any further.
Beiro and Asdren filed along a few moments later, bags packed to board the ship to sail out with us.
The scout was, as he reminded me, a part of the king’s royal exploratory committee or some such thing.
Surely an outrider would set off to new lands, for that was his job.
The dwarf, well, he stated that where Chirp went, he went, for that was the way of love.
Perhaps. I learned only that love was to be avoided at all costs at my father’s knee.
Why that was, I questioned many times these past few days and could only conclude that leaving my mother had caused him such great pain that he feared ever loving again.
“Captain, the clerics aboard are ready to leave port whenever you wish to heave to,” Hyla told me as I stood on the dock like a beggar. “The king and queen have asked me to pass along this letter to you.”
“Is the queen not with us?” I asked, my mind bogged down with uneasy feelings of loss that would not ease.
“Nay, Captain, she was unable to leave the negotiations with the Sandrayan ambassador,” she explained, turning to face into the breeze. She breathed it in and exhaled in pleasure. “A fine wind is warming. We should be lifting anchor soon, as the last of the fresh water is onboard.”
My sight lingered on the towers of Castle Willowspirit.
Where Le’ral lay sleeping, sated, the scent of our lovemaking on his pale skin.
Gods of the deep, I wanted to return to that bed, to his side.
Was this overwhelming need to stay with him love?
If so, how had I fallen so quickly? Was love this powerfully stealthy?
Did an elf find himself horribly smitten, unknowing that it was taking place, or was I just an uneducated toadfish?
Were there signs? Did I have them? Was love like a contagious sickness, like pox?
Was it foolish not to care if you were infected?
Was this torture how my father had felt sailing away from his lady love?
Did he also carry the weight of the sea sisters on his back?
Was that why he had told me not to gift my heart to anyone, for he knew firsthand the agony of leaving the person you loved?
Did love always come with so many damn questions?
“Might wish to read that letter from your brother,” she said, tapping me on the arm before thumping her way up the plank to bark at the hands to get things secured.
Yes, anything to distract from the turmoil in my head and heart. After breaking the seal on the thick vellum, I unrolled the scroll to find my brother’s elegant script flourished over the paper.
Coelum,