Chapter 16 The Serpent #2
“I agreed, Erik,” Narza whispered, approaching slowly.
“This, what you fight for, what you are doing, is more important than where I live out the rest of my days. They are not cruel people. They won’t harm me.
The neach-dai is meant to be a peaceful bond for new allies.
I protect them, but they also protect me.
As the bonded, I simply comply to their parameters in the agreement.
They have open shores, and I know the moves of the sea fae; the need for protection in their realms is reasonable. ”
“Will you ever return?”
“I can’t stay long if I do. Already it is swiftly urging me to go back.”
“If you don’t?”
Narza tilted her head. “I think you understand deep bonds enough to guess, Grandson.”
She would die. Break the bond and die.
“You cannot keep her,” I told Valen. “She wouldn’t have betrayed you. You have a lie taster. Was her word not enough?”
“Junius had already gone to meet her folk, hoping to pass on what she’d learned, to save time in our councils.
This bond was a compromise, Bloodsinger,” Valen said.
“After everything you have done, how do you expect us to trust sea fae? Not to mention, every damn heir to every damn throne is here in the Ever, but for my son. We needed to know every royal line would not be crushed from existence by misplaced trust.”
“Erik,” Stieg said. “This was how we made a swift decision. We needed assurance.”
“Really now,” Narza said, a soft smile on her lips. “You think me so fragile that I cannot defend myself? Now that we suspect Hesh, admit it, King Erik, this will show the unity you craved for our people. Should he arrive, he will be met with forces of two worlds.”
“We do not know what forces Larsson has gathered,” I whispered. “What if you are needed here?”
“You will have every support from my house, Erik.” Narza’s eyes were glass when she looked at me. “I should’ve fought harder. I should not have resigned you so quickly to being another Thorvald, beyond reproach. I was wrong. You are the king the Ever needs, and the House of Mists stands with you.”
I wanted nothing more than to fade into the floorboards. Every damn eye watched the unnerving interaction.
My grandmother was no soft, gentle woman. She was a leader, a sea witch capable of casting horrifying spells. To see this side, a bit of remorse in her features, I hated every breath of it. I did not want her to stop.
“Your people will not harm her?” I asked Valen, voice rough.
“Not in the least,” he said. “And when we return, I will personally see to it she has anything she desires. Any of her folk, as you said, her family, would be welcome to join her in our lands.”
It didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to lash at the earth bender, at the warrior. I wanted to blame them for what was done, for the deals made, but it fell on my shoulders.
“You ought to use the shell soon, Earth King,” Narza said. “You recall how it is done?”
From inside his tunic, Valen tugged on a silver chain. Tied in the center was a pale, coiled seashell. “I simply speak into it?”
“Always begin with his name.”
The earth bender looked unconvinced, but slowly lifted the mouth of the shell to his lips. “Ror. Do you hear me?”
My grandmother stepped next to my side. “Do you recall this spell?”
“The harvest festival.” I watched the earth bender lift the shell to his ear, waiting. “When I kept running off, and my mother feared I’d get lost. You bewitched two shells, so I could call to her.”
“You were a horribly busy child.” Narza lowered her chin. “It brought Oline a bit of peace knowing she could always speak to you. I thought it might do the same for those left behind.”
“Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “Grandmother. This sacrifice, it will never be forgotten.”
“Their help is needed. You and your queen are destined to heal the hatred between worlds, Erik. I know it to my bones.”
Narza paused, taking a moment to smile at the chatter in the room.
“I mean what I say, they are not cruel, Erik. They are in pain. You did not know a kind father, but he—” She nodded at the earth bender.
“Is a father who will go to any lengths to protect his children. This bond is not something he took lightly and only at my encouragement. He wants his daughter safe, that is all. Do not blame him for my choice, don’t blame yourself, and don’t let it be in vain.
Find her. And of course, do come see me from time to time. ”
I chuckled, soft and hardly there.
“I hear him!” Valen stood, a laugh scraping from his throat. The sound was odd. I knew him only from a war, stern and desperate for peace, and now as a man who likely dreamt of spilling my blood. Not this, not a father, laughing at the sound of his boy’s voice.
“Yes,” he spoke into the shell again. “Tell Maj we found them. No, Rorik—hush for a moment—your mother will handle Ari, not you.” Valen glanced at Mira, whose chin trembled.
“Yes, we have a lead on Liv.” Valen’s smile was genuine as he listened to Rorik’s response.
“No, son, I haven’t killed him.” The earth bender shook his head.
“No. Nor am I decided if I appreciate that you took a liking to him.”
Jonas snorted. “Winning over Ror by a few words, Ever King.”
“Told him he was fearsome with a blade.”
“That’ll do it,” Aleksi said. “Make him think he’s the next captain of the Rave, and Ror will be your most loyal friend.”
This was too strange, too odd. Finding an alliance to save Livia was one thing, but to feel a sense of kinship with earth fae was another matter I did not know how to absorb.
“Ror, I can’t hear you.”
“It fades,” Narza explained. “Only a few moments every time you begin to speak. With this distance, it will likely only be open once, perhaps twice a day.”
“It’s fading, son. I will speak to you soon,” Valen said, voice soft. “Listen to whatever your mother and uncles ask of you. I’m proud of you. I love you.”
A strange feeling took root in my chest, a bit of envy, a touch of longing, a heap of remorse.
Not once had my father said such a thing to me.
When I’d been snatched at four turns, he’d shouted to return his heir—not his son.
A blurry memory of Thorvald demanding I honor the Ever was all I had of the man in my most frightening moment.
“I can’t hear him.” Valen looked to Stieg, then returned the bespelled shell under his tunic. “So, Bloodsinger, are we going or not?”
Outside the Tower, we stood near the docks while the Ever Crew loaded skiffs and rowboats with a few supplies.
Tavish had disembarked his ship and stood beside Narza, discussing the crew of her ship, and occasionally arguing with her on the merits of a neach-dai bond. Until he saw the futility of it, bid her a somber farewell, and left to ready his crew.
Narza draped her shoulders in a silver cloak that resembled starlight, a glare pointed at the Ever Ship in the sea. “Stay safe, Grandson. The bond is pulling me back.”
I swallowed. “I will send word when I can.”
Strange, but there was a new emptiness in my chest when Narza slipped away to the smaller vessel Tavish had sailed. She’d insisted the Shadow Wing, the ship of the House of Mists, be left for our uses, and Tavish would sail it alongside the Ever Ship.
“My King.” Halfway down the dock, Pesha waved her hands.
“We’ve wind to meet, woman.” I didn’t stop and aimed for the shore.
“King Erik!” Pesha grew shrill and touched my arm. “Wait.”
“What is it?”
“Paedar . . . I didn’t tell you, and I should’ve, but . . . I can’t keep it any longer. Not after what I know.”
“Speak!” I hissed.
“He was . . . he was my meet, My King.”
Pesha screamed when I grabbed her arm, not enough to be painful, more a bit of panic, more a hope that maybe . . . “He’s here? Does he have her?”
Tears lined her lengthy eyelashes. “No, My King. Just came for a meet, but this time, he be bein’ joined with another man from the crew. They . . . saw the royal ship. They be slinking aboard your decks.”
I snapped my gaze to the Ever Ship. A dark kind of smirk played over the scarred side of my mouth. Hesh’s men boarded the king’s ship?
They’d expect to send me to the Otherworld.
And, instead, I’d be certain to send them.