Chapter 59
Tatianna
Tatianna preferred to keep her family separate from her occupation. Which was inconvenient, as Trystan seemed determined to constantly bring the two edges of her world together.
“What did my father say when you asked this of him?” Tatianna asked as their horses approached the shipping port off Rennedawn’s coast. The Lilac Sea was coming into view…as was the large pink ship that her father had painted just for her.
Captain Jones was embarrassing. And she loved him for it.
“Jellyfish Jones was perfectly amenable to the scheme. Even coaxed Amara into changing the burial plan. We’re to dine aboard the ship in a small celebration-of-life dinner, and then we dock at the village.
” Trystan urged his horse into a canter to catch up to Evie, as if he couldn’t stand even the few inches of separation between them.
“Then we bury him,” Clare murmured, and Tatianna wished she could borrow some of Clare’s pain, so that she might not be burdened with it on her own.
“That’s when I’ll dig up the window shards,” Evie added softly. The contrast between her gentleness and the eerie mist surrounding her was peculiar indeed. Light and shadow, vibrant color and darkened gray.
It wasn’t an entirely outlandish depiction of the woman herself.
“We’ll discuss strategy on the ship,” Trystan assured them, glancing at Evie, though her gaze remained ahead. “All right there, Sage?”
“I— Yes. Of course,” Evie said with a funny smile.
Trystan seemed to believe this as much as he believed unicorns bled hot pink.
They approached the side of the ship without incident, as the port was nearly empty this time of day. Alexander had been quiet but chose this moment to observe, “Is it always this dead?”
Poor choice of words, Tatianna thought with a wince.
“Not many ships dock here because of the rocks,” she explained to Alexander, knowing all her seafaring from many trips as a child with her father. “It was our best bet to board unnoticed.”
“As unnoticed as this group can manage,” Clare added, giving her a secretive look, then nodding lightly in Evie and Trystan’s direction and lifting her eyebrows.
Tatianna chuckled, and by the time she looked forward again, they had arrived at the bright-pink ramp propped against the side of the boat. The murmurs above from her father’s crew were familiar and comforting, the salty smell of the Lilac Sea bringing her back to fond childhood memories.
“What are we to do with the horses?” Evie asked, patting the snout of the one she rode, swinging her foot over to get down.
“Turn them into frogs?” Alexander murmured.
They all stared at him.
“What? I’m allowed to joke about it,” he said, dismounting his own horse. His sentences were growing longer.
“We can bring them aboard. My father has places for animals,” Tatianna reminded them, laughter seeping into her voice. “Shall we?”
She went first, eager to see her father despite her protests to the contrary. The group of them followed after, bringing the animals behind them, the clomping of hooves on the wood alerting the crew to their arrival.
But when Tatianna’s foot touched down aboard her father’s boat, she found a most heinous greeting party.
Because in place of her father was King Benedict and the Valiant Guard.