Salt and Smoke #3
As Drayce spoke with a male on the dock, the rest of us boarded without a word, tossing bags and weapons onto the deck.
When Drayce boarded last, Aerie and the other air elementals went to the upper deck and cast their wind into the sails, getting us underway quickly.
I brought my bag to the small cabin I’d occupied the last time I was on this ship and unstrapped my sword and daggers.
Back out on the top deck, I joined Aerie, and Noxie flew above us in circles.
He seemed to enjoy the open ocean.
“I do,” he said. “The cold back home made my wings stiff.”
“Still in my thoughts even when I’m not talking to you,” I joked.
“Always, until you can block me out.”
“You still haven’t told me how to do that.”
“And I never will.”
I smiled. I was glad to have him in my mind, and I didn’t care if he knew it when I thought it—he cherished this connection as much as I did.
“Are the odds ever this stacked against you guys on missions?” I knew Aerie would tell me straight.
She dropped her arms from the magic she was casting and thumped the male next to her on the back. “You take the first shift. I’ll relieve you at dawn,” she said to him, then walked over to the opposite railing. I followed. “Typically? No. But wanna know where this particular group thrives?”
I gave her a questioning look, at which she smiled.
“Chaos. That’s where this group shines. The day we got you out of there, not one of our plans had gone right. Well, except Bramick being your escort to the execution. That was about the only thing that went right. But we still succeeded, you see?”
“Yeah, but you lost two soldiers that day. And I can’t bear the thought of losing any of you.”
Aerie turned more serious, a rarity for her. “You’re right, but this time, we have you and Sevrin. Power and disguise. We underestimated the king last time, but we won’t this time.”
I gave her a tight-lipped smile, not wholly convinced but feeling slightly better than I had.
“Wanna hear the story behind these tattoos?” She rolled up her sleeve and turned her forearm up, revealing the six pairs of glowing blue wings stacked in a line.
I nodded.
“Before I was recruited to the rebellion, I lived in a town here in Elyndor that was peaceful and quiet. Fae and mortals got along well enough, lived amongst each other anyway, mostly with no issues. But after Fellendral’s purge, a few fae in my town started getting ideas.
I was one of seven avian vey there, and one day, we went out flying like usual, but what we came back to was a nightmare straight from hell. ”
My heart dropped. She was one of seven, and there were six pairs of wings on her arm. My gut clenched at where I knew this was going.
“We flew in and joined the fight as fae alongside the mortals. Come to find out, three males sought to purge our town of the mortals after a few too many drinks. A dozen were already dead by the time we got there. No one stood up to them except us avian Veythryn. These three males were…crazed. Bloodthirsty and drunk on alcohol and the illusion of power. Every mortal died that day. Some were my friends, and they died alongside all my avian brethren. They were…my family.” She sniffed, trying to stifle the tears I knew were behind her eyes, threatening to fall.
I reached out and gripped her hand and squeezed, knowing there weren’t words to ease the pain or take away the memory.
“I was the lone avian survivor, and I only survived because I flew off like a coward.” The steel in her voice told me just how much that ate at her.
“You would have died if you’d stayed, it sounds like. Better to flee and survive. I’m sure they would have wanted that over you joining them in the Vale.”
She gave a watery smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes.
For several minutes, we said nothing. How hard she fought, how much strength she exuded, all made sense.
It was survivor’s guilt. She was living every moment to make up for where she felt she’d failed.
But gods, I wanted her to know she hadn’t failed.
She’d survived so that she could avenge them.
Just like me.
“The wings glow, you know.”
“What?” she asked, looking down at her arm and wiping her nose. To her, they did not. But to my left eye, they glowed like a glythyr.
“They glow blue like the color of the ocean. I can’t say exactly why, but there’s magic in those tattoos.”
She gripped her arm over the tattoo as a tear finally slipped free and landed on the topmost set of wings. “When I went back, they’d burned all the bodies, fae and mortals separate. I…took some ashes from my fallen vey family and mixed them with the tattoo ink.”
“Then their magic is with you. They’re with you. I’m sure that’s what I’m seeing.”
One more tear fell before she wiped her cheeks and smiled, a real one this time. “Thank you, Naci.”
We stared out across the dark water for a while in silence before heading back to the main deck. I hoped what I could see and had shared gave her some peace of mind and eased her torment over the memory.
I just prayed we weren’t about to face another massacre, if nothing else than for Aerie’s sake.