66. Now Son
NOW: SON
Two nights later, Reed broke our usual silence at night in his tent by saying aloud into the dark, “Keir tells me we join you and your people on a rescue mission once we reach Skow. Your journey there? Death dogs your steps. Your arrival? A kidnapping and an escape are plotted. Such exciting lives you all lead. Particularly you.”
I lay there unsure of what to say. We had both fallen into perfunctory exchanges at night.
He would collect me from our wagon’s camp, walk me back to the army tents at the end of the caravan, and we would pass the night speaking very little.
Despite my body’s excitement around his, I found myself able to sleep thoroughly next to him.
In the early mornings, he would rouse me, step outside to let me dress, and then roll up his tent.
He would collect his roan from where it was grazing tied at the side of the road, and then he would deliver me back to my still-sleeping family.
I would usually unroll my quilt next to one of theirs and sleep for another hour as he had to rise so early.
All discussion of coupling had ceased. He was more detached with me now than he had ever been, and I found myself wistful for the inebriated, hungry version of him that had pledged the use of his prick to me if it would give me pleasure.
“You are correct,” I decided to answer him. “I appreciate your aid.”
“This is your niece?” he asked.
“It is. Thane’s daughter.”
“And does he know of this?”
“Tessa tried to explain it. He doesn’t understand our old flower code.
And we’re loath to fully map that out for him.
It’s not his fault, because we cannot give him all of the information.
But he of course loves his child. We can learn where she lives from him and then use that to rescue her.
Whether or not he is involved will be up to Adelaide. ”
“You defend him readily.”
“I have known him a long time. And he was always a devoted father.”
“And you were lovers. More than childhood sweethearts as you once claimed.”
In the dark, I turned my head towards him. “How do you know that?”
“That is the way your hair was when I first courted you.”
It took me a moment to understand he was quoting Thane from that first morning on the road. I had surmised he had seen Thane hold my hands and that was why he had once teased me about Thane, but not that he had heard us. “You truly have strong air magic. To hear that much.”
“And see,” Reed replied. “I can see far. That’s what I do in the mornings. I ride far ahead and then I see even farther and report back.”
“How—How far can you hear?”
“A quarter hour’s walk away.”
“How far can you see?”
“About a half day of slow riding.”
“And your steps are soundless. That is a miracle.”
“It’s my lineage. My father was Tintarian. A sea Tintarian, a fisherman. But lots of air in his family line. He brought a haul of something or other to Vyggia and met my mother. Took her as a lover. Wouldn’t marry her though.”
“I am sorry. You grew up without a father?”
“I had a stepfather. Keir’s father. He married my mother when I was still little. Maybe I was seven or so. But he was Vyggian too. He had no other home but ours. My father by blood already had a family back in Pikestully.”
There was a breath, a hesitation on his part. I was trying to think of a question to ask—what the salt shallows of Vyggia were like, if he had ever met his Tintarian father, if he had liked Keir’s father—when he continued.
“My full name is Reed Spinner. She gave me his surname. So I was a Vyggian boy with a Tintarian name. He had told her he was called Sturgeon Spinner, that there was a tradition of naming the men in his family after fish. And he told her their child may have either air or sea magic. So she named me something that could hold both air and water and gave me his family name, not hers.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“I saw him once when I was a man. Keir and I left the islands and moved to Pikestully when we were about seventeen. We lived off the streets, finding easy work—day labor, that kind of thing. Then we joined the army for a bit. Have you ever heard of the Procurers?”
“The personal guard of the Shark King?”
“No, they’re the teeth in the Shark King’s mouth. He sends them to do his dirty work. It is a small unit of men, elite warriors in their infantry. The trials to join are difficult. After a few winters, a man retired and we tried out for the Procurers, Keir and me.”
“Did you make it in?”
“Never had the chance to. A young Procurer named Perch, younger than me, barely out of boyhood, was giving a demonstration of his swordsmanship. I stood there and watched it. He was young but he was so accomplished, so advanced already. His air magic was all in speed. And I’ve strong air in me, but not in speed.
Fastest thing I’ve ever seen a mortal do.
He was taller than I am. Bigger too. But he could swing his blade with such precision and so quickly it was invisible. ”
I wanted to ask him why he compared himself to the swordsman, but his next words explained it.
“There was a sort of training yard set up for these trials. Men of all ages were gathered around it, watching. I think a lot of them were fathers there to watch their sons try out. And when the Procurer called Perch was done, there was applause, and then one older man clapped another older man on the back and said, ‘Sturgeon, your boy is a wonder.’ I looked at the man who had been called Sturgeon. And he was built like me. He had the same face I have. And his eyes were the same green.”
“And you didn’t introduce yourself?” I asked.
“He already had a son.”