43. Jasper
Chapter forty-three
Jasper
L eaving my family behind is harder than I expected, but Reina holds my hand firmly. Like a stone in the path of the ocean waves, she stands tall and my fears break upon her.
“We’ll see you soon,” she says to my mother, and I translate.
“I need to learn your soul-half’s language,” Mother says to me with a kind smile.
“I’ll always translate for you,” I say, then give her a tight embrace.
“Some things are not for your ears, my son.”
We share a laugh, but I know how true that is. I want Reina to have that relationship with my mother. I want them to be that close.
I pull back and move on to my father. He embraces me, but his grip is not as powerful as I remember. Time and good care will bring that strength back. He leans back and puts his hands on my shoulders as he stares at me sternly.
“A soul-half bond is very precious. Take good care of her,” he says.
I nod fervently. “I will.”
I glance to my right to see my mother and Reina smiling at one another, wordlessly communicating with their eyes alone.
Someone punches me in the arm and my attention snaps to my father’s left where Maarie scowls playfully. “I’m ready to go now, but Father says I need to stay behind and help our people heal. Tell him I can fight,” she says.
“Did your magus ability emerge?” I ask.
“Yes!” she says, her eyes bright like that might be enough to convince me.
“What is it?”
Her brow pinches and her lips purse. “That’s not important.”
“It is. Can you heal?”
She nods, her smile returned.
“So then it’s best that you stay here. There are many injured who need your help.”
Her expression softens and she nods, resolute.
“But what’s your magus ability?” I ask, playfully shoving her shoulder.
She sighs, then leans forward and plucks a strand of grass. She holds it up, and a shimmering pink barrier appears around it and begins to spin. Within, the grass shrinks down until it’s a little seed. The spherical barrier twists the other direction, and the grass grows up again, then quickly shrivels and turns brown.
“Maarie, that’s amazing!” I tell her.
She rolls her eyes and the sphere of magic disappears, revealing the blade of grass as it was when she plucked it. “I’m not altering the object, only observing its past and future.”
“Maarie,” I say, grabbing her hand. “That. Is. Amazing.”
A little smirk pulls the corner of her lips. “It’s not octopus shapeshifting, but I guess it’s something.”
“I’ve got a lot more in my roster now, too. A big dog, a turtle, a dread shark—”
“Dread shark!” she yells, her mouth dropping open. “How did you manage that one?”
I look over at Reina. “She killed it.”
Maarie pushes past me and grabs Reina’s shoulders, shaking her. “How did you do it, you crazy woman?”
Reina looks at me in a giggling plea for help.
“She wants to know how you killed the sha’kara,” I say.
“Oh.” Reina smiles, then takes a few steps back and points her hand toward the sea. She looks back at Maarie. “Like this.”
A quick blue shot of power bursts from her palm, and seconds later splashes into the ocean, turning it to steam.
Maarie squeals in delight. “She’s stronger than you!” Then she begins to dance around me, her taunt becoming a song.
Reina laughs. “What’s she saying?”
I cross my arms. “Lies.”
Cora and her husband emerge from the home with two overflowing packs. We strap them on and turn for our final farewells. My throat is tight and I want to scream that I won’t go, that I can’t, but I smile instead.
“We’ll be together again, and it’ll be in a palace, and I’ll be a prince of Fynren,” I say, ruffling Maarie’s hair.
Her eyes water but she nods. “I’ll be a princess?”
I’m not actually sure how the human rules work, but I’m sure Reina would let her be a princess. “You will.”
“Better get me a nice dress,” she says.
“What color?”
She hums. “Black. With those sparkles I’ve seen, the thin ones like oyster shells.”
I laugh. “It’ll be done.”
I hug my father again, then my mother. I grab Reina’s hand and we take two steps back, looking over the home, our new friends, and my people.
“We’ll get to work on cleaning that old spellbook and send you any information we glean,” Cora says.
I gesture to Maarie. “A perfect use of her magus ability. No need to clean it, just look back into its past.”
“Is that so?” Cora asks. “You might just be the key to this whole war, my dear.”
My sister grins and looks at me. “Better get two dresses.”
“Oh, one last thing!” Cora says as she runs back into the house. She emerges with a burlap sack full of citrus fruit. “For Alejandra’s crew. I see the sickness setting in on them. They need to come here at least once every three months for fruit. Tell her that.”
I take the sack over my shoulder and nod. Cora is so giving, without expecting anything in return. It builds goodwill, I suppose. Can that really be how we win against a goddess?
We wave and turn toward the dock.
“They’re going to be okay,” Reina whispers as she threads her fingers with mine.
My head is full of worry, but my heart is full of hope. “I know.”
Alejandra’s ship bobs just out of reach of the shallows, and a rowboat is tied up for us at the end of the pier. Reina helps me paddle out and I smile at her strength. Weeks ago she could only paddle for a few moments before breaking into a panting sweat. We row all the way to Alejandra’s ship, and she’s only got a soft glow about her when we’re pulled in.
I relay Cora’s message while Reina passes out fruit. The deckhands take a moment to savor the treat, and the scent of sweet, sharp citrus fills the air.
“All right, you scallywags, back to work!” Alejandra yells as she wipes orange pulp from her fingers to her pants.
We set sail for Hammon with a different air about us. The crew knows what they need to, says Alejandra, but I’m sure they’ve been listening at the captain’s door. They know everything…but she trusts her crew, and somehow I know they wouldn’t betray her. If they did, they’d face the same consequences she allowed to befall the sailors of her sister ship.
The trip takes only a few hours, and there’s still plenty of daylight when we land, so we part ways, opting to try to get a head start. Horses are easy to procure with the funds Cora gave us, and since Reina wasn’t trained in riding, I get a larger steed that can carry us both. We strap our packs to the beast’s haunches and set out.
Reina begs me to teach her selkie words as we ride, trying her best to pronounce them without all the appropriate organs to make the sounds. Still her words are comprehensible, if not just a little cute, like she has an accent.
When we make camp, Reina’s priority becomes clear as she drags me into the barely erected tent. I fuck her fast and rough from behind like a beast, making her scream within minutes. The horse whinnies in concern and curiosity, which makes Reina laugh.
With her immediate needs taken care of, we go about cleaning water, protecting the camp with wards, caring for our horse, and having a meal before returning to the tent for another round of vigorous lovemaking. We drift into sleep easily and rise just before the sun. Though I’m nervous for what’s to come, and anxious about leaving my family behind, I’m lighter and more refreshed than I’ve ever been.
We eat our meals on the road, and I tutor Reina in more of the selkie language. This is how our weeks go. Riding—or walking to give our poor beast a break—tutoring, eating, fucking, sleeping. We spend a few nights in taverns along the way, giving us a proper place to bathe, clean our clothes, and care for the horse, which Reina has lovingly named Winifred. She’s a massive creature with curiosity and intelligence beyond measure.
This isn’t a bad way to live, honestly. At least, with Reina. I couldn’t do it alone. I couldn’t be alone ever again.
Finally, at the end of the second week, we’re within a day’s ride of the outer regions of Fynren Kingdom. We pass little cottages with garden plots and tiny stables of animals that become more numerous the closer we get to what Reina calls the “Underbelly.”
It’s a rougher region where the serfdom lives, and up until recent months, it was ruled by seven gang lords. The queen allowed it simply because the lords fought one another for territory, and not the crown. But now the Underbelly is ruled by two married lords: Zane, the Spider Lord, and Scarlett the Bloodletter.
“I’m a little worried about getting past the gang lords. I’ve heard they’re vicious,” Reina says for the hundredth time in the last hour. She fiddles with the straps of Winifred’s reins to the point of blistering.
“Cora said they wouldn’t be a problem for us,” I remind her, tensing my hand on her stomach to help quell her fears.
“Yes, but what if something about that vision has changed? What if we went too slow, or too fast, and now they will be a problem?” she rambles.
“Then we’ll handle them,” I say, pulling out my pistol and checking to ensure it’s loaded. I was able to find powder and bullets at the last town we stopped in and figured it was a good use of our dwindling currency for this reason exactly.
“But the Spider Lord has a huge gang of loyal followers. We can’t shoot them all .”
“We’ll try diplomacy first, of course,” I say.
“Of course,” Reina echoes, and then falls quiet.
Her fiddling fingers quicken.
“How am I supposed to find all my sisters? I mean, I’m glad to know that Alyse is alive—I’m overjoyed—but when last I saw her in the palace…when last I saw the palace…Gods, why couldn’t Cora have told us anything else? How are we supposed to do this?”
I grab the reins and pull us off the road into a little patch of grass. I dismount and reach up for Reina. She leans over with a sigh and takes my help dismounting. Winifred chuffs in relief and starts munching on crunchy grass.
I cup Reina’s cheeks and look into her eyes. Her breaths are frantic and shallow, but I make her match mine, deep and slow. We stand like that for a while, just breathing, hearing the birds and the sounds of the nearby city—and Winifred’s loud munching. Random bouts of laughter are punctuated by the clink of metal and the clop of horses’ hooves.
She closes her eyes with a deep sigh and I know she’s finally relaxed a measure.
“I have you,” I say. “I will not abandon you. We will figure this out.”
She nods and grips my forearms. “I have you, too.”
“I know.” I kiss her hair and draw her back to the road with Winifred in tow. The beast deserves a break, and we’re almost there.
A fresh-looking wood wall stands in the path ahead with a large gate that’s thrown open but guarded by three characters dressed all in black. One of them twists a blade around their hand in boredom while the other two stand stoically still.
At the sight of our approach, the blade-twister gasps, “It’s them,” and then runs off into the city.
Unease fills my gut and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I stop a good thirty feet away and pull out my pistol, holding it in plain sight for the other two guards to see.
“We mean you no harm, Princess Reina,” the guard on the left says in a deep voice.
“You’re expected.” The guard on the right gestures for us to enter. “Please, follow me.”
Reina scowls at me. “Should we?”
My desire to keep her safe screams loudest of all the voices in my head, drowning out reason and logic. I don’t trust these dark figures, and I don’t know who would be expecting us except the queen.
Reina said the Underbelly was under the command of the Spider Lord and the Bloodletter, but they could’ve been defeated in the weeks we were gone.
“We’ll find our own way, thanks,” I call out, disabling the grip safety with a loud click .
The guard on the right nods her head and resumes her post.
We walk forward rigidly, Winifred mumbling her unease. Reina’s right hand is flexing open and closed with flashes of blue power. She’s ready to turn them to ash. But as we walk past them and into the city, they don’t even look at us, staring straight ahead into the forest.
Tall buildings of plaster, wood, and brick line the large main road into the city. Ox-drawn carts full of harvest produce move through the thoroughfare into side streets, and people hurry about their evening errands. It’s warmer here than out in the forest, but it also reeks. The smell of human waste isn’t as bad as in Alvara, but it’s not pleasant.
“Princess,” one woman says, bowing her head as she walks by.
Reina’s grip on my hand tightens. “Where do we go now?”
“Where can we meet your rebels?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to the Underbelly.”
Her skin is pulsing blue and her pupils are tiny pinpricks. Ask her to face down a sha’kara, an eksteinvas, or even an evil shadow apparition and she’s perfectly at ease, but navigate a foreign city full of people who all know her face—dread.
“Let’s find a tavern to get a decent meal, a bed for us, and stables for Winifred. Then we’ll strategize, all right?”
She nods vigorously. “Yes, good idea.”
We walk the main road for a while, but all that’s here is gambling establishments and brothels. Not a place appropriate for my love. At a particularly wide alley, I turn right, the scents of roasted food leading me. Roasted food means a tavern.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Reina asks hopefully.
“Yes,” I say with much more confidence than I feel. I know I’m following the smell of food, but not much else.
A moment later we arrive at the Cherry Kiss. It’s a nice enough looking establishment—but it has one of the black-clad guards standing at the door.
“Princess Reina,” the guard says, dipping her head.
“Not this one,” Reina says, and I agree.
I hold her hand tighter as I turn us away, only to come face to face with the most vicious-looking woman I’ve ever seen. Her left eye is a gaping hole filled with swirling teal magic and a long scar runs from her eyebrow to her cheek. Blood-red hair is braided over one shoulder, and she wears a similar black getup as the rest of the guards.
Reina gasps and draws back.
I put myself in front of her and brandish my pistol.
The woman pouts in a fake, overly dramatic way. “Is that how you greet your eldest sister?”