Chapter Twenty-Nine A New Heading #3
“I’m not him, thief. I don’t want to own you. I want to keep you safe.” Reya shook her head, even as she felt the truth of his words. He pulled air in through his nose slowly. “It is and has always been your choice. And I’m glad of it.”
Reya thought she might be sick. “You must hate me.”
He shook his head once. “No.”
She dared meet his stare, needing to see as much as feel the truth of his answer. “What will you tell the Order?”
“The truth,” he said simply. “The head of the Order is a perceptor. A powerful one. We won’t be able to lie to him. But we can Mist. I will tell him that you left and have no desire to fight, and I wished you well. And he will believe it because that is the truth.”
Reya started. “And you think they’re all just going to accept that?”
“No, I don’t,” Caelan said, and his tone grew serious.
“They will try to pursue you. And they will attempt to punish us for protecting you.” Reya tried to look away, but he refused to let go, adding, “But they will fail because they need us.” They need me, he didn’t need to add.
“Omira, Thance, and I will handle the Order. How many times do I need to tell you that you’re mine to protect, thief? You have my word.”
Reya knew he believed that, and she wanted to believe it was possible, but she also knew people.
Caelan went on, “Once they realize pursuing you is as fruitless as challenging me, they will try to keep your legend alive as long as they can, letting the Rhiterrans believe we’re hiding you as a secret weapon so they think twice before sending the whole of their forces at us.
Eventually, they’ll spread word that you died in battle. Let you live on as a martyr.”
“Nothing is ever that easy,” she said quietly.
He conceded her point with a dip of his head.
If it wasn’t, they would both face it. Separately.
“You’ve already changed everything, Reyanwyn.
” Before he left her to her thoughts, he ran his thumb once more over the blooming color on her cheeks, voice low, reverent. “You’re more than just a prophecy.”
Reya had just tossed her bag into the dinghy when Kalúe appeared.
“This is the best I could do,” the captain said as dawn crested the horizon.
“I understand.” They’d made anchor in a small inlet along the northern coast often used by smugglers, as far as Kalúe would go.
She had until the last stroke of midnight on Lumus Day tomorrow night, and they were still a three-day ride at most from Edris.
A storm had thrown them off course in the Heart Sea, and though the winds had been kind for the rest of the trip and Kalúe had wielded the tides in their favor, it hadn’t been enough to regain what they’d lost. If Reya and the Alethians couldn’t acquire horses from the townsfolk in one of the small fishing villages between here and the capital, they would never make it.
Whatever happened, she would meet Lennox with her head held high and pray that his greed was greater than his pride.
“Your cut,” Kalúe said. Reya accepted the small, ornate wood chest she offered, its cover and sides painted with a gold sea serpent.
Reya opened the lid to reveal several small glass vials tucked safely into velvet-lined divots.
Half of the yield, as they’d agreed. “Don’t spend it all in one place. ”
Reya smirked. “I hope we meet again one day, captain.”
“A word of caution, Guardian,” Kalúe said. “Be careful in your dealings with the Order of Light. My father and I have crossed paths with them before, and we did not end on good terms. Their leader is a force, and he thinks little of half-breeds. Though I’m certain you can hold your own.”
Reya couldn’t tell the captain it wasn’t her concern, so she said instead, “I’m not worried. Caelan will handle the Order.”
Kalúe gave Reya a wary, almost pitying look.
“Caelan Halcyon is the Order.” Feeling her cheeks warm, Reya watched Caelan climb into the dinghy.
The captain cleared her throat into the awkward silence that followed.
“We won’t be back for a while. Not until we’ve sold the blood.
But we always return to Port Talluah. Should you ever need to call in that life debt, that’s where you’ll find me. Send word, and I will come to you.”
Reya grinned. “I’ll look for red sails on the horizon.”
Zantae appeared at his captain’s side and bowed low at the waist. “We are in your debt,” he said, his accent thick and lovely. “Especially me.”
She waved him off.
“My men will not reveal you,” Kalúe added. “My people value loyalty, and they despise the Rhiterrans as much as anyone. Until you are ready to make your stand against the empire, this crew will speak no detail that could trace back to you. You have my word as heir.”
Reya quelled her guilt, keeping her expression easy as the sea winds set her braid flying off her shoulder.
She couldn’t bring herself to kill the hope in their eyes, so she simply nodded and said to Kalúe, “I will spread your legend far and wide. I will tell all who cross my path the tale of how Captain Kalúe Voláni sailed against death in the Kasmore Deep, so that those bastard Pirate Lords will know who you are and fear your name.”
With identically wicked grins, the captain and the thief clasped forearms.
Zantae climbed into the rowboat, followed by Omira and Thance. Caelan offered Reya his outstretched hand as she stepped off the Acadia for the first time in a month.
The closer to shore they rowed, the choppier the waters became. When they reached the shallows, Caelan and Zantae jumped out and pulled the dinghy onto the rocky beach.
Zantae left the four of them high on the shore, returning to the ship as Reya, Caelan, Omira, and Thance set out for the rocks lining the coast. Reya could have sworn she saw the captain lift a hand in farewell just before the red sails of the Acadia disappeared around the edge of the coast.