Chapter 17
Starstruck Stories
E li climbed the stairs to the top deck, her employer’s son at her side.
She hadn’t looked at him or said a word to the boy since he had discovered her secret. This was out of fear that the child wouldn’t be able to stop asking her questions about why she would hide her gender.
As it was, the boy hadn’t breathed a word, though Eli wasn’t certain that that was any better. She was constantly tense, waiting for it to begin. Even though she assumed Tam must have said something, she knew people’s curiosities often got the better of them.
“Oh.”
Eli jumped at the lone word the boy uttered, then realized why he had: Tam was sitting at a small round table on the deck, with two other chairs pulled up to it. Under the light of a large brass lantern containing three burning candles, they could see that the table was laden with tea and cakes.
The future duke sat with his back to them, a book in his lap as he gazed up at the sky, a far-off glint in his eyes, and a smile on his face. Eli couldn’t take her eyes off Tam’s profile at that moment. The gentle rise and fall of the ship beneath their boots, the brilliant starry sky above them… There was something about the moment that struck her.
A gentle tug on Eli’s hand snapped her out of her thoughts.
“He’s waiting for us,” the boy whispered, excitement etched in every inch of his face.
She blinked past her distracted moment, gave a tight-lipped smile, and proceeded to the table.
“Good evening, Lord Tam.” Eli bowed.
Tam looked over his shoulder with a smile and rose to gesture toward the other two chairs. “Hello to you both. Sorry I had to leave you for a few hours—I had to brush up on some of my constellations.”
More like you are struggling to wrap your head around either being a father or being close to the devil , Eli thought.
She couldn’t really blame her employer for needing to take time to process his present circumstances. Very few people would handle things half as well as he was.
Once the trio had seated themselves, Eli picked up the teapot and started pouring out whatever her employer had brewed, though her arched eyebrow conveyed her dubiousness.
Tam grinned knowingly. “I selected a rooibos tea. I know it’s more forgiving for oafs like myself who aren’t as refined with their tastes.”
Eli’s face flushed as the familiar scent of the tea wafted up to her. Only…
“Rooibos isn’t really a tea and— Is there dried orange in this?” she asked with interest.
“Yes, there is,” Tam returned with a smile. “And yes, rooibos tea is not like black tea, or herbal teas—”
“It’s more of an infusion than a tea. Rooibos tea comes from Lobahl, though I’ve never tried any that had orange mixed in,” Eli expounded thoughtfully.
“That would be because this is from my father’s friend, Mr. Jelani. He is an earth witch and he loves to see what food combinations my da can come up with using the fruits and plants he grows from his home in Lobahl,” Tam explained while slipping some buttery cookies onto a plate and placing them in front of the boy—who’d been listening attentively until he was faced with a cup of warm tea and treats.
Eli didn’t respond. She wrapped her slim fingers around her cup and allowed the comforting warmth to send goosebumps up her arms as the sea breeze tried to chill her. Lifting the cup, she sipped it tentatively… then perked up.
“Aside from the fact you over-steeped this, it has quite a lovely flavor!”
Tam grinned as he turned his attention to the boy, who slurped it dubiously.
“I thought so, too. My father always pairs it with lighter-flavored snacks. Scones, and butter or nut cookies make for a nice bedtime snack with the tea.” Tam picked up a cookie and sat back.
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After polishing off most of the cookies and tea, the trio were feeling quite content with their sated states. Tam set his book on the table, opened it to a page he had bookmarked with a red ribbon—the spine creaking and the pages rustling—and then reached down to his side where his sextant sat in an open case.
“Now, the first constellation I’m going to be showing you today,” Tam began with a glance at his son, “is the Three Fish.”
Both the dark-haired child and Eli stared blankly back at him, but Tam didn’t mind. He lifted the sextant to his right eye and peered southeast of the ship.
“Now, with all constellations, there are stories.”
“Why?” the child blurted abruptly, his eagerness getting the better of him.
“To make it more fun to remember which stars are where. You see, stars help sailors and travelers on land navigate where they are going. You need to remember what they look like, and so people made up stories to help them. However…” Tam said with a wink, “there are some who think the Gods used the stars to show us the history of our world.”
Eli and the boy leaned closer, entranced.
“Whether you choose to believe that or not is entirely up to you, but more people think that way than you know. Astrology hasn’t been explored much in any of the kingdoms in the past two hundred years or so, but around a hundred years ago, a Troivackian scholar decided that we shouldn’t lose these stories—he sincerely believed that the Gods had given us these stars for a reason. So he traveled every kingdom—”
“Even Lobahl?” the boy interrupted with wide-eyed wonder.
Tam nodded. “ Especially Lobahl. You see, Lobahl is far more advanced than any other kingdom, and many of their beliefs involve the stars.”
“How do you know that Lobahl is more advanced or their beliefs about the stars?” Eli wondered aloud, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“My father’s friend, Mr. Jelani. I wheedled a few stories out of him with the help of his two children. Though the both of you need to keep that information a secret. Alright?”
While the boy smiled, Eli’s gaze darted uncertainly to her employer. Tam felt he knew the source of her unease. Should he really be sharing any kind of secret with the possible devil? But Tam pushed the concern aside.
“Now, the story of the Three Fish is one of the oldest, yet not many people have heard it.”
Tam held out the sextant to the boy and pointed southeast. “Do you see the grouping of stars that looks like three whirls connected? Almost like a windmill without its base?”
The boy squinted, his mouth pursing and twisting until at last it split back into a smile. “I think so!”
“Excellent. Those three whirls signify the three times of day in which one of the fish swims in the Goddess’s pool. And depending on which fish is swimming, the divine properties of the water change. In the morning, the fish that sees the past, present, and future swims. It is said that the Goddess and Green Man drink from the pool when this fish swims in order to see all that has been, that is, and that will be. The second fish arrives after the high sun while the first fish returns to the underground streams to rest. The second fish knows magic innately, like witches do, but it also knows how to summon magic with the language mages use.”
The boy lowered the sextant and stared at Tam earnestly, his bum on the edge of his seat.
“The Goddess and Green Man use the water this fish swims in when they create a new witch. It is only during this time that the crystals lining the bottom of this sacred pool can be plucked out.”
“Are those the mage crystals?” Eli, too, had shifted closer, her teacup still clasped in her hands.
Tam tilted his head in acknowledgment. “They are indeed. In this tale, witches were made with the water. The first mage was given a vial of the water to drink, and then after begging the Green Man, was also gifted one woven bag filled with crystals. That is how he learned the language of magic. He wrote down this language for others to learn as well, though they can only summon magic from the Goddess’s pool through their crystals.”
The helmsman steering the ship handed the wheel off to his crewmate then, and for a moment the sails fluttered.
Despite the interruption, neither Eli nor the young boy had lost focus for even an instant. Tam took another sip of his tea and continued.
“The third and final fish… is the chaos fish.”
Eli let out a giggle.
It was so uncharacteristically feminine of her that it made Tam laugh a little while she cleared her throat awkwardly.
“What’s a chaos fish?” Obviously, the poor child couldn’t handle any delays getting between himself and the answers.
“The chaos fish… well, she swims at night, and it is said that when the balance of the world is in danger, the Gods create chosen beings to be molded with its waters,” Tam explained while leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on his knees, bringing him closer to his son.
“Have they ever given the water to someone to drink like they did with the magic midday fish?” Eli pondered aloud.
“Some Lobahlans think so; however, the Troivackian astrologer I mentioned before? He doesn’t believe that is the case, nor does he really think that the Gods create beings with the water—that would be cruel in its own way. What he hypothesized in his work was that whenever the world needed a change, the Gods would simply fling a cup of water over us, and thunderstorms, tidal waves, or earthquakes would reset what had grown uneven.”
“What do you think, Tam?” the boy implored, hanging off every word that fell from his father’s mouth.
Tam leaned back in his seat pensively. “I think… the Gods decided to use chaos water to make my father’s and sister’s familiars, Kraken and Pina. I mean, I’m sure even you know about those two, right?”
The child nodded with a laugh visibly bubbling up his throat, but then his shoulders suddenly slumped forward. “I like the story a lot, but…”
“But?” Tam prompted gently.
“There weren’t any names in it.”
Tam jolted in surprise, then was awash in fresh guilt.
The poor boy had to be eager for a name, and here he had dragged on a story without any.
“What was the name of the Troivackian astrologer?” Eli interjected, her hint obvious.
“Ah, it was Luca Bilgin…” Tam looked down at the child’s crestfallen expression, warmth spreading in his chest. “Luca.”
The child looked dazedly up at his father.
“What do you think of being called Luca?” Tam’s voice was gentle, and he did his best to hide his preference in his tone in case the boy had an aversion to it.
“I… I like it a lot.” The child broke into an excited smile, and tears started to fill his eyes in the glow of the candlelight. “Luca! My name is Luca !” His hands curled into fists as he then lowered his head. “Thank you, Tam… Thank you so much!”
Mortified in every sense of the word that his own son should bow to him, Tam reached out and gently clasped Luca’s shoulders. “Don’t ever bow to me. I’m sorry I made you wait before finding you a name.”
Wiping his eyes with his sleeve, Luca shook his head. “I-it doesn’t matter! I now have a name, a-and that’s all I care about!”
Tam smiled and gently rubbed the top of the boy’s head. “I’m glad you’re happy with your name, Luca. How about we finish our tea for the evening, and tomorrow night, I’ll tell you a new story about a different constellation.”
With tears still overflowing, Luca nodded, and Tam embraced his son for the first time since they’d met.
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Eli watched from her seat, feeling alarmingly overwhelmed with emotion at the touching scene, but also because anxiety brewed in her gut. While Luca had done absolutely nothing to be suspicious of, behaving every bit the way a normal seven-year-old would in such awkward circumstances, she couldn’t quite free herself of the suspicion that the devil was somehow tied to him.
And if so?
Her heart ached terribly as she stared at her employer’s face while he held the boy in his arms…
She had a feeling it would destroy Tam’s heart. After all, it was plain to see that despite his better judgment, in the span of a day, Tam had already started to love the child that he had named.