Eira was already on her feet with restless excitement. “Yes, of course.” “You would do well to remember this kindness.” Adela stood as
well.
“I will not forget, Your Banefulness.”
Adela leaned back slightly, arching a brow, no doubt taking note of Eira’s use of Crow’s term of endearment. Eira smiled somewhat sheepishly and strode forward, leading the way out of the cabin. She could’ve sworn she heard Adela murmur under her breath. But the words were lost to her. Perhaps, when she had her magic back, she could listen for echoes in the room and find out everything Adela said about her when she thought Eira couldn’t hear.
“I will bring you back in the morning,” Adela said firmly as she came to a stop by the railing. “Be ready first thing when the sun rises.”
“Of course.” The other boat was adjacent and just behind them. She could see her friends on the deck, sitting in the back of the vessel. Though they had yet to notice her. Eira refrained from calling over, maintaining her composure.
Without warning, Adela flicked her wrist. The river swelled, collecting Eira off the deck and carrying her across to the other vessel. The rocking from the wave alerted her friends, drawing their attention before Eira was deposited—soaking—in front of them.
But her being dripping wet didn’t stop Alyss from scrambling over and slamming into her, crushing Eira in a tight embrace. “You’re all right!”
“I told you she was!” Ducot was visibly offended.
Noelle was the next person to throw her arms around Eira. Such outward displays of affection were rare from the woman and Eira stood stunned. “We were so worried.”
“Noelle?” Ducot grabbed his chest as though he were physically wounded. “You, too, didn’t believe me?”
“You are a fearsome pirate who can’t be trusted,” Noelle said lightly, pulling away from Eira. “It is so good to see you again. We were missing our fearless leader and troublemaker.”
“The feeling was mutual.” Eira gave them both a final squeeze as they released each other. Her eyes met Cullen’s.
He simply stood there with a slight smile. His gaze had gone soft, almost shining. The sunset haloed his hair in gold and outlined his shoulders, as though he were woven by the magic of Lightspinning. He stood as tall and strong as she remembered him, perhaps even stronger, given the swell of his muscles against his shirt, no doubt from his labors on the ship.
The world faded away. The sound of the vessels cutting through the water, propelled by wind, vanished. They were alone on the boat, him and her.
I love you; I’ve always loved you, his words echoed to her. The last thing he’d said before he took a blade for her. Those words had never received a response. So much still left unsaid surrounding them.
“It’s good to see you, Eira,” he murmured.
“And you.” Eira nodded, trying to keep her voice level and steady. We should talk, she wanted to say. But she couldn’t pull him away right now. Plus, she wanted time with her other friends, also. And there was nowhere that even resembled the privacy she’d want for a discussion with Cullen.
Eira followed Alyss and Noelle back to where they’d been sitting— where Ducot, Varren, and Lavette were still. Cullen was a step behind. Eira was painfully aware that he had yet to touch her. He returned to his former spot between Alyss and Noelle.
“I take the fact that you’re not all confined to the hold as a good sign.” Eira sat and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them as she dripped dry.
“We’re permitted out of the hold and have been given freedom along the boat, for the most part,” Noelle said.
“So long as we’re ‘good,’” Varren added. He sounded like he hadn’t been taking the warning from the pirates as seriously as he potentially should have been.
“Not good enough to remove these.” Noelle lifted her wrist and turned to Ducot. “I’m glaring at you.”
“I can feel it,” Ducot assured her. “At least some of you could have it removed.”
“I couldn’t!” Noelle lowered her hand as a fist, tapping it into her thigh in frustration.
“Unfortunately, fire is not very useful on boats. The opposite. And you’re all still on thin ice with our queen.” Ducot shifted closer to her, draping his arm around her shoulders. It was good to see that they had remained on positive terms.
Eira smiled and Noelle rolled her eyes at her. Though a faint dusky blush was barely visible on the russet hue of her skin.
Eira turned to Alyss. “I’ve heard you were helpful to the crew.”
She nodded. “They seemed surprised I could manipulate ropes so well. I told them it wasn’t very hard.”
“For an expert like you, maybe.” Eira nudged her shoulder against Alyss’s.
“By the way, thank you.” Alyss lifted the journal they’d procured in the market from the deck at her side—the same journal that Eira had grabbed when she’d gone back to Warich with Ducot.
“I told them how you insisted on getting their things,” Ducot said.
Eira released tension she’d been holding between her ribs since Adela hadn’t solidly said one way or another what had happened with the rest of the contents of Eira’s bag. Yet another gesture of kindness from the pirate queen. Adela really wasn’t living up to her bloodthirsty and heartless reputation when it came to them.
“It wasn’t much to do,” Eira said.
“Having my family’s rubies is priceless.” Noelle reached over to squeeze Eira’s forearm.
“Sorry I couldn’t get anything of yours,” Eira said to Lavette and Varren. “If I’d had more time…”
Lavette shook her head. “We understand. And your teammates have been generous enough to share some of their clothes with us.” She pulled at the hem of the cloak she was wearing. Eira recognized it as Alyss’s.
“We’re all stuck here together, might as well make the most of it.” Alyss smiled.
“Speaking of stuck.” Cullen met Eira’s eyes once more, pinning her with an expectant stare. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been all right.” They didn’t need to know about her time in the other ship’s hold, or about the scraps and initial cruelty. “Adela hasn’t hurt me. In fact, she’s going to help me get my magic back.”
“That’s excellent!” Alyss clapped her hands.
“What does she want in return?” Lavette’s skepticism was understandable. She was far too astute not to ask.
Eira tried to answer without really answering. “I’m going to help her test out some magic.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Cullen said warily.
Eira shrugged. “What choice do I have? It’s better to chance it and regain my power.”
“What if she wants to experiment with some kind of torture on you?” Cullen frowned.
“She hasn’t yet, and I’ve been completely vulnerable.”
“If Adela says she won’t harm someone, she will always honor that,” Ducot insisted.
Eira had her doubts. Ducot’s opinion was likely colored by Adela having been the one to take him in and shelter him. The whole crew’s was. But this was the same woman who had committed regicide and could laugh about it. While all rulers had their flaws, the last King Solaris had been generally regarded as a fair and fine ruler in all the history books Eira had read. But she had made a promise to someone not to attack Meru and seemed bent on honoring that… Perhaps there was something to Ducot’s claims.
“Eira might not be the one at risk.” There was a touch of chill to Lavette’s usually calm and level words. “She might be the one helping the torture of others. Can you live with your magic being used for Adela’s more nefarious purposes?”
Eira hadn’t fully considered that notion. Though, it didn’t change her plans. “I can’t change how Adela will or won’t use her magic. And she has a lot of means to hurt people as it is.”
“But will you enable her learning new tricks—expanding those means?” “I don’t have a choice.”
Lavette narrowed her eyes slightly. “We always have a choice.”
Eira pursed her lips. What she didn’t risk saying on deck with pirates— even with Ducot—was that her plan was to get her magic back as quickly as possible and then use it to flee at the first second she could, teaching Adela as little as possible. But Lavette was right in that she might not have the chance. In truth, just speaking through magical theories could’ve helped the pirate queen gain new and horrible ideas.
“Well, I like living, and I don’t think me helping Adela or not will change anything about her terrorizing the seas.”
“You’re more heartless than I thought,” Lavette said with a faint note of disappointment. It rubbed Eira wrong. Who was she to judge?
“I am trying to help us all survive,” Eira said firmly. She pointed back behind the boat, back in the direction of Warich. “My family might still be out there. My uncle could be a prisoner of those zealots because they had already begun going after him as a result of me. My heart is with us and them and keeping us all as safe as best I can. I will do whatever it takes to accomplish that.”
“There is more to this world than just your family and friends.”
“Not anymore. You saw the royals’ box. No one could’ve survived that.” The words were like blades against her heart. She knew she was talking about her uncle as much as she was Vi or Lumeria. It was the folly of hope. Where logic and reason fought against what her better sense told her.
“Aldrik and Vi were powerful Firebearers; it’s possible they could’ve manipulated the flames,” Noelle suggested hopefully.
“They were flames made from flash beads,” Varren said grimly. “That is not normal fire.”
“Don’t doubt the power of people’s magic.” Noelle clearly wasn’t going to let herself be dissuaded.
“Yes,” Lavette agreed. “Some could’ve survived.”
“You’re right. And I hope they did. I really do.” Eira hoped her uncle had succeeded in getting people out. She’d seen him summon ice to defend himself from an avalanche that was seconds from toppling him. Maybe he did survive and saved others. “But, even if some did, not all of them made it out. Lumeria certainly didn’t. She was too far forward. And she was the one holding together the Treaty of Five Kingdoms. Whether we like it or not…
governments have fallen and the ones that survived are hanging by threads.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Lavette raised her voice slightly. It was uncharacteristic and that stilled Eira. “I also watched my father die that day. You aren’t the only one who doesn’t know where your family might be, or hopes against hope they’re alive.”
“Then you should want to do whatever it takes to get back to him, too.” How was it they were so similar and yet not seeing eye to eye? If getting to her father meant working with Adela, then why not?
“If my father did manage to survive, he would want me to move forward, not back. I need to go home. Our people need leaders as desperately now as ever. They need the truth of what happened brought back to them from someone they trust—someone who was there, because rumors will no doubt spread. With the treaty falling apart, we will be vulnerable to Carsovia. And all that is why I can’t look solely at myself. I must focus on the big picture and how everything I do will impact the world around me, intentionally or not.” Lavette stood, looking down at her. “All your power… You could do so much good, Eira.”
“I have always tried to ‘do good,’” Eira said quietly, frustration seeping into her voice. And where had “doing good” got her? Never very far. “But I have no power right now. I can’t do anything without magic.”
“Your strength is, and always was, in more than magic.”
“We can agree to disagree there.” Eira smiled thinly. What did Lavette really think she could do without magic? What power did Eira have without it? Her magic was her bargaining chip with Adela; it was the reason they were all still alive. Her magic would be what ultimately ended Ulvarth.
Lavette continued to give her a hard stare for another long minute. Finally, she said, “I took you for better. But perhaps you really are the daughter of Adela. Because only a frozen pirate queen could be so callous and think only of themselves.”
Before Eira could reply, Lavette stormed away. Probably for the best. It was taking all of Eira’s control not to lay into her. Varren’s attention darted between them. He sighed and shook his head.
“I’ll speak to her.” Varren stood. “She’s just frustrated by feeling helpless for days on end. Not having any control over her destiny is hard for her.” He left, following after Lavette.
“Never a dull moment with you, is there?” Ducot had a smile as Varren left.
Eira sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Just for once, I wish there was.”
