Page 168 of Salt in the Seas
She made a face. “It’s nothing like that. Tobias has been checking us all for brands daily—Mother and Father especially.”
“So then you know Mayvus is alive?”
Enla hesitated. “Yes, although they’re not sure they believe me now. I’ve just…mixed up some of the things I’ve seen. It’s not a problem. I confused some of the minor details after seeing so many options.”
“Enla,” Gaeren said on a growl. “We’ve talked about?—”
She held up a hand. “I know. I’m doing less searching.”
Once again, her words didn’t feel quite true, and Gaeren placed a hand on her arm, using his secondary spoke to assess the truth of her words while also tuning in to her memories. Some of them came through disjointed, reminding him of Marnok’s broken mind. Even within her own memories, she wasn’t sure which visions she’d seen as possibilities versus which things had truly happened.
“You’re not trying at all,” he said. “You’re letting every possibility come to your mind.”
“How else am I supposed to direct an entire nation?” she hissed, wrenching her arm away to break their touch. Her face held an anger he hadn’t seen since they were children, her composure broken. But just as swiftly, she smoothed out her features and raised her chin. “Despite my confusion, we’re moving forward in the right direction. Croft has brought the navy north to prepare a defense against the Recreants.”
“The Recreants?”
“I’ve seen war coming to our doorstep.”
Gaeren and Riveran exchanged a glance. They’d spoken with Velden’s old friends. The navy was corrupt and full of Recreants. She’d likely just brought war to their doorstep.
“Just like you thought you’d seen me break my bond with Lenda?”
Her brow furrowed. “But you did.”
He rolled his eyes and steered her toward the chair in his room, guiding her to sit down. “Now I did. But last time I was here, you thought I already had.”
“It’s good that you did.” She ignored his concerns. “Lenda was sick for a while, but now she’s free. If we announce your return, she’ll come to thank you.”
Gaeren hesitated. “Why would we announce my return if you think Mother and Father are still angry?”
“We won’t.” She looked up at him, but her eyes focused somewhere beyond him. “I’m just saying she would if we did.”
Riveran’s lips thinned as he pressed them together. “So you’re saying you searched out a possibility you had no intention of pursuing.”
“Yes.” Enla frowned, somehow not seeing this as a problem when it had been strictly forbidden by her mentors for her sanity. “Seeking out those kinds of possibilities helps me understand where a person’s heart is at in the present. I know that she’s not angry with you because she would thank you if she could, which means I know for now she is safe to be considered an ally, not a threat.”
Gaeren ran a hand through his hair, his frustration bleeding into his words. “When would Lenda have ever been a threat?”
Enla’s gaze clouded over once more. “There was a time when I told you to lean into the bond, because if you hadn’t, she would have gone public with your betrayal, making the entire family out to be untrustworthy.”
Gaeren sat on the edge of his bed, placing his elbows on his knees and balancing his head in his palms. “What changed?”
Enla hummed in thought. “I’m not sure. It was something about your voyage to Rykarn. Something about that made her realize she didn’t want to be tied to this family. I think she might have broken the bond herself if I hadn’t told her to give it more time.”
Gaeren shook his head in disbelief. “All while I was hoping she would do it.”
“That’s a coward’s way out, Gaeren,” Enla warned him. “It would have been far worse for her.”
Even as Gaeren questioned his sister’s sanity, he shrank under her chastising. “Well, it’s done now,” he muttered.
Enla’s face brightened with a smile. “I think it helped Mother and Father see you as less of a threat and more of a nuisance again.”
“Again?” Gaeren asked.
“Oh, stop,” she said. “You preferred it that way. When Gullet returned, I think they suspected you might be coming. It’s fortunate the guards didn’t see you. I’ll have to pay off the stable boys for their silence.”
Riveran stood a little straighter. “Gullet’s here? Did he have a message?”
