Page 169 of Salt in the Seas
“No message. Didn’t you just send him home?”
Gaeren and Riveran traded looks. Why would Emeris have sent the bird without a message? What could that mean? Nothing good.
“I’d like to see Gullet,” Gaeren said.
Enla’s eyebrows rose, but she nodded. “I can fetch him in the morning.”
“Why weren’t you in meetings today?” Riveran asked.
Enla’s face finally held the guilt Gaeren had wanted to see after all of her unauthorized sifting through the future. “I’ve been banned from council meetings for a week.”
“A week?” Gaeren asked.
“Like a child being sent to her room,” she added bitterly.
“What did you do?” Riveran winced.
“I was in the office. I suggested we pardon the dragon.”
“Durriken?” Gaeren asked.
“They still hunt for him. He’s been sighted outside of Islara. But he needs to live. Every path in which they kill him ends in darkness, in death.” Her eyes darted left and right until Gaeren leaned forward and shook her back to the present.
“Stop sifting the future.” He drew each word out, ensuring she heard him, insisting she focus.
She licked her lips and nodded. “It’s just that it’s constantly changing,” she whispered. “I want what’s best for the people. You know that, Gaeren. You know that everything I do is for the people. But there are so many variables. The paths I see shift and change,like the sands of the Bahlric Desert in the wind. I can’t nail down what will really happen unless I keep sifting.”
He shook her again. “You can’t help anyone if you completely lose touch with the present reality.”
She winced as his grip tightened, and Riveran pulled him away. “Leave her be for now.”
“But she’s killing herself,” Gaeren argued.
Riveran held up a hand, and Gaeren finally noticed the way the other man’s eyes had turned red. “I know, but you can’t bully her into doing what’s best for herself.”
Gaeren clenched his jaw and sat back down on the bed, watching as Riveran kneeled before Enla and placed his hands on the sides of her face. “Enla,” he murmured, “look at me.” It was far too familiar a touch for an old bondmate when she was married and bonded to someone else. But where was Croft now? Playing war with the navy he’d procured from the south? What kind of navy could he stir up in this case anyway?
“Please take a break,” Riveran said. “You’re different from the last time I saw you. It’s not healthy.”
“You’re different from the last time I saw you, too.” Enla’s eyes filled with tears, and she brushed a hand over the X on his forehead. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
He dropped his hands and scooted back from her touch as if finally realizing how intimate it had been.
“Have Mother and Father regained their strength?” Gaeren asked.
Enla shrugged. “Not completely, but they have started participating in council meetings again. I think it’s because they don’t trust me anymore. They’ve been giving more authority to Croft too. And I suspect that when he returns, they’ll have him take my place at many of the meetings.”
“But he’s only a prince consort,” Gaeren argued. “He has no authority in his own right.”
“He does if Mother and Father give it to him,” Enla said.
Gaeren rubbed his eyes. “Is this why you asked us to come back? You made it sound like you saw visions of something. Something we needed to know.”
“I did?” Enla asked. Her brow furrowed once more, and she looked around the room as if it might hold answers to his question. “Oh, yes. Emeris is coming.”
“Emeris is coming here?” Gaeren couldn’t hide the disbelief in his tone. There were probably a thousand possibilities for the future, and now she was latching on to the ones that seemed the most concerning, even if they were the least possible. “Emeris was too weak to leave the fortress. The soldiers were guarding her in case Mayvus returned.”
“I don’t—” She glanced at her hands, which she opened and closed, as if weighing the possibilities in her hands. “I think so. It felt so real. I saw her arrive with two men announcing themselves as ambassadors from the eastern province. When that happens, you need to show yourself—to vouch for them.”
