Page 47 of Salt in the Seas
“Or it could just be that you’re a sailor.” Orra shrugged. “Maybe I’m trying to make it out to be something it’s not.”
Gaeren snorted and tucked the starlock back under his tunic. It had been a mystery ever since he’d received it. He couldn’t expect to solve it right at this moment. “I guess I’d better find Sylmar since no one else wants to tell me what I’ve missed. Even though I risked my life to bring back Rildan and the arrow.”
A faint smile crossed Orra’s face as she pushed off the battlement’sedge. “You’re the arrow’s protector now. Hold it close until we have the others.” Her unhurried gait as she turned to the northern keep’s door was almost painfully slow.
He was tempted to escort her up the stairs but felt certain her pride wouldn’t appreciate it. Instead, he turned back and headed for the main hall. Sylmar had some explaining to do.
CHAPTER 18
Orra climbed the steps,letting her hands run over the vines that still grew from the night she’d used her power to kill so many and save so few. She’d felt peace in that moment that she was doing what the Sun wanted, but now she let the events replay through her mind, second-guessing all she’d done. Helping Aeliana and these people had been the right thing to do, and yet she’d interfered. It went against all she knew, and it delayed all her goals. And yet it had been the Sun’s will. Hadn’t it?
She might have been able to get the stone’s location from Mayvus, but now that Mayvus was gone, Orra had no more leads to follow. She made her way through Mayvus’ rooms, ignoring the mess left behind from battle and the care for the wounded. No one else dared spend time in the northern keep because of its instability, but Orra longed for its precarious balcony. Not only could she guarantee solitude under the Stars and Sun, but she almost welcomed the keep’s demise. After a thousand years of being grounded on the earth, she was ready to return to the Sun, if it would even welcome her.
She stepped out on the balcony, tracing the faint lines of ash left from the Stars who had retrieved starlocks the night of the battle. Eventually, she settled in the dark outline of where Jasperus’ body had been burned up. Where Reyna had rejected her as a peer once more. She could still smell the heat and smoke coming from her formerfriend, could still sense her ethereal presence as if her stardust lingered.
But Reyna and the others had abandoned her. They had given up on her ability to redeem herself, and they wanted nothing to do with her.
She lay there, studying the static stars and their constellations, waiting for her old friends to begin their dance. Andreas made his entrance, a slow buzzing loop, like a bee circling a flower for its honey. Lumina had a more abrupt approach, jolting through the sky in sporadic patterns. Reyna was as graceful as always, the smooth lines of her dance a pure form of art.
Several others joined in, making Orra feel the loss of companionship with a heaviness that only highlighted how much she was bound by gravity in this form. She had once treasured the ability to take on this body and fellowship with the people, but she’d never thought she would have to give up her space in the sky. She’d never thought she would lose her relationship with the Sun.
A tightness squeezed in her gut, then spread out to her limbs until her entire body grew tense. She sat up, evaluating the way the tension felt like a string wound in an instrument, taut and plucked. Humming with its vibration.
This was far more than grief.
She placed a hand over the braid tied around her wrist like a bracelet, letting its hum reverberate through her fingers.
Someone was touching the stone.
CHAPTER 19
Watching her parents’reunion should have been inspiring, but it tickled at a sense of loss in the depths of Aeliana’s heart. She tried to be grateful that they were all back together instead of counting all the years that had been stolen by Mayvus.
They sat at the table in her mother’s room, her parents hardly noticing the food they ate as they stared into each other’s eyes and talked over each other with all their questions. As much as Aeliana wanted the reunion to include her, she sensed they needed some time alone after so many years apart.
“I’m going to check in with Sylmar.” She stood from her place at the table, setting down her napkin. She dreaded giving him an update, but the memories she’d received still ran through her mind, unwilling to be ignored. Was it possible for Cyrus to have magic? Or had Gaeren’s noetic skills somehow traveled through Cyrus? Or was this just further evidence that she didn’t understand her own magic?
It was the last thought that brought her right back to feeling uneasy with the power flowing through her blood. It left her wondering if she could ever feel at home with the Vendarans and their magic—if she could ever feel at peace in her own body.
Her father stood as well and wrapped his arms around her, the sensation welcome but odd enough that Aeliana didn’t quite squeeze him back. There was a frailness to him that didn’t match the strengthin the memories both Gaeren and her mother had given her from when she was a toddler.
“In many ways you feel like a stranger, but I aim to change that.” He pulled back and lowered himself to look her in the eyes. “I know you’re beyond the age of needing a father, but I still want to be that for you.”
Aeliana smiled tentatively. “I don’t think the title goes away when a child becomes an adult. And I’ve had no father figure in my life. I still need one.”
He hugged her again, and this time Aeliana returned his tight grip, squashing down the confusion festering within her. Everything should feel right, but nothing did. Mayvus was still alive, they hadn’t found the stone starbridge, and the magic she thought she’d learned to control was changing on her.
“Maybe tomorrow the three of us can spend the day together, catching up on all we’ve missed.” Her mother’s words were met with agreement from her father, so Aeliana nodded as well.
She made her way down the hall until she came to Sylmar’s quarters. He tended to turn in after the evening meal, rarely interested in socializing and often needing to soak his aching leg. Aeliana couldn’t help wondering if their travels and battles were finally catching up to him and his body was resisting all he’d been put through.
She knew his scars came from the brands Mayvus had given him over the years, the brands he’d cut out when he’d left her side. But his limp remained unexplained. He was close in age to her parents, but his experience and injuries made him seem far older.
A rap on his door revealed stirrings from within, confirmation that he’d turned in for the night. When the door opened, he squinted into the torchlight of the hall, only giving a grunt of acknowledgment.
“Something happened today.” Aeliana didn’t bother with pleasantries. Sylmar never did. “Something I thought you should know.”
His eyes opened wider, as if he was coming fully awake. He scanned her from head to toe. “You found something in Mayvus’ notes?”
