Page 59 of Salt in the Seas
She turned to face him, then sighed at the determined tilt of his chin. “I don’t suppose we can put this off until tomorrow and simply enjoy being on the water?”
His beard shifted into one of his rare smiles. “No, we can’t.”
Gaeren approached, his face more relaxed than Aeliana had ever seen it, his eyes practically sparkling with the joy of being back on his ship. “Did Erech and Thallahan get you settled?”
“Yes.” Aeliana glanced at the overeager boy climbing the rigging. “Erech even promised he’d share his secret stash of sweets if I kept it between him and me. I’m not sure if you suggested he show me the ropes for his sake or mine.”
Gaeren shrugged. “Can’t it be both?”
“I’ll take one of those sweets,” Velden said with a grin as he joined them.
“Sorry,” Aeliana said. “He said he’d only share them with me.”
Velden’s overdramatic pout didn’t concern her.
“I’ve asked Kendalyhn to make sure no one disturbs us.” As always, Sylmar got straight to the point. He led them toward the captain’s cabin, where Kendalyhn leaned against the door, looking beyond bored.
“Wait.” Gaeren rushed to catch up. “What are you doing?”
Aeliana glanced around, but those who were above deck were too far away and too busy to pay attention to her words. “It’s possible we got my spoke wrong when we first tested it.”
Gaeren’s eyebrows rose. “I saw your light shield. There’s no mistaking that.”
She tamped down the warmth rising at his admiration. “Maybe, but it’s been dimming. And when you arrived, I saw memories of your time in Lorvandas. The memories were from Cyrus.”
Gaeren’s brow pinched in confusion.
“We need to test it again,” Sylmar said, confirming Aeliana’s fear.
“In your cabin,” Velden added, then raised his brows.
“Absolutely not.” Gaeren crossed his arms over his chest.
Velden steepled his hands under his chin and glanced back and forth between Sylmar and Gaeren, thoroughly enjoying the moment.
“It’s where the women are staying anyway. Where else can we do it without prying eyes?” Sylmar asked as Kendalyhn opened the door and shooed them all in.
“Which test will you be using?” Gaeren asked. “At the academy, they almost always ended in fire or with something broken. I’m not exactly eager for you to destroy my ship or endanger my crew.”
Lukai hurried across the deck, stepping in just before Sylmar shut the door behind him.
Aeliana twisted her hands. Velden was still amused, but now she had only fear. “I agree. We should wait until we’re on land where it’s safer.”
Her first test had been terrible. It had come on the heels of her years with Arvid and Vera, who had taken her blood to do terrible things. Sylmar hadn’t meant to prod at that painful past, but the test he’d given her had been an illusion, showing Sylmar taking blood from Cyrus. It had been meant to push her to heal his wound, recall the memory, or identify it as a falsehood, depending on which spoke was her strength. If she was a somatic progeny, she would have tried healing him, which is what she had done and why they’d suspected that was her primary spoke. But she’d also seen the vision of Cyrus being cut, and she’d recognized it as a lie. At the time, her body had been so bloated with magic, it had been impossible for them to obtain a definitive result.
“It can’t wait.” Sylmar began clearing Gaeren’s desk, placing instruments and papers on shelves.
Gaeren came behind him, rearranging them all with a scowl.
“We’ve already put it off for too long,” Sylmar continued. “Your magic was muddled by its sheer capacity. We meant to test it again, but then your affinity for healing seemed to make it pointless. Especially once you were able to make light shields. But perhaps that’s your secondary spoke, and we’ve been developing the wrong one. Now that you’re fully weaned, your magic is settling. You may not be able to develop that constructive somatic spoke any further, which means we need to identify your primary spoke and develop that.”
He patted the chair at the desk, and Aeliana reluctantly sat. “Wouldn’t this skill have shown earlier if it were my primary spoke?”
A strange cross between a grunt and a laugh escaped Sylmar’s lips. “I’m beginning to wonder if it did show earlier and we simply missed it. I always thought it was odd that you saw Cyrus wounded in your initial test. Even if constructive somatic is your secondary spoke, that leaves constructive noetic or destructive pneumatic as your primary spoke, because they have to be adjacent. Receiving memories is found on the destructive noetic spoke. So it still doesn’t quite fit.”
“Unless she’s a constructive noetic and she was tappinginto her opposite spoke,” Gaeren mused. “It’s far easier for me to take memories, but I can still give them if I’m touching someone. They’re just not as clear.”
Aeliana’s head swam, and she wished she had a copy of the Wheel of Magic in front of her so she could line up their words with a picture of the spokes on the Wheel. “Your memories were clearer than my own when you shared them with me.”
