Page 4 of Salt in the Seas
Holm’s face held a red hue, maybe from his effort at beating the hay bag into submission, but more likely over his eagerness to find his bondmate in the kitchen. He and Iris were the only couple Aeliana knew who were happily bonded. Considering she’d had less than a year in Vendaras, where bonding both symbolized and strengthened marriage ties, that wasn’t saying much.
She rubbed the dark red bond mark on her left palm, still not sure what to think of being tied to Lukai in such a permanent way. She compared it to the ugly black brand bubbled up on her right palm. A bond was meant to connect people in a way that allowed them to protect each other. It went both ways to aid both bondmates. But abrand went one way, allowing the one who performed the branding ceremony to control the other.
They still seemed too similar to Aeliana.
“I should watch for Lukai anyway,” Sylmar said, finally leaving his sanctuary at the room’s edge when the last of the winex had followed Holm from the room. “He and the others are due back from scouting soon. In the morning you can try to show them the peak where Durriken took Mayvus.”
“All right. I’ll go check on my mother.” A wave of anticipation rippled through Aeliana. After years without family, every moment she could spend with her mother was precious.
Sylmar nodded. “I wouldn’t tell her about Durriken’s memory. She’ll find a way to convince herself it means Mayvus is alive, feeding her delusions.”
Aeliana stiffened. “I doubt she’d believe Mayvus was dead even if we presented her sister’s body to her.”
“Which is what made her such a wise leader. Illusions and memories are too easily crafted to take the first thing you see or hear as truth.” He limped through the doorway, throwing his final words over his shoulder. “But no one could survive Durriken’s vengeful jaws.”
“She stillisa wise leader,” Aeliana muttered to the empty room. “And she’s right. Mayvus is alive.” Sylmar was usually the mistrusting one, but with Mayvus, it was almost like he needed the closure too much to see the truth.
It didn’t matter if Aeliana was the only one who believed her mother. They’d prove it to the others soon enough.
The training room was at the center of the fortress, directly above the kitchens. It had probably been a dining room in more affluent times, but now it was empty save the weapons and armor they’d brought in for sparring. Aeliana left it behind for the hall to the eastern wing, passing several soldiers who touched their fingers to their foreheads while inclining their heads in her direction.
She’d given up on deterring the strange custom, deciding to view it as their cultural way of respecting her mother, the high priestess—the woman many of them wanted to be their queen. But it still made her uncomfortable. If Sylmar and the others continued writing Emeris offas a mere figurehead, it wouldn’t be long before they expected Aeliana to fill that role instead.
A glance out the hall window revealed the precarious northern keep where they’d confronted Mayvus. They’d removed all the bodies and blocked off the battlements surrounding it, uncertain when its deteriorating structure would eventually give. Since then, Orra had quietly claimed it, escaping there for days at a time when she wasn’t scouring the mountains for the stone starbridge she was so desperate to find, either unconvinced or unconcerned about the keep’s inevitable fall.
Sometimes Aeliana feared her mother’s mind was like the northern keep. One wrong step could shift the balance and bring the whole thing down.
When she reached her mother’s chambers, the door was already open, Sunlight streaming in through the windows. That was a good sign. Sure enough, she found her mother sitting on the settee instead of lying in bed, her short walnut hair intricately braided. Iris, her mother’s loyal maidservant from years ago, must have been here to help before she made it to the kitchen.
“Aeliana.” Her mother breathed the word out as if it cost her, but her smile seemed sincere.
The starlock hanging from the leather cord around Aeliana’s neck grew warm against her chest, practically begging her to push some of her energy through to ease her mother’s pain. When she did, her mother’s tense posture relaxed ever so slightly.
“You’re looking well.” Aeliana bent down to embrace her mother, taking careful note of her pallor and the dark skin under her eyes. Still, her words were true. Her mother looked better than the day before.
“Yes, unfortunately.”
Aeliana laughed lightly as she settled next to her mother. “Usually people find that to be a good thing.”
“Not if it means she’s getting stronger too.”
Aeliana grimaced. “Durriken gave me a memory today. He showed me the cave where he took her body. I think I might be able to find the right peak for the soldiers to search.”
Her mother patted her hair, her face troubled. “They won’t find her.She’s been healing just like me. If Mayvus were dead, I would be too because of the curse. I told your father the same thing after the dragon took Mayvus.”
Aeliana’s heart sank. Gaeren, Riveran, and Cyrus had traveled across the barrier to look for her father weeks ago. No one had seen him for years, not since the day he’d taken Aeliana across the barrier for her safety just to be overpowered by two of Mayvus’ Zealots.
She understood why the others didn’t trust anything Emeris said about Mayvus to be true when she had these moments of confusion.
“If my father’s alive, he’s on the other side of the Lorvandan barrier.” The gentle reminder made Emeris furrow her brow.
“Oh, that’s right,” her mother said. “I hope the others find him before Mayvus returns.”
“You still think she used the stone starbridge to cross the barrier to Ahmranas?” Aeliana asked as she pulled the piece of parchment from her pocket.
“If the people can’t find the starbridge or her body, it’s the only thing that makes sense. She wasn’t dead that night, but she was weak. She couldn’t have made it far.”
Aeliana nodded, hating her mother’s logic because it meant Mayvus was out of their reach, growing stronger. Orra had denied the possibility, claiming she would have sensed it because of her strange connection to the four starbridges. After the Great Divide, when all of Rhystahn had been broken into five lands and separated by water and barriers, the Sun had forged four objects to take people across the barriers: a golden arrow, an onyx stone, a silver fish, and an iron cutlass. Each one connected a different land to Vendaras.
