Page 70 of Salt in the Seas
His knife clattered to the floor, pulling him from the memories that had swallowed him. A knock sounded on the door, and rage swelled in Gaeren. He pulled the door open, almost wanting Riveran to be on the other side, desperate to give the other man a solid punch. Maybe wanting Riveran to return the punch even more.
Erech stared up eagerly at Gaeren for just a moment before shrinking away. “Um, sorry, Captain, but Larkos needs you at the helm. Says his leg is bothering him. Sorry.”
All the anger drained from Gaeren, leaving him as exhausted as if he’d sailed through a summer storm. “It’s all right, Erech.”
He bent to retrieve his knife, noting his bond mark no longer throbbed. His desire to cut it out now felt like an act of insanity that left him unsettled by his own behavior. Like always, he shrugged it off with humor.
“Tell Larkos that next time he shouldn’t get new tattoos right before we sail out.”
“I don’t think he’ll laugh if I say it, sir. He might actually growl at me.”
Gaeren chuckled and tousled the boy’s hair before following him out on deck. “He’ll growl at me too. That’s what makes it so fun.”
CHAPTER 27
Aeliana stoodin a field of daisies. At her feet, a little girl hunched over, her back blocking Aeliana’s view of her hands and face.
“What are you doing, Daisy?” The voice that came from Aeliana’s lips was young and male, reminding her that this was Gaeren’s memory and not hers.
The little girl didn’t turn. “Nothing.”
“Your mother told me that always means you’re up to something.” Gaeren leaned forward and tugged on the little girl’s elbow, forcing her to turn and allowing Aeliana to see black and purple marks running across the girl’s face and arms. Gaeren gasped. “What did you do?”
Aeliana recognized her own face from the memories Gaeren had shown her before. Her toddler self lifted her chin, exposing more marks down her throat. “I want to be pretty like the sailors who come in town.”
Gaeren’s high laughter floated across the field until it cut off as Aeliana pulled her hands from his. His captain’s quarters came back into view along with Iris sitting on the bed, mending one of Holm’s oversized shirts.
“I did not draw tattoos all over myself.” Aeliana’s horror warred with the humor of the memory, and her face heated as the adult form of Gaeren echoed his childhood laughter from his place on the desk. The nailed-down furniture left him far closer than she wanted, and sheshoved his knees away until he slid off the desk and gave her the space she needed.
“You did.”
Were those tears forming in his eyes?
“And you used the dyes your mother had for ceremony fabrics. They were the brightest colors you could find, and they lasted for weeks.” Fresh chuckles bubbled up, making his sentences break up. “The high priestess was especially embarrassed by a voluptuous Sayhleen tattoo you’d copied from a regular worshiper whose trade route crossed Celanoft every moon.”
Aeliana shoved his arm, making him nearly fall into Iris.
She glanced up from her mending, but her fingers kept moving. Her eyebrows rose and the corner of her lip lifted, which made Aeliana’s face heat even more.
“I think you’re making it up.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
“Memories don’t lie.” Gaeren’s laughter settled into a smile. No, it was definitely a smirk this time. His ability to get under her skin gave him power over her, and he knew it. He seemed to enjoy driving her crazy when they trained, and instead of hating him for it or even ignoring him, she found herself rising to his challenges. She looked forward to their banter more than she’d ever looked forward to Lukai’s interest, which had all but disappeared after his betrayal.
“The tattoos were real, love,” Iris confessed, her eyes shining with mirth. “Your mother threatened to keep you indoors for two moons if you ever did such a thing again. Especially after you tried showing a visiting priestess how the Sayhleen could swim if you moved your arm just so.”
This time, Iris and Gaeren both burst out laughing, and Aeliana gave in to the ridiculousness of the image, shaking her head and smiling. It felt good to let down her guard, even if that meant inviting more of Gaeren’s teasing. At least she could trust these feelings to be real. When she’d regretted her anger over Lukai’s betrayal, she’d wondered if the bond was forcing her to be too forgiving. When she’d felt sorry for the way the bond had driven a wedge between him and Kendalyhn, she’d felt a flare of jealousy that she hadn’t wanted.
Could that kind of confusion ever grow into a bond truly centered on love? Was it even worth trying when underneath the bond, Lukai loved someone else?
It was one more thing she didn’t have time to examine while chasing after starbridges and beating Mayvus back home. Her focus needed to remain on identifying and breaking whatever curse bound her mother to Mayvus.
“I thought you said you could alter the memories shared with your classmates,” Aeliana pointed out. “Couldn’t you have altered yours just to trick me?”
Gaeren’s smirk fell. “Both are difficult, but altering someone else’s memory is far easier, because it’s been passed on to you rather than being an intrinsic part of your own past. Altering my own memory would require illusion on top of a memory, which is more of a theory and a skill I don’t have.” He leaned against the desk and pulled out a small knife, balancing it on his knuckles before letting it spin back to his hand. “Besides, then I would have given you a memory of Iris with the tattoos.”
“Oh, stop.” Iris tossed a pair of Holm’s pants at Gaeren, then shook her head, her smile as big as Aeliana’s.
“I wish I remembered it myself,” Aeliana admitted.
