Page 43 of Leviathan's Song
I wasn’t ready to take such a charitable view of the situation. “Isn’t there some kind of medical help for him?”
Levi stooped to pluck a seashell from the sand at the edge of the path and absently rubbed at it with his thumb as we walked. “Sure, of course there is. But it doesn’t do any good unless he wants the help. I’ve tried in the past to get him into some programs. But they cost money we don’t really have, and he hasn’t responded well to any of them anyway.”
He paused on the path, looking out at the ocean below as it roared against a wave break farther out from shore, before eventually dropping his shell back into the sand at his feet. “I get frustrated with him all the time, but I think the broken bond he had to my mom is just too painful for him to bear.”
And that, right there, was the crux of the matter. Why he made a home for himself in the Void, even though it would eventually shorten his lifespan by decades. Why he’d permanently marked his body with defensive runes. Why he kept me at arm’s length, even though it didn’t appear to be his desire.
Now that I could see it all, I didn’t know what to do about any of it, except to be careful of his boundaries and hope we could figure it out together.
I stooped to pick up the shell he’d dropped.
Chapter 16
Saturday morning was spent frantically packingfor a two-week trip through the wilderness. Since our route would keep us away from most towns, I needed to bring our supplies with us from the start, so I did my best to pack practically: stout boots, warm clothing, easily washed blankets, and waterproof jackets.
I also refilled the venom compartments on my wasps and made sure I had all of my amulets in peak condition.
My mom was already tracking down dry rations and maps for us. I was looking forward to seeing her—however briefly—on Monday. I hadn’t seen her since before she left to go spend time with my dad while he worked several months ago. She often spent time traveling back and forth between the estate and wherever my dad was located.
Admittedly, I was a little nervous for her to meet Levi. She’d seemed a little surprised to find out a ‘boy’ was accompanying me on the delivery trip instead of Sidney but didn’t give her opinion about it either way.
Rafe was the only male she’d ever seen me interact with, and as implausible as it was, I think, deep down in her romantic heart, she’d always hoped I’d end up with him someday. How she thought that would work out biologically, I have no idea. The man was a sentient tree. I missed him terribly, but I’d never thought of him as anything more than a brother.With lots of bark and thorns.
By the time early afternoon rolled around, it was time to meet up with Levi. We were heading into Oar’s Rest to meet with a group of sprites Muriel had arranged for us to speak with last minute. I appreciated that she seemed to be taking my requests seriously, but the tenor of her messages made me suspect the rest of the council might not be.
Levi met me at the Gate to Oar’s Rest and his magic curled around me as I neared him, frothy seawater and warm sunshine. He was leaning against a brick column, wearing slightly dressier clothes than usual, with a long-sleeved button-down shirt cuffed up to just under his elbows. His dark blond hair was tousled, and he grinned when he saw me, making my heart give a happy little flutter.
“You look nice,” I complimented him.
“It seemed respectful,” he said, glancing down at his outfit. “I wasn’t sure who you were meeting with, and I didn’t want to risk rolling up on some feudal lord in sweatpants and a hoodie.”
I gave him a small smile, which felt a little wistful because he always looked so snuggly in his comfortable t-shirts and sweats.
“My Empress deserves a better escort than some scrub in track clothes.” He gave a tiny, self-deprecating smirk and pushed off the wall to head for the Gate.
“I like your track clothes,” I said a little distractedly as I studied the painful looking bruise on his jaw. “It looks worse than it did last night,” I said gently, feeling my smile dim a bit.
His smile turned a bit lopsided as I followed him to the guard and through the Gate. “Yeah,” he finally replied once we were through to the other side. “It doesn’t feel great.” He raised a hand to touch the bruise and thought better of it at the last second.
“This is the entrance.” He gestured to a courtyard gate to our left. It was a simple break in the stone wall, with an ancient looking gate that had ivy so deeply embedded in it that it would have been impossible to close it.
We were supposed to be meeting a sprite named Arvad at a fountain in front of the courthouse. I took a moment to focus myself and stepped into the courtyard. It was time to see what kind of situation I was working with.
“If you can’t understand them, I can probably translate,” Levi stated quietly as he followed me through the entrance.
That probably should have occurred to me to ask. Any time I’d dealt with sprites in the past, they’d been shore traders, so they’d spoken all the common languages. But that hadn’t happened more than a small handful of times. They just didn’t care to come to the surface very often.
“How many languages do you speak?” I asked, curious.
“Just three.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Only common and the mer dialect fluently. My Abyssean is passable, since the mer language is related.”
Abyssean was the commonly spoken language between most Oceanic races. Many had their own languages, and various dialects within those groups, but somehow Abyssean had become dominant. I didn’t know enough of their history to know why, though.
We headed toward the multi-tiered fountain set in the courtyard, and I noticed the courthouse visitors were giving it a wide berth. As we got closer, I saw over a dozen fairies sitting on the edges or crouched in the water. Many of them held tiny signs I couldn’t read, and even more bared their teeth and hurled copper coins from the bottom of the fountain at passersby who got too close. I wondered briefly if that would negatively affect the wish of the person who had deposited the coin in the first place.
“What are they saying?” I asked Levi, unable to understand the sprite’s unorganized clamor. Granted, I couldn’t have understood them even if it had only been one speaking, since none of it was in a language I recognized.
“They’re angry,” he murmured quietly, reaching out to toy with the ends of my hair as he explained. “They say they aren’t being provided for after their evacuation. One is yelling that he thinks the Alliance provoked the kelpies into attacking. Another one is holding a sign that says the Alliance is just going to wait until The Deep is destroyed so it can secure all of their heartstones.”
