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CASKS WERE FILLED WITH sweet water and lashed to the mast. Supplies were packed and repacked into compartments built into the deck. The deck shelter was inspected and repaired, and the sails unfurled, inspected, and deemed ready. Aven had been sailing with his parents for his entire life, but he couldn’t remember ever before having gone over the canoe with such meticulous care. Finally, Aleia stood back, folded her arms over her chest, and nodded.
“We’re ready.”
Then there was nothing else to do but push the canoe into the water, scramble aboard, and stay out of the way as Aleia took the lines. She held her hand out, studying the horizon, and set their course.
South. Aven stared out at the water, watching as the island slowly faded into the distance. Never before had setting out on a journey seemed so ominous.
“How long will we be at sea?” Aria asked, sitting down next to him and taking his hand.
“I don’t know,” Aven answered. “It’ll be a long trip, I think. When we go visit Ama’s family, we’re usually sailing for three or four days. And they’re not near land at all.”
“If we keep a good wind, we’ll probably start seeing ships in fourteen or fifteen days,” Jehan added. “Once we see our first ship, we’ll be about four or five days from Forge.”
“It’s that far?” Aria gasped. She looked around, then frowned. “I... Aleia, may I ask you a question?” She got up and walked across the deck to where Aleia stood.
“I think Aria just noticed that there’s no privacy,” Jehan murmured to Aven. Aven frowned, looked at his father, then realized what Jehan meant.
“Oh, I... Fa—”
“We’ll look away, son. We’ll look away.” Jehan answered. “She’s going to have to get used to other customs. When she finds her Earthborn... well, if she finds another Healer, she’s going to get an education.” He grinned. “You will, too.”
“Fa!”
“Take it from someone who knows, Ven. Healers tend to be much more open-minded about...” Jehan’s voice trailed off, then he shrugged. “Everything. So when you finally meet a healer who’s actually been trained in a Healing center in Earth tribe lands—”
“Other than you,” Aven interjected.
“Other than me,” Jehan agreed. “You’re going to find yourself shocked at least once. Possibly more than once. I know I regularly shocked the fins off of your mother and Liara.”
“But not Milon or... what was his name?”
“Memfis. And no, not them. They were both born and raised in Forge, and there’s enough intermingling of blood between Fire and Earth that there was a healing center in Forge. I don’t know if it’s still there. But it was, so Milon and Memfis knew what to expect.” He grinned. “You’ll get your feet kicked out from under you, Ven. And about time, too.”
“Fa!” Aven felt his face growing warmer. “That’s... I don’t really want to talk about that.”
Jehan looked puzzled. “You never had an issue before.” Then he glanced back over his shoulder. “Oh. Lack of privacy?”
Aven nodded. “Fa, if I’m her Companion, that means that at some point she’ll want me to share her bed.”
Jehan nudged Aven’s arm and got up, leading his son to the far side of the canoe, as far from the women as it was possible to be. “Is that a problem, Ven?” Jehan asked, very serious. “I know you don’t have a lot of experience—”
“Any,” Aven interrupted. “Any experience.”
“Oh?” Jehan breathed. “Oh, and here I was assuming because you’d gone swimming with that girl from Chiandre’s canoe. The last time that we were with the family.”
“Mera?” Aven shook his head. “No, after that first time, Aunt Jisa spoke to Mera’s mother, and Mera’s mother told Mera that she didn’t want her spending any more time with me.”
Jehan’s jaw dropped. “I... you never said a word!”
“And you were going to do what?” Aven asked. “Go to Mera’s mother? How would that have helped?”
Jehan opened his mouth, closed it again, then let out a long breath. “Good point. What about that young man? What was his name?”
“Heshi? He vanished the minute he realized who I really was.” Aven shook his head. “When we go to the family and the rest of the tribe, the only time I get looked over by anyone is when they don’t know who I am. And Aunt Jisa watches like a spy-hopping whale. The minute anyone tries to get close, she interferes.”
Jehan was silent for a moment. “I wish you’d told us. That’s above and beyond what I thought was happening. For that, I’d go argue with your grandmother.”
“Fa, it’s not worth it.” Aven stared out at the horizon. “If someone can’t see beyond my bloodline to see me, then I really don’t want them in my bed. Why would I?” He glanced back at Aria and Aleia. “And... Aria doesn’t really see me yet, does she? It’s been a day. But the way she looks at me...”
“It’s a little strange at first,” Jehan said. “The first few months we were all together, the only people sharing beds were Milon and Memfis. And that was because they’d been lovers before. It was almost a year before anyone else was sharing space. So yes, Aria might ask you to her bed, but it won’t be until she knows you better. Accepting the gem doesn’t mean you’re automatically on your back.”
“She already kissed me,” Aven murmured. “It wasn’t a big thing, but...”
“Different?”
“Yes. Very.” Aven felt his face growing warm again. “It wasn’t like kissing Mera. Or Heshi. That was play. This was real.”
Jehan nodded, looking off into the distance. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he cleared his throat. “You remember what we taught you?”
Aven nodded. “I remember. The first move is hers.”
Jehan draped his arm over Aven’s shoulders. “You and she will be fine. And you’ll meet the others, and you’ll all be fine.”
“Assuming that we all survive,” Aven added. “Fa, are you going to tell me the plan now?”
“Your mother will explain,” Jehan said. He turned and raised his voice. “You are going to explain now, aren’t you?”
“If you come closer,” Aleia called. Jehan and Aven both got up and crossed to sit with Aria.
Aleia didn’t speak for a minute, then sighed. “We’ll be challenged once we get further south and east. So we’ll have to have a cover story. Some reason we’re sailing. So we’ll be making a stop before we keep sailing.” She glanced over at them. “We’re spending a few days at the pearl fields.”
“We’re pearl diving?” Aven asked with a grin. “All right. Why?”
“Because our story is that we’re going to Fire tribe waters to trade pearls for metal tools.” Aleia adjusted the lines. “We’ll probably lose some of them as bribes. Can’t be helped.”
“Wait,” Jehan said. “If we’re stopped, we’re going to be caught.”
Aleia smiled at him. “Not if you and Aria aren’t here.”
“Where will we be?” Aria asked. “I cannot carry Jehan.”
“Guppy, are you honestly suggesting—” Jehan started. He swore briefly, then dragged his fingers through his hair. “Yes. Yes, you are. And it’s the only way to do this, isn’t it?”
“Fa?”
“Aria and I will be under the canoe,” Jehan said. “In the carry-net.”
Aria’s eyes widened. “I do not like this plan.”
“You have about ten days after we leave the pearl fields to come up with a better one,” Aleia said.
***
THEY SPENT FOUR DAYS at the pearl fields, with Aven and Aleia spending most of it in their sea forms, collecting the pearl-bearing oysters that had been farmed here by the Water Tribes for generations. Aria sewed kilts and dresses, and learned to open oysters without slicing off her fingers as they filled three flat baskets to the top with pearls in various shades of white, gray, pink and blue. The oyster meat was packed away in a cask of fruit juice to marinate for later eating.
“I had no idea they came in so many colors!” Aria gasped, running her fingers through one of the baskets. “They’re so pretty!”
Aven grinned at her, resting his forearms on the hull float. With his mother’s blessing, he’d taken an especially nice dark-gray pearl and put it aside to give to Aria as a gift after their first night in her bed. He no longer doubted it would happen. It was just a question of when. He slung his carry bag over the float and tapped her leg, then gestured toward the water.
“Do we have time to swim?” she asked, looking at the sky. Aven followed her gaze, looking at the position of the sun and the high clouds. He nodded and reached out to tug on her ankle. She laughed and pulled her leg back, standing up and reaching behind her neck to untie the neck of the wrapped silk dress that she wore, blushing a little as she let it fall. Swimming naked, she’d decided, was much more comfortable than sitting around in wet clothes afterward. But she still blushed.
She slipped into the water, holding on to the hull float with one hand as Aven swam around to join her, placing one hand on her waist as she started to tread water the way that Jehan had showed her. Once she was ready, she nodded, and Aven swam a short distance from the canoe. He slapped the water until she located him, then waited. She took a deep breath and let go, sinking slightly before she started paddling, started kicking. Started moving, closing the short distance between the canoe and Aven. He could feel the grin growing on his face as she got closer, until she was close enough that he could reach out and touch her hand. She grabbed on to him, and he pulled her into a hug, laughing with her.
“I did it!” she crowed. “I swam!” She giggled and hugged him tightly, then kissed him. It wasn’t the sort of kiss that they’d shared over the past few days — quick brushes of the lips, barely there before they were gone. This was deep. Passionate. Possessive, as she wound her fingers into his hair and tugged. Coiled her legs around his tail and clung to him. It felt as if every inch of her skin was touching his, and it was maddening. He wanted more, but of what, he wasn’t sure.
He heard a splash, and a raised voice. His father’s voice. It was enough to cool his ardor.
Barely.
Aria heard it, too. She tensed in his arms, and when she pulled back, every bit of her that he could see was the brilliant pink of embarrassment.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I... I got carried away.” Aven smiled. He couldn’t say anything to reassure her, so he leaned in and kissed her on the tip of her nose. She giggled and hugged him. “I want to try to swim back,” she said. Aven nodded and let her go, and she splashed and foundered a little before setting out for the canoe. Aven swam alongside her, silently encouraging her until she reached the hull float. Jehan was standing on the deck, clapping.
“Well done!” he called, and offered Aria a hand. Once she was back on the canoe, Aven lifted himself out of the water and flopped onto his back on the deck, staring up at the sky as his chest tightened and his gills closed. He took a deep breath, then closed his eyes.
“Once you’re able to talk, we need to discuss plans,” Jehan said. “And we’ll eat.”
Aven nodded, lacing his fingers together over his stomach and waiting for the change to finish. Only to jump when fingers started combing through his hair. He opened his eyes to see Aria sitting next to him, bare and beautiful, running her fingers through his long hair.
“I can braid this, if you like,” she offered. “It’s one of the ways we wear it, so it doesn’t get in the way when we fly.”
Aven smiled and nodded. She continued finger combing his hair. The gentle preening was soothing, relaxing in a way that Aven hadn’t expected, and he sighed in contentment.
Something nudged him in the thigh. “Ven, wake up.”
“I’m not sleeping,” Aven answered. His voice sounded normal to his ears. He’d finished changing? He opened his eyes and blinked. The skies were darker, the clouds painted with the pinks and golds of sunset. “I was asleep?”
“Snoring, too,” Jehan answered with a chuckle. “Come and eat.” He dropped Aven’s kilt onto his chest and walked away. Aven rolled over and got to his knees, seeing Aria sitting with his mother across the canoe.
“I brought up some more oysters,” Aven called. He wrapped his kilt around his waist. “I left my bag hanging in the water. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“We can’t set out until morning anyway,” Aleia answered. “So you get first watch.”
“That’s fair,” Aven got to his feet and went to the edge of the canoe, kneeling down and reaching out to the float to grab the strap of his bag. He carried it over to the others and took out several handfuls of oysters, putting them into a bowl that Jehan held out. “Here. We can add these to the meal.”
He sat down next to Aria, who smiled at him. “Did you sleep well?”
“I didn’t even realize that I was asleep, so I think so.” He picked an oyster out of the bowl and drew his knife. Deftly, he opened the oyster, sliced the meat free, then offered it to Aria. She looked at it, clearly puzzled.
“Is there a pearl?” she asked.
“This one is for eating,” Aven said. He looked down at the half-shell. “You just... well, eat it.”
“We preserved the others, Ven. Aria hasn’t had one raw yet,” Jehan pointed out. “I didn’t show her how to eat them like that.”
“And you didn’t sneak any yourself?” Aleia asked.
“Well, I didn’t say that...”
Aven grinned. “It’s good,” he said to Aria. “It’s sweet, a little. And it tastes like the sea.”
“Show me?” she asked. Aven nodded, put the half shell to his lips and poured the oyster into his mouth, chewing the briny, chewy morsel before swallowing it. When he looked back at Aria, her eyes were wide. “All right,” she said slowly. “If it’s that simple.”
Aven cut open two more oysters, and handed one to Aria. She looked skeptical for a moment. “Do I need to check for pearls before I eat it?” she asked.
“I already did,” Aven assured her.
She nodded again, copying Aven’s movements. She put the half-shell to her lips, poured the oyster into her mouth, chewed and swallowed. She licked her lips and made a face. “I’m not sure if I liked that.”
“Try another?” Jehan suggested. “It was your first time, after all.”
They shared the rest of the oysters and the bowl of cut seaweed and thin slices of moonfish as the skies grew darker and the stars started to appear. When the bowls were empty, Aleia looked up at the skies.
“We’ll start south tomorrow morning,” she said. “If we have good winds, we’ll be in Forge in fourteen or fifteen days.”
“And then what?” Aven asked. “What do we do once we’re in Forge?”
His parents both looked at him. There was a long silence, then Jehan sighed. “We’ll find out once we get there?” he offered. “We don’t know what the next step will be. We won’t know until we find Memfis.”
“And what if he is no longer there?” Aria asked. “If he is gone, or if he is dead? What do we do then?”
Jehan glanced at Aleia. “You have to have thought about that.”
Aleia nodded. “If we can’t find Memfis, then we find your Fire companion, and we move on to the Earth tribe lands. We’ll go to the healing center. Earth companions are almost always healers. It seems like a good place to start.”
Aven nodded. “And what about Air? How do we get there?”
Aleia shook her head. “Haven’t gotten that far yet. There are too many variables. Once we reach the healing center, then I’ll be able to answer that question.”
Conversation ceased at that point, and Aleia and Jehan took Aria with them when they went to the deck shelter to sleep. Aven rinsed out the bowls and packed them into their storage space, then took from another compartment a bundle of fibers. He sat down with his back to the mast and combed the fibers with his fingers, looking for where he’d left off. The braided and knotted pattern in the cords was intricate, but his fingers knew the motions well enough that he could do this in the dark. The braid was about as wide as two of his fingers together, a mesh of lacy knotwork that resembled the patterns in some of the coral that grew near their island. He’d started this weeks ago, thinking that it would be something added to their trade goods. Now, he knew better. This was for Aria, and would hold the gray pearl that he’d kept to give to her.
He heard the decking creak, and looked up to see that Aria wasn’t asleep. She came over and curled up next to him on the deck.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Knotwork,” he answered, putting down the fibers. “It passes the time.”
She nodded, her face ghostly in the moonlight. “Will you show me?”
“When we have enough light,” Aven answered. “I can do it in the dark, but I can’t teach in the dark. You need to see what you’re doing.”
She sighed. “I wish I could see what I was doing,” she said softly.
It took Aven a moment to realize that she wasn’t talking about the night. “You had visions,” he said, remembering her story.
“And I have not had one since the one that took my mother and I to the Temple,” Aria said. “I don’t know what my next step should be. And I’m worried.” She shook her head. “No. No, I’m not worried. I’m frightened.” She turned and looked at Aven. “For you. For them. I’m the Heir. I’m supposed to stop Mannon, and I don’t know what to do.”
“None of us do,” Aven said. “So we do the best we can, and hope that the Mother will guide us.” He reached out and took Aria’s hand. “She brought you this far.”
Aria smiled slightly, and squeezed Aven’s fingers. “She brought me to you.” She moved closer and rested her cheek on Aven’s shoulder. “We’ll be all right.”
Aven rubbed his cheek against her hair, breathing in her scent of sea-salt and wind. “We’ll be all right in the end,” he said, remembering something his father had told him once. “It might take a while. It might seem like it’s all sunk to the bottom of the sea. But that’s not the end. If it’s not all right, it’s not the end.”