Eilona sat on the deck of The Frozen Shackle beside Caeli and wished she had a bottle of laq with her. Just one bottle. A glass would not even be necessary.
Her return to the ship had been swift. After Faje had shown her the poor tortured ‘cursed’, he had led her down the flights of stairs, past the dark, snaking form of the press, and out into the street where Nymar Alahn and the Faithful waited. Not one of them said a word. They simply formed an escort around her and returned her to Nymar’s carriage. From there, she was taken to the Spires of Alati. At the midpoint of the bridge, Eilona’s hands began to shake, and she folded them in her lap, hiding her weakness from Nymar. He had said nothing to her since Rje, but sat across from her with a new confidence she found repelling. Before the carriage entered the estate, she decided that, when it stopped, she would demand Caeli be brought to her. But, as the gate opened and the carriage drew up to the house, the other woman was already waiting outside. Beside her stood two guards, one of whom held her sword. Wordlessly, Nymar’s guards marched her to the carriage. One handed Caeli’s sword to Nymar, who laid it across his lap and sat comfortably across from the two women as the carriage left the estate. No one in the carriage spoke until they were in Burata, until the long stone docks that ran out like limbs into Leviathan’s Blood presented themselves. There, Nymar gave her a letter for his father, returned Caeli’s sword to her and bid the pair of them farewell.
With her mother’s guard beside her, Eilona walked out to where the small dinghy was tied. The two women did not speak to each other. When the dinghy touched The Frozen Shackle, Eilona said, ‘I’m sorry. I should have have listened to you.’
‘You should have.’ Caeli rose and slung the sword over her shoulder. ‘But I expected it.’
‘You expected?’ she repeated. ‘Did you know what they would show me? How they had gouged the eyes out of people? What they would offer my mother? Did you know that as well?’
‘No.’ The guard began to climb the rope ladder. ‘But you were safe, I promise.’
Eilona refused to let the topic go once she reached the deck. Beneath the darkening sky, she followed the guard. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘How could you protect me there? You were not there. I left you.’
‘But not me.’ Olcea stood at the wheel, her solid bag resting against it. ‘Caeli is right, you were never in danger.’
The guard sat on the stairs before the witch. ‘I know my job, Eilona. I know when someone is not going to listen to me.’ She sounded tired. ‘Like it’s any surprise that you didn’t, right?’
‘I don’t understand,’ she began.
‘Hien was with you.’ Olcea started to unwind the cloth around her left hand. ‘He has been with you since you left here.’
She made an oh sound, suppressed a shudder. ‘I didn’t – I mean, you should have told me.’
‘He was meant to protect both of you.’ She pulled out a knife and made a quick cut along her palm, then ran the blood across the wheel. ‘But when you left Caeli, he went with you,’ Olcea said, cleaning the knife and wrapping her hand. ‘We decided on that earlier.’
The Frozen Shackle jolted in movement as oars fell into the water. ‘I wasn’t trying to be difficult,’ she said, a sense of exhausted frustration creeping into her. ‘I just know that neither of you want to be here. And neither of you need to be here.’
‘But we’re here,’ Caeli said. ‘Besides, in the end, that little trip you made told us a lot.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s no negotiation to be had with Nymar, or anyone who had power in Yeflam, not now. There’s only the Faithful, and the Faithful, no matter how many of the hungry they feed, will not welcome your mother, not as she is. She has to submit to them first.’
They all knew what Muriel Wagan’s response to that would be.