NINE

As soon as the door flew open, Marella was attacked by the three puppies, which had her laughing. She picked up the biggest, the Earthborn, kissing his nose before she looked up at Gale. She and Gale had been close friends for a long time, even lovers once, but ultimately they both wanted something more exciting than another Earthborn to roll around with.

“Looks like you have your hands full.” She leaned in a little bit and inhaled deeply. “We have excellent timing, my love.” She looked back at Leander with a grin. “Smells like Dola has a meal cooking.”

Leander growled with appreciative hunger and got down on the floor to play with the two smaller pups. Gale stayed back and watched, towering over everyone else in the room with an ease uncommon even among Earthborn. Their earthen home was built with extra-high ceilings and doors just out of consideration for Gale, who stood head and shoulders above even Leander, who was generally tall in his own right.

Most Earthborn tended to shake the ground when they walked just as a way of intimidating those around them. With his bulk, Gale didn’t even have to do so on purpose. For all his bulk, though, he never had the heart to become a soldier, content to let Dola carry the military responsibilities of the family while he remained at home to protect their property and their young children. “Couple of boars I brought in last night. They’ve been roasting most of the morning.”

“Smells incredible.” Marella gave the little Earthborn pup another kiss before she put him down. The pup went racing toward his siblings and pounced onto Leander as well. “How’s Dola doing?” She glanced toward the other side of the house, though she knew that the Skyborn could hear the conversation if she wanted to.

Gale’s normally open smile dimmed, and he shook his head. “She’s been better. We all worshiped the captain, Dola most of all. The queen tried to appoint someone else over the Guardian, but her crew rebelled and threatened to tear the ship apart before they let it be captained by anyone but Dola. I think she realized they would have done it, too. So she came out for an official visit and appointed Dola a few hours ago. Didn’t stay long, of course.”

“I doubt the queen is in any state of mourning over the loss of the captain.” Marella sighed as she looked between Gale and Leander before she continued. “We gave his human the news, and of course she took it as well as expected. What we really need to focus on is what happens now.”

Dola stepped into sight and spoke immediately. “Daiva wants us to work with the Reef, and that’s what we will do. I’m sure that Hassir has some kind of plan in action.”

“Maybe. I don’t know that we should trust the Reef, but I understand why she went for their help. We do not have a lot of options.” Marella looked at the tiny pups and sighed. “We need to find a place where we can all go after this. The Reef is no place to start a respectable life.”

“And the Genovin are not precisely friendly, especially after this attack.” Leander said from the floor, blowing in the face of the small Skyborn pup and laughing along with the puppy’s excited little barks. The third puppy was content to rest up against Leander’s side and watch the other two play at the moment, her deep blue Oceanborn eyes taking in the conversation around her without comprehension. “That leaves us nowhere but the Reef.”

“The Reef is a great place for Earthborn to starve.” Marella shook her head and sat down next to Leander and the pups. “And I’m not raising a family on the Reef.”

“The Falls, then.” Gale said, even though he knew it wouldn’t make anyone in the room happy.

“Right.” Leander said a little too sharply, looking up from the floor at all those present as he scratched behind the ears of the Oceanborn sitting calmly in the midst of the discussion. “Leave the Isles as refugees and settle in the very first place Melyssa or her followers will bring their war if we leave any of them alive. The Falls are not an option either.”

“We can’t wander forever.” Gale said quietly, since he had no intention of fighting with their allies. A few servants of the household moved through the room carrying some of the trappings of dinner, and as they stood in the main room, a few other wolves came in from other parts of the house. All were members of the Guardian’s crew, come to be with Dola and each other in the wake of Destin’s loss, but all the faces of those who gathered were intent on the same goals as the rest of them. “And no matter how successful we are, if we stay, we are doomed. Melyssa has too many followers and too many connections with the rest of the nobles of the Isles. We need ground of our own.”

“I have heard of other islands nearby.” Dola motioned to their table so that Marella, Leander and Gale would take a seat. She put a bowl of her own milk on the floor, and the pups immediately scurried toward the bowl. “I don’t know what any of them are like or who might inhabit them, but there are places out there. We just have to find them. Nowhere around here will be safe.”

Marella glanced over at Leander as soon as they sat down at the table. What about your suspicions about Daiva and her interests in the Lord of the Reef?

He shook his head subtly as they sat down, looking over at his Mate. That is Daiva’s business. She’ll share it with everyone else when she sees fit, and I trust her not to let it complicate her plans. She understands better than any of us what’s at stake.

I hope you’re right, and she keeps her interests separate. She’s never really had any interests before, has she? Marella looked down at the plate set in front of her, and took a few slow bites to avoid being engaged in any other conversation outside of the private one with her mate.

“So then who do we send out who won’t attract Melyssa’s suspicions?” Gale started in on the meat without any apologies, growling his satisfaction at the taste with a few appreciative looks at Dola. The other conversation around their potential island homes died down as soon as Gale spoke, and all the other wolves of the crew looked to him and Dola for their opinions.

“Whoever we send will make Melyssa suspicious. It’s her nature.” Leander interjected, even though no one was looking at him. “It’s also how she’s stayed in power for this long. Before we send anyone or do anything, we need to know, beyond any question, who is with us. That’s the only way we’re going to know what we’re capable of.”

“I’d like to think everyone here enjoying this meal is with us.” Dola looked around with eyebrows raised. “Or I should have started poisoning the wine?” She smirked and the rest of them chuckled, though everyone continued to enjoy the meal. “Destin talked about other islands close by. I can take a small crew and go looking under the pretense that we are looking for Destin. He’s not going to surface until he is ready to do so, but the queen won’t deny us one more look.”

“And she might even be happy about getting you away from the Isles for a while.” Gale said quietly, since he obviously wasn’t looking forward to her leaving again so soon, but he understood the pragmatics of the plan.

“She won’t give you the Guardian just to go look for Destin.” One of her subordinate Oceanborn spoke up, named Tiven, through a mouthful of boar meat. “She’d piss herself with glee at the chance to replace you with one of her cronies there, even temporarily.”

“She will give me the Guardian. It’s my ship until I’m dead or Destin returns. Queen or not, she’s not going to cause an uprising within her victorious crew over a ship.” Dola looked over at Gale since she knew he didn’t want her to leave again, and she didn’t want to leave either. But for the future of their family, they had to find a place to live. “She will want to keep a close eye on Daiva. Most of you will need to stay to protect her.”

“Her eyes can be diverted from time to time.” Leander answered, since he knew he would be one of those left behind. Heartborn were very little good to anyone out on the open ocean. “I’ve already given Daiva some advice on how to minimize Melyssa’s suspicions following the captain’s disappearance. I believe she’ll follow it. So long as we can encourage the queen to keep her mind on her ambitions concerning the Genovin, she will have less opportunity to concern herself with us.”

“It’s too bad about the Genovin.” Marella said softly as she took another bite from her plate. “They would have helped us, you know. Wouldn’t you say, Gale?”

“They would have tolerated us.” He took a drink from his glass of the wine that was passed around along with the meat. It had been his homeland long ago, after all, even though he had long since turned his back on it. He still remembered it mostly with fondness. Mostly. “For the chance to stick any kind of thorn in Melyssa’s paw, they would have tolerated us and tossed us out at the edges of the southern wasteland and ignored us. But yes, they would have helped us, if you call that help.”

“Well, that’s slightly better than being on the queen’s list of who she wants to kill next.” Marella reached out and placed her hand on top of Leander’s. “We shouldn’t act until after the Fulness, right?”

He squeezed her hand and nodded his agreement. “No, it would be best to have that behind us before anyone heads out to sea again.” He looked around at the rest of those present who gave their agreement, and sighed as if that concluded the plans. “Once you’ve gotten past the Shield Isle on the way to the Reef, move west, outside the shipping routes between here and the Falls. No one ever has reason to go that far out to sea, so you should be left alone.”

“I will remember that.” Dola picked up a puppy yipping at her feet. Landon, her Earthborn pup, was never quite satisfied with just milk anymore. She pulled off a piece of meat from her plate and she handed it to him before she kissed the top of his head. “I’m not exactly eager to leave home again so soon anyway.”

“None of us are.” Tiven chimed in again, echoing the sentiments of everyone else around the large table. “But the chance of a new home is worth leaving the old one for a while.”

“Only for a while.” Leander lifted his glass of wine, a gesture that was repeated by everyone else around the table before everyone downed their contents and the buzz of conversation was taken up all around.

His purple eyes scanned the faces and lips of all those in the room for a while in silence as he smiled at some joke Gale made about how hungry Landon was all the time, then he squeezed Marella’s hand and looked across the table at Dola. You did well to invite everyone when I was going to, but there is no one here you need to worry about. Or if there is, they’re hiding their intentions so well I can’t detect any disloyalty in them. Which I find unlikely.

One can never be too sure. Dola sighed and fed another piece of meat to her eager pup. Other than Gale and Destin, you are the wolf I trust most. I just needed to know for sure that I would be traveling with wolves that wouldn’t end up killing me and tossing me out to sea.

That I can’t promise. But the Guardian is a sturdy ship. I don’t think you’ll have it rocking in the water to such an extent that you make all of your passengers sick this time. There was one voyage in particular early on in their friendship that Leander would never let her live down. The passengers on that ship had most certainly wanted to kill her and toss her in the ocean. Destin stopped them, explaining that she was a young Skyborn from an incredibly powerful line, and she hadn’t yet quite learned to control her skills. Leander had been one of the wolves most nauseated at the time.

I have learned just a bit more control. Dola set Landon down on the floor and he whined at her feet until he decided to run over to his father and beg for more from the big, burly wolf instead. They’re so little still. I hate leaving them.

At least their eyes are open. And if they’re beginning to crave meat, you know they’re close to being fully weaned. He smiled down at the little Oceanborn who had hopped up onto the bench beside Marella, and held out a piece of meat for her himself, once he got an approving look from Gale to do so. Once we find a new home, we’ll need a lot more of these, living out of touch with the Isles or anyone else.

I added my fair share for now, three will hold me over for a while. You’re older than I am, you should join in. Dola teased Leander in return.

Clearly you’ve been talking to my mate. He grinned over his newly-refreshed glass of wine, then looked back and forth between Dola and Gale for a moment with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “The captain’s human mentioned something you should be aware of, though I don’t know how much bearing it will have on how we decide to move forward.”

He put his cup down and listened for a moment to make sure other conversations were going on unhindered, since talk of the captain even having a human that he preferred to all others wasn’t something he wanted broadcasted abroad. “She said they would want to help when the time came. The slaves. Everyone knows they have no love for us, of course, but she seemed to think they could be of some actual use.”

“Interesting.” Dola thought about what he said. “I suppose it can’t hurt our cause, not that I think they would be much help.”

“The queen has used slaves in other battles before, hasn’t she?” Marella looked over at Dola with a shrug. “They can’t be completely inept.”

“She’s hand-picked fighters before.” Gale volunteered, sounding intrigued by the idea. “Sometimes given out Turnings as a reward for valiant service. It’s not a completely worthless idea. And they have numbers if nothing else.”

“Something to keep in mind, certainly.” Dola nodded slowly. “When the time comes. Will you continue to visit Destin’s human, Leander?”

He shook his head as he took another bite of the boar, the beast was delicious and he was easily sated, especially in human form. “If there is any news she needs to be aware of, I will, but otherwise there’s no need. She’s been paired for the season, so she’ll likely be bearing soon and will have enough to worry about.”

Dola winced when he said that, since she had been aware of her captain’s intentions. “He was hoping to get her away from Chainhome before that happened. He’s never been the jealous type, but he didn’t want to share the love of his life.”

“No one does.” Gale said with a growl and a possessive look that swept over Dola with a slight rumble in the ground beneath her feet. “If we find a place to run to, we should be able to verify our numbers and our plans by the spring, after the humans have their offspring. That should give us plenty of time to prepare and to find the captain, if he’s able to be found.”

“We don’t have a lot of time, but we have enough.” Dola said softly, though she fixed her eyes on her mate. “I think we have discussed enough for now. Let’s enjoy our meal and think about the coming Fulness before we get ahead of ourselves.”

Leander looked back over at Marella when Dola said so, and just smiled. Don’t go thinking too hard, over there.

Aw, please? Marella looked at Leander with a visible pout on her beautiful and plump lips. We might die, the least we can do is enjoy our Fulnesses together…

There’s always a chance that we might die. The least we can do is plan on living. He grinned back at her and took another bite, chewing slowly to savor the feast. We’ll see.

I don’t like that answer. Marella got up from her chair and went to sit on Leander’s lap, which actually got a few chuckles from the rest of the wolves around the table. “You know, this one is quite stubborn. I didn’t expect that when I agreed to mate with him.”

That got a laugh from all around the room, and every set of eyes turned to look at the two of them, which produced a shiver from Leander that Marella could feel in her own body. So many connections between those in the room and Leander himself firing at once was a rush of power that he sometimes had difficulty even holding onto, and it all flowed right through her by way of their mated connection. “Hearts are stubborn things. Even the earth shakes every once in a while without anyone giving it a reason. Hearts take their own time making up their mind about things.”

Marella leaned in closer and then rubbed the tip of her nose against his slowly. “Anything I can do to help you make up your mind? You’ve already been fed a delicious meal.”

“I’m always up for seconds.” He brushed his lips against hers teasingly, everyone in the room still laughing at them. All the couples present moved a little closer together, caught up in the power of Leander’s own emotions for Marella. It was a subtler kind of power than shaking the room or turning the ocean inside out, but no less powerful or persuasive, and Leander was old enough that he didn’t even have to try.

Marella sighed as his lips teased hers, and she barely had a chance to kiss him before Dola spoke up.

“I have puppies running around here, don’t get that started in here. Go on, take your kisses and take it outside. All of you.”

There was more laughter all around, and some couples actually took her orders and ran, after bowing to Dola as the mistress of the house and thanking her for dinner. They stayed fairly close around the house, since night was falling and most of them would sleep on the floor or in their own element nearby, but Leander and Marella were two of the last to leave.

“We’ll be heading farther inland to make our preparations for the Fulness, but we’ll see you the night after.” Leander bid Dola a hasty but polite farewell on their way out. “I’ll see who else in some of the inland villages can be counted on while we’re passing through.”

“Sounds like a decent enough plan.” Dola pointed toward her door and a strong breeze whipped through, pushing the both of them forward. “I see the look on her face. Go on, then. You better satisfy that ambitious Earthborn of yours. I’ve got one of my own to worry about.” She smirked and looked back at Gale.

“They take a lot of work.” Leander laughed along with her and headed out with an arm looped around Marella’s waist.

He hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he saw his friends alive. He hoped that Fulness wouldn’t be the last he’d have the chance to spend with Marella. He hoped Destin was alive somewhere and would come back to them.

He hoped for too many things, but that was all any of them had left. Plans, anger, loss, friends, and hope.