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I wanted to barge back into the room and console Riven. Make sure he knew there was nothing he needed to worry about, but this mission was a matter of life and death. For everyone, but especially for Riven. If leaving Killian in Myrelinth would help Riven focus then I wouldn’t push him.

My goal was for both of them to live. They could sort out the rest after.

Three days later we were back on the ship. It was safer to travel by water than by portal for such a long journey and it allowed everyone to rest before we landed on the northern shores of the Fractured Isles.

Gerarda stood at the helm of the ship as the first stars began to line the sky. The others disappeared below deck to rest while I kept watch along the horizon for any sign of black sails we needed to hide from.

The sea was silent and still. The moon shone over the water, rippling across it like stippled glass. I sat along the floor of the eagle’s nest and let my feet dangle from the landing. My braided gusts filled the wide sails though the thin ship barely made a sound as it raced across the open sea.

The only sound was coming from Gerarda’s relentless tapping.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Pause.

“Is something on your mind?” I called down to her.

Gerarda ignored me.

My lip tugged upward. “Trouble with your lady?”

Her finger did one more round of tapping and then stopped. “No.” Her jaw pulsed as she glanced at the upper cabin where Elaran was resting. “It’s not a story worth telling.”

I huffed a laugh. “I’d rather listen to a boring story than have you continue with the tapping. I’d like both of us to see the suns rise.”

Annoyance pulled Gerarda’s lips into a frown as she glanced up at me. Her eyes focused on the bright star behind my head and she adjusted our course by half an inch. “I am nervous for what we’ll find when we get there.”

“I’ve never known you to be scared of some soldiers.”

Gerarda embedded a knife in the railing above my head. “I’m not.”

I waved my hand down at her.

She took a deep breath. “The Fractured Isles are my home. I’m anxious to know what Damien has done to them.”

My brows lifted on their own. “Yourhome?” I’d never heard a Shade use the word before to refer to anything other than the Order.

Gerarda gritted her teeth and nodded. “I lived there as a young girl until Aemon’s soldiers came. Then I was brought to the Order.”

I tilted my head. “But you are only a few years older than me. The islands were taken in the conquest.”

Gerarda huffed a laugh. “They were put under Aemon’s control, but it was very different than the scourges that happened in the mainland. The islands are wild lands and Aemon’s men did not know how to tame them. It was easier to have the locals farm the land to fill his pockets so he allowed us some freedom … until he didn’t.”

I shook my head. “But he burned their main city to the ground. There is a painting of the siege along with the other raids.”

“Iq’akir.” Gerarda’s fingered twisted around the wooden wheel she was holding. “He did burn it to the ground, but centuries after the Blood Purges.” She swallowed thickly. “My parents died in those fires.”

My heart pounded against my chest. I had known Gerarda for over fifty years and she had never once hinted at the life she had lived before the Order. I had always assumed that she had come too young to remember any other life than the one in black.

“You were orphaned and sent to the Order.” I bowed my head. “I’m sorry.”

Gerarda inhaled a shaky breath through her nose. “I wasn’t alone. Not at first.”

I held my breath, waiting for her to continue.

“I had a sister. Her name was Gabrellen.” Gerarda swallowed, her throat bobbing. “We were raised as farmers and had no reason to think our lives would be any different than our parents’. Four generations of Halflings had tended those fields after Aemon’s conquest.”

I lowered myself onto the quarterdeck and perched on the railing in front of the wheel. “What happened to her?”