Page 30

It’s too early in the morning for this nonsense, I thought. Well, or too soon after waking.

“Stop,” I said. “Both of you, calm down. There’s nothing to fight over.”

“Look at yourself,” Kalcedon hissed. “What were you thinking? Let me guess, you weren’t thinking. Typical. All the sense of a mule.”

“Don’t talk to her like that!”

“Who in horns are you?” Kalcedon closed the distance and glared up at Oraik. I saw his hands form into fists, and saw Oraik’s lip curl as he glared down at Kalcedon.

“Enough,” I yelled. “Both of you, stop.” They turned to look at me. I was reminded for a moment that I was a gnat compared to Kalcedon, and a beggar to Oraik’s fortune. But they were both focused on me now, and if I backed down, they’d probably go right for each other’s throats. I took a deep breath and shook my head.

Kalcedon clucked his tongue and threw his hands up, then took a step away from Oraik.

“I combed Rovileis scrying for you,” he said. “All night, Meda. All night. I just kept seeing the places you’d been. Do you know how worried I was, you useless hag?”

Oraik flinched, and I held up a hand to him before he could come uninvited to my defense again.

“I’m sorry I worried you. I’m fine. Alright?”

“Let’s go,” Kalcedon said.

“In a moment. Give us some space.”

Kalcedon stared blankly at me for a moment. Then his eyes flicked up to Oraik. Kalcedon clenched his jaw, turned, and paced off down the beach. The rumble of power followed him like a small storm cloud.

I rubbed my forehead. Oraik was silent, staring moodily at the ground with his arms folded.

“Sorry about that.”

“You shouldn’t let him talk to you that way. I can’t believe you care for someone like… that.” He spat the word. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about Kalcedon’s temper or his ancestry, but it hardly mattered. I sighed.

“It’s just how he talks. Kalcedon and I, we have an understanding.”

“An understanding that he treats you like dung?”

“He’s a half-faerie. He can’t help how he is.”

“Can’t he? Sorry, but that’s fools-talk. It’s not an excuse.”

I shook my head. Oraik didn’t understand a thing about Kalcedon, and I wasn’t about to spend the whole day explaining.

“Listen. I can’t say last night was a good idea, or that I wanted to sleep on the ground…” I started. Oraik sighed heavily and rubbed a hand over his face. Tentatively, I reached out and patted his shoulder. “But without you, I would have been starving and sleeping on the street. If I ever have the chance to pay you back, I will.”

He frowned and squinted in the direction of Rovileis, the city hazily visible down the coast. He looked at the Wave Dancer, and then at me.

“You mean that?”

“Of course. Well, maybe not for everything on the barges. That was your idea. But at least for dinner, and the room I didn’t use.” In drunken idiocy, I’d spent the change from the inn on drinks rather than letting him pay and keeping it for necessities.

“Do me a favor, and we’ll call it even.”

“…What kind of favor?”

“There should be a ship from Colynes in the harbor. The Captain is Adaya Ozeri. Will you tell her I’m finding my own way home, and that I’ll meet her there?” He offered me a golden ring embossed with a dolphin.

His words sunk slowly into my addled brain. I gaped at him.

He didn’t look Colynes.