Page 29

Chapter 29

Thevin

It wasn’t the ease of being able to slip out of the Spire that surprised me. It was Sae’s willingness to do it. The moment I’d even suggested such a thing, she’d bolted, heading straight for the pen and parchment by the door, jotting a quick note to her mother and leaving it where it’d be seen on the table in the middle of the room.

I’d been even more surprised when she took my hand then, pulling me to the door and back onto the famous staircase that wove around the outside of the Spire , leading down to the inner courtyard.

I kept up with her pace, both of us out of breath by the time we reached the bottom, both of us laughing, bracing our hands on our knees.

“ Blend ?” she’d asked, wiping the hair from her face before I could do it for her.

I nodded, glancing around. “ Blend .”

She murmured her spell, touching my face, then hers.

She was clear as ever, and I meant to ask her why the spell didn’t work on me when she instead pulled me along, deeper into the inner courtyard.

Her face wasn’t known in the Spire , but mine could be, and we weren’t exactly following orders leaving like this. I cringed thinking of what Baron Karus could do to me when she found out I’d taken her very well-kept secret, powerful daughter around the last safe stronghold in Arcaynen .

Even with that possibility, it was worth the risk of the Baron’s ire. I wanted Sae to live. I wanted her to see the world, or at least this part of what was left untouched by war. Outside of Felgren , this city was my favorite place to rest, to eat, to thrive with fewer cares for the horrors outside of it.

She leaned over the pond at the center of the courtyard, pointing to the orange and white fish swimming gracefully along the sides, poking their mouths above the water, hoping she’d brought food.

“ Look at these!” she exclaimed, the note of excitement lifting in the air, but no more than a passing murmur to those around us with her spell.

I took her hand, pulling her up, letting my fingers slide through hers like we did when we were ten. “ Just wait.”

* * *

The city buzzed with gossip. Word had already spread of the Baron’s early arrival and how she did not arrive alone. Thankfully , the citizens of the Spire didn’t know what Sae looked like or who she really was other than the Baron’s daughter, and with her magic that blended us into the background, we passed through the streets without a second glance.

I took her straight to the Hatchery , showing her just how large the aurum fish could become after decades of care. The Hatchery acted as a hub for the canals that ran through the city walkways, allowing the giant fish to swim through the Spire and find their way back home.

Sae reached into the deep pool, her hand gliding over the brilliant gold scales of an aurum fish twice the size of a lumen. She laughed, shaking water from her fingers, and then gasped as a man jumped into the pool, followed quickly by a hollering woman. They rose to the surface and began to swim, taking long backward strokes, brushing up against the massive fish who seemed to play alongside them.

“ Can we?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the couple.

“ Did you bring the right undergarments?” I teased, thinking of the times as children when we had spent days swimming in the Great Stream in our most threadbare clothing.

She scrunched her face, hands on her hips. “ Guess not.” She cocked her head, eyeing the clothes of the swimmers. “ Can you find me a clothing shop?”

“ You need coins to buy new clothes.”

She reached into her pocket and dangled a purple bag in my face. “ You really think Pah - Pah would send me to his home city without some coin?”

I quirked a brow. “ Alright , let’s get you some new clothes.”

I led her out of the Hatchery , following one of the canals westward, keeping an eye out for the blue roofs. I pointed out how they changed in color as we headed west. “ It’s how you know what part of the city you’re in. West , blue,”— I pointed again— “east, purple, north, pink.”

“ And south?” she asked, her head tilted back to see just the edge of the varied blue shingled domes that glinted in the midday sun.

“ South is green.”

“ I still think I’d get lost living here,” she laughed.

“ I’m sure there’s a spell to help you find your way.”

She shrugged and I pointed to a door set into the white stone building I’d led her to. I pulled on the copper handle, gesturing her inside.

“ If there is, I don’t know it. I’ve never needed a wayfinding spell in Felgren .” She mumbled to end the spell at her face, sweeping a hand over mine as well.

“ Doesn’t surprise me in the least,” I admitted.

We stepped inside the shop and a middle-aged woman with long black hair braided across the top of her head greeted us. “ Good afternoon, may I help you find something?”

“ Yes , please,” Sae started. “ I’m looking to dress in the fashion of this city. Preferably pants and boots.” She held up the bag of coins. “ I’ll also need swimwear for myself and my friend, if you have it.”

The shopkeep raised her brows, eyeing the hefty bag of coins. Her eyes brightened, looking us both over. “ Right this way,” she offered, gesturing to a dress form fitted with a similar style to what Lanna typically wore.

It was the Lady herself who’d single-handedly changed the common clothing in the Spire in the last five years. She’d complained endlessly to me about how unfair it was that just because I was male, I got to wear pants that allowed me the swiftness I needed to perform as a Runner in the Four’s armies. But Lanna , the daughter of one of the Four , could only wear long, bulky skirts and couldn’t run nearly as fast because of it.

I set myself down into a sleek cobalt chair, setting my ankle over my knee to watch Saelyn pick out and purchase clothes for the first time in her life. I hoped I’d get to be a part of a lot of her firsts.

* * *

“ So we just…jump in?” Sae asked, bent down on her knees, her hand back to swirling in the water of the Hatchery .

I’d been keeping my cool fairly well, considering.

Considering since we’d left the shop, her new clothes bundled neatly in a package, she’d told me all about her new attire. The new corseted shirt, the black leather pants—just like Lady Lanna’s she’d informed me—the tall black boots…

And now, here she was, dressed in what she assured me that woman had said was swimming attire appropriate to the Spire’s fashions.

“ I think so,” I managed, avoiding the sight of her mid thighs and knees, exposed completely along with most of her shoulders and arms.

The cut of the swim wear was bold, flattering, and I noticed I wasn’t the only one in the Hatchery taking my fair share of glances.

We had bundled our clothes on the edge of the deep pool, my own swimwear exposing my entire torso and most of my calves.

Sae hadn’t said a thing when she’d gasped at the scars across my chest. I’d gotten them last winter during a particularly brutal surprise attack on the Hyrithian border from a band of wild Blight beasts.

Three long, white slashes across my right pectoral had been difficult to heal, and honestly, the medicus conduit assigned to me in that tent just outside of the Blight Line had more important soldiers to work on at the time. She’d done a quick job of it and moved on, unbothered about how my skin would heal over and scar forever.

There were a few other swimmers in the pool that spanned at least two-hundred feet in diameter and at least fifty feet deep. I peered down, searching for the aurum fish when a splash of cool water hit me in the face.

Sae’s head popped up above the surface and she pulled the hair back from her cheeks, sputtering water from her mouth. Her eyes matched the color of the pool—ocean blue and…stunning.

If fae existed in the sea, and she was one of them, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

She laughed at my expression and kicked backward, her hand trailing over the golden body of an enormous aurum fish.

“ Well ?” she called. “ Are you coming with me to see the world or not?”

The moment was perfect, staring out across the water at her bobbing up and down, her black hair pulled back and her eyes sparkling like the morning sun on the Great Stream in Felgren .

It didn’t matter anymore that she didn’t love me the same way I loved her. I only cared that she wanted to share her life with me.

Her experiences, her adventures.

If I spent my life loving this woman I couldn’t have, I’d still be a happy man. I knew that truth and grinned wickedly as I stepped back, ran forward, and splashed beside her into the pool.