Page 8 of Fate of Echoes and Embers (Heirs of Elydor #3)

MAREK

“I give you, Tidechaser .”

Issa stepped aboard, as silent as she’d been on the journey here. I imagined coming back into Issa’s life would not be smooth sailing, but neither had I anticipated how difficult it would truly be to earn her forgiveness.

“It feels as if I’ve been aboard her already,” Issa said, making her way through the main deck. “I know more of your ship than I do anything else about you, including your family.”

With Mev and Kael still on the hunt for supplies, and little other movement on the docks at this time of night, I could hear every creak of the ship as she swayed beneath our feet. There was no place in Elydor that felt more like home than here.

“My family are the crew that I left behind on this voyage.”

“Would it not be easier to sail with them?”

I shrugged. “Not necessarily. Most accompany me for training. All of this”—I pointed to the rigging and sails—“is to blend in with human ships. I need little to navigate Tidechaser beyond the abilities with which I was born.”

Issa remained unimpressed.

“Come,” I said, slinging Issa’s bag from one shoulder to the other. “Allow me to show her to you.” Without waiting for her to decline, I pointed to the various compartments. “Those house weapons, trade goods, provisions… and then the helm, of course. Where all the magic happens.”

I counted Issa’s rolled eyes as a win as we moved below deck.

“The crew’s quarters,” I said, opening a door to reveal a room with small, functional hammocks which could accommodate up to fifteen men. “And more storage,” I said as we passed another door. “This is the captain’s spare,” I said, opening Mev and Kael’s quarters.

Issa peeked inside.

“Where will I be staying?”

“That,” I said, closing the door, “is for Mev and Kael. You will be in the captain’s quarters.” When I opened my cabin, I was surprised not to find Issa beside me. She’d halted in the corridor.

“Issa?”

“I am not sleeping in there with you.”

I pretended to stab myself in the heart with an invisible dagger. “Say it isn’t so?”

When she didn’t so much as crack a smile, I tried again. “I will not be in there with you.”

Issa inched toward me. “You won’t?”

“No,” I said, stepping inside. “I’ll sleep in a crew bunk. Or on deck.”

Putting her bag down, I waited for Issa to join me as I pulled a moonstone from my pocket. Placing the Gyorian-mined gem in a holder on the small desk in the corner of the cabin, I tried not to think about the fact that Issa had only grown more beautiful since I saw her last.

Though now dressed as a warrior, I’d also seen Lady Isolde holding court in her own hall.

Neither version was more beautiful than the other.

Just different. Strands of dark hair escaped from her braid and, despite it being pulled back, I could easily imagine it falling in waves around her shoulders.

Like that one night…

“Marek?”

Getting a hold of myself, I pointed out, “The bed is small, but comfortable. Use the space however you see fit, but you may not want to look too closely under the floorboards.”

Issa rolled her eyes. “You’ve not changed a bit.”

She was too close. Her expression, not as antagonistic. For a brief moment, I could pretend I had not broken her heart, as her commander suggested.

Was it true, Issa?

It was the last question I would ever ask, not knowing what to do with the answer. Not now that I was on a death mission.

“You have,” I said quietly.

Issa cocked her head to the side. “To most, I am the same Isolde that I’ve always been. If there is a difference, it is because of our circumstance.” She put up a hand. “Which we will not discuss again.”

We needed to begin anew.

Taking a step backward, I bowed to her.

“Lady Isolde, I am Marek of Thalassaria, Navarch of the Tidebreaker Fleet and captain of this fine ship which will allow us to retrieve the Wind Crystal to its rightful owner and bring you back home safely to Hawthorne Manor.”

The same Hawthorne Manor that weighed down Issa’s true wanderlust nature. But I did not mention that. Standing, I awaited her response. Our eyes met, mine pleading for Issa to allow me to make amends.

I’d lived more than a hundred and fifty years…

escaped death… foolishly loved… had adventures that still made my heart sing when I thought of them…

but nothing had ever tempted me more than my desire to reach forward and tuck an errant strand of Issa’s hair behind her ear.

Use our closeness as an excuse to cup her face in my hands and kiss those full lips, so unusually full that anyone would be a fool not to notice them straightaway.

Where she once looked at me with kindness, and longing, Issa’s eyes were full of sadness and regret.

What a fool I have been.

When Issa reached out her hand, in the human way, I took it immediately. Touching her, as innocuous as our handshake was, made standing almost uncomfortable.

“I would say, ‘I’m pleased to meet you,’ but I’ve heard much about Thalassarian corsairs to be properly wary,” she said, pulling her hand back.

I swallowed, hard. Those were the exact words she had said the first time we met. I’d carved them to memory, along with every other word Issa had spoken to me in our short time together.

Shaking off the heaviness that had burdened me from the moment I left, and every time I’d thought of Issa since, I brought the Marek everyone knew, and loved, to the forefront. Grinning, I offered the same response as back then.

“Navarch, if it pleases you. Or captain, if you prefer. Or I might suggest… Marek.”

Was that the hint of a smile?

“We are dropping titles already, sir?”

She remembered as well. Word for word.

“If my lady so desires.”

“I could say, ‘I desire to know why you’ve come to Hawthorne Manor,’ but cannot as we are clearly”—she waved her arm around my cabin—“not at Hawthorne Manor.”

My very small cabin, as it turned out, even though it was the largest on the ship. Having Issa ride behind me all day was difficult enough, but being this close and facing her?

It would be the first and last time I found myself in here alone with her.

“No,” I agreed. “We are not.”

Footsteps overhead signaled Mev and Kael’s return.

“I will leave you to get adjusted in your quarters, my lady. If you care to join us on deck, my plan is to set sail after a quick evening meal. To that end, I typically take meals in here but we can dine in the tidehall beside the galley. Or, when weather allows, on the main deck. Though I will warn you, without the cook, meals will not be elaborate.”

“I didn’t expect them to be but will admit”—Issa’s big brown eyes scanned my quarters—“this is larger than I expected for a ‘fast, sleek ship.’”

She’d remembered the words I used to describe Tidechaser after so many years.

I thought perhaps her commander had been exaggerating.

Even after the slap she’d delivered at The Moonlit Current, I’d convinced myself our few days together meant very little to Lady Isolde, and that leaving as I did likely had not affected her.

Clearly, I had been wrong. And there was a part of me—a diseased, flawed part of me that put my desires above anything, or anyone—that was glad for it. Which was precisely the reason I left Hawthorne Manor.

“I will endeavor to make this as smooth a journey as possible.”

“There you are.”

Kael. Normally, I’d welcome the Gyorian warrior’s presence, but now that Issa was speaking to me again, I’d been stalling.

“I was settling Issa into her quarters,” I said, usually not one to explain myself. But everything about being around her made me feel as awkward as, well, a human.

Or most humans. Isolde was more sure of herself than most twice her age. Having such a responsibility thrust on you at a young age tended to do that.

Kael crossed his thick arms. “The one you said no one sleeps in but you?”

I faced the esteemed prince, who was clearly determined not to aid me in winning over Isolde.

“Also the one,” I said, wondering why everyone liked the Gyorian so much, “I offered to Mev, who refused to take it.” Turning back to Issa, I added, “She refused to be separated from him, though I can’t imagine why.”

This time, I was able to elicit a smile. I would be taken by the Maelstrom Depths, gladly, for that smile. It suddenly occurred to me how dangerous this journey would be with a more amicable Issa. Perhaps it would be easier to garner her anger instead.

“Speaking of beds,” an irritated voice behind me continued. “I could be sleeping in one on land if it weren’t for your insistence we sail out ‘at once.’”

Reluctantly pulling myself away from Issa, I left the cabin with Kael and made my way above deck, asking myself, not for the first time, if soliciting Issa’s aid was the wisest of decisions. For even if the Depths did not take me, something darker and more dangerous threatened to do just that.