Page 5 of I Summon the Sea

I keep jerking awake.

Voices float above me, filtering through fleeting dreams.

“You have to admit it was weird to find her standing in that sinking boat, all alone, a pretty thing, soaked and shivering,” Red-hair is saying.

“Not so weird,” the other one counters. “There are any number of villages on the knolls in the lagoon. Lots of fish in the water.”

“And other things.”

Creatures grabbing unsuspecting fishermen and children playing in the shallows, seducing maidens and young men into the deep to feast on their still-beating hearts.

“True,” Pale-hair admits. “But the talisman didn’t shake. She’s clean. It’s obvious she was on her way to theanaktorfor the festival when her boat sank.”

“And how come nobody else was with her?” Red-hair asks.

“Are you really asking that question in this infested lagoon?”

“Good point.”

I open one eye and find the redhead looking right at me. It’s interesting how people think that being mute means you’re also deaf. They forget. They speak loudly and don’t bother to censor their words.

Also interesting how they add details that weren’t there. I definitely wasn’t shivering. I have long gotten used to the cold.

And I don’t have to answer their questions, at least not right now. They may be suspicious, but I didn’t attack them, instead begging for passage. What eldritch lumina would do that? What water sylph would walk on two legs and show no sign of magic?

“She’s awake,” the blond says, hazel eyes twinkling. “What’s your name? I’m Tru. And that’s Arkin. Royal Guards accompanying the human sacrificial offerings for this year’s festival.”

I gaze back at him, not moving. He’s a handsome one, with that classic fae symmetry of the face, the smooth cheeks, and bright, uptilted eyes. Human girls sigh over fae boys, and human boys sigh over fae girls, and Tru would be one to sigh over if I had a heart left.

“Are you hungry, pretty human?” Arkin asks, smirking. He’s not bad-looking either, his eyes a merry blue, his smirk cheeky. “If you want food, you’ll have to work for it. Know what I mean?”

Not bad-looking, but a piece of work, that one. One best left ignored.

So I do precisely that, turning my back to them, curling on my side on the damp planks of the deck, ignoring the rumblingin my stomach. Tonight, I didn’t plan on eating anyway. My insides are still hollow. I feel turned inside out.

Tomorrow, perhaps. If all goes well. If I’m still alive.

While I may not shiver with cold, anticipation travels over my skin in a frisson. It will take a few more days to reach the Sea Palace, and then…

“Things are getting more dire by the day,” Tru is saying. “See how many lights are moving over the sky?”

“Eosphors,” Arkin spits the word. “They aren’t that many yet, but I’ve heard they keep crawling out of rifts in the firmament.”

“We have never seen so much movement before.”

Odd.The fae worship the Eosphors, those humanoid, winged beings whose purpose nobody knows. They keep to the sky, hanging from the firmament and crawling across it, causing debris to fall to the ground and forming glowing, moving constellations. They slipped through with the last Reversal.

I’ve never heard a fae speaking of them with such distaste.

“They won’t cause any trouble. They, or the Great Dara.”

“If you say so, Tru, but what do you know?”

“They won’t, I’m telling you.”

They also worship dragons, especially the Great Darako, usually called just dara. These enormous winged dragons fly high up against the firmament, rarely coming down to the ground.

All in all, the fae tend to worship all flying, winged creatures, which fits in with the fae’s affinity for the element of the air.

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