Page 116 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

They had tea with Ahned in the parlor. Talia feltlike a stranger, her eyes darting constantly to Wen’s, wondering when they could be gone. “Where are Blaive and Caiden?” she asked.

The steward stirred sugar into his tea, but didn’t drink any. “They’ve gone together to review the province. They took it very hard when you disappeared. Blamed themselves.”

“But are they well? Are they happy?”

Ahned smiled. “They always were a tumultuous pair,but they seem to have mended whatever breach lay between them. They’re to have a child in the spring.”

A weight lifted from her shoulders.

He sobered again, studying her and Wen in turn. “Two months after you disappeared, the wreck of a boat washed up on shore. We thought for certain you were both dead. Then, nine days ago, you appeared on the beach in the ruins of a great feathered creature,caught in some enchanted sleep. We couldn’t wake you. We didn’t dare move you. You had the look of ones who were gods-touched.”

“And so we were,” said Wen, his eyes far away. “We went to the ends of the earth, but the gods saw fit to bring us back again.”

Ahned shook his head, bewildered.

They stayed only long enough, after that, to pack up Wen’s music and a few changes of clothes for eachof them. Ahned found them wool coats, and they shrugged them on in the vestibule, snow falling thicker outside the windows. The steward eyed them unhappily. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until the Baron and Baroness return? Or at least until I can hire you a carriage from the village?”

“Thanks, Ahned, but no.” Wen glanced at Talia.

“We’re meant to be moving on,” she agreed.

Ahned sighed.“You’re unlikely to find a ship to take you until spring, in any case.”

“We’ll find one,” said Wen.

“The Baron won’t like it.”

Wen smiled ruefully. “Caiden will be fine. We’ll write to him when we reach Od. Explain everything.”

“Letters!” said Ahned. “I almost forgot, Miss Dahl-Saida—this came for you while you were away.” He drew an envelope from his breast pocket and handed it to her.

It was from Enduena, postmarked a year past, and she instantly recognized Ayah’s handwriting. She broke the seal, drinking in every word; her friend was safe, and was returning to Od—she’d taken a position as a librarian at the University. She read it over twice before folding it up again and tucking it into her own coat pocket.

“Are you ready?” said Wen, his fingers warm around hers.

She squeezedhis hand. “I am now.”

And they went out into the snow.

Chapter Fifty-Six

THE SUN SANK INTO THE SEA, Aglobe of scarlet fire, and Talia shut her eyes and drank in the tangy air, the last tendrils of light caressing her face. She brushed her fingers across the ship’s rail, listening to the creak of wood, the slap of waves, the sound of the wind filling up the wide sails.

It was a long way to Od: four thousand miles northwest of Ryn, a voyage as lengthyas the one from Enduena. But she could never be too long out here, caught between the sky and the sea and the last ragged remnants of her fate.

It was strange to be leaving Ryn, to be leaving the Ruen-Dahr and what she’d once thought would be her future.

She didn’t hear Wen’s step, and she started a little when she felt him wrap his arms around her from behind. He nestled his chin on her shoulder,and she sighed and leaned into him.

“You’re going to miss it, aren’t you?”

She knew he meant the sea. “I’ll always belong out here, among the waves. I think part of me went away with them—my mother, the Billow Maidens. I don’t hear their music anymore. It makes me ache.”

“Every time I fall asleep I dream I’m flying,” he told her softly.

She turned to look up at him, touching the patch of whitehair that fell across his forehead. It matched the threads of white running through her own dark hair. Half a year had spun away while they journeyed to Rahn’s Hall and back again. Neither of them had come away unscathed.

“We’ll visit the ocean,” he said. “As often as we can. As often as you like.”

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