Page 44 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

She caught the implication in his tone. “You didn’t like her.” The wind blew her red skirt around her knees, its cold fingers seeking to tug her hair loose from its braided crown.

Caiden shrugged. “She wasn’t my mother. She was very kind to me, but I suppose I resented her.”

“And so you resented Wen, too?”

He raised one hand and brushed his windblown hair out of his eyes. “We’vealways had our differences, but I’ve never resented him. I just wish he wouldn’t let himself get so caught up in his mother’s beliefs. He’s convinced that the gods are real, that they inspire his music, that they had something to do with our mothers’ deaths. He can’t see the truth. Hewon’tsee it.”

The words unnerved her. She felt a sudden affinity with Caiden; both of them were haunted by theshadows of things they couldn’t control. “My mother—my mother believed in the myths and the gods, too, and—and it drove her mad.”

He studied her, his dark eyes seeing deep. “I wish I could have met her.”

She clamped down on her lip to keep back the sudden press of tears, but one slid down her cheek anyway.

“Talia.” He turned to her, unexpectedly cupping one strong hand under her chin. His skinfelt warm against her jaw, his thumb slightly rough as he brushed her tear away. “I’m so sorry,” he told her softly. “You have lost so much.”

She shuddered and leaned against him, and all at once he was wrapping his arms around her and she was crying hard into his chest. He held her tight, the wind wheeling about them and the black gelding lipping distractedly at Talia’s braids. Caiden nudgedhim off.

“Hey,” he said to Talia, not letting her go just yet. “Are you all right?”

She swallowed back another wave of tears, suddenly aware of his heartbeat just beneath her ear, of the strength in his encircling arms, the hardness of his chest. Of his scent: hay and earth and cedar. She jerked away and he released her, watching as she scrubbed the tears from her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said,forcing her voice not to shake. “I don’t normally sob on the shoulders of recent acquaintances.”

He gave her a quiet smile. “Don’t mention it.”

She gulped a breath of air and smiled back.

“Well then,” he said. “Enough stalling. Can you really ride this beast or was it all just talk?”

She laughed and he grinned at her.

He gave her a leg up and she settled comfortably into the saddle. “He’sa lot of horse. If you give him his head he’ll never stop running.”

“I’d expect nothing less from Enduena’s finest.”

Caiden caught her eye. “I’m not sure Avial is Enduena’s finest. Though you might be.”

She laughed and bent over the gelding’s neck, touching him with her heels. He leapt into motion and joy swept through her, cold wind singing past her ears. She urged Avial faster and faster,until his long strides matched the pace of her galloping heart.

She helped Caiden rub Avial down after his run, the lantern gleaming amber from the stable’s ceiling. She was giddy with the sensation of speed and freedom—she could still taste it on her tongue, feel it on her skin. Oh, she’d missed that.

Caiden brushed the gelding’s flank while Talia worked on his shoulder, Avial munching happilyon some sugar cubes. He was as docile now as an old workhorse.

“I can’t believe how fast you were going,” said Caiden, shaking his head.

Talia glanced up to meet his eye. Her braids had shed their pins and tumbled free onto her shoulders. She tucked a few behind her ear. “Avial could almost match my Naia at home. I wish we could race them and see which one’s faster.”

“That would be grand.”Caiden moved to the gelding’s back, and Talia stepped around to the other side of him. “We’ll have to try it out, when you’re Empress and you’ve reclaimed everything that rightfully belongs to you.”

Talia chewed on her lip.

“You must think about it sometimes. How grand it would be, half the known world at your fingertips. I could help you, you know. We could be racing in the desert by summer.”

“You’d come with me?” she said in spite of herself.

“‘Course I would! I’d be your trusted general, and when we’d won the Empire, you could make me a prince or something.”

She had to smile. “I could do that.”

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