Page 91 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

Now she was here.

She’d likely never see him again, and she realized she couldn’t go without saying goodbye.

Talia shrugged out of the knapsack, tucked it safe under the stair, and slipped into the house.

He was standing alone, just outside the huge doorway to the ballroom, dressed ina gray waistcoat and jacket, his cravat neatly tied. Hundreds of candles danced in the glittering chandeliers, the scent of beeswax and roses and spiced wine drifting out into the vestibule. Couples danced in glittering pairs, and Talia was thrown back to a year ago in Eddenahr, when Eda had burst into the Emperor’s ballroom and changed everything.

“Wen?” she said softly.

He turned from thedoor, and she felt her heart constrict as his eyes brightened at the sight of her. “You’re here,” he said. “You came.”

“Wen—”

“You look so beautiful.” He held out his hand. “Would you care for a dance?”

“I’m not dressed for dancing.” She was wearing a plain gray-and-rose gown, the sturdiest garment in her wardrobe.

“Of course you are,” he said, and folded his fingers around hers.

He drewher close, one hand pressing against the small of her back, the other resting lightly on her shoulder. She didn’t pull away. They danced together quietly, easily, out of time with the quick-stepping jig that poured from the ballroom. She felt her resolve crumbling. Why was it so hard to leave him? It shouldn’t be.

She pulled suddenly away and he did too, a careful distance in his expression.“Are you all right, Talia?”

She scrambled for an answer. “I thought—I thought perhaps I’d change into something better for dancing in. Would you wait for me?”

His smile started in his eyes and spread to his lips. “I would like nothing better, Miss Dahl-Saida.”

“Ten minutes, and I’ll be back.”

For an instant more she studied him, the freckles on his nose and the stubble on his chin and thelines pressed into his forehead. And then she turned away and went upstairs to her room, pausing briefly to leave two letters on her bed—one for Ayah, one for Wen. She passed quickly through the hall and down the servants’ stairs, then out a side door into the night.

The wind sang through her hair as she galloped along the shoreline toward the hidden cove, Ahdairon’s hoofbeats thudding in thesand. Her knapsack thumped heavy against her waist, its contents making her uneasy. She thought of Wen, waiting for her to come back downstairs to dance with him, not knowing she was already gone.

But there was no turning back.

When she reached the cove, Talia reined in the mare and swung down. She took off the bridle and tied it to the saddle so the reins wouldn’t drag. “Off home you go now,”she told Ahdairon, smacking her flank. The horse eyed her with confusion, but started obediently down the coast the way they’d come. She should get back to the Ruen-Dahr without any trouble.

The ship was waiting for her, its bow poking through the trailing vines, water lapping quietly at the hull. Moonlight illuminated the words she’d painted on the bow only yesterday, her name for the ship:Endain’s Heart.The tide was rising. She loosed the boat from the driftwood post where she’d moored it, then wrapped the rope securely around her shoulder and tugged it out of the hidden cove. She felt calm. Steady. Certain.

She climbed into the ship, raised the mast and lashed it securely in place, her patchwork sail furled and ready. She double-checked the knapsack and secured it with her othersupplies in the bottom of the boat, before covering everything with the waterproof tarp.

Everything was in order.

There was nothing left to do but set sail.

She scrambled back onto the shore, putting her shoulder to the stern ofEndain’s Heart,and shoving it out into deeper water. The waves caught the boat and her final decision was made for her—all at once she was fighting through the water,grabbing the side of the ship and pulling herself into it.

She caught her breath and checked the sail and rudder, then cast one last glance back to the shore.

Someone was standing there in the moonlight, arms windmilling. Shouting at her, though the words were lost in the sound of the surf.

It was Wen.

Part Four:

SHIP AND SEA

So Rahn made a white ship with silver sails, and she cast it away from the shore and was seen no more upon the land.

---