Page 52 of The Seeker
Rhys drummed his fingers on his knee. “The boat rocks, pull to shore. I know that rhyme.”
“We all do, don’t we? It makes sense if Sabine was singing that,” Meera said. “She was frightened and alone.”
Sabine smiled. “Why would I sing a children’s song?”
“You were a singer desperate for another one of your kind to find you,” Rhys said. “Just because it’s a nursery rhyme doesn’t mean it’s not powerful.”
Anya Niyahwas a simple song most Irin children were taught when they were small. But like all nursery rhymes, it had a hidden meaning.
Anya niyah.The boat is rocking. Things are unstable in the world. It was a plea and a prayer directed by children to the Creator when life was uncertain or they felt fear.
Mashak tamak. Pull to shore. Go home. Seek the familiar. The Creator responds to his children by leading them home.
But Irin adults knew thatmashak tamakhad another meaning as well. When a child who was singing it truly felt fear and need, it was a song of attraction. A simple magic that would pull an adult to them. It was a pull Rhys had felt himself.
“The Wolf found you because you called her,” Rhys said, looking up. “You called out while you were going through the bayou.” He squeezed Sabine’s hand before he released it. “I have a sense of the place now. It’s not clear, but it’s more than I had before.” He looked at Meera. “I need an audio file of birdcalls. I’m not familiar with the birds here. There was one in particular that was very distinctive.”
She nodded. “I can’t promise you they’ll be helpful. There were birds around in the early nineteenth century that are probably extinct now.”
“We can try.”
Sabine and Roch stood and exchanged a look before Sabine spoke. “If you don’t need us for anything else,” she said, “I’d like to spend the rest of the day with Roch.”
“Of course.” Rhys stood with them. “You know… a simple mating ceremony doesn’t take long. I know I don’t know either of you well, but if you want to be together, this sickness shouldn’t hold you back. And there are healing spells only a mate can sing.”
Sabine gave him a sad smile. “You don’t understand.”
Rhys looked at Roch. “You’re devoted to her and no one else. You are her other half whether she is in her right mind or not. If you could dream walk with her, it could center her, even when her mind is unwell.” He looked at Sabine. “He won’t leave you. Not ever. Whether you think you’re the best for him or not. If you were sick in body, you wouldn’t have these doubts. Being sick in the mind is no different.”
Roch looked like he wanted to add something, but he didn’t. Rhys saw him squeeze Sabine’s hand tight before he nodded and pulled her away.
“Anya niyah,” Meera whispered behind him. “Mashak tamak.”
“Yes.” When life was uncertain, as it was so often for the Irin, it was even more important to have people you could call your home. Rhys turned to her. “Will they listen to me?”
“I don’t know. I’ve told them similar things, but they know I care for them. You’re an objective observer. They might give more weight to your words.”
He was frustrated that he couldn’t do more. It was quite obvious to him that they were mates in every sense except formally.
Rhys held out his hand to Meera. “Will you show me Havre Hélène?”
She had the same look in her eye as she’d had when he’d asked her to dance. Desire and stubborn defiance. He didn’t know what the latter was about, but the former was starting to become clear.
Meera was maddening and brilliant and confusing and enticing. She was untouchable and irresistible. Both his mind and body were attracted to her, but Rhys was starting to grasp a deeper truth.
With a woman like Meera—heir of a magical legacy or not—he might just fall in love.
They walkedfor an hour around the farm, Meera pointing out the different technical aspects of growing and processing sugarcane while Rhys listened. She managed to make anything interesting, just by her own passion and intellect.
“Is it very different here?” he asked. “From where you grew up?”
“Yes, very different. The weather, the people, the food. The closeness of the community here.” She waved at two women walking to the house from the cane fields. “Everyone works together. There are fewer boundaries. Fewer set roles. And of course a lot fewer people. We have a cook and a healer and a forewoman for the farm. But if the cook is tired, then my father fills in. If Alosia wants to visit the city, another will tend to our wounds. It’s very different in that sense.”
“Udaipur was more formal.”
“Itismuch more formal.” She smiled. “I’ll have to go back eventually. This is… kind of a vacation for me.”
“A vacation to find a lost strain of Irina martial magic?”
