Page 87 of The Great Hunt
“A tie?” Vixie shouted. “A bloody tie?”
From afar, Tiern raised his arms and appeared to be pointing down at the men, as if they’d won. Vixie slashed her armsthrough the air. “Not quite, sir! It was a tie!”
It looked as if their small figures were laughing. Paxton, with his hands on his waist, walked away from the other lads, while Lord Alvi and Tiern talked animatedly. She couldn’t hear their voices at all.
“What do you suppose they’re saying?” Vixie asked. “Better not be saying they won.”
Wyneth sat up, smoothing the wet hair back from her face. “I’m going to need a rest before I can make it back.”
Aerity patted her cousin’s wet head as the guard made it up onto the sand.
He checked his arrows, seeming pleased that they survived the trip. “Bit colder than I anticipated.”
“Aye,” Aerity agreed. She closed her eyes and raised her face to the warm sun, grateful for it. “Let’s rest and get warm again before we head back.”
A warm breeze blew, bringing with it a powerful scent of animal decay. Aerity covered her nose and Wyneth gagged.
“Something’s dead.” The guard laughed.
He wiped water from the wood of each bow, and then gazed up toward the old, abandoned structure. One corner of the building was partly crumpled, a pile of rubble on the ground and exposed deteriorating wood.
“I take it Your Highnesses will be safe here if I go check out the building? I’ve never been here.”
“Go ahead,” Aerity told him. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“I’ll only be a minute. We need to head back straight away.”
The girls nodded as he left them. Aerity sat in the sand beside Wyneth and stared with her across the stretch of sea. Tiern and Lord Alvi were lounging back on rocks, while Paxton walked among the wild bushes.
Vixie had walked a good ways down the shore, calling out, “Look at the size of this clam! Do you think it has a pearl?”
“Pry it open and see!” Aerity yelled. Vixie plopped down on the sand with the gray clam in her lap. That should keep her little sister busy. She glanced at Wyneth, who wore a sad expression. They sat quietly a moment. Aerity was tired of all the unspoken things between them. She chose her next words with care.
“Is there anything you’d like to talk about, Wyn?”
Her cousin’s eyes were blurred as she continued to stare out, shaking her head slowly.
“Not even a certain handsome man from the coldlands?”
Wyneth peered at her, face tight. “Definitely not.”
“All right, then.” Aerity sighed and took Wyneth’s hand. “Maybe if we don’t acknowledge any of this, the breath of the sea will blow over the lands and right all of the wrongs that’ve come about.”
Wyneth shut her eyes. Princess Aerity’s heart constricted as a line of tears rushed down her cousin’s pink cheeks.
Wyneth whispered, choking out, “I’m sorry, dearest Aerity. I didn’t mean to . . . I’ve tried . . .”
“No.” The princess squeezed her cousin’s hand. “You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s as if fate is an evil sorceress playing cruel tricks on the lot of us.”
Wyneth brushed away another drip of tears and sniffed, then leaned her head against Aerity’s shoulder. They sat like that together, their hearts heavy with burden.
From down the way, Vixie groaned. “Ugh, no pearl. What a rotter!” Aerity heard the heavy plunk of Vixie chucking the clam into the ocean. She and Wyneth both giggled.
Vixie jogged over and sat herself down cross-legged next to them. “What’s wrong with you two?”
Aerity’s first instinct was to put on a smile and protect her sister from unpleasant knowledge, but perhaps it was time she stopped.
“Vix, lots of things are going on in the kingdom.”
