Page 72 of Tell No Tales
Klaus didn't like being dismissed, but he supposed it was to be expected. No matter how much he'd wished for his life to be different, he wasn't a weaver. He'd never have an element to call his own. He could identify weavers by their auras and their weaves by the colorful threads left on each weaver's creations, but he had no real power of his own. Meanwhile, Vadim was the most powerful death weaver in the empire, and now he was also one of the most powerful healers.
"Raw power is useless without instruction."Vadim's voice in Klaus's head was as bitter as the first time he'd mentioned Martiz and his lack of training.
"You have a week to learn from Yvette,"Klaus reminded him. It wouldn't hurt to try.
Unfortunately, Yvette's education kept Vadim away from their cabin at all hours of the day. Klaus spent some of the time with Hannah in the crow's nest. The rest, he followed Mewskers around the aft deck, hoping the kitten didn't decide to take a flying leap into the ocean to catch the fish.
Vadim always ate meals with him, but then he vanished to the captain's cabin or found a way to climb aboardWildfire,now that the gangplank had been taken down. A few times, Tovey practiced sending him across on a sail, the way Nola had first dropped in on them. Each time, Klaus held his breath, for fear that even that tiny amount of air disturbance would drop Vadim into the sea.
His fears were unfounded, of course. He'd fallen hard toWildfire'sdeck at the first attempt, which had resulted in much cursing and swearing, but he was fine.
"I'll always be fine,"Vadim shared through their link. More and more of his thoughts found their way to Klaus. Either he forgot to raise his shields between them, or he no longer saw Klaus as a threat.
At night, Vadim continued to sleep in his despised sail bed, while Klaus slept with the kitten on the floor. Klaus had hoped Vadim would initiate sex again, but he was always so damn polite and aloof. Either that, or he returned to the cabin so late, Klaus was still disoriented from sleep by the time Vadim tumbled into bed.
One morning, Hannah's call of "Land ho!" rang out across the deck. Klaus had lost track of time, but the stretch of coastline growing before them could mean only one thing. They were nearing Hearthstone. The closer they approached, the more the skyline came into focus. These weren't tree-lined shores. The top of the fortress wall was shrouded in fog. Klaus didn't know Hannah's range, but he was certain the fog was her handiwork.
The captain steered the ship around to a parallel course with the coastline. Klaus braced against the main deck railing, sensing the number of air and earth weavers at the ready in guard towers every three hundred feet.
"There you are." Vadim sidled up behind him and wrapped his arms around Klaus's shoulders. Klaus closed his eyes and sank into Vadim's warmth. It wasn't the cold of Landale, not yet, but it was the kind of damp chill that seeped into Klaus's clothes and made him feel like he would never get warm again. Vadim burned some of that away with his heavy coat and his warm breath.
"Have you gotten all your arrangements made?" Klaus asked.
"We're as ready as we're going to be." From the way Vadim squeezed him tighter, Klaus guessed it would probably be another catastrophe, same as when Efren attackedImperial Fool.
"It won't be that bad,"Vadim chided.
"You don't know that."Klaus couldn't help it. He felt bratty and petulant. Vadim had blocked him from most of the preparations, choosing to share only with the other weavers.
"Are you bored?" Vadim asked. "Hearthstone will give you plenty to do."
"I'm with you." Klaus thought about it, trying to remember the last time he had been bored. He'd been worried the night Vadim had isolated him in the hold, but even that hadn't been boring. "I haven't been bored since I met you."
Vadim studied him with a bemused look. "You were bored all the time onImperial Fool."
"Only when you weren't around. I missed you." Where had those words come from? Klaus hadn't meant to sound so vulnerable, but it was the truth. He'd enjoyed their hostile exchanges at first, and then everything had changed when Vadim slapped the life link on him.
Klaus wanted to live for himself, no question about it, but he also needed to see where the spark of mutual interest would take him and Vadim. Too far, apparently. He was far from shore and adrift on his feelings, even as they rounded a shoal and pulled closer to the coast.
Chapter 18
Vadim
Hearthstone was just as gray and dreary as Vadim remembered. He'd been eighteen the first time he saw the line of docks and ships moored before that giant wall. There were fewer ships this time, and that worried him. Were the naval vessels protecting Coryn's find on Stony Eel Island, or had she sent the fleet against Aquarion en masse?
"Docks look empty," Hannah said. For once, Vadim didn't jump at the sound of their voice. He was getting better at sensing when they were around. The closer he was to Klaus, the easier it was to sense other weavers around him. He didn't recognize them the way Klaus did, but there was some residual benefit through their link. He wondered what he passed to Klaus, if anything. Would Klaus be able to heal his own wounds one day? Or would he be able to drain a life force to strengthen his own defenses? Either way, it would protect Klaus, but Vadim didn't know enough about their link.
Thankfully, Yvette, Nola, and the twin air weavers, Ray and Roy, were joining them on their excursion, while Devon sailedWildfireto Glamiere. Once he dropped the little water weaver, Lurvane, off with her aunt, he would deliver invitations for the eastern nobles to join them on Aquarion in the spring. Vadim hoped they had a reason to meet. If they didn't rescue Hugo here and now, there would be no reason for a summit on Aquarion.
"Captain wants you," Hannah said.
"I highly doubt that."
His immediate retort caught Hannah off guard, and they snorted a laugh. "Even so, he'd like to see you before you rush off on your foolhardy mission, or so he says."
"He's only saying that because he can't come with us."
He turned toward the cabin, but Hannah didn't step out of his way.
