Page 35 of Ocean of Ink
“Heron was protective over me, so perhaps he exaggerated his reasoning in conversation.”
Wren could not decide if she wanted to ask Kierana everything her brother had ever said, or ask the woman to never speak of him again. The pain of speaking of him in past tense was too great.
“Perhaps. He did love you a great deal,” Kierana replied.
The simple sentence cut into Wren like the teeth of a cardal.
“And I him,” Wren choked out, unable to get control of herself.
I’m weak, she thought.So, so we–
“You carry yourself the way he did,” Kierana’s voice was soft, and Wren sensed it wasn’t often that she dulled her edges for someone. “There’s something in the line of your shoulders that reminds me of him. I saw you and thought there was a resemblance because of your light hair and eyes, but it was the shoulders that confirmed my theory.”
Kierana’s words soothed and ached all at once. Wren desperately wanted to believe she shared something with her brother other than her hair color and foolish hope.
“That is likely due to our mother’s obsession with posture,” Wren tried for a joking tone. It came out a little stilted, but Kierana still smirked.
“My mother is fixated on my posture too, but in the opposite way. She wishes I were more petite and says that men from other kingdoms will not want to court me because of my height.” Kierana rolled her eyes as though the notion were preposterous. It was, but it also didn’t surprise Wren that Kierana’s mother would think in such a way. Kierana was an intimidating woman, and her height only added to that.
“Your parents mean for you to marry outside of your kingdom, then?” Wren asked to make conversation. She hoped she would have a moment to breathe without her brother getting brought up.
Kierana shrugged. “They mean for me to marry advantageously, but that could be an alliance with another clan.I think my father would prefer I stay in Stonemouth once I graduate from the academy, so that I’m close to our family.” Kierana looked over, curiosity alight in her green eyes. “What about you?”
“Marrying well is expected,” Wren gave the short answer while staring at the soggy ground they walked over. Her promise to her father came back to haunt her.
“If you allow me to go to the academy, I will return next Eventide betrothed or the best in my class.”
She had yet to experience a class, so she could not count herself out yet, but she still doubted her abilities to be the best in a school filled with brilliant students. There was no other choice, though. She’d die before she consented to marriage.
“Such arrangements are so foolish, but everyone justifies it by saying even the ancients organized them,” Kierana touted with an exasperated huff.
That they did. Wren had read several historical accounts of marriage agreements gone awry. Stories of forbidden love, elopements to escape arrangements, and death by duels were all found in the Seven Havens history books. They were the closest thing to a romance novel that Wren allowed herself to read.
“There are some things out of our control, I suppose.”
Kierana scoffed. “I control my own destiny. If I wish to marry a merchant or a butler or a king, what say does anyone else have?”
Wren stifled a sigh. Kierana spoke the way that Heron often did. No one could bend his fate but him. He was wrong, though, and he paid for it in blood.
“Your confidence is admirable,” Wren said instead of expressing any opposition. She didn’t want to make an enemy out of the warrior princess.
“You disagree with me,” Kierana pointed out, surprising Wren. “I am in no need of someone to tickle my ears. Be honest withme, and we will go far. Unearned flattery will ensure a knife to your throat.”
Wren’s eyebrows shot up. Kierana spoke the threat casually, as if she were asking Wren to go on a walk in the gardens later. Frustration simmered beneath the surface of Kierana’s words, but she was not angry. Merely agitated.
“My apologies,” Wren murmured. “I simply disagree about our level of control. Do your parents not have a plan for your life set in place?”
“They do, but as it is my life, I am able to circumvent that plan for my own.”
“Not without consequences,” Wren countered. “For instance, if I chose to marry a butler, I would be cut off from my family to live in poverty. Perhaps I would not mind if I was in love, but it is still something that affects my quality of life.”
Kierana smirked. “Heron mentioned your way with words. It is interesting to see it in action.” Before Wren could recover from the blow of hearing her brother’s name again, Kierana had linked arms with Wren. “I like you, Wren Kalyxi. And not just because I was friends with your brother.”
“Thank you?” The words came out as more of a question than an expression of gratitude.
Kierana laughed as they neared the assembly hall.
“You are welcome. I know that you are unlikely to trust easily, as I’m sure your brother taught you better than that. But you can trust me. I will protect you in his stead.”
