'Once the sail's up.' Denlin fiddled with ropes and set up a small mast. He unfurled a sail that snagged tight as the wind caught it, and the boat lurched. The oars were pulled in.
Randur sighed physically, and feeling mentally drained he turned to Eir, who nestled into him, her head resting under his chin. He didn't feel the need to talk right now. All he wanted to do was fall asleep beside her. All that mattered to him now was Eir. And here she was, in his arms, so things were fine.
'Where to now, then?' Denlin said, pulling him back to reality.
Randur glanced across at Rika, whose arm rested on the side of the boat as she sat gazing out to sea. She nodded vigorously, then spoke, almost to herself. 'Villiren. That's where Commander Lathraea has gone.'
'Brynd?' Eir asked, shuffling upright.
'Yes. My name needs clearing. In fact, both our names do. Chancellor Urtica has corrupted the whole city hierarchy, and now only the commander will believe me – even though the military will serve whoever's at the top. I just know he'll believe me, and do what's right. The last I heard, he was heading for Villiren. We shall find him there, and then he can advise. Ask yourself the question: can we allow Urtica to steal from us the Empire that generations of our family have ruled over? No, I'm still Empress, so it's my duty to resist him, and this is only the start of things. We can't do that from here, as we are clearly going to be outnumbered. So we need to go to Villiren.'
Randur didn't think it mattered much who led the Jamur Empire – nothing seemed to change anyway, and the Council made all the decisions. Didn't fancy explaining that to her just yet, though. Instead he muttered, 'There was me thinking I'd got the girl and that was it.'
Denlin said, 'And I can kiss goodbye to putting my feet up and growing old disgracefully.'
'Denlin, Randur – I owe you great rewards. Please, will you stay with me?'
'I'm going where the lad goes,' Denlin replied.
Randur turned to Eir. 'I go where this one goes.'
Eir shrugged. 'Well, I don't fancy being constantly hunted down and then slaughtered. So I guess we're all in this.'
Her sister leaned back with a sigh.
Doesn't anyone just want a quiet life? Randur thought.
'Thank you,' Eir whispered, words meant for his ears only. Her glistening eyes fought back tears of exhaustion.
Given all the problems of this world, Eir offered him so much comfort, and that was maybe enough, wasn't it, just to find someone to love, and to get through life with that person alongside you, because there were no certainties in this world except maybe uncertainty itself.
As the boat was dragged by the breeze, he could see the orange glow of light in the windows of a handful of houses along the shore, warm and inviting but distant and untouchable, and it was as if they weren't just sailing away from Villjamur, but from all the comforts and luxuries they had been used to, from their own lives as they had been lived.
From the world as they knew it.
