“Jealous?” she asked.
“Me? I suppose I was at times. And furious at what seemed like a betrayal compounded. And once in a while, late at night, maybe glad at the thought of my two best friends happy together, even if I couldn’t share that joy.”
He felt Rienne lay her hand gently on his back. “Oh, Gaven,” she whispered. He turned a little, and met her eyes gazing up at him. She shook her head slowly. “He came by a few times in the first months. He was the only friend we shared who understood what I’d done, and his friendship meant the world to me in those months. But he never courted me.”
“What would you have done if he had?”
“Now why would you ask a question like that?” She turned to her pack again, jingling the buckles for a moment. “He stopped coming within a year’s time. It was just too painful for both of us-you were always so conspicuous in your absence. But when he stopped coming, it was even worse.”
Something clenched in Gaven’s chest, and he stepped behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders. “You were alone.”
She took a deep, sobbing breath, and Gaven enfolded her in his arms. She turned around and buried her face in his chest.
“I always imagined you at home,” Gaven said, “carrying on with your life-the life of a beautiful noblewoman with the world at her feet. I still can’t quite believe you never married. And when I escaped, you came looking for me.”
“Of course I did.” She lifted her tear-streaked face to him. “Oh, Gaven. I know Dreadhold must have been terrible for you, and I’m so sorry, but-”
“But you were as much a prisoner as I was.” She started to bury her face again, but he put a gentle hand under her chin and lifted it. “I’m sorry, Rienne.”
She straightened her back and shoulders, stretching up toward him. Kissing her, he knew beyond doubt that all was forgiven.
House Lyrandar’s airships were certainly their crowning achievement, but Gaven simply exulted in the speed, power, and grace of the Sea Tiger, seabound as she was. A water elemental was bound into the hull, channeled through arcane traceries carved into the fine Aerenal wood, and manifest in the enormous ring of churning water that surrounded the ship. The elemental lifted her from the water, carried her over rough waves, and propelled her along, even as the wind filled the sails at Jordhan’s command. They saw the lights of Flamekeep after sunset on the first day-a journey that would have taken at least two days on horseback. There was no faster vessel on the sea.
The sea-Gaven had forgotten how much he loved it. Though still enclosed within Scions Sound, he could almost taste the open water, blue spread forever above and below him, the water lifting him up, and the wind surrounding him. It was much like flying on an airship, he imagined-with the land stripped away, nothing stood between him and the sky. It made him feel like he could soar with the gulls overhead, as easily as the black-and- white porpoises in the water rode the Sea Tiger’s bow wave.
Even in the course of a day’s travel, Gaven could see and feel the weather changing. Summer arrived later in Aundair than it did in Korranberg, certainly, and it brought more rain, especially thunderstorms. During the second night, they came upon a terrible storm. At the first resounding crack of thunder, Gaven sprang out of his hammock and went up on deck, where the rain drenched him. All around him, the crew of the Sea Tiger struggled to secure loose objects as the ship tossed on the churning sea, and he heard the night pilot order a mate to wake the captain. The command made sense-only an heir of the Mark of Storm could reliably command the ship’s bound elemental, and the night pilot did not carry that dragonmark.
Before the mate could rouse Jordhan, though, Gaven lifted a hand to the sky. A flash of lightning silhouetted him, then another bolt struck him. He laughed as its power coursed through him, splintering off from his other hand into five harmless showers of sparks.
The rain stopped, and in a moment the wind died down-enough still to carry the Sea Tiger on her way, but no more. Sailors stood around Gaven in awe, staring skyward at the Ring of Siberys shining through a hole in the towering thunderheads above them-a hole that moved slowly across the sky as they continued their northward journey.
Gaven stayed on deck until morning, delighting in the storm’s distant dance, the flashes of lightning all around them. When the sun rose in a crystal blue sky, the sailors around him cheered, clapping him on the back in congratulations. But he mourned the storm’s passing.
The morning of the third day brought a glimpse of Storm-home, its towers and bridges gleaming pink in the dawn’s first light. Beyond it, the sea stretched on seemingly forever, fading into white at the horizon. Avoiding the site of his ancestral home for the time being, Gaven found a place to stand on the deck where he could not see any land-just rolling ocean. He knew that the Frostfell lay beyond, holding the far north in a perpetual winter, but from where he stood it was a fantasy, all land was fantasy, there was only him, the Sea Tiger, and the endless, boundless sea.
“You don’t seem pleased to be home.” Rienne’s voice startled him-he had so completely fallen into the illusion of solitude. He turned to see her crossing the deck toward him. Stormhome rose up behind her shoulder.
He shot her a weak smile then turned back to the sea. “Storm-home hasn’t been my home for a very long time.”
“Despite its name,” Rienne said as she stood beside him, leaning her shoulder against his.
“Despite its name,” Gaven echoed sadly. “They cut me out, Ree, like a healer cuts out gangrene. What am I doing going back there?”
“What are you doing?” Rienne said. “What destiny will you forge?”
“I don’t know.” Fleeting thoughts of a life on the sea passed through his mind-to spend his days and nights on the open water, under the open sky.
“If you don’t know what you want, you’re sure to do what someone else wants.”
Gaven turned again, saw the warmth in her eyes and smiled. Then his eyes drifted over her shoulder to Stormhome, drawing closer as the Sea Tiger surged forward. His smile turned into an eager grin.
House Lyrandar’s ancestral home-his home, for the first half of his life-occupied an island off the coast of Aundair. Its towers rose gracefully from the hills of the island, accentuating the natural contours of the land. Arching bridges and ornamented domes made the city into a work of art, glittering under a sky kept perpetually blue by the weather magic of House Lyrandar. Despite the city’s position at the mouth of Scions Sound, at the northern edge of Khorvaire, the power of the Mark of Storm kept the weather warm and fair. There were buildings Gaven didn’t recognize-the city had changed some in twenty-six years-but the closer he came, the more he felt glad to be there, even if he couldn’t quite say it was home.
Rienne pointed to a prominent tower on the north side of the city, and Gaven’s mouth hung open in delight. The tower was tall and slender, decorated with krakens whose outstretched tentacles formed spurs radiating out near the tower’s top. Moored at one of these spurs was the largest airship Gaven had yet seen, considerably larger than Jordhan’s impressive galleon. She boasted two elemental rings, one of white-hot fire and another of roiling cloud, occasionally flashing with lightning.
“Do you think,” he asked Rienne, “that while we’re here, I might get a chance to ride an airship?”
Rienne looked puzzled for a moment, then realized: “Ten seas! Of course, you’ve never been on one!”
“I’d never even seen one until I went to Korranberg.”
Rienne took his hands in hers and clutched them to her chest. “You’ll ride one, I promise,” she said.
She turned to face the city, and he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned back into him, and he savored her warmth, her smell, the way her hair tickled his nose. It was almost enough to make him forget Stormhome as they sailed to the docks.
“I can’t thank you enough, old friend,” Gaven said, clasping Jordhan’s hand in his own. “I hope this doesn’t land you in any trouble.”
“I never saw you,” Jordhan answered. “Either of you.”
