“Aye, it would be best. If not, the red dragon will be alone in the world—because I am assuming a part of your plan involves the end of the Mother Dragon, Gin?” Nelenie tucked another piece of hair behind her pointed ear. Gin noticed the gesture and remembered how her friend used to wind her ponytail around her fingers—with the lack of long hair, Nelenie had found another nervous habit.
“Not at our hands.” Both Sath and Nelenie looked at Gin in confusion. “I will not have another death on my hands—Kaerinth’s madness has not caused a single moments’ trouble in our side of the world for more than 200 years.” She frowned as she continued speaking. “I do fear that once she is unable to resurrect her mate, Taanyth, she may choose to join him -- but that death will not be our doing. I will not be responsible for her end. It is not necessary, at least not yet.”
“Right.” Sath settled in, sitting cross-legged like Gin did when she meditated. “So I will contact Kaerinth and tell her that the wizard has control of Daelyth, and we want to assist her in keeping him from getting the orb. Yes?”
“No—well, yes, that might be better.” Gin smiled at Sath. “See? You are a better strategist than I am. Leaving it until we are inevitably captured to tell her about the orb would give the wizard time he does not need to be given, as well as make our chances of saving Daelyth even worse. Yes. You do that, and I will work on explaining the Guardians to Nel here.”
Nelenie grinned. “No need, Gin. That was another thing Mother has already told me. So much information! Who would have thought it was the two of us, eh? If anyone in my family was going to be selected, I would have thought it to be Tairn.”
“Why? Because she has magic, and you don’t?” Nelenie snorted at Gin’s question.
“No—I have some magic too, I’ll have you know. No, I would have guessed my sister to be the Guardian because she was always so concerned with your safety when we were kids. Remember? She used to get angry when Papa stopped letting you eat at the table with us because -” She flushed to the roots of her blonde hair at the memory. “She was never as haughty as the rest of us, that’s all.” Gin took Nelenie’s hand and squeezed it.
“I’m just glad you’re here. We both survived our upbringings and Naevys’s perverse idea of a family, and now we’ve found our way back to each other.” Nelenie nodded, a sheen of tears reflecting in her eyes.
“Another thing Mother told me was how this is passed down in families. I—have a child, Gin. It’s why I left Naevys, and I imagine it is why Dor left her and then found you.”
“The child is his?” Gin’s face darkened.
“Oh, no.” Nelenie almost burst out laughing. “Dear Spirits, Gin! I was lonesome but not THAT lonesome.” Both of them laughed. “No, her name is Thara, and her father was another exiled from Alynatalos, just as I was. Kerym and I traveled together for a few years after I finally left Naevys, and Thara was born while we were trying to book passage to sail—here, I suppose. We wanted to find a new start for our family.”
“You talk about him in the past tense, Nel. Where are he and your daughter now?”
This time it was Nelenie’s face that darkened. “He died. We were sailing, and he jumped out of the boat to swim ahead to the land we were approaching—only when he got close, everything just disappeared. He was gone, the beach was gone, everything. Luckily Thara was little then, so I had her in a sling that I wore. I got the boat to stop, but Kerym was nowhere to be found. So I turned the boat around and paddled until I got back to Calder’s Port.”
Gin’s eyes were wide and her fingers spread out across her cheekbones in shock. “Nel! That must have taken weeks!”
“I don’t know how long it took, honestly. I just kept paddling until I felt too sleepy to continue, and then I would drop anchor and sleep a little bit. Luckily, Thara was still nursing, so I didn’t have to provide solid food for her as well—our rations lasted me almost all the way back to the Port. She’s a tough little thing, my Thara.” She chuckled, but it was a hollow sound that hurt Gin’s heart to hear. “We must have been quite a sight when the boat pulled into the harbor. Thank the Mother we were able to make it back home. I took her back to my family in Alynatalos to keep safe, but sadly Tairn wasn’t there—I hear she lives up with the dwarves now?”
“She does—that is a long story for another time, but she is safe and well. Oh, I promise you, Nel, if it is at all possible, we will find Kerym. If he still lives, I promise we will bring him back to you and Thara.”
“Oh, Gin, thank you, but he was lost when Thara was only a few months old. She is nearly 10 now.” Nelenie shook her head as she squeezed Gin’s hand. “Let’s just focus on the task at hand now, shall we? Once that is done, we can talk about the legacy I am now leaving for Thara.”
“Done!”
Both of their heads swiveled to look at Sath, and Gin scooted closer to him, taking his hand in hers. “I’ve found her, but she isn’t responding to -” His facial expression went utterly blank, suddenly, as though someone had removed the parts of him that made him who he was.
“Sath?” Gin tried to join the bond he had
