whether he has his uncle’s bright blue eyes.” Arenadd’s own eyes narrowed. “He must know what I did to his family. What I am. And one day, he’ll come looking for me. Just like his uncle; some young fool with a sword, looking for glory.”
“An’ what will yeh do if that happens?” said Laela.
“Kill him, of course,” said Arenadd.
She grimaced. “That’s not very-”
“As long as he stays away from me, I’m happy to leave him alone,” said Arenadd. “I won’t look for him. But if he comes to me. .”
“He won’t,” said Laela, hoping like mad that she was right.
The King and his escort left Warwick at dawn the next day, and after the second day of travelling, Laela had settled into the routine of it.
One thing she grew to enjoy was watching Oeka. The green-eyed griffin was the smallest in their party, but she had enough self-confidence for two adults, and Laela loved the way she strutted around the other griffins, sometimes provoking one with a nip to the tail and then easily dodging the angry response. The only griffin she never dared annoy was Skandar-but that was more than understandable. Arenadd had told her that the giant griffin had killed more than one of his fellows for annoying him one time too many.
Most of the time, though, Oeka preferred to stay with Laela. During the journey, Arenadd continued teaching her griffish whenever they landed to rest, and it was in this time that Laela began her first, clumsy conversations with her new partner.
Oeka listened to her human’s attempts at griffish with amusement bordering on disinterest, and was kind enough to offer some feedback.
“‘Your griffish is terrible,’” Arenadd translated.
“Tell her I said I’m workin’ on it,” said Laela.
Oeka only ruffled her feathers and huffed by way of an answer.
Finally, after another day of travelling, the sea came in sight.
By that afternoon, they were standing on the shore. They had landed at a small Eyrie built by the sea, where a port housed the ship that would take them eastward.
That evening, Arenadd and Laela went down onto the rocky beach together and watched the moon rise over the water.
Laela thought she’d never seen anything so magical in her life.
Arenadd said nothing, and seemed content to let her take it in while he kept his eyes on the moon, apparently busy with his own thoughts.
The griffins had stayed at the Eyrie to rest after a long day’s flight, and the King and his companion were alone.
Eventually, when the moon was high and yellow in the sky, Laela sat down on a rock. Arenadd sat beside her, hugging his knees. “So,” he said. “Is it how you imagined it would be?”
It was almost an effort to reply. “No,” said Laela. “It ain’t.” She held a hand out, gesturing at the sea with her long fingers. “Who’s got the imagination to come up with somethin’ like that?”
“Someone, somewhere,” said Arenadd. “The gods, presumably.”
“Well, of course,” said Laela.
Arenadd reached upward, tracing the outline of the moon with his finger-tip. “The Night God is the mistress of the sea. They say sometimes she lives deep inside it, where the sun can never reach, and the night lasts forever.”
“It goes that deep?” said Laela, shivering.
“So they say. She controls the sea, my master does. When her eye is fully open and her power is strongest, the sea comes higher up the land, trying to reach her. They say that’s why the sea moves that way, when lakes and rivers don’t-its spirit can see the moon in the sky and reaches toward it, wanting to have its beauty and its light.”
Laela looked at him. “Is that true?”
“I don’t know.” Arenadd paused. “I never asked her.”
She watched him for a while in silence. “Yeh really saw her, then? Like, face-to-face?”
He looked her in the face. “Yes.”
Laela said nothing.
“You think I’m mad, don’t you?” said Arenadd.
“No! I never-”
“I wouldn’t blame you. Plenty of people don’t believe me. Sometimes I think even my own family likes to think I made it up.” Arenadd stretched. “But they can’t close their eyes to my power, and that makes them believe. Or keeps them from saying otherwise.”
Slowly and carefully-almost fearfully-Laela reached out to touch his hand. Arenadd started, and looked at her in surprise.
“What’s she like?” Laela asked softly. “What’s she look like?”
“To me?” said Arenadd.
“Uh. . yeah. To you.”
The Dark Lord closed his eyes. “To me she looks like a woman. Not old, not young. Ageless. She looks like one of us. Beautiful black hair, and one black eye.”
“So she really does only have one eye,” said Laela.
Arenadd’s own eyes opened. “I think she can look like whatever she wants. But when I see her, she has one eye. The other is. . gone.”
Laela tried to grin. “She sounds a bit like Saeddryn.”
“Oh, no,” said Arenadd. “She’s not like. .” He trailed off.
“Arenadd?”
He shook himself. “Saeddryn lost her eye to an arrow-she was lucky not to lose more than that. But the Night God. . she doesn’t have a scar, or wear a patch. Her eye is just. . gone. There’s nothing there, just a black hole in her face.”
Laela grimaced. “That’s horrible.”
“I suppose it sounds horrible,” said Arenadd. “But somehow. . it doesn’t feel that way. Anyway, haven’t you heard the legends? About her eye?”
“Gryphus took it,” said Laela.
“Supposedly. I never asked her that, either. But the stories also say she puts the full moon into the empty place where her eye was. And it’s true.”
“Oh.”
“That’s why people love Saeddryn so much,” said Arenadd. “Because of her missing eye. A one-eyed woman is thought to be very close to the Night God. I’ve heard tell of more than a few priestesses who put out one of their own just so they’d have some extra credibility with the masses.”
Laela sniggered. “That’s just stupid.”
“You wouldn’t do something like that for your god?” said Arenadd, unexpectedly serious.
“What? No!” Laela was taken aback. “Why would I?”
Arenadd picked up a rock. “Because this life is fragile,” he said. “Temporary. I know that better than anybody ever has. But the gods are forever. What are we next to them? Nothing.
Laela felt cold despair.
“And everything,” Arenadd added softly, and hurled the stone into the sea.
20
