The Last of the Wilds

man you knew was an invention designed to manipulate you.

Auraya frowned. She was looking for something unusual in Leiard’s behavior. She should consider what Mirar’s behavior had been. If he had set out to deceive her by inventing Leiard, he had succeeded. He had gained her friendship and trust, then her love. She thought of the dream links, the declarations of love, the promises. None of it had been real. She shivered. She had... done things with a man she didn’t really know, whose intentions couldn’t have been good for her, the gods or Circlians.

What was Mirar’s real intention, then? Did Juran ruin his plans by discovering our affair and sending him away? Did Mirar come to Si hoping to encounter me and resume our affair?

As the possibilities occurred to her she felt a rising anger. I was willing to risk so much for Leiard! But I saw that he had changed, she realized. When we linked so he could teach me, I sensed a difference. What did he say again? “I am not the person I was.”

:Now you do see the truth, Huan said. It will cause you pain. We wish that it were not so. Better that this mistake had never been made. Hold on to your anger. You will need it to do what must be done. The other White are too far away to act. You are close, and have the advantage of surprise. He will not expect you to be the one to execute him.

“Execute him?” Auraya went cold to the bone.

:Yes. You hesitate to kill. That is good; we would be disappointed in you if you did not. But he must die - properly this time. I will guide you.

“When?”

:Now.

“But the Siyee...?”

:It will not take you long, Auraya.

“Oh.” She felt strangely disoriented. I’m not going to have time to get used to this, am I? I’ll have to sort out what it all means afterward.

:Yes. You must not let anything distract you, Huan warned. He is strong. It will be difficult. He will try to manipulate you. He will try everything to stop you.

Of course he will, she thought. I doubt he wants to die.

:I will guide you. Go, Auraya. Find him.

37

The breath of the rowers misted in the air, yet Imi was warm. She had wondered at first why Imenja was not heating the air around the crew with her magic, but then as she noticed sweat glistening on their brows she realized that they were hot enough already from their exertions. If they’d been inside Imenja’s area of warmth they’d have been uncomfortable.

Clouds were visible at the horizon to one side. They muted the light of the coming dawn. The sea, the boat, even the tanned faces of the rowers were an unhealthy gray. All color seemed to have been leeched from the world.

The coast was a dark mountainous line emerging from the night sky, separated from the dark water by a band of pale sand. Imenja turned to Imi. Her eyes were steady and she did not smile as she placed a hand on Imi’s shoulder.

“This is as far as we can come without risking being seen,” she said. “Are we close enough to shore?”

Imi nodded. “I think so.”

“Don’t take unnecessary risks.”

“I won’t.”

“We’ll return here this afternoon. Good luck.”

Imi smiled. “I’ll see you then.”

She moved to the side of the boat. It was rocking too much with the waves for her to leap off into the water safely. She decided the best way to get into the water would be to sit on the edge, move her legs over, then drop from there when the boat tipped her way.

It worked well enough, though it was hardly an elegant exit for a princess. The water was deliciously cold. Taking a deep breath, she dove under the surface and started swimming toward the coast.

The distance had looked small from the boat but it took longer than she expected to get to shore. The water was murky and the pre-dawn light was still too faint to reveal much below the surface anyway. Imi had rarely been in such an open place, and never alone. She could easily imagine something emerging from the gloom around her. Something large and ponderous. Or maybe something smaller and quicker like a flarke, seen only a moment before it attacked.

She felt on the brink of a shiver, like the feeling that she had sometimes when she felt she would sneeze soon, but never did.

Suddenly the water lightened. She surfaced, expecting to find the sun had risen, but nothing had changed. The beach lay ahead, now forming an arc around a shallow bay. Looking down again, she realized that she could see the pale sea floor beneath her. She swam on.

Soon the water around her began to push and pull. It roiled above her, curling and twisting. She had heard of surf before, but had never tried to swim in it. A water dancer had told her about it once. He’d said you could ride the waves, if you knew how. Swimming up one of them, she sought the right part to ride. She knew she had found it when she felt the force of the wave catch and propel her forward.

The wave’s rush was exhilarating and ended too soon. She found sand under her feet and stood up. Looking back, she considered swimming out to ride another wave.

No, I must start looking for Siyee. I don’t know how long it will take to find them.

Wading out of the water, she continued up the sand to where the grasses began. The sun finally emerged in the gap between cloud and horizon, bathing all in golden light. She climbed a dune and found more dunes beyond, stretching out as far as she could see.

The Elai traders who had told her stories about the Siyee had said the winged people lived in strange houses that looked like half-buried bubbles. She doubted those traders would have travelled far from the water for fear of drying out, so she was hoping the Siyee houses would be visible from the beach. She began walking along the shore, following the wide arc of the bay to a rocky point, then around to a larger bay. After a while she grew thirsty and drank from the flask Imenja had given her. Though the sun was covered by cloud and the air filled with mist from the surf, Imi eventually felt her skin becoming uncomfortably dry. She returned to the water and swam parallel to the beach.

I could walk for hours before finding any Siyee, she thought. Maybe I should swim instead, stopping in the middle of every bay to look for Siyee. That way I won’t dry out and I can ride the waves in each time.

For the next few hours she swam along the coast. Gradually the spit of land between each bay became rockier. She gave the water around these points a wide berth. Seeing the waves crashing against the rocks, she knew if she swam too close they might throw her against the rocks as well.

Otherwise, there was little variation between one bay and the next. The clouds kept a jealous veil over the sun, but she felt the day growing older. Stopping to survey yet another stretch of grassy dunes, she sighed and shook her head.

I’m going to have to turn around soon or it’ll be dark before I get back to the place Imenja left me. She frowned, then felt a stab of panic. How am I going to recognize the bay?

The wind whistled and fluttered around her. She looked up... and jumped as she saw the figures circling above.

Siyee!

They looked just as the traders had described them. Though small, she could tell these two were adult men.