Rather than fighting him on that, I focus on what might be most useful to me here and now. “You wouldn’t even try to see if these other powerful kings and queens could help you?”
“No Elf King or Human Queen has come to pay homage to Lord Krokan or Lady Lellia in nearly a thousand years. I suspect that they have turned their eyes from the oaths of their forefathers.” It’s hard to tell how he feels about the idea. If the notion wounds or offends him. Or if it is merely accepted as fact. Probably both. I know all too well how easily pain can numb into bitter acceptance.
“I see.”
“I imagined a human would reject the truths of their world more.” Ilryth wedges the chest in the sand at the center of the room.
“I fell into the ocean, was attacked by what I now know to be wraith-possessed sirens, saved by a siren duke, had a strange marking put on my arm that gave me some kind of magic I could never quite figure out the extent of but now know it has something to do with being a human sacrifice”—I count on my fingers—“was shipwrecked by a sea monster, lived after death, sawanothersea monster, walked through another man’s memories, and am currently still existing underneath the waves…consider me primed to believe the impossible.” There are not enough fingers on both my hands for all the oddities.
“Laid out like that, it seems all the more improbable for you to believe me.”
I shake my head. “Not for me. I spent my whole life looking for adventure. Granted, I went searching in all the wrong places…” I quickly recover before I can go too far down that line of thought. “But I’ve spent years learning all I could, pushing the borders of maps. What greater adventure is there than old gods and sirens?”
He holds my gaze. It’s unlike any other time he’s looked at me. This is steady. Almost warm. Perhaps a glimmer of understanding and appreciation. Just when it’s at the point of awkward, he looks away and motions to the chest.
“Well then, now that all that’s out of the way, what should we put in here?”
“Excuse me?”
“To pay your family’s debt. I told you I would help you. Take what you need.”
I’m slow to move, a bit uneasy about picking through his “treasures.” Unfortunately, there’s not much for me to select. I resist pointing out all the relative garbage in this room. I don’t want to insult him when he’s doing something to help me and my family and, more so, because he seems to have a genuine interest in humans. Why else would he collect all this and call it treasure? Insulting someone for not knowing when they have an earnest curiosity and will to learn is the lowest of low.
“Let’s see…” The items I put into the chest need to be things I would realistically have, something that people won’t question my family for possessing. The last thing I want is for people to accuse them of stealing.
The items will also need to be things that my family will be able to extract immediate value from. Pieces of art, navigational tools, and other relics might have immense value, but Mother would have to search far and wide for the right buyer. That kind of wasted time isn’t something I should risk.
They might have a year in theory, but for all I know Charles is going to go to the council right after word reaches him that my ship went down. He could appeal for an immediate payment. I wouldn’t be there to fight him. Emily could file on my family’s behalf. She knows the system but… I fight a wince. This shouldn’t be my sister’s battle or responsibility.
A glint of gold catches my eye, jarring me from my spiral of self-deprecating thoughts. It’s such a small thing that it’s a wonder I saw it at all. Perhaps because this item is set to the side. It’s on a shelf alone, resting in a half-opened clamshell.
I swim over, hovering before it. This room is like a cemetery of memories. Things I tried to keep buried, all rising to the surface.
My fingers close around my wedding band. It’s undeniably mine. I know every last scuff. Down to initials I no longer use etched on the inside that marks it to me.
“Are you all right?” Ilryth swims over. I can only imagine what expression I must’ve been wearing from the first moment I saw it.
“I’m fine.” I shake my head and return the band to the clamshell. The ring doesn’t matter. Unimportant.Forget about it, Victoria.
“But I can see you’re not.”
“I said I’m fine.”
“It’s clearly something,” he insists. “It slipped off that night and—”
“There’s no need to discuss it,” I interrupt him curtly.
“Are you always like this?” He scowls slightly.
“Are you?” I thrust my chin out at him, matching the expression.
Ilryth won’t relent. He’s encroaching on my space. “If you’d like it back, all you have to do is ask.”
My face twists with disgust. “I most certainly would not.”
“Ah, then it’s not what I thought it was.” He chuckles. He almost sounds relieved.
“What did you think it was?” I should let the topic drop. Damn my curiosity and slippery thoughts.
