“Firstly, didn’t you say Icouldn’tescape since I was already anointed with the words of the old ones, in the Eversea, and all that?” I interrupt, moving my hands through the water to encompass all the warnings he’s previously given me.
“Yes, which is what I was about to remind you of,” he backtracks slightly.
“Secondly,” I continue as if he said nothing, “you know what I need to ‘sever my ties’ and this is the only way to get it.Oneof the silver bars we were carrying is worth a thousand crons. All twenty—and then some—could fit in there.” I gesture to the chest with a palm. “This is the best plan we have.”
“You would go back to the wreckage of your own ship?” His expression is torn between horrified and impressed. Accurate.
“If there was another way, I’d suggest it.” I keep my emotions guarded, along with all the thoughts I want to keep private. “Sometimes, the only path is into the storm.”
Ilryth curses softly in the back of his mind and puts his hands on his hips. “This is foolish. It’s too risky for us to go into the Gray Trench, cross the Fade, and linger in the Gray Passage. I should never have agreed to indulge this.”
“But you did, and now you have to see it through.”
“Do I?” He arches his brows, whirling in the water to face me again. To loom over me. I sigh dramatically enough for him to notice that his posturing has no effect and tilt my head slightly, conveying that I’m not backing down.
“You gave me your word that—” I start.
“And you gave me your word that in five years you would be mine.”
“Well, who came early?” I arch my brows. “All of this could’ve been avoided if you’d let me get through the Gray Passage.”
“I went because if I didn’t, you would be turned into chum by one of Lord Krokan’s emissaries and then all of the Eversea would be damned for it,” he growls, leaning in. I still don’t back away. Our noses are almost touching. “Moreover, I never specified it’d be five years to the day.”
“You also never specified otherwise,” I counter.
He opens his mouth to say something. Abandons it. And then starts again. “Have you ever had a day in your life where you haven’t been unrelenting?”
“No.” At least not since I began life anew as Victoria. And I’m proud of it.
A low rumble crosses my mind as he eases away. I didn’t realize just how tight my chest was with him being so close. The tension between my shoulder blades eases some.
He swims over to the opposite corner of the room, rummaging around. I can almost hear him muttering to himself, and I close the gap he put between us. As if that’d somehow enable me to hear him better. Of course, it doesn’t, since the words are entirely in our heads.
“Yes. Here—” He lifts a large slab of wood that looks almost like a cutting board until he sets it on a barrel. A map I instantly recognize from sailing its waters countless times has been carved onto its warped and waterlogged surface. “This is your Gray Passage.” He points to a rocky stretch along an arc of land by northern mountains. “About here is the Fade.” He gestures on the edge of the map with the side of his palm. It’s the sea to the east of the Gray Passage, where none could sail and return from.
“Which means, this is Midscape?” I reach over and point on the other side of his hand.
He nods. “And right about where you’re pointing is what we call the Gray Trench. It is a deep ravine that leads from Lord Krokan’s Abyss.”
“I was wondering if it was connected, given the names…”
“We were once one world, after all.” Ilryth shifts his hands, pointing now on the other side of my palm representing the Gray Trench. “And here is where we are, right now.”
“The Gray Trench is what’s on the other side of the reef.” My growing suspicions are finally confirmed. Ilryth nods again. “And where the wraiths, monsters, and rot come from.”
“Exactly. It stretches all the way…” He drags a finger over mine, pointing at nothing but water far to the northeast. “To Lord Krokan’s Abyss.”
The perpetual storms. The ghost stories. The ships going down. It all has an explanation. “The Gray Passage is connected right to your old god of death.”
“Yes.” Ilryth relaxes his hand and I can’t help but notice how it brushes mine again when he does. “The Gray Passage is on the other side of the Fade, where siren magic is weaker, so it’s too risky for my warriors to patrol. Beside, most wraiths who cross the Fade don’t last more than a day or two in the Natural World, at least not without possessing a host.”
“Like the ones that attacked me,” I say. Charles’s lighthouse is at the end of the Gray Passage that’s closest to Dennow.
“Yes.” He doesn’t meet my eyes. His expression is soft. Haunted. “They were my men. I’d led them on a reckless mission; it was my fault that happened to them. I was chasing after them to give them a clean death.”
“If the wraiths move from the Abyss up through the passage, then it is likely we’ll be attacked on our journey,” I reason. He nods. “Why not avoid the passage altogether, then? Use the same magic you used to bring me back quickly when Krokan’s monster attacked?”
“That was something special, I can’t do it again. And, traveler’s pools? I told you, they’re restricted to prevent the spread of the rot. I might be able to use them once, undetected. But it’s better to save that for bringing the silver to your family.”
