Adela breathed a small sigh of relief. “Even if it’s only a temporary fix, that is a significant improvement.”
“Good, hopefully it can help restore your strength and be more than temporary.” Eira remained seated on the edge of the bed. Adela stared up at her and she stared down at the pirate queen. Waiting. Expectant.
Another sigh. “Out with it, girl.”
“How long have you been struggling?”
The second she said it, Adela shot her a glare. She shouldn’t have overstepped. Eira knew it. And yet…she didn’t feel panicked or nervous about doing so. Too many things had added up. She’d seen too much.
“I am not your concern.” The statement was meant to dissuade her, of that Eira was sure. But it sounded tired, almost gentle. “I am the pirate queen?—”
“And you are tired.”
“I can rest.”
“Fine, you’re old.” Eira smirked.
Adela blinked, snorted, and shook her head. “You really are a precocious child.”
“Guess where I got it from?” Eira shrugged.
“I amnotyour mother.”
“I’ve learned that blood has little to do with being a mother.”
A slight smile cracked Adela’s lips. “Perhaps, but who would want a crusty old pirate queen as their mother? I’m more likely to stab you than kiss you.”
“Ah, good, you’re just like so many I’ve known.”
Adela snorted again. Even Eira smiled slightly. Then Adela’s face relaxed and, possibly for the first time, the pirate queen looked every one of her years. The fine lines in her face seemedslightly deeper. Her eyes a little more sunken with all the weight of everything she’d seen.
“I thought that I would be young forever.” Adela’s eyes drifted toward the windows out the back of the vessel. “I thought the elfin blood was strong enough in me that I would live to a hundred, easily. A hundred and fifty, even, as they can.
“But time is an impossible mistress to read. One moment, she’s off gallivanting. And then next moment she’s knocking down your door, taking residence in your bones and haunting your dreams. She’s sneaked up on me…” Adela sank farther into her pillows with a sigh. “Despite my best efforts to let the world believe the contrary, I am not immortal.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for the obvious.” Adela rolled her eyes. “I was the one being unreasonable, looking for a way to make it so. I can freeze whole islands, but not time.”
“How bad is it?” Eira’s voice had dropped to a whisper. Adela had always seemed like a legend in the stories. More myth than woman. Seeing her as flesh and blood somehow made Eira feel vulnerable.
Adela barked laughter. “I’m not dead, yet, girl. A sentimental fool in my waning years? Yes. Does my back crackle like dried leaves every time I stand? Also yes. But dead? No.”
Eira ventured a slight smile. “You’ll be terrorizing the seas for many more years, still.”
“People would kill you for wishing that.”
“I don’t care about ‘people.’”
“I suppose you don’t.” Adela gave her the most genuine smile she’d ever seen from the woman and then looked to the windows. “But there is something about time, and age, that makes one…think. When I lost my leg, I didn’t heal the way I used to. The call was a closer one than I’ve had in years.Imade a mistake. And these questions began to haunt me… What was itall for? What will be left after I am consigned to little more than dust?”
“You will live on for centuries in myth and legend,” Eira said softly. She didn’t know what compelled her to do so, but Eira reached out and touched Adela’s hand gently. The pirate queen, much to her shock, didn’t retreat.
“Iwill. But what of the people who have given me their lives and their loyalty?” Adela continued to stare out at the vast ocean they were leaving behind. “What of my ship? Of all the treasure I have gathered? Was it merely for stories and tales that will disappear off the lips of people who are dead and gone after a generation? Do I want to leave myths and fear that fade with time? Do I want to have something else be my legacy?”
Eira didn’t know. She’d never much thought of legacies or of what happened “after.” She’d been so focused on surviving that it seemed foolish to worry about what she’d leave in the world when her final Rite of Sunset was performed.
Adela sighed in the wake of her silence. Somehow, she felt like she’d let the pirate queen down by not having a solution. But Eira didn’t know what else she could’ve said or done. What more there was to offer.
