She glanced over her shoulder the instant his hand fell away. Whatever words of encouragement she’d been about to offer himvanished when she saw he was looking back at Alyss behind him. It was impossible to make out their expressions in the dim light of Olivin’s tiny glyph, but Eira could’ve sworn she saw Alyss mouth something to Yonlin. So Eira said nothing, leaving them be. Yonlin was in good hands.
They emerged up the ladder without incident, settling on the landing by the sealed door in the wall to wait.
“How much longer do you think until they’ll come and open it?” Alyss asked, heaving a sigh of relief.
“Not sure, but it also doesn’t matter.” Eira pressed her hand onto the door, coating it completely in a thick frost. Her brow furrowed with focus as ice cracked and ground against metal. When she withdrew her palm, the ice vanished with it and the door swung open.
They emerged into the night and it didn’t take long before the soldiers of Qwint were surrounding them, spun bracelets substituted for shocked looks and wide eyes.
The meeting with the Hall of Ministers went just as Lavette and Cullen had foretold. There had been a growing call to claim they were lost. Just as there had been murmurings that, if Eira had succeeded, then it meant beyond doubt that she was Adela’s offspring. Lavette and Varren had been doing their best to sway the discussions in their favor, but were fighting an uphill battle.
Luckily, thanks to Lavette’s warnings, she’d made it back fast enough that they didn’t have time to reach a consensus on what to do about it if she was as they suspected. For Eira’s sake, a benefit of governance by many voices was that it took some time to make decisions. So Eira proffered that it would be for the best, for all parties, if she simply excused herself from Qwint withinthe coming days—as soon as her ship finished being properly mended and restocked.
In the absence of a better plan, the ministers agreed. Most seemed ready to be done with her. Eira barely refrained from pointing out that if shewasthe daughter of Adela, it was far more foolish to provoke the pirate queen’s ire by capturing or harming her than to just work with her. Offering them a peaceful departure was more than a fair deal.
Negotiations and voting took half of a day—a short span of time, Lavette assured her, even if it felt needlessly tedious—and Eira walked free.
The hour had grown late and Eira walked with Olivin as her only companion through the tangle of wooden stalls and canvas tents of the market. The rest of their crew were attending to matters regarding their restocking, and generally recovering from the ordeals in Carsovia. Be it from exhaustion, or the hardships they’d faced, none of them had been particularly talkative since returning to Qwint.
Wordlessly, Olivin slipped his hand into hers, fingers lacing. Eira guided her steps closer to him, their sides brushing. He released her hand, shifted his arm around her, and settled his palm on her hip. For a moment, they felt normal. A sentiment he obviously shared with what he said next.
“Someday,” he started, a slight smile teasing his expression and softening his brow, “I’d like to think we might walk like this through a market without having to look over our shoulders. Once Ulvarth is dead and gone and we can move on from him, we can live a normal life in a world of our making.”
“A normal life,” Eira repeated with a wistful sigh, imagining what her new normal might look like. There were ship battles and leisurely days adrift, swimming in the middle of the ocean away from any other souls but their crew.
“For so long, the idea of killing Ulvarth and avenging my family was nothing more than a dream. I never thought it’d be so close.” Olivin’s fingers gently caressed her side in little circles. “And it’s all thanks to you.”
“I will end him.” There was no doubt in her mind. Even if it cost her everything, she’d be the one to finish him.
“I believe you. And it’s opened a whole new world of possibility I’d long written off.”
“Oh? Tell me of your world.” She looked up at him with a smile, thinking of what he might accomplish when he no longer had to lurk in the shadows. All his skills without holding himself back or operating in secret.
“I see you in it.” He glanced her way, nothing but admiration in his eyes.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Is it?” Olivin arched a brow.
“You seem surprised?” She leaned a bit closer.
“Merely pleased.” His expression eased into a genuine smile. “I think, when we are no longer pressed beneath the weight of Ulvarth looming larger over our lives—when our vengeance is secured—there will be nothing we can’t do.”
“In that, we are in alignment,” she said contentedly. Eira could see it now. Her legacy secured with Ulvarth’s death, she could be a worthy heir to Adela. There would be nothing stopping them.
“I’ve begun thinking about what I would like to do for you, when the time comes.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “So much of my life has been consumed with the end—with breaking things. Burning them down. Destruction. Either what was reaped upon me, or extracting it from others as vengeance. I think I’d like to build something.”
“Like what?” she asked delicately. Her heart sputtered despite herself for reasons she only wanted to admit to seeing the outlines of.What if what he wanted to build didn’t involve her? Would that be okay?
Yet, Olivin continued to surprise her. “Whatever a pirate queen might desire. Perhaps I could be some sort of fleet master for you?”
A smile broke from one ear to the next, spreading wide across her face. “I think I could use someone like that.”
In the back corner of the market, barely perceptible, was the familiar entrance to what Eira was fairly certain was a mostly illegal shop. She’d been guiding them there. But apparently she wasn’t the only one with this idea.
