He got to his feet, experimentally stretching his arms and checking his range of motion. When he found it all satisfactory, he shot me a sidelong glance. “If you’re trying to convince me I should let you go, you’re not doing a very good job at it. You’re making yourself both dangerous and precious to me.”
“The point is not to get away from you. You should come with me. The mortal world, the rebellion…you’d understand what happened if you came back.”
“It would be a little crowded on the ship, don’t you think? You, me, your mortal lover, fresh from Wesha’s clutches?”
If I thought that question had anything to do with our next destination and not his claim on my loyalty, I would have told him everything. Or almost everything.
Good news, Taran! If you’ll give up this nonsense about eternal service, I’ll stop looking for my betrothed and row you to Lubridium myself. You may hear a few surprising things about me once we get there, but please remember that I was very understanding, all things considered, when you tried to make me worship you. In five years we’ll laugh about this.
I winced and tucked my hands into my chest, because Taran was probably not in the mood to see the irony at this exact moment.
“Come anyway? We were betrothed for almost two years, but we never married, and after all that’s happened, I wonder if there was a reason for that,” I confessed, giving voice to my secret fear. He probably hadn’t thought we would both live when he proposed.
“You mean after you’ve sailed the Sea of Dreams, bargained with Wesha, and upendedmylife, you’re not sure this dead idiot would want to marry you?”
I nodded unhappily.
“Then you’re well rid of him, plum tree or no,” said Taran, looking pleased with the theory.
Through great effort, I kept my face straight at that announcement. I drew breath to chant the opening notes of Lixnea’s shroud as I headed for the door, only to feel another twinge of disquiet in my stomach, the opening salvo of one of my vows. Which one? I had Taran, and I had not abandoned my efforts to get him to the Painted Tower.
“We’ll get Marit, and we’ll leave before the others find us,” I said, trying to reassure myself, but it didn’t work.
I turned, following the pull in my chest. Not toward Taran.
“Awi,” I realized. “Have you seen Awi?”
“The bird? Not since we arrived.”
I hadn’t seen any lesser immortals in the entire complex, even though Smenos and Wirrea should have had retainers and children filling up the palace. They would have had no reason to desert the Shipwright upon his death, unlike the priests he let his wife prey upon.
Had the little bird gone looking for them?
My vow dug its claws into my stomach like a cat kneading bare skin.
“I can’t leave without her,” I said, breath still coming fast. “I need to find her before we leave.” There was some relief in forming the intention, but the twist in my chest still thought there was some risk that my vow to bring her to the mortal world would go unfulfilled.
“Perhaps we need to consider ways of getting you out of your vow to the bird goddess before we work on your obligations to Wesha,” Taran said, eyes darkening, but he reluctantly followed me out of the room, and together we began to sweep the empty halls for any sign of life.
20
Finding Awi wasnot as simple as finding Taran. The tug in my chest seemed to be pointing to the center of the Mountain, not any one spot in the anthill of the palace. And the layout was confusing the deeper we went: organic rather than carved from the rock, curving and doubling back and sometimes expanding into vast caverns.
The entire wealth of kingdoms was kept here in metal ingots and rare woods and other treasures: the tithes of generations of craftsmen, dimly illuminated by the single lantern we dared carry.
After half an hour of wandering, I stopped to rub the cramps out of my foot, and Taran took the opportunity to rummage through a felt-lined jewelry box, forgotten for the past hundred years if the dust was any measure.
When he lifted a gold chain set with chips of lapis into the air as though picturing how it would look on me, I automatically opened my mouth to scold him—Taran’s inclination toward casual theft needed curbing—and stopped to laugh. In light of my recent crimes, Taran might as well enjoy himself.
“It’s been a trying day,” he said, smiling when he saw I wouldn’t object and spinning the chain on a finger. “We deserve this, don’t you think?”
I played along, batting my eyelashes at him. “Oh, thank you, yes, I agree this day merits jewelry, but I actually prefer emeralds.”
Taran peered into the coffer. “You can have emeralds.” He rustled thoughtfully through a tangle of jewels until he pulled out a heavy torque set with green stones. “This one comes with a matching diadem.”
“Of course I need the matching diadem,” I said, giggling as I imagined us sneaking out of the palace, wrapped in Lixnea’s blessings and weighed down by enough jewelry to buy a farm. It was worth it to see some of the care lift off Taran’s face as he came over to arrange it over my bound hair.
When I turned to let him fasten the torque around my neck, I spotted a small flutter of movement down the next dark hall. A plain brown house sparrow, hopping just ahead of us.
