“No.”
He was impossible.
I tried again.
“Did your mother hate humans?”
His expression sharp, Terran’s jaw flexed once more as he warned me not to go there.
Too late. I had and would not relent.
“I know the answer already, of course. As do you. Elydor welcomed them for a reason. Estmere has been a boon in so many ways, their Sight a magic all of its own. If not for your mother’s death, think of how an Elydor with four clans, all equal, could prosper.”
He looked about ready to murder me. And yet… the Terran of a few days past would have cut me off before I’d even finished.
“The Accord of Estmere wasn’t just politics, Terran. Your historians recorded it themselves, that the Sight strengthened the Council’s decisions for two centuries. Even the Gyorian crown acknowledged its worth… until fear rotted what they’d built.”
He sighed, his expression softening.
For a Gyorian.
“It’s back.”
He’d gone completely rigid, standing erect and peering at something I couldn’t see. It took me a moment, and the captain’s shout behind us confirmed it.
“Four of them,” Terran grumbled. “It was a scouting ship.”
We ran to the captain, who was already adjusting the rigging.
“They’ll have Fayette on board,” Terran told Chaleo.
A Thalassari defector who, after challenging and losing to his queen, denounced his clan. I’d never met or encountered him, but his sailing abilities were renowned.
Chaleo grumbled something, though I could only make out “scourge” and “sea.” As he cut a sharper line to put distance between us, I shook my head while the two men plotted how best to lose the small fleet of ships that were attempting to intercept us.
Hundreds…thousandsof years and still they underestimated us.
Instead of explaining that Fayette might be a skilled Thalassari sailor but my own companions failed to remember I was, indeed, Aetherian, I calmly made my way to the front of the ship.
I braced myself at the prow, the wind sharp in my lungs. Closing my eyes, I found the currents above us, the invisible rivers threading through the sky. I coaxed them down, wrapping them around our sails until the canvas snapped taut and the mast groaned with the sudden burst of force. The deck lurched underfoot as our bow cut harder through the waves.
Then I reached farther, past the edges of our own wind, to where the fleet bore down on us. I twisted the currents at their backs, letting them fracture and scatter until their sails sagged. What wind they caught turned unpredictable, slipping between their masts instead of driving them forward. The nearest ship tilted awkwardly as the helmsman fought the wheel, momentum bleeding away.
Voices shouted behind me, Terran and Chaleo startled by the sudden change, but I held my focus. The air answered, bending to my will as easily as if I were still a girl racing storms along the cliffs. Our ship surged ahead while the enemy dwindled in the haze.
When I opened my eyes, Terran was there.
“Impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“I underestimated you, Lyra of Aetheria.”
“You did,” I agreed. “But I am accustomed to it, especially by?—”
“Don’t.”
He knew I’d been about to say“Gyorians.”
