And yet, this place... thisnow... seemed so familiar.
Dilys squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples, trying to figure out where the memory was coming from. He’d been standing here, or in a place eerily similar to here. Only the dock wasn’t as clean and tidy as it was now. There should have been coils of ropes and several anchors lying about near the edges of the pier... because the woman... she had stumbled on those coils of rope. She had... fallen. He could hear the splash. Then the silence when she didn’t resurface. It dragged on one second... two... He could feel the slap of the night-damp wood against the soles of his feet as he’d run down the length of dock and launched himself into the still, dark water of the fjord...
His chest felt tight. Dilys lay a hand over his heart, pressing clawed fingers into the thick flesh of his pectoral. She’d been drowning. He’d tried to save her. He could see her there in the water, dark hair spread out like skeins of sea silk floating about her face. Golden eyes shining up at him in the darkness from a face shrouded in shadow.
Golden eyes, not blue. Not Summer Coruscate, then. But who? Why couldn’t he remember?
Through sunset and into the twilit darkness of the short summer night, Lily and Gabriella laughed and danced and chatted with handsome Calbernan men. Lily flirted shyly. Gabriella did not. Several of the islanders tried to engage her, but she told them she was already spoken for and had just come to keep her sister company.
Tables overflowed with free food provided by the king and queen. More tables flowed with wine, ale, and mead for only a copperpisetaa glass. Lily stuck to the free sweet punch until the attentive young Calbernan who had danced with her multiple times bought her a glass of ice wine, then another after she thirstily drained the first. Before Lily reached the bottom of her second glass, Gabriella realized the wine was a mistake. Either because she hadn’t eaten much that day or because she had no head for alcohol, the strong wine went straight to Lily’s head.
“Uh-oh, time to get you home,” Gabriella announced when Lily started giggling and swaying on her feet.
“I will accompany you to your dwelling,” said the young Calbernan who’d bought Lily the wine. He seemed sincerely distressed that his gift had impaired her.
“It’s not necessary—Talin, was it? We’re staying not far away.” She’d had a nice night of anonymity and a very good time. But Talin and Lily had hit it off and she didn’t want him to find out they’d lied about who she was just yet. If he came with them to the school, he might see Princess Summer leave—because Summer couldn’t very well go back to the palace wearing Lily’s best dress.
“The sun has set, and Lily-myerinais not herself,” Talin replied. “I will accompany you.”
Gabriella’s approval of him went up another notch. Protecting the vulnerable was an admirable trait. But he still wasn’t coming with them. “Really Talin, it’s not necessary. With a whole Calbernan army here and the White Guard patrolling the streets, Konumarr is currently the safest city on Mystral.” She smiled to soften her refusal. “Which ship are you on, Talin?”
The young man’s chest puffed out slightly. “I sail aboard theKracken,Gabriella-myerina.”
Dilys Merimydion’s ship. It figured. Talin wasdefinitelynot walking them back to the school.
“I’ll see to it Lily finds you there tomorrow,” she said with a tiny push of Persuasion. “All right? Wonderful. Have a good night, then.” Without giving him time to object or shrug off her subtle command, she wrapped an arm around Lily’s waist and headed for the road.
After a few wrong turns to make sure Talin hadn’t gotten it into his head to follow them, Gabriella steered Lily down one of the side streets that ran parallel to the main road and headed for the school.
“Come on, Lily, let’s get you home.”
Lily blinked at her and smiled drunkenly. “I’m not Lily. You are. See?” She clutched at Gabriella’s pink frock. “You’re wearing her dressh.” She poked Summer in the chest. “You’re Lily. I’m Gabriella.” Her head fell back and she laughed.
Summer sighed. “All right, Gabriella. Let’s get you home. And no more ice wine for you.”
Lily pouted. “But I like eyesh wine.”
“I can see that,” Gabriella said dryly.
“I liked Talin.”
“Yes, he seemed very nice.”
“He liked me, too.”
“It definitely seemed so.”
“You’re such a good friend, Lily.” Lily threw her arms around Summer’s neck, dislodging the headscarf holding back Summer’s hair, and smacked a loud, sloppy kiss on her cheek. “I wish you really were my sister. This was the best night of my life.” Then she laughed, spun out of Summer’s reach and ran up the street towards the school. She whipped off her own headscarf and threw it in the air, twirling in circles. “I love Talin. I love you. I loveeverybody!” She danced and skipped up the stone steps of the school, disappearing into the shadowy alcove of the recessed door, and began singing off key, “Lily, Lily is my friend. The nicest girl in Winterland.” And she burst into drunken giggles over the rhyme.
Summer sighed and laughed ruefully as she pulled the dislodged scarf off her head and bent to retrieve the one Lily had tossed in the air. Definitely no more ice wine for Lily ever again.
The sky was dark now, and the moon had ducked behind a bank of clouds. Oil lamps burning every block kept the side street well lit, but several of the narrower alleys between buildings were impenetrable. Later, Gabriella would berate herself for not paying more attention as she walked past the darkened alley nearest the school.
The punch to her ribs caught her utterly by surprise.
It slammed into her like a hammer. She heard a crack, felt a searing flash of pain, then she was weightless, flying off her feet.
Her body slammed sideways into the gray stone bricks of the street. If not for her outflung right arm, her head would have slammed into the bricks as well. As it was, she was still left dazed when her arm smacked the stone, and her head slammed hard against her arm. Her unbound hair spilled over her face, blinding her as she lay there, gasping for breath.
