“You look lost,” the man says. Deep lines mar his face, but he isn’t old. He’s barely older than me and I think he is the child’s father. She carries his likeness.
“Are you a priest of Okeanos? Of the sea?” I correct myself.
“I was,” he says, looking away sadly. “On the isle of Calypsala. But I heard the others had abandoned this temple.” He shrugs. “It seemed wrong to not have a caretaker here.”
“A waste,” I agree, and I can’t keep the tears out of my voice. “Where is everyone?”
He shakes his head sadly. “With the loss of Queen Coralys,no one wanted to serve in this temple. It is said to be a bad omen, a place where our queen was led astray and duped, for why else would her bargain have failed? When the raiders attacked Calypsala and slaughtered our king, that was further proof. The temple was abandoned and the people have fled to the capital for succor. Perhaps it is for the best. There are rumors that there may be war soon on the mainland.”
“War?” I say warily, but I know he is right. Was that not Glorian’s complaint? That her rivals were raising up secret armies?
“While I, a priest of Okeanos, should embrace a return to religious dedication, I fear that it is only an excuse. They say nations are aligning according to their patron gods. They say—” He glances at the girl as if he doesn’t want to say more with her there. In a calmer, quieter tone he says, “I’m sure we’re safe here. Why don’t you give the lady the dress and go play with the goats?”
The girl offers me the bundle again.
“Thank you,” I tell her, and she’s gone in a flash.
“Not all who wear pearls can afford to give them up, and the body needs clothing,” the priest says, glancing at the pearl cuirass I wear.
I finger it nervously. Does he know these are not real pearls? He looks away as if he doesn’t dare look at them.
They have offered me a peplos—one in good repair, fit for a minor noble or well-off merchant. I cannot pay him for it and I feel ashamed.
“Thank you,” I say, for thanks is all I have to give.
“If you’ll take my advice, lady, you’ll stay,” he says a little shyly. “There are many homes on the island that could be fixed. We keep goats and bees and there is enough food for one more. Don’t go to the mainland. Don’t get caught up in this strange war.” He drops his voice and he checks over his shoulder to be sure the girl is really gone. “The gods are best left alone for the most part. You’d be safer here.”
“In a temple?” I ask in disbelief.
“In Okeanos’s Temple,” the man—a priest, I suppose—says with the kind of reverence I’ve never before heard in a voice. “I met him once.”
I lift an eyebrow in doubt, but he raises a finger.
“I truly did, lady. I prayed to him when the raiders killed my wife not a month back.” There’s a tightness to his mouth as he says it and something cold fills me. I saw what those raiders did. I know of what he speaks. And just like him, I lost a partner only a short time ago. The pain in his eyes is echoed in mine. “He made me a promise. He told me he would make us a place where we could be safe. All of us. If we would just hold on.”
I point to the lighthouses at the base of the dais. “Have those always been there?”
And his eyes widen as he realizes I know exactly what he’s talking about, and he has to clear his throat to answer.
“For as long as I have been here. But I cannot say if they were here before that.” He pauses and it is a pregnant pause indeed. “Have you ever met Okeanos, then, great God of the Sea, mighty and benevolent?”
I snort and turn away. “I should hope so. I am his wife.”
I do not stay long after that. Seeing the hope mingled with disbelief in his eyes is too much for me. There is a war out there somewhere, god against god. I know it is real. And I know there will never be a place of safety for this man and his child because I killed the one who was building the Lighthouse meant to be that place of safety.
I flee Talasa and I do not look back.
I feel as though I am sinking, sinking, sinking.
War is brewing. And my people may become caught in it. I must find out more. I must find someone I know.
I no longer need anyone to instruct me on how to turn my hand now that I am the sea. I can find any place as long as the waves lap the land there. I go immediately to my other islands. I start with Tempest Reef, skipping from place to place along her shore. Her cities are silent and dark. Her docks empty. I move faster and faster, gripped with panic. Next is Bon Verdas. There will be life here. There must be.
I am right. There are fishing sloops and a tiny wash of light spilling across the bay. This was never a large city nor a wealthy one. But our dye makers and merchants are based there and foundries make bells and other ship equipment. There may be someone I know close by.
I flow out of the sea, dressed now in the gift of the priest. It is good. I am less noticeable wearing a dress than I had been in an overlarge tunic.
My heart is in my throat, my lungs burn and ache with every panicked breath, but I know what has drawn me here.I felt him in the water. I hurry to a bay just south of the city and step from the water there just as Turbote steps from a small tide pool, supported by his son, Frexole, and Garnet, who was chief steward of the Royal House.
