Lina crowded up beside her and Ione released a small breath, feeling forgiven.“Did you enjoy staring at the wall?”she asked, uncomfortably aware of how close Lina’s hand was to hers.Ione grabbed her seleneschals’ hands with reckless abandon on the best of days; she had held Lina’s on occasion, but usually to drag her somewhere.
Was it appropriate to touch her hand for fun?Did friends do that?Ione was certain they did.She had read about it.
She had just about made her move when Lina clasped her hand as easily as anything.Ione’s pulse flickered.She heard us, Menon, I told you!
“It was a very nice wall,” Lina said dryly.“Almost as nice as the coffin.”
“Oh, the coffin is the main attraction.”
River made a small, chiding noise that Ione took to mean,Please be respectful.
Silver whirred in her periphery, Kai, twirling his pocket watch.“Arright, Ineen, you’ve had your field trip.I promised the Archpriest you’d be flooding cities by the end of the season, so you’d better work on that or I’ll look stupid.”
“You do a good enough job of that yourself, Warden.”
His countenance cooled, a hint of impatience rising.Lina’s hand tensed in hers.She had never spoken at length about her past, about whoever it was she was running from.As much as Ione wanted to know – wanted to be trusted with knowing – she hadn’t asked.Lina would talk when she was ready, Cynthia had said once of it.
Still, Ione couldn’t help wondering.Kai said that he wasn’t the person Lina thought she was, but he was clearly similar enough.
Ione lifted her chin, drawing strength, as Lina had suggested, from protection over hatred.She would show Lina that there was nothing to fear.
The murky rockpools trembled as she opened her palm.She envisioned with a new, startling clarity each and every drop.Felt them conjoin and build, and build, and build, the temperature in the room dropping in response to Lina’s presence beside her, the gentle weight of her hand in hers.
Kai uttered a particularly filthy curse when the water in the pool nearest him shot upward, blasting a hole through the hem of his long jacket.One by one the other pools followed suit, connecting to the ceiling in a dozen frozen white columns.Vapour drifted from each of them in puffy clouds, and Kai gave one an experimental kick.
“Let me guess,” he said, “‘Say another word and I’ll aim for you next time’?”
“I was aiming for you.I just missed.”
River snorted, and even Lina suppressed a smile.At least Ione was funny if not successful.
Ione’s reward for attempted murder was an argument-free exit from the cave before the incoming tide locked them in – a treat, in fairness, as Ione dreaded the day Kai decided to make good on his threat to drag her to the sea floor tosee what happens.
Kai’s voice ricocheted off the craggy walls as he led them out, some complaint about his poor sleep and nightmares and how peacocks really are the worst birds because of the godsawful noises they make at night.River bravely bore the brunt of the warden’s attention, leaving Ione and Lina in peace at the rear.
And although it was just a kindness that Lina kept hold of her hand, just the same ounce of help she offered on the way into the darkness, all Ione could focus on was the heat of Lina’s skin, the pulse in her thumb dancing against hers.
She hears us, Menon.She likes us.Ione bounced a step, exhilaration at once making her nauseous and giddy.
I’ll save you, I’ll save you, I’ll save you.
The sun outside hit them like a brick wall, making Ione stumble back and clap her hands over her eyes.Grumbling, she rubbed the stream of tears from her face, glad only when it resulted in Lina offering her a handkerchief.
Kai was still harassing River.“I’m telling you – Ha, Ineen’s incapacitated – I’m telling you, I’ve been in there before.Idistinctlyremember someone opening the coffin and letting me look inside.Mam might’ve brought me; I think I was seven or eight when I was last here.”
“That altar’s closed to everyone but Llyr’s blood.Always has been.”
“I definitely touched bone.”
“What you do in your spare time is none of my business.”
He went silent, thoughtful.“Huh,” he said, his voice muted; he’d turned back towards the mouth of the cave.“Maybe I dreamed it?”
“Yes, please, tell us more about your stupid godsdamned dreams,” River groused.“You know, you dream an awful lot for someone who apparently never sleeps, you prick.”
There was another heavy lull, punctuated by the roaring sea.And then again from River, an exhausted, “What now?”
Seafoam lapped at Ione’s feet.She squinted out at the encroaching tide, one hand poised above her eyes to shield from the worst of the sun.
