Watching Dax, she wondered what he was thinking and feeling. His lips were pressed together and he was looking out at the horizon. Was he ready to return? Was he worried about what he’d find when he did? His friends were safely on Eventrid, but what about everyone else in the conservatory or in the city? She wondered what kind of damage the empire had inflicted in its death throes. Was he afraid to return and see?Am I?
Ree scooted next to him and laid a branch on his arm. “You don’t need to go back to the conservatory if you don’t want to. It’s okay to love the sea.”
Dax looked startled.
“I miss the greenhouse sometimes,” Ree admitted. “And I miss my friends. I’m one of many sentient plants that the sorcerer of Belde created. All of them are my friends. Family, really, even though we’re different species. I don’t think any of them ever imagined leaving the greenhouse. Or ever wanted to. I… I left without really saying goodbye. Because I didn’t want to explain. And I didn’t want to have to watch them not understand.”
Marin hadn’t heard Ree ever sound sad before. He didn’t talk about home much, and she had no idea that he missed it. If she hadn’t had her hands full of line, she’d have hugged him, branches and roots and all.
“I don’t want to go back—I want to be on the sea,” Ree clarified. “This is where I belong. But sometimes, especially when we’re on an island and none of the plants are awake and aware… What I’m trying to say is that you can miss home and choose to live your life elsewhere at the same time. It’s okay to feel both.”
“You’re very wise, Ree,” Dax said.
“It’s the chlorophyll,” he said modestly.
“Dax, do you—” Marin didn’t want to ask the question, but she knew she had to. It was a captain’s question, as well as a friend’s. He deserved a choice, always. “We’re returning to Alyssium. If the conservatory is unharmed… if it’s safe enough… do you want to… Are you ready to return to the conservatory?”
He looked down at his notes and didn’t answer for a moment. “I have to complete my opus. By the solstice. It needs to be performed then. But I’m”—he looked up at Marin—“not ready yet. Would it be all right if I stayed on your crew a little longer? Help you deliver the letter and bring their response back to Belde? I think the time away from the conservatory will be beneficial. With my opus. And my, um, creativity.”
She couldn’t explain why she felt a burst of relief as potent as biting into a grape. “Happy to have you on the crew as long as you want.”
“Yay!” Ree said.
“Thank you,” Dax said. “I want…”
He didn’t finish. “Yes? What?” she prompted.
“It’s not important.”
“I don’t mind unimportant.” After all, the world would consider her unimportant. Her boat. Her job. Her life. Her dreams. “Go ahead.”
“There’s this song,” Dax said. “It’s incomplete and old. It’s about an island that has waterfalls that sing. It doesn’t name the island or where in the sea it is, and I have always wondered if it was real.”
She was one hundred percent certain that that wasn’t what he was going to say. “I’ve never heard of an island like that, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.” The Crescent Islands were full of hundreds of islands, some large and some tiny, some inhabited and some not, and she’d certainly never been to all of them.
“Ah. Just wondered.”
“If I ever find an island like that, I’ll take you there,” Marin said.If you’re still sailing with me. If I still have a boat to sail and haven’t lost it to either a snake or a weasel.Those were both large “ifs.” But for now…He isn’t ready to stop sailing yet.
The smile he gave her was worth the promise that she had no idea if she’d ever be able to fulfill. “If it turns out to be mythical,” he said, “I won’t hold you to that.”
“Can I go too?” Ree asked.
Marin grinned at him. “Of course.”
Calling out over the waves, Marin let Perri know they were returning to Alyssium. He proceeded to have a lot of feelings about that, mostly involving splashing and twisting, but he eventually settled down and swam beside them, keeping them on course while they slept and tossing them fish to eat for their meals, along with Marin’s father’s pie and other treats.
As they sailed, Marin continued to remind herself that this was her best option and the only way to have a chance of helping her parents, that she wasn’t endangering her crew unnecessarily, and that Dax wanted to stay with her… at least for now.
Happily, Alyssium was not on fire. And it didn’t even smell (much) like smoke. Itdidsmell faintly of garbage, Marin noticed, as they poled through the canals. The sanitation department had not been able to complete its job and activate the cleansing spells during all the chaos, and the city was not yet fully operational. It did, however, seem to be at least moderately operational, which was an improvement.
There had been guards at her usual archway, which Marin was (to her surprise) pleased to see, and they’d shouted down an update when she’d asked what was happening in the city:
In short, no more emperor and no more empire, that was confirmed. A provisional government was in place and reviewing all the laws, departments, agencies, etc. For now, there were still a lot of unknowns, but runners were allowed to enter and leave the city. No imperial taxes or tariffs levied. No extra toll if they hit the sides of the archway. “Be my guest,” the guard said. “Bash up your boat as much as you like.”
“The conservatory?” Dax called. “Is it still standing?”
The guard shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. That kind of stuff is for the rich. And they’re all too busy hugging their marble statues and hiding their gold necklaces for fear they’ll lose them to listen to fancy music.” He chuckled at that.
