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She was sure how she felt about those.
Eravic's face when he heard the news had been disconcerting enough.
He turned pale and stumbled backward and the look in his eyes frightened Dali. It frightened Junis too, who heard the same words and looked like he might fold in half.
It did not seem to bother the short fat man Junis had decided to bring back to Veynar with them.
The Baron, they called him. Asharin's father.
He smiled with joy.
No one else noticed. But Dali noticed. That was the advantage of not caring about much. When things happened you kept your wits about you while everyone else lost theirs.
She was moving toward Eravic, because she could not stand that look on his face, that pain, when she smelled smoke and heard a loud crack and a thud that shook the deck. A man with silver hair slicked back dropped from a giant firebird and asked to speak with Eravic in private.
When Eravic emerged from the captain's quarters he was no longer pale. He looked determined, which was a different thing entirely and considerably more useful.
He found her quietly, away from the others.
He needed her help, he said.
Because it was him, she said yes.
She felt Maridale try to get out, try to find out what was happening.
The devastation, Dali decided, would distract Eravic. Better to tell her once they were already there. They would head straight to Darkway, which is likely where Asharin was.
Dali had never been to Morrath, but she knew it well. She had memorized its map thoroughly. She had been planning to get there for years because it had exactly what she needed.
However, it was not the sort of thing she could get alone. She wondered who had brought Asharin to Morrath.
She hoped it was a Rathmor king. That would be splendid.
Morrath’s magic was unstable, which made it dangerous for any human who planned on rejoining the living. Eravic would stay on the shoreline, he promised Dali. That was likely as far as his Vaelor blood would allow. Dali would need to bring Asharin to him.
Dali was a Siren. Her blood was royal. She did not escort anyone anywhere. But for Eravic she decided she would do it once, whenever Asharin awakened.
But only once. Eravic had nodded in agreement.
Less than a day later another Vaelor ship arrived. She and Eravic boarded it and left Junis and the others to return to Veynar without them.
They were headed to Morrath.
Three Songs
NYARA
Alarna
She had performed three songs and declined the fourth because she always declined the fourth.
Korvis had been in the front row. He had never been to the Aurelin theater before meeting her. He came now every time she performed, always front row, always slightly too enthusiastic, and had at some point during the second song tonight begun harmonizing under his breath in a way that was technically wrong and somehow not ruining it. She had decided not to address it from the stage. She was a professional.
They ended up at Ferath's after, the wine hall two streets east that Korvis had discovered and immediately treated as his personal property. He was golden-haired, golden-eyed, and freckled and fully at ease in every room he walked into. He was the type of person who pulled people into embraces before they had decided if they wanted one and somehow made them glad he had. He had his mother Princess Jularin's smile but absolutely none of her restraint.
He poured the wine before they had properly sat down.
"To you," he said, raising his cup. "Who made everyone in that theater feel something they will spend the next week pretending was not as profound as it was."
