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Heat spread across Corayne’s cheeks and she fought the urge to duck her head. Indeed, she did not know anything of this route. Not firsthand, at least. She knew only what her maps and charts told her, what other sailors discovered. What her mother experienced too many times to count.
Instead of shrinking away, Corayne straightened her spine.
“I suppose I am learning,” she admitted. “Finally.”
Meliz grinned. “Good. I don’t tolerate stupidity on my ship.”
Instead of smiling with her, Corayne looked back to the sea. Not in anger but peace.
“Thank you for this,” she muttered.
Next to her, Meliz shifted, leaning forward on her elbows to inspect the waves. Even the ending of the world had not changed her aversion to emotion, good or bad. She gave a shrug and another grin.
“There are worse places in the world for you to be.”
Corayne fought the all-too-familiar urge to roll her eyes. Turning, she faced her mother, refusing to blink, holding her gaze. Forcing Meliz to see exactly what she meant.
“Thank you,” she said again, too many meanings rushing up, her voice thick with emotion.
For your love, for your bravery, for standing back when I needed to move forward.
For everything you ever made me, and everything you would not let me become.
Corayne expected the days after the war to be difficult, for pain and regret and anguish. To hate herself, to see blood everywhere. Death, destruction. What Waits in every shadow. To feel tormented by all she survived and all she did to survive it.
Instead, she remembered the young dragon. Crying for its mother. Wounded but stubbornly alive. Protected by Corayne’s mercy.
And then Erida. Defenseless beneath her. An easy ending, a deserved death. But Corayne would not give it. Though the Spindleblade ran with blood and all the world seemed to burn, Corayne’s soul was clean.
“You said once I did not have the spine for it. This life,” she said, looking at the endless horizon. It held so much possibility her head spun. “You’re right.”
Something gleamed in Meliz’s eye. A tear or a trick of the light, Corayne could not say.
“Of course I’m right, I’m your mother,” she answered, moving closer.
Meliz was warm as she rested her head on Corayne’s shoulder, one arm wrapped around her back. They leaned together, each holding the other up, mother and daughter. Their paths would part again, as all are destined to do. But for the moment, they ran together, side by side.
The port of Nkonabo was a riot of color, sound, and smell. Andry tried to take it all in from the deck of the ship. The white eagle on purple flags, voices calling in every language, the tang of saltwater and the spice market. The alabaster monuments, famed throughout the Ward, rose all over the city, carved in the likenesses of the many gods. Their eyes gleamed, studded with flawless amethysts.
From his elevated position on the ship, Andry soon found the statue of Lasreen. At her feet wound her loyal dragon, Amavar. Despite the purple gems, its jeweled eyes seemed to wink blue.
Then something down on the dock caught his attention, and all thoughts of the dragon disappeared.
Andry nearly leapt from the ship, tripping over himself to disembark. Like the city, the docks were chaotic, teeming with sailors and merchants. He stared through all of them, gaze fixed on a single point.
A single person.
Valeri Trelland did not need her wheeled chair anymore. She leaned heavily on a cane but walked under her own power. Even from a distance, her spring-green eyes sparked, her polished ebony skin gleaming beneath the Kasan sun. Members of her family, Kin Kiane, walked with her, matching her slow pace.
Andry wanted to run for her but held his ground. His mother was a lady, and she despised poor manners. Instead, he waited like a polite, dutiful son, even as his throat threatened to close, unshed tears stinging.
“Madero,” she said, putting out a hand to him.My dear.
He fitted his cheek into her palm, her skin softer than he remembered.
“It is so good to see you,” he said, almost choking on the words.
Valeri smiled, brushing away his tears. “When I left you were still a boy.”
