“Love you, Dad.”
Chapter Six
The landing area was dry for once as I paced back and forth, my fingers constantly tapping on my thighs. My jaw felt cold. Salvadora had been out of sight for minutes over the open ocean. Fin invisible for even longer.
“He’s fine,” Shi said from where he stood by the fortress wall.
I stopped and looked at him. “Sir.”
He raised a hand when I moved to salute. “You’re off duty.”
True. After a run of nights, I was rostered off today, and so wasn’t in uniform, but I still wore blue. Every item of clothing I owned was blue. I had occasionally purchased a white shirt, but they got washed with the blue everything else and so were soon blue themselves. But I knew I was focusing on the stupid little details as a distraction.
Shi was in uniform. Though we had a Sky Commander over Shi, Zemich was commander of the whole North Eastern Seaboard, so he didn’t spend much time in Unkea. Not something anyone blamed him for. That effectively left Shi the senior officer here.
He looked good in his uniform. Smart, usually immaculate, utterly austere. But that austerity wasn’t all there was. He watched everything, took in all that was around him and understood more than most, I think. He cared more than most here realised, I knew. As unyielding as he often appeared, I don’t think he truly was. No man would be so rigid and help me with my son the way he did.
“Salvadora isn’t answering me.” I moved closer to him, shared the fact that tore at my guts.
As another Rider, he understood how bothersome that would be, but he simply offered a small smile.
“If she spoke to you, Fin would know. They need to be in contact for the ride. Fin needs to know we trust him. But do not be concerned. Lord Aurexian is following. Dragon and boy are safe and well and having a wonderful time flying in a sky as blue and cloud-free as I have ever seen. In fact, Lord Aurexian believes they are both enjoying the sense of being young and free and the need to do nothing but have fun. The sea is rippling beneath them, and they have traced the path of the waves, followed a shoal of fish, and even whistled to a pod of whales. Apparently, your son is shining to rival the sun above.”
He reached out, took my hand, and pulled me to stand beside him.
“This is the most glorious day I have seen in nearly five years stationed here,” he told me quietly. “Look over there.”
I looked. “It’s the Kimi Sea.”
“It’s a sheet of living glass. Watch it breathe. It has a slow, silver rhythm that reaches out to kiss the endless sky, dissolving into tranquil ambiguity as they merge in a distance too vast to comprehend, like dreams that blur beyond memory but echo in our waking hours. And all the while, the sun burns with cool gold to shimmer over the heartbeat of the ocean and flash to us in eternal play until every rise and fall are equal and one and we are all joined in the final dream of forever.”
My jaw dropped. I looked at the man beside me as he looked out over the expanse of water. I had not noticed before that his eyes weren’t dark, but grey, a deep blue-grey that matched the colour of an evening storm surge. When did poetry hit his heart? Or mine, come to that?
“I’ve never heard you speak like that before,” I said, for once not hiding the awe in my voice. “It was beautiful.” He was beautiful, but that wasn’t what male colleagues said to one another.
He blinked and turned to face me. A sudden melancholy in his eyes. “I have always loved poetry, but the power of my magic responds to emotion. Poetry evokes emotion. That, for me, for those around me, is dangerous.”
His eyeline dropped to the ground. “I do not wish the hurt anyone else I care about.”
The urge to ask was strong, but I did not think he was ready to be so flexible yet. My fingers wrapped around his, reassurance, I hoped. At least his eyes returned to mine. There was so much more to this adorable man than he allowed the world to see.
We stood shoulder to shoulder, face to face. My hand tingled in the warmth of his continuing touch. For the first time since my arrival on this island fortress, I felt I was where I was meant to be. We leaned together, the pressure on our conjoined shoulders increasing.
“You look better without the beard.”
The words were so quiet I wasn’t sure I’d heard them. “Even scarred?”
“The scar shows you are a man who protects those he loves. You look perfect.”
Suddenly he flinched and stood away, leaving me icy cold. He raised an arm.
“Your son and dragon approach.”
Yes, there emerging from the hazy horizon was a dark dot that rapidly grew closer. They were far too far away for me to see Fin, but I knew he was there. I think that glint was him, not the sun. As the speck grew, so the larger white spot behind them became clearer.
“Lord Aurexian says they are children who should know and behave better,” Shi said. Then he turned to me, perhaps reading my own concern. “I would interpret that to mean that Dora and Fin had the kind of fun Lord Aurexian considers beneath his dignity.”
I smiled at the idea.
