“What is it?” he whispered, brow tense and voice urgent. “What’s wrong?”
“Behold the Silver Winds that blow,” Eda whispered back.
Her eyes turned glassy, fixed on nothing at all, and her voice took on a ghostly quality that made hairs rise at the nape of Adeline’s neck. The merry noise of the children faded into a low roar, a nameless sort of tension knitting up her spine. And then Eda blinked those haunting eyes and slowly turned her head to face her king.
“Kai,” she said. “That chant. It’s my prophecy.”
???
“Behold.Behold.”
“Colm, no, I can’t let you strangle your sister.Becauseyour mother would strangleme.”
“What in the hell is happening?”
At the trill of Ceri’s voice, Adeline’s head whipped around to find her peering over the edge of the ship.
“Oh, thank fu—” she choked off when a small blur caught the corner of her vision, and found a wide-eyed Merrow child staring up at her from somewhere around her knees. “...Fun.Ceriwyn’s here!”
The child tilted her head.
“Distorted gift of silver daughter,” Eda murmured from Adeline’s other side.
“What ishappening?” Ceri asked again, scrambling to swing her legs over the railing.
It was a fair question.
Beneath the rosy wash of the sunset sky, theArabidaewas lit with gold, bobbing in the languid tide—and heaving with utter chaos. Amid Eda’s descent into a twitching, muttering stupor, a second dinghy had appeared, a third and a fourth in quick succession, each bearing another load of Merrow, sailors, and familiar faces from around the palace. This latest wave of passengers were giddy and loud, and despite his best efforts, Kai hadn’t been able to get an explanation from anyone until his valet, Simon, heaved himself over the side of the ship and crumpled to the deck.
Here for the party, he’d said brightly as Kai helped him up, though when pressed, he couldn’t say who or what the party was for.Celebrating the Merrow’s new home, I think? And the crew’s secret wine stock.
Said wine stock was now being hauled out by the crate under Pike’s loud and grating instruction while Kai fought to herd the children, who seemed determined to be crushed underfoot by theArabidae’screw. They were growing restless and cranky, the younger ones wailing, set on edge by the descent of all these excitable adults. Much like the children, Captain Aegus was slightly less than delighted at the unexpected company; he was currently stomping around, scoffing to himself and yelling at anyone who would listen about a lanternsome idiothad set down on the wooden deck. Meanwhile, slumped in the arch of Adeline’s arm, Eda had more or less stepped out of reality, drawing instead on her every reserve to quietly mutter snatches of cryptic verse.
“I wish I had an answer that made sense,” Adeline said to Ceri’s expectant silence.
Ceriwyn hurried over to slip a hand around Eda’s back, and Adeline breathed a grateful sigh at the shift in her dead weight.
“Years and ice and sorrow,” Eda mumbled helpfully.
“Whathappenedto her?”
“She said something about a prophecy, and then the boats—”
“Ceri,” Kai called, so loud in his relief that even Eda startled. “Thank the Mother—I need a hand. Several. Two will do.”
With some shifting and untangling, and not a small amount of grumbling on Ceri’s part, Kai drew Eda away from their embrace and half-carried her below deck. Between the two of them, Adeline and Ceri made short work of guiding the children into their dinghy, then Ceri set sail across the short distance to the neighbouring ship.
The sun was bathing in the waters by the time Kai emerged, and had he not been squinting into the twilight after the dim of the lower deck, he might not have walked directly into the awaiting huddle. Adeline, Ceri, Oswalt and Al all stood staring back at him.
“Adhlas, what the—why are you all crowding around my ankles like half-starved cats?”
“What an interesting analogy,” said Adeline. “Do they have many cats on the Laune bed? Or did you mean catfish?”
Kai made a subtle attempt to step around Os, but his eyes flicked sideways at her musing, the tight line of his lips briefly flickering. “I’m familiar with cats, Adeline”
“Ilovecats,” said Ceri, moving into his path. “Evil little sweethearts. You know, when I was staying with the Marchioness, her cat, Mister Flurry, used to do the sweetest thing where he’d claw—”
“What do youwant?”
