Of course he did. He’d asked to return to the conservatory.
“He just has to perform his opus,” Ree said confidently, “and then he’ll come with us.”
No, then he’d be a grandmaster, and he’d have all sorts of important people demanding his time and his talents. It was the future he’d been training for, aiming for, believing in. It was what his parentshad wanted for him and what all his teachers had prepared him for. And she knew he loved it, loved the music. You could see it in his face and hear it in his voice. He loved music with every fiber of his being. He needed it.
I could never take that from him.
“You’ll see, Marin,” Ree said. “After the opus.”
He sounded so confident that for an instant, Marin believed him. “Ree… I don’t know that we’ll be returning to Alyssium. At least not for a while.”
“But… We have to! Dax wants us to!”
Dax had said that. In fact, he’d been emphatic. Why had he cared so much? And what had he meant when he’d promised everything would be all right? How could it be? “He might want us to come—he might even think he wants to sail away with us—but what heneedsis to stay.” He belonged to his music like she belonged to the sea. She had been lucky the two had intersected for a time, but it wasn’t meant to be forever. Just because she loved him didn’t mean they could be together.
Ree rattled his branches at her. “Shouldn’t that be his choice? You fought for his right to choose whether he sailed or stayed before. Why aren’t you doing that now? You thought his friends were wrong to decide for him back then.”
Marin shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
“It is,” Ree insisted.
He didn’t understand.
“It’s exactly the same. Perri, tell her.”
With zero hesitation, Perri flipped his fin and splashed her with seawater. Marin flinched but didn’t reply to either of them. She knew she was doing the right thing.
She kept sailing.
Snow fell lightly on the sea as the serpent swam ahead of the sailboat. Marin squinted as flakes fell on her eyelashes and she peered atthe island of Belde. The cupolas of the greenhouse poked above the pine forest. She wondered what kind of greeting they’d receive. On her last visit, she’d arrived with a boatful of uninvited new residents, and here she was doing it again without knowing whether they’d be welcomed happily or not.
I hope I haven’t overpromised.She didn’t know if this was going to be her refugees’ new home or not. “We should be in plenty of time for the Winter Feast.”
“We are uninvited,” one of her extra passengers said. She believed his name was Flick, like her island. He’d been quiet—all of them had—for most of the journey, mourning their past and worrying about their future. “They may not welcome extra mouths at their feast.”
“My family will welcome us,” Ree said confidently.
Marin hoped that was true.
Flick disappeared belowdecks, presumably to prepare his family for their arrival. They hadn’t brought many possessions, but they were carrying a lot of hopes and fears.
Watching the shore, Marin asked Ree, “Are you excited to see your family?” He never seemed homesick, but he must have missed his family. He was clearly fond of them.
“Oh yes!” He danced on his roots and then scurried up the rigging for a better view as they sailed closer to the island. Marin spotted the dock, with the squat tower behind it.
A figure in a red coat emerged from the workshop and waved.
Overexcited, Ree scurried up and down the rigging.
As Marin steered the boat closer to the dock, Terlu shouted, “Welcome back to Belde!”
“See,” Ree said smugly. “We’re welcome. She literally said so.”
It was a nicely warm welcome. Marin allowed herself to hope that this would work out, at least for her passengers if not for her. She tossed a line around one of the dock pilings, then hopped off to secure the knot. Smiling widely—and almost feeling the smile—she waved to Terlu as the former statue trotted down the dock to greet her.
Marin expected her to ask about Rijes Velk and was prepared to do a grand reveal, but instead, the first words out of Terlu’s mouth were, “Any letters?”
It took her only half a second to remember she was carrying one, courtesy of Tavo. “As a matter of fact, yes, one,” Marin said as she pulled the letter out of her bag, “though it wounds me that you aren’t happy just to see me.”
