“And me!” Ree shouted.
“Of course I am,” Terlu said. “It’s great to see you both.” But her eyes were fixed on the letter. Marin had guessed that Terlu had written to her family. She wondered if she’d known it was safe to do so, or if she’d just taken the risk because she missed them. She wondered how badly Dax had missed his fellow musicians. They were like his family. Ree missed his but was willing to be apart from them.Why can’t that be Dax?
Taking the letter, Terlu clutched it to her chest. “Thank you.”
“Not a problem. I was coming here anyway.”
“You were?”
Should she reveal Rijes Velk now? Perhaps Rijes wanted to reveal herself in her own time. She wouldn’t be surprised if the former head librarian had a flair for the dramatic. It couldn’t be nerves, could it? She supposed it could be. “Told you I’d be back in time for Winter Feast, remember? I keep my promises. Especially when they’re paid for with rubies.”
That would have been a nice moment for Rijes to appear, but she didn’t.
Marin continued. “I’ve got your gardener’s usual supplies, as well as a few special additions.” She stepped aside as Ree shooed up her passengers: the couple and child, as well as the elderly woman with silvery scales. “Refugees from Alyssium. You’ve got room here, right?” She tried to ask casually, as if the answer was of course yes.Please let it be yes.She couldn’t afford to spend any more time not repaying her parents’ debt, and she also couldn’t abandon these people without a home.
“Yes, of course,” Terlu said without any hesitation. “Third cottage on the right. You’ll find some people who should be able to help you find a place to stay.”
That was one problem solved. She smiled for real.At least I helped this family, if not my own.She hadn’t realized quite how much she’d cared.
As the refugees left the dock, Terlu lowered her voice. “Only thing is whether they’ll be comfortable living near an enchanted greenhouse. There’s a lot of spellwork here…”
Interesting phrasing. She wondered what the former statue had been up to. Still, that was one worry she could happily alleviate. “Can’t see that being a problem,” Marin said with a shake of her head. “Laws are changing right and left, and no one is going to flinch at a little spellwork on a sparsely populated island, so long as it doesn’t do any harm. Causing harm is still illegal. But the law that got you statue-ified—”
Terlu stepped backward. “You know about that? About… me?”
“Who do you think brought you here?” She grinned at her. It was nice to be able to finally tell her and see the surprise on her face.At least I did something right, saving her.
“I… You knew all along?”
“Sure.” Marin shrugged. “I don’t blindly agree to transport criminals without knowing what they did.” That was loosely the truth. She’d trusted Rijes, and she’d said Terlu had made a friend. Marin thought about Perri. And Ree. “I knew, and I sympathized. Anyway, the law that got you turned into a statue has been struck. Thought you might like to know.”
Emotions played over Terlu’s face. She didn’t try to hide a single one: shock, relief, joy, doubt. “The imperial investigators…”
“Disbanded,” Marin said.
“And who… How…”
Marin flapped a hand in the general direction of Alyssium and repeated what she’d been told by Rijes, paraphrasing a bit, and what she’d observed. “Laws are being rewritten. The provisionalgovernment is still figuring out which foot to put which shoe on, but yeah, the empire fell, which means alotof changes, for better or worse, but this is one change for the better that I think will stick. You’ve heard about the magic storms plaguing the outer islands, haven’t you?” Had she? Or had she missed them all? “Or have you? You’ve been pretty sheltered, first in the library, then on Belde.” Marin had thought of the storm that had swept them so far off course. It had been a gift in disguise, all that extra time with Dax. Or maybe it hadn’t been. If she hadn’t spent so much time with him, maybe she wouldn’t have fallen so hard and maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much now that he was gone. “Well, anyway, as it turns out, one of the side effects of the emperor’s hoarding magic has been an increase in terrible storms. So everyone’s happy tonotreturn to the old ways. Less death and mayhem, you know?”
Terlu looked as if she were chewing her way through a gristly bit of beef. “You were willing to risk…? For me?”
She was trying not to think about how many risks she’d been taking—and what it might cost her, especially the loss of the ruby. She didn’t regret it, though.Not yet anyway.She couldn’t have left Rijes Velk where she was and then come here and looked into Terlu’s earnest, innocent eyes. It was amazing she’d stayed this open and sunny even after having been turned into a statue. You’d think that would have made her bitter, but no. “Yeah, well, what’s the point of sailing free, choosing your own horizon, if you won’t choose what’s right over what’s easy?”
It was easy to sound nonchalant, but she glanced across the water, thinking about Dax, thinking about her parents, thinking about Iovar and his anger and vengeance. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do about any of it. It all hurt.
Ree swung on a line, holding on with his branches, and then released, soaring in an arch off the boat and landing on the dock with athumpas his root ball impacted on the boards. “Hey, Marin, did you see that? I did it!”
Marin cheered. “Flawless. Like always.” Lowering her voice, shesaid to Terlu, “First dozen times he tried that, he overshot.” She mimed a bush sailing over the dock and splashing into the water.
“Luckily, I’m—”
“—a halophyte,” Marin finished with him, grinning fondly. “Yes, we know.”
“Welcome back, Ree,” Terlu said to him. Then to Marin: “Where’s the other sailor who was with you?”
For an instant, Marin couldn’t breathe. She hadn’t expected Terlu to mention him. Somehow, she made herself shrug. “He’s back on land, where he belongs. Not everyone’s made for the sea like Ree here.” She smiled at the shrubbery and hoped no one could tell how she was howling inside.
Why did his absence hurt so much? He was where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to do. She didn’t know why knowing that didn’t help.
