She’d been considering it. “I thought we’d pick up a few delivery requests at the next island with a job board.”
“That will slow us down, right? If they aren’t on our path? Or even if they are—they’ll take time out of our journey, and we don’t know how long it’ll take for us to find Rijes once we reach Alyssium. We might need every bit of time we have. So here’s my idea: we singour way across the sea! Remember when I sang in that tavern? I’ll compose some songs for the four of us—”
She smiled at his enthusiasm. “The four of us?”
“I’d imagine there are a lot of islanders who have never heard a sea serpent sing, especially with two humans and a sentient plant.”
“You want us all to perform together? For people?”
Dax grinned. “Think of it! A traveling troupe!”
She… loved it. All four of them, singing together, harmonizing, the way they did while they sailed. She wanted to say yes instantly. But then she thought of Surot and all her unsolicited musings on love and relationships. Forming a musical troupe… That was intertwining their daily lives even more, wasn’t it? It was going to make it hurt all the more when it was time for Dax to move on with his real life. He was playing at being a sailor, an adventurer, and now a traveling musician.And I’m the one who’s going to end up hurt at the end of it.She supposed it was already too late to worry about that. It was already inevitable. She might as well enjoy every second she had left, before her heart was hollowed out. Out loud, Marin said, “That’s not exactly the prestigious musical career you’ve been training for. You should be working on your opus. I can find jobs to take.”
His grin had faded. “Of course, if you don’t want to…”
Instantly she regretted squashing that smile. “No, I think it’s a great idea! I’m no professional singer, but if you think you can make all of us sound good together…”
The grin popped back. “I already have ideas for harmonies. The Crescent Islands won’t have heard anything like this.”
His smile was infectious. Unable to help herself, Marin smiled back at him, despite the alarm bells ringing in her heart. “I’m sure that will be true.”
They sailed at dusk, and no one (and no dragon) stopped them.
Marin guessed that meant Surot was right: they weren’t assholes.Yay,she thought. As she, Dax, Ree, and Perri waved goodbye to thevillagers, she shouted thanks and praise and a promise to return someday, if they could. The enchanted moorings chimed in to join Surot and the villagers wishing them good wind and smooth seas.
Overhead, stars began to freckle the sky, and Perri frolicked beside the sailboat, happy that they were all together out in the ocean again. The silver patchwork sails caught the wind, and they picked up speed. There was a crispness to the air, brightened by the sea salt, that felt a little like snow, though there were no clouds in the sky. She’d pulled out her heavier coats from the storage in the cabin, gifting her largest one to Dax. He’d belted it with a sash that oddly looked as if it belonged together. He looked like a dashing pirate from a highly unrealistic ballad and not at all like the coiffed composer that she’d always seen by the docks of the conservatory. He also looked as if he belonged out here, on the sea, with her—part of her everyday. She couldn’t help stealing glances at him as she trimmed the sails, and she tried hard not to think about the future and just enjoy the present. Every time she thought about him leaving, it felt like sea salt in her eyes.
Ree was perched up on top of the mast, and he was eagerly calling out everything he saw: a herd of merhorses to port, whitecaps to starboard, a patch of seaweed that was sparkling like the stars straight aft. Breaking off his reporting, he asked, “How do you know which way to go? Are we not lost anymore?”
“Not lost at all,” Marin said. “We know where we were, and the stars tell us which way we’re going. On the island of Nyra, there’s a Temple of the Stars, where the acolytes believe if they place their sacred stones in certain positions, it will keep the stars in their fixed patterns, aiding sailors on their journeys. Regardless of whether that’s the cause or not, the stars are always there to guide us.” She pointed to the east. “In the summer, the Sun Cat is in the east, but closer to the winter solstice, the cat continues its flight across the sky, disappearing from view, and instead in winter, the Three Dancers rise. See them?”
Three stars shone in a line.
“You follow them—the line they make—as if they’re an arrow, and they point to the Night Queen. She’s always due south and always the brightest star in the southern sky.”
“The Night Queen’s a star?” Dax asked. “I know a song about her—she led an uprising against the day. Claimed it was hoarding all the light. Stole a piece of it and put it in the sky, then stayed up with it to guard it against the day ever stealing it back.”
“Sailors think it’s another sun, like ours, around another world,” Marin said.
“Ooh, wow,” Ree said. He strained his branches up toward the sky. “I don’t see another world. Wouldn’t it be huge?”
“It’s very far away,” Marin said. “Supposedly, a sailor once tried to reach it. She filled her sails with stardust and rode the fiery tail of a comet.”
“Did she find it?” Ree asked.
“The story is unsatisfyingly unclear.”
“We could write a song about it,” Ree suggested. “Finish the story.” He looked at Dax. “I told Surot I’d write a song about her and her dragon love too. Also, I want to sing about the sea and being a sailor—because I am a sailor.”
Marin smiled. “Yes, you are. Perri, what do you want to sing about?”
Out in the waves, the sea serpent trilled high notes.
Dax guessed, “Fish?”
A negative trill.
“The ocean bluuuue,” Ree guessed.
