Page 57 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

The remainder of our walk to the stables was silent.

With the location of the stone established, we no longer needed horses. The rivers would lead us east. Still, I ducked into Kolibri’s stall, finding Nori and Olinne already there. The Naiads glanced up in surprise as Aegir followed Kye inside.

Nori shook her confusion first. “We are still waiting for Aitne. Who else is coming?”

“Hadrian and Aren,” Kye answered, earning a derisive glare from her. “And Maren’s friend, Diara.”

“More humans?” my Oculos challenged. “You have an entire siliqua domus at your disposal.”

Kye licked his lower lip in thinly veiled annoyance. Even without looking at him, I felt Aegir’s smug smile behind my back, a warmth pressing into me that I ignored. I reached for a small fist of hay instead, offering it to Kolibri, who had flattened her ears and pawed the stable floor in response to Kye’s entrance.

“Paria, however small, is still a living colony,” I said, watching Kolibri’s lips rove across the soft hay before she nipped herself a bite. “And Naiads are a bit like bees, suspicious of a new swarm in their territory. But they view humans as pests more than adversaries, and if I’m to trespass onto a foreign colony, I prefer my entourage to look like houseflies rather than wasps.”

“Fancy words,” Aegir murmured. “To simply say you’d prefer to bring a weaker ally.”

Heat blazed from Kye, though he held his tongue. I slanted a narrow look at the Naiads over my shoulder. “The humans I’ve invited cannot be incanted. Kye, Aren, and Hadrian are trained in combat. If your water-call becomes obstructed, could you fight them?”

Olinne rolled her eyes; Nori flexed her jaw. Neither responded. I hid my smile, rotating to slide my hand down Kolibri’s inky-blue neck, watching the shine in her fur vanish and reappear under my hand.

Aegir moved in slowly, not looking at me. He pressed a hand into Kolibri’s shoulder, staring as though he’d just read a letter for the second time and realized a hidden message lay inside.

I watched him, uneasy. Kolibri didn’t tolerate new faces very well, and though he’d ridden beside me in the Sylus Mountains, that was weeks ago now. And he hadn’t come this close to her on foot.

She paused her chewing, lashes long over her dark eyes. But she let him slide his fingertips across her fur and into her mane, combing her silky stream of hair.

“Where did you find this horse?” he asked, breathless.

Kye snorted under his breath. “More like a trotting scourge.”

I darted a glance behind me as footsteps approached, wary of the moment General Senan and his men might appear. But Hadrian and Aren tucked themselves inside the swinging doors of the stall, brows raised at the sight of the Videre beside me. “We found her in Rivea.”

“Do you know what she is?” Aegir asked, his trance breaking as he finally met my eyes.

I sent a questioning look to Nori and Olinne, though they both shook their heads. Like me, their lives had been spent in the Juile Sea surrounding Leihani, the well of their equine knowledge more of a shallow pool.

Diara squeezed through the door, a head of goldenrod curls tamed with a loose braid that fell to the small of her back. Hadrian’s ears flushed, his sight markedly locked on the bundle of hay.

“That’s all of us,” Olinne murmured. “Everyone ready to leave?”

I nodded. “We should go now. Before the general arrives.” I offered Kolibri a final scratch behind the ears and Aegir caught my hand.

“Bring her with us,” he said.

I stepped out of his grasp, tilting my head. “And leave her at the river’s edge? No.”

Aegir shook his head. “With us.”

We started at the sea, just under the tall harbor of Calder City, where beach slanted into salt, cast in shadow from the docks above. Adolescent humans stood just beyond the reach of waves, tossing rocks to the water. Olinne sang softly to them, sending them back to the city, and then we were alone.

Aegir led Kolibri into the waves with soft clicks and hums. I stiffened as the waves lapped at her shoulders. I’d seen the sea grow vicious here more than once. Aegir paused, glancing back at us. “You might want to blind them before I lead her further.”

A wave of intolerance rolled from Kye. But I walked behind him, drawing a silk sash from my pocket. He knelt so I could tie it around his eyes. Hadrian fumbled with his own sash until Diara rumbled with impatience and took the silk from him, bidding him to turn. She did the same for Aren before shaking stray curls from her eyes and tying her own.

I thumbed the knife at my hip absently, waiting for Aegir to transition. But he turned back to Kolibri, smoothing her fur where the sea drank her in. “Come now, pretty bird,” I heard him say over the rush of the tide. “Show me your wings.”

She shook her head and whipped her tail the way she did when impatiently pawing toward an open road. Aegir leaned to the side, letting the water carry him a few feet from her, and she dipped her head below an oncoming wave, vanishing.

I started in alarm. But Aegir flashed me a grin from the water, his palms flat over the surface as he watched something below. “Come see.”