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She answers without hesitation. “I need an ally. It’s the only way I’ll ever be able to—” She breaks off, when speaks again in a quieter voice. “She’s listening.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes. Her eyes and ears are everywhere. There’s nothing that happens in these waters that she might not overhear.”
I see the truth in her hopeless expression, just as I’ve heard it in her songs on so many moonlit nights. Evya wants to defy her mother and end the war, but as strong as she is, she can’t match the Seamother’s power alone. “Is there no one among your people who could be your ally?”
“We’re all caught in the same storm. No one could restore peace because no one remembers what it is.” She shivers and wraps her bare arms around her body, staring out at sea with empty eyes.
With her wound healed and my adrenaline ebbing, I finally take in the rest of her appearance. She’s dressed for a celebration. Her crimson skirts pool around her in ripples of fine silk, torn and bloodied from the fight. Her golden hair is coming loose from its elaborate braids. An ornate crown of pearls and polished pink shells clings haphazardly to her tresses.
“I’m sorry. I should have anticipated Falamar would attack tonight. My people used to have enough honor to refrain from attacking on festival days.” I catch myself reaching for her, wanting to wrap my arm around her to fend off the cold. I pull my hand back, unsure if she’d welcome the gesture. “I tried to find you sooner so I could warn you, but by the time—”
She looks up at me abruptly. “You came here just to find me? Why?”
“The same reason I’ve been singing to you.” I take a deep breath and gather my courage to tell her everything. Maybe she’ll think I’m crazy, just as Falamar does, but if I don’t take this chance, I might as well disown myself as a Dalzana. “I think I’m supposed to help you end the war. I’m not sure how, but—”
Her body goes tense. For a second I think she’s just responding to my words. Then a force slams into me, icy and furious, and sends me sprawling on the floor. Waves swell around me. I stagger to my feet just in time to see a dozen armored tuath warriors leap from the sea and land in front of me and Evya, brandishing their spears. I freeze in place, heart pounding, and spread my hands out so they can see I’m not holding a weapon.
One of them, an enormous Fethani warrior with bronze skin and glinting golden eyes, lunges as if to sweep me into the sea in one blow.
Evya lets out a feral shriek and darts between us, shoving me out of the way. “Don’t touch him!”
The warriors recoil as one, eyes flashing. I almost relax.
Then I see the waves mounding again. A heartbeat later they explode in a shower of stinging ice. Another figure leaps up onto the platform. A chill sweeps through me.
The Seamother. She looms over us, taller than me by more than a head. Her form is sinewy and gaunt, as if starved of everything good. Her long gray hair frames her narrow face in tangled locks, and her forearms are ridged with sharp silver fins. She looks down at me with a frigid gaze that might swallow me up if she stares too long.
I draw myself up to my full height and stare back resolutely. I don’t think the One Who Is brought me here just to be slaughtered. I wait for words, for a vision, for any hint of what I’m supposed to say to this living nightmare.
But the Seamother speaks first. “What have you brought me, daughter?” She looks to Evya, who is glaring at her with gritted teeth and clenched fists.
“I have brought you nothing. Keliveth Dalzana comes at the bidding of the Creator.”
The Seamother bares her yellowed fangs and hurls a curse into the night sky. “The Creator has nothing to say to us if He speaks through this Dalzana scum. Do you wish to fill the seas with his blood, or should I?”
Evya snarls back with a fierceness that makes even the Seamother start. “Do not offend a guest of the Atathari.”
The Seamother frowns, and so do I. Am I a guest? I open my mouth to ask what she means, but her next words hit me like a blast.
“Keliveth has come to join the challenge for my hand.”
