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All but one more thing.
“Take me with you,” Corayne blurted out, grasping at one last hope.
Take me with you or lose me,she wanted to say.Lose me to whatever road I’ve put myself upon.
Most of the time, Meliz an-Amarat had summer eyes, warm eyes. Mahogany flecked with amber and bronze. But now her eyes were cold and dark, still water beneath falling snow.
And her voice was icy steel.
“I will not.”
The road into Lemarta unfurled. Dawn had barely begun, tinging the waters of the Long Sea pink and gold. Meliz walked slightly ahead, leaving Kastio and Corayne to lag along behind. The old man yawned away the last clingings of sleep, his knees creaking. Corayne donned her usual loose shirt and breeches with soft leather boots, worn by the years. It was warm outside, and she needed no cloak or coat, but one dangled from her shoulders anyway. The gloves were already in its deep pockets, tucked away, unused since winter.
She forced down breakfast as they walked, angrily biting into a flatbread greasy with butter, garlic, and tomato jam. Her long black braid hung over one shoulder, thick as sailing rope. Her eyes were wide, focused. She wanted to remember this day.
It will be my last in the only home I’ve ever known.
Sunlight crept into the harbor, too quickly for Corayne’s liking. It was another clear day, with steady wind and currents.A good day to begin a voyage.The cloudless blue heaven broke Corayne’s heart.
Captain an-Amarat walked the pier to theTempestborn, her hands loose and empty, her back to the port, her face to the waves. Her long, battered coat hung off her bountiful frame, slashed at each side to show leggings and boots. Her clothes were crusted in salt, the veterans of a hundred journeys across the waters of the Ward. There was gray hair at her temples, only a few strands, gleaming like spun silver. She wore no hat and squinted into the sunrise. She looked as she always did before a voyage. Completely free, without weight. Without responsibility. With no allegiance to anyone but the sea.
It was a hard thing to see in a parent. For Corayne, it was a familiar sight.
She reached her mother’s side too soon. Part of her wanted to jump right off the dock and into the water. Instead she steadied herself.
Meliz turned to look at her daughter sidelong. Her face was smooth, her skin golden, bronzed by the sun. “I’ll be back in a few months, just like you said. With enough coin and treasure to keep us for a hundred years.”
“We have that now,” Corayne bit out.
She knew the count of gold buried in the cottage garden, sitting in the vaults of a capital bank, and scattered elsewhere throughout the Long Sea. Coin from her mother’s plunder, coin from her father’s shame. Money was not what sent theTempestbornto the water, not anymore.
“There’s no end to what you want, to what you do. You enjoy the life you’ve chosen, and you won’t give it up for anyone. Not even for me.”
It was not an accusation, but a statement of fact.
Meliz clenched her jaw. “That doesn’t mean it’s a life I want for you.”
“You don’t get to decide where I end up, or what I want,” Corayne said. All her lists, all her reasons evaporated, leaving behind a single truth. She heaved a breath. “You know I’m not the same as you.”You don’t have the spine.“And you’re right, but not the way you think. In my heart, in my blood—there’s something in me that can’t sit still.”Spindleblood, Corblood. Whether I want it or not.“You know what that is.”
Her mother’s eyes flashed and she blew out a long, frustrated sigh. “Nowyou want to talk about your father?” she scoffed, throwing up her hands.
Her mother was not the same. There was no Spindleblood in her veins. She could not understand. But she was a restless kind too. She knew what it was to ache for change and distance, to look forward and never behind.
“It’s a few months only. I promise you that,” Meliz finally said, and a door slammed shut inside Corayne. A bridge collapsed. A rainstorm broke. A thread unwound.
And another doorway yawned open.
“Farewell,”Corayne forced through gritted teeth, tears stinging her eyes.
Meliz already had her in hand, pulling her daughter tight to her chest. Into the cage of her arms. “Farewell, my girl,” she said, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Keep your feet on the shore and your face to the sea.”
Corayne inhaled deeply, taking one last gasp of her mother. “How fare the winds?” she whispered into her coat.
Her mother breathed the smallest sigh. “Fine, for they carry me home.”
TheTempestborndisappeared over the horizon, her sails eaten by the sun. Corayne continued to watch, one hand raised to shade her eyes. Heat rose with the day, and a bead of sweat rolled down her neck, disappearing beneath the collar of her long cloak. She worried her lip between her teeth.
“Kastio,” she said sharply.
