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I was done speculating. Every breath took Livia farther from me. I kept a hand on my leg, wishing someone might cut it off to stop the pain, and gave into the significant limp until I reached my chambers. Inside, no one waited before they dug into a hidden panel in the wall and removed knives, cutlasses, daggers, even barbed arrows.
I secured a black scarf over my head, my blade to my waist, and shouted down the corridor to Alistair to signal the bells of the Ever, a signal to sound an emergency departure for the Ever Crew.
“Dammit!” All at once, my heart stilled. “I can’t feel her. I can’t feel Livia.”
She should be calling to me. I should hear her in my damn heart. Bile burned my throat. It couldn’t mean she was gone. If he hurt her, I’d tear Larsson’s body apart piece by piece.
“Then I’m beginning the hunt,” Gavyn said, gripping my shoulder. “I will scour the kingdom, Erik. The smallest body of water, I will search it until I find her.”
Words I wanted to say, that politeness and gratitude Livia wanted from me, tightened in the back of my throat. I said nothing, merely nodded and clapped my palm on the side of his neck.
Gavyn turned to Celine and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Look after the king, Tidecaller.”
“Larsson will know of you.” Tears glistened over her long lashes. “Don’t you dare die, you arrogant lord.”
Gavyn pulled her close, but his gaze lifted over her head to Sewell. The ship’s cook shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and pointed his gaze to the floor, avoiding Gavyn’s eyes.
“Daj.” Gavyn released Celine but kept his arm around her shoulder and wrapped the other around Sewell’s neck. “I’ll be all right. You watch your own back. Watch Cel’s.”
Sewell cradled Celine’s head to his shoulder when she hugged his waist.
When Livia asked me if Gavyn had freed his father from the prisons after that first day of torture, I’d offered vague truths. I’d kept the secret for so many turns, it was instinct. Since I was a boy, I’d known Gavyn broke into the cell and released his father through an unbarred window. After all, it was me who’d left a bucket of rainwater in the corner of the cell.
For too many turns we’d tried to hide Sewell’s face from the house lords, hidden him in plain sight on the Ever Ship where he could embrace the sea, but be safe. Where the truth that his daughter still lived could die into the sagas and histories of the sea.
Where all three would be left alone at long last.
His mind was sharp, his body strong, his love for his children unchanged. Harald’s brutal torture merely confused a few words.
“I have no more time,” I said. “We need to find Larsson.”
“Erik, if he has the blood of Thorvald, if he uses Livia to clear the darkening, then he could turn the houses against you,” Gavyn said.
“Makes sense,” Tait replied bitterly. “You’ve caused enough turmoil.” He held up his hands in surrender when I glared at him. “I didn’t say it wasn’t good turmoil. I’m simply saying we know Joron and Hesh did not approve of a queen.”
“You need more blades at your back to bury him,” Gavyn said.
Aleksi gripped my shoulder, a feral gleam in his gaze. “You need the aid of those who would fight for your queen with the same ferocity as you.”
My body tensed, but I understood exactly what he meant. For Livia I’d do anything. I only hoped this move didn’t get my head removed before I found her.
* * *
Crouched in front of a full flowering shrub, I cupped one bloom and stroked the velvet petals between my fingers. Leaves and vines were remnants of Livia. One fist curled around the silver swallow around my neck.
She’d be here again, taming the wild branches and flowers. I wouldn’t stop until she was back. Until I heard the playful way she called me Serpent. Until her skin was pressed against mine.
The bells rang out over the city.
“Erik.” Tait stepped around a bower. “The crew is gathering.”
I rose and offered a final look at Livia’s gardens. She’d brought life back to the Ever. To me.
Sleepy and disheveled, the Ever Crew gathered on the docks, bidding their wives, their littles, their rum, farewell. At the sight of me, most tried to bow their heads, but I carved through the crowds too swiftly to care.
“Erik,” Tait said at my back. “Before we do this, be certain this is the move to make.”
“What am I to think through, cousin?” I snapped. “She is gone. There is no risk I will not take to get her back.”
