AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve never seen such gemstones before,” I said. “What is it called?”
“They’re not gemstones.”
I jumped at the sound of Sebian’s voice and spun around. “What are you doing here?”
Sebian stepped up beside me, dressed in leather breeches, a white shirt, and a brown vest he hadn’t bothered to fasten in the front. He’d put his black strands up in a loose topknot, and a few escaped wisps clung to his sheared sides. It suited him, this ruggedness one might find in the depth of an overgrown forest. Where was his mate? Not found yet? Dead? Was it wise to wonder?
He gave a long, drawn-out sigh. “If I wouldn’t know better, I’d say I’m protecting you.”
“A habit of yours? Saving damsels in distress?”
“Not exactly.” He sucked in his cheeks, brows furrowing. “But I can hardly let you venture outside alone.”
“I’m not alone,” I said and pointed to my left. “I am—”Alone.Gods curse them, where had they gone? “I shouldn’t have dawdled.”
“Or maybe you shouldn’t blindly follow women who serve nothing but their own selfish interests.” He jutted at the stone trinket. “They’re rocks from my island, Lanay.”
“That’s where you’re from?” I asked and, when he stared at the gemstone for a long time without saying a word, I cleared my throat. “Sebian?”
A jerk went through him, and he turned his head to look at me. “Hmm?”
“Is that where you’re from? Lanay?”
He nodded. “We call themlaool, which is Old Vhaer for seafoam… Ithink.Maybe.”
“Laool,” I repeated in a language I’d thought as dead as the royal house of Khysal. “You speak it? Old Vhaer?”
“Few Ravens do these days. I remember two or three words my uncle tried to teach me until he said I was a lost cause.” A bemused twitch rippled over his shapely lips, here one second and gone the next. “Malyr speaks it perfectly. Writes it, too.”
As was probably expected of a Raven prince. “What does dados’ta… No, that’s not right. How did it go again? Dalos—”
“Delos’ta lay.”
“Yes.” That had been the title of the book in the library Malyr had wanted to read. “What does it mean?”
“It meansThe Endless Ache. Right in here, remember?” A tap against his chest. “It’s where ouranoalongs for our fated mate, to a point it can be physically painful.”
Was that what made Malyr feel unwell? Longing? That he felt any emotion other than hate was hard to believe. Above me, wings flapped, making me lift my gaze to the sky. Nothing but an unkindness that must have roosted nearby before taking flight.
I circled the bead with my thumb, bringing my attention back to the stone. “It’s beautiful.”
“I used to find them aplenty at the bottom of riverbeds around my village,” Sebian said. “Sold them at the docks for good coin. Mother almost always caught me. Slapped me straight in the faceandtook my coins away for daring to leave the village.”
“A rule breaker.” I could admire that. “You spent all your childhood there?”
He nodded. “You have to fly over the mountain chain that surrounds the valley to get to the docks. Perhaps the one reason why we went unbothered by war. That was, until Father decided we would leave for the mainland and join the Ravens’ cause. Zaima loves, um… She used to love these stones.”
Used to love.
Used to…
That he spoke of her in the past could only mean she was no more. Which shouldn’t affect me the way it did, slowing those pulses of excited energy. Not on this day, not when I was finally surrounded by so much life.
I turned toward the barbican, eager to explore, to experience. Shops. Stables. Taverns. There was still so much to see!
“How many months does it take to travel to Lanay on horseback?” I asked.
“Horseback? A fortnight? Two? Fifteen?” Sebian shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. With good winds coming from the south-west and little sleep? I can make it there in five days.”
