Ailsa had played the songs of her home in her cabin during moments of boredom. The crew must have heard the music through the thin walls of the vessel. “And?” she replied harshly.
Seela licked her lips. “And we were hoping you would show us some of your people’s music. It was lovely that night we sailed into your harbor.”
Ailsa’s face winced as she scoffed. “I’m glad we could entertain you before you came to slaughter us.”
Seela frowned. “Do you see a bunch of murderers around that fire, Ailsa?”
Her gaze fell behind the elfin toward the men draining a barrel, the beaming grins of comrades with skin warmed by weeks of sailing. There was a kind of joy present on this deck she hadn’t witnessed in a very long time. So long, the reunion was uncomfortable, unsettling. A kind of warmth only reminding her of how used to being cold she had become.
Seela dipped her head to catch her gaze again. “Fifty years we’ve been searching. Every single day, waking up with a new hope only to have it crushed the next. It has been a long journey to find what you carry, but we are finally going home. And we mean to honor their deaths, Jarl Ailsa, and all those who died as a retaliation for the fight over the Tether. If you truly do not wish to play, I will not pressure you. But consider it.” Seela offered Ailsa another cup of mead, and she warily accepted. “I think some of us would beveryinterested in hearing your song.” She winked and spun on her heel before Ailsa could ask her meaning.
“Seela?”
She looked back at her. “Yes?”
“I want to know what’s going to happen to me.” She looked down into her cup, avoiding the elfin’s violet gaze. “I do not want to be led like a pig to the slaughter. You all owe me this.”
Seela nodded slowly. “In time. I vow it. Sometimes remaining ignorant is safer.”
Her father must have reasoned the same to keep a family secret so large from her. If this was the safety ignorance offered, she wanted none of it.“Tell that to my family.”
Ailsa turned away from her and watched the crowd gathered around the mainmast, a makeshift stage created from mead barrels and dining tables, while draining the contents of her cup. Patience was a virtue she never claimed to master. But Seela’s tentative agreeance was a step in the right direction.
Things had settled between her and the fae in the past few days. They were just so damnhappyand kind to her. She had tried her best to maintain her grudge against them, but it was difficult to think of them as monsters when they were so familiar in nature and heart. So like the people she cared for on the quiet fjord. Even harder to believe them a bunch of murderers.
Over a decade ago, her father had executed one of their own during a raid gone very wrong. Her cousin let his arrogance cloud his judgment, and his selfish decisions had cost the lives of many clansmen, death the only fitting punishment for his crime. His immediate family had been furious with her father for weeks, but eventually they made peace with his decision, understanding it was not personal but necessary to prevent something worse from happening in the future.
Could she also find peace with a change of perspective? Was forgiveness possible through understanding one another better?
Her gaze drifted to the male leaning over the upper deck’s ledge, watching the revelry from afar. He brought a pipe to his lips, drawing a long breath and holding it, before letting white smoke spill from his mouth. Vali looked as lonely as she felt despite being among his own kind. She hated him, hated who he was and what he had done. How he left her alone in this realm over a ring. Every time she looked at him, she saw her father and her sister’s faces. And yet each day that passed, it hurt a little less, their faces a little dimmer.
As if feeling the weight of her gaze, Vali’s eyes shifted to her. Ailsa looked away quickly, unnerved she had been caught and cursing quietly under her breath. She leaned away from the firelight to hide the flush heating up her throat. Almost involuntarily, she glanced back at him a few moments later, finding him still staring down at her. The smallest of smirks plaguing his arrogant lips. A small torture to witness.
Perhaps not forgiveness, but a tolerance could be found. She decided to abandon her brooding and threw back the rest of the contents in her cup, finding enough courage at the bottom to confront the elfin male.
Watching the crew celebrate was a reward Vali didn’t feel like he had quite earned yet. Although this journey had been far longer than any of them had anticipated, it didn’t feel as though it was close to being finished. So many unknowns still lurked in the future. So many ways all of this could go wrong, and he’d been alive far too long to be anything less than a pessimist.
He felt her stare before he caught it. The little heathen stood off to the side, watching his men as closely as he was. Poor Sorrin had made the mistake of giving her an inch of kindness, and she took advantage of it as much as she could, trapping him into conversation. But Vali supposed the old fae didn’t mind. He had daughters at home he hadn’t seen in decades, and he imagined he must have seen some of their spitfire in Ailsa.
She looked away as soon as their eyes met, so fast he almost missed them. For someone who wanted him to stay away from her, she was having a difficult time keeping her eyes to herself. A fact he simultaneously found annoying and yet became increasingly more comfortable with.
His attention lingered on her after she looked away. She was nervous tonight, knowing they were about to leave Midgard, and he couldn’t blame her. It was the first time she had shown a sliver of vulnerability since joining the ship, and his observation only made her writhe. Aware he now had a foothold beneath her skin, he stared until she couldn’t stand it anymore. Which wasn’t very long, seeing how she slammed her ale back with impressive forte and started toward the stairwell. Vali took a breath and mentally prepared himself for what would follow.
“Why are being such a recluse up here?” Her voice announced her presence. Ailsa stood to his left; her arms crossed with an unreadable look on her face. “Shouldn’t you be celebrating with the rest of the crew?”
He simply shrugged and looked back toward the stage. “There is nothing for me to celebrate yet. The crew have done their job, but I have not completed my task.”
“But you found the Tether.”
“I foundyou,” he replied dryly. “Do not expect me to be happy the Tether came with a sharp tongue and an affinity for stabbing.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would think you were disappointed I am the Tether.”
“Disappointed is not the word I would use.” Maddened was more like it.
She didn’t respond. The only sound were her steps as she perused behind him, walking the width of the upper deck. Vali, not enjoying having his back to her, turned around to find her staring out to sea. Something she often wasted her time doing. Sometimes for hours—not that he noticed.
“Why do you stare at the waves so much?” he asked. It wasn’t like the scene ever changed.