Winter Embers [ Book 2 ]

Chapter Eighteen

          Not long after departing from Drift, Claire had slipped away in search of a quiet refuge. The events of the past few days had left her feeling like an anchorless boat adrift at sea with no land in sight. What would she do if they reached these mountains only to be led somewhere else in the end, or worse, discover that Alek had never gone there to begin with?

          It was with these misgivings and more rattling about in her head that she leaned against the railing of the upper deck and stared out across the vast landscape of Oria. She stared until the sun began its slow, lazy descent towards the horizon, and stared longer still as the sky went from blue to red to purple tinged on its edges by a burgeoning darkness.

          Stars were just beginning to flare to life when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

          "Draz, I'm not really in the mood..." she said without bothering to turn around. When there was no witty retort she turned to see who had intruded her solitude. To her surprise it wasn't Draz, but her father.

          She felt her heart squeeze in her chest as a surge of unfettered emotions flooded through her. The relay must've shown on her face because Valerick's expression went from cautious to embarrassed and quickly averted his gaze.

          "I didn't mean to disturb you, I'll leave you be," he said, the uncertainty in his voice a far cry from the man who had rescued her on the docks hours before. Claire thought about how she had felt in those moments when she thought he was going to die and found herself holding out her hand to stop him.

          "Wait," she replied, causing Valerick to pause in his retreat. "It's okay if you want to stay."

          Valerick nodded and Claire swore she could see a hint of a smile even in the growing darkness. He moved closer, settling against the railing beside her, and stared out towards the night sky.

          For a long time the only sound was the soft, persistent creaking of ropes and wood as the ship sliced effortlessly through the air. While one might suspect the silence to be awkward, for Claire it was comforting in a way. To her, Valerick's silence seemed to say, "I'm struggling too" and it made her feel better that she wasn't alone.

          She knew, however, that sooner or later one of them would have to say something and so she decided to take the plunge. Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to speak but Valerick beat her to it.

          "I never would have let her go alone," he said, his voice quiet.

          "Huh?" Claire replied. 

          What did he mean?

          "Your mother," he said. "I never would have let her go alone if I had known she was pregnant."

          "Oh," she said, looking down at her hands. "Why did you let her go alone at all?"

          "I wish I had a reason that would justify it in your eyes," he replied, "but the truth is, I was young and selfish. When she told me what Elysia asked her to do, I was furious. I took it as a personal affront when in reality it had nothing to do with me. We had just married, but she was sacrificing it all for what? Some half baked plan born of desperation? We got into a terrible fight, for me going to Earth, being stripped of my magic, was a sentence worse than death."

          "So I foolishly gave her an ultimatum, forgetting in my anger how stubborn and proud your mother was. I told her to choose and that if she chose to proceed with her fool's errand that I would not be waiting when she returned."

          He finally looked at her, a sad smile etched across his weathered features. "We both know how this story ends," he said, "and the irony of it all is that in the end I did wait, I waited for years, and when she didn't come back I insisted that Elysia tell me where she had gone."