Thread of Frost

Ch. 40: Game of Marbles

Ryne rolled up the map. "I'll be happy when we've put down Lucia. I'll be happy when we have Camille back. And I'll be happy if Camille can..." He looked away, stuffing the map into his pocket. "I can't afford to be happy yet."

"Let's sail for Lox," Anna said.

Ryne exhaled. "You already know what my answer will be."

"And what's that?"

"That I'm incapable of saying no to you," Ryne said.

His green eyes were moss, the sort that grew in the most shadowed part of the woods. There was something sad about his gaze. A phantom throne hovered between them, and Anna wondered if he was seeing it too, if he felt like he could touch it.

"Oi!" a voice called. "You two!"

They turned.

Althea hopped onto the ship. She was carrying a suitcase the size of a small carriage, panting slightly as she hauled it upward. Slaine appeared next, barefoot and in loose white trousers, carrying a much more reasonably sized case.

Anna raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Coming with you," Althea said.

Slaine planted his suitcase on the wooden decking. "Obviously."

Anna crossed her arms. "We're not sailing for the Gongo Islands. We're sailing for—"

"Lox," Althea finished. She must have seen the surprise on their faces because she rolled her eyes. "Come on. It doesn't take a genius to work out where you're going; I saw your faces during that conversation."

"I didn't," Slaine said cheerfully. "And even I know where we're going."

Anna shook her head. "You can't."

"I thought you'd say that," Althea said.

"It's too dangerous," Anna added.

Althea stabbed a finger. "And that."

"You don't have any fighting experience."

"We should have made bingo cards." Althea turned to her older brother. "Do you want to make a bingo card?"

Exasperation filled her. "Althea. Seriously. Go back to the citadel."

"I've made up my mind." Althea sat on her suitcase. "It's a three-week journey to Lox. Somebody needs to keep you alive."

"This is a bad idea," Anna muttered.

"Have I ever told you how I lost my sight?" Slaine asked.

Slaine leaned against the railing, his arms folded over his chest. His brown toes peeked out from beneath his loose trousers. It was strange, Anna thought, to see Slaine out of his robes; it made him look younger, somehow. More vulnerable.

"When I was seventeen," Slaine said, "I fell in love with a boy named Wyn. He worked at the bakery. I went into buy a birthday cake, and Wyn told me that I could have it for free if I agreed to go out with him. He brought me to a secret cove, and we roasted cinnamon apples over a bonfire. I fell in love with him that night."

Slaine rested a hand on the railing. "Two years ago, Wyn was in a cliff jumping accident. I pulled him out of the water. Did you know that healers can sense life forces? I can tell if somebody is about to give birth, or if they're seriously ill. And when I was holding Wyn's broken body, I knew that he was..." His throat bobbed. "He didn't have much longer."

Althea was resting her elbows on her knees, looking at her twin brother with shining brown eyes. Slaine continued.

"Most of the time, Zarobian healers have to give up something small. You give up the memory of what you ate for lunch, or a freckle on the back of your hand. With an injury that big..." He shook his head. "You have to be prepared to give whatever the gods want to take from you. And I was. I've never once regretted it."