Children Of The Sky (The Scripts Of Neptune, Book 2)

Chapter 25

Crynia had never seen the sea.

It lurked in small ways around the corners of Cassar as Jack led them through back streets towards the coast. It rode the air, filling her lungs, salty and earthy and humid in the summer heat. It smelled shallow and deep all at once, a transparent mystery men had known for centuries and yet would never discover in its entirety.

The city itself was a grand adventure as well, even for the short time they spent in the places with more than a few people. They were forced to cut through a market with stands built more sturdily than she was used to, substantial things with more than the collapsible frames the merchants in Ctash used, and the scents of new spices and fruits and a thousand other things filled her lungs and stuck there until she couldn't smell anything else.

There were so many people--too many--and it threatened to overwhelm her. Spending six months in a darkened pit left her brutally unprepared for the crowds here, their colorful clothes, smiling faces, and loud voices. Pulling the light blue shawl Jack had given her closer, Crynia ducked her head to avoid meeting anyone's gaze and slipped after the bulky shadow her father cast on the reddish cobblestones in the dusty afternoon light. The smell of the sea was mixed with rich dirt and the reek of fish, here; they were nearing the fenced garden of a noble's manor, where fish was likely used as fertilizer. The gate had a rose set against fire stamped into it. Jack took a sharp turn away from that without giving it a second glance, ducking into the next alley he could find and leading them to the western outskirts of the city.

They spent the night in a copse of trees on a mountaintop. It was more a hilltop, really, the easiest route to the coast--which lay just beyond the mountains--but Crynia didn't mind. It was a clear night, and the moon was only a sliver of lavender on the eastern horizon. The brilliant swathe of white and blue stars should have bothered her after her recent nightmares about a dark woman with stars for eyes, but they were too blessed a distraction, and too beautiful a display, for her to feel anything but awe.

Crynia was up before anyone else the next morning. The sun hadn't risen yet, but dawn's long fingers were stretching across the sky, chasing away the night's inky darkness. Filmy clouds were scattered all the way to the horizon, colored faded pink and orange. It felt like the earth was breathing as Crynia walked, feet bare, to the edge of their little patch of woods, hugging her middle against the humid chill of a summer morning and stifling a yawn with her hand.

The sea stretched out before her in the west, past the acres of green and grey foothills they'd walk today, cobalt blue and smooth as glass. She thought she could hear it, when she tried, hear the surf crashing against the cliffs that made up most of the shoreline and the gentler waves that rode into hidden coves and touched the beaches there with a kinder hand. The same wind that made her shiver brought with it that seasalt smell, more intoxicating than liquor, and she shut her eyes and lifted her face to the sky. For a moment, just a few seconds, she was free of the thoughts and heavy grief that'd stuck to her soul since they'd left Ctash.

The light feeling fled as she heard someone's light footsteps behind her and turned. Jack, bleary-eyed and still half asleep by the looks of it, gave her a drowsy half-smile and stepped up beside her, arms crossed loosely and keen eyes on the horizon.

"It's something, isn't it? The sea," he said quietly after a while, and she looked over at him, waiting for him to say more.

"Yeah," she replied when he was silent. "I..." Pausing, she fished for words. "It makes you want to stare. Just stand and stare and forget about anything else."

Jack smiled again, that faint tilt of his mouth that showed up so often. She hadn't seen a full smile from him that she could recall; now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen him laugh or really get angry either. Odd, especially considering how much he and Rook bickered.