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He would find her answers They would get her voice back--they had to He wasn’t sure if, even with all the love in the world, she’d care to live without the ability to sing
Maybe if the Blackveil expedition returned--Karigan was Estral’s best friend Maybe Karigan’s return would brighten Estral But they’d had no sign fro into Blackveil was placing oneself inequinox He loved Karigan, but his feelings had gone in a different direction than they had with Estral Coht Estral needs you, and so do I
He leaned over and kissed Estral’s cheek She did not stir, and her soft, deep breaths indicated she ell asleep and would be for a while It was time for Alton to attend to his duties, so he left Estral to her peace He would check in often, and when she woke, he would get her to take broth as Leese instructed, and if love could heal, he would give her as
In the Present:
YOLANDHE’S ISLAND
Yap was left to his own devices as Yolandhe the sea witch tended Lord A to keep an eye and ear open for any change in his ht tender him So far, however, Lord Amberhill re to hie the furs spread over hi for drifthich to nal passing ships Not that any ships cah to Yolandhe’s island, thanks to the currents and superstitions surrounding the place, though he was sure she could sing the in the unwary to crash upon her shore
He searched for flotsa in with the tide that also brought in lost fishing gear and an e stomach also kept him busy He liked his vittles as well as any other fellow, but after he’d retched up Yolandhe’s treasure, it had left a yawning pit in his belly waiting to be filled So he sharpened a branch with his belt knife The branch he turned into a spear, and he attempted to stab fish in the shallows
If there was land flesh to be had on the interior of the island, he had no idea He didn’t kno to go about hunting, and he dared not abandon watch on hishis own foot in the process It looked like he’d be eating dulse anda little old It was more than he’d eaten, however, when he and his shipmates aboard the Mermaid had been trapped in the dead calm of Yolandhe’s spell for untold years
When his spear failed once again, he was startled to see the sea witch’s reflection rippling beside his own He glanced up She looked outward, seeaze beyond the horizon She stretched her hand out before her, fingers splayed, and she spoke-sang
Yap prepared to run to take cover, for this looked like witchery, but he was too transfixed to er than the others, and definitely not natural They just hung there stationary Then she jerked her hand back and a fish flipped out of the wave and smacked Yap in the face He was too stupefied to catch it, but when he realized as happening, he was ready to catch the next, and the next, and the next Many others landed on the shore It wasn’t that the fish were ju spit out of the waves
When Yolandhe released the waves, the fish stopped flying She turned to Yap "You atch over your ht" And she walked away across a beach alive with flapping, silvery bodies
"I’ll need to dry ’e pit of a belly to fill, but even he could not eat soUnfortunately, he had no salt
Yolandhe paused As if she knew Yap’s thoughts, she said, "There is a barrel of salt near the back of the cave" With that, she vanished into the forest
Yap set to work, i asand boning the rest and spreading the the, dead tree Hetide reclaimed the tidepool and most of his bounty
Hours later, he stumbled into the cave covered in sticky scales and viscera In the back of the cave, fingers of the setting sun revealed a clutter of objects--wreckage, chairs, a chest, casks and barrels, coils of rope, and even a ship’s figurehead of an ar dusky shadows
Instead of searching for the salt right away, he knelt beside his master who slept peacefully beneath his furs Yap did not knohat injury plagued Lord Amberhill, just that he did not wake There was no wound Yap could see, but he knew not all wounds could be seen Sometimes they were on the inside They’d both been knocked around in the stormy waves after their boat had failed them
Lord Amberhill’s hands lay across his breast atop the furs On his thin, pale finger was the dragon ring with the ruby eye The dragon’s tail wrapped around its neck, forht the eye Yap did not know if it was how the sun glowed upon it, or if it was soem itself, but it flickered with blood-red intensity
"Sir," Yap said in a hushed voice, hoping against hope that Lord Aotta wake up This is the sea witch’s island Y’know, the one that kept me and the other lads of the Merotta find a way out of here before she curses us, or worse"