The White Road - Lynn Flewelling [23]
Seregil covered Alec's gloved hand with his own and leaned close. "Deep thoughts for deep water?"
"Not really. I'm just excited to finally be--"
"Don't say it!" Seregil exclaimed, grey eyes going comically wide. "You'll jinx us."
Alec grinned. "Well, I hope Astellus will smile on this voyage. How's that?"
"I wouldn't tempt fate."
"You don't believe in fate."
Seregil stared out at the flock of red-winged terns winging along beside them. "Maybe I'm changing my mind about that. I've been thinking a lot about what happened in Plenimar."
"It's over, tali," Alec murmured, raising Seregil's hand and kissing the back of it--a bold move for the reticent northerner, here on deck where anyone could see.
"Not the enslavement and humiliation, Alec; how we got there in the first place. A man I knew nearly five decades ago, the man who changed the entire course of my life--and there Ilar was in Yhakobin's house, at the center of the web that caught us!" He plucked one of Sebrahn's long hairs from Alec's shoulder. "And the bastard has changed my life again, hasn't he?" He let the wind take the strand. "And yours."
"I've been thinking about Ilar a lot, too. The first time you ever told me about him, you swore you'd kill him on sight, but in the end you took pity on him instead."
Seregil rested his elbows on the rail and heaved a weary sigh. "Are you still jealous? Do you think I was weak for saving him?"
"Weak? No, you were merciful. I know I was angry at the time, tali, but looking back, I'm glad."
Seregil raised a skeptical brow. "So you're not jealous anymore?"
It was Alec's turn to stare out across the waves. "That pathetic eunuch? What is there to be jealous of?"
"As I recall, you weren't so philosophical at the time."
"Not when I caught him trying to kiss you down there by that stream. And he betrayed me, too, just like he did you, after making me trust him all that time in Yhakobin's house."
"But before you knew the truth? What did you think of him when you still thought he was 'Khenir'?"
Alec looked away, suddenly uncomfortable. If he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he had liked the man. But only because Ilar had been kind to him--a seeming friend in a friendless place. "He was still lying," he said, stubbornly shaking off the thought. "So what do you think? Is he alive?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe he died with Yhakobin and the others when Sebrahn sang. He couldn't have gotten that far away."
Seregil looked down at Sebrahn thoughtfully. "Maybe. We still don't know what Sebrahn's range is. Either way, I doubt we'll be seeing Ilar again. Let it go, tali."
Alec turned and looked landward. The mist was thinning, and he could make out a line of jagged, snowcapped peaks. The Ashek range followed the northern curve of Aurenen, embracing the deep blue Osiat like a giant's necklace. Bokthersa lay deep in the mountains to the west, a fai'thast of green valleys and sweet water. The sen'gais Adzriel and Mydri wore were that same green, the long tails of them fluttering in the wind.
"How many tries does this make?" Micum asked as he joined them at the rail.
"This makes three," said Alec.
Micum grinned. "Three's a lucky number. Still, it wouldn't hurt to make an offering. A coin over the right shoulder for Astellus should do the trick."
Alec fished a sester coin from his purse and held it a moment on his open palm, letting the sunlight catch the finely stamped design. A crescent moon with five rays cradled a flame: moon and fire; Ilior and Sakor, the patrons of Skala and the royal family. The first time he'd seen one of these was soon after he and Seregil had met, and Seregil had taught him some sleight of hand. He smiled to himself as he rolled it expertly across the backs of his fingers, then palmed it and shot it up his sleeve.
Micum chuckled. "No wonder you are such a terror at the gaming tables."
Alec cast the coin over his shoulder into the water.
Seregil produced a small owl feather from his purse and let the wind take it. "Luck in the shadows."
"And in the Light,"