She Who Rides the Storm (The Gods-Touched Duology)
She Who Rides the Storm: Chapter 25

Lia could feel the apothecary building staring after her as she and Tual loaded their purchases onto his little skiff. She stepped into the boat and sat. Tual took up the oars, moving across the channel into the traffic of boats bobbing toward the dry market. Looking back at the apothecary’s blue-painted door, Lia wished buildings could give up their secrets the way people did. Something there was amiss.

A dark shape flashed over the garden wall even as she watched. Lia blinked, then blinked again, but her eyes wouldn’t quite focus on the dark smudge, and then it was gone. The hairs on her neck stood up. It reminded her too much of the first time Master Calfor had demonstrated bending Calsta’s light around herself to smudge her appearance. She’d faded right into the shadows, Lia’s mind skipping past her as if she hadn’t existed at all.

It could have been a trick of the light, but Lia couldn’t stop looking, trying to pinpoint where the shadow had gone. If the Warlord had sent more Devoted ahead of her without notifying anyone, her plan to escape before Ewan regained his aura would be useless. Or…

Knox. The boat rocked under Lia’s feet as she stood up, looking down the deep channels separating all the little islands of the Coil. Something caught her eye, another shadow whisking out of sight on the skybridge overhead that led to the little island in the Coil’s string. It had to be Knox.

Which meant he’d seen her. But he hadn’t come out to meet her.

A surge of fear replaced the stirring excitement and anticipation in her chest. If Knox thought she knew where he was, that she was some part of a trap meant to bring him in—

“Are you all right?” Tual looked up, dipping an oar to steer them into the channel traffic, the blue-painted apothecary door disappearing from sight. “I wanted to give you time to think through whatever happened in the stable, but—”

“Get us off the channel. Now.” Lia dropped down into the boat, wishing the vessels around them carting piles of vegetables and squirming fish were large enough to block them from sight. Not that it would have mattered. Knox had his aura. He’d see her aftersparks no matter what she did. “Take us over to the Ink Cay. We’ll go on foot.”

“You’re a very industrious young lady, I’ll give you that, but I do not relish the thought of carrying my parcels all the way to the Water Cay using skybridges and tunnels.”

“If you don’t want this boat to sink with you in it, then get us to land.”

“Is that you threatening me, or am I missing something?” Tual squinted at her, leaning against the oars. But then he gave a curious look around and steered the boat’s nose toward the Ink Cay docks on the other side of the channel. “Your sister told me what happened to you the day you ran away. What she understood about it, anyway.”

“That’s what you want to talk about? After you replace Mateo and me standing over a man being eaten by an auroshe?” Lia’s eyes flicked from bridge to bridge, sweat making her scarf stick to her forehead and temples. The bridges stuck out like spider legs across the whole Coil, the tiny cluster of islands linked together like a badly patched quilt. Knox wouldn’t try to kill her, would he? Not after everything they’d been through together. If he could just show her how to hide, then they could hide together.

“I know my son well enough to assume he did little more than cover his face and hope you didn’t step on him. And in the context of what Aria told me…” He looked up at the clouded sky. “I understand, Lia.”

“You understand?” Lia’s eyes froze on a face looking down at them through the ropes of a skybridge. It disappeared into the crowd the moment she focused on it. Knox had hurt people on his way out of the seclusion when they’d tried to stop him from leaving, and she still didn’t know what had caused his sudden departure. They hadn’t been able to talk much after Lia had gone under the veil. It panged inside her again, everything she’d had to give up. Even her friendship with Knox. Which, if he thought she was there to drag him back to a traitor’s death, might not be in effect.

What if it wasn’t him at all?

Lia cursed her skirts, her lack of weapons. Her body still ached from the fight back at the Montannes’ stable. She’d done the same as Knox had that day he’d left—made sure no one could take her back. He’d do the same now if he thought she was a threat.

“Aria said that that other Devoted in town—Ewan—attacked you. That you were scared of him and nothing else.”

Lia’s attention jerked back down to Tual even as the boat knocked against the dock. She climbed out, meaning to bolt, but Tual’s hand on her arm stopped her. He shoved a basket into her arms. “Would you help me with these? I’m an old man.”

Swallowing down a swear word, Lia looked around the dock. Knox wouldn’t outright attack her here where anyone could see. He was trying to avoid notice too. Tension pulled tight through her chest like puppet strings, threatening to break. And Tual, the way he so casually mentioned Ewan and Aria… sickness bloomed inside her. What could he understand about any of it? What had happened was an explosion, an earthquake, the world breaking under Lia’s feet, and she was still falling.

Tual spoke as if she’d scored poorly on an exam and he could understand why she might be disappointed.

The aukincer clambered to the back of the boat, then threw her the mooring rope. Nerves on fire, Lia found herself reaching out with her mind again, as if Calsta hadn’t taken away her ability to see auras, to see into people’s thoughts. If only she could see into Tual’s right now, if only she could pinpoint Knox’s aura—but instead she tied the rope to the pylon with her free hand.

When Tual climbed out of the boat, he cocked his head, looking down at her. “Lia, you shouldn’t have had to run, but the facts are what they are. Calsta is supposed to protect you, and she didn’t. The Devoted are supposed to protect you, and it was a Devoted who scared you away.”

“I have to go.” Lia thrust the basket toward him, but he didn’t take it. She couldn’t stomach the pity in his eyes.

“The Warlord asked me to observe you, starting about a year ago. She worried your behavior indicated sickness.”

“She thought I had wasting sickness?” Lia paused for a split second before shaking her head. “No. I don’t care.”

“You just murdered a Rooster, Lia. You think you can just walk away from me and hope no one ever replaces out?”

“I did not…” Lia’s breath caught in her chest as she put down the basket. “It was an accident.”

“Something I’m not going to hold over your head, because if my partner had attacked me, tried to… I wish there had been an auroshe handy when…” Tual took a shaky breath and looked down at his shoes. “That’s probably unhelpful, but I am so sorry, Lia. I’m on your side.”

“I’m going home.” Lia pushed into the crowd, her mind spinning. She just had to make it through the main glass tunnel that connected the Ink Cay to the dry market, then over the bridge to the Water Cay. From there… she started walking faster, forcing her mind to focus on Knox. Knox was a problem she could solve.

There were fewer people wandering around on foot in the Water Cay—most of the compounds had their own personal docks and housing for their servants. If Knox was going to attack her, that’s where it would be. So, where best to make sure he couldn’t attack without talking to her first? Lia pushed her mind as far from Ewan as she could, looping it around the path she could take, the places Knox would think he was hidden but she would know—

“I knew it was going to happen.” Tual’s voice trailed after her, breaths coming fast as he tried to drag the two baskets of herbs through the crowd. “Maybe not the way it did, exactly. So many Devoted have fallen to wasting sickness over the last few years, and it’s only getting worse. High khonins are beginning to notice that the Warlord has been sending fewer Devoted to keep the peace. They aren’t always sharing when their children are touched by Calsta because there aren’t any Devoted to catch them at it. In the outer provinces children go completely unnoticed, Calsta and the nameless god shining inside them with no consequences at all. How long before the Trib start pushing the border south? Or the queen of Lasei decides conquering us would be better than continuing to shut us out after all the shapeshifter wars?”

Lia ran down the ramp into the glass tunnel toward the dry market, immediately regretting the choice when the crowd bottlenecked inside. Tual’s voice drew closer. “You weren’t sick like she thought, though. You were unhappy.”

“No one cares if Devoted are happy or not, Tual. They serve Calsta.” Lia bit on the words as she said them. They. As if she was no longer Calsta’s.

“I care.” He said it a hair too loud as Lia pushed her way through to the other end of the tunnel. “Please stop, Lia. For once someone is trying to help you. I know you didn’t go willingly into the seclusion, that none of this has been what you wanted.” He swore when she still didn’t slow, dropping one of his baskets to grab her arm.

Lia pulled away, falling into a fighting stance. “Do not touch me. No one has dared touch me in two years—do you really want to see why?”

“Until the Warlord told Ewan to try it?” Tual’s teeth gritted, his normally good-natured smile lost in a scowl. “Listen to me, Lia. Mateo is not my son by blood.”

“Who cares? I guess you can’t blame yourself for his personality.”

“It matters because he’s special like you.” Tual stood there, herbs trailing out from the basket still in his arms. His face was so lost without its smile, all edges of ugly memories that seeped out of him like an aura. The appeal in his voice was worse than a sword. It wasn’t violence or even politics and threats. It was a peek into something deeper, as if Tual had cracked open a hard shell she hadn’t known was there and was letting her see his soft insides.

“I know he can see auras.” She looked him up and down. “I wondered if you could too—you saw me in the loft before you should have been able to. It was you who brought Mateo to my house and pointed him toward the kitchen pantry.”

“Mateo is strong like you, Lia. I had to step in when he was young. His parents… didn’t want him.” The flash of anger and misery in Tual’s eyes was real. “I read through the Warlord’s reports and recommendations for your future.”

Lia gulped, hating that he knew. That he’d known the eventuality of Ewan cornering her in a room long before she’d come to Chaol. Hated how it made her feel muddy and soiled, hated that Tual wouldn’t look at her as he said it.

But then he did look. He raised his head and met her eyes. “When I look at you, I see Mateo as he was as a child. Defenseless. No way to fight back against the people who should have been protecting him. They would have killed him if I hadn’t been there. What will happen to you if you don’t let me help you? I want to help you.”

Lia took a step closer to him, fury rising in her like bile. “You threatened to have my entire family executed for treason if I didn’t marry your son. Don’t pretend this is a rescue mission. You have some half-brained political goal to set up your own space here away from the Warlord, using my father’s clout.”

“Not my space. A safe space. A place for people like you and me.” A ghost of a smile swished back into place. “Mateo’s not so awful, is he? Apart from his taste in clothes, I suppose. I’ve been able to keep both of us safe from the Warlord all these years.” He took a step toward her. “What makes you think I can’t do the same for you?”

Lia suddenly felt sick. She turned away from him and pushed toward the dry market. It started as a walk, then turned into a run when Tual called after her, and she wondered how fast she would have to go for him to stop following.

“You have been taught for years that your life belongs to a goddess and if you so much as sneeze at the wrong time, she’ll punish you now and forever. Your teachers taught you that every word they said about you, about the world, about people, was all straight from the goddess’s lips. How is anyone supposed to argue with that?” Tual’s words came patched together as he tried to keep up with her. “Lia, I see an opportunity here. Your father’s political failings, our arrangement with the Warlord—all of us could be free. I want my son to have a life that has nothing to do with scars and robes and serving a goddess who hasn’t spoken to anyone in half a century. I need you, Lia.” He reached out and grabbed her arm again just as she felt sunlight on her face through the scarf, wrenching her to a stop. “We both do.”

Lia glared down at his hand. All these men seemed to think she belonged to them, that they could touch her whenever they wanted.

“Think of it this way,” Tual said through winded breaths. Keeping up with her hadn’t been easy for him. “You’ve been alone for the last six years.”

“And?”

“Do you really want the rest of your life to be alone? No family. No friends. No choices.” He let her go and dropped the abused basket, bending over to catch his breath. “I want this to be your choice. That’s why I’m talking to you, not your father. He’s the one trying to keep you locked in the house. Your father would have signed this contract without even asking you.”

“He would not. The first thing he said after you left was that he wasn’t going to force me into anything.”

Tual looked down, an unhappy smile on his lips. “You believe that? When you have to sneak out your own window to get out of your family compound?” He swallowed, clearing his throat. “Aren’t you sick of people seeing you as a thing to be used rather than a person to bring to their side?”

Lia forced herself to look into Tual’s brown eyes. They were calculating but not hard. “I don’t belong to my father.”

“Tell him that. I need an answer soon. I can’t stretch my neck far enough to protect your family if you aren’t going to help us in return, Lia.” He pulled himself back up, brushing away the leaves and flower petals that had stuck to him from the basket. “I can promise you the trouble your father is in will destroy him. It will destroy all of you.”

She could hear a threat in those words. I could destroy all of you.

Lia turned on her heel and walked away, but his words shadowed each of her steps.

It wasn’t just Tual’s words following her. She could feel Knox watching. Waiting.