“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” said Talia, eyeingthe bottle with distaste.
“She’ll do herself a harm, Miss Dahl-Saida. She needs to lay still.”
Talia sat back against the side of the ship and took a plate of pork from the tray. She cut off a few bites and chewed, slowly. The meat was tasteless to her. “What’s wrong with my mother?”
Hanid crouched on the floor across from her. “I think the sea is making her ill.”
“She’s notseasick,” Taliaobjected.
“I didn’t say she was.”
Talia laid her plate down. “She keeps insisting the sea goddess is going to kill us, but in the stories … I thought it was Aigir who ruled the sea. Who is she talking about?”
“Rahn,” said Hanid, black eyes meeting hers. “She tricked Aigir and took his throne. She collects all the souls of the drowned in her Hall at the bottom of the ocean.”
Talia suppresseda shudder. “Lovely.”
“Most sailors fear her on long voyages like this one.”
“And you don’t?”
Hanid shrugged. “She’s just one goddess. I’m of the belief that the sea still protects Aigir’s own. And the wind gods can be persuaded to kindness.”
“Then you really do believe in the old stories.”
His lips lifted in a half-smile. “Are you telling me you don’t believe in anything at all, Miss Dahl-Saida?”
She winced. Suddenly she was eleven again, hearing her mother explain to her that her father had had an accident on the road. That he wasn’t coming home. “If you believe in the gods, you believe in fate. I refuse to accept the philosophy that any part of my life is outside of my control. People spin those stories to try and make sense out of their own existence—I do fine on my own.”
Hanid chuckled.“Says the girl banished from her homeland through no doing of her own.”
“You think the gods brought me here?”
“I think you are limiting yourself to a rather narrow view of the world.”
She ground her jaw. “Then you think the gods meantthisfor my mother?”
“I don’t know. But there is certainly more going on with her—with both of you—than either of us understands.”
Talia didn’t answer.
Hanidgave her a quiet smile. “Don’t despair, Miss Dahl-Saida. She will be well again, I think.”
And then he bowed and left the cabin.
Talia hugged her knees to her chest and screwed her eyes shut.You took my father from me. You can’t have my mother, too.
You can’t have her.
You can’t.
The waves slapped against the side of the ship, and for a moment she thought she heard a thread of music curlingout of the sea.
Chapter Seven
THE FEVER LATCHED TIGHT ONTO HER MOTHER, and wouldn’t let go.
One week. Two. She slept poorly; she woke frantic. Captain Oblaine’s opium supply dwindled—it was the only thing that made her easy again.
