“You have a point. I taught her how to surf and brought her a pet,” Levi reminded him. “I don’t do that for just anyone.”
“You were going to eat that water dragon, don’t pretend you weren’t.”
Levi scowled at him. “No. They’re all fin and bone; why would I? Try another one.”
Iason plucked another thread, and Levi tasted starlight and sugary candy, heard doves cooing names, and felt the rain momentarily shift to pieces of glitter. “That’s Astra.”
“You are fond of him,” Iason said. “It’s… similar to the bond you have with Sophie.”
“That makes sense,” Levi said, the surf swirling around his feet, the rain diminishing as the brief shower moved eastward, starlit patches of sky peeking out from behind patchy, thinning clouds. “Astra took on the dreamer’s mantle when he was young—younger than Sophie, but just as, hmm. Irrepressible?”
“That’s one way to saystubborn as a mule,” Iason muttered.
“It’s not, but yes, she is.”So are you,he thought but didn’t say. Iason needed to concentrate. “They share the same… brightness, a belief in other people’s goodness. You can’t be cynical and be the Lord of Dreams. Dreams don’t have limitations. I don’t think she does, either.”
“Which worries me,” Iason said. “The world isn’t always kind to people like her.”
“Why should that stop her from being who she is? Let her believe in the world as a place where assassins find their conscience and dragons don’t eat wizards who steal their power.”
“She’s seen enough to know that’s not really how things are,” Iason said.
“And the fact that she still believes it enough to care about a stranger crying in an attic isn’t something you should want to change,” Levi said gently. “Is it?”
Iason seemed to consider that, the sound of the sea rhythmic and easy as the moon broke through at last. “No,” he said. “I don’t want to change anything about her. I just want to keep her safe.” He reached out and plucked at another bond, and Levi tasted brine, rust, heard thedrip-drip-dripof water off stone, the sound of coins falling onto a stone floor.
“My brother Arwyn,” Levi said. “Avarice and Desire both.”
“I— Ah, yes.” Iason cleared his throat and Levi flashed a toothy grin at him, wondering what Iason was seeing. “You spent a lot of time with him.”
“Yes. He was confined for many years, deep in a well in the southern sea. I would bring him gifts from the ships that sank in my storms. Useless things, but he liked them.”
“It wasn’t the gifts, it was you. He liked that you visited him.”
That was astute, and probably true. Levi liked visiting Arwyn, too. But he could tell Iason was pulling enough magic that it would need to be released somehow, and they should hurry before it overwhelmed him. “Your control is improving, but you can ask me questions later. Keep going.”
Iason nodded and plucked another invisible string. “This one feels like… fire, but muted. Like you’re standing too far from the flames and can only smell smoke without any warmth. I taste sand. Salt, but not like the sea. Like tears. And iron, ash.”
“Ares,” Levi said quietly. “The god of war.” He would have thought Ares’s bond with him would be faint, given how long it had been since Levi had seen them, or even felt their presence in the world. “They’re sleeping.”
Iason shuddered. “Let’s not wake them up. That’s the last thing Mislia needs.” He plucked the next thread. “I smell flowers, and I hear thunder.”
“That’s Azaiah,” Levi said, pleased. “Well done, wizard. Now. Use that, and send a message with your magic that I need to see him. Quickly,” he added, seeing the clouds again gathering in the horizon.
Iason’s eyes were lightning-bright, and electric sparks danced between the fingers of his hand, still closed around the bonds that connected Levi to his family. “I— What do I say?”
“Big brother needs to see him. He’ll know who you mean.”
Iason didn’t speak, but there was a sudden crackle in the air, and Levi tasted ozone as Iason sent his message, then dropped to his knees in the surf, hands in the water, his whole body shaking.
The sea itself began to shine as if thousands of magelights were blazing beneath the water or a sun was turned on somewhere in the very deepest regions of the ocean. Levi felt coral grow in response to Iason’s channeling his magic into the seafloor, and he smiled as the plants sprouted and fanned out, a reef that should have taken centuries forming in seconds.
“You’ve seen to it that the fish will be plentiful.”
Iason gasped something, still on all fours, so Levi went down on his haunches next to him and placed a hand on Iason’s back. “You did well. Can you stand?”
“Yes, I— What did I do? Sink a ship? Kill a whale?”
“No. Your magic doesn’t kill, remember? It creates. You made coral grow.”
