In Dawn and Darkness by Kate Avery Ellison

Author:Kate Avery Ellison [Ellison, Kate Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kate Avery Ellison
Published: 2015-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

~ ~ ~

My mother received me privately in the ship’s tiny garden sphere.

My stomach twisted into a knot as I waited for her to speak. The memory of her in the garden weeping sprang to my mind, and I bit my lip. I had the oddest urge to confess to her that I’d seen her crying at my memorial service. I wanted to see if she’d deny it, or confess to feeling something at my loss.

She stared out at the sea for a moment that stretched until I itched with the need to break the silence. But I had learned the power of silence, so I quelled my discomfort and waited for her to speak first.

“Congratulations,” was all she said.

I blinked in confusion.

“You’ve finally acted like a true Graywater.” Was that bitterness in her tone? Resignation? “You managed to deceive the rest of us.”

“It didn’t last long,” I muttered.

“Longer than anyone else has in quite some time,” she said. “Of course, you have had a great deal less practice than I have in the business of being a Graywater.”

“Where’s my sister?” I asked. It was the only thing I could think to say.

“Your sister is staying with Annah.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “And you trust her after the way she helped me?”

“Desperate times,” my mother said, a shadow of a smile touching her mouth.

“How did you find me?” I said.

“Your friend, the cook, bore the scent of my mother’s house, as did Merelus’s loyal daughter. Their connection, the thing that binds them together as unlikely friends, is you. It aroused my suspicions, and I began combing through my network of informants for clues. The Riptide was missing. I got what I could out of Dahn after he’d had too much wine at a dinner party of mine. I obtained more information from the shock cook. Then an... unexpected source contacted me, and he was most helpful.”

Valus?

Myo arrived, cutting off my next question. He stepped inside the miniature garden sphere and gazed around at cascades of vines and flowers, as if scanning them for hidden guards, before letting his gaze rest on my mother and me.

“Thank you for joining us,” the Lady Graywater said, smiling, but her lips drew back with a hint of a snarl.

“You are hijacking our mission,” he said, but he said it pleasantly.

My mother arched a brow. “I am helping. You have my daughter, and you wear an air of confidence that suggests to me that you’ve discovered something else, but you don’t have all the pieces. If you did, you wouldn’t have accepted my help.”

“You had weapons,” Myo countered, matching her smile with one of his own. “We didn’t accept; we acquiesced.”

It was fascinating, this exchange. Like watching a game of Hooks being played with smiles and words instead.

“You accepted,” she said firmly, tilting her head and studying him. “You need me. Tell me, and I can help.”

“The fact is,” Myo said, “You don’t know anything.”

“You don’t know what I know,” she responded.

“Nautilus has the final pieces now,” Myo said.

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