Finding the Suun by J.A. Culican & Cassidy Taylor

Author:J.A. Culican & Cassidy Taylor [Culican, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Realm Press
Published: 2019-07-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

I was glad when night came and shrouded the ship in darkness. It felt like I could, at least temporarily, let my guard down. In the dark, the Wind Wraith was indistinguishable from any other ship in the sky. Aupra was dull and distant, and Gleet was low on the southern horizon, a blue glow that helped us orient ourselves but didn't provide much more light than that. Not for the first time, I marveled at how Quynn did what she did with such unwavering confidence. At exactly how much constant practice and blind luck it took to keep an airship aloft.

One good thing about the darkness of the sky was that it let the stars come out in vast numbers, hundreds of thousands of them poking holes in the blackness. I leaned against the railing and searched for shapes in the stars: faces, and words, and great warriors wielding swords, and princesses with crowns on their heads.

After a while, footsteps warned me of someone's presence.

"That's a lot of D'ahvol." It was Arun. He leaned on the railing beside me, our arms touching.

I pushed off the railing and turned around, looking over at him. "Where have you been?"

"Below deck. Your sister came down, though, so I got out of there."

"Was she okay?"

He nodded. "Going to bed, I think."

It was late, and most of the crew was in bed, too. Only the captain was on deck, standing at the helm behind us. Except for the occasional breeze whipping a sail taut, it was mostly quiet. Almost uncomfortably so.

"What about you?" Arun asked. "Are you all right?"

I chuckled, but I was sure he could tell there was no humor in the sound. "Everything is just so … different. So much harder than I ever thought it would be. I'm different." I had always been the little warrior girl, my siblings' shadow, their protector when they thought they didn't need one. Now I was the one putting them in danger, dragging them into this hunt for the heir and pitting them against ur’gels and empaths. Leaving Erik behind with the knowledge he would likely come under fire. Estrid was right. I was changing. And I wasn't sure I liked it.

But Arun just shrugged. "That's life, though, isn't it? Circumstances change, and people change to adapt to them. You didn't make Dag'draath do what he did. You didn't ask the Sisters to transfer the mark to you. You're doing what you have to do to survive."

"Not really." I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, unable to look at him. "If all I wanted was to survive, then I could just take my family and hide away in the Western March somewhere, pretend none of this was happening. It would take a long time for any of it to reach us there. We could probably live out the rest of our lives in peace."

"Is that what you want, though?"

"What?"

"Is that what you want?" Arun grabbed both of my wrists and pulled me to him.

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