Toren and Deena snuggled together, savoring the afterglow. She wiped a light beading of sweat from her cleavage and wiped it impishly over his nose. He jumped in surprise.
"Thoughts elsewhere already?" she asked.
He ran his fingertips along the side of her body and down her leg from the knob of her pelvis to her knee. "I'm afraid so," he admitted.
Her light-hearted gleam dimmed. She turned his head away from the gauntlets, which lay quiescent beside them. "Are you sure you won't let me come with you?"
He shook his head. "It's as I said before. I would worry about your safety. I need as few distractions as possible."
"And the revolt here could use an archer of my caliber," she said, finishing his speech for him.
"Yes."
She rolled over and shook a twig from her short brown locks. "To be truthful, in some ways it is easy to part ways now. I will lose sleep over your safety, of course, but if fortune favors us, we'll be reunited. Much better for me than to see you depart for the Wood, never to return." Even in the dim illumination, Toren could read her posture. She was not reconciled to either course.
"I haven't decided what I will do once this task is over," he said. He stroked her spine. "If I went back to the land of the Fhali, would you come with me?"
"I've been there," she said in Vanihr.
"Your accent is terrible," he said, realizing as he spoke that she had deliberately exaggerated it.
"That's my point. I don't belong there. But if you asked me to go, I would."
She lifted her head to peer at him. He stared back, lips poised to respond, but he thought of nothing to say. She nestled up against him and they began a long and largely unsuccessful attempt to sleep.
The surface of the sea loomed just above Elenya's head, thick with foam. The breakers boomed, loud despite being muffled by the water. She adjusted her airmaker and glanced back at her team. They rose in perfect formation. The dive had wasted away most of the morning, but it was time well spent. Her students had shown how well they had absorbed their lessons.
Behind her swam Toren, Geim, and the three men chosen to fill out the raiding party. The latter included Tregay and a pair of Elandri refugees named Match and Ebben. All were longtime rebels of unquestioned loyalty. They scarcely needed to hone their underwater skills. The trio knew the sea better than Elenya, and had proved it during the week of training with their suggestions and demonstrations. But they participated in every dive, to adjust to working as a team.
Dalih accompanied them, though he was not going to Elandris. Elenya had simply felt it efficient to teach him to use airmakers and vests as well.
Her head broke the surface. Hot, invigorating sunshine pummeled her back as she waded into the shallows, doffing her airmaker. She sighed gratefully at the warm rays; Achird had finally burned back the persistent layer of fog rolling in from the Dragon Sea.
Alemar stood on the bluff, high above the crashing surf, shading his eyes against the glare. She waved a signal of all's well.
The others joined her on the beach, clambering onto a pitted outcropping of rock to rescue their feet from the scorching white sand. Dalih helped her remove her vest and weights.
"Well? Do you like it better yet?" she asked the Surudainese.
"The sands I know are dry," he declared, "and water is meant for drinking."
She chuckled. "Perhaps I should show you how to fence underwater."
"Then it might be worth it," he stated.
She stepped over to a nearby tidepool to stow her gear in the net that waited there, so that the dry air would not hurt the devices. Toren and Geim passed theirs to her as well. She nodded approvingly to them.
"You're quick learners. One can never know too much, of course, but you've grasped the basics. You've a hundred leagues during which to become proficient. There's no need to delay the mission any longer."
Toren glanced down at the gauntlets. Wet and cleansed by the swim, the mail cast scintillations of gold toward the sky. "Good," he said simply.
The two Vanihr rejoined the others in order to hear Ebben and Match's critique. Elenya, body dried by the ocean winds, slid into the tunic she had left on the beach and started up the switchbacks and ledges to Alemar's vantage point. As she left she heard Dalih ask Ebben a question in High Speech. She smiled at his butchery of Calinin syntax.
Her face was solemn by the time she reached her brother. "That's it," she said. "You can leave in the morning."
Alemar stared into the fog bank hovering offshore. She knew it was not the fog he saw, but Elandris far beyond. How ironic that she, who relished new sights and sea travel, should be the one to stay. At the same time, she was not complaining.
"I imagined I saw the Dragon's fleet out there," he said. "But it was only the mists."
She bowed her head, thinking of the work ahead of her while he was gone. "It won't be long until they really do appear," she said. And when they did, she would struggle to keep the resistance alive. For the moment the populace dreamed they could shake off the Dragon's yoke, but an invasion in force could dampen their enthusiasm very quickly. "Gods, I wish you weren't leaving."
"Nor I," Alemar muttered. He raised his right hand and stretched his fingers. The hand was still not as tan as the left, but its color had deepened in the week since Toren had arrived. He glanced down at the beach.
"What do you think of him?" he asked, indicating Toren.
"Sometimes he speaks of his abilities as if they were facts. Other times he doubts himself. Let's hope you reach Dragonsdeep on one of his good days."
"The rythni like him."
She tapped him meaningfully on the top of his head. "You're wasting energy. It's not as if we have a choice about who to send."
Alemar sighed. "I wish I had Treynaf's globe here now. Toren could probably use it, you know, if he's that closely matched with the Dragonslayer."
"The globe works when it wants to. Ask what will happen on this quest and it will show you your great-grandson climbing a tree."
"At least that would be something," he said. "I would know that either I will survive, or my unborn child will, and that my descendant will live where there are trees."
A cold gust curled up off the ocean. Alemar took her hand and led her away from the bluff, into the edge of the great forest. "If I don't come back, try to get Wynneth and my son out of Cilendrodel," he said pensively. "Send them to Lord Dran in Aleoth."
"You'll come back," she said firmly. They both knew she had no reason to sound so confident.
They embraced, arms wrapped tight, chins draped over each other's shoulders. He shook in her grip. Their mindlink opened, but all Elenya received was a gush of fear, no words.
She held him until the salt of his tears dried on her collar. Finally she drifted out of his grip. She readjusted her tunic. A sore, bruised spot ached inside her chest, just behind the heart.
"I'll let you deal with the final preparations," he said. "I'll be with Wynneth tonight."
XXX
PRE-DAWN. Alemar, Toren, Geim, and the rest of the raiding party shuffled through a dense bank of fog to a tiny private dock. Their transport, a small fishing vessel, did not loom out of the mist until they were almost beside it. The craft's owner, his beard prematurely grey at the edges from years of exposure to the weather, waited at the tiller while his two grown sons readied the oars. The tide beckoned them to be outward bound.
Tregay, Match, Ebben, and Geim boarded. Alemar and Toren paused on the creaking planks. Elenya, Wynneth, and Deena stood solemnly at the juncture of dock and shore, wan figures in the lantern glow. All others had given their farewells the night before.
Toren kissed Deena. She smiled, tears welling. "Your totem is not yet passed," she said, barely managing not to choke. "Don't you dare die yet."
"I don't plan to," Toren said, and parted with a lingering brush of fingers on fingers. He stepped awkwardly into the boat and sat down on a pile of netting.