Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2)(28)

They passed the wide stone pillars that anchored the bridge to the cliffside and stepped across the landing. The span swayed as they took their first steps, but Xiala had seen it withstand gale winds and did not doubt that it was sturdy. By the time they reached Sun Rock, a fog had bloomed around them, casting an eerie haze over the mesa. A few Tovans trudged along the only path open, heads down and about their business. And scattered along the path, half a dozen guards.

“Members of the Sky Made Shield.” Uncle Kuy kept his voice low. “Those there in green are Winged Serpent, not so bad. But watch for them in gold without the horns. That’s Golden Eagle. Natural enemies of Carrion Crow. They’ll trouble you if they know who you are.”

“Why are they here at all?”

“Keep out the curious, mostly. And people looking for souvenirs.”

“What kind of souvenirs?”

Uncle Kuy shrugged. “Weapons, knives, body parts. Whatever can be sold.”

She rubbed her thumb against her missing pinkie joint.

The back of her neck prickled as she felt eyes on her. She dared a glance to see who was staring and met the eyes of a Golden Eagle Shield. She turned away and looped her arm through Uncle Kuy’s.

“Quickly,” she urged.

Another few minutes, and they were across Sun Rock and on the bridge to Kun. She glanced back. The guard who had noted her was lost to the fog. Shaken, she kept going.

The fog dissipated as they reached land. The road before them went on a way before forking east farther into Kun or west to Odo. Kun was different from Titidi. The district of Winged Serpent was terraced hills and low-slung houses painted green and blue. She glimpsed the rounded roof of a brightly colored Great House up a winding switchback. Its whitewashed walls were decorated with serpents with feathered manes. In another life, she would have been intrigued, happy to spend a lazy day exploring this place. But now, not only did such an idyll seem out of reach, but the only person she wanted to go wandering with was Serapio. How had he become so much a part of her so quickly? She wasn’t sure how to explain it or what she was supposed to do with such unruly emotions. She wasn’t even sure she approved. But there it was, and it was useless to deny what she felt.

They had shared something special in their days together. Not the sex, although she yearned for his touch, the taste of his mouth on hers. Even now, she flushed as she remembered how he sucked the honey from her fingers. But it was more than the desire he roused in her. It was the way he cared for her, asked no more from her than she wanted to give, and never judged her. And he had never feared her for her difference, for her magic, when there were times when she even feared herself.

He had simply been her friend and, for one night, her lover. His presence had felt like the home she never had, the acceptance she craved so desperately, the forgiveness she feared she could never earn. She wanted that feeling back; she wanted him.

I’ll take him away from here, she thought to herself. Now that he has fulfilled his obligations to his crow god, he is free. He can leave this cold place and run away with me. We can find a ship somewhere and sail to the far edges of the Crescent Sea. Find an island of our own, raid merchant ships like proper pirates, live a life unbound from this world and its expectations.

She wouldn’t let herself think of the impracticality of it. How childish the fantasy, how impossible. How, despite their deep connection, there was so much she did not know about him, or he about her. Instead, she stubbornly clung to her dream like the last hope for land in the throes of a shipkiller and prayed that, against all odds, they would reach the nonexistent shore together.

But as she and Uncle Kuy crossed the border into Odo, her hopes sank like an anchor, dashed before the waves even closed above her head.

“Well, fuck me,” she remarked quietly.

The district of Odo was shades of shadow, black and gray volcanic rock with red-painted doors like blood-filled gashes in the stone. Charred wood beams made lintels and fences. Even the roads were marked with gray rock. And everywhere, on banners and painted on walls, the crowsign. She didn’t let it show, but her heart felt like it was cracking.

“What’s that?” Uncle Kuy asked.

“Nothing.”

She had hoped to take Serapio from here, but now that she had seen Odo, she could not imagine a place where he belonged more. Would she really take him away from this? If she asked, would he even come?

She was of the sea, born and bred. Could she ever live in a place like this cold and forbidding city? Would Serapio even want her to stay?

Doubt thickened heavy and cold in her gut, but she braced herself.

“Only one way to find out.”



* * *



As they approached what looked to be a hastily erected gate just across a small bridge that marked the border between Kun and Odo, a guard raised a hand to stop them. She was dressed in black, clearly Carrion Crow, and held a wicked-looking mallet lined with bits of obsidian over her shoulder. She took in their blue cloaks with suspicious eyes, and her mouth drew down in a frown.

“Ho, Water Strider,” she said, stopping them. “What is your business here?”

“Not Water Strider,” Uncle Kuy said. “Carrion Crow.” He unfastened his cloak to pull his shirt aside and expose his chest. Xiala caught a glimpse of haahan. The carving looked new, still irritated on his skin. It was the familiar crowsign, the wings and skull that marked his door and all the doors and walls around them.