Obsidian and Stars (Ivory and Bone #2)(19)

We wait, listening to the sound of gravel crunching beneath his boots, until it fades when he reaches the sand. He addresses the crowd again. Words like Bosha and future and alliance rise and break apart on the wind.

“Should we go look for Lees together?” Kol asks. “She is surely with Roon—”

I am ready to say I’ll look alone. That Kol needs to go back, to return to his mother’s side. I look out at the ridge where I’d seen Kol and his brothers walking this morning—the ridge where they were digging a grave.

But I don’t see a bare ridge of rock and ice. Someone is there. Two figures, each burdened by a large pack, carrying a kayak between them. “What? They can’t. . . .”

Kol turns and looks in the direction of my gaze. Any hope I have that it is just a trick of the light abandons me when Kol speaks his brother’s name under his breath. “Roon.” Thoughts shift behind his eyes as he runs through the same possibilities I do, reaching the same conclusions.

“They must’ve stolen down to the water the long way . . . pulled a boat from the bay out of everyone’s sight. . . .”

“And looped back around to the ridge. No one will see them put the boat in the water. . . .”

Even as I speak, the two figures drop down on the far side of the ridge, the boat no longer visible. Just their heads and shoulders stand out like silhouettes against the bright surface of the sea beyond them.

Voices grow in volume. People are on their feet on the beach. The meeting is coming to an end. Soon everyone will be preparing for the burial.

“Come with me,” I say, grabbing Kol’s hand. “We need to stop them.”

And then we are running, heading for the spot where Lees and Roon just set a boat into the sea.





EIGHT


By the time we reach the far side of the ridge, they’ve loaded the boat and pushed it out from shore. Roon stands in the surf, holding the kayak steady while my sister ties herself into the front seat.

If I’d hoped I was wrong about what they were doing, it can’t be denied once Roon sees us coming. He yells to Lees to hurry as he pushes the double kayak out into deeper water. Waves crash, swallowing his voice. Lees is still tying the sash at her waist when he hops onto the deck and slides his feet into the rear seat.

“Roon, stop!” Kol’s voice bursts from his throat as he hobbles up behind me. But Roon turns away from his brother, moving faster.

“You can’t make us stay,” he calls.

But Kol can. He has already clambered down the face of the ridge to the water’s edge and is splashing into the sea. And though Kol is clearly limping on his left leg, he hardly slows. The pain in his knee must be terrible, but the threat of his brother getting away is even worse.

“Stop now!” he yells. One final warning.

Then he is there, right beside Roon, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him from the boat. Kol’s knee buckles, but he rights himself before he falls. Roon pushes hard against Kol, but it’s futile. Despite his injury, despite his pain, Kol is determined to stop his brother. I watch as Roon slides from the kayak and tumbles headfirst into the sea.

The boat rocks hard. Lees shrieks. Sun glints off the paddle in her hand, its wood bleached white from wear.

Roon rights himself, whipping his wet hair from his face, spraying Kol with icy water. For a moment, as he stands facing his brother in the shallows, his fists balled, I wonder if he will try to strike him. If he’s thinking of it, Kol doesn’t wait for him to act. He grabs the kayak and walks away, pulling it to the base of the ridge, my sister still sitting in the front seat.

Scrambling down the rock face, I reach the spot where the boat bobs in the waves. Lees defiantly remains in the seat—still tied in—with no apparent plan to move. Roon, drenched through and shivering, stands in the water at her side. He glares at Kol as my sister glares at me—as if they hate us.

“You fools,” are the first words I say.

“Save yourself the trouble,” Lees says. “We don’t want your counsel. We won’t stay. You cannot force us—”

“It isn’t just me you’re defying—”

“I don’t care about Chev—”

“Do you care about the Divine? Check the position of the sun. It’s almost time for Arem’s funeral. The Manu will pass along this ridge in just a little while, carrying their High Elder to his grave.”

I notice Roon flinch, just a small buckle of the knees. Maybe it’s a reaction to what I said. Maybe it’s the icy water dripping from his hair, running down his neck and under the collar of his parka.

“How do you think the Divine would respond if Roon did not attend his father’s burial?” I continue. “How do you think she would reward such disrespect? Do you think she would bless the Manu—or the Olen either—if you two ran away at the time Roon should be the most faithful to his family and clan?”

Lees stares right through me, her eyes filling with rage, until the rage melts into tears. The back of a damp hand—bright red with cold—sweeps across her face, and sobs roll out of her. “I won’t stay. Let the Divine destroy me. I won’t stay to marry Morsk.”

Roon, still standing in ankle-deep surf, slides an arm around her shoulders and pulls her against him, and she drops her head to his chest. Her words are muffled by his parka as she chokes and coughs, “I won’t stay. I won’t stay.”