Page 127 of City of Snakes
It only seemed right to return to Luz. I could continue my training with Cassidee, and my advisors were more than capable Source-wielders.
Darvanda and I could see a healer each month until the prophecy was fulfilled. It was my plan—my terms. It removed my heart from the matter.
A marriage of convenience didn’t require cohabitation, and I knew that if I stayed, I’d only desire more from Krait than he would ever be willing to give me.
Happy for a day of distraction, I let El pull me through the crowds. The vendors were setting up for the night festival—what I’d been told was the biggest celebration of the season.
“I need to go back to my people,” I reasoned. No one else knew yet, not even Krait, and something made me hesitate against writing Asterie.
The tonics were barely keeping my pain at bay, and with no certain path forward, it was hard to stay in the moment. If we had until the next black moon, then it was a few years before Caym was at his strongest…We had time.But would my body allow me to carry on at this pace?
We moved through the street parallel to the main canal. The thoughts of the people around me swirled in a frenzy of happy sensations and a few surprised exclamations. One such thought I picked up repeatedly.
“Renai.”It was always followed by a gasp. Some kissed their fingers and extended them to me, a gesture that I returned.
“What does‘renai’ mean?” I whispered to El.
“It’s Brennac. It means ‘lovely,’ or when used as a proper title, ‘Queen,’” Elsedora explained before getting distracted by some shiny baubles and jewelry in a charmed floating tent. “How much for these?”
My heart tugged. These people accepted me as their Queen and soon I’d leave them.
The street grew darkened by the overcast of clouds. Colorful banners flailed in the wind, backdropped by the mixed tilework of a row of arched buildings. Balconies draped with both the Luz and Sahlmsaran flags lined the canal. Awe and hope flooded me.
Leaving this realm would be bittersweet.
“Are you about to cry, Sybilla?” Elsedora asked as she put on a pair of gold dangling earrings.
“What?” I wiped at the corner of my eye. “No, don’t be silly. It’s the dust.”
“Riiight.” She exaggerated the vowel in her breezy way.
It had grown dusty since the winds had begun to kick up this morning, bringing dark clouds in their wake.
“Oh itsmellslike rain,” El said with glee. The vendors’ tents flapped around, and thorn-like bushels of vegetation tumbled down the roads.
Elsedora carried on to the next booth, where beaded clutches too vibrant for my taste were piled atop a wood table. She tried one that suited her.
A small group of children formed a circle around a spigot of water on the street’s corner. Their attention was held on a boy wearing tattered linens. A clay bowl lay in front of him to collect coins. He faced the others, away from me, but looked familiar. I stalled while El continued through the market.
The boy reached into the pail below the spigot and took a handful of water. He lifted the water toward a young girl who giggled as the liquid suspended and moved in a circular motion just above his hands. He spun a finger, and the water began to ebb and flow, settling into the shape of a single butterfly that flapped toward the young girl. Her eyes went wide with disbelief—mine matched.
A Water-wielder right here in the Sahlms. This could solve Krait’s drought problems.
While none of the texts of Henosis acknowledged the Sources as entities, some of the texts that Krait had since read to me claimed that Origin Aquas had been the first to lose his mortal form. Water-wielders had been rare for centuries, and it was thought none had survived the Great Wars.
I made my way through the crowds, catching attention as I bumped into leisurely shoppers. When I’d nearly reached the boy, the other children looked up, and one gasped, “Renai!”
The Water-wielding boy turned to me with a panic-stricken expression.
Hurley.
It was the young groom who had sold out my location to those men from Sahlmkar. The butterfly fell with a splatter. Hurley took off running down the street.
“Not this time, you little shit,” I muttered, sprinting after him.
“Sybilla, wait!” I heard Elsedora call from behind me as I turned down an alley to follow Hurley. He’d slammed into the chest of a man there and ended up flat on his back.
“Watch it, kid!” the man growled, kicking at Hurley as the boy scrambled to his feet and continued to outrun me. My ankles ached, every step feeling like a sharp jab.
