Page 84 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

“Drown?” I teased, the joke coming out far less lighthearted than I had hoped. “Or take on an angry lake spirit?”

“Yes,” Caspian responded vehemently. “Definitely to the drowning. Conditionally to the lake spirit, depending on your training.”

I laughed, but it hurt too much, and Caspian was looking at me like I had died in his arms.

I supposed I had.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “It was the only way.”

“I know,” he said, his thumb caressing my cheek. “The blasted horse told me that before he assured me that you could be revived. I will strangle him the next time I see him.”

“Ran?” I asked, only vaguely remembering that they had seemed able to communicate at the end. “You can hear him now.”

“I can,” Caspian replied, his tone clipped. “A lot has changed, Princess. It will take some time for me to tell you all of it.”

“It’s not a good sign when you call me ‘Princess,’” I sighed, still aiming for levity.

He lifted his head and I ran my fingers through the white-blonde strands of his hair, his amber eyes seeming to drink me in as he reassured himself that I was alive and relatively unscathed.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Caspian whispered, our eyes meeting and that band of something humming between us. I felt terror and relief and…and something I wasn’t quite ready to name. Why did I feel so much all of a sudden?

“I’m fine,” I assured him.

Caspian laughed, his eyes creasing with mirth and relief, and my heart skipped. “You’re always fine, aren’t you?” He leaned forward, his lips brushing mine with aching gentleness as if afraid he might stop me from breathing. He pulled away with a flash of regret I didn’t quite understand. “You need food. And something to drink. And medicine. And clothes,” he added apologetically.

I looked down, lifting the covers to find I was completely nude.

“Why—“

“You were hypothermic, and your clothes weren’t really salvageable,” Caspian explained, with a rueful smirk. “I’m working on getting you something else to wear.”

“Why do I always seem to lose my clothes around you?” I asked, mostly to myself as I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“A trait I could get used to,” Caspian quipped, leaning down to kiss my forehead before straightening. “I’ll be back shortly. Don’t move.”

“I’m not sure I could if I wanted to,” I complained, feeling both too comfortable and too sore to attempt it. Eventually, I’d need to use a bathing chamber, and my flush deepened at the knowledge that I would probably need Caspian’s help.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Caspian rumbled, his voice low and concerned. “It’s just me, Urchin.”

I frowned as he pushed past a curtain, wondering how he could read me so easily as I fell back on the pillows.

I took the opportunity alone to examine my yet again new surroundings. The room I was in was dark, without windows to tell the time of day. The curtain Caspian had passed through must hang over a door, and the walls were coarse, constructed of what looked like natural stone.

A cave, perhaps?

It seemed odd that winged people would want to stay anywhere without immediate access to the wind, but I suppose windows might be an easy target, and the sirens had remained hidden for centuries.

Caspian returned a few minutes later with a tray in his hands and a piece of cloth over his arm. There was a faint light beyond the curtain, but I couldn’t tell if it was daylight or some kind of artificial faelight like we had in the keep.

“What time is it?” I asked, trying to shift myself up the pillows to make drinking easier.

Caspian ran a hand over the cave wall, and a network of dim lights lit the room, a different color of stone glowing against the brown rock.

“Moonstone,” Caspian explained, catching my startled gaze with a grin. “These caves are laced with veins of it. It only requires a small amount of magic to stay lit for hours.”

“Oh,” I said, uncertain what else to say. “Caves?”

“In the cliffs,” Caspian explained, placing a tray on the bed, which I now realized took up most of the room. There was a small trunk against one wall, but I didn’t see any other furniture or a bathing chamber. “Clothes, medicine, breakfast, then explanations, Urchin. It’s just before dawn, to answer your original question.”