Tamlyn Read Online Free

made when the water spout tore you out of the boat. He used his magic to change its direction — it was a test. I went after you into the wind.’
    â€˜You saved my life.’
    â€˜Yes, and that is what Coyle scorned. If I had let you die, I could have kept the dinghy from capsizing, boarded the ship and fought him for the possession of Lucien. To save your life instead showed a weakness in my will to take the prize. That was the weakness he spoke of, Silvermay.’
    â€˜He is wrong,’ I said, ‘as wrong as it’s possible to be. When you plucked me out of the wind, you showed the strength to defeat your Wyrdborn blood. There was love in what you did, Tamlyn. I am more grateful forthat than for my own life. It was a human choice you made, not a heartless one.’
    We both fell silent. I had spoken a word that we had been dancing around for some time. Love. Neither of us knew what to make of it.
    Thankfully, another idea distracted me. ‘Can you send a bird to follow the ship? That way we’ll know where he’s taken Lucien.’
    I had seen Tamlyn speak with birds before and use them as messengers — another example of Wyrdborn magic.
    â€˜Look above you,’ he said. ‘What birds do you see?’
    The storm had only recently passed and few birds were in the sky. It was a moment or two before I could point out a tiny shape some way off.
    â€˜A gull,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Quarrelsome creatures and too scatterbrained to obey the strongest magic. Hawks are better suited, but they stay over land, and I don’t have the magic to change that even if there were a dozen of them here for me to command. I’m sorry, Silvermay, once the ship is out of sight, only the gods and Coyle himself will know where it goes.’
    The ship was even further away now. In a matter of minutes it would dip from view altogether. My mind filled with a terrible scene: my arms, outstretched, offering Lucien into the hands of a fiend. The imageconjured even worse memories: of a cave in Nan Tocha, inside it a cavern carved out of the rock and decorated with the most bloodcurdling mosaics. Among them was a picture of a baby being passed into the hands of another, who then used the boy to bring unspeakable misery to the entire kingdom. Now I knew they were my hands. I had betrayed Lucien. I had betrayed the people of Athlane. It didn’t matter that I had been deceived, that I hadn’t known I was giving Lucien to the last man on earth who should have him.
    â€˜What have I done?’ I wailed in despair.
    â€˜The mosaics are not Lucien’s destiny, Silvermay. You’ve said it yourself, many times: they are not the unchangeable future. We make the future, you and me more than anyone. We gave our word to Nerigold.’
    Mention of Lucien’s mother roused me, but only enough to shoot back at him, ‘What use is our pledge now? Lucien’s gone — I handed him over, just as the mosaics showed.’
    â€˜And we will get him back. We made that pledge together and that is its strength. It’s what binds you and me; it’s why I couldn’t let you be hauled away by the wind. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to keep my word.’
    He couldn’t know how quickly those words chased away my despair.
    â€˜And without you, I doubt I’d want to,’ I said, giving way to tears.
    Tamlyn had been getting ready to take the oars, but instead he climbed forward to sit beside me on the bow seat. I fell against him and he folded me in his arms, lending me the warmth of his body and the strength of his will.
    The rain still fell, washing salty water from my hair onto my face and into the corners of my mouth. At least it hid my tears. From the sanctuary of Tamlyn’s embrace, I looked out to sea once more, not in some childish hope that the ship would have turned around, but to remind myself that I would follow, somehow, even though I didn’t