“The gods can wait a little longer. There’s an Anticipation going on right now anyhow. He might not be there to hear your prayers, and an Anticipation can last for years.”

She snorts at my response and gets to her feet, her large, dark-tipped breasts bouncing as she does. I forget everything as they sway hypnotically, but then Vali puts on a shift dress and my view is gone. She clutches the simple dress to her body, a panicked look on her face. “Gods, Ranan. This is my only dress! I don’t have anything to wear around your family!”

“You don’t need clothing. My people are comfortable with nudity.”

“I will fry like an egg in a skillet under the sun,” she tells me. “The clothing isn’t just for modesty.”

She’s right—I’ve seen how reddened her skin can get if she’s not protected. She’s still peeling from when she rescued me, though her color has changed from a sandy shade to a deeper bronze. I get an idea, though, and sit up in bed. “There are things you can wear.”

“Like what?” She tosses a length of cloth to me so I can towel off from our mating.

I glance around the grotto. Before she’d reorganized things, I recall a few impressive pieces that I’d stolen. One in particular was a series of golden necklaces that hung like a net from a thick, jeweled collar. It would look perfect on Vali. The idea thrills me so much that I try to get up from bed so I can find it and make certain she wears it.

Vali squawks like a seagull the moment I try to get up. “What are you doing?”

“The jewelry, where is it? There is a piece I want you to have.” I flop back down against the bed because pain lances up my leg. I’m pushing too hard too soon, but I hate being trapped in one place like this.

She moves to my side and pushes on my shoulders, making certain I remain where I am. “I put it all in the chest in the corner. Is it really important that you look at it right now?”

“Bring it here,” I say, imagining her pretty breasts framed by the golden strands. It’s the perfect thing for her to wear, and she’ll feel treasured then, won’t she? I’m excited to prove my fealty to her once again.

“Just wait there,” Vali grumbles, but she pulls the chest out from its spot against the wall. It’s a fairly large one, and she ends up leaning against it with her hip and shoving it forward in small increments.

Once it’s close enough that I can reach it, I drag it the rest of the way toward me. Vali has thoughtfully organized things by making fabric dividers so the necklaces don’t all tangle together like I had them. It’s easy to find the piece I’m looking for— it’s the most ostentatious one. I pull out the choker, the golden filaments cascading down from it like water. “This.”

“It’s beautiful,” she says automatically. “Thank you.”

Another lie. I drop my hands, studying her face. “You don’t like it?”

Vali flinches at being caught in her lie. She hesitates. “It’s very expensive looking.”

“It is, but I want you sparkling and radiant.” I push it towards her, proud that I have this piece to give her.

“It…” She hesitates, staring at it as if it is a sea snake. Then she looks up at me, her eyes wounded. “It looks like chains, Ranan. Chains and a slave collar.”

I stare down at the piece in my hands, at the thick choker and the net of golden strands. It didn’t occur to me that she wouldn’t like it, but I have never been a slave before. But when she rubs her neck as if she can feel the weight of the band there and hates it, I shake my head. “Then it won’t do.”

“I’m sorry,” she says quickly, the worried note in her voice. “Please don’t be upset⁠—”

“Vali, I’m not upset.” I set it back in the chest and think of what else she might like, what else I might have that would make her feel confident to walk amongst my family. My fingers brush over a new piece and I hold it out. “This, then.”

The anxious, pinched look immediately leaves her face and she giggles as she takes the new item from my grip. “A tiara?”

“Aye. It won’t bother your neck, and it sparkles. Do you like it?”

She giggles again, touching the large blue stones that have been expertly fitted into the metal. There are three of them, clustered together like turtle eggs on a thin golden band made to look like a braid. “I’m not royal.”

“No one will care.”

“It’s very ostentatious,” she says, but she keeps touching the stones.

“Aye, and it’ll look glorious in that thick hair of yours.”

Her eyes glow. She puts it on and perches it atop her head, the sides of the tiara disappearing into her messy, tangled hair. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“Not at all. I want you sparkling and lovely. I want my family to look at you and think I am lucky.”

“Do you feel lucky?” Her voice grows timid again.

I want to answer her, but I’m afraid of my tongue betraying me once more. I gaze into her lovely, worried eyes and then slowly reach out and caress her ear.

Vali smiles.

Chapter

Twenty-Two

VALI

Days Later

“What do you mean, ‘we have to swim the rest of the way’?” I’m trying not to panic, I really am. Surely he just misspoke, as Ranan is sometimes known to do when he’s stressed or flustered.

“Just that. We will have to swim. To there.” He points at the dark line on the horizon. “Akara can take us no closer.”

I open my mouth to protest, but nothing comes out. Instead, I get to my feet and climb out of the shade of the sun-awning anchored on her back and move closer to the edge of Akara’s massive shell. I put my hand to my brow and squint at the waters as if that will somehow help me see the distant smudge and have it magically turn into the flotilla village that I’ve been anticipating for the last several days of travel.

Nope. Still looks like a smudge to me.

I turn back to Ranan, my belly in knots. “I don’t understand. Why can’t we move closer?”

He tries to get to his feet, grimaces, and flops gracelessly back onto the blankets. Immediately, I rush to his side. Ranan is the worst at being ill. He pushes himself hard every day, and he’s not giving his leg a chance to heal up. Throughout our travel on Akara’s back, I’ve been doing everything that needs doing—making fresh water with the sand filtration system, drying seaweed, pulling up nets, making food, tending to Ranan, and adjusting our tent so the strong winds that come through don’t knock it down. It’d be fine if there were two people to do such things but with Ranan being injured, I’m the one handling all of it.

And I am exhausted. Truly and completely bone-deep exhausted. My initial nerves at going to the village of his people have gone away, and now I’m just ready for someone else to help with the chores. Ranan does what he can, but he’s still weak and gets fatigued easily. Most things also have to be completed on the edge of Akara’s back, and Ranan has to stay under the tent, so I just handle it all.

I thought as we traveled that perhaps I’d have time to practice swimming lessons, but there’s been no chance.

Ranan tries to push up from the bedding again and I make it to his side, putting my hands on his shoulders. “Stay down! How do you expect to heal?”

“I expect the healer to take care of that,” he tells me in a surly tone.

“Well, they’re not going to be pleased that you’ve pulled your stitches twice,” I snap at him, forgetting to be pleasant and ever so eager to please. The moment I realize I’ve lost my temper, I flinch.

But he only laughs, the sound as rusty as the smile that tugs at his lips. “No, they will not like it at all. I cannot sit here forever, though. We must get to the flotilla and Akara can go no closer.”

“Why not?” I try to keep the panic out of my voice. Surely there’s a logical explanation. “You said there would be no swimming, remember?”