My Vali.

I glance down at my wife. Her eyes are open and full of worry. I know my wife’s penchant to lie to protect herself, but for some reason I’m not annoyed that she might have been pretending to be asleep through my conversation with my mother. “Have you been awake long?”

“I heard everything,” she whispers. “Should we not marry? Is it wrong?”

I shake my head. “No, we will marry. I said we would.”

She hesitates, her fingers moving along the spiny fin on one of my arms. “I just…they don’t seem happy you brought me. I want your family to be pleased with me as your bride. I want you to be pleased with your bride.”

Her words irk me. After all we’ve been through, she is yet uncertain? “You don’t please me.”

She flinches, gasping. Her eyes immediately fill with tears and she sits up. “Oh.”

By Vor, will my mouth ever stop getting me into trouble? I must learn to think before I reply. “No—wait. I misspoke, Vali.”

“It’s fine,” she says, but I can hear the tears in her voice. She stands and won’t look at me, her arms hugging her chest, a length of fish-hide tied at her waist to clothe her nudity that she hates so much. “I should have known⁠—”

“You should please yourself, not others. That is what I meant.”

“And not you.” There’s a wealth of hurt in her words.

“Just yourself,” I repeat again. “No one else matters.”

“Maybe not in your world,” she says, voice small. “But my survival has been about pleasing others.”

She’s right, and the more I talk, the more of a mess I make of this. “You have to understand, Vali. No one will be pleased you’re here. Not because you are human, or because you are you. They simply do not understand. Among my people, the young marry to bring new blood into the flotilla. They expected me to take a bride from a neighboring chieftain’s tribe, and not for a while yet.”

Vali turns and shoots me a frustrated look. “Then why demand a bride from the slave boats? I thought you were lonely!”

My tongue feels like a stone in my mouth. “Bribe. I meant to say bribe. I misspoke then, as I did now.”

Her face crumples. “Ah. I’m a fool.”

“It’s fine, Vali⁠—”

“No, it isn’t. I’m not wanted anywhere. And this—” She gestures at my leg. “A sea dragon? When were you going to tell me, Ranan? Or is a human you didn’t want not important enough to tell these things?”

I clench my jaw. I should have told her, but I never found the right time. “I didn’t want you to worry.”

“So I get to save you and feed you and bathe you, but I’m not good enough to talk to about the important stuff? Got it. Guess I should have stopped thinking of myself as your wife. At least as a slave, I knew my place.” She tosses her hair, magnificent in her outrage, and storms out of the tent.

Vali storms back in a moment later, her hands balled into fists at her side. “I don’t know where to go.”

“Find my uncle’s husband—the human. His name is Balo and he has a thick beard. He’ll help you find a tent.” I want to do this for her, but I’m stuck here in my sickbed, and I hate it. I try to get up anyhow, because Vali shouldn’t have to face the curious, unwelcoming eyes of my people alone.

She puts a hand up. “Stay down. I don’t want to talk to you right now, and I sure don’t want to help you if you fall.”

And she storms back out again, all righteous fury.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

VALI

I’m such an idiot.

Bribe.

Not bride.

Ranan is always tongue-tied when he feels too much too fast, and of course a dangerous situation like the robbing of ships would mean he’d lose control of his mouth. I know he misspeaks and it shouldn’t hurt as much as it does.

But oh, gods, does it hurt. He’s never wanted me. I gathered that from the very beginning, but then he’d protest and make me feel special, and I’d forget what my instincts were telling me. I feel shattered and numb inside.

I don’t even have anywhere to retreat to, because I’m surrounded by strangers in the middle of the sea. Even if I jumped off the side of the nearest turtle, Lord Vor probably wouldn’t give me a swift death, because I still owe him a sacrifice.

It is a miserable spot to be in.

I straighten my shoulders and swallow my tears, ignoring the curious looks of the people around me. Seeing so many of the seakind together reminds me of just how different they are. Sometimes I forget that Ranan has four arms, or that he has spiny fins along the backs of his elbows and calves. I’ve grown used to the spiny sail atop his smooth head. That’s just how Ranan looks. But when I glance around me at the village, I feel even more alone. They stare at me, most with one set—or both—arms crossed.

I’m not welcome.

But I’ve survived situations like this before. I march to the nearest person and give them a polite smile. “I’m looking for the human man. Can you point me to him?”

They stare at me, and then someone points at a tent, nestled in among a few others. It looks nondescript and made of the same strange material as the wrap I’m wearing. There is a flap over the entrance. I approach it and hesitate outside, unsure how to knock and get someone’s attention. “Hello?”

The curtain draws back and a man steps out. He’s wearing nothing but a loincloth, and is unmistakably human. The first thing I notice about him is that he’s hairy. He’s got dark hair and deeply tanned skin, and the most hair on a chest I think I’ve ever seen on a man. A full beard frames his face, with a small gold ring pinching the thickest part of his beard into a tail. His eyes are bright blue and he beams at me with pure kindness. “You must be the human bride everyone’s talking about!”

“You must be the only other human here,” I joke, feeling a little less alone by the cheery expression on his face.

He laughs, the sound booming and deep. “That’s me! I’m Balo. It’s nice to meet you. My husband is off fishing, or I’d introduce you.” Balo beams at me as he walks forward. “Have you met everyone in the flotilla?”

Gods, that’s the last thing I want to do right now. “Not yet!”

There must be something on my face that clues him in to how I feel about that. He laughs, putting a friendly, hairy arm around my shoulders. “Oh, my friend. I know how unwelcoming they can be to outsiders. I promise you will survive this. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

“I’m not sure if there’s another way to take it.” I let him steer me out and away from the tent, walking together. Just his easy, cheerful mood calms me and makes me feel less despairing.

“My husband told me when I first arrived that seakind do not think the same as other people. Not quite. You are either flotilla, or you are other. Once you are in the flotilla, you are family. People would lay their lives down for you. Anything you need, the flotilla will provide. You will always have a place once you have been accepted. But until then, you are an outsider.” He chuckles, the sound raspy. “Wait until you see the flotilla gatherings. They make it sound like it’s cozy when they all get together, but the reality is that it’s more like peace talks among warring nations.”

That…fits. “So why do it, then? Why get together? Why not just float off and do your own thing?”

Balo keeps his arm on my shoulders as we walk, and I notice the others no longer stare at me with such suspicion. It’s like his approval is slowly greasing the wheels, which is silly. It should be Ranan at my side, making everyone feel good that I’m his wife, and it makes me ache that I’m here with a stranger instead.

“Flotillas meeting up is beneficial for all. People trade and learn crafts from one another. Marriages are made. Information is shared about fishing, or what the humans are up to, or what areas are no longer safe to raid.”