Xavier kissed her on the forehead. “Good thing I stole you away before you lost your marbles then.” He made a wild, exaggerated face and she laughed again.
“It’s good they will be born there,” she said as he rubbed her stomach. “You were right. Our children are of two worlds and we should not shy away from that.” She made a face. “Mother must be ecstatic.”
“Eneas and I will be with you the whole time,” Xavier promised. “I’ll take any barbs she throws at you.”
Alethea pretended to swoon. “My hero,” she said. Xavier caught her and dipped her back, and she shrieked with delight.
“Oh, my feet,” she said. She looked down and sighed. “Someday I’ll be able to see them again.”
“I’ll have Swansea heat some water,” Xavier said. “A good soak is just what they need.”
“Mmm, yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “That sounds perfect.” She gazed up at him. “I love you, you know.”
Xavier’s smile was brighter than the sun. “I love you too.”
The scene dissolved and the marble room returned, and Agnes had the impulse to reach out as if she could somehow grasp the memory in her hand and keep it with her. Her face was wet, and when she looked at her brother, she saw tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Bring her back,” Xavier said as the whole room seemed to come to life.
“What just happened?” Matthias said, dazed, running a hand over his face and then down his arms. Agnes knew he had not seen Xavier’s memory—only she and Leo had that power with Sera’s magic inside them. But everyone had felt the strange breeze and the unpleasant sensation of being held in place, unable to even lift a finger. Ambrosine sucked in a huge breath, her whole body trembling.
“Bring her back,” Xavier cried, scrambling to his feet. Leo was up in an instant and moving to protect Sera.
Sera, however, did not seem afraid. “I see you, Xavier McLellan,” she said. “And I pity you. Matthias is right. She has been here all along. You do not need Braxos to see her. She lives in Leo and in Agnes. And she lives inside you.”
“Please,” Xavier said, breathing heavily, still refusing to look at his son. “I can’t . . . bring her back!”
“No,” Sera said simply.
Suddenly, from outside, there came the long blast of a horn. Then another.
“The Renalt,” Hektor gasped.
Ambrosine was on her feet in an instant. “Get the Misarros,” she snapped at Hektor. “Ready the ships.” She turned to Sera. “Once I have dealt with this queen,” she said, hunger in her eyes, “you and I are going to have a chat.”
She strode out of the room, Hektor at her heels. “Lock them back up,” she said on her way out, waving in the direction of Xavier and Kiernan.
Agnes found her voice at last. “Father,” she cried, and finally he looked at her. He seemed empty, lifeless. Agnes didn’t know what to say. That she forgave him? She didn’t. That she understood him now? She didn’t think that was true either.
“We could have been a family,” she said. “A real family. You could have told us about her. You didn’t need to be so angry, so cruel.”
Xavier’s face clouded over. “You do not know what it is like to lose what I lost,” he said.
“But I do,” Matthias said, stepping forward. “And if you cannot see that you must change your ways, Xavier . . .” He gestured to Leo and Agnes. “You will lose what little you have left of her.”
Then the Misarros were pulling them from the room, and the last Agnes saw of her father was a look of shame and grief etched across his face.
“We’ve got to leave,” Matthias said. “Now.”
They ran through the halls and out into the forested area toward the dock, but when they got there, they saw the clipper was being guarded by five Misarros.
“What do we do?” Agnes asked.
“I’ll distract them,” Bellamy said. Agnes hadn’t even noticed she had come with them. Her thoughts were all tangled up in that memory.
Bellamy touched Sera lightly on the arm. “Good luck,” she said. Then she ran out into the open. “The Renalt has come!” she cried. “Quickly, your mistress needs you!”
The Misarros jumped to attention, following Bellamy as she led them in the opposite direction and out of sight. Their group hurried to board the clipper, Eneas emerging from below.
“Can you sail this alone?” Leo asked Matthias.
“Not alone,” Vada said.
“I can sail,” Sera reminded him.
“Eneas can too,” Matthias said. “Quick, there’s no time to waste.”
“Has the Renalt truly come?” Eneas asked as Vada and Sera scrambled up the masts to release the sails.
“She has,” Matthias said. “And we’d best be getting out of here while my mother is distracted.”
Agnes leaned over the rail and called out, “Errol!”
The mertag’s head popped up as if he’d been waiting. His lights flashed anxious indigo and umber.
“It’s time, Errol,” she said. “Braxos. It’s time to go to Braxos.”
Errol snapped his teeth at her and a gust of wind caught the sails, pulling the ship out into the water and away from Culinnon. Agnes had one last fleeting thought of her father and her grandmother and everything she was leaving behind.
Then she turned around and set her sights on the horizon, on Braxos and all that waited there.
31
Sera
ONCE CULINNON WAS SAFELY OFF IN THE DISTANCE, SERA climbed down from the mast.
Errol was swimming alongside the clipper, his lights flashing excitedly when he saw her.
“Braxos, Sera Lighthaven! Off to Braxos at last,” he crowed.
Sera’s stomach flip-flopped. She was eager to reach the tether and return home, and yet she would miss her friends on this planet. She wished she could help the Arboreals and the mertags too, free them from Culinnon and Ambrosine Byrne. And she wanted to help heal the wounds between Leo and Agnes and their father. What she had seen inside Xavier’s memory only inspired pity—the sort of man he used to be, the sort of man he could be again.
Leo came up beside her, snaking one arm around her waist.
“Ready to go home?” he asked, and though his voice was steady, she felt his hand quiver.
She nuzzled into his shoulder. “We haven’t reached the island yet,” she reminded him. “It will not feel real until I see the tether with my own eyes.”
Matthias walked up to them. “What happened back there?” he asked. Sera explained about the memory sharing, no longer afraid to declare her magic to humans. Matthias’s pale eyes grew wide as she spoke. When she finished, he said, “It is a good thing we left when we did. My mother would never have let you go.”
“How long until we reach Braxos?” Eneas asked, coming up to them, Agnes and Vada trailing behind.
Sera shrugged. “Errol does not understand distance like we do.” She peered into the water again and gasped. “Leo, look!”
The waters around the ship were dotted with mertags. Errol was not their only escort, it seemed. Errol saw her and popped up out of the water again.