Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,137

here with me,” said Zahra. “Lie down, if you wish.”

“Ysabet gave me a draught to settle me until I find my sea legs,” said Navi wearily. “I’d never heard of sea legs before. The term evokes amusing imagery. I’m not sure what I would have. Flippers, perhaps, or fins like a sea maiden.” She wrinkled her nose. “Hopefully not tentacles.”

Zahra gave a half-hearted laugh, then fell silent once more. So many dark feelings brewed around her that even Navi, inexperienced as she was when it came to deciphering the feelings of angels, could feel the force of them.

She glanced at the wraith, hesitated, then reached out, palm to the sky. “May I, Zahra?”

A pause, and then Zahra said thickly, “Please.”

Navi moved her fingers through the air where Zahra’s echo drifted. Into her tired mind, she placed the image of what she knew Zahra to look like, as Eliana had described from her visions. She imagined a tall angel with rich brown skin and flowing white hair, brilliant flaring wings, and then imagined drawing that angel into a warm embrace. She would kiss Zahra’s cheek, if she could. She would stroke her arms until she slept.

Navi shivered, her skin prickling from Zahra’s chill. Touching her felt like drawing her fingers through icy water, velvety and supple.

Zahra’s voice rasped with emotion. “Thank you, Navi. That was a dear kindness. And I saw it vividly. You may not be accustomed to speaking to me in that way, but your mind is sharp and clear. With practice, you would excel, I think.”

“You have my permission to speak to my mind directly, Zahra,” Navi offered. “It must be more tiring for you to speak like this.”

“Tiring, yes, but I enjoy being able to project at least some of myself back into the physical world. Besides that, it is more respectful, I think, to preserve that distance. Especially since so many of my kind do not.”

“Very well.” Navi watched the water, carefully choosing her words. “You can leave, if you want. You can travel faster than we can. You ache to see her, I know.”

Zahra’s laugh was bitter. “Ache? A small word for what I feel. A girl I love as I would my own daughter was wrenched away from me before my very eyes. I watched them take her on that beach in Festival. I watched the admiral’s ship sail away from me and could do nothing. The Emperor kept me from her. I railed against him. I howled for her. It did nothing. I have failed her.”

“Oh, Zahra, you haven’t—”

“No. Do not comfort me in this.”

Navi waited a moment. “I mean what I say. Go to her, if it will help you.”

“I cannot. The Prophet forbids it.”

This surprised Navi. She frowned up at the place where she imagined Zahra’s face would be. “Why?”

“I am to stay with you,” Zahra said flatly, “and keep your ship hidden, then help you navigate the Sea of Silarra, which will be choked with imperial ships. It will take great effort to achieve this, but I must do it nevertheless. Eliana does not have friends in Elysium. There is no Red Crown, no one who loves her. She cannot do what must be done alone. You and Ysabet, your crew, your army of strays, Patrik and Hob… She will need all of you, when the time comes. We cannot give her the army she deserves, but we can give her ourselves. And so I will remain here and hide you from searching black eyes.”

A moment passed as Navi digested this. “Can you do that? Hide an entire ship?”

“It is what I was born to do. Not to take vengeance upon humans or serve a mad emperor. I was born to serve her, to love her. This is what I believe. I will bear you to the Sun Queen so you may fight alongside her and help her win this war at last. That is the great culmination of all my long years, the reward for that endless age in the Deep. To serve the world’s great hope and guard her friends with all the strength granted by what power I have left.”

Navi looked at her hands through a sheen of tears. Humbled, she found her voice slowly. “You are very brave, Zahra. And if you argue with me, I’ll get angry.”

Zahra laughed. A tender coolness brushed Navi’s arm.

In silence, they watched the waves darken as behind them the sun joined the horizon. While the light dimmed, Navi fixed an