Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff Page 0,141

I was. Dweymeri are a big people. Our forefathers born of giants, they say. But I was only a halfblood. Barely a handful. Took after my father, I suppose. The midwife joked I was so small my mother didn’t feel me on my way into the world.”

Tric shook his head. Smile dying on his lips.

“You know what the suffi said when she held me up?”

Mia shook her head. Mute and aching.

“She said tu rai ish’ha chē.”

Mia put the first letters of the sentence together. Found his name. But …

“I don’t speak Dweymeri,” she murmured.

Tric looked at Mia. Rage and pain in his eyes.

“Drown him and be done.” His voice dropped to a trembling whisper. “They were her first words. That’s what she fucking named me. Drown him and be done.”

Mia closed her eyes. “O, Tric…”

“The suffi handed me back to my mother and told her to give me to the waves. Said the Lady of Oceans would accept me, because my people never would.” A bitter laugh. “My people.”

He sat down on the plinth at the Mother’s feet, staring into the dark.

Mia sat beside him, staring only at him.

“Your mother told the priestess to go to the abyss, I take it?”

“She did.” Tric smiled. “She was fierce, my mother. My grandfather agreed she should drown me, so she took me far from Farrow. Far from him. She gave up her birthright for me. Gave up everything. She died of bloodpox when I was ten. But on her deathbed, she gave me this.” He held up the three silver drakes ever circling his finger. “And she told me a way to prove myself as worthy as she knew me to be.”

Tric leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

“Dweymeri warriors undergo a ritual when they come of age. At the end of it, our faces are tattooed so all who meet us know we’re Proven. For warriors of the Threedrake clan, the trial was the harshest. Brave the deepwater, and slay one of the great seadrakes. Storm, saber, or white.

“From the time my mother told me of it, I dreamed it. We lived east of Farrow. A port called Solace. After she died, an old seadog taught me boatmaking. Sailwork. Harpoons. I cut down the ironwood trees for my skiff myself. Took me a year to make her. And when I was fourteen, I turned my back on Solace and set out for the deep.

“See, stormdrakes are big, but stupid. Sabers are smarter, but smaller, too. But the whitedrake … he’s the king of the deep. Big and cruel and clever. So I headed north to the coldwater, where the seals were pupping. All I wanted was to sail into Farrow with the carcass of an eighteen-footer. Stand before my grandfather and hear him say he was wrong about me. I prayed to the Lady of Oceans that she’d bring me a beast worthy of a man. And she answered.”

Tric breathed through gritted teeth, eyes alight.

“Mother of Night, he was fucking huge, Mia. You should’ve seen him. When he hit my line, he almost ripped the skiff in half. But my hook bit deep, and my boat held true. He tried to ram me more than once, but after he tasted my harpoons, he learned not to stray too close. The waves smashed down on us and I didn’t eat or sleep. Just fought. Five full turns, toe to toe, hands bleeding. Imagining my grandfather’s face as I dragged this monster into Farrow Bay.

“He got tired. Couldn’t stay down, swimming slower and slower. And so I rowed up beside him and picked up my best and sharpest. The harpoon I’d saved for last.”

Tric looked at Mia through the curtain of his saltlocks.

“You ever looked into a drake’s eye?”

The girl shook her head. She didn’t dare speak. Didn’t want to break this deathly hush. As Tric spoke again, even the Mother’s statue seemed to be listening.

“Black eyes, they’ve got. Corpse eyes. You look into that black and all you can see is yourself. And I saw him. Me. That terrified little bastard with his matchstick spear and his father’s eyes. And I put that harpoon right through him. Right into that little boy’s heart. Killed him dead and the beast besides. And I thought myself a man.

“I sailed into Farrow Bay with his head lashed to the gunwale. His teeth were big as my fist. Must’ve been a hundred people gathered around me as I ripped them from his gums. Strung them around my