The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,48
Agnes asked, realizing they hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to the crew of the Maiden’s Wail.
“She will know where I am once she hears a Byrne has been taken by the Triumvirate,” Vada said. “Besides, I do not think she was expecting me to be staying on the schooner much longer. A daughter must spread her wings at some point.”
“But aren’t you meant to inherit the ship?”
“Let’s hope my mother will not be dying quite so soon,” Vada said with a sardonic look. “It is time for me to set out on my own for a while. On the Maiden’s Wail, I am Vada the Captain’s Daughter. I wish to be only Vada. I am not entirely sure who I am without the shadow of my mother over me.”
“I’m not sure who I am anymore either,” Agnes said, resting her chin on her knees. “In Old Port I knew what was expected of me and I hated it. Perhaps it was easier that way. Now I’m in Pelago at last and I’ve managed to lose my brother and my best friend and anger two uncles I never knew I had without even trying.”
“You are not giving yourself enough credit,” Vada said. “You have pissed your father off as well.”
Agnes laughed, and Vada looked pleased. Then her face grew serious.
“I would not judge myself so harshly if I were you, Agnes. I have been making the trip between Pelago and Kaolin since I was a little girl, and I have known many Kaolin women, of all ages and classes. Never have I met one like you. I am remembering the first time I saw you.” She gazed up at the stars as if she could see the past in them. “You were looking at me as furtive as a mouse, in all your fancy things and that stupid little hat perched on your head.”
Agnes pressed her hand to her mouth to cover her grin. “I had been meeting with my fiancé that afternoon,” she confessed. “My maid thought the hat would make a good impression.”
“Fiancé?” Vada cocked her head. “A very lucky gentleman. Is his heart being broken now that you have fled to Pelago?”
“No,” Agnes said, flustered. “No, it wasn’t like . . . my father arranged it, as a punishment, I think. I never—Ebenezer was a very nice young man, but not for me.”
“And what sort of man is for you?”
Agnes’s heart lodged in her throat and pounded there furiously. She’d come so far—she had crossed an ocean and made it all the way to Pelago, the country of her dreams. It was time to truly be herself. It was time to say the secret she’d been forced to keep for so long out loud.
“None,” she said. “I don’t like men that way.”
Tears of relief mingled with pride stung her eyes and she blinked them back. Her shoulders felt suddenly weightless, her legs and arms puffs of air. The waves lapping against the hull were like the sound of Pelago cheering for her, welcoming her home. She saw a flash of white that was Vada’s smile, but then it was gone, and the girl said nothing. After a moment, though, she began to whistle, a sweet, solemn tune that Agnes didn’t know.
The wind started to pick up, and the sloop skimmed across the water. The night was growing darker, thick clouds eating up the stars and swallowing the moonlight. Errol’s scales shone brighter, so the boat was haloed in luminous emerald.
Agnes shivered and settled back against the hull of the boat, feeling another layer of the girl she’d been in Kaolin slip away and wondering where her brother and Sera were now.
It took them three days to reach Ithilia.
Agnes was anxious to be back on land. The tiny ship was a great help, to be sure, but it felt like a prison. The only upside was so much uninterrupted alone time with Vada. They spent their days on the lookout for any Triumvirate patrol ships and the nights talking about their families and their hopes and fears for the future. Agnes was shocked to discover that Vada often felt insecure around her mother’s crew, and the thirst to prove herself on her own terms with her own ship had been growing since before the two of them had met. Vada found the stories of Agnes attending premiers and fancy gatherings in Old Port hilarious.
“What I would not be paying to see you at a ball in all