“What about someone who isn’t a patrician? A financial incentive might—”
“Enough, Teriana!”
Instantly she regretted the heat in her voice. Other than her father, Teriana was the only person who cared for her well-being, and she could hardly begrudge her friend for trying to find a solution to her problems. That she liked none of the solutions was not Teriana’s fault.
Taking a measured breath, Lydia said, “This conversation makes me feel like a broodmare. Let’s discuss something else.” She motioned to the servant waiting with a tray of refreshments to bring them forth. “Tell me of your travels. Where have you been? What have you seen? How is your family? How is Bait?”
Teriana’s jaw worked from side to side as though she was considering pressing the issue. Then she shrugged, falling back on one of the couches and pulling Lydia with her. “Bait’s probably in the Quincense’s galley crying into his cup to Polin about not being invited along with me. I swear he was half-hoping my mum wouldn’t let me visit tonight so that he’d have the chance to see you under the guise of sneaking me off the ship. In another hour or so, he’ll probably be filling the whole damned harbor with his sad poetry about your pretty face.”
Lydia’s cheeks flushed at the thought of Teriana’s very handsome crewmember doing any such thing, and she picked up a glass from the tray, trying and failing to hide her reaction. “You’re making that up. Bait would do no such thing.”
Teriana smirked, picking up the other glass and smelling the contents. “I never tell you anything but the unvarnished truth. And speaking of true stories, about a month ago we sailed into Madrascus’s harbor just ahead of a storm. Each drop of rain was large enough to drown a man.…”
Resting her head against Teriana’s shoulder, Lydia allowed herself to be swept away by her friend’s adventures on the high seas, losing herself in tales of the Quincence’s crew’s hijinks in provincial ports and the endless pranks that Teriana and Bait played in idle moments. Stories that made her forget the terror she’d felt when her father had collapsed and her helplessness over what was to come.
For hours, she and Teriana talked, and only when it was growing dangerously close to morning did they crawl into Lydia’s bed, nose to nose, the sheets pulled over their heads. But in the darkness Lydia’s fears reared their heads, and as though sensing her mood, Teriana asked, “How unwell is your father?”
A pair of tears escaped her eyes. “The physicians say his liver is failing.” The words stuck in her throat. “They have given him six months, if he’s lucky.”
“I’m so sorry.” Teriana pulled her close. “It’s not fair. It’s never the awful men who are taken before their time, and there is a great injustice to that.”
Lydia wiped her face with the sheet. “It felt like one day he was well and the next he was not, and I know his concern for me is only making it worse.”
Teriana’s grip on her tightened, silence falling over both of them. And then her friend asked, “Are you afraid?”
The air beneath the sheet turned stifling, and it was only when Teriana pushed it back that Lydia was able to let out a gusting exhale and say, “Yes. I think the day after my father passes, Vibius will sell me to the highest bidder. And if no one will pay, he’ll have me killed.”
“What if you left? What if you ran away?”
Lydia choked out a laugh, because it had been tried many times by many women. And always they were dragged back, broken and shamed, eventually married off to some minor patrician family living in the provinces. Somewhere out of sight. “To where? There is nowhere the Senate doesn’t control. Nowhere that its legions couldn’t find me.”
She heard Teriana inhale as though to speak, but then she seemed to hesitate. And with her hesitation, Lydia felt something she hadn’t expected surge in her chest: hope.
Hope that flared brightly when Teriana finally whispered, “There is.”
Lydia’s heart fluttered, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. “Where?” she finally breathed out.
“Across the Endless Seas.”
“What do you mean? There’s nothing but water.”
“There’s a whole other world.”
Her breath caught in her throat, for what Teriana spoke of was nothing more than myth. “Do you mean the Dark Shores? They exist?”
Lydia felt Teriana press her forehead against hers. Felt her slow nod in the darkness. “If you decide you want to