of defying me. It will always be a price you never want to pay and certainly a price no one else will want to pay either. I trust you’ll never be so heartless again.’ So—” She splayed her hands wide. “—here we are.”
“I’m so sorry. Yes. Here we are, two kids, adrift on the ocean, who don’t want to grow up to be like their murderous parents.”
“And who can’t escape them.”
“No, we can’t. Well, wait. Why can’t we?” Jerin flicked a finger in my direction. “We’ll drop off the Raelech in Hashan Khek and then just keep sailing north into a life of adventure.”
Olet smiled for the first time, and it transformed her whole person. “You mean two itinerant firelords walking among the tiny people of the world, caramelizing their onions and custard for them?”
“And fetching things off the top shelf. We’d be very helpful like that.”
“I like it. Very heroic.” She beamed at him for another few moments, enjoying the fantasy, before her smile crumpled and the joy leached away. “They’d never let us go. They’d send people after us, and someone would get hurt. Someone innocent.”
“Yes,” Jerin admitted. “I would have struck out already on my own if I thought I could. But I would just be trailing chaos behind me if I did.”
Something shifted in the air between them; I could see it, even feel it. Olet cocked her head to one side, and Jerin leaned back, nostrils flared, as it hit them both at the same time: they were each sitting across from someone who didn’t want them to be a Hearthfire. The same someone who could, perhaps uniquely, understand their problems.
“Are you…?” Olet began, and then she frowned, shaking her head minutely. “Oh, no, no. You’re like him, aren’t you, being all charming, and then later you’ll be a badger hole.”
“What? No. Look, Olet: I’m not your father, and I’m not mine either. It’s okay if you don’t like me, but please make sure it’s really me you don’t like and not someone else.”
They had themselves a staring contest, Jerin projecting earnest sincerity and Olet trying to peel back a mask with her eyes, certain that he was wearing one.
“I have trouble trusting people,” she finally said, “and probably always will have.”
“After what your father did, I can certainly understand why. And I’m not asking you to trust me. Just…reserve judgment, perhaps.”
She nodded once, her eyes boring into his. “Were you aware that your father threatened to bury his axe in La Mastik’s head if she said another word about returning to Hathrir?”
Jerin blinked. “No. But it doesn’t surprise me. He can be ruthless and even callous, as we saw today. But he does have his admirable qualities.”
“Such as? You don’t mean battle, I hope.”
“No. I mean he truly loves my mother. And me, too, I guess, though I didn’t appreciate that until recently. When we first arrived after Mount Thayil erupted, he told me something that I think you might appreciate. He said that if you and I didn’t hit it off, he’d let me out of this arrangement so that I could marry for love.”
Olet’s mouth gaped, and Jerin grinned at her, pointing. “That was my reaction, too! Very surprising. But maybe that will give you some comfort. If you want out, you can rest assured that there won’t be any backdraft from the Mogens.”
She blew out a long breath. “Only an explosion from Winthir Kanek. Thank you, though.”
“Sure. But what do you want, Olet? You promised you’d answer.”
“Oh. Well, it’s an impossible dream. I want to be free of my father, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of it.”
“That’s a fine vision for the future. I’d like the same, honestly.”
“And I’ve thought about trying to start a new city elsewhere, too, far away from Hathrir, which is why when you said that, I couldn’t believe it.”
“We have plenty of time to waste talking about it. We can scheme, or we can let the bard do his thing.”
They looked at me for all of one second and chose to scheme. And, unexpectedly, to smoke. Olet had a bag of personal effects and withdrew two glass pipes from it. “Do you partake?” she asked Jerin. I noted that she didn’t ask me.
“Not usually.”
“Neither do I. Only on special occasions. Can’t stand the taste of it. Kind of lingers in the mouth.”
“Indeed it does. But is this a special occasion?”
“Yes. Come on. Spark up with me and I’ll explain. I don’t like