blessed. Why do you not sell bottles of this water?” she asked the attendant who came to assist her with the robe.
“Nemek’s blessing cannot be sold,” the girl told her solemnly.
“What if I do not buy it? May I simply fill a bottle to take with me?”
“Nemek’s blessing cannot be stolen.”
Lady Junica tilted her head, eyes narrowing. “What if I pray to them and ask for more of their blessing before I fill the bottle?”
The girl smiled. “Nemek are generous and will give it. But I suggest you also fill your heart with gratitude and humility before you fill your bottle, for if it is done with a heart full of entitlement and greed, you might find that water is nothing but water.”
“I will be both grateful and humble.”
“Come, then. We have bottles that seal tightly and will not leak during your travels—and though you cannot buy the water, you can buy the bottle.”
The councilor arched a brow. “I suppose the bottles are expensive?”
“Only if you are rich,” the girl said, and continued down the path. “Or if you travel with a prince.”
Lady Junica laughed and began to follow her before pausing and glancing back at Aerax. “Do you think there will be anything left of its healing magic after we reach Koth? No god but Varrin has power on the island . . . but what if a blessing is captured in water and brought in from outside?”
Did she think he would know? Aerax did not, and said so.
“I suppose we will find out,” she said, then frowned. “But how could we not already know that answer? These healing baths have stood as long as our island has, and I cannot be the first who brought water from these pools.”
That was truth. “Perhaps that knowledge was also struck from the books,” Aerax said flatly. “If a bottle of water made Kothans doubt Varrin’s protection or if they looked to other gods when they were sick and frightened, surely whoever brought that bottle would be called a charlatan and exiled, too. Or executed.”
For a long moment, she stared at him. Then slowly, she nodded. “Perhaps.”
He looked to Caeb after she was gone. “You had best hope we’ve been in the water long enough to drown your fleas, or else you will be covered in the healthiest fleas that ever lived.”
Sheer disdain curled the cat’s upper lip. Aerax laughed at him and began to swim toward the edge of the pool—then halted at the ledge as a figure resolved out of the heavy mist. Wrapped in her red cloak, Lizzan followed behind an attendant. Abruptly she stopped when her eyes met his, uncertainty flickering over her expression.
Heart pounding, Aerax did not move even as Caeb surged out of the pool to greet her, a cascade of water raining from his fur. Her gaze followed the cat before swinging back to Aerax.
And Lizzan must have been done with running or hiding. Lifting her chin, she said something to the attendant, who nodded and turned back toward the entrance. Without hesitation, Lizzan continued toward them, lips curving as Caeb padded to meet her.
“You resemble a giant drowned rat,” she told him, then laughed and covered her face when his response was to shake the water out of his coat. “Now you are merely a giant rat.”
Affectionately she rubbed her face against Caeb’s, and then he settled down to begin licking his fur dry. She continued to the edge of the pool, biting her lip when she met Aerax’s eyes again.
Her own eyes seemed shadowed and tired. “You looked to be leaving.”
“Not if you are joining me,” he said in a low voice. “But what of Seri? Do you not have to protect her?”
Perhaps Lizzan was not full done with hiding, for she stood by that lie. “She is surrounded by Parsathean warriors. I daresay she is safe enough for now,” she said with a shrug, before hesitating. “In the morning, you go south to Krimathe with Riasa?”
He shook his head. “The others do. I go north with the alliance.”
Surprise and relief flittered through her expression before her eyes shadowed again. “There are things that need to be said before we travel together. But . . . for a little while, can we be as we were before? Before my exile, before you went to the palace, before the red fever—when we were the finest of friends.”
“I would always be that for you,” he told her. “Not only for a little while.”