Ashtium: City of Sun

GRETA

My stomach is so full it hurts to walk. My knee is still sore, but it doesn’t hurt so bad when Adler carries me. We ate so much fish for dinner and then a bunch of chewy little candied fruit.

Enoch is still talking with his advisors in the dock tavern. He said he would be out soon to say goodbye to his father.

Adler sits behind me in the sand. I’ve found a good circular shell and use it to scoop out the wet sand around my legs. I place it in a pile, Adler helps me shape it into a growing mass of mush with shells decorated on top like one of the fancy desserts in the market. I never played with the wet sand in the desert like this. The waves make it different. So powerful and mysterious. To think so much food lives in such wild water.

The smell of burned flesh still makes me feel sick out here though. Adler told me his wife was missing. He did not tell me she was executed.

“I’m glad you’re finding a new wife,” I tell him earnestly. A lantern sits by his feet, giving a little light to the ocean water. A pretty sparkle shines off of it. “I hope she will bring you happiness and erase your pain.”

His hand moves over mine. I slide it out from under his, but he grips it suddenly and yanks me backward onto his lap.

“What if she already does these things? You have taken off my gift I see. Are you ashamed to wear it now? Embarrassed?” he asks slowly.

I shake my head ‘no’, but have no excuse formidable as I hand him back the pearl.

“I understand. Perhaps, when I return with a new wife you will change your mind?”

“No, Adler,” I whisper in a hollow voice. “I will not.”

What is taking Enoch so long in the tavern? I do not wish to be alone with his father anymore.

He sounds very serious like he has thought things through, “If I get bored with my new wife, or you get bored with Enoch, we could share my bed just a few nights a week. We could make decent love, don’t you think? Things do not have to change between us.”

I look down at the sand, picking up pieces of discarded weed from the water as it splashes now over our sandal-clad feet. My mind slips back to a forbidden fever dream. Was it a dream or a nightmare? My breathing hitches as I fall under the spell of memory where my god’s soft warm tongue twists tightly around my own.

His tone is defensive, “I just want to continue our chats and our naps,” Adler begins. He flattens out some of the creases in my tunic covering my thigh. “It is Enoch who will take care of your most intimate needs. You should be very straightforward with what you want. Otherwise, he will not care to make sure you are being pleasured well in bed.”

My legs quiver, pressing together at the mental image he presents. Why can’t we just enjoy each other’s company in silence?

“Our talks will no longer be necessary,” I reason. “I don’t think any woman would want to find me on your cloud no matter the excuse.”

I finish tying the strands of thick salty weed together and slide the shell through where a hole has worn in.

I climb up his chest to reach his neck, my feet sinking into the sand at his sides.

“I made this for you,” I tell him while putting it over his head. He looks down at it and touches the shell while watching me. “When will you be coming back?”

“Four months. It is all the speed we can muster to cover the expanse of sea in one round trip. We won’t be docking much at all. Is there anything you wish for me to get you?”

“Bread, maybe,” I say unsure.

Adler laughs. “I shall get you some. What else?”

My head feels dizzy. A violent cough leaves me.

“I don’t feel good,” I mumble.

“Greta?” He puts his hand on my forehead. “What is wrong?” I cough so hard I cannot even answer. He cradles me in his tunic, blanketing me under the warm cloth. “Were you drinking the ocean water?”

I manage to catch my breath. “N-no,” I answer. The coughs die out as he rocks me in his arms. The small waves almost stretch up to his knees. Enoch and his advisors walk above us on the dock now. I can hear his voice somewhere above where Adler’s ship floats. “Are you leaving now?” I ask.

“It appears so. How are you feeling?”

“Much better.”

He hands me a star map he showed me when we made the morning before.

“Let’s go over what we talked about earlier. If you get scared or think someone is following you, where do you go?”

“On your cloud.”

“If Brommy does not pick you up for lessons where do you go?”

“To Enoch.”

“If you cannot find Enoch?”

“I make it night until you return.”

He points at one of the swirls in the map.

“And when will I return?”

“In four months when the circles overlap.”

He hands me a jagged, shiny blade from the sleeve of his tunic.

“Yes, now you keep this on you at all times,” he tells me.

“Okay.”

I lean into his chest, feeling over the thick shiny blade. There are tiny little stones glistening inside of it. How beautiful. I wonder if it came from his trove? I tuck it inside the collar of my tunic for safekeeping along with the map.

Adler leans back, resting his head on his hand while I resume playing in the sand.

“You remind me of a baby right now. So precious and curious as you sift through these grains. So cute, my little pearl,” he babies. “Will you miss me?”

“Yes,” I answer naturally while working on my sand pile.

He plucks a needle-like shell from its top and carves a design into the side of my molded pretend dessert.

The seawater rises higher, splashing the lantern over. Adler picks it up as voices approach.

His face finds the crook of my neck as he wraps his arms around me from behind.

Adler’s hand feels heavy on my thigh as he continues to stroke it. It weighs me down and makes me feel trapped.

“We will talk more when I return?” he questions.

“I do not think that is a good idea. You must ask her first,” I remind him.

“Okay,” he agrees. “Am I forgiven for last night then? You are acting strange. Distant. I don’t wish to leave on such a term with you.”

Distant? Are my answers not long enough for him? It is true I am closing off some parts of my heart, but if I don’t, then this farewell will be made much longer.

It is time for him to leave now I think. I hear Enoch calling for me. Adler knows it is time to go too. Yet, he remains silently watching me as if waiting for something. There is no happiness in his eyes, but a void that has stretched my heart to what feels like its limit.

I tried to change him. Enoch said I made things worse. It doesn’t feel worse.

“I hear Enoch calling,” I reply carefully. His expression is empty like a statue’s as I turn away. “Goodbye, Adler. Have a safe voyage.”

“Do you want to come with me?”

Feather-light, his touch falls onto my shoulder.

“Thank you, but I will remain here,” I tell him quickly.

His hand moves away. Nervous, I pick up the bottom of my tunic to keep from tripping over it as I race up to the dock ahead of him.

Once at the top, I look down below finding him in the same position.

“Father! It is time to go!” Enoch hollers.

My heart aches watching Adler sluggishly walk over to us.

When he reaches the docks, I hurry over to him and embrace him with the best hug I can offer. I feel like a bug clinging onto his tunic, but I don’t care.

“It’s okay, Greta. I understand. It’s time I leave. You need to stay here with Enoch now,” Adler whispers in my ear. “You will always be my little pearl no matter who you become. Goodbye now and blessed day. When I return, you and Enoch will have changed so much. Take care, please.”

END OF BOOK 1

The story continues in Ashfall: City of Shade Book 2