Read Online Across the Long Sea by Sarah Remy - Free Book Online Page B

Doyle had sent Mal home to help with rescue and recovery, in the hopes that his blossoming magics might provide some assistance.
    They hadn’t. Instead he’d waited on the sand, collecting limp, waterlogged bodies from skiff and rowboat and skipper, and in the dawn, directly from the rolling waves. He’d quickly lost count of corpses, but the spirits of the island dead hadn’t let him forget; they’d shrieked and wailed and called for their lost even as he pulled new bodies from the sea.
    He’d wept with the violation of it, his inability to keep them out, the ineffectiveness of the few cants and mediations he’d begun to learn and his father had been embarrassed for his youngest son’s display of emotion. And angry. Later, after the island dead were piled and burnt according to their custom, while the flames were still hot, reaching high against the cliffs, the Selkirk had beaten Mal for cowardice, then sent him back to his foster father, ears still ringing with threats and recriminations.
    The Serranos of Selkirk are men, Malachi, and not babes to weep over the sea’s fickle temper , the Selkirk had said between gritted teeth. You’re more flatlander than sea lord, now. Return home and tend your gentle fields.
    â€œMy lord,” Liam said, startling Mal from the past. “Is it a grave?”
    â€œA monument,” Mal corrected. The beach was quiet, peaceful, those distraught spirits long moved on, or seeking shelter from the wicked wind. “There were too many corpses to inter, twelve times twelve at the end. Selkirk lit a great bonfire, and dedicated their souls to whatever gods they best loved, and stacked the bodies in the flames.”
    â€œWhat’s this then?” Liam squinted at the monument. “Is it a rafter? It’s not part of a ship. I’ve never seen wood like this, striped and spotted.”
    â€œThe islanders call it monkey wood.” Mal regarded the beam. It had taken five of Selkirk’s men together to dig down deep enough to secure the monument against the tide. By all accounts they’d sunk it the length of a man into the earth, and still the beam over-­topped the tallest man on the beach. “A support joist, part of a canopy or building. It floated past with the corpses; a few of my father’s men swam out and hauled it back in.”
    He stretched past Liam, knocked the wood with this knuckles. “Hard as rock, but apparently very light. Can you read the plaque?”
    Liam sank to his heels in the sand. He ran one finger over engraved bronze, touching each letter as he mouthed.
    â€œAll life springs from the waves. All life returns to the sea.” Liam frowned. “But that’s not right, my lord. We bury our dead in the ground, far away from any water, lest the bones rise and float away.”
    â€œFlatland customs differ from coastal, just as island customs differ from both. Islanders burn their dead, flatlanders bury their dead. The coastal clans prefer to send the dead back into the sea.”
    Liam’s face lit with curiosity. “How’s that, my lord? How’s it done?”
    â€œTonight,” Mal promised. “You’ll have the witnessing of it.”
    Jacob clicked his tongue, unimpressed.

 
    Chapter Four
    M AL REGARDED HIS mother over the Selkirk’s silver circlet.
    â€œIt makes the most sense,” he said. “I didn’t expect you to argue the point.”
    â€œHis Majesty gave you to me. Fourteen days. Two sennight,” Lady Selkirk said. “You’re father’s not been laid to rest. He’s been dead barely a day. Don’t force the title on me just yet.”
    â€œForce?” Mal echoed, baffled. “I thought you wanted it. You’ve always wanted it. You married father for the title.”
    â€œI married your father for his ships. At the time Selkirk had only the two, but they were the envy of the west.”
    â€œThe ships