On a day when a warm wind drove away the rain clouds, Valandario returned to Mandra to find the town preparing for a festival. Down by the harbor, they’d set up long tables and dug pits, where several sheep were roasting for the meal ahead. Musicians sat on the grass and tuned their instruments or practiced bits and pieces of songs.

When Val arrived at their house, Lara and Jin greeted her with delight, and as they were carrying her goods up to her old chamber, Lara explained.

“Ships are coming from the Southern Isles,” Lara said. “We’ve got a lookout on the roof of the new temple, and he saw them this morning. If this wind keeps up, they should make landfall tonight.”

“Wonderful!” Val said. She was thinking that she’d arrived just in time. “New temple?”

“The town built it this summer. It’s not very splendid yet, but it does have a few statues of gods inside.”

Just at sunset, the town crier went running through the streets. Four ships were pulling into the harbor under oars. As Valandario walked down with Lara and Jin, she felt oddly calm. She’d convinced herself, she realized, that she’d merely dreamt about Aderyn and his messages. Surely they couldn’t be real, surely they could have nothing to do with Jav.

But he arrived in the first boat, a sailor with jet-black hair and golden eyes. Valandario was watching from the beach when she spotted him, leaping onto the wooden pier. A shipmate threw him a rope, which he hitched around the nearest bollard. With the knot secure he walked a few steps down the pier, hooked his thumbs into his leather belt, and stood looking wide-eyed at his new homeland. Or his old homeland, to which he’d returned—when he glanced her way, Valandario recognized him. Jav! she thought. Oh, Jav, do you remember me?

Not, of course, that he would know that he did. Still, he took a few more steps, staring at her, smiling. She climbed the steps up to the pier, and as she walked toward the ship, he came to meet her with the rolling walk of a man who still expected his footing to rise and fall under him.

“Good morrow,” he said in a soft, dark voice. “I seem to have come to the most beautiful spot in the world.”

“I—” Val could feel her face burning, and he laughed.

“Forgive me,” he said. “My name is Braelindar. What’s yours?”

“Valandario Gemscryer.”

“The Wise One!” It was his turn to blush. “Meranaldar told us about—” He dropped to one knee and looked down. “Forgive me, Wise One! I didn’t mean to be so forward. I—”

“It’s perfectly all right. I’m not in the least insulted.”

“You’re sure?” Brae raised his head to look into her eyes.