Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

“I know not where he is in this very moment,” said Marisa quietly. “Only that Declan Dolan will accomplish what he set out to do.”

“How?” Bryant asked. “How do you know for certain?”

Marisa took a deep breath, licking her lips before speaking. “I have seen many faces in my dreams, David Bryant. Heard many voices. And yet, as in life, some few are hallmarked among the rest. The three of you in this room share that distinction, albeit Chidi’s voice is the one I hear loudest and most often of all.”

Allambee stirred beside Chidi. “You hear my voice also?”

“I do, child,” said Marisa, her tone quivering. “Just as I have long admired your innocent and noble heart, Allambee Omondi. Aye, just as I told your mother when I came to fetch you from her to lead you onward that you might rejoin with your father.”

“Where is he now, then?” Allambee asked. “Where is my father?”

“He is now as he has been all his life, sweet child,” said Marisa. “Like so many of us, your father is lost in the waiting time . . . not a day gone by since he was taken from you without wishing he might one day hold you in his arms. To look upon your face and know you for his son.”

“Then I will see him,” Allambee asserted. “Just as you promised my mother? I will help my father to find his way again?”

Marisa beamed at him, her eyes gleaming. “Aye, Allambee Omondi. On my word, you will both meet and aid your father to find his way through the darkness that has long held him captive. Your actions and rejoining with him shall be a beacon of light to thwart off the darkness and help to save us all.” She touched him on the cheek, cheering him further before turning to face Chidi again. “And the reunion of Allambee with his father is but another reason I could not free you in Crayfish Cavern, Chidi Etienne. For as Declan Dolan and I had our own currents to follow then, I was shown the way ahead for you also. Had you not gone ashore, we should have neither the Merrow ring, nor Allambee Omondi, with us now.”

Bryant barked a laugh. “Well, I guess it seems I’m the odd man out, huh, partner?” He joked with Chidi before settling further into his chair. Bryant’s sharp eyes refocused on Marisa. “And you didn’t answer my question, Bourgeois. Not really, anyway. So, I’ll ask you again . . . where is Declan Dolan now?”

“I told you that I know not for certain where he is.”

Bryant scowled. “Don’t play word games with me, Bourgeois. You see all this other stuff, but don’t know where Dolan is? Fine. Gimme your best guess, sweetheart.”

Marisa’s gaze narrowed on him. “The last I saw of Declan Dolan, he lay chained beneath the ice, lost among the Salt mines of Røyrkval in the Ancient City of Song,” she said. “For that is where I saw both Dolans in my dreams. Both the father and the son. Each of them searching among the frigid tunnels. One desperate for escape, the other in seeking another of the five keys we require to unlock the greater mystery left to us.”

Chidi’s spirit soared at Marisa’s admission. “Lenny is alive, then?” she asked.

“Aye,” she said. “For the son of Declan Dolan is another I have long seen in my dreams. His pain and his voice nearly rivaling your own, Chidi.”

His pain? Chidi wondered. What does she mean?

Bryant spoke up before she could ask her questions. “Seems to me you got a whole lotta faces you’re seeing in them dreams of yours, Bourgeois. Just how many others you seen or heard and ain’t told us about?”

Marisa smiled in answer, but gave him nothing else in reply.

“Yeah,” said Bryant. “That’s what I thought. Might be I heard you wrong too, but it almost sounds to me like you sent Declan and his boy down to them Salt mines knowing they’d be put to work in chains.”

“Indeed, you are wrong, David Bryant,” said Marisa. “For it was not me to send Declan Dolan anywhere. I showed him the same as was shown to me . . . the truth of what occurs when the pure in heart stand by and do nothing. Why we all of must make our choices. Why everything that we all do matters. Every word. Every choice. Everything.” She looked away from Bryant, refocused on Chidi instead. “For even among those who fear they do not matter, their actions and words seemingly uncounted, even those meekest of folk must come to find the courage to act and speak up, lest the world and all those in it suffer for their silence . . .”

Chidi glanced away, her gaze falling on Allambee’s concerned expression.

Bryant scratched at his cheeks. “You say everybody’s actions and their voices matter, Bourgeois. Afraid I’m gonna have to disagree. I’ve met some real crazies in my time. The kinda folk who don’t have any problem saying what’s on their mind. It’s getting them to shut up that’s the issue.”

Marisa cast her knowing gaze on him. “And you, David? Which lot do you place yourself among?”

Bryant took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing. “Like to think I know when to keep my mouth shut and when not to . . . and I ain’t got a problem calling somebody out if and when I sense a bit of bull in the air, if that’s what you mean.”

Marisa smiled. “We are not all of us as brave as you, my friend,” she replied, not unkindly. “Some brave folk such as you are, David, aye, and Allambee Omondi too, you both have always faced your destiny and detractors willingly enough, no matter the harshness thrown before you, or the consequences to pay thereafter. Still . . . you are among the scattered few.”

And we are the many, Marisa? Chidi silently wondered on