Vanguard
Page 33
This seemed like providence, so he turned to Millie. “How would you like to wed on the marrying-ferry?”
Their families had questions and objections, but one by one, he laid them to rest. This is our perfect ending. And no matter the resistance, he wouldn’t budge, and soon Millie joined him in insisting on a wedding at sea. Well, on the river, anyway.
“Ho, there!” Devi called as she rowed her boat to shore. “We’re leaving on the morrow, but I could make room for a few more.”
“I am the Morrow,” his father said.
He shook his head over the awful joke, but Millie earned points by laughing. Her parents chuckled, too. Thus, it was settled. After spending one last night at the governor’s manor, their group would emigrate permanently, Baybridge-bound. Millie went with their family while Morrow went to pay a farewell call. It didn’t seem as if it had been that long, but Deuce and Fade’s baby had already grown quite a lot.
“Look how strong he is,” Fade said as the boy wrapped his fist around his thumb.
Morrow nodded. “A real warrior.”
Deuce brought drinks, seeming well recovered from the birth. “You’ve got a particular look about you.”
“That’s because I’m here to say farewell,” he said.
She sighed. “You and Tegan, both. She just boarded a ship. I don’t reckon either of you will be back to stay. Am I wrong?”
He shook his head. “I won’t rule out a visit, but I’m taking my father north, too.”
“What about Rosemere?” Fade asked, plainly shocked.
“Maybe Edmund is interested in being governor?” he suggested, only half in jest.
Deuce paused with her cup in midair; then she snapped her fingers. “No. Momma Oaks.”
“Whatever’s best for the town.” Her mother was certainly kind and wise. She’d make a warmer leader than his father.
“Maybe when the baby’s older, we’ll make a trip,” Fade said.
Deuce nodded, taking young Karl from his father. “Please stay safe.”
They named him after Longshot, he realized. He’d never met the man, but Deuce had told him about the mentor she’d lost in Salvation. Evidently Longshot had been a trader who’d saved her life more than once. It seemed fitting that she’d made her firstborn his namesake.
After lunch, Morrow went to the mansion for the last time. Mrs. Faraday had his father laughing so hard with one of her colorful expressions that tears were running down his cheeks. Millie turned to him, and it actually twisted his heart in his chest, how happy he was to see her. Don’t ever leave me, he thought.
A restful night passed, and in the morning Millie donned her finest dress. Morrow took care with his appearance, too. His father lingered a little over the things his mother had loved, but Morrow guided him firmly out of the cold, quiet house and into the spring sunshine.
“You don’t need anything from here,” he said softly.
The once-governor of the Evergreen Isle lifted his face and smiled. “Untrue. But as long as I have you, the rest can pass away.”
It took several trips to get everything the Faradays wanted to take ferried out to Devi’s ship, smaller than the Catalina but no less elegant. It had clearly been built in Antecost, and it was, somewhat hilariously, called the Love Boat. Morrow showed his expanded family where to wait, but his father wanted a word with Devi about the journey, and Mrs. Faraday was a gregarious soul, so she went to chat with the other passengers.
“That woman never met a stranger,” Mr. Faraday said fondly.
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to call him Da.
Once we’re married.
For ten years or so.
“Millie takes after her, I think.”
The other man nodded. “If you hurt her, I’ll break both your legs and drop you down a hole so deep, nobody will ever find you,” he said. “Her happiness matters more than my life. Since her brother died, I can’t say no to that girl. That’s why I let her go chasing off with a healer I barely knew. You understand?”
Morrow gulped before answering, “Yes, sir.”
“Attention, happy couples! I’m the captain of the Love Boat, and if you’ve come aboard to partner up, assemble front and center.”
With a final nod to Mr. Faraday, Morrow went to claim Millie. Three other couples joined them, but he was surprised to spot Tegan by the railing, snuggled against Szarok like the wooden nesting dolls his mother had treasured. They were the only things of hers that he had packed, amid all those possessions that had owned his father for so many years. Even the books, he’d left behind. Because he’d meant it when he said he only needed Millie to feel whole. Once, it would’ve hurt to see Tegan of the Staff so close to someone else, but nobody who registered how the Uroch held her could doubt that she was beyond precious to him. A few other passengers shot them skeptical or downright hostile looks. They don’t have an easy road ahead, but this is right. With a half smile for an old friend, he gave his full attention to Devi.
“Take your love’s hand now, and repeat after me. ‘You are my rock and my shelter. I promise to turn to you always, from this day forward. I choose you as my partner and my love. Until my last breath, so I do swear.’”
Despite speaking the words in unison, they still hit him hard. He faced Millie on Devi’s instruction. “Now kiss your dear ones like you mean it.”
Before he could move, Millie jumped into his arms and planted such a deep kiss on him that Morrow felt vaguely surprised that his hair didn’t catch fire. Eventually he pulled back. “Our family’s watching.”
She shrugged. “They know what comes next.”
As the boat set off, the party went into full swing. He congratulated the other couples while he tracked Millie’s movements with his gaze. The crew passed around drinks—and didn’t have any, he noticed, but his father and Millie’s parents definitely made merry. From across the deck, he admired how fast his wife made friends. She learned all the other couple’s names within an hour and had invitations to visit within two.
Finally he worked up the nerve to join Tegan, still tucked beneath Szarok’s chin like she belonged there. “You didn’t want to make it official?”
“We already spoke all the words we need,” Szarok said.
Though Morrow was no threat—and had just married the love of his life—the Uroch still radiated a quiet menace, like he might growl if anyone got too close to Tegan. Instead of bothering him, that only made him smile. “Then what’re you doing on the Love Boat?”
“I don’t want to work,” Tegan told him with a bashful smile. “This trip is just for us.”
“Ah, I wondered. You haven’t met Devi before?”
She shook her head. “Advika told me about her, though. So when she arrived—”
“You leapt at the chance. Understood. What will you do now?”
Tegan raised her eyes skyward as if for inspiration. “Everything? But that’s no answer. So … travel. Help people. Likely stumble into more adventures.” She traded a secret look with Szarok and said, “Above all, we’ll learn. And when we’re ready, I suspect we’ll often call Peckinpaugh home, other times Olurra.”
That’s the Uroch settlement on Antecost, James recalled.
“That sounds exciting. Send a letter with Devi now and then, won’t you?”
“Definitely,” Tegan said.
“I’m off, then.”
Pleasure radiated from the Uroch at the promise of Morrow’s imminent departure. Szarok nuzzled Tegan’s cheek, and she lifted her face with such palpable pleasure that Morrow blushed and looked away. But as he turned to find his wife, Tegan’s soft voice stayed him. “Thank you for teaching me to fight, for believing that I could. Be happy, James.”
“I will,” he promised.
It was one he could surely keep.
Baybridge
Two years later
Morrow tapped the pen against his brow, frustrated. Working as a schoolmaster didn’t leave him much time for writing, but he’d
promised to finish this up before the thaw, so Devi could take it south to Peckinpaugh, where he’d last had word from Tegan and Szarok. Grumbling beneath his breath, he reread the line aloud. No. Terrible. He couldn’t capture the bittersweet beauty of their forbidden romance in bloom, though he was doing his level best to encapsulate the story as Tegan had described. He scratched out what he’d written and tried again. All wishes fulfilled, they leaned close for a final—
“James!” Millie sounded impatient. A furtive glance at the clock told him why.
“Yes, my dear?”
His wife seemed to be on the verge of scolding him soundly. “The twins want you to come and play. Stop scribbling already.”
With a final flourish of the pen, he scrawled, Happy endings write themselves anyway, while life—and love—waits for no man. Then he closed the book for good.
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About the Author
Ann Aguirre has been a clown, a clerk, a savior of stray kittens, and a voice actress, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but she now lives in a terracotta adobe house in Mexico with her husband and two adorable children. The post-apocalyptic novel Enclave is her first book for young adults. She also writes the romantic science fiction series about Sirantha Jax, starting with Grimspace, as well as urban fantasy and paranormal romance. As Ava Gray, she writes paranormal romantic suspense. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
One: Shadows Deep
Ash and Bone
Into the Unknown
Against the Grain
When Dreams Come True
Questions and Answers
Silence Answered
The Sweetness of Her Trying
Fellowship of the River
Madness and Drowning
Pure Determination
The Opposite of Enemy
The Tide Is Rising
Two: The Pilgrim Soul
The Wonders of Being Stranded
Kinship
The Last of Her Blood
A Tale of Three Hangings
Irrational Fits of Learning
Breath-Marking
Darkness and Thorns
Better Than Elsewhere
When You Alone Remain
Unholy Alliances
Pray to Your Gods
Killjoy
Three: A Crowd of Stars
Our Song Is Complete
I Am Here
The Vanguard’s Burden
The Day He Stopped Waiting
Sorrow Came Calling
A Fire in Winter
Exodus
The Sweetness of Home
Love Never Leaves
For All Things a Season
No Longer the Vanguard
Happy Endings
About the Author
Copyright
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
VANGUARD. Copyright © 2017 by Ann Aguirre. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-250-08982-3 (hardcover) / ISBN 978-1-250-08983-0 (ebook)
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
First edition—2017
eISBN: 9781250089830
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