He Left My Daughter With His Ex, So I Left the Sea King novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Ring in a Child's Pocket

Kyros's POV

Ligeia was gone.

She had gone over the rim into the drain that runs to the open sea, and the harbor bells had rung for an hour while the guard boats searched the water.

They found nothing.

The cavern emptied slowly.

The harbor folk went out in twos and threes, talking low, with the steward's grandson passed gently from arm to arm.

I stayed by the Basin until the last lamp had burned down.

The old keeper sat on the rim and said nothing.

He did not have to.

I had spent ten years at the left hand of the woman who killed my wife.

I had taken her advice on tides and treaties and which cloak to wear.

I had once thanked her for her patience when I was in a black mood.

"My lord," said the eldest elder.

She stood behind me with the ring in her palm.

I had not heard her come.

"The surety stays with the court only while the child is in danger from it," she said. "The danger is over. By law it goes back to the one who paid it."

I looked at the braid of silver.

It had been mine for a thousand years.

I knew its weight on my finger.

My hand wanted to open.

"The law has a second clause," said the eldest. "A ring given up for a ward is returned by the ward's own hand, or by the hand of her mother, or not at all."

"Then I'll wait."

"You may wait a long time."

"I've waited ten years without knowing it," I said. "I can do it knowing."

She studied me.

Then she turned, and crossed the stone to where Zoe sat on the edge of a bench with her feet not reaching the floor.

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