Sea Lord Read Online Free PDF Page A

cries of the gulls.
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    For one moment, Lucy lifted her face to the wind and let herself breathe, let herself dream, let herself
    yearn.
    Then she set her steps inland, toward the dark spires of spruce and the white church tower rising from
    the streaks of fog. Going home. Alone.
    A bird mourned in the trees.
    Her heart pounded.
    Without turning her head, she knew when Conn came out of the mist to fall into step beside her.
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    SHE DID NOT JUMP OR SCREECH.
    Conn supposed he should be grateful for that. She either was brave or particularly unexcitable. A
    lioness? he wondered. Or a sheep? Either suited his purpose.
    They walked together in silence under the lengthening shadow of the trees. The air swirled with moisture
    and the scent of pine. Mist sheened the black road and collected like a veil of pearls on the girl’s fair hair.
    She walked with long strides like a man’s, her arms crossed tightly in front of her. She did not look at
    him.
    Conn had thought that she was shy. He wondered now if she was actually guarded. There was a stillness
    in her that did not feel completely natural, a watchfulness he recognized, almost like the discipline he had
    learned to impose on himself when he came to rule.
    Which was absurd. She was too young to have learned such control, too human to need it.
    He did not know what to say to her.
    Her brother Dylan was selkie. Her brother Caleb had married one. It was clear to Conn, however, that
    her family had told her nothing. Why should they? The recent trouble between the children of the sea and
    their fellow elementals, the children of fire, had nothing to do with her.
    Yet the vision of her face had dragged him from his tower and drawn him halfway across the world. He
    eyed her almost resentfully.
    “I thought you were talking to everybody later. At the house,” she said to her feet. Long, narrow feet, he
    noticed, in shoes that might once have been white.
    “I am.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “I am talking to you now.”
    She turned her head. “Why?”
    Such directness was unexpected and somewhat disconcerting.
    “I would like to get to know you better,” Conn said carefully.
    “Why?” she repeated, nettling him.
    Conn was not used to accounting for his actions. Even his wardens did not question him. He could hardly
    tell her he was trying to figure out what possible use or interest she could be to him. “I cannot be the first
    man to seek your company.”
    She smiled crookedly. “Yeah, I have to beat them off with a stick.”
    He stared. He could not have heard her correctly. “I beg your pardon?”
    Pink suffused her lean face. “I meant . . . It’s been a while.”
    Could he turn that to his advantage? Did human females want sex, miss sex, as selkies did?
    “How long is a while?”
    She blinked. “Boy, you take this getting-to-know-you shit seriously, don’t you?”
    “You do not have a husband?” he pressed. “A suitor?”
    “You mean a boyfriend?”
    Was that the word?
    “Yes.”
    Her shoulders hunched, almost hiding her ears. “Nope.”
    Conn was aware of a faint release of tension. The claims or existence of another sexual partner meant
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    nothing to him, but they might matter to her.
    He was glad she was not married.
    Her shoes scuffed the wet, black road. “What about you?” she asked.
    “I live alone,” he said truthfully. Selkies did mate, but few pairings lasted through the centuries.
    “No one special?”
    “Not for some time. My, uh, work does not permit many distractions.”
    “What kind of work do you do?”
    “You ask a great many questions.”
    A smile lit her narrow face. “I work with five- to seven-year-olds. Taking an interest is part of my job
    description.”
    He stared. “You are a teacher.”
    He had once gone to great lengths to secure a teacher