by Elise Kova
“So you’ve heard of it, too?”
Vi nodded—that was one way to put it. “They’ve been running a criminal ring for over a year in the coves further south of here. Ships dock and unload cargo… some legal that they’re avoiding tariffs on, others not so much. The coves are all connected, as you know. It’s a maze, but that’s how the real Adela gave the Emperor the slip about thirty-five years ago.”
“Along with her treasure,” Jax bitterly lamented.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Just because you haven’t found the treasure doesn’t mean it isn’t here.”
“What do you know?” His skepticism and self-doubt were becoming less jarring and more tiring by the moment.
“Help me take out this pirate queen impostor, and I’ll tell you what I know about the treasure. I want to be the one to find it.” She could imagine Taavin’s face when he heard what she was doing. But she wasn’t the one going rogue and finding the treasure. She was just following along with the prince and his merry band to make sure they didn’t find it first. She was allowing fate to play out and give her the opportunity to get the crown.
If she lied to herself enough, perhaps even she’d believe it.
“Fortunate for me, that’s an easy deal to make.” A rush of relief overcame her and Vi beamed from ear to ear. “I would’ve done it anyway,” he added, as though trying to somehow make it seem like the whole thing was, at least in part, his idea.
“I suspected we were aligned when I saw you chasing after her.” Vi stood, dusting the sand and stones off her clothes. She had what she wanted, Jax was healed—no point in lingering. “Your little investigation into the treasure and soirée with the prince helped fluster the ring into making a mistake that has led me right to them.”
“And now you’re planning on going after her?”
“Will you help me?” Vi didn’t understand the question—she thought the matter settled.
Jax sighed and pulled himself up to his feet as well. Vi regarded him with a careful eye, making sure her healing was as good as she thought. He didn’t even stagger. “You’re lucky we happen to be aligned.”
“I think you were the lucky one.” Vi smiled thinly. He would’ve died had she not been here. Taavin had never mentioned anything about Jax dying, and finding a time to ask when they were more at peace with each other was now high on Vi’s list. Not that it mattered now. But she needed to make sure he wasn’t keeping potential futures from her to spare her heartache.
He certainly hadn’t with Fiera.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely.
Vi waved away the notion and started along the beach. “I scouted an entrance up here. It’s a bit of a climb, but if we fall heading for it, we fall into the water.”
“What’s your name?”
The question struck her harder than she’d expected. You know me, her heart wanted to scream. But her mind knew better. She searched his expression. There was no familiarity there.
She was no one to him.
Even after all this time, this new world could still cut deeply, and it would hurt more with every year that passed as the people here grew more and more to look like those she once loved.
“It’s not important,” Vi finally said.
“I must have something to call you.”
“I’ve gone by many names. You pick.” Vi, pick Vi out of everything in the world, her heart asked as she began to walk again.
“Fine, I shall call you,” he paused and Vi’s heart pounded, “Nox.”
Vi chuckled. How dare she, after all this time, have hoped for anything else.
“Very well, if that’s the name you choose.”
“One more thing.”
“What?” Vi stopped just as she’d been about to start climbing.
“You never told me why you saved me. If you were here to kill the Adela impostor and put an end to this criminal ring, why throw away the chance you had on saving me? Even if I could help, you had your quarry.”
“Who said I threw away my chance? The woman we chased was not the leader.”
“That’s still not answering my question.” And curse him for seeing so.
“Because all men are worthy of saving.” Vi saw him open his mouth, no doubt with an objection. She cut him off at the pass. “Even—no, especially you, Jax.”
His lips parted in shock and Vi turned away, beginning to climb. If she looked at him a moment longer, she would tell him there had been a young princess, long ago, who still thought of him like a father.
Chapter Fifteen
“So, how are we going to find them?” he asked as they headed deeper into the darkness of the caves.
“Patience.” Vi shrugged as if she didn’t know where they were going. Vi knew exactly where they needed to go to find Henrietta and her crew. If she led Jax there, perhaps she could encourage him to continue searching for the treasure. And if she happened to be there when he found it, she wouldn’t have gone against her word to Taavin.
“And what if we get lost in here?”
“Then I suppose it’s a good thing we’re both people who’ve lived colorful lives. We’ll have a lot to talk about while we wait to die.” Vi gave a smirk over her shoulder. They weren’t dying here.
“This, coming from the woman who wouldn’t even tell me her name,” he muttered.
“Well, maybe if we’re on the brink of death, I’ll tell you everything. Though, it’d take more lifetimes than we have.”
“You love playing the mysterious card, don’t you?”
“I am what I am.” Vi shrugged. She didn’t always know what that was anymore. “Quiet now. The ship docks in an inner cove to the south of town. I’m trying to listen for the workmen.”
They continued into the darkness, winding through the dripping caves by the light of her flame. The sounds of people talking grew and Vi stopped, turning in place to stop him as well.
“I don’t know where this is going to put us out.” She feigned ignorance. He’d be suspicious if she knew too much. “We should stay low, make for good hiding the second we see it,” she whispered in his ear. Jax nodded as she pulled away and followed her into a crouched position.
Vi waved away her mote of flame as its light merged with the ambient light of the cave beyond. She stopped for a moment, allowing her eyes to adjust, only to find Jax staring back at her.
“Do you want a ‘we might be about to die’ kiss?”
Vi fought the urge to burst out laughing with the competing urge to vomit at the suggestion. “This is not the place where you die,” she whispered, cutting through his levity. “But this is the place where you will kill again.” Vi grabbed his hand tightly. “You have to fight. You must fight for yourself, fight to live.” Not just now, but through all the years to come.
Jax opened his mouth to speak and Vi silenced him with a finger. In him, she still saw the Jax who had raised her. But now she was the adult and he was the child in some ways.
“Just be quiet, and take the advice of a friend, Jax.” Vi moved again before he could say anything else.
The cavern narrowed to a chute and they crawled forward side by side. It opened into a large room, though their vision was obscured by boxes and crates. Vi recognized them as the same boxes she’d helped unload from the Lady Black days ago.
“… their bodies recovered.” Vi recognized Henrietta’s voice. “None of you are to rest until their bloated corpses are here on a spike to warn the next captain who even thinks of challenging us.” So Dower would take the fall for Vi running after Joyce.
“Henrietta, they’ve surely been lost to the sea.” That was the voice of the woman who’d been on the Lady Black, murmuring dissent before Joyce attacked.
“Silence! It was your incompetence that got us into this mess. I’ll hear none of it.”
“Henrietta is their leader,” Vi whispered to Jax. “You’ll know her by the scar over her right eye. Go for her first.” She’d never seen Henrietta in action, but suspected
the woman was lethal. Anyone bold enough to use Adela’s name had to be.
Vi took a deep breath, steadying her hands. They trembled in excitement, anticipation. It had been years since she’d felt like she’d accomplished anything, and now everything was happening all at once.
She emerged from the narrow opening into a bowl-shaped cavern. Vi rushed over to a larger crate and scoped out the six talking. Jax joined her shortly after. At least he was keeping up. Though, judging from his expression, only barely.
Vi took his hand once more. Fire licked from her fingers to his, as though she could give him her strength. His breathing slowed and he nodded. Vi faced forward, ready to—
“Drop the boxes,” a booming voice shouted. Vi heard a groan from Jax. “You are under arrest by the will of the crown for smuggling, theft, murder… and many other horrible things.”
She’d always heard her father was “silver-tongued.” Clearly, that was a trait he’d inherited from Fiera. Because his brother was sorely lacking in eloquence.
Henrietta laughed. “Kill him.”
Vi didn’t waste a second longer, launching herself at the six smugglers. She’d told Jax to go for Henrietta. If he could handle that, she’d take on the other five.
Fire erupted around her hands as Vi swung, shooting a tendril of flame at one of the men still focused on Baldair and Erion. He screamed as the fire consumed him, though the sound was cut short as the fire was doused. Vi dodged backward, narrowly missing a spear of ice thrown.
She side-stepped, dodging another spear, and swept her foot across the ground. A wall of flame sheared off. The burnt man fumbled with his sword, determined to fight until his last breath. The woman shielded herself with a wall of ice that promptly became steam. Vi went for her—she was the more troublesome one.
With a flash of flame into the veil of steam, Vi stunned her, closing the gap. She grabbed for the sword the man was fumbling with, drawing it from the scabbard. Vi sliced his throat and swung for the Waterrunner. The woman had recovered, but her attention was elsewhere as she now engaged Erion Le’Dan.
The Waterrunner sunk a blade of ice into Erion’s side. Vi crossed the distance with a lunge and threw out her magic. “Juth starys,” Vi hissed under her breath—she wasn’t taking chances on the smuggler countering her attack. The woman erupted into white-hot flames.
“Up with you!” Vi shouted at Erion. He blinked, startled. The lot of them were young men, fresh to bloodshed. She’d have to keep pushing them, especially knowing what trials their futures held.
Jax needed her help next and Vi launched herself back into the fray. She moved around him, preempting his motions; she knew his openings and could cover his vulnerabilities now that she’d fought with him once before.
Among the four of them, they dispatched Henrietta and her crew easily. Vi surveyed the room, making sure no others were about to spring toward them, as Jax went to his comrades.
“Erion, you got one on your hip.”
“It’s not that bad,” Erion said bravely and pressed his hands into the wound.
“Nox, do you have any more potion?” Jax asked her. Vi shook her head. Lightspinning wasn’t an option now.
“I’ll burn it to stanch the bleeding.” Jax leaned forward, flames licking around his fingers.
“Nox? From the Lady Black? The sailor who chased the smuggler?”
“She saved me.”
“And the rest of you,” Vi added as she adjusted her braids. This didn’t seem like a group that valued girlish modesty, so Vi wouldn’t play that card. She slipped into second skins easier than pairs of leggings. “I was told you were a noble fool, but that truly exceeded my every expectation.”
Baldair, the golden prince, the playboy prince, the head of the Golden Guard—his reputation preceded him even after his young death in Vi’s world. Though, seeing him now, at sixteen, it was hard to imagine him as any of those things. All he looked like to Vi was a spitting image of Tiberus.
“Jax, I didn’t realize you were now in the business of babysitting lost, sassy children.” Baldair laughed, his words lacking bite.
“I think I’m the babysitter,” Vi mumbled as she began searching the crates.
“What’re you looking for?” he asked.
“It’s not here, either.” Vi sighed. She should be happy that Henrietta hadn’t found the treasure. But that meant the hard work was still ahead of them.
“You still haven’t told me what we’re looking for.”
“Adela Lagmir stole the crown of Lyndum and fled with the other wealth of the last king.” Vi straightened, placing her hands on her hips. “When the Emperor—your father, Baldair—chased her down the coast, she fled, giving all the impression that she’d taken the treasure with her. But I know it’s still here.”
“How are you so sure she left it?” Jax asked. “You said, if I helped you, you’d give me information on the treasure.”
“I overheard them talking when we were docked in the port here to unload stolen goods,” Vi lied. “They said someone was searching the caves and found ‘it.’ I assumed ‘it’ must mean the treasure. What else?”
“I think you’re right.” Baldair reached down, grabbing a wad of folded papers from his boot. “And we just so happen to have the map.”
“You do?” Vi couldn’t believe it. “Someone made a map to the treasure?” Someone who was very stupid to write such a thing down.
“Renalee had apparently been searching for the treasure for some time.”
“Well, show me,” Vi demanded, not bothering to ask who Renalee was.
“The city guard is coming; we can ask them for help.” The young prince hesitated.
“I’m not interested in waiting.” Vi tried to wave the idea away casually. Involving the city guard was a terrible idea—that was a whole lot of variables Vi didn’t want to deal with. “Besides, it would mean more people can get their hands on it. Don’t you want to be the only one to touch it, to hold it? Think of what the history books will say about ‘he who finally rested his hands upon the lost treasure of Adela.’” What did young men want more than glory? Vi was betting on very little.
“It’s my family’s treasure. If anyone gets to hold it, it’ll be me.”
“I think I deserve this,” Vi said with a roll of her eyes. “Especially after I helped you.”
“Lay out the papers, Baldair.” Erion was the one with sense in the group. Vi could tell that much. “I’m sure there’s more than enough treasure to go around.”
“Now you want a cut too?”
“I agree with the lady; I think we’ve all earned it,” Erion said to the prince coyly. “What better way to end the summer than actually finding some long-lost pirate treasure? We’ve already hunted a ghost, stopped a murderer, and caught smugglers red-handed. We earned it.”
“I agree. At this point, it’s basically our divine right,” Jax chimed in.
Vi snorted. Divine right—they had no idea.
Baldair relented with a chuckle, laying out the papers. He connected different curving lines stretching across multiple sheets to form a map, and Vi’s mind was already committing each to memory. Some of the tunnels she knew from exploring herself, or seeing the maps of Deneya and Taavin’s explorations. But other tunnels were paths they’d yet to go down. Dead ends and switchbacks were already recorded. The hard work was complete.
“All right,” she declared once the map was solidly in place. She didn’t need a moment more with it. “Let’s go.” The other three looked at her with surprise but fell into step.
They made their way through the tunnels, Vi dragging a dagger she’d lifted from one of the dead pirates along the wall to mark the way in case she returned with Taavin and Deneya.
There was some brief debate when they met a fork in the road. Ultimately they went right—something about a woman wearing an earring contributing to the decision.
At the end of the path was a dead end. Though wind howled through it. The four set to feeling ou
t the walls, eventually finding an illusioned tunnel.
On the other side was another cavernous space, large enough to fit two of the Lady Black side by side. The platform they stood on was just wide enough to stand comfortably without fear of falling. Beneath them, at the bottom of a sheer drop, was a swirling whirlpool. White caps battered the rocks, and the churning waters made it impossible to tell its depth. Though Vi knew, somewhere beneath it all, was a short tunnel that cut through the cliff and let the water rush out to sea.
Stretching from the middle of the room was a column. Nestled at the top was a block of ice that had a mountain of treasure frozen within. That treasure was further protected by the column’s distance from all the walls, the sheer drop, and the deadly water below.
Vi looked from water to ice to treasure as the men spoke.
“So then who made the ice?” Baldair was saying. “It’s still frozen solid, so it must have been recent.”
Vi doubted that. “Adela,” she chimed in.
“I thought Adela was dead,” Erion said cautiously.
“Just because she hasn’t been seen in a few decades doesn’t mean she’s dead.” Vi shrugged. It was the best tip she could give them on Adela, and she hoped to Yargen they listened. “And she seems to be as greedy as ever.”
Adela never got the treasure out, so she froze it in place to prevent anyone else from getting to it as if to say “see but don’t touch.” It seemed like a very Adela thing to do.
“It doesn’t matter who’s making the ice—made the ice—if we can’t even get to it,” Baldair said. “We have no Waterrunners in our party to cross the gap.”
“Should we go back to town and look for one?” Erion thought aloud.
“I don’t think we need to,” Vi said, her mind working swiftly to avoid bringing more people into the situation. “Adela was a smart woman—or it seems.” Vi was loathe to pay Adela a compliment, but intellect didn’t play favorites between good and evil. “She wanted to keep the treasure from anyone else, but it wouldn’t be impossible to believe that at some point, she might need to send someone who was not a Waterrunner to fetch it. Maybe she would’ve made it more difficult for them… but there has to be a path.”