The Deepest Blue

by Sarah Beth Durst

  He understood her subtext. “We are grateful for your efforts.” He studied her closely. “Would you care to sit down? Your cheeks look flushed.”

  “No, thank you. Indeed, I wish to see the sunset from the shore. Will you show me the best route to the sand?” She didn’t think he would allow her to wander alone, especially since her family was on the property. Plus if she kept him with her, she could ensure he didn’t learn of their escape before she was ready.

  “It would be my honor and delight.”

  He looked neither delighted nor honored, but he acquiesced and escorted her down a path. Guards marched behind them, and she called on the tree spirits to pull them away and subdue them, wrapping them in branches in the growing shadows, silencing them with leaves.

  By the time they reached the shore, it was only her and Lord Maarte. They were out of sight of the battlements, hidden by the shadow of the cliffs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kelo a few yards down the beach, waiting for her family to emerge from the earth spirit’s tunnel. She reached into the pocket of her dress and withdrew some of Garnah’s purple powder.

  “One question, Lord Maarte, now that we’re alone.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty?”

  “Did you poison me?”

  He stared at her for a moment, and she could see the calculations behind his eyes—he thought she looked unwell, and the guards were too far to hear either of their words . . .

  “Yes, Your Majesty. Your visit here, unannounced and off schedule, was alarming, yet another indication that your obedience is not as complete as the Families would like. A final straw, if you will. For the good of Belene, I did what I had to do.”

  She blew the powder into Maarte’s face with a smile. “For the good of Belene, so did I.”

  He collapsed on the sand.

  Hiking her skirts up to her knees, Asana ran across the shore toward where her family should appear any moment now. I’m coming, my dear ones!

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Kelo saw the queen running across the sand as he helped the queen’s father out of the tunnel. Her father was followed by her mother, then Garnah, with a pleased cat-who-spilled-the-milk-but-will-deny-it expression.

  The older man let out a half-cry, half-moan as he stumbled across the beach toward Queen Asana. His wife followed, and soon they were all in one another’s arms. Kelo felt tears well up in his own eyes. This was how it should be. This was right!

  “Very touching,” Lady Garnah muttered. “But let’s move it along.”

  “They haven’t seen each other in years,” Kelo objected. “Give them a moment, for pity’s sake.” You could almost taste the emotion flowing from them—the love and relief and joy radiated from the three of them. The first star of the evening shone in the deepening blue sky, as if it were blessing them with its approval. His fingers itched to capture the moment in a sketch. It would make a gorgeous work of stained glass, with the sea and the sky just past sunset.

  “The queen’s family isn’t free yet,” Garnah snapped. “Not until they’re back in the palace and the truth is known. If the queen and her parents are killed here, in the shadows of the fortress where no one can see, then this will have all been for nothing.”

  “No one will kill the queen. Everyone in Belene needs her alive.” Even the most self-interested would balk at removing the one who kept the worst of the monsters asleep.

  “You’re adorably naive. It’s going to get you killed, you know. We need a queen. And I’ve been told that by tradition, there’s always an heir in the Belene grove, ready to take control should the current queen unexpectedly fall, which is a beautifully practical solution that has the flaw of making the queen expendable.”

  She could be right. He felt chilled, as if he’d been dunked into the ocean.

  “If you’re right, we need to leave.” Kelo started toward the queen and her parents. They were hugging, laughing, crying, and talking over one another all at the same time. “Wait, where’s the queen’s daughter?”

  “She wasn’t there,” Garnah said, watching Queen Asana and her parents. Her voice was expressionless, but her eyes were a mix of hungry and sad, as if this moment were conjuring up memories. Kelo would have asked what she was thinking of, if the words she were saying weren’t so horrifying. “The queen’s parents said she’s beyond the Families’ reach and not to wait.”

  “If she’s not there, where is she? Is ‘beyond their reach’ a euphemism for dead?”

  At the same time, he heard the queen ask, “But where is my Rokalara?”

  Silence.

  “Not . . . ?”

  Her father spoke. “I’m sorry, Asana. We hid her power for as long as we could, but she insisted on displaying it in front of the lord. There was nothing to be done.”

  The queen looked fragile, as if a hard wind would blow her into pieces and she’d scatter like a pile of fallen leaves. “Lord Maarte looked me in the face and lied. . . . After he tried to poison me, of course. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected any different.”

  Poison! Kelo thought.

  But Lady Garnah didn’t look concerned or surprised at this revelation. He tried to feel reassured. If anyone knew how to counteract poison, it would be her. Lady Garnah won’t let anything happen to her. Other people might suffer—Lady Garnah was remarkably unconcerned about protecting innocent bystanders—but Kelo was certain of the poison-maker’s loyalty.

  Queen Asana drew herself straighter, looking like a queen again, not a long-lost daughter. “Tell me: What did my little Roe choose?”

  “She’s on the island,” her mother said.

  “Not for much longer,” Asana said firmly. “I have promised an end to the test, for the sake of one who has aided me and for the good of all Belene. And I will end them now.”

  Kelo was about to step forward, to suggest that they leave before they attracted trouble, but the appeal of stopping the test now, of saving Mayara, was too great. He stayed silent.

  Queen Asana closed her eyes in concentration—and then her eyes popped open. Kelo tried to decipher the look of wonder and amazement on her face. Had she done it already? Was the test over? What did it mean for the test to be over? Was Mayara coming home? Before he could ask any of the questions that wanted to spill from his mouth, Asana said, “I don’t know how or why, but Roe is coming! She’s nearly here!”

  Her parents both began talking at once.

  “How did you do that?”

  “How do you know?”

  “Why is she coming?”

  “How did she leave the island?”

  “Is she all right?”

  “Is she coming by ship?”

  Their voices tumbled over one another. And Asana: “She’s being chased by Silent Ones. I’m going to help her outrun them.”

  Kelo noticed that Lady Garnah was frowning up at the fortress. He stared too.

  “Do you think the Silent Ones will interfere?” Kelo asked.

  “That’s not my worry,” Garnah said.

  “Then what is?”

  She pointed to the battlements where archers paced along the perimeter. So far, they hadn’t noticed the small reunion on the sands in the shadow of the cliffs, but how long would that last? “The queen has to do whatever she’s going to do quietly.”

  And then the sea seemed to explode.

  Water shot into the air, and a spirit breeched the surface. It looked like a whale but with shimmering scales. It began to swim away from the shore. Wave after wave hit the sand, and each was filled with dozens of seafoam spirits.

  “Yeah, she’s not being quiet,” Kelo said, his heart thumping faster.

  From the fortress, he heard shouting. He looked up to see the archers congregating by the walls. But none seemed to be aiming their arrows at the people down on the beach. Their attention was fixed on the chaotic sea.

  “I take it back,” Garnah said with a wolfish grin. “She can be loud. So long as she’s also spectacular.”

  It was spectacular,
to be sure. The waves parted before they hit the shore and chased unnaturally along the side of the island without breaking. He saw the shadows of sea creatures within the water—turtles, dolphins, fish—and then the water swept past them.

  In its wake, he saw a spirit shaped like a whale coming toward them, with three people clinging to its back. It was pushed along by a swell of water.

  As they reached the shore, Kelo saw their faces.

  Three women. But he cared about only one of them.

  Mayara.

  She was here!

  MAYARA FELT THE SURGE IN THE WATER, AND THE WHALE SPIRIT lurched forward. “What’s happening?” she cried. Looking back, she saw the sea was churning. “Is it the Silent Ones? Are they following us?”

  “I don’t know!” Roe called back. “I can’t touch its mind!”

  It was being controlled by another. They must have found us! The spirit storm had delayed them, but not forever—Mayara saw, in the midst of the froth behind them, the shapes of women in gray robes. They stood side by side on the peak of a wave.

  “Focus on the spirit!” Palia cried. “Break this hold!”

  The three spirit sisters battered at it with their minds, trying to break through, but still it didn’t respond. Instead, the whale spirit brought a swell of water that propelled them forward so fast that the wind screamed in their ears.

  “Stop! Mayara, Palia, stop fighting it!” Roe shouted. “It’s not taking us back!”

  She was right—they hadn’t reversed direction. But where’s it going? Mayara wondered. It had to be controlled by the Silent Ones who chased them, but then why weren’t the three of them returning to Akena Island? Why were they still speeding toward their destination?

  “We could jump and swim,” Mayara suggested. The waves were high on either side, hemming them in, and the force and speed of the current made her uncomfortable. But she had experience with riptides—you swam with the current until you could break out of it.

  “I can’t swim in water that strong,” Palia said. “I know my limits. I’d drown in minutes.”

  Roe nodded. “I’d last seconds.”

  “We could use other spirits—” Mayara began.

  “No.” Roe was focused on something far away. Mayara tried to reach out as well, to see what Roe saw, but all she sensed was the implacable resolve of the whale spirit. Whoever had imprinted their will on it had overpowered all other thought—and that was almost more terrifying than anything else. Who was this strong? How many heirs and Silent Ones awaited them? And how could they escape?

  The wind spat in their faces as they rushed through the sea between two walls of water. Ahead, Mayara saw the familiar shape of the Neran Stronghold. “Who’s doing this?”

  “I think . . . it’s my mother!”

  The fortress, lit by torches and framed against the evening sky, was in front of them. Propelled by waves, the whale spirit carried them so fast that Mayara felt as if they were flying.

  She saw figures on the beach: five. From their outlines, she guessed two were men and three were women, but she couldn’t see faces. Were they heirs? Guards? Silent Ones? Or was Roe right—had they found Queen Asana?

  The wave lifted and then deposited them on the sand like seaweed, in a pile. Mayara scrambled to her feet, feeling for her glass knife.

  But she didn’t need it.

  Roe launched herself off the sand. “Mother!”

  Mayara dusted off her knees as she watched the reunion. Roe was embracing an exquisitely dressed woman drenched in pearls. An older man and woman clustered around her. Roe’s grandparents, she guessed. They were all talking at the same time, laughing and crying and asking why and how. . . . And then Mayara heard the best sound in the world: Kelo’s voice.

  “Mayara? You’re alive?”

  “Kelo?” How could . . . But it was! He was here! With a cry, she threw herself at him. His arms closed around her. “You’re here! How are you here? Why—”

  He kissed her, and she kissed him back. He tasted exactly as she’d been daydreaming ever since they were torn apart. “You’re alive!” she said when they finally had a chance to breathe.

  “You’re alive!” he countered. “I thought—”

  “I thought too! I was so afraid—”

  “I was too. When they told me—”

  “They told me too! You were dead. And then you weren’t. Or maybe you were, but I didn’t know. I believed you lived, but I didn’t know. And now you’re here.” He hadn’t died that day in the cove! He was alive and real! Elorna truly had saved him. He kissed her again. She kissed him back, feeling as if the rest of the world had faded into mist around them. She heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing, and tasted nothing but Kelo.

  Then he drew back to look at her, only a few inches, and she studied him as if she wanted to memorize every curve and angle and crease. Tears were running down both their faces. She touched his cheek, half expecting him to vanish. How could this be real? It felt as if she were living inside a dream. “It’s a miracle,” she said.

  “You’re a miracle. Mayara, I’m sorry I told you to be a Silent One. It was selfish. I thought if you lived, there was hope. But I should have trusted you, trusted in your strength.”

  She cupped his face in her hands and started kissing him again. In between kisses, she asked, “But how is this possible?” She’d dreamed she’d find him after it was over, not so quickly and easily, as if fate had delivered him like a present wrapped with a bow. “Why are you here?”

  “To find the queen’s family and stop the test.” He pulled back again. “Why are you here?”

  She laughed. “Same. To find the queen and stop the test.” A secret part of her had been so afraid that Elorna was wrong or lying. She hadn’t let that part speak up, but it was there. She’d heard his screams. But he was here, and he’d been trying to save her all along. . . .

  “All these reunions are lovely,” a woman in a ruffled skirt said, “but it would be even more delightful if they could be happening somewhere else.” She nodded significantly down the beach, where the prone body of a man lay.

  Mayara couldn’t see who it was. She wondered if they’d killed someone. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But the guards at the fortress—they’d noticed the body too, and they clearly did want to know. Dozens were pouring onto the stairs to the beach.

  Then an arrow struck the sand.

  Mayara and Kelo both tried to step in front of the other, to protect each other from the guards. Together, they backed away. I won’t let them hurt him, she thought. She’d use her power if she had to. The ocean was still thick with spirits.

  “It’s time to leave,” the queen said. “We must return to Yena and announce—”

  Her eyes went wide, her mouth slack. Blood blossomed on her ivory bodice and spread between the pearls. The woman in the ruffles spun to scan the fortress battlements, as did Kelo. Roe reached for the queen. “Mother?”

  And then Mayara saw Palia.

  She stood behind the queen and held a glass-shard knife that was stained with blood.

  “Mother?” Roe cried.

  Queen Asana slumped forward into her daughter’s arms.

  “No, no, what’s happening?” Roe asked. “Mayara, the angel seaweed . . .”

  Angel seaweed couldn’t help this. Blood was darkening the sand as it leeched through the queen’s pearl dress. “Palia, what did you do?” Mayara breathed.

  The woman in ruffles was uttering curse after curse. She knelt beside the queen and pulled powders and vials from her pockets. “Put pressure on the wound.” She ripped ruffles from her skirt and balled them up, handing them to Roe to press onto the spreading scarlet.

  Blood soaked through the ruffles.

  “She’s pierced a damn lung,” the woman said. “No potion in the world can fix that. Dammit. This was not the plan. Your Majesty . . .”

  In two strides, Mayara reached Palia and grabbed her shoulders. She shook the older woman. “What did you do?”<
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  Palia didn’t meet her eyes. Staring numbly at the queen, Palia let the knife fall from her fingers. It landed in the sand.

  “Why?” Mayara asked.

  “Because my daughter has dreams,” Palia said, her eyes fixed on Queen Asana slumped in the sand with Roe sobbing against her.

  “Your daughter?” That made no sense. She thought back to what Palia had told them about her daughter, how she’d studied the tides, until Palia was taken and there was no more money to support her dreams. “This won’t help her! You were supposed to go home, go back to weaving sails, and send her to her last years at university. You were going to help her live her dreams. Remember?”

  “She has dreams, but she also has powers,” Palia said. “She’ll lose everything if she’s discovered and forced to choose. It has to end. No more test. No more Silent Ones.”

  Mayara wanted to shake her. “Roe was going to ask her mother to end the test!” This was the entire reason they’d come here! Everything they’d done to escape the island was for this very purpose, so why would—

  “And it would work . . . until her family was in danger again,” Palia said. “Queen Asana has proven time and again that she can be controlled. The second her family is recaptured by them”—she pointed toward the guards who were running down from the fortress toward the sand—“the test will resume. My daughter won’t be safe with her as queen. We need a queen with no ties. Lanei will be the queen that Belene needs.”

  “Lanei! How could you listen to her? She tried to kill you! Plus, she’s not even an heir! She can’t be queen.” Mayara wanted to scream in Palia’s face. It was utterly illogical and idiotic—a queen could be crowned only in a grove, and Lanei was back on Akena Island fending off the Silent Ones and the spirits. She hadn’t even escaped, had she?

  “She’s trying to save the future spirit sisters of Belene, which includes my daughter,” Palia said. “She’s willing to sacrifice for the greater good. How can I do less?”

  “Easily!” Mayara shouted. “It’s very easy not to stab the queen!” How could Palia do such a thing? I know her! She’s not . . . But what did she really know about Palia? All she really knew was Palia loved her daughter and would do anything for her. Anything. “How could you put your trust in Lanei? Over the queen? Over us?”