Hálendi’s king and heir. Turia’s future king.
There would be no one left to rule.
I jerked at the cursed rope around Ren’s wrists. “You shouldn’t have left the palace,” I snapped at her.
Mari folded her arms over her chest. “I can take care of myself.”
I pushed the rope away. “No you can’t,” I hissed at her.
Two tears tracked down her cheeks. Enzo and Ren were silent on either side of us. I shut my eyes even as my throat closed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Mari leaned into me, her chin quivering. If I hadn’t left, Mari wouldn’t have, either. Ren, Enzo, and Jenna wouldn’t be here.
My father was free, but at the cost of everyone else.
She hadn’t done this. I had.
I put my arm around her shoulder and held her hand. “I’m sorry. It’s not you I’m angry with. I’m angry with myself.” Mari sniffed and wiped her hand on the back of her sleeve. “I’m sorry I left you behind.”
“And what about Brownlok?” Ren asked, distracting Mari. “He was nice to you?”
Mari’s head bobbed. “He let me ride his horse and we ate all the sweetbreads we wanted, and he always made sure I got the warm blanket at night. He said he was taking me to see you and Ren,” she said to me. She frowned. “But he hasn’t been very nice to anyone else now that we’re with the mean lady and Koranth.”
Ren winced as the rope scraped against his wrists. “Mari, Brownlok is a mage. You can’t trust him.”
Her head jerked back. “He said he would bring me to you, and he did! It’s those other mages who tied you up.” She wrapped a curl around her finger. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
Enzo took her hand in his. “We’ll be safe if we stay together.”
She bit her lip. “What about Jenna?”
Mari’s words hit Enzo hard. Because I’d laid the blame at her feet, when really it belonged at mine. I squeezed her shoulder. “Jenna will be okay. We’ll make sure she’s okay.”
“Does anyone else think Brownlok’s fascination with Mari is odd?” Ren asked quietly.
I nodded, as did Enzo. Mari folded her arms and slumped against the mast. “He’s my friend.”
“Just stay close to us, okay?” I whispered to her. “We won’t leave you again.”
The waves pressed against our ship, making the deck roll and tilt until I had to squeeze my eyes shut. The remains of Graymere in Koranth, Redalia, and Brownlok, all together. Jenna unconscious, Enzo injured, Ren drained. Perhaps if we could get Cris on our side…Sennor had needed another chance. Same with Cynthia.
“What if we try to convince the crew, or Cris, to help us?” Ren flinched, but I continued. “Surely we can bribe them with more than what the mages have offered.”
Enzo grunted. “The mages offered the men magic, so I don’t think they’ll listen.”
“Magic?” Ren asked. “How is that possible?”
Enzo leaned a little more against the mast, weakening. “I have no idea.”
I shivered. “What about Cris?”
Ren was silent for a long time. “He’s chosen his path. He won’t deviate from it.”
That’s what I’d thought about Cynthia. About Sennor. “Would he if you let him?” I asked gently.
Ren didn’t answer me, but said, “At any cost, we need to maintain our usefulness to the mages.”
Or we’d die. He didn’t say it, but we all heard it.
Ren had thought quickly when he’d said I was necessary to finding the library. The words of the poem ran through my head again and again until they lost all meaning. My life would depend on figuring it out. Everyone’s lives would depend on it. My father—had Janiis recaptured him? And Aleksa, Luc, and Cynthia…
I sniffed, and Mari slipped her hand into mine, her other hand in Enzo’s.
“I don’t think I like this adventure as much as our last one,” Mari muttered, glaring at a crew member watching us. He spit something over the side of the ship and grinned at her with black teeth. She stuck her tongue out at him.
“I don’t, either, Mari,” I said.
The wind worsened as we traveled farther from Vera. Storm season was coming. Did these men intend to risk everything for the mage’s reward? A single, swaying lamp hung near us, casting a sickly glow. There were no stars to guide us, just endless black as we churned through impossibly huge waves. One crewman dropped a rope as thick as my arm on our laps, looping it around the mast so we didn’t tumble from the deck as the ship tilted.
We sailed on through the night, my head bobbing as I fell asleep only to be jerked awake by a wave. I wasn’t sure how long it had been when someone nudged my foot. I blinked slowly awake, taking too long to shake off the fog of not enough sleep.
Cris stood in front of me, arms folded, scowl in place. “We need our course.”
Ren laughed, dry and wheezing. “We’ve been traveling for ages. Now you need a course?”
Cris wrapped his hand around my arm just below my shoulder and lifted. I stood awkwardly, stumbling forward from under the heavy rope. Cris pointed his sword at Ren’s stomach. A wound he wouldn’t heal from.
I put my hands out to keep my balance. “It’s okay. I’ll look at the map and get the course.” No problem. I’d studied plenty of maps before. This one…would be no different. Except my life would depend on it.
Cris sheathed his weapon. “If you try anything, one word from me and Jenna won’t wake.”
They had all the power. For now.
I shook my head, and Ren leaned back. “Just…be careful,” he said to me.
Cris dragged me off before I could reply. We stumbled along the swaying deck, toward the square of light visible from the captain’s quarters. I tripped up the steps.
Cris’s grip tightened. “Don’t try to escape.”
“I’m not that good of a swimmer,” I muttered back.
The door opened, and Cris shoved me in, then left. My first, traitorous thought was how warm the room was.
Then I caught the glares from Koranth, Redalia, and Brownlok.
“Oh yes,” Redalia purred, polishing her dagger in the corner next to Brownlok. “I’m sure she will be able to do what we could not.”
My skin prickled, remembering what Redalia had done to me before.
Confidence. Make them believe it. Just like every time I faced down an arrogant noble.
“The young king said you could interpret the map.” Koranth swept his hand over a table bolted to the wall. Maps scattered its surface. “Interpret.”
Ren
When Cris had turned his back on me, guiding Chiara toward the captain’s quarters, I wanted to follow and toss him overboard. But Mari was sniffling in her sleep, huddled against Enzo, who looked like he could use a warm fire and a soft bed. For a week.
“Sleep,” I told him. “You’ll need it.”
He shook his head, staring into the night that had swallowed us. “How can I? They have her, Ren. I can’t…I can’t let anything happen to her.”
I raised an eyebrow and leaned my head against the mast. “And I can?”
“Of course not, I just—”
“Relax,” I sighed. “I only meant we’re in agreement. We’ll find a way to keep her safe. To keep everyone safe.”
My body screamed for sleep, for food and water. My magic had healed the wound on my shoulder, though slower than usual. Enzo’s body had been damaged far more than I expected. Once I’d started letting magic flow into him, his body pulled more and more for the hidden injuries I couldn’t see. Bruises and cracked bones and his head…I shuddered against how much magic it had needed to heal.
Chiara had saved my life.
And Jenna? I still didn’t know how badly she was injured. Her magic would work to heal her physical injuries, but what else
had Koranth and Redalia done? Marko’s body had been healthy enough, yet he’d remembered nothing of his life. Had they done the same to Jenna?
I ran my tongue along the dry roof of my mouth. I’d had nothing to eat in way too long. Nothing to drink. Water sloshing against the boat, the gentle swaying, kept my thirst at the forefront.
Never before had I been so out of control of a situation. The knife in my boot may as well have been a soup spoon. I couldn’t take out five crewmen, three mages, and my traitorous best friend on my own.
I wasn’t strong enough to save everyone.
“If something does happen to me,” I said quietly to Enzo, “or if you have the chance to save everyone else, promise me you’ll get them away?”
Enzo was silent for so long I thought he’d fallen asleep. “Same,” he whispered finally. “I’ll make the promise as long as you promise me as well.”
Jenna would never forgive me if something happened to Enzo. It had to be me. I’d make sure it was. “I promise.”
Enzo shifted so Mari was more comfortable, then rested his head back against the mast. Soon his breathing was deep and even. I envied his ability to sleep, though the head injury and healing probably had something to do with it.
Different situations ran through my head, possible strategies to outmaneuver the mages. Despite their magic, Koranth’s shade blade, and Redalia’s gold dagger, they remained massively ignorant: they’d left the ring in my pocket, and Cris had the Medallion.
Brownlok knew the value of the artifacts. The others didn’t. Perhaps they assumed Brownlok still held the Turian ring. Or perhaps they knew their power outweighed everything else.
In every scenario I came up with, someone fell by the wayside—I couldn’t save everyone. Couldn’t even think up a scenario where everyone except me made it out.
The black boots were back.
I groaned—softly, so I wouldn’t wake Enzo and Mari. “Miss me already? Or did the grown-ups kick you out of their important meeting?”
Cris scoffed and leaned against the railing, arms folded, sneer in place. “Even now, your arrogance makes you assume you’ll remain unharmed. That those you love will remain unharmed.”
Not strong enough. I held tight to the rope around us, fighting the urge to push Cris overboard. “What happened to Jenna?”
He lifted his chin. “Mage Koranth is keeping her poisoned. Just enough of a dose to keep her asleep and alive.”
Poison. Not an injury, then. Wouldn’t take as much magic to heal her, if I ever got the chance. “Why?”
“To keep you in line,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing. “And so Redalia can have her revenge after they’ve found the library.”
I rolled my eyes, but tucked the information away. Redalia needed the library first. “Not that, ice head. Why you? What do you get from of this alliance? You really think mages will keep you around after they’ve gotten what they want?” I swallowed and stared at his boots, forcing the words out, though I didn’t want to. But for Chiara—for all of them—I’d try. “We were friends.”
Cris crossed one leg over the other, casual as ever. “Is it really friendship when you’re set to be the next ruler and I couldn’t even get my own father to acknowledge me?”
I hadn’t known Leland was Cris’s father until they’d both betrayed me—how long had he known? How long had he been seeking Leland’s approval, and keeping it from me?
We’d been close. But Cris had always been aware of our differing statuses—little things, like who entered a room first, how he’d fade into the background in certain situations. I never cared about any of that; I thought he hadn’t minded.
I rubbed my aching forehead. “Yes. To me, we were friends. They’ll kill us, Cris. You’re going to watch that happen and do nothing?” He didn’t have an answer to that. No snarky comeback. “Why do you persist in this path?”
He turned away, a silhouette against the nothingness beyond. “There was no going back. You’d never have forgiven me.”
He said the words so quietly I had to strain to hear them. Was he right? Was Chiara? My anger still boiled hot—too hot to touch—but never? “I might have,” I finally said.
He laughed. “We both know that isn’t true.”
My jaw was so tight it ached, but I had to continue. “I hope I would have forgiven you. Cris, this is insanity. These are ancient mages. They won’t share their power with you once you’ve served your purpose.”
He finally turned around, bleakness streaking from his eyes down his shoulders and into the tips of his fingers and boots. “Then I’ll need to maintain my value.”
He stalked away, up the short stairs next to the wheel, and didn’t look at me again.
I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to hit something or curl up and sleep. How could he claim to be my friend, yet turn from me so quickly, so completely? How had I missed the mask my best friend wore?
I tucked my legs up and wrapped my arms around them, settling my head on my knees so I could watch the door that hid Chiara. I touched my chest where the Medallion had been. I’d come to rely on it, and now my dependence hobbled me.
I didn’t know what to do, which path to choose. When to fight, when to wait. But I guess its magic wouldn’t have worked on the sea, anyway.
Chiara was powerless in there. Her key to survival was an old poem committed to memory, one we’d already solved to find the map.
Mari jerked awake, like she’d had a nightmare. “Hey, it’s okay,” I told her. She wiped tears from the corner of her eyes. “Here,” I said, holding out my hand.
She slipped hers into mine. “You can keep holding my hand,” she said, even as her eyes drifted closed again. “Brownlok said I helped keep him from fading away.”
Her voice drifted off and she settled back into sleep. She was right. She did help me feel like I wasn’t fading away.
The boat continued to roll and heave as we tried to stay ahead of the storm. A line of bright light seared my eyes, startling me from the half sleep I’d fallen into.
The door opened, and I caught a glimpse of two people—Koranth and Brownlok?—before a man escorted Chiara back to the mast. I didn’t want to release Mari, but I wanted her and Chiara between Enzo and me, so I slid over to make room. She settled next to me with the same grace she’d use while wearing a fancy dress in a ballroom, tucking the rope back around her like she’d place a napkin on her lap at dinner.
But as soon as the man walked away, her shoulders rolled in and she tucked her knees up. I wished I could put my arm around her, and tugged at the knots at my wrists again. The rope only rubbed against my skin, which in turn drained another grain of magic to heal the burns forming.
“Are you okay?” I whispered. Mari and Enzo hadn’t stirred.
She nodded, brows furrowed.
Why wasn’t she saying more? What had they done to her? I touched her arm. My hand shook, and the edges of panic snuck under my guard. “Did anyone hurt you?”
Chiara blinked. “Oh. No. Just…thinking.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Thinking? You go into a room alone with three mages and a captain of dubious origins, and you come out pondering life?” She laughed, and the sound loosened the panic’s hold on my lungs. “What happened in there? What’s got you thinking?”
She stared at the blackness beyond the ship’s railing. “I did it. At least, I think I did.”
I tilted my head. “Did what?”
“I figured out the map.”
A slow smile grew. She glowed with pride—a little green cast to her skin, but still glowing. “How did you do it? Another pirate story?”
She chuckled. “I studied old maps with Yesilia. They’re different—not based on the compass directions we use, so you have to know how to orient them. I matched up one of the captain’s maps with the one we found using the inl
et, where the random lines start.” She paused and leaned closer. “Do you still have the ring Brownlok threw down?”
I nodded. “Brownlok didn’t mention it?”
She shook her head. “Maybe Mari is right. He was willing to trade with us—”
“That doesn’t mean we can trust him. It just means he has his own agenda.” Something about what he said, that he’d trade Mari for one artifact, didn’t sit right. Maybe he wanted the same artifact we needed for Marko. I didn’t know what it looked like, only that it existed, so I wasn’t much help there.
I flexed my fingers, trying to keep the numbness at bay. “Did you see Jenna?”
Chiara set her chin on her knees. “No. There was a small closet, though. Maybe she was in there? Or she could be in the hold under the deck.”
Torches. Arches. I closed my eyes and breathed the fresh, cold sea air. Jenna was alive. Cris had said Redalia wanted her alive.
“We’ll find her, Ren,” Chiara said, leaning forward to catch my eye. “She’s strong. She’ll be okay. We’ll get out of this.”
Chiara had more faith than I did. She shifted and tugged at her trousers, adjusting her too-big boots. “The one time I’m not wearing a skirt is the time we get kidnapped.”
A chuckle rose in me at her unexpected comment. “You want to wear a skirt?” Jenna had moaned for years about being forced to wear dresses around the castle.
Chiara shrugged and tugged at her trousers again. “Of course! Layers means it’s warmer, and men don’t stare at my legs as much.”
I immediately moved my gaze from her legs to her eyes, which were laughing at me. I bumped my shoulder against hers, and the panic loosened. I’d expected her to wilt under the pressure. We were on a boat with mages, probably sailing to our deaths, which would also mean the deaths of our families and our kingdoms. “You aren’t…scared right now?”
She sighed, leaned closer. “I’m terrified. But that won’t help us survive. And we are going to survive. I’m just not sure how yet.”
If she hadn’t lost her spark, neither would I. I tilted my head, grinning at her. “Well, tell me when you figure it out.”
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