55. Maren
55
Maren
W ood cracked behind my back as I closed the door. Stripping, shredding, wrenching apart. I spun around, scrambling to fit the only key into the lock.
Footsteps pounded on the other side, something large and heavy dragging behind them. A muffled, heavy thud vibrated along the lower edge of the door from a rough kick, followed by the bellowed tenor of my name.
But it was the scent of terror that made me pause. Every bit of molten metal that had tainted the air a few moments ago vanished in the place of acrid, sour fear.
Something hard and wooden exploded, causing the door to shudder again.
I cringed. I’d liked that chair.
The palace was quiet, its inhabitants tucked into their chambers. My feet scrambled down the stairs of Kye’s tower, taking them two at a time, then jogged across the sky bridge to the western wing where I fished Selena’s key from the crane’s throat and quietly inserted it into the lock.
Soft, rhythmic breathing met my ears. Two pairs of lungs from Thaan’s rooms, low murmurs through the walls of the shared office. I crept across the floor to locate the source of the third.
Selena’s eyes opened the moment I laid my palm across her mouth. She glanced up at me, a pool of calm water, though when I drew my hand away and she sat upright, I noticed her fingers dripped. She shook them out over the floor, flecking her rug with dark spots and letting her legs drop over the edge of her bed. I sat next to her, careful to avoid the lavender nightdress that rippled out around her hips.
“Are they asleep?” I whispered, cocking my head toward Thaan’s door.
Selena listened for a moment to the steady hearts beating nearby. “Yes.” I held out her apartment key, sitting in my palm next to my own. Selena’s brows rose.
I bit my lip. “There’s a pissed-off man in my tower. The guards are all incanted until morning when they wake up, so no one will hear him if he’s loud. And I’d hate for him to have to explain to a servant why he’s in chains alone in his room with the door locked.”
Half-way through a sleepy stretch, Selena threw a sharp glance at me. “Nikolaos? Why is he chained up?”
“To keep him from following me.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get the stone.”
She stared at me for a moment, shock igniting the blue in her eyes. She stood. “No.”
“I didn’t come here to ask for your permission.”
“No, Maren. Go back to your tower. Climb the stairs. Apologize to your husband.”
“The moon is full in three days and Thaan wants me to kill Hadrian.”
Selena’s heart sped. She looked a bit green as she gulped back a thought, waving her arm with a shaking hand. “So kill him.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do mean that. Do I want Prince Hadrian dead? No. But if the alternative threatens your safety, then there’s nothing to consider.”
“He’s Kye’s brother,” I snapped in a whisper.
“Nikolaos won’t be the first to lose a sibling to Thaan,” she snapped back. “Don’t place the fault on your shoulders. You didn’t write your contract, Maren. But you did sign it.”
I sighed, the taste of poison suddenly creeping up the back of my throat. “No. If I’m to stain my hands with blood, I at least get to choose the paint. And I don’t choose Hadrian’s.”
Selena crouched, inserting herself into my line of sight. “The moment you touch the Juile Sea, Sidra will know where you are. She’ll find you before you find her.”
“I know. I’m counting on it.”
“And she won’t let you go. What do you think will happen? That you’ll swim in there and she’ll embrace you with open arms? You gave your blood to her enemy, Maren. That makes you her enemy as well. She’d have every right to kill you on the spot.”
I stood, forcing her to take a step back. “Please let Kye out by morning.”
“Maren—” She grabbed hold of my elbow. “I can’t watch you go there. I watched my sister leave for the stone. She never came back.”
I pulled my arm calmly out of her grasp. “I’m not your sister.”
“I can’t help. I can’t go with you.”
“I wouldn’t let you.”
Desperation flickered in her eyes. The air suddenly tasted as sour as it had in the tower. “No one knows where it is. It’s hidden somewhere, and the lore tells that it can’t be found. I don’t even know that it’s real—”
“I know where it is.”
Selena stopped and gazed at me, mouth open in surprise.
“I found it on Neris Island. Months ago, in Taurennos . Dry season, before I came here. I gave it to Nori.”
She crossed her arms. “Whatever you found, I’m certain it wasn’t the Breath of Safiro.”
“It was.” I lifted my chin a fraction. “It was in the base of Nahli, the volcano. I had to swim in through underground channels to find it, and when I dove for the stone, the water changed. Thick and sludgy until I hit ice. It almost killed me.”
Selena stared at me. I stared back at her. Thaan and Cain’s breathing came through the walls, the soft thrash of the sea beating against the rocks a murmur through Selena’s cracked window.
She slowly shook her head. “This is not… She will not give you back, Maren. You will never see any of us again. Me, Diara, Kye.”
My stomach turned at her words. “Everything in the Naiad world is about choice.”
“It is.” She stepped in closer. “It is, and you made your choice. You made it months ago, and then sealed it in blood.”
“Either help me or don’t. You won’t change my mind.”
“This is not your fate—”
“Yes, it is,” I seethed quietly, suddenly impatient with the exchange. Selena leaned away, throat taut. “Nori and Olinne knew where to find it. They’d tried to reach it before, and they were Naiads, stronger swimmers than I was as a human. For whatever reason, they couldn’t get it. But I did. The stone chose me. It chose me , Selena, and I didn’t realize it at the time. I gave it away. But this is the path Mihauna has laid for me. Not whatever Thaan wants. Not whatever you think will keep me safe. The Breath of Safiro is my path. I can feel it in my bones. In my blood. This is my fate.”
Her mouth closed as I spoke, her shoulders softening, hands finding each other over her waist. I watched as her neck tightened and relaxed several times, and she finally gave a quick nod, blinking rapidly. “Alright,” she said, the word verging on soundless.
Mihauna alive. I exhaled, the sharp burden of the night lifted from my shoulders, at least by a fraction.
Selena frowned. “Thaan wants that stone. If he knew you retrieved it, you’d be even less safe with him than you are now.”
That didn’t surprise me. If Ceba had looked for it, I imagined he had too. “Do me a favor and don’t tell him.” She released a cold chuckle. I paused and gnawed my lip. “When I return, I want to learn to speak Rivean.”
Her eyebrows raised, though she tilted her head to one side and back, as though I’d provided a fair if not unexpected point. “I can arrange that, though I’ll have to find you a tutor. I know some Rivean, but not enough to teach you myself.”
“And Kravan.”
She nodded again, slower this time. “They’re similar languages. Learning one would aid in studying the other. Anything else?”
“Yes.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I want to learn how to heal by water-calling.”
Selena clicked her tongue, her chin dipping slowly. “That’s a harder task.”
“I can do it,” I argued. “I guided an arrow from Kye’s shoulder by calling to the water in his muscle tissue. I cleared Hadrian’s airways and flushed blood from Kye’s lungs. I know I can do it.”
“Of the fact that you can master the skill, I have no doubt,” Selena said. “The knowledge is rare. I only know one Naiad who can heal extensively through water, and I’ve never seen him take a student.”
I frowned. “Who?”
My mentor held my gaze with gravity, releasing a soft sigh through her nose. “Cain.”
“Cain?”
Her eyes darted to the rooms beyond her wall, as though the small, bespeckled man would wake at the sound of his name. I held my breath, ears strained for the sound of beating hearts nearby.
“Cain is unlike any Naiad you’ve met or will ever meet,” Selena said, her voice dropping into near silence.
I raised a brow, interested in hearing more. I’d never given Thaan’s assistant very much thought. I’m not even sure I’d thought of him as a Naiad. He’d never triggered my spiculae . But I had little time to stand around and muse about why not. Thaan had sparked a storm within me when he’d exacted a date for me to carry out my blood vow. I wouldn’t let it fade.
I had three days.
She straightened, watching the resolve harden over my features, and sighed. “What do you need from me?”
“Let Kye out. Don’t tell him where I’ve gone. He thinks I took my horse somewhere on the road, but I moved Kolibri to the southern stables. And just so you know, I’ve left him shield weed.”
“Oh, lovely.” She gave a silent laugh, tinged with acid. “You’ve kicked the hornet’s nest and left me to deal with the sting. What shall I tell him, when he asks where you’ve gone?”
I heaved a short breath. “That I’m on a special errand. I’ll be back in three days. I don’t trust what Thaan might do if I’m gone any longer.”
“That would be a quick swim,” she warned, crossing her arms as she walked me to her door. “It takes a ship three days to cover that distance. Sailing only one way.”
“Naiads are the fastest creatures in the sea.”
Her mouth twinged with a hint of smile, though it disappeared just as quickly. “Don’t give yourself decompression sickness. Naiads will recover from the bends faster than humans, but it can still kill you.”
“I know.”
She opened her door without asking how I might know, avoiding making any noise. Then hesitated. “You’re stronger than the average Naiad. I’m not sure that I’ve ever told you that. Most can control enough water to fill a water trough. I’ve seen you manage three times that amount, which means your blood promises the ability to do wonderous, terrible things.”
I raised a brow, wondering her purpose in this line of speech.
“But you are still young, and your control is untested.”
“Meaning?”
Ocean eyes met mine. “Do not underestimate Sidra.”
“I won’t. I promise. I’ll be back in three days.”
Selena gave a final nod. “And if you aren’t?”
I paused for a moment. “Nothing could keep me from returning here as quickly as I can. Nothing at all. Nothing. If I’m not back in three days,” I whispered, draped under the shadow of glass ceiling, “it’s because I’m dead.”