64. Maren
64
Maren
Q ueen Sidra was laid to rest below the Juile Sea just hours after I took her throne.
In the center of waving kelp beds, Sidra’s face angled towards the twinkling night sky. A pod of humpback whales passed overhead as the Naiads offered their goodbyes, a parade of spirit guides inviting the Queen to cross the Sea of Stars. The Naiads stopped to gaze in wonder, and I wondered if, like Leihaniians, whales were sacred to them.
Aoede and Aitne stood in the mineral pool water, tracing my blood through the black Byssus —sea silk, Olinne informed me—mending the broken bone for a full day and night. I stopped them when it was strong enough I could stand on it. Tired, their energy dwindled, the two Naiads swayed on their feet. But they knew, as I stood to look around the room, that I intended to go.
“It might always pain you,” Aoede sighed, stretching her shoulders after an hours long session of water calling to my leg. “Aitne will go with you. She can continue healing your bone. An hour a day will mend it twice as fast as leaving it be.”
I exhaled, directing my gaze to Aitne, who had leaned into her mother’s side. “Give me a day. Let me ensure Thaan suspects nothing. Then I will return to the water’s edge at the palace and invite you in. I won’t bring you into a dangerous situation so recklessly.”
They looked as though they wanted to argue. But Aitne nodded. “Yes, my Queen. I will swim with you as far as you will let me.”
I gave a single nod. “Maren.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “Queen Maren.”
“Will Thaan know my contract is fulfilled?” I asked, redirecting my attention to Nori as I stood. I’d officially named her my first Oculos . Aoede had been Sidra’s second, I’d learned as they’d healed me. But I wanted to take my time getting to know the Naiads before I officially handed off the title.
“I think not,” Nori answered, her eyes flicking to Aoede for affirmation. “When Theia took Queen Sidra’s lungs, other abilities went missing too. Her sense of smell and taste, her body’s ability to keep warm. Sidra knew your blood was tainted by Thaan because I sensed it and shared it with her when we first entered the colony. She couldn’t have sensed it herself.”
I nodded vaguely, mind whirring in memory. Sidra had said that Nori and Olinne eventually scented my corda with Kye, but Thaan hadn't sensed it himself the day he’d arrested me. By the time I’d met Selena, it had been over a month since I’d saved his life, more than enough time for any scent to fade.
“Thaan has no hold over you,” Nori continued, following me as I paced the outskirts of the mineral pools to the passageway. “If he threatens you, enter the Juile Sea with your corda-cruor . Thaan cannot follow you here. We have remained safe from him for centuries.”
The Naiads bowed their heads at me as I walked. I found myself gently reaching for them as I passed, lightly touching their shoulders and arms, acknowledging their bow, as though the queen blood in my veins directed my movement.
“He is searching for a way to find this,” I replied under the twin staircase, my fingers curling around Sidra’s stone. The Breath of Safiro was just as I remembered. A prism of clear, icy blue that faded into a sharp, frosted corner. It hung from my neck, weighted and warm. “He doesn’t know I retrieved it for Sidra.”
Nori nodded, closing her eyes. “You wear a cloak of secrecy. It is your advantage. Do not unveil it, no matter the cost.”
I swallowed. Below me, the water lapped at my calves, warm against my skin.
“I will come to you every seventh day,” Nori promised. We stopped at the exit, pale turquoise sea water waiting for me to climb down and swim away. “If you cannot meet me, hang a white cloth from your balcony.”
I nodded, eyes on the water. It was time to go, and I wasn’t quite ready to leave. All my life, I’d been alone. Apart . Now, surrounded by Naiads who welcomed me in the passageways, who leaned into my words as if hungry for my thoughts, the idea of returning to Calder left a weight in my chest, hard and heavy as the ivory floor I stood upon.
But somewhere to the north, Kye waited. And though I was slightly terrified of subjecting myself to the interrogation I knew was coming, I was even more afraid of what would happen to him if I waited any longer.
“Hide that well,” Nori said, copper eyes lingering over the Breath of Safiro. “Do not let him find it.”
“Could he use it if he did?”
Nori frowned. “It offers breath to its wearer. But it is more important than just that. This stone was made for the Queen of the Juile Sea. It is a vessel of power that in six months, Queen Sidra was only beginning to awaken. You are Queen of the Juile Sea, you will proceed where she left off. He abandoned these waters a thousand years ago. The stone will not heed him. But he won’t hesitate to take your power from you. Do not let him find it.”
My fingers found the hard lump under my dress. “I won’t.”
“And do not miss the moon. Your leg is still mending, and you emptied your reservoirs of energy in your fight with the Queen. Your abilities will grow as her power continues to transfer to you. It will take weeks, maybe even months. Make certain your vessel for her strength grows large enough to hold it all. Do not miss a moon.”
I sighed. “The full moon is tonight. It will be night by the time I’m there, I’ll be sitting under Mihauna’s light in only a few hours.”
“And do not be alarmed when the tattoos come.”
That made me pause. “Tattoos?”
Nori smiled. “New Videres will know their power is fully transferred when their tattoos are stark against their skin. Queens will have white, male monarchs will have black. They fade with age, but Queen Sidra had them, too.”
“Alright,” I said, glancing at the blue prism.
Olinne took my hand, squeezing. “My Queen. We will be here, awaiting your return.” Nori nodded in sober agreement. I returned the pressure, wondering if I would ever grow accustomed to hearing queen from them rather than creature .
They bowed their heads and closed their eyes. I filled my lungs with colony air, potent from the spiky green plants that lined the walls, and slid into the water, watching as their faces turned blurry. A moment later, Aitne flitted down beside me, radiant in fins of steely-blue.
The muscular base of my tail where my spine met my flukes ached as I swam. I sagged to the left, the right side of my tail lame. We stopped more often than I’d have liked for Aitne to mend the work I’d destroyed, and by the time we reached the coastline of the palace, I’m uncertain which of us proved sorer and more exhausted.
“I hope you’re not intending to climb one of those towers, my Queen,” Aitne murmured.
“I am,” I said, pointing in the dark. “That one there.”
Aitne shook her head. “You will not make it up those stairs by yourself.”
Mihauna alive, her words made me even more tired. “I’ll be fine.”
“Is there a place you can bathe in the moonlight for a few hours—”
“I’ll be fine, Aitne,” I said, placing my hand on her shoulder, though my voice carried a firm order that the subject had ended.
Aitne gave a small nod, chin dipping into the water. It was night, and Mihauna hung full and heavy in the sky, casting soft light over the red cliffs. She eyed the vertical walls of the shore with distaste. “How will we get you up?”
I rubbed an eye, my voice thick with a desire for sleep. “The sea will carry me. I’ll leave you here.”
She treaded backwards as I pulled the water together, drawing it up, up, up, as tall as one of the towers above, and deposited myself onto the edge of the cliff. The water fell away, and I turned to offer Aitne a wave.
Down below, she waved back. Then slipped under the surface. The last hours of the full moon lay ahead, and I needed all the power it could give me. But nothing would keep me from checking on Kye first.
I called the water off my figure, surprised at the sea silk gown I still wore. In the humid warmth of the colony, it had been cool. But here, in the misty bite of Calderian winter, it was even warmer than my quilted riding dress. Too tired and sore to bear thought of romping around the heather in search of the clothes I’d left for myself, I made for the palace doors to find the nearest entrance, and the guard I knew would be waiting just outside.
Except the first step had me almost crying in pain.
My leg buckled under my weight, sending me falling to my knee, where waves of white-hot knives sliced over my bone. I clenched my teeth, shoving upright, and two steps later, fell again.
An arsenal of curses left my mouth that would have made Kye proud. I stood again, angry tears invading my eyes. Aitne was right. I wouldn’t make it up the tower steps. I wasn’t even certain I could make it to the palace doors. Heaving a shaking breath, I straightened as much as I could and sang.
My melody wavered a little, my notes broken with the need for sleep and the weakness in my body. I sang longer than I usually did, nervous I wouldn’t overtake my victim as quickly as the times I’d sang at full strength. My song ended in the hollow air. Everything surrounding me suddenly became still.
“Come,” I said, hoping someone had been close enough to hear.
They had. Two guards drifted out from the palace walls a minute later, eyes wide and blank. They halted before me, waiting for their orders.
“Is Prince Nikolaos inside his tower?” I asked.
“He is,” the smaller guard answered. “He’s been waiting for his princess to return from Cynthus Castle with her belongings. His light has been on all night.”
I glanced at Kye’s tower again, impressed he’d designed a cover story for my disappearance. The silhouette of a tall man moved across his balcony, leaning on his forearms against the railing, and I could have sworn he looked down at us.
That answered that. He was safe.
“What about Lady Selena?”
The larger one drifted a foot closer. “I saw her this morning, leaving the advisory.”
“Speaking with Sir Thaan?”
“No,” he said. “Thaan left three days ago, and we have not heard where to.”
“Probably following Diara and Hadrian through Ochire to Pirou,” I mused out loud, smiling to myself. I’d warned her to take the western trail instead, winding through Winterlight and The Mines before landing in her family’s mountain estate. The guards said nothing.
“I won’t keep you,” I sighed, knowing too well the feeling of being trapped inside my own body. “Help me to Lady Selena’s office without anyone seeing us and then I’ll release you.”
I held out a hand for each of them to stretch over their shoulders, but the bigger guard hoisted me into his arms, the smaller one roaming ahead to ensure no one came our way.
He doubled back a few times, signaling for me to sing. We passed my vacouses a moment later, my hand snaking out and touching their shoulders, telling them to sleep.
A sharp corner brought us to a set of winding stairs, the moon and stars bright just outside the glass walls. Across a sky bridge. Down a dark hallway. We stopped at Selena’s apartment. I fished her hidden key from the dancing crane’s mouth through the air, handing it to the smaller guard.
He unlocked the door, and I waited for the sound of lungs nearby.
The soft cadence of Selena’s breath answered.
“Walk me inside,” I whispered, lengthening my index finger in the direction of her office. My vacouses obeyed, creeping through Selena’s apartment. “Help me up these stairs, please. Set me down here, with my feet in the water.”
Moonlight refracted from the window and through the glass box, blue lines drifting around the room. Placing my leg into the sea water was like standing under a gentle rain after a walk in the parched desert, cooling the searing heat of my broken bone. I shimmied out of my dress, folding and handing it to them. “Set this on the desk right there.” My hand curled around the stone as well, but I left it on my neck. “That is all. Thank you for your help. Leave Selena’s key here but lock her door when you leave. You may resume your posts. I release you.”
Their eyes flickered with the beginnings of awareness, but they followed my instructions, dropping Selena’s key onto my folded dress and ambling out of the room, softly closing the door behind them. I listened, waiting to hear her apartment door close as well. Then straightened, ensuring Thaan and Cain weren’t in the rooms beside me.
But all remained quiet except for Selena’s sleep-filled breathing.
It had been two months since I’d last entered, but shield weed grew in forests along the glass floor, thick as the frothy sea grass in Rivea. It cradled me like a bird’s nest as I floated across the surface. The moon painted the room in pale cerulean, and before I even realized I’d transitioned to Naiad, I fell asleep.
An hour later, the clang of steel against glass jolted my eyes open.