61. Maren
Maren
The Naiad peered up at us with steely eyes.
Another rattling crash as the nearby prisoner flung himself into their door.
I’d anticipated it, but it made me jump all the same.
The wailing grew louder. Cebrinne moved toward the other cells, humming under her breath, and I made a mental note to check the guard before we left.
All fell eerily silent.
Kazimir’s eyes didn’t leave mine. I held his release, letting it unroll, Emilius’s wax seal and signature embellished near the bottom.
The Naiad straightened. His eyes narrowed. A steely scent tickled in my nose, metallic and almost peppery, not quite piercing enough to be anger.
Suspicion, perhaps.
“Do you know what this is?” I asked.
“Why is he here?” he countered, hair wild over his face, stringy with oil and dirt.
In the corner of my eye, Kye nudged his shoulder blades against the wall, crossing his arms and glaring down at Kazimir.
“Don’t worry about him,” I said, wishing Kye would have agreed to stay in the palace.
I’d known Kye’s presence would rile the Naiad; it is why I’d come alone the first time.
Standing across the iron gate, I could almost feel the rise in Kazimir’s blood pressure the longer Kye glared at him. “Look at me.”
Dark eyes flicked my way.
I lifted the release again. “This is your freedom.”
He cackled, the sound like air bubbles unable to work loose from his lungs. I wondered, briefly, if prisoners often suffered respiratory ailments down here. “And what would you like in return for offering me freedom, witch princess?”
“Information.”
He spat. It landed in a thick wad at my feet, Kye shoving from the wall as though the stone had burned him.
Calm, I warned him, my gaze locking into the Rivean’s.
“You expect me to commit treason against my crown?” Kazimir growled.
I tilted my head, surveying him quietly. There was something about him that was almost familiar just then, the cold irony in his voice, the twist of his mouth. But it quickly hardened into a glare before I could capture it. “Do you know who Thaan is?”
He didn’t move, though his gaze shifted over my face like he was reading the name as it left my mouth, a hint of recognition reflecting in the dark rim of his eyes.
“Who is Thaan?” I prompted, wanting the scope of his knowledge.
The Rivean didn’t respond. Something in me folded.
Collapsed. Maybe I was a fool, thinking he’d speak to me.
Maybe his freedom meant less to him than it had to me a year ago.
Even if he did swear himself into my service, if he was unwilling to speak, what good was he to me?
All I was guaranteed to accomplish began and ended with releasing an enemy of Calder.
I rolled the parchment with a sigh. “Come on,” I murmured to Kye and Cebrinne.
My mother stayed behind for a moment longer than us, studying Kazimir with an odd expression before turning away.
The lantern clanked softly as I lifted it, the small flame inside a whispering hiss.
Our shadows climbed over the iron bars as we left him there in the dark.
“Wait.”
It was so soft, even in the near silence, that I barely heard it. Kye and Cebrinne exchanged glances with me. I almost wanted to leave. Nori was right—unless I was willing to break the barriers of the Naiad’s mind, freeing him might open a larger can of worms than Selena’s cryptic message.
But whatever it was, it had meant enough for Selena to wedge a folded paper into the wall. For Pheolix to swear against revealing something, even to people he trusted. Someone was out there—someone Selena and Pheolix had endangered themselves to protect.
Someone who might know where Thaan had taken Selena.
Who might know the meaning of the words, at the divide.
Lantern light bounced softly as I approached Kazimir’s cell, my patience steadily vanishing. “Who is Thaan?”
The Rivean had stood, and I lifted the lantern so the light might reach his eyes. “He’s a Calderian Naiad.”
“Safiron, actually,” Cebrinne amended, a finger tapping the bicep of her crossed arms.
“Well,” Kazimir said, looking back to me, “he lived here in the Calderian palace.”
“Along with a thousand other fucking people,” said Kye, unimpressed. “What else?”
“He killed my parents.”
Cebrinne’s brows flexed. “He’s killed a lot of people,” she offered slowly.
“Kazimir.” I waited for his attention to return to me again. “What understanding of Thaan would only a Naiad have? What was Oberon’s perception of him?”
The Rivean guard pursed his mouth under his beard. “He owned Oberon. He is the Videre without an ocean, a colony with no home, because—” He laughed spitefully. Ironically. As if the words he recited were a myth, one he didn’t believe. “Theia took his scales.”
I rubbed my mouth, unconvinced. I’d hoped for more confident answers, not a gloss-over account of Thaan and a half-believed explanation of Theia’s curse. Perhaps Kazimir wasn’t the person I needed to find answers.
“Why did Thaan kill Oberon?”
Kazimir closed his mouth. His focus dropped to his hands, a small glare in his eyes, a shadow drifting under the faint roll of his throat. “I can’t tell you.”
“I think”—I stepped closer—“there might be lapses in your knowledge. But you know something, Kazimir. And I think the something you know is the something I need.”
His eyes drifted to the release rolled into my hand. “Then I suppose we’ll both die without the things we want.”
Kye sucked his teeth. “You can die tomorrow for all I care.”
“Answering this question won’t put Rivea in harm’s way,” I said, shooting Kye a flinty glance. “None of this has to do with Rivea, really.”
“It’s not Rivea.” He ran a hand over the stone wall beside him, his eyes drifting from mine. “I can’t.”
“You’re protecting something from Thaan,” I guessed slowly. “Someone.” A small, green kernel of hope sprouted within me. I was close.
Steel eyes flickered in the dark.
I handed the lantern to Kye. “Vow yourself into my service. Give me your answers freely,” I said, my fingers flicking the leather strap sheathing Kye’s knife off its button.
He leaned away, giving me room to pull it loose.
“And I will make you my own promise. The person you’re protecting will also live under my protection. ”
“That’s very foolish,” Cebrinne muttered.
Over my shoulder, Kye hardened into stone. Leihani, he said warningly. What if it's someone you don’t want to protect?
I slid his blade across the pad of my thumb, glancing darkly at Kazimir to ensure he knew I was serious. Warm blood pooled inside the cut, dripping down like black trails of ink in the dim light.
Kazimir swallowed again, hands wrapping around the iron bars of his cell. His heart, a soft rhythm across from me, lit into a rapid beat, boots running hard and fast. “I’ve never vowed myself to a Naiad,” he whispered. “You’ll have to teach me what to say.”
I wiped my blood from Kye’s knife with my skirts, passing it through the bars to him. “It’s easy. Repeat after me.”