Chapter 10
Maren
“Tell me, Kye, how does it work?” I asked at dinner that night. “You turned the entire palace to glass, but not the beach outside or the ocean when you swam in it.”
“Mh,” he hummed, spearing bite-size scallops on the two prongs of his new fork.
He didn’t particularly enjoy talking about his curse, understandably so. But I still looked at it as a problem to be solved. And to solve an issue, one needed to fully understand it first.
“Like when the blade of Leslo’s knife touched you,” I continued, “the entire thing turned to glass, including the handle, even though the handle never came into contact with your skin. Shouldn’t just the metal of the blade be affected?
But then when you walk outside, it’s only the sand directly under your feet that turns to glass, not the entire island. ”
He chewed and swallowed his scallops, then took a sip of the golden wine through a glass straw.
“Well, you see, my dear, it’s not like I was handed a list of rules the moment the curse wrecked my life,” he finally replied.
“Sometimes, the entire object turns to glass, no matter what part of it I touch. Like this table, for example. It has four legs and a tabletop. I touched the top only, but its legs turned with it.”
He splayed a hand on the glass surface of the dining table between us.
“But the table at least was made from the same material, the knife wasn’t,” I pointed out.
“Still it’s the same whole object. Table. Knife.” He shrugged.
“How about the sand and the ocean then?” I insisted.
“With the sand and the ocean, only the particles that touch me directly are affected. Which is a blessing, really. The last thing I need is to destroy my entire kingdom by turning the ocean to a giant slab of glass.” He took another sip of wine, muttering, “I’ve caused enough damage to it as is already. ”
I thought about how careful he was when walking down to the water and stepping only on the narrow path of glass he’d already made.
Elina’s and Arnon’s words had painted a picture of Kye as an unruly boy and a reckless youth.
He was a self-confessed killer. He’d admitted that he’d deliberately touched twenty-seven people, murdering them in retaliation for their lies.
Yet I’d seen him exercise the utmost caution in avoiding touching a plant growing on the side of his path to the water.
Did Elina and Arnon not see that part of him? Or had a hundred years of despair, regret, and reflection brought some changes in him?
“I believe you wouldn’t hurt a fly if you could help it,” I said confidently.
“Not on purpose, no,” he agreed. “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t kill it anyway if it touches me. I’ve ended plenty of innocent lives, Maren. And it’s all those needless deaths that haunt me the most.”
LYING IN BED THAT NIGHT, I heard Kye return to our bedroom after he’d made sure the guards had finally arrived at the palace to stand on guard in the great hall. He wished me good night, then went to bed, but I couldn't sleep.
At night, fear always floated to the forefront of my mind. I tried not to listen to the waves too closely, afraid to hear the eerie voice again. But there was nothing I could do to calm the urgent whispers of my worries.
What if I never found my way home?
What if I did?
What if I never saw Liam and my parents ever again? Had the last time I saw them been the last time ever?
But what if I managed to run away from Kye, then I’d never see him again. I’d never know what happened to him, if he ever found happiness or at least some peace in his life. I’d never hear his voice again...
“Are you asleep?” I called out softly.
“Not yet,” he replied quickly. “That nap helped this afternoon, but now I can’t fall asleep again. What troubles you, my dear?”
So many things. But I didn’t want to recount them all to him, especially since I had a difficult time sorting through them myself.
“Sing for me. Please,” I asked simply.
“I thought you’d never ask.” I heard a smile in his voice before the first sounds of his melodious lullaby drifted through the room:
“Don't be scared, my little one,
I'll keep you safe ’til the day I’m gone.”
The lyrics that had brought me comfort several days ago only troubled me more now.
I’d learned that sirens lived for five or six hundred years. When Kye sang “’til the day I’m gone,” he promised to be in my life forever. But that wouldn’t happen if I left. He wouldn’t be keeping me safe. He wouldn’t be singing for me. I’d be gone, and he’d be left here, alone again.
The song flowed effortlessly, merging with the night as one:
“Not the werewolf’s bite, not gorgonian’s stare,
Not the gargoyle's flame can harm you here.”
The last notes died in the night, and I hated the silence that followed.
“Can gorgonians really kill with their look?” I asked, unwilling to let the silence win.
The guards had brought me a basket of books and scrolls that afternoon. One of the scrolls contained the map of Nerifir, complete with all the known kingdoms. Seeing the map made this word even more real for me. As magical and incredible as it sounded, it really did exist.
“Yes,” Kye said. “Direct eye contact with a gorgonian turns one to stone, be it a human or a fae.”
“If you can’t look them in the eye, how do sirens travel to Lorsan and trade with gorgonians?”
“By keeping their eyes closed,” he chuckled. “But mostly, by using enchanted spider-silk veils over their eyes. Through the silk, the gorgonian stare is harmless. There was even a human queen in Lorsan once, some time ago.”
“There was?” I exhaled in surprise. I’d been told I was the only human in Olathana, but I’d never thought to ask about the rest of Nerifir. “Are there more humans in Nerifir?”
“Right now? No,” he replied, crushing my hope before it even took root. “Not that I know of, anyway. But humans are rare and precious. If there was one, she or he would likely belong to a king or a queen, living at a royal court, and I would’ve heard of them.”
“How do humans get here? Do bracks bring them from my world?”
“From your world? Yes. But your world is not the only one with humans, Maren. There are others along the River of Mists who have your kind.”
“Really? There are humans that don’t come from Earth?” I sat up in bed, unable to lay still in the face of such a discovery.
“Ultimately, we all come from the same place, darling. In ancient times, all worlds of the River of Mists were one. Then it split into many parts and traveled along the River’s stream, drifting away from each other.
Why wouldn’t there be more than one part of that one common world to have humans in it? ”
“I see.” A thought entered my mind. “So, if I left here—”
A rumbling groan of displeasure interrupted me. The siren king really disliked the idea of my leaving.
“Just theoretically for now, Kye,” I insisted. “If I left here and crossed the River of Mists again, is there a chance of me ending up in one of those other worlds with humans?”
He remained quiet, obviously disliking that idea even in pure theory. As I contemplated a possible way to stop him from sulking, he spoke again.
“The River of Mists is unpredictable. There is always a chance of anything happening. From what I was taught about the River when growing up, however, it usually takes you back to your world, unless you travel with someone while holding on to them, then you would end up in their world instead, the way Leslo brought you here. It makes sense, when you think about it. Just imagine what a nightmare it would be if the River of Mists randomly tossed people into the worlds they didn’t belong.
Do you really want to leave me, my butterfly?
” he asked suddenly, his voice turning tenderly soft.
I knew what my answer was. I couldn’t change my entire life just because a man had a beguiling voice.
I couldn’t let him lure me. But I couldn't say it out loud either. In this dark, soft night, tenderness reigned in our bedroom, and I couldn’t bring myself to be direct when I knew that my honest answer would hurt him.
“How did the human queen survive in Lorsan?” I asked instead, changing the subject. “Did she wear a veil all her life?”
It took Kye a long moment to reply. My reluctance to answer his previous question obviously didn’t escape him.
“She didn’t have to wear the veil for long,” he finally said. “The Lorsan queen bonded with a gorgonian. The bond between them allowed her to use his magic. She’s the only human in history who could gaze into gorgonian eyes without the veil and stay alive.”
“What do you mean she bonded with him? Is it like having sex or getting married?”
He chuckled. “Neither and both. A mating bond happens when magic in one person recognizes its mate in the magic of the other. It results in the most powerful magical synergy that makes the couple invincible.”
“But humans have no magic. How did the bond happen between the human woman and the gorgonian?”
“Humans have something better than magic. Human love can bond with fae magic faster, and some say even stronger, than the bond between two fae.”
“Love?”
“Yes, my darling butterfly. Fall in love with me, and we will be unstoppable,” he said with flourish, making me laugh.
“As far as bonds go, I’m already taken, remember? Besides, doesn’t love need to be mutual for the bond to form? It goes both ways, no? Meaning you’d have to fall in love with me too.”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. It never took me long to fall in love. I believe I loved every single woman I’ve ever bedded.”
I feared I’d regret my next question, but I asked it anyway. “How many women has it been? And how long did that love usually last?”
“There have been many,” he admitted. “And it lasted for about a night or two with each of them.” I laughed again, and he assured me, “But every time it was as passionate as ever. I put my whole heart and body into each and every one of those relationships.”