Chapter Nineteen
I groaned from the sharp bite of urine in the air, and hard ground beneath my back. I knew where I was. The dungeon.
Perhaps everything I’d heard—Nira’s voice, Theron pacing, the bottles clinking, Theron nearly choking Pierre—had been a dream.
Minha’s voice found me, low and soft, my head on her lap, her hand moving through my hair in long slow strokes. A familiar melody drifted in and out of my ears, sweet and haunting. Then a song came clear, the one Nam used to sing in the cave.
Where the water runs deep and our home holds our name,
We lived in the blue and the oceans were ours to claim.
Seven gods watched the tides and the world stayed the same,
Till the kingdoms grew hungry and conquered without shame.
They called it unification, but they bound us in chains,
Of the people whose blood in the deep have stained.
But the ocean remembers the torment and the pain,
And the blue blood still runs where the cold currents remain.
Come back to the water, come back to the deep,
Where the whales sing your name and the oclego sleeps.
We were born of the sea and our people will rise,
We were never meant for cages, we will not compromise.
The pearls that they took were the tears that we shed,
For the sisters we lost and the mothers long dead.
But the tide always turns and the sea always calls,
A star in the darkness will unite us all.
I didn’t know Minha could sing. I didn’t know she had a beautiful voice.
A tear slipped from the corner of my eye. The song spoke of happier times, of sea creatures and people living in harmony, of a world that had once been whole. And then of what happened when greed decided it wanted more.
Was Nam trying to tell us about our people through that song? All those nights by the fire, we had never once asked what the words meant. We hadn’t known to ask, at least I hadn’t.
I’d never paid attention to the words. But Minha had. She had memorized every word, every verse, carried it with her through the fisherman’s ship and the arena and this dungeon floor. And now the song had meaning.
“You’re awake.” Minha looked down at me, my head still on her lap.
I lifted my arm, expecting the burn, the throb, and the fabric torn. Nothing.
The wound was gone. The battle suit, the same dark material. No torn sleeve. No bloodstain. Nira must have changed me.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
I tried to rise. Minha steadied me with both hands. The arena came back to me. Then the infirmary. It hadn’t been a dream. None of it.
“Where are Jina and Ranis?” I asked.
“One of the guards told me they’re on this level at the far end. They didn’t put Jina in the arena after what happened with us and the boarox.”
Relief flooded through me. Jina was alive. Ranis was alive. They were close. That was good. At least I knew they were safe for now.
“What will become of us?”
Minha was quiet for a moment. “I’ve been here longer than you.” She met my eyes. “The queen doesn’t throw away things she finds useful.”
“So we stay useful. If she doesn’t already know, we tell her we can give her more pearls.”
Two sets of footsteps. A faint smell of jasmine reached me, out of place against the stench of the dungeon. One guard escorted the queen, her gown trailing behind her, gemstones at her neck, fingers, and crown.
The guard opened the cell door but the queen remained in the frame. Her golden eyes moved from Minha to me as we rose.
“Good.” Her lips curved. “You’re awake. I need answers. What did you do to the boarox?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
Minha stepped in front of me. “She’s still recovering. Unless you want us to fight your next creature, you should let her heal.”
“You don’t order me.” The queen’s voice dropped cold as she flicked her wrist. “Don’t ever speak to me in that tone.”
Minha flew backward. She hit the wall hard and crumpled to the floor.
The queen had powers. I recalled Nam’s stories, gods who could command thunder, the wind, but I hadn’t understood what that meant until now.
“Minha—” I moved toward her.
The queen flicked her wrist again. I slammed into the wall behind me, pinned, my feet leaving the ground. The magic that held me pressed against my chest like an invisible hand made of chains.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe properly. Just hung there while she watched with those cold eyes.
“The boarox.” The queen stepped into the cell, her gown whispering against the stone floor. “It killed my guards. And the one before you in the arena, it killed her within minutes. Then you bled on that arena floor, and it walked away.” She tilted her head. “Why?”
“I told you.” My voice came out steadier than I felt, pinned to the wall, feet dangling. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
I clenched my jaw. “I’ve bled blue my entire life and nobody told me what I was. You know more about what I am than I do.”
Calculation shifted behind those violet eyes. She stepped back and folded her hands.
“Perhaps,” she murmured, “that is something we can help each other with.”
The queen turned toward Minha, still crumpled against the wall. She raised one hand. Minha shot upward, slammed against the wall beside me, pinned. Her face reddening, her mouth working soundlessly. She couldn’t breathe.
“Stop—” I twisted against the invisible force holding me. “Stop it. She has nothing to do with this.”
“Then answer me.” The queen’s voice was perfectly calm, her hand still raised, fingers slightly curled. “What did you do to the boarox? I won’t ask again.”
Minha’s lips were turning pale. Her eyes found mine, wide and desperate.
“I don’t know.” My voice cracked. “I swear on my life, I don’t know. My blood touched the ground and it stopped. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t understand it any more than you do.”
The queen studied me for a long moment, her eyes moving over my face the way a scholar studies a new book.
Minha made a small broken sound.
“Please.” The word tore out of me raw. “Please. She’s done nothing. None of this is her fault.”
Another long moment.
The queen lowered her hand.
Minha dropped, gasping, hands braced against the floor, pulling air in ragged desperate gulps. I sagged beside her, heart hammering, when the queen released me.
“Good.” The queen smoothed her gown. “Honesty suits you better than defiance.”
Minha lifted her head from the floor, still catching her breath. “Where is Theron?” Her voice came out hoarse. “He’ll tell you what you want to know.”
She sounded like she knew him. After all, they had spent time together when he bought her, and Minha was a charmer. Jealousy hung at the edge of that thought before I could stop it. What was the matter with me? Focus.
The queen’s expression shifted, sharp but amused.
“Theron.” She said his name like it tasted bitter. “He knows nothing.” She smoothed a strand of silver hair from her shoulder. “He’ll be nowhere to be found. He’s off to do my bidding, as always.”
Disappointment and hurt settled in my chest. What had I expected?
For Theron to rescue us? He was doing what he had always done—surviving, protecting the one person in this castle who mattered to him.
But I kept those words behind my teeth because I might have done the same if the role was reversed.
“Now.” The queen folded her hands, voice sounding almost conversational, which was worse than the coldness. “Let me tell you what I’m offering.”
Offering? More like do as I say or die.
“I have a mountain.” The queen moved to the cell door. “Mount Kael. Rich with rubies, emeralds, sapphires. My miners have worked there for years. But deeper, where the real wealth lives, they cannot reach.”
“Why not?” Minha asked.
“Because something guards it.” Her eyes held mine. “Something that has killed every being I’ve sent down. Something that will not yield to force.” She tilted her head. “But it might yield to you.”
The silence stretched.
“You want me to tame it.” I said it flatly. “Like the boarox.”
She gave a smile, one that was not genuine. “Tame whatever guards them and give me what I want. Do that and I will release you, your sisters, and the boy you came with.”
I looked at Minha. She was still on the floor, watching the queen with narrowed eyes.
“All of us,” I said. “Every Seaborn.”
The queen’s features hardened and released me. “Don’t push your luck.”
I had no idea if there were any Seaborn prisoners at the castle. Whether she knew it or not, she answered my question.
I didn’t trust her. Not for a single breath. But the mountain meant distance from this castle. Distance meant room to move, to think, to find answers about what had been done to my people and the history of our world. And answers were worth the risk.
Minha and I exchanged glances as I held her hand. I wasn’t going to make this decision without her. When she nodded, I said. “Minha, Jina, Ranis, and I go together. They can help me.”
I had to say anything to keep us together. We were separated once. That was not going to happen again.
The queen smiled, and it didn’t reach her eyes. She waved a hand to the guards. “Get them ready and prepare the transportation.”