“But we both should have been.”
“Do not lessen your final moments with them on my account. It happened as it was meant to, or have you learned nothing from your High Surbs’ sermons?”
Ariōn glanced toward Ixō, who had remained quiet in the shadows.
A shared concerned expression marred each of their faces.
But Alōs’s attention turned from them as he finally gave in to the pull that had hooked into him since he’d stepped into this room. He looked at the two bodies lying motionless in their bed.
Their hands were clasped together above the sheets. Eyes closed. Their dark, aged skin was a shade paler, grayer, stiff. Their white hair was combed neatly beneath their silver-dipped coral crowns.
These lifeless bodies had once been Alōs’s source of eternal happiness; now they were the source of his deepest guilt.
The king and queen of Esrom.
Alōs stared at Tallōs and Cordelia Karēk and waited.
But the bitter irony of manifesting a cold heart, of fortifying it so thoroughly against emotion, was that it worked. For as Alōs gazed upon his dead parents, he felt nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Niya knew she was going to follow Alōs as soon as he left the ship.
He might be her captain, but he was not her king, no matter what he thought.
Leaning against the railing, Niya stared at the main island’s distant shore, at the silver-spun palace, which erupted through the thick green vegetation like gemstones through dirt.
Alōs walked on water, she thought with unease. Bree had been right.
What else was he capable of?
Despite their past intimacy, it was growing apparent they had been as good as strangers then.
Niya shifted with discomfort at the thought. It appeared the pirate captain had many tricks up his sleeve that she had yet to learn.
And learn she certainly would.
While the crew seemed entirely too uninterested in why their captain had gone ashore alone, she was crawling with curiosity.
What did Alōs need in Esrom so badly that he’d diverted them from their journey to the Valley of Giants? Did it have to do with this red stone he sought? But most importantly, why did he hide within his own homeland?
He had docked them deep within this shadowed cove. Out of sight.
Niya’s curiosity was not merely overflowing. It was drowning her.
Alōs is afraid of something in Esrom, thought Niya. Why else would he go to such pains to remain a ghost in his own home?
Whatever the reason, she needed to find out what it was immediately.
Leverage, her magic cooed.
Leverage, she agreed, tapping her foot impatiently.
If played right, whatever was here could be the key to shortening her binding bet.
A desperation gripped hold of Niya. She had to get off this boat.
Turning around, she glanced over the deck.
Saffi was leaning against a cannon on the starboard side, talking with Therza. Green Pea and Bree were sitting together up on the ropes of the mainmast, feet dangling in the cool night air. Emanté sat in a nook by the stairs leading up to the quarterdeck, head back and eyes closed. Kintra and Boman were most likely below deck or in the galley with Mika, while the rest of the pirates were in similar repose, relaxed, lazy, taking advantage of their captain’s absence. For who knew how long he’d be gone.
It took hardly a grain’s fall of thought for Niya to conclude what she needed to do next: spell a ship full of pirates to sleep.
Niya had already learned that brute force was a familiar adversary for this crew. One she had yet to win against them. Stealth was needed here, magic as subtle as the evening’s breeze.
After they’d spent a night of debauchery in Barter Bay and then immediately been ordered to set sail, it was only natural they take advantage of their captain’s absence with a nap. A very long nap.
Niya stalked closer to Saffi. Those with magic she would need to take care of first. As soon as those with the Sight saw her haze of powers, they’d know something was up.
Taking up a rag found at a nearby cannon, Niya settled herself behind the master gunner. With each wipe and shift of her body, she let her magic slip from her, keeping it low and to the ground.
Sleep, it whispered in her veins, crawling to slink up Saffi’s legs. Niya sensed a tug of resistance, the thick layering of the master gunner’s gifts growing aware of an intruder. Saffi shifted to glance behind her, a furrow on her brow, but Niya was more gifted than she, and like a lioness pouncing, she forced her magic to lunge forward, smacking Saffi right in the head, a cloud of red. The master gunner blinked, dazed, before a loud yawn overtook her and she fell into Therza’s arms.
“By the stars—” Wide, confused eyes landed on Niya as the short woman tried to hold on to Saffi’s much larger form. But then Niya gave a flick of her wrist, and Therza, too, was covered in a hazy mist of Niya’s magic.
Both women fell to the deck, asleep.
Niya smiled, continuing to pour out her slumbering spell as she swayed around the deck.
Close your eyes, she fed into her movements, a lulling whisper. Rest until I return. She twirled around Felix and a few more of his cockpit team. They each sank to the ground, snores sounding. Feeling emboldened, Niya let her spell grow stronger as the pirates began to nod off, one by one. Until the entire Crying Queen was covered in her magic, any soul within range falling drowsy before lying down for a long nap. Bree and Green Pea dangled above, heads bowed over rope, unconscious.
Coming to a stop, Niya stood on the quarterdeck by the wheel, taking in her work. Across the ship, men and women leaned on one another, heads bowed, eyes shut; others sprawled along the deck, curled around coils of rope or bent along the banisters of crow’s nests, asleep. The gentle sway of the ship a mother’s rocking, the movement feeding further into Niya’s gifts.
“If only you were here to see this, Ara,” said Niya, hands on hips as pride filled her. “No longer could you say I am too reactionary, for this one I thought through.”
Yes, she imagined her sister answering. And look what that got you—exactly what you desired.
“Sticks,” said Niya sourly. Arabessa’s advice had been right, again. “She’s always right,” she continued to grumble as she descended below deck, pushing her spell to meet any pirate in her way, before she went to find Kintra.
The quartermaster was in the captain’s quarters with Boman, looking over maps laid out on Alōs’s desk. Kintra glanced up at the squeak of a floorboard and frowned, finding Niya in the doorway. “What do you—”
Niya threw up her hand, cutting off Kintra’s question and sending the potent magic she had gathered on deck to hit the quartermaster square in the face. She and Boman collapsed, one on top of the other on the desk. Tiny mewls of sleep filled the room.
With a giddy grin, Niya danced her way back up top, singing a favorite lullaby of Larkyra’s.
Slip quiet into your tangle of dreams
Let your eyes grow ever so heavy
Sleep is waiting to taste new schemes
You could not create in your daily medley
Sleep soundly, sleep deep, sleep away
Until awakes a new day.
Close your mind and I shall close mine
It is time we block out our worries
Now is our chance, my dearest, my darling,
to make all our other stories
Sleep soundly, sleep deep, sleep away
Until awakes a new day.
Once on deck, Niya turned her back on the slumbering ship, intent on finding where Alōs had gone.