“Of course not,” I say, though my voice says something else. “I’m simply saying that it would be inconvenient if people found out. Especially considering your patrons.”
“For them,” says Sakura. “They would try to use me and I would have to kill them. I would probably have to kill half of my customers.”
“I think that’s bad for business.”
“But being a killer has worked out so well for you.”
I don’t react to this, but my lack of emotion seems to be the exact reaction Sakura wants. She smiles, so beautiful, even though it’s so clearly mocking. I think about what a shame it is that she’s twice my age, because she’s striking when she’s wicked, and wild underneath the pretense.
“Come to Págos with me,” I say.
“No.” Sakura turns away from me.
“No, you won’t come?”
“No, that isn’t what you want to ask.”
I stand. “Help me find the Crystal of Keto.”
Sakura turns back to me. “There it is.” There is no sign of a smile on her face now. “You want a Págese to help you climb the Cloud Mountain and find your fairy tale.”
“It’s not like I can just stroll in and scale your most deadly mountain with no idea of what I’ll be dealing with. Will your brother even give me entry? With you by my side, you can advise me on the best course of action. Tell me the route I should take. Help convince the king to give me safe passage.”
“I am an expert at climbing mountains.” Sakura’s voice is wholly sarcastic.
“You were required to do it on your sixteenth birthday.” I try to hide my impatience. “Every Págese royal is. You could help me.”
“I am so warm of heart.”
“I’m asking for—”
“You’re begging,” she says. “And for something impossible. Nobody but my family can survive the climb. It’s in our blood.”
I slam my fist on the table. “The storybooks may peddle that, but I know better. There must be another route. A hidden way. A secret kept in your family. If you won’t come with me, then tell me what it is.”
“It wouldn’t matter either way.”
“What does that mean?”
She runs a tongue across her blue lips. “If this crystal does exist in the mountain, then it’s surely hidden in the locked dome of the ice palace.”
“A locked dome,” I say blankly. “Are you making this up as you go along?”
“We’re perfectly aware of the legends written in all of those children’s books,” she says. “My family has been trying to find a way into that room for generations, but there’s no other entry than the one that can be plainly seen and no way of forcing our way in. It’s magically sealed, perhaps by the original families themselves. What’s needed is a key. A necklace lost to our family. Without that, it doesn’t matter how many mountains you bargain your way up. You’ll never be able to find what you’re looking for.”
“Let me worry about that,” I say. “Finding lost treasure is a specialty of mine.”
“And the ritual needed to release the crystal from its prison?” Sakura asks. “I’m assuming you found out about that, too?”
“Not any specifics.”
“That’s because nobody knows them. How do you plan to conduct an ancient rite if you don’t even know what it is?”
In truth, I thought Sakura might be able to fill in the blanks there.
“The secret is probably on your necklace,” I tell her, hoping it’s true. “It could be a simple inscription we need to read. And if it’s not, then I’ll figure something else out.”
Sakura laughs. “Say you’re right,” she says. “Say legends are easy to come by. Say even lost necklaces and ancient rituals are too. Say maps and routes are the most elusive thing. Who’s to say I’d ever share such a thing with you?”
“I could leak your identity to everyone.” The words taste petty and childish on my lips.
“How beneath you,” Sakura says. “Try again.”
I pause. Sakura isn’t refusing to help. She’s simply giving me the opportunity to make it worth her while. Everyone has a price, even the forgotten Págese princess. I just have to find out what hers is. Money seems irrelevant, and the thought of offering her any makes me grimace. She could take it as an insult (she is royalty, after all), or see me more as a child than a captain, which I so clearly am in her presence. I have to give her something nobody else can. An opportunity she’ll never get again and so won’t dream of passing up.
I think about how similar Sakura and I are. Two royals trying to escape their countries. Only, Sakura hadn’t wanted to leave Págos because she disliked being a princess, but because the job had become useless once her brother took the crown.
No taste for the life of a royal who would never rule.
I feel a sinking sensation in my stomach. At heart, Sakura is a queen. The only problem is that she doesn’t have a country. I understand then what my quest will cost me if I want it enough.
“I can make you a queen.”
Sakura arches a white brow. “I hope that you’re not threatening to kill my brothers,” she says. “Because the Págese don’t turn against one another for the sake of a crown.”
“Not at all.” I compose myself as best I can. “I’m offering you another country entirely.”
A slow look of realization works its way onto Sakura’s face. Coyly, she asks, “And what country would that be, Your Highness?”
It will mean the end of the life I love. The end of the Saad and the ocean and the world I have seen twice over and would see again a thousand times. I would live the life of a king, as my father has always wanted, with a snow-born wife to rule by my side. An alliance between ice and gold. It’d be more than my father imagined, and wouldn’t it be worth it in the end? Why will I have to search the sea once all of its monsters have been destroyed? I’ll be satisfied, maybe, ruling Midas, once I know the world is out of danger.
But even as I list the reasons it’s a good plan, I know they’re all lies. I’m a prince by name and nothing else. Even if I manage to conquer the sirens and bring peace to the ocean, I’ve always planned to stay on the Saad with my crew – if they’d still follow me – no longer searching, but always moving. Anything else will make me miserable. Staying still, in one place and one moment, will make me miserable. In my heart, I’m as wild as the ocean that raised me.
I take a breath. I’ll be miserable, then, if that’s what it takes.
“This country. If there’s a map that shows a secret route up the mountain so my crew and I can avoid freezing to death during the climb, then it’ll be a fair trade.”
I hold out my hand to Sakura. To the princess of Págos.
“If you give me that map, I’ll make you my queen.”
13
Lira