All the Stars and Teeth(43)

“You want to see Visidia, don’t you? Take a look at your kingdom.”

Sweat beads on my forehead. I can’t will my limbs to move.

Bastian’s words are gentle when he speaks again. “It’s worth it. Trust me. Just wrap your right arm in the rope and turn.”

Easier said than done. My heart beats so fiercely I fear it will break my ribs. There’s only one way to settle it.

I don’t look as I wind my arm through the rope, as I watched Bastian do. It holds my weight easily, and though I know it won’t drop me, it’s another moment before I’m able to release my free hand, trust the ship, and spin my body around.

When I open my eyes, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful.

“Amora! Are you all right?” Ferrick calls from below.

I laugh.

I’m fine.

Perfect.

The ocean below twinkles as if dusted with millions of crystal shards. Bastian and I are side by side with the seagulls, so close I could reach out and snatch a fish from one of their beaks. They squawk at us, either welcoming us or offended by our presence. A laugh rattles me when Bastian squawks right back at them.

By Cato’s blood, this must be what it feels like to be free. I never realized how nice it would be.

I turn toward the pirate. His eyes are mirrors of the twinkling ocean as he stares far into the horizon. His chest is still and his breathing easy, relaxed.

I understand why he’s made the ocean his home. It’s marvelous and uninhibited. Tangled in the ship’s rigging and overlooking the sea like its figurehead, a small part of me can’t help but wonder what it must be like to live like this. To go wherever you wish, day after day.

“Look,” the pirate whispers. I don’t understand his quietness until I see where he nods.

Dolphins. There’s an entire pod of them below the surface, painting the water as pink as their skin. One pops up, then another, as my heart swells. It’s like we’re on top of the world.

“Beautiful.” Bastian’s face has gone soft and gentle. He doesn’t look anything like one of the dangerous, pillaging pirates I’ve heard stories of. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” I admit. “You’re lucky. You get to see things like this every day.”

His smile softens and his gaze grows distant, as if he’s seeing something an ocean away. Dolphins dip and bob in the water. They shrill happily, flocking around Keel Haul like it’s their plaything.

Bastian leans back. He’s turned the ropes into part of his body, trusting them fully as he reclines. “How long have you wanted to travel?” he asks quietly. When I turn to question him, he only laughs. “I can see it in your eyes. A kingdom is too small for you, Princess. You should be ruler of the entire sea. Not everyone adapts to life on water as quickly as you have. I mean…” He nods down to Ferrick, who sits on the deck squinting up at us.

I can’t deny it. “Ever since I was a child. When I was ten, I wanted to sail to Valuka to hunt down the fire serpent that’s said to live in their volcanoes. I tried to form my own crew, but no one would spare me a second glance.”

“I’m not sure how I would feel about a child as my captain, either,” Bastian says with a laugh.

I shake my head at him. “It was never about my age. My parents were only able to have one child, who would be one of only two heirs to the throne. My father has always been protective. He commanded that I stay on Arida, and no one was ever willing to go against him. I tried to stow away a few times after that, but I was always caught. Now they do a full sweep of every ship before they leave the docks.” Though I laugh softly at that last fact, it’s more to cover the discomfort of the memories. They’re not my fondest ones.

“My father’s always had a thousand tales of his adventures,” I continue. “There were stories of how he scaled the mountains of Valuka on the back of a wild kelpie, and of the night he had too much wine in Curmana before he went deep-sea fishing and reeled in one head of a hydra.”

Despite how much the memories make me ache, recalling those stories also makes me smile. When I was a child, I loved listening to them every night before bed. But as I grew older, that stopped being enough. I no longer wanted to listen to them; I wanted to live them.

I’ve always wanted to travel through Visidia with Father. Together, I dreamed that we might one day face the Lusca, or possibly even team up to find that fire serpent.

But now, I wonder if those dreams can ever be our reality.

“He never brought you along?” Bastian asks. “Not even once?”

The words spur a strange discomfort within me. The expression on Bastian’s face is enough for me to know he’s looking for more of an answer than what he’s asking for.

“Never. It was always one excuse after the other with him.”

“And you never stopped to think that maybe there was more to it?” He lifts his chin sharply. “That he could be hiding something? I can understand not letting you go on your own, but it seems odd to me that he wouldn’t even take you with him.”

I turn to look west, toward Kerost, and think back to the necklace buried beneath a protective stocking in my boot—magic from an allegedly banished kingdom, that had somehow found its way onto Mornute. The threat of a Zudian named Kaven, who is forming a rebellion against Visidia for a goal that could end in the kingdom’s ruin—the ability to learn multiple magics. The very same goal that nearly destroyed the kingdom in the past, and that I’ve been fighting so hard to protect.