The Deepest Blue(60)
“You’re sure it was left by a human?” Roe asked. “That doesn’t make sense. Who would do that? And why?”
Mayara thought of the other traps she’d seen and evaded, and the trap that had caught Roe their first day on the island. Those hadn’t seemed like something a spirit would do either, but she hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. “So someone left traps for people, and then someone guided spirits to chase us when I rescued you. Who would do that?”
“How about someone who wants to be queen? To eliminate the competition?” Roe asked. “Remember there was another woman, other than me, who wanted to be an heir? Do you know if she survived?”
Palia frowned. “No one would want to kill heirs. Without heirs, all of Belene is vulnerable.”
Mayara shook her head. “She’s dead. Killed shortly after we arrived—I saw her. Besides, the first snare I found was too far from the cove. It had to have been set before we’d arrived. There’s no way that anyone could have gotten ahead of me and laid it.”
“The Silent Ones?” Palia suggested.
“They’re bound by tradition not to interfere with the test,” Roe said. “And why would they want to kill us?”
Mayara thought of the Silent Ones on the cliff as Kelo screamed. He’s not dead, she reminded herself. At least, I choose to believe he isn’t. “We don’t know what they want.” She had another thought. “What if . . . the Silent Ones might not be acting on their own,” Mayara said slowly, thinking it through. She knew that Roe’s family was kept as hostages so that the Families could control the queen. And she knew if Roe survived the island and became a fully trained heir, Lord Maarte couldn’t touch her. She’d be too powerful. And she’d be protected by the other heirs and all the spirits they could muster. She’d be free to tell the truth. In fact, that was her plan: tell her mother everything, free her grandparents, and expose the Families. “What if it’s you? What if Lord Maarte told the Silent Ones to fix the test so you wouldn’t survive?”
He wouldn’t care about other collateral. So what if more heirs died? He hadn’t cared if a village’s worth of people died, so long as his power and his fortress were untouched. She could easily see him sacrificing all of them to ensure Roe died.
Except that seemed like a rather complicated plan. If he wanted Roe dead, why not just kill her while she was in his fortress? And then Mayara understood.
Because then he couldn’t blame the spirits.
If Roe died on Akena Island, he was blameless. No one was surprised when an heir died during the test.
The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He’d already refused to train her. This was just the next step.
It was the Silent Ones, guided by Lord Maarte, with the goal of killing Roe.
“Why would a lord want to kill Roe?” Palia asked.
Roe was shaking her head. “He had easier ways to kill me. Poison. An ‘accident.’ Plus, remember the last test? All those spirit sisters died too. The test could have been rigged long before my power was discovered.”
Mayara liked her own theory better. But she wanted to explore Roe’s—it passed the time, if nothing else. And it was helping distract Palia from her injuries. She was looking and sounding more alert than when they’d brought her inside. “You think the Silent Ones . . .”
“Or just one of them,” Roe said. “They can’t all be involved. That would mean the queen wants us dead, and that doesn’t make sense. The queen, more than anyone, knows how vital heirs are.”
“A rogue?” Mayara couldn’t imagine any Silent One disobeying the queen. They chose their fate because it was safer than the island—why would they risk her wrath now? “But why? Lord Maarte at least has motivation.”
“I don’t know,” Roe said. “Revenge for all they’re forced to give up? Jealousy over all the heirs are allowed to keep? If they survive. It’s not a fair or kind system for anyone.”
The three of them fell silent, sunk into their own thoughts. Bad enough to face the spirits, but to have someone directing them? Someone with knowledge of who they were? Someone who thought like a human, who wasn’t just acting on instinct like the spirits? The island suddenly felt a whole lot more dangerous. And unfair, Mayara thought.
We have more enemies than we knew.
Chapter Fifteen
The guard had been clear: Kelo wasn’t permitted to see the queen because it would add to her sorrow. So Kelo reasoned, Perhaps I’ll be allowed to see her if I ease it.
Shutting himself in a dilapidated rented room, Kelo devoted his days to creating an art piece that would ease the queen’s sorrow. It had to be beautiful, the most beautiful piece he’d ever made, fit to capture the queen’s eyes, mind, and heart.
He started with one of the abalone shells he’d brought, one that Mayara had harvested on her last dive. It was shaped like a bowl and larger than both his fists. Inside were swirls of shimmering green, blue, and purple, which he smoothed and cut into geometric stylized wave-patterns to catch the light, which came together to create a perfect map of the islands of Belene. For the outside, on the mottled, bumpy shell that most considered ugly, he shaved away the imperfections and carefully carved an image of Queen Asana with her arms spread wide—the effect, he hoped, was of the queen cradling all of Belene safely in her arms.