To Kill a Kingdom(26)

Madrid doesn’t bother to reply, and just as I’m about to come back in her place, something catches my eye in the distance. A strange shadow in the middle of the ocean. A figure on the water. I squint and pull the golden telescope from my belt loop.

To Kye, I say, “Northwest,” and my friend produces a small pair of binoculars from his own belt. “Do you see it?” I ask.

“It’s a man.”

I shake my head. “Just the opposite.” I squint, black-rimmed eye pressed fiercely to the looking glass. “It’s a girl.”

“What’s a girl doin’ in the middle of the damn ocean?” Torik climbs the steps toward us.

On the main deck, Madrid slots the cards back into the packet. Dryly, she says, “Perhaps she’s catching her own fish for supper.”

Torik shoots her a look. “There are sharks out there.”

“Perfect with rice.”

I roll my eyes.

Thankfully, the girl is floating and not drowning. Strangely, she isn’t doing much else. She’s just there, in the ocean, with nothing and no one around her. I suck in a breath and, in the same instant, the girl turns toward the ship. It seems impossible, but in that moment I swear she looks straight at me. Through me.

“What’s she doing?”

I turn to Kye. “She’s isn’t doing anything,” I say. “She’s just there.”

But when I turn to look back, she isn’t. And in her place, there’s a deadly stillness.

“Kye!” I yell, rushing to the edge of the ship. “Full speed ahead. Circle around and prepare the buoy. Wake the rest of the crew and have them at the ready. It could be a trap.”

“Captain, don’t be reckless!” shouts Torik.

“It’s probably a trick,” Madrid agrees.

I ignore them and head forward, but Kye puts a gloved hand on my shoulder, holding me back. “Elian, stop. There could be sirens in the water.”

My jaw tightens. “I’m not letting anyone else die because of a damned siren.”

Kye squares his shoulders. “Then let me go instead.”

Madrid pauses for a moment and then, slower than usual, hoists her gun over her shoulder.

I place my hand on top of Kye’s. His gesture has nothing to do with heroism – because he wants to save the drowning girl – and everything to do with loyalty. Because what he really wants is to save me. But if there’s one thing in the world that I don’t need, it’s saving. I’ve risked my life enough times to know it’s charmed.

“Don’t let me drown,” I say.

And then I jump.

The water feels like nails. A terrific legion of stabbing iron pierces my flesh until my breath catches in my chest and gets stuck there. I can’t imagine what the Págese waters will feel like in comparison. I can’t imagine their country and their mountain and my fingers remaining on my hands as I climb it.

I swim deeper and let my head spin.

It’s dark enough beneath the water that the farther I swim, the more I doubt I’ll reach the surface again. But in the distance, even buried beneath the ocean, I can hear the rumble of the Saad. I can feel the water being pushed and sliced as my ship chases after me. And then I see her.

Sinking to the bottom of the ocean, her eyes closed and her arms spread out like wings. A naked girl with hair to her elbows.

I swim toward her for an eternity. Closer and deeper, until it seems like she might hit the shingle before I get to her. When my hands finally clamp around her waist, I find myself wincing at how cold she is. Colder than the ocean.

She’s heavier than I expect. A sinking stone. Dead weight. And no matter how roughly I haul her up, how my hands dig into her stomach and my arms crush around her ribs, she doesn’t stir. I worry that I’m too late, but I can’t bear the thought of leaving her to the sharks and monsters.

With an explosion of breath, I burst through the water’s surface.

The Saad is close and within seconds a buoy is tossed into the ocean beside me. I slide it over the girl, wrapping her limp wrist around the rope so the crew can pull her in first.

It’s an odd sight to see a lifeless body heaved onto the ship. Her skin is so pale against the dark wood of the Saad, one wrist tied to the buoy and the other hanging helplessly below. When my crew finally hauls me up, I don’t stop to catch my breath before rushing over. I spit salt water onto the deck and fall to my knees beside her, willing her to move. It’s too soon. Too early in our journey to have a body on our hands. And as much as I like to think that I’ve grown accustomed to death, I’ve also never seen a dead woman before. At least, not one who wasn’t half-monster.

I look at the unconscious girl and wonder where she came from. There are no ships in the distance and no land on the horizon. It’s as though she appeared from nowhere. Born from the ocean itself.

I unbutton my dripping shirt and slide it over the girl’s naked body like a blanket. The sudden movement seems to jolt her, and with a gasping breath, her eyes shoot open. They’re as blue as Sakura’s lips.

She rolls to her stomach and coughs up the ocean, heaving until there seems to be no more water left in her. When she turns to me, the first thing I notice are her freckles, shaped like stars. Constellations dotted across her face like the ones I name while the rest of my crew sleeps. Her hair sticks to her cheeks, a deep, dark red. Muted and so close to brown. She looks young – younger than me, maybe – and, inexplicably, when she reaches for me, I allow myself to be pulled into her.