To Kill a Kingdom(51)

I shrug. “Sing whatever you want. Nothing will drown out the sound of me winning.”

Madrid pokes her tongue out. “Lira?” she asks. “What do they sing where you’re from?”

For some reason, Lira finds this amusing. “Nothing you would appreciate.”

Madrid nods, as though it’s more a fact than an insult. “ ‘Siren Down Below,’ ” she says, looking at Kye with a reluctant smile. “It’s got rum in it.”

“Suits me then.”

Madrid throws herself back onto her chair. Her voice comes out in a loud refrain, words twisting and falling in her native Kléftesis. There’s something whimsical to the way she sings, and whether it’s the tune or the endearing grin drawn on Kye’s face as she bellows the melody, I can’t help but tap my fingers against my knee in rhythm to her voice.

Around the table, the crew follows on. They hum and murmur the parts they can’t remember, roaring out each mention of rum. Their voices dance into one another, colliding clumsily through verses. Each of them sings in the language of their kingdom. It brings a piece of their home to this misshapen crew, reminding me of a time, so long ago, when we weren’t together. When we were more strangers than family, belonging nowhere we traveled and never having the means to go somewhere we might.

When they’ve sung through three choruses, I almost expect Lira to join in with a rendition from Polemistés, but she remains tight-lipped and curious. She eyes them with a tiny knot in her brow, as though she can’t quite understand the ritual.

I lean toward her and keep my voice to a whisper. “When are you going to sing something?”

She pushes me away. “Don’t get too close,” she says. “You absolutely stink.”

“Of what?”

“Anglers,” she says. “That oil they put on their hands and those stupid sweets they chew.”

“Licorice,” I tell her with a smirk. “And you didn’t answer my question. Are you ever going to grace us with your voice?”

“Believe me, I’d like nothing more.”

I settle back in my chair and open my arms. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m ready for you to tell me everything you know about the Crystal of Keto.”

It always comes back to that. We’ve been in Eidyllio for two days, and Lira has been relentless in her questions. Always wanting answers without ever revealing any herself. Someone, of course, has to go first. And I’ll admit that I’ve grown bored waiting for it to be her.

“All I know is that it’s in Págos,” I tell her, wary of the glares Kye is sending my way. If it were up to him, the only way Lira would come aboard the Saad is if she were back in the cage.

“It’s at the top of the Cloud Mountain,” I explain. “In a sacred ice palace.”

“You have a great ability to disguise knowing a lot as knowing a little.”

“And you have a great ability to disguise knowing nothing as knowing everything,” I tell her. “You still haven’t told me about the ritual.”

“If I tell you, then there’s no use in you keeping me around. And I’m not going to spill the best leverage I have so you can leave me stranded here.”

She has a point. The best habit I have is keeping only what I can use. And Lira is definitely something I can use. Even thinking it makes me sound too pirate-like for my own good, and I imagine my father’s crude disappointment at how I’ve come to regard people as a means to an end. Bargaining chips I trade like coin. But Lira is in the unique position of knowing what she is and of being more than happy to play along if it gets her what she wants.

“Tell me something else then.” I swap a card from the deck. “What do you know about the crystal?”

“For starters,” she says, chastising, “it isn’t a crystal, it’s an eye. The ruby eye of the great sea goddess, taken from the sirens so their new queen and her predecessors would never be able to hold the power that Keto did.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Okay,” she says, like it’s a challenge I’ve thrown down. “The Sea Queen’s trident is made from Keto’s bones and Keto’s second eye is what powers it. When the goddess was killed, her most loyal child was nearby. She couldn’t prevent Keto’s death, but she did manage to steal one of her eyes before the humans could take both. With that and the few pieces of Keto that remained, she fashioned the trident and became the first Sea Queen. That trident has been passed down from generation to generation, to the eldest daughter of every Sea Queen. They use it to control the ocean and all of its creatures. As long as the queen has it, every monster in the sea is hers. And if she finds the other eye, she’ll use it to enslave humans in the same way.”

“What a thrilling story.” Kye stares at his deck. “Did you make that one up on the spot?”

“I’m no storyteller,” Lira says.

“Just an outright liar, then?”

I press my fingers to my temples. “That’s enough, Kye.”

“It’ll be enough when we leave her stranded here like we planned.”

“Plans change,” Lira says.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Kye tells her. “If you think that just because you’ve manipulated your way into this mission that it means you’re part of our crew, then you’re wrong. And as long as you’re on the Saad, there’s not a step you’re going to take that I won’t be watching. Especially if it’s near Elian. So put just one foot wrong and it’ll land you back in that cage.”