To Kill a Kingdom(52)

“Kye,” I warn.

Lira clenches the corner of the table, looking about ready to come undone. “Are you threatening me right now?” she asks.

“Nobody is threatening anyone,” I say.

Kye throws his deck down. “Actually, that’s exactly what I was doing.”

“Well, great,” I tell him. “Now that you’ve let her in on the fact that you’re my hired protection, maybe you can be quiet for five seconds so I can ask her a question.” I turn back to my glaring new crew member, ignoring the irritation on Kye’s face.

“What did you mean, enslave humans in the same way?” I ask.

Lira releases her grip on the table and turns her stony eyes from Kye. “Sirens are not a free species,” she says.

“Are you trying to tell me that they’re just misunderstood? No, wait, let me guess:They actually love humans and want to be one of us but the Sea Queen has them under mind control?”

Lira doesn’t blink at my sarcasm. “Better to be a loyal warrior than a treacherous prisoner,” she says.

“So once I kill the Sea Queen, they can hunt me of their own free will,” I say. “That’s great.”

“How are you even going to navigate up the Cloud Mountain of Págos to get to the eye?” Lira asks.

“We,” I correct her. “You wanted in on this, remember?”

She sighs. “The stories say that only the Págese royal family can climb it.” She eyes me skeptically. “You may be royal, but you’re not Págese.”

“Thanks for noticing.”

I slide more red coins into the center of the table, and Torik throws his hands up.

“Damn you all,” he relents, folding his cards over in a dramatic declaration. “Sweep my deck.”

I grin and slip two of his cards into my own deck – one that I want, and another that I want them to think I do. I split the rest between Kye and Madrid, and they don’t hesitate to shoot me disparaging looks at having ruined their hands.

“I have a map,” I tell Lira.

“A map,” she repeats.

“There’s a secret route up the mountains that will shave weeks off our journey. There are even rest sites with technology to build quickfires to stop the cold. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Lira nods, slow and calculating, as though she’s trying to piece together a puzzle I haven’t given her. “How did you get the map?” she asks.

“My charm.”

“No, really.”

“I’m really very charming,” I say. “I even roped this lot into sacrificing their lives for me.”

“Didn’t do it for you.” Madrid doesn’t look up from her deck. “Did it for the target practice.”

“I did it for the hijinks of near-death experiences,” Kye says.

“I did it for more fish suppers.” Torik stretches his arms out in a yawn. “God knows we don’t have enough fish every other day of the year.”

I turn to Lira. “See?”

“Okay, Prince Charming,” she says. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll come around to bite you later on. I’d rather enjoy that then than hear it now.”

“Ever the cynic.”

“Ever the pirate,” she retorts.

“You say that like it’s an insult.”

“You should assume,” she says,“that everything I say to you is an insult. One day the world is going to run out of luck to give to you.”

She folds her arms over her chest and I paint on my most arrogant smile, like I’m daring the world, and fate along with it, to catch up with me. Even though I know it will someday, I can’t let anyone else see that. Either things fall into place, or they fall apart, but either way, I have to keep up pretenses.





22


Lira


KAHLIA’S FACE IS HAUNTING me. I picture her on the edge of Reoma Putoder, head bowed as she tried to hide her wounds. Ashamed that I’d see the pain my mother inflicted on her in my absence. I can taste it like a sickness in my mouth. Kahlia’s anguish lingers at the back of my throat the same way it did on the day I held Crestell’s heart in my hand.

I prowl the deck, watching the crew settle into their routines. They laugh as they scout the water and play cards as they load their guns. All of them seem so at peace, no hidden aches for home behind their eyes. It’s as if they don’t mind being ripped from their kingdoms over and over, while I miss mine more each day. How can they claim a nomad home so easily?

“You’re thinking too much,” Madrid says, settling beside me.

“I’m making up for the people on this ship who don’t think at all.”

Madrid hooks her arm around a cobweb of rope and swings herself onto the ledge of the ship. Her feet dangle off the edge as the Saad glides forward. “If you’re talking about Kye,” she says, “then we can agree on that.”

“You don’t like him?” I press my palms flat on the edge of the ship. “Aren’t you mates?”

“Mates?” Madrid gapes. “What are we, horses? We’re partners,” she says. “There’s a big difference, you know.”

The truth is, I don’t. When it comes to relationships, I don’t know much at all. In my kingdom, there’s no time to get to know someone or form a bond. Humans speak of making love, but sirens are nothing if not regimented. We make love the same way we make war.