Caliona and the other Dron drew back, as well as the senators. Mouths dropped open.
Whatever this was, they knew what it meant.
“The Mist,” someone muttered, and Annah inclined her head in thanks toward them.
Myo and Tallyn belonged to an order together. A secret order.
A memory rocked me, a conversation I’d had with Myo shortly after I discovered there was much he hadn’t told me about who I was.
“How dare you tell me nothing about danger regarding my own life? How dare you tell others not to speak to me of my family history? Are my mother and sister conspiring to keep me in the dark too, or is it just you?”
“No,” Myo said. “This has nothing to do with them.”
I paused. “So you admit you are keeping things from me. Why?”
Myo shook his head. “It is not the time to tell you.”
“Not the time? What are you talking about? Do you have some kind of scheme? Am I a pawn in a plan?”
He sighed. “It is more complicated than that.”
“Yes,” Tallyn said. “The Mist, as some call us. I know many believe us a fable, but I assure you, we are quite real. We called the island Perilous. A code name used among members privy to the information. I personally was not involved in the search, but there were those among my order who were.”
I couldn’t breathe.
What had the Graywater family steward, Hexor, once said about Myo’s brother, Dahn? He’s a treasure hunter. He searches the depths for sunken ships, for lost cities, for caves of gold.
Lost cities.
“The order I serve once knew the location of the island,” Tallyn continued, “but it was lost at the death of one of our most prominent members, and most of us believed it would be lost forever, although there were those who continuously sought it. However, we now possess the means to recover the location.”
He meant me, of course.
My legs threatened to fold.
Tallyn, all this time... He and Myo, belonging to the same organization. Had they been working together? Was this why Myo saved me from Nautilus and put me in Merelus’s care? Was this why he’d helped free me from the Dron? My mind spun with questions as the memories clicked into place. Myo demanding that Nautilus’s men bring me with the other captives. Myo rescuing me when I was supposed to be executed, and then hiding me with Merelus. Myo being mysterious, refusing to answer my questions, controlling information, somehow knowing everything and having connections to everyone, from the surface to Nautilus to the Dron. Was this the source of Tallyn’s loyalty, this order he belonged to? But Tallyn hadn’t known about me. Why didn’t Myo tell him? And didn’t they mistrust each other?
I didn’t understand.
“And what is this means you speak of?” Caliona demanded.
I was tired of being a pawn. If I were to be revealed, I would do it myself. They had positioned me, manipulated me, and used me. This time, at least, I would be the one to speak, the one to act, even if I had no choice in how.
“Not what,” I said. “Who.” I pulled off my hood. It was time to speak for myself. “I, Aemiana Graywater, have the memories. I’ll help you find this city, but only if we work together to stop Nautilus.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
AFTER I DROPPED the revelation of my identity, things progressed quickly. The stunned Dron members stared at me. Valus turned white. Annah seized control of the conversation in the wake of my declaration and renewed the offer for an alliance. The Dron agreed to discuss it. The conversation since had been going on for hours in one of the bedchambers of the Riptide. Despite my vital role in the scheme of these things, I was not a diplomat or a leader, and so I sat in the common room and waited while they went back and forth on terms. I had not yet had the opportunity to speak to Tallyn, and I didn’t know what I would say to him when I did.
Valus hovered beside the doorway that led to the hatch, near enough to Garren that I surmised the latter was supposed to be keeping him safe. Valus looked as though he couldn’t decide if Garren were the bigger threat to his safety or not.
I stood and approached him. Garren stepped in front of me.
“I just want to talk to him,” I said.
Garren sniffed. “So talk. But don’t get too close. I have to keep him alive.”
“Why did you double cross us to the Dron?” I demanded of the dark-haired traitor.
Valus slipped into his smirking defense mode as soon as he spoke to me, but I knew it to be an act. He was terrified.
“You were dead,” he said. “I saw your body. You were dead.”
“It was a ruse! You fought one of the assassins yourself. Faking my death was the only way to protect me, to get me here.”
“I trusted you, remember?” His eyes hardened. “Only you. Once you were gone, I had to do something to ensure that I wasn’t going to have my throat slit. I went to the Dron. At least this way, I could ensure my value would last a little longer.”
“How did you—?”
“How did I know they were Dron? I heard the cook and the female one arguing in the kitchen about cultural differences. I deduced our refugees might be more than they seemed, and I did a little more investigating. Turns out, they’d retained a few artifacts from the Dron that readily gave them away.”
“And you didn’t betray them to my mother?”
“What would I do that for? I simply kept the information to use to my advantage.”
“Who are the Mist?” I asked, switching topics before I punched him.
Valus smirked. “I always thought they were just a fairy tale meant to thrill children. Clever, secret fighters who moved in secret between the lands above and below, between Itlanteans and Dron alike. Apparently they are real, if Tallyn can be believed.” He studied me. “You didn’t know. He betrayed you with his revelation, didn’t he?”
I ground my teeth together, but before I could reply, the clatter of boots announced the return of the others. They faced us solemnly. Caliona studied me curiously, and I saw bits of Olis in her face.
“We have a deal,” Annah announced, and everyone let out a breath.
The final negotiations went slowly, but this time without malice. The Dron were grim but hopeful, the Itlanteans determinedly austere, but with an air of tired desperation. Both were weary. Both needed something to cling to, some way forward. The number of bodies stuffed into the room made it feel small and cramped. A tiny space for a monumental moment.
This was the way forward.
“We do this,” Annah said, “for wreck and remnant of Itlantis. We do this for our people’s survival.”
“And for wreck and remnant of the Dron, and for the lost city of Trulliman,” Caliona echoed. She placed her hand in Annah’s. Beside her, the other Dron who had accompanied her—one for each of the five divisions—nodded solemnly.
“Together,” Annah said, “we will defeat Nautilus.”
~ ~ ~
Back on the Itlantean lightship, I joined Annah and the other trusted circle for a summary of what would be transpiring. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Tallyn, although I felt the burning of his gaze on me. Instead, I watched Grimulus and the other senators.
“The Dron have agreed to an alliance to defeat Nautilus,” Annah explained. “They do so with the explicit condition that this place Tallyn calls Perilous will be found, and it will be found in concert with them. Whatever is there, we will have to negotiate once it is uncovered.”
“So we’re delaying the fight to save ourselves on account of a search for a fabled city?” someone asked, aghast. “How do we even know she—” This was directed at me. “—can find it?”
“We will not delay,” Grimulus said. “We will take back our seas. We will thwart this butcher, and then we will deal with the matter of this city. The search may take a great deal of time. We cannot wait. And I have confidence in Aemiana. Tallyn tells us that, even now, she is ingesting herbs that will unlock her memories.”
Herbs to unloc
k my memories. My nightmares. The herbs Tallyn had given me? A flush rushed through my body. I bit my tongue and tasted blood.
“And this waging of war immediately is to the Dron’s satisfaction?” Jak asked, incredulous.
“They say it is.”
“And we believe them?”
Annah spoke up. “Since we are to be fighting alongside them, I think a little trust will be called for, don’t you think?”
Trust.
Every Itlantean in the room shifted and fidgeted. Trusting the Dron was not something that came easily. It was as if she’d suggested embracing a shark.
Grimulus waited a beat. “We’ll return to Verdus at once and begin preparations in secret. A company of Dron will join us there, and members of our own people will also be accompanying them to one of their bases.”
Voices hummed in protest. He raised his hands. “This is the way we will be doing it.”
Jak seemed to barely be holding his temper in check. “But the weapons in Trulliman’s city!”
“The weapons of the Cataclysm,” Tallyn said, “should not be used in this fight. They are what caused the Cataclysm in the first place. They must be found and destroyed. That is all.”
Everyone was silent. Jak’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t argue.
When the meeting had adjourned, Tallyn drew alongside me. “We need to speak.”
“Yes,” I said firmly. “We do.”
He didn’t flinch away from my look, but he didn’t look proud either. The lines around his eyes spoke of profound weariness.
We stepped into a side room, and he shut the door. I kept my back straight and my head up. My insides were numb. Tallyn. Tallyn, my most trusted friend, the one I felt safest with. I didn’t know him. He was nothing like I’d thought. All this time, I’d been some pawn in his game.
My face was stiff, my mouth frozen into a line as I spoke.
“You’ve been pretending,” I said. Not a question. A fact.
His throat moved as he swallowed. “You’ve always known elements of my past were secret,” he said.
Elements. I thought of his fighting skills, his unexpected knowledge about many things, his finesse in manners and etiquette, fashion and design. “I thought you were a soldier, perhaps, although some of your talents gave me pause.” I said it numbly. Flatly.
“I was something akin to a spy.”
I dropped my gaze to my boots. The tangled net of the truth was dragging me under. I couldn’t breathe.
“Aemiana. Look at me.”
I raised my eyes to his face.
“I never used you. I was part of the Mist, yes, but my role with you, my job as your bodyguard and protector, your friend, those things were done honestly. I didn’t know the extent of your involvement. There were always rumors among the organization after your disappearance, but I believed them to be just that until I heard Valus’s claims.”
His words fell on my ears like pebbles. I struggled not to flinch. “I thought you said you didn’t want me to become a pawn in this war.”
He swallowed. “I didn’t.”
“And yet you’re using me to play your games just like the rest of them.”
He turned his head. He didn’t answer. I could see the consternation written in every line of his body.
“My father was part of the Mist, wasn’t he?”
Tallyn was silent a moment. I opened my mouth to demand he answer me, but he spoke before I had to. “He was.”
I exhaled. The confirmation struck me like a dagger. “Is... is that why he was killed? Was this involvement with the search for Perilous his treason?”
“The treason,” Tallyn said, “is unknown. I am sorry. That part of his life is truly shrouded in mystery.”
“What about Myo? He knew about me, didn’t he?”
Tallyn scowled. “Myo is a mysterious one. He has many connections, and loyalties that only he understands. I cannot speak confidently about all of his motives.”
That was an unsatisfying response, but I had too many other questions begging to be asked.
“And my kidnapping as a child? How does that tie into all this?”
“I can only guess that the woman you knew as your mother, the one who stole you away and ran to the surface, knew about your memories, and hoped to spare you some harm that she knew or imagined was coming your way.”
“And the herbs? The drugs? Can you justify that?”
“You have to remember. They will hasten the memories.”
“You lied to me!”
He lowered his head. His skin was ashen. “I am not proud of it.”
“You could have told me.”
He didn’t reply.
I left the room, shaking with anger. Tallyn didn’t try to follow.
The carpet muffled my footsteps as I stalked through the ship to one of the common rooms, where a wall of glass showed the sea beyond that slipped past as we headed for Verdus. I stood before the window, trying to control my breathing, trying to hold in the rage that pushed against my skin and tore at my thoughts. My whole life I’d been just a thrall, a puppet in the hands of others. I’d been a slave to Tagatha’s whims, then Merelus’s orders, and then the Graywaters. And the whole time, in the background, still others—Myo, Tallyn, an entire organization—worked my strings and arranged my fate.
No longer. They had set me up to be a thing they could use, but I would use my power myself. I was the one who held the memories for finding Perilous. I was the key needed to open this lock.
I would be using that.
I felt Annah’s presence beside me before she spoke.
“I can feel your anger,” she said quietly.
“How do you do that? You always seem to perceive what others think.”
I heard her smile in her voice. “There are many ways of seeing besides sight.”
“I am angry,” I agreed. “I have been used my entire life by everyone I’ve trusted. No longer.”
“Everyone?” she asked.
It felt true. I stared at the blue beyond and didn’t answer.
“Don’t let your fury drive you to foolishness,” she said. “Let it motivate you, but keep your wits. You’re going to need them. The final battle is coming, Aemiana. You stand to be a vital player in it, but you must be agile, cunning, if you want to use this.”
“I didn’t want to be a vital player in the final battle.”
“Few of us choose our paths,” she murmured. “They are thrust upon us. But I have faith in your courage, your conviction. You are uniquely suited to this, my dear. You stand with a foot in the world above and the world below. You have friends among the enemies. You have seen much, and you carry hopes and sorrows that many could never understand. May they guide you as you make your decisions.”
“I am of sea and stone,” I murmured with a sigh, repeating words that had been spoken to me what felt like eons ago.
She laid a cool hand on my arm. “Use it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A COMPANY OF Dron came with us. I was told they had all volunteered. I was not surprised to see Olis and Nol, but astonished to spot Garren among their number as we took a meal in the dining room.
I sat alone, apart from the Itlanteans, who were eating and speaking freely now that they were back aboard their own ship, apart from Tallyn, who sat with Annah, both of them engaged in earnest discussion, apart from the Dron, huddled in a knot, apart from Valus, also alone. But as I pushed the stew around my bowl, utensils clattered on the table, and Nol slid into the seat across from me and began eating without comment. After a moment, Olis joined him, and then Garren, and although he grumbled beneath his breath, he didn’t sneer at me.
“Why?” I asked them quietly.
“You’re going to have to get used to our constant company,” Garren said between bites. “Might as well start now.”
“It’s a Dron custom to eat with your partners,” Olis said, as if that explained anything. “It builds a bond, trust, familiarity. I think
we could all use that.”
“Partners?” This sounded more intimate than allies.
“Since we have experience with the Itlanteans, a rather limited thing in our people’s recent history, and we are acquainted with you in particular, we’ve been selected as part of the team to find Perilous,” Olis explained. “We’ll be working together closely, so we need to bond.” She gestured at her plate. “This is the Dron way.”
“Just who else is on this team?”
“Tallyn, of course, Dorian—I mean, Valus—and that redheaded captain with the odious personality,” she said. “Oh, and someone called Myo.”
Myo. But of course. I sat back, lost in thought.
I wouldn’t be able to avoid Tallyn forever. We would be finding a lost city together.
“Itlantean ilk and a traitor,” Garren drawled. “A magnificent bunch. I’m sure we’ll get along well.”
I stood. My appetite had fled. I left the room and went into the hall, looking for some place, any place, where I could be alone with my thoughts.
The ship had a single, tiny garden sphere, a round glass bubble at the top of the ship that contained a smattering of vegetation and a single fountain in the center. I sank onto the gilded bench that made a half-circle around the fountain.
Footsteps.
Someone had followed me.
I looked, and saw Valus.
“Can I sit? I hear we’re partners now,” he said. “Teammates.”
I didn’t reply. I turned my head and looked at the sea. The curve of the glass distorted the view, and the fish that swam past looked grotesque, now bloated, now too thin.
“I know how you feel,” he said, sitting despite my lack of answer. “I’ve always known how you feel, Aemi. We’re not so different, you and I.”
“We’re very different,” I said. “I haven’t betrayed anyone.”
Sometimes, it seemed I was the only one who hadn’t.
Valus tipped his head back to look upward. Sunlight glittered, a far-off promise of what lay above us, worlds apart and yet so close. I imagined if I smashed the glass and swam upward, I could escape all of this. Find an island and sink my toes in the sand. Build a house, and eat coconuts and fruit. Never think about Itlantis again.
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