Tide

by Lacy Sheridan

  “I look forward to it.” He glanced to me, catching one hand in his and squeezing it. I couldn’t tell if it was a signal to keep calm or a show of possession. “Hania, darling, fetch our Queen and I some drinks, would you?”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  Aven’s gaze was heavy on me all the way back into the crowd, and I clenched my hands into fists around my skirt once I was out of their sight. I was only there to help Raeth antagonize Aven, nothing more. Maybe he hadn’t been as alright with our meeting as he claimed. I retrieved the drinks in silence, shutting down every thought that passed through my head. At least this was somehow going to lead to speaking with Tobin. My chest ached at the thought.

  When I returned to the dais Raeth and Marassa were deep in some conversation about the city markets, and I handed them both the drinks without a word. Marassa took a sip and continued without hesitation, never so much as glancing at me. Raeth tugged at my hand again, a silent command. When I hesitated, he glanced at me—an icy reminder of my position that froze my blood—and I steeled myself before sliding onto the arm of his chair. He hooked an arm around my waist.

  All for show, I reminded myself yet again. If I played the part of Raeth’s devoted girl , Marassa had no reason to turn on Aven. They were engaged. He was hers. He could do his work from a safe distance. That was all. So I forced myself to relax, even as my skin crawled, and I didn’t miss the faint, approving curl of Raeth’s lips, though he didn’t look away from Marassa.

  I didn’t look at Tobin, or Aven.

  “I know you don’t often work with common sirens, my Queen, but stubbornness isn’t a trait isolated to my family,” Raeth said with an easy smile. “Our women have always sold their work, and they won’t take kindly to being pushed out of the market.”

  I let my gaze wander across the crowd while I listened. A few nobles glanced at my position and whispered or snickered under their breaths, but I was too far to catch their words. I worked to keep the heat from creeping into my face and focused instead on the slips of black and gold among the dancers. The other girls. Azali’s fiery curls there. Kieras’s snow-white head.

  “And their work is exceptional, but we’re hearing complaints of merrows being overshadowed. That siren shop owners are causing trouble with them.” Marassa had taken ahold of the pearl leash she kept on Tobin as she spoke, pulling him closer. He shuffled forward obediently and took her offered glass. His gaze flicked to me as he took a drink and returned it, but he kept silent.

  I didn’t know what this game was. I didn’t know how to play. So, I kept quiet and watched, waited. And prayed to every old god I knew that Raeth had a plan in mind.

  He shook his head. “The merrows only have an issue with shop owners being women.”

  “If that’s so, I suggest you and Lord Namak discuss your peoples’ conflicting beliefs. We do want these things to run smoothly, don’t we?”

  That was tension in Raeth’s shoulders—the slightest bit, but there nonetheless. He let out a breath and it loosened. “Of course. But tonight’s not a night for work. Have you danced yet tonight, my Queen?”

  “No, I have not. I’m afraid my intended isn’t in the mood for dancing tonight.” She cast Aven a look with a precise combination of fondness and mocking. I stiffened, and Raeth breathed a low sound, but the tightness in my chest loosened.

  “My apologies,” Aven spoke. “I’d be honored to have a dance.”

  Marassa’s gaze came to me once again and I pulled mine down. She knew. Everything in her face told me she knew I intended to speak to Tobin. And yet she simply reached up, loosened the pearls chaining him to her chair, and stood. “Go, mingle and be merry, pet,” she said with nothing but sweet venom in her voice. And then she was gone, Aven taking her hand and leading her into the crowd. It parted to let them through, bowing their heads, and I stared after them before yanking my gaze away. I couldn’t watch.

  Tobin stood in place, eyes on the floor. As if he didn’t dare move, even with Marassa gone. Namak was off mingling as well; Raeth and I were the only ones who bothered to notice him at all.

  “Hania, fetch our Queen’s pet something to eat. He looks starved, doesn’t he?”

  He did. He was so thin. I stood on shaking legs, eyes on Tobin, and took a step. When he didn’t move to follow, I paused. “Tobin?”

  Raeth watched us like a lion watching its prey. “Go on, then, boy.”

  Tobin set his jaw and followed, head down. We slipped around the edges of the crowd, silent. I didn’t speak, and neither did Tobin. But I was too aware of how close he was—how close we were. Of the fact that we could disappear right now, through the maze of halls until we were out and then run.

  But not without being killed. Not with all those eyes on us.

  So, I kept walking, Tobin a step behind me, until I felt the burning of the nobles’ gazes fade away. We weren’t interesting enough for them to pay attention to for long. I didn’t stop; I’d spent almost every night in this hall watching who passed in and out when. I knew how long they danced, how long they spoke, when the servants left to get fresh drinks or food. Where every exit was. I checked once more to be sure the nobles were occupied and that the servants were passing around us with empty or newly-filled trays and then pulled open one of the little doors they used, heart pounding.

  “What are you doing here, Hania?” Tobin demanded the second the door closed behind us.

  Wasn’t it obvious? “Saving you.”

  He stared for a precious, dumbstruck second, then blinked and hissed, “What?”

  “Did you think I was going to sit at home and accept that you were gone?”

  “Hania,” he groaned, turning away and shaking his head. “Hania, no. No, no, you can’t be here.”

  “Tobin—”

  “I was out there fighting to keep you safe! Not so you could end up here, too! And with that—that snake Tiraethsi? What’s he done to you?”

  I folded my arms. “Keep your voice down. Marassa will find us the second she notices you’re gone. And he hasn’t done anything. He’s the one who got Marassa out of the way so I could talk to you, wasn’t he? And so did Aven, by the way, before you start calling him a snake, too.”

  “You don’t know who Aven is, Hania—”

  “Yes, I do. I freed him.”

  There was a beat of silence as Tobin gaped. “You freed him?” I nodded. “The selkie people died trying to imprison to keep us safe?”

  “After they took you, I made a deal with him. He brought me here and he’s helping me.”

  “Do you know what he did to the people at home? To the other villages? You know the stories—”

  “He’s not like that,” I cut him off, fiercer than I intended. “I know exactly what he did. He told me everything, and it went farther than he meant. He had his reasons to go there. He’s different. Trust me.”

  “Trust you? I trust you have every good intention in the world, but that’s not helpful here! Do you see what they did to me just for looking like Lenairen? What will happen when they find out you’re my sister? That you have his blood, too? And Aven—our people sealed him away. How can you think he doesn’t care?”

  “He does,” I murmured, looking away. “Of course he cares. I know he thinks about it. But…he’s not a monster like they say.”

  “You’ve always been smarter than to trust a tidesperson.”

  “And then I met one, Tobin!” Tears stung my eyes and I forced them back. This wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to fight. We couldn’t afford to fight. And he was right, it was stupid of me to have trusted Aven so easily, to come here at all. But that didn’t make it wrong. “Aven is good, alright? They aren’t all the same. Yes, he did some terrible things, but you haven’t seen him talk about them. You haven’t seen them eat at him. And you haven’t been with him through everything I have. I trust him, and I need you to trust him and me. Please.”

  His gaze softened with his voice, but it was torn. Terrified. “I trust you, Hania. Of cours
e I trust you. Just don’t get hurt. Please don’t get hurt. You have to get home.”

  I swallowed and threw my arms around his neck, careful of the tender burns across his chest. He returned the hug. “We’ll both get home. I promise.”

  Both of us. Not one or the other. I wouldn’t accept anything else. I’d come all this way to bring my brother back and that was all there was to it. Whatever I needed to do to make that happen, I’d do it. If that meant playing the Court’s games, if that meant making sure whatever Raeth wanted done happened, anything. I vowed it, right then and there, when I could pretend there would never be anything to make us choose.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” he whispered, his voice thick and unsteady. “If I—if I can’t survive it and they find out you’re my sister they’ll go to you next.”

  I let myself really look at him, and my heart broke at the sight. I could count his ribs below the raw and scarred ruin of his torso. Bruises in every stage of healing dotted all over him, and a fresh burn had appeared on one hand since yesterday. His broken fingernails had dirt caked beneath them, and red rings on each wrist said he’d been chained with more than pearls. His eyes had gone from that rich gray to dull and dark, haunted and tired. “What do they do to you? Where are they keeping you? I need to know anything that could help. Aven’s going to try to get you out. Soon.”

  He looked down to pick at the dirt, but I had a feeling it had more to do with me than with any kind of concern for his cleanliness. “Usually an ordinary room. Sometimes somewhere else, somewhere it’s easier to…clean up. They take me on a different path every time, so I can’t tell the way or where it is. Unless they take me below, where it’s…”

  “Dark,” I supplied. His jaw tightened and he nodded. “I’ve been there. How often do you see Marassa? How many guards are there?”

  “Three or four I can see, most of the time. And Marassa…I never know. Sometimes she leaves me for days, but sometimes she shows up again and again. There’s no pattern.”

  I filed away all of it to give to Moray or Aven when I could. Anything that might help. But what Raeth wanted…I didn’t know. “I’m sorry, Tobin,” I managed.

  His eyes were red-rimmed, and he pulled me into another hug. “You didn’t do any of this, Hania.”

  I hugged him as tight as I dared, swallowing a lump in my throat. “I couldn’t stop them from taking you. I can’t get you out. I—I lost your bow—”

  There was a second of silence before I recognized the raspy sound he made was laughter. “You lost my bow?”

  “Tidespeople took it. In a different Court. I’m sorry. I’ll get it back—”

  “No.” His arms tightened around me. “You’re more important than a stupid bow.”

  Before I could respond, the distant hum of music and voices burst louder as the door was pulled open, and Tobin jumped away. Guards grabbed at me before I knew what was happening, dragging me toward the open hall. Behind me, Tobin shouted something and there was the sickening sound of metal meeting flesh. My voice caught in my throat, but I yanked against their iron-tight holds as they shoved me to my knees on the cold floor. My spinning, confused vision cleared to see Tobin beside me. He pressed one hand over his eye, blood leaking between his fingers, but didn’t try to speak again.

  I gasped for breath and forced my gaze up. Nobles and servants alike stared down at us, crowded around the guards. Some whispered behind their hands or fans.

  The familiar point of a blade pricked the back of my neck, and I pitched forward on instinct, my hands hitting the ground. It pressed closer and my focus narrowed to it. My pulse rushed in my ears and the air left my lungs.

  Not now. Not when I’d gotten to see him. Where was Aven to stop them? Where was—

  “Lower your weapons.” Raeth’s voice was silky and commanding and sent chills through me as my arms almost gave out from the relief. “She’s mine.”

  The pressure at my neck vanished, but one look at Raeth told me not to try to get up. He stood between Marassa and Aven, looking for all the world like he was ready to kill the next guard to touch me, and all I could do was stare and wait. He stepped forward and snatched my arm, hauling me up, and I bit back a cry as my shoulder strained. His eyes bore into me, like they would pierce through me and kill more effectively than the guard’s sword, and then he shoved me to them.

  “Take her back to the Nest. And I expect not a scratch on her. I’ll deal with her.”

  I didn’t speak as they pulled me toward the doors. Every eye in the hall stayed on me as we passed, and the only ones I dared to meet were Azali’s. She hovered at the edge of the gaping crowd, a cruel little smile on her pretty lips, and gave a prim, parting wave before the guards dragged me forward.

  For hours, the Nest was empty and silent. When I’d left parties early before I’d enjoyed the quiet, the fleeting taste of freedom from the other girls. Now it felt like it pressed on me, like the walls were closing in to crush me. I could feel the prick of the blade at my neck, the cold floor against my knees. The threat was gone but my heart hadn’t slowed down.

  Raeth had stopped them from killing me, but what about Tobin?

  Did his torture mean enough to Marassa to keep him alive?

  What was I supposed to do if he was dead?

  He couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t.

  I paced, shaking, but it didn’t wear the thoughts down. They spun and spun until I was sure I’d lose my mind.

  The doors opened suddenly, making me jump, and the other girls filed in. None of them spoke a word as they crossed the threshold, and when the doors closed, whispers started like wildfire. Kieras caught my arm and dragged me behind the curtain of her bed, nails biting into my skin, before I could do anything.

  “What happened?” she hissed, dark eyes boring into mine. They were wide and swirling with some kind of fear that startled me. “Are you alright?”

  My hands trembled and my voice came out thinner than I would have liked, but I managed to answer. “I’m alright.”

  “The Queen’s slave, Hania? What were you doing with him?”

  If they find out you’re my sister they’ll go to you next.

  Moray and Aven wouldn’t say anything about my relation to Tobin. I didn’t think Raeth would, not while he wanted me to keep helping him do whatever he was doing. And I trusted Kieras more than I trusted him. But the truth stuck in my throat.

  Before I had a chance to think of what to say, a banging cut me off, and we both rushed through the curtain. The entire Nest silenced as the door burst open with none of the polite hesitance of the women who brought our messages. Every head turned and my heart crashed to the floor to see Raeth stalking down the center hall. His gaze was stone-hard, his jaw set. There was none of that usual feline grace; he moved like a storm, and each one of us flinched back.

  I’d never seen Raeth enter the Nest. Over a month I’d been here, and not once had he set foot inside.

  But he didn’t stop before our little crowd or speak. He walked straight to Azali, snatching her chin in one hand. She jumped and cut her eyes down, struggling to manage every submissive posture possible, though we all knew we had no need for them here. My heart pinched at the terror that flickered across her face as he forced her chin up so she was looking straight at him.

  “What in the gods’ names were you thinking?” he demanded.

  “I—She—” A tiny quirk of one brow silenced her stuttering and she murmured, “She was sneaking off with another man. She’d risk your name—”

  “What she does or the risk to my name is none of your business. Do you have any idea the trouble I was forced to go to for this to be fixed?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He released her. “If there is something to be done, I will do it. Is that understood?” She nodded. “I’ll remind you once of your position.”

  “Lord, I was trying—”

  “Do not use that title here.” The venom in his voice doubled, and I stepped back withou
t meaning to.

  Azali paused to compose herself, lowering her voice. “Raeth, you gave me orders.”

  “Your orders were not to almost have one of your own killed. There’s one of her. I can replace you with any of nine other women in this room. Don’t forget that.” He cast a cutting look to the rest of us. I kept my head down. “I put all of you here for a reason. I expect you to protect each other and that has been clear since the beginning. If any of you endanger one of your own again there will be no more warnings.” With that he turned and left, a tense, ringing silence in his wake.

  After a long moment, I dragged my attention to Azali, every inch of me prickling as I waited for some threat or retort to be thrown in my direction. An enchantment intended as revenge. All she did was shove through the curtain to her bed without a word.

  Another stretch of silence before the other girls dispersed, and I turned to my bed. I wouldn’t sleep, but hiding there would be better than watching them try to sneak glances at me between their whispers. Kieras followed.

  “Hania. Hania! What is going on?” She followed me past the curtain and lowered her voice. “If any of us had slipped away with a man—much less the Queen’s pet—he’d have our heads. Why not you? What do you mean to him? And what were you doing—”

  I whirled to her, unable to take the questions any longer. My head pounded and everything inside me trembled, like it would collapse to the ground any second. “Raeth asked me to talk to him.”

  She paused, then shook her head. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I know he’s using me for something, and I’m not supposed to be here, and I need to get out. We both need to get out.”

  “Both?” I drew an unsteady breath and turned to my bed, but she took my arm and spun me around again. “Both? You and the Queen’s—”

  “Tobin. His name is Tobin.”

  The look in her eyes softened. “I know you’re human, Hania. It doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it does to us, but he’s the blood of Lenairen.”