The Deepest Blue

by Sarah Beth Durst

“She’s the queen,” Mayara said. “The important thing now is to keep her from killing everyone else.” Revenge would have to wait. She didn’t say that out loud, but she hoped Roe understood it was true. Their first responsibility was to fulfill the promise to Queen Asana and make sure the new queen knew how to keep the monsters in the Deepest Blue asleep.

  Garnah dropped a pouch into one of Mayara’s pockets. “In case you change your mind.”

  “There’s no heir in the grove,” Mayara said. “Even more would die.”

  Garnah glanced at Roe with a significant look. “I’ll make sure someone worthy is in the grove.” She then flashed Mayara a smile. “It’ll be fine. We’ll be queen-makers.”

  Mayara didn’t have the heart to tell them she didn’t want that. This wasn’t her plan. She wasn’t a murderer. All she wanted was to ensure her village survived.

  She didn’t have to say it. Roe could read it in her eyes. “You aren’t going to do it, are you, Mayara? Even after . . .”

  “I’m sorry, Roe.”

  “She killed my mother. Your queen. She used Palia. She murdered that heir in the grove. You can’t think that such a person would be good for Belene. She has no morals.”

  “That’s less of a problem than the fact that she’s stupid,” Garnah said.

  “She outsmarted us,” Mayara countered. “Maybe she is what Belene needs. A ruthless leader to overthrow the Families and keep us all safe, not just the wealthy and their relations.”

  “You don’t believe that!” Roe said.

  Maybe she did. Or maybe she’d just had enough of death. And if Lanei could put a stop to it . . . “It’s not that I forgive her . . .”

  The courtier poked his head back into the waiting room. “Lady Mayara?”

  “Just Mayara.” She was an oyster diver and a spirit sister and a wife and a daughter and a niece and a cousin, and she’d never wanted to be anything more.

  “Follow me, please.”

  Mayara hesitated for one fraction of a second more. She glanced at Roe, whose face was flushed red, with unshed tears making her eyes look glossy, and she wanted to say she was sorry again. She didn’t know how to fix this. There was nothing she could say to Lanei, or even do to her, that would bring Queen Asana back.

  She had one responsibility now: fulfill her and Roe’s promise to the dead queen.

  And then go home.

  If I can.

  If she lets me.

  Roe and Garnah might think she could kill Lanei, but Mayara knew better. Lanei would now have the power of all the spirits of Belene at her disposal. She’d be twice as strong as any heir, and Mayara was never the best of them. Three days of training and then days and nights of hiding on Akena wasn’t enough. I don’t have a chance against her.

  She only hoped that Lanei would listen to her.

  As she left the room, she heard a new voice behind her, addressing Roe: “Spirit Snack, this is a surprise. You’re supposed to be on Akena.” Heir Sorka! For an instant, Mayara hesitated, wanting to go back and explain everything—but Sorka might keep her from talking to Lanei. Might try to send her back. Roe and Garnah would have to handle Heir Sorka on their own.

  “The queen awaits this one,” the courtier informed Heir Sorka.

  Mayara followed the courtier up a spiral hallway. On either side were portraits of queens. So many queens. She studied them as she passed. Their eyes looked out, always painted with the sea behind them. Some were dressed in elaborate robes. Others were in simple tunics. Others, wrap dresses. Some were beautiful. Some plain. All dead, she thought. That was the one thing they had in common.

  They continued to spiral up and up. Mayara was puffing, her sides sore. She couldn’t remember when she’d last slept. Or had a proper meal. Or had enough clean water to drink. She wondered if she was being brought up this far to be tossed out a window. It wouldn’t have surprised her.

  She wondered if she was strong enough to summon an air spirit to catch herself. She’d never tried such a thing. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so intimidated if she’d used her time on the island to learn how to use her power like she was supposed to have.

  But I’m not here to fight Lanei.

  The courtier halted and gestured to a doorway. It was blocked by a gossamer fabric. Pushing it aside, Mayara entered. She was in a round room with arched windows all around. This had to be the top of the palace.

  The sea was visible in all directions.

  Lanei stood by one of the windows.

  Queen Lanei, Mayara corrected herself.

  She was dressed in white silk, and she wore a crown of shells. Mayara tried to think of what to say, but all she could do was suck in air and try to shake the dizzy feeling of climbing too many steps on too little sleep.

  “I think I hate the water,” Lanei said. “Unfortunate for the queen of an island nation.”

  “Lanei . . .” Mayara began.

  “Queen Lanei.” Lanei then turned to her and smiled. “But you can, of course, call me Lanei. Without you, I wouldn’t be here. You gave me the way to make this happen. Because of you, I can fix everything that’s wrong on our islands. So I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

  “You aren’t going to kill me?”

  Lanei laughed. “What you must think of me! No. Of course not. Why would I?”

  “Because I know what you did.” She was talking without thinking again, she knew. It might have been smarter to dissemble or plead or flat-out lie, but it was too late now.

  “I became queen, that’s what I did,” Lanei said. “And everyone will forgive the rest, because they want to live. Renthians need queens. You don’t replace them lightly.”

  There was so much wrong in everything she said. She had replaced a queen, and it sounded as if she were threatening the country. “Lanei, there’s something you don’t know about the Deepest Blue. Queen Asana told us before she died—the way to keep the leviathans asleep. Have you spoken to any of the heirs? It’s something they’re taught after they survive the island.”

  “I know all about the Deepest Blue,” Lanei said, with a dismissive wave. “It’s a lie. Used to limit the queen’s power and to control people, by keeping them afraid.”

  “What? No—you’re wrong.” She’d heard the fear in Queen Asana’s voice. The dying queen had used her last moments to warn them and to send her daughter with her warning. She wouldn’t have done that if it weren’t true. “Everyone knows—”

  “Do they? Have you ever met anyone who has seen a leviathan?”

  “The bones of our islands—”

  “—are just that. Bones. The leviathans are gone, long ago.”

  She’d heard the tales and the songs. She’d grown up knowing what every Renthian knew: that the queens of Belene protected everyone from the monsters of the deep. This was why the heirs were needed, because the queen had a greater duty. It was dangerous lunacy to believe that a danger wasn’t real just because you hadn’t seen it for yourself. “But the queens—”

  “Oh, innocent Mayara, there are no monstrous spirits to threaten our people. All the monsters are within. The Families. They are the ones whose power needs to be subdued and contained. I am going to create a new way forward by dismantling the ways things have always been done. It’s the dawn of a new age.”

  “The Deepest Blue is real,” Mayara said. “Queen Asana—”

  “Lived in fear. Afraid of the Families. Afraid of her power. Afraid of myths. Bound by tradition.”

  “She was very specific about how to get them to sleep,” Mayara said. “You have to convince them that the world hasn’t changed, that humans don’t exist. Lull them into dreams of the world before the Great Mother died, when there were only spirits. And they’ll be content. And you can find them by following the trail of their dreams. Can you at least try? Please? Just to be sure.”

  “I’m not putting myself in a trance and making myself vulnerable to you,” Lanei said with a light laugh. “I assume you have poison in your pocket that’s meant for me? I wa
s told you came with Queen Asana’s daughter and her favorite poison-maker.”

  Mayara’s hand went to her pocket. Should she deny it? Say she didn’t plan to use it? Tell Lanei that she despised what she did but knew Belene needed a queen, even one as broken as she was. “Check for the monsters. I’ll leave the room. You’ll be safe.”

  “There are no monsters. You can either trust me or not.”

  “I can’t trust you. Your brilliant plan was to kill us all!”

  “But I’m letting you live now. I’m giving you what you want. Freedom. You don’t need to be a spirit sister anymore. You never wanted to be. I know you never wanted to use your power, never bothered to learn how. You can go home. So can Roe. And that poison-maker, whoever she is, is free as well. You’ll be happy to know that your surviving spirit sisters—a grateful two survived—as well as any Silent Ones left on Akena have been evacuated from the island already. The test will be canceled, and future heirs will be drawn from spirit sisters who are willing—with the understanding that the only danger of death will come from the spirits themselves. No more Akena Island. In fact, I’m thinking of destroying it. It’s only made of bone, you know, and riddled with holes. Get enough spirits into those holes, and the whole island could be torn apart. Don’t you like that idea?”

  She didn’t want to like anything Lanei said. The two others that survived—how many more would have lived if Lanei hadn’t been working against them? Did she even know Lanei had told the truth when she said she hadn’t killed anyone?

  Still . . . it was hard not to like what she was saying. No more tests. I could go home. With Kelo. And maybe even Elorna.

  But Queen Asana had seemed so worried about the Deepest Blue.

  How could it be a lie?

  It didn’t make sense. If it was a lie, then Queen Asana should have had the power to rescue Roe. She shouldn’t have been under the thumb of the Families. Roe should never have been without her mother or sent to the island. . . .

  “Stand with me,” Lanei said. “And watch as I destroy Akena Island. Then you’ll understand. I only want to make the world a better place. Come and see.” She held out her hand, and Mayara walked to the window.

  It was open, with no glass in between them and the world. She could still hear the bells, mixed with the wind. It smelled like the sea, even so far above the water. Below them was the coronation grove. Around them, the city. Beyond . . . This high up, she could see a distant smudge of purple on the horizon to the north—the mainland. And if she turned and looked across the island to the south . . . Akena Island.

  Two others survived, she thought. She wondered which two. At least there was no one left on Akena, living in fear. . . .

  Out on the waves, she saw spirits spiral up out of the water. Water spouts began to form. “Are you doing that?” she asked Lanei.

  The new queen grinned. “Oh yes. Keep watching.” She then laughed out loud as the spirits began to swirl faster, the spout rising higher. Ice spirits flew around them, and the seawater froze, breaking into a million shards of ice as the water below continued to churn. “Finally, I have power. Queen Asana was a fool not to use it. To allow others to use her. No one will ever hurt me, or anyone like me, ever again. And, my dear Mayara, so long as I have this power, no one will ever hurt you or your family ever again either. How does that sound?”

  It sounded . . . like everything she wanted.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Mayara watched as Lanei, laughing, forced the spirits of Belene to destroy Akena Island. They swarmed over it like ants over a ripened fruit. Waterspouts tore into its shore. Fire tore across its forests. She saw the flames grow, coalescing into the shape of humans with long fiery limbs that tore at the distant green. She was so far away, she heard nothing, but even from this distance, the level of destruction was so clear, it blackened the sky.

  “Tear it!” Lanei urged. “Rip it, rend it, drive it into the sea. . . .” Every spirit in Belene was there in a froth of rage and destruction.

  Backing away from the window, Mayara tried to keep her mind closed to it, but the fierce rage seeped in. It felt like boiling water being forced down her throat. “Lanei, you need to stop.”

  “Not until it’s done!” Hands on either side of the arch, Lanei screamed, “Destroy it!”

  Mayara fell to her knees. The rage—it was too much, filling her veins, making her feel as if she were going to fly apart. She felt it rushing through the sea.

  The tower door slammed open. “Your Majesty!”

  Though her head was pounding, Mayara lifted it and tried to force her eyes to focus. She recognized the person in the doorway—no, not person. Three people: Heir Sorka with Roe and Lady Garnah.

  “Your Majesty!” Heir Sorka called again. “Stop!”

  “You can’t stop me,” Lanei said. “This is what it means to be queen! Take power. Use power. Make the world better. You don’t understand that a true hero cannot be bound by the rules and limitations of an ordinary person. The few must die so the many—”

  Garnah cut her off. “No one cares. Murder whoever you want. Just do your duty—”

  “I care,” Roe said. “She killed my mother!”

  “Priorities, Roe,” Garnah said. “Focus.”

  “You’ve woken the Deepest Blue,” Sorka said. “Can’t you feel them coming?”

  “You can’t frighten me with your myths!” Lanei cried. Her arms were spread wide, and they were shaking. Her face looked euphoric.

  “Idiot,” Garnah snapped. “A rock would make a better queen. But you’re what we’ve got right now, so quit playing and do your job! Put them back!” She pointed south across the island, toward the ocean beyond.

  And Mayara realized that was the rage she’d felt. It was rolling in with the surging tide. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled to one of the windows. Out where the horizon should be were three smudged shapes, rushing through the water. One of them reared, and she saw the silhouette of many, many heads. “How far?”

  “Not far enough,” Sorka said grimly. To the queen, she ordered, “You must focus on the leviathans. You’re the only one with the power to do it. We’ll hold the Belenian spirits.” To Roe and Mayara, she said, “Keep them away from the inhabited islands. With them riled up this much, that’s the best we’ll be able to do. Especially with them on the way.”

  “This is impossible,” Queen Lanei said. “The monsters of the Deepest Blue . . . they’re a myth created by the Families to control the queens. They’re fairy tales! They don’t exist!”

  “Tell that to them,” Sorka snapped.

  “Try to get them back to sleep,” Roe urged. “You need to convince them their dreams are real—that they’re still living in a time before humans. That’s what my mother said.”

  “She’s right,” Sorka said. “You would have been taught this, if you’d bothered to obey the law and become a proper heir. They must be kept in a state of perpetual sleep. Otherwise, they’ll destroy the islands. And when they’re done with Belene, they will move on to the rest of Renthia. This is the purpose of our queen! This is what you agreed to when you bonded with the spirits of Belene. You must use the power the island spirits gave you in order to keep the monsters at bay. Like every queen who came before you.”

  “I was supposed to be different from every queen that came before!” Lanei cried. In the distance, her spirits were still gleefully dismantling the Island of Testing. It had been swallowed in a swirl of smoke, steam, and water.

  “If you are, we all die,” Sorka said. “Do your job, Your Majesty, and put them back to sleep! Now!”

  Staring north, Mayara saw what looked like a surge of sea coming toward the city. The leviathans had circled the island and were rapidly approaching Yena. “They look very awake.” She wanted to run and dive into the ocean and swim as far away from all of this as possible, all the way home to Kelo.

  Closing her eyes, Lanei focused her attention.

  Mayara felt the Belenian spirits shift the
ir attention from Akena Island toward the other islands. The spirits were still hungry. They wanted to destroy more. Stop, she thought at them. Calm! Rest!

  There was no sign that any of them heard her.

  “Keep them at Akena,” Sorka ordered.

  Stay, Mayara thought. Tear it to nothingness.

  They liked that.

  She didn’t know what would happen when every shred of the island was gone. Stay. Destroy where you are. She glanced back toward the leviathans.

  A wall of water was moving toward the island. “Is that . . . ?”

  “Tsunami!” Roe cried.

  “You have to stop them!” Sorka begged. “They’ll drown the city!”

  Lanei was on her knees. Sweat poured down her face. “They aren’t listening to me!”

  “Lullaby,” Mayara said. “It has to be like a lullaby. Soothe them back to sleep.” They did not look soothed or like any creature who could ever be soothed. There were three: a dragon as black as char, a kraken with tentacles that looked as if they could pull down the moon, and a snake with more heads than she could count. They rode the waves, so high above the sea that they looked as if they would swallow the whole ocean and all the islands.

  “Your Majesty, they’re coming closer!” Sorka called.

  “She can’t do it,” Garnah said.

  “If she can’t, no one can,” Sorka said. “She’s the queen.”

  “She’s a bad queen,” Garnah insisted. “Her own ambitions cloud her focus. She’s too much like them. Too much rage and ambition.”

  Mayara wondered if Garnah was right. But there was no other choice. Lanei was the queen now, for better or worse, and she had to be the one to face down these monsters. Mayara knelt by Lanei’s side. “You can do this. I know you can. You’re strong! You lived on that island alone for an entire year. You evaded all the Silent Ones. Stayed alive despite all the spirits. And you did all that before you had the power of a queen! Use your power.”

  “I am! They won’t listen!” Lanei spat out the words. There was blood on the corners of her lips, as if she’d bitten her cheek or tongue. Her hands were curled into fists, and Mayara saw blood weeping from her palms where her nails had dug into her flesh.