Crown of Coral and Pearl

by Mara Rutherford

  Our eyes met in our shared reflection. Hers were cloud gray, while Zadie and I shared our mother’s golden-hued eyes. Like honey, Sami once said, though neither of us had ever seen it. He described it as “something insects make,” and we had both assumed it was an insult.

  “Does this mean I’m going to Ilara?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I whirled around to face her, but I was unable to form words. She smiled and patted my shoulder. “Now, girl, you should go home and prepare for your journey. Ilara is five days by coach, and you will be sick for much of it.”

  I blinked at her. I’d never been sick since the incident, other than from the blood coral poisoning itself. “Why?”

  “You’ve never been on land before. Everything will be a shock to your system, not least the food. Even the air is different, so they say. And you will be cold, though the guards will bring proper clothing for you.”

  I thought of Sami’s cloak. Would it be mine now? Would all the beautiful fabrics in Zadie’s trunk, the strand of pearls, the comb, belong to me, as well? Or was I to have none of the luxuries granted to my sister? And what would poor Alys think of all this, when she learned that she had lost the crown first to Zadie, and now to me?

  “What if the king discovers what we’ve done?” I whispered fearfully. “Will he punish everyone here?”

  Nemea lifted one bony shoulder. “Yes. Although at this rate, we’ll all be dead of starvation in another five years anyway. The question the king should ask himself is, without us, who will fetch his precious pearls?”

  My breath caught. No adult had ever admitted how bad things were to me before or pointed out the king’s dependence on us in such stark terms.

  “Why doesn’t Governor Kristos stand up to the Ilareans?” I asked. “Why don’t the elders?”

  “Revolution is for the young, child. Besides, what can any of us do from here? If we withhold the pearls, the king will withhold everything else. If we are caught trying to go ashore, we will be killed.” She handed me the jar of stain. “Go on, then. Go home to your family. The other elders will have told them the news by now, and I imagine you’ll want to spend as much time with your sister as possible.”

  As I walked toward the door, her words echoed in my head. What could anyone do from here?

  “What about me?” I asked, turning back toward her.

  Nemea eyed me curiously. “What about you, child?”

  “I’ll be there at the castle. I will have the king’s ear. If I tell him how desperate we are, how without more food and water, there will be no one left to dive for the pearls... He’ll have to do something. Won’t he?”

  She raised the same shoulder in a half shrug. “Perhaps he will, perhaps he won’t,” she said. But this time, she was smiling.

  * * *

  I didn’t sleep that night. I doubted anyone in my family did, though aside from Zadie’s whimpers, it was quiet. I held her hand through the long hours, telling her it would all be fine, that she and Sami would marry and bear lots of beautiful babies, though I don’t know if she believed me.

  While my mouth spoke of Zadie and her life here in Varenia, my mind was far away. I remembered my prayer to Thalos the night of the dinner at Governor Kristos’s house, after I’d met Talin. I had asked him to send me in Zadie’s place, to save her from the fate she didn’t want.

  But though I had made the prayer on Zadie’s behalf, I couldn’t deny that there had been a selfish undercurrent to my words. I didn’t want to stay in Varenia and marry Sami any more than Zadie wanted to leave. I couldn’t spend my life wondering if my husband was thinking of someone else every time he looked at me. I didn’t want to stare at the same horizon, eat the same food, or see the same people for the next hundred years.

  Had I caused this somehow? Was Thalos punishing me for being so wicked? Yes, I wanted to leave Varenia, but if I had known this would be the cost, I never would have asked for it.

  I rose from our bed when I could see the blue of the water through the cracks in our floorboards. Today was my last full day in Varenia. Tomorrow morning Governor Kristos and Sami would row me to shore, where the captain of the king’s guard would wade out to meet me himself.

  Father was responsible for explaining all of this, as Mother still would not speak to me. “If the captain does not believe you are Zadie, I don’t know what will become of you,” he said.

  A chill ran over my scalp, but I nodded. “I understand.”

  “You should go, enjoy your last day here.”

  “I don’t think I can enjoy anything with Zadie so sick and Mother so angry,” I said.

  He let me lean against his chest. “Your sister will heal. Your mother will forgive you.”

  “Not before tomorrow.”

  “No, I suppose not. But all will be well again one day.”

  I would never see that day. I would never see any of them again.

  “Go and find Sami,” Father said. “See if he has convinced Kristos to let him marry Zadie. My friend is a good man, and I believe he will make the right decision.”

  I wiped the corners of my eyes with my tunic. “Yes, Father.”

  I checked on Zadie again before I left and found her being tended by Mother. Satisfied that she would be well looked after, I jumped off our balcony into the water. I could have taken the boat, but I preferred to swim today. It wasn’t far to Sami’s house, and who knew how long it would be until I saw the ocean again. Perhaps forever.

  Sami was sitting on the dock outside his house when I arrived.

  “Any word?” I called up to him.

  A family rowed past in their boat, the mother glaring at me, no doubt cursing me for what everyone thought I’d done to Zadie. I lifted my chin and met her stare.

  Sami splashed down into the water next to me, and the woman finally looked away. “Not yet,” he said. “Are you all right? My parents told me what the elders decided.”

  I swallowed down my fear. “I’ll be fine.”

  He looked older, as if the last of his boyhood had been drained by the events of the last two days. “Did your father send you here?”

  “Yes. He thinks your father will allow the marriage. What do you think?”

  Sami swam into the shadows under his house and motioned for me to follow him. “I don’t know. My mother is adamant I not marry Zadie.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she thinks Thalos is punishing your family.”

  I flinched at the words. “For what?”

  He lowered his gaze. “Your mother’s pride.”

  “This has nothing to do with Thalos,” I said, though I wasn’t as sure as I pretended to be. “I can’t deny my mother’s pride, however.”

  Sami grabbed onto a pillar with one hand and pulled me to him with the other. His touch was rough, in a way I’d never felt before.

  “You’re hurting me,” I said, ripping his hand away.

  His voice was harsh as he asked, “She did this to herself, didn’t she?”

  I treaded water for a moment, my arm still sore from where he’d grabbed me. Zadie wouldn’t want Sami to know the truth, but didn’t he have a right to know? They couldn’t build a life together with such a terrible secret between them.

  “Yes,” I said finally.

  “Did you help her?”

  I wanted to scream no. I hadn’t wanted anything to do with it. I remembered the things Zadie had said to me, that I didn’t love her if I didn’t help her. That she would do it alone if I didn’t stay.

  I couldn’t keep this secret for the rest of my life. I had to tell someone. “Yes.”

  Sami slapped the water with both hands, splashing us. “Thalos, Nor! Why?”

  “I had no other choice!” I cried. “She got the jellyfish on her own and had it tied to the boat. I tried to leave, but she said she would do it without me
if I left. I was afraid she’d kill herself. When the time came, I couldn’t go through with it, but she forced my hand.” I swiped away my tears. “I didn’t do it, but I was there.”

  “Couldn’t you have talked her out of it?” Sami asked, his own eyes damp with tears.

  “Don’t you think I tried?” I took a shaky breath and sent him a pleading glance. “She’s my sister, Sami, and she begged me. She couldn’t leave you. Don’t you understand that? She would rather die than leave you.”

  Not me, I thought with no small amount of resentment. Just you.

  “And what am I going to do if my father says I can’t marry her? What then?”

  I swallowed my tears. “You’re just going to have to find a way.”

  “I’m the governor’s son, Nor. I have responsibilities.”

  This time I grabbed his arm. I dug my nails into the familiar flesh until he winced. “And I have just agreed to pretend to be someone else for the rest of my life! You will not abandon my sister, do you understand?”

  His jaw clenched. “I won’t abandon her.”

  “Promise me.”

  He pulled my hand away gently and looked me square in the eyes. “I promise.”

  “Good.” I believed Sami. I didn’t know how he would fix all this, but I knew he would find a way. “There’s something else we need to discuss.”

  “What?”

  “You’re always saying that when you’re governor, you will improve our way of life. That you will stand up to Ilara.”

  “And I will,” he said. For some reason, I believed him more now than I ever had before.

  “What if there was a way for you to start now, before you become governor?” I asked him.

  “What are you talking about?”

  I pointed to his family’s smaller boat. “Come with me.”

  9

  “Where are we going?” Sami asked as I handed him the oars.

  I gave him a wry smile. “The market. You’re buying my family’s grain and water this week.” Mother hadn’t asked me to buy anything, but she’d been too distracted by Zadie’s injuries and her hatred of me to notice that we were low on nearly everything.

  Sami’s mouth dropped open for a moment, but he knew better than to argue with me. He shook his head. “I swear, you’re as stubborn as a barnacle and as bossy as—”

  I cut him off with a stern glare, and we both laughed. “We never would have made it as a married couple,” I said. “You know that, right?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. We would have managed.”

  I covered my legs with my skirts, suddenly self-conscious, though Sami had seen far more of me. “I met with Elder Nemea last night. She made a stain for my scar, but I’m afraid of what will happen if the king discovers our deception. Father said the last time the elders tried to send a second-rate girl, Ilara cut off our water supply. Dozens of children died.”

  He gripped the oars so hard I was afraid they’d splinter in his hands. “And no one did anything about it?”

  I shook my head. “She also said Varenia will run out of food within five years if something doesn’t change. We’ve overfished these waters, and without pearls, what will we trade?”

  “Coral and sponges?” he said doubtfully.

  “Anyone can find those a lot closer to shore. And the traders have giant ships that allow them to hunt whales and gather large quantities of fish at once. Varenian pearls are the only thing we have to offer.”

  Sami sighed. “I don’t know what can be done, Nor. I’ve tried talking to my father, but he won’t do anything. No one will.”

  He rowed in silence for a while, until finally the floating market appeared over the crest of the next wave. It was a string of covered boats selling essential goods along with the occasional pet no one could afford to feed. When we were girls, we’d begged Sami to buy us a pet monkey, and Zadie had cried when he told us no. He’d been right to refuse us, but I don’t think he ever said no to her again after that.

  “Maybe I can help,” I said. “I’ll be in Ilara, Sami. I’ll be able to talk to the king. The prince will be my husband. Once I tell them how bad things are here, they’ll have to do something.”

  He snorted. “Why? They don’t care about us. They’ve made that perfectly clear. That emissary, Talin? He wasn’t just here to check up on Zadie.”

  I felt my cheeks heat at the mere mention of his name. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Sami dropped the anchor to keep us from drifting within earshot of the merchants. “After you left that night, he asked my father all kinds of questions. He wanted to see my mother’s collection of pearls, which she assured him didn’t exist. She had me sell off most of her jewelry at the market ages ago so she could help take care of the poorest families. He said the king insisted Talin visit an ‘average citizen’s house,’ so he could see how everyone else lived.”

  “Thalos, why?”

  He raised one eyebrow. “I don’t know. He asked to see yours, but Father took him to one of my aunts’ houses instead.”

  I felt a small pang of disappointment. I’d been so busy the past few days I hadn’t thought about Talin much, though his sea glass eyes had showed up more than once in my dreams. I wondered if I would see him again, then chided myself for my foolishness. Talin was the one person who might see through my disguise, the one person I should pray to never see again.

  “What do you think he wanted?” I asked Sami.

  “I think the king sent him because he doesn’t trust us. He believes we’re keeping the pearls for ourselves, that we’re lying when we say there aren’t as many pearls as there were a decade ago. And I think that’s why he keeps lowering the value.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, confused. “The market decides the value of the pearls. Not the king.”

  “I was trading a few weeks ago with a Galethian north of the port, and he told me that Ilarean smugglers are getting the same price for the pearls they always have.”

  I leaned closer. “So what are you saying? That the value of the pearls hasn’t dropped, and we’re getting paid less for them anyway?”

  He nodded. “The king thinks if he pushes us hard enough, more pearls will suddenly appear. He doesn’t believe that there are no more. Or at least, he doesn’t want to believe it. Even if the emissary tells the king the truth of what he saw here, the king might not listen.”

  Was it possible that Talin had only come to spy on us? I thought of the way he’d looked at me, how his gaze made my belly flutter. Was I so naive that I had misread Talin’s suspicion as curiosity or—even more humiliating—interest?

  Sami continued, “Don’t you see? We work harder than ever, and our economy never grows. We’re worse off now than our great-great-grandparents ever were. And why? Why should we not be allowed to trade the pearls on the free market like everyone else?”

  I sighed, exasperated. “Because of the lost princess.”

  “That was hundreds of years ago, if it ever happened at all. It has nothing to do with any of the Varenians who are alive today. They’ve deliberately kept us poor and powerless, Nor.”

  “I know, Sami.”

  He was speaking so fast I could hardly keep up. “And not only are we controlled by the Ilareans, but we send the most beautiful women to be their queens. If we’re so beneath them, why do their princes want Varenian brides?”

  “I don’t know!” I shouted.

  We sat in silence for a moment, the boat rocking gently from side to side. I’d been asking myself the same questions for years, and I was no closer to the answers now.

  “What if I can find out?” I asked suddenly.

  Sami glanced up. “What?”

  “I’ll be in the castle with the king and all his advisors. I’ll be able to see what the Ilareans are doing with the pearls and why they nee
d them so badly. I’ll have the answers to all of our questions at my fingertips.”

  “You want to spy on the king?”

  I shrugged. “Is it spying if I live there? If I happen to overhear people talking?”

  He started to shake his head. “No, Nor. That’s not what I meant.”

  “So, what? We wait until you’re governor? What makes you think you’ll be able to stand up to the king when your father can’t?”

  Sami’s clenched his jaw. “And you think you can? You’ve spent your whole life worrying about being beautiful, not learning how to govern.”

  I felt my anger start to rise, but fear tamped it back down. My mother’s words echoed in my head. Beauty is power. Maybe that was true here in Varenia, but who knew how things worked in Ilara? “I don’t know if the king will listen,” I admitted. “But I have to at least try.”

  “It’s too dangerous, Nor. And if you were found out...it could have terrible consequences for all of us here.”

  I reached for his hands. “I know it’s risky to spy on the king. I know I could take the easy way, abandon our customs and adopt the Ilarean ways. And I could pretend that everything is fine here in Varenia, that my family has enough to eat, that Zadie can heal instead of being forced to dive. But I will know the truth. That with every sunrise, Varenia comes closer to the day when there isn’t a single oyster left. And what will you do then? When the King of Ilara refuses to give you water and firewood, when there are no more fish to catch? It’s not enough to try anymore. If we don’t do something, now, you’re all going to die.”

  Sami pretended to look up at the clouds, but I saw the tears he was trying to keep from falling. “All right,” he said. “Find out what you can.” Then he frowned. “But how will you get information to me even if you do manage it? No Varenian bride has ever returned to our village.”

  “You’ll have to come to me.”

  “Nor—” He followed my gaze to the floating market.

  Every face in Varenia was familiar to me, but from here, with everyone milling about, they all looked the same. If Sami could get somewhere he could blend in, perhaps...