Crown of Coral and Pearl

by Mara Rutherford

  “Your brother showed it to me, yes.”

  “Where? In his study?”

  I bit my lip. Did he suspect my real motives for lurking near there last night? “Yes,” I admitted.

  He searched my face. “You’ve been to the flooded bloodstone mine, haven’t you?”

  His eyes reminded me so much of home, it made my heart ache. “If you mean the lake in the bottom of the mountain, then yes.” I was only vaguely aware of the guard reaching two hundred.

  “He took you all the way down there?”

  I hesitated again. I didn’t like to lie, but I couldn’t admit out loud that I’d spied on the Crown Prince of Ilara, especially not to his brother. I gave a curt nod.

  “Do you know why my brother created this device?” Talin demanded.

  “Yes—to harvest the Varenian pearls for himself.”

  I could tell by his reaction that he had already realized this. “I’m surprised my brother would show this to you. He knows it means the end for your people.”

  “Our people,” I said, fiercer than I’d meant to. “And yes, he knows. I think he enjoys causing me pain.”

  “Sadly, I’m afraid you might be right.”

  I knew Ceren’s guards were watching us, but I took a step closer to him, taking in his scent of sunshine, sweat, and horses. “Doesn’t it pain you to think of what will become of them? You’ve seen Varenia now, eaten at our governor’s table. You know my family. You can’t just pretend we don’t exist anymore.”

  I watched his profile for a response, but his expression didn’t change. Just when I had almost given up hope, he found my littlest finger in the folds of my skirt and wrapped his own finger around it. It was only a fraction of a moment, but it was a far more intimate response than I’d expected.

  Lionfish! my subconscious shouted, and I twitched my hand away from his, but my heart pounded with something other than fear.

  “That’s ten minutes,” the guard said. I looked over at the page, who knew that we’d reached the end of the test as well as I did.

  “He should surface any moment now,” I said.

  Behind me, the guard resumed counting.

  A sense of dread washed over me, raising gooseflesh on my bare forearms. “You don’t understand. He hasn’t tested the device for more than ten minutes. He should have surfaced already.”

  “He’s probably just showing off,” said the same guard who had vowed not to enter the water.

  I looked at the page again, to where his foot rested just inches from the hose, and realized what he’d done.

  Talin had begun to remove his leather armor, but I could see immediately that he’d meant what he said earlier—the process would take several minutes, and right now every second counted. I was frozen in place, unsure of what to do. Ceren’s death would be the end to all of Varenia’s problems. If he died, Talin would inherit the throne, and while I may not trust him entirely, I did not believe he would cause further harm to his own mother’s people.

  And if Ceren lived, he could be affected for life. Who knew how long he’d been without oxygen? I thought of the poor page. He couldn’t be more than twelve years old. Ceren would be so furious and humiliated by all of this... It wouldn’t go well for anyone.

  But in Varenia, if someone was in danger, you helped them, unless the risk to yourself was too great. Banishment was the only exception, and that was different. Dangerous criminals couldn’t be permitted to stay in Varenia, and at least they had a chance of survival. But how could I live with myself if I stood by and watched a person drown? Even if that person wouldn’t have done the same for me.

  “Damn it!” Talin swore as he tore at one of the dozen buckles on his armor. “Someone do something!”

  “Unbutton my gown!” I screamed, presenting my back to Talin. If he wanted his brother alive, there was no time for propriety. “Now!”

  21

  After a moment’s hesitation, Talin unfastened the buttons as fast as he could, and I yanked off the sleeves and stepped out of the dress in my undergarments. Kicking off my slippers, I raced past the stunned guards and dived into the water, reminding myself not to inhale when I broke the surface.

  It was the coldest water I’d ever been in, and my entire body screamed in protest. The lake was dark and silty, but my eyes adjusted quickly. I followed the hose down, passing ten feet and realizing that the lake was much deeper than they’d thought. Then I saw Ceren’s hair, waving in the current like a sea fan.

  His eyes had rolled back in his head. He was unconscious, but I had no way of knowing if he’d been out for many minutes or one. One of his feet was untied from its weight, but the knot on his other foot was stuck. He must have realized he was running out of air and been unable to free himself. I pulled on his foot with all my strength until it tore free of the weight, then yanked the hose from his mouth and started to haul him upward. My feet were already numb, and for a minute I wasn’t sure I had the strength to get us both back to the surface.

  I could let go of Ceren now and easily return to shore. I owed him nothing. He was cruel and selfish. He’d admitted I was nothing to him but a body, just like Mother said. But the truth was that I’d been under less than two minutes. There was no danger for me, not yet. And I had been raised to believe that letting someone die was tantamount to killing him myself.

  I broke the surface and gulped in air, Ceren bobbing up next to me a moment later. I hooked one arm around his chest and began to push toward shore with the other. Talin and several guards had waded into the shallows, and while the guards took over and hauled Ceren onto dry land, Talin scooped me out of the water, sodden as I was, and carried me to the soft grass on the bank.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, pushing my wet hair out of my face. “You were under for so long.”

  “I’m fine,” I panted. “I need to help your brother.”

  “Help him?” Talin echoed incredulously. “He’s gone. He was under for nearly fourteen minutes.”

  I crawled over to where Ceren was, cursing my wet clothing, and bent above him to listen for breathing. I didn’t hear anything, and his chest wasn’t moving, so I pressed my fingers to his neck. Once more, it crossed my mind that I could do nothing. If he wasn’t dead already, he would be soon.

  I glanced over at the page, watching me with wide hazel eyes. He gave the smallest shake of his head, and I knew then for certain he had stepped on the hose, cutting off Ceren’s air. Had Lady Melina put him up to this, or was this revenge for his older brother? Perhaps it was both.

  And then I felt it. A tiny stutter of a heartbeat, and that was all it took. I pinched his nose, ignoring the gray cast to his skin and blue lips, and began to blow air into his mouth. Several of the guards gasped. They had never seen anyone resuscitated this way before. I’d never had to perform the procedure myself, but all Varenian children were trained in how to do it. I’d seen it several times, when fishermen got the cramps in their joints that could signal death, and once when a baby had fallen off a dock in Varenia and nearly drowned. I continued to blow into his mouth every five seconds, watching his chest carefully. After a minute had passed, I began to lose hope.

  Suddenly, Ceren’s muscles tensed and his eyes flew open. I moved away just before he vomited. A combination of water and whatever he’d eaten for breakfast bubbled up through his lips, and I quickly rolled him onto his side to help clear his airway. I wiped at his mouth with the hem of my undergarment and rolled him back when he’d finished. A hint of color was already returning to his lips and cheeks.

  I couldn’t help myself. I smiled. Whatever happened next, a man was alive because of me. “Get Prince Ceren a blanket!” I yelled at whoever would listen.

  Ceren looked up at me, his eyes lit by the sun so that they were no longer gray, but closer to the iridescent scales of a silver moonfish. He tried to sit up, but I pressed him down gently. �
��You need to rest.”

  He glanced down at his body, and for the first time I became aware of his naked torso, his long limbs and the blue map of veins beneath his pale skin. He was muscular, but so thin I could count every rib as he heaved for air.

  I looked back into his eyes just as Grig threw one of the fur throws from the carriage over Ceren’s body, and I was surprised by what I saw there: shame, humiliation, but also surprise. Talin had said Ceren pushed people away to test their loyalty. Perhaps I had proven mine today.

  “Thank you,” he said, taking my hand in his. “I owe you my life.”

  * * *

  Captain Osius helped Ceren, who was only semiconscious, into the carriage while the other guards mounted their horses.

  “We’ll escort you back to the castle,” Talin said to me as he handed me another throw. “But we should get you changed first.” He made a valiant effort not to look below my neck as he pulled the blanket tight around my shoulders.

  “I’m fine. I should be with Prince Ceren.”

  “Osius will stay with him. There’s only room for two people in the carriage, and you’ve done more than your share for my brother today.”

  “Then how will I get back?” I asked.

  “You’ll ride with me.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

  “Don’t worry, my lady. My men are discreet. Right now I’m far more concerned that you’ll catch cold in those wet clothes.”

  “Why, do you have a spare gown lying around?” I said with a smirk.

  “Perhaps if you remove your... Your gown is still dry, my lady.”

  I was too delighted by his discomfort to be ashamed when he offered to hold the blanket up for me so I could change. When I’d finished, I pulled my hair over my shoulder and presented my back to him.

  “Can you help me with the buttons?”

  There was no response. I glanced over my shoulder to find Talin blushing as pink as a cooked shrimp.

  “I wasn’t permitted to bring my lady’s maid,” I said, suppressing a giggle. “I could ask one of your men to help me, if you prefer.”

  He released his breath, and the warm air on my bare skin sent a shiver down my spine. “You’re cold,” he said, as if that gave him the permission he needed.

  His fingers fumbled against the small of my back as he struggled with the tiny loops on the gown, and I felt a sudden wave of gratitude for all those stupid buttons. After a few failed attempts, he seemed to get the hang of it, stepping closer to me as his fingers climbed up my back to my shoulder blades. Without my undergarments, there was nothing between his hands and my flesh, and I felt every brush of skin on skin like a flame licking from my back down to my core.

  “Thank you,” he said softly as he finished the last button, his fingers still lingering on my nape. It took all my willpower not to press back into him, but I tilted my head, exposing more of my neck to his warm breath, relishing the way the small hairs there stood on end. I didn’t ask him what he was thanking me for. I didn’t want to hear Ceren’s name. I wanted this moment to last forever.

  “We should go,” he said finally, though there was longing in his voice. And regret. He led me over to his stallion, who stood patiently waiting while the other horses stomped and snorted, ready to go home.

  “I’ve never ridden a horse,” I said, staring up at the massive creature.

  “All you have to do is hold on to me,” he said with a crooked grin. “Surely you can manage that.”

  Grig helped lift me up onto the horse behind Talin, where I sat sideways, thanks to my skirts. My hair was still wet, and the cold of the lake hadn’t left my skin, but the heat of the horse and Talin himself began to warm me. He clucked to his horse, and I gripped him a little tighter. The trot was more uncomfortable than I’d imagined, each stride causing me to bounce painfully against Talin’s leather armor.

  “It will be smoother if I canter,” he said over his shoulder. “But we’ll be going fast. Are you afraid?”

  “A little.”

  He laughed softly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He clucked again and the horse broke into a canter. Immediately the stallion’s gait smoothed out into something tolerable, and if I closed my eyes I could almost imagine I was back in our family’s boat, riding the waves instead of an animal.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Much. Thank you.”

  “There is one problem with this,” he said, sounding very serious.

  “And what’s that?”

  “We’re going to be back at the castle far more quickly.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. Perhaps it was the sense of power I’d felt saving Ceren’s life, but I wasn’t afraid now, even though I knew I should be. I pressed myself against Talin’s back and let the rising and falling sensation of the horse’s gait lull me to a sense of inner calm I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel again when I left Varenia.

  As we neared New Castle, Talin slowed the horse to a walk. Reluctantly, I released my grip on him a bit, since I no longer had the excuse of speed. I glanced down at the wrinkled silk of my gown, my long hair wavy and loose over my shoulders. How was I going to explain my appearance to Ebb?

  After a few minutes, Talin turned his head toward me. “Why did you do it?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Save my brother. You could have let him die out there today, and you didn’t. You risked your own life for his.”

  I toyed with one of the buckles on his armor. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  It was only one word, but it held all the feelings that had passed through my mind while I rescued Ceren. You could have been free, it said.

  “It’s Varenian custom,” I explained. “If the god Thalos wants the life, he must fight for it, too. And you asked for help, so I gave it.”

  “Thalos,” Talin murmured. “I heard my mother speak of him when she told me the story of how the Varenians came to be.”

  “It must seem very silly to you.”

  He shook his head. “The only thing that ever seemed silly to me is that the Varenians should suffer because a pair of foolish young lovers died in a shipwreck.”

  I smiled to myself. I’d never heard anyone put it quite so bluntly before. “I used to think so, too. But now I can see that it has very little to do with a legend and far more to do with power and control. And money.”

  “You mean the pearls. Ceren believes they make him stronger.”

  “Maybe they do.”

  Talin’s voice sounded far away when he answered. “If they did, my father wouldn’t be dying at the age of forty.”

  Ceren had said his father wasn’t helped by the pearls, but he himself hoarded them like treasure, obsessed with the idea that they could prevent whatever illness was killing the king. Surely he wouldn’t be killing off servants to harvest the pearls if they didn’t work. “Were you close with your father as a child?” I asked.

  “Yes, very. It must be difficult for you to imagine him as anything other than the bedridden man you’ve seen, but he was young once. Never healthy, I suppose, but healthier. He would often go into the villages with my mother and me.”

  “Where was Ceren when you went into the villages?”

  Talin kept his eyes on the road. “Ceren stayed behind with his nursemaids. He didn’t like to leave the mountain.”

  “I pity him sometimes,” I admitted. “It must have been a very lonely childhood.”

  He nodded. “I loved my mother with all my heart, but I never agreed with her treatment of Ceren. I think she resented him, knowing that the crown would pass to him someday and not me.”

  “But he was just a child.”

  “I know, but I can imagine how she must have felt, leaving everything in Varenia behind only to be my father’s second wife. I think she believed that if
I became king someday, she could put a stop to what’s happened—what’s still happening—to your people.”

  When his eyes met mine, I felt a surge of hope. Did that mean Talin disagreed with his brother’s plans? “If only Ceren felt the same way,” I ventured.

  We were almost at the castle, and the carriage was rattling up behind us. “Ceren is afraid. He sees my father dying young and worries he will share the same fate. And despite his many shortcomings, my brother loves his kingdom. He doesn’t want to see it fall into our enemies’ hands.”

  “Which enemies?” I asked.

  Talin glanced at me over his shoulder. “It’s hard to say. We have many at the moment. Not just Lord Clifton, but the Galethians to the north and the uprising to the south, as well.”

  “And you think he should continue to exploit the Varenians for the sake of Ilara?”

  His jaw tightened. “No. I shared my mother’s views on that even before I visited your home.” The carriage passed us, and Talin brought his horse into line with the captain’s. For a moment, I dared to hope that this accident could change things. I’d seen something in Ceren’s eyes, some shred of humanity that he kept hidden behind his pale mask. He was still the child who’d lost his mother and never felt as loved as he should have been.

  Ceren had said he owed me his life. Perhaps in return, he would give the Varenians theirs.

  Talin dismounted at the base of the mountain and turned to help me, reaching up to my waist and lifting me as if I weighed no more than a child. I could feel the heat of his hands through the thin silk, with not even a shift or petticoat between us. And, gods help me, I wanted his hands to move higher, lower, everywhere. I wanted to kiss him the way Zadie had kissed Sami, long and slow and secret.

  As my feet touched the ground, I looked up at him, unsure of what I’d find. We hardly knew each other, but Talin felt like a stepping stone between this life and the one I’d left behind. And for a moment, I hoped I might not have to face that distance alone.

  But then his eyes skidded away from mine to my right cheekbone, and my stomach clenched like a fist.