Crown of Coral and Pearl

by Mara Rutherford

  He held a crown in front of him like an offering, a crown unlike anything I’d ever seen.

  It was made of blood coral, raw and red, twisting and tangling to form a circlet. Studded among the coral branches were bright pink Varenian pearls that gleamed in the torchlight. The contrast between them was startling, yet stunning. I’d never seen them together before, and the sight took my breath away.

  I’d always thought of the blood coral as sinister and ugly, but next to the pearls, it no longer looked menacing. It was beautiful, I realized, the perfect complement to the smooth pink spheres.

  Nor and Zadie. Coral and pearl.

  Powerful and beautiful because of each other, not in spite of each other.

  He handed me the crown. “Take it, Nor. It belongs to you.”

  I gasped. “What? Where did you get this?”

  “Ilara’s mother had it made from the blood coral that grew from her daughter’s heart. It’s never been worn, because no woman, Ilarean or Varenian, was deemed worthy of it. But you are different, my darling.”

  I turned the crown in my hands. The coral wasn’t poisonous dead, Father had said. Only if it broke the skin could it inflict any damage. I ran my fingers over the pearls, some of the pinkest and most lustrous I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help imagining what all the girls in Varenia would think if they saw something so rare.

  “Why are you offering me this?” I asked finally.

  “I’m giving you the chance to be the queen of Ilara. Marry me, and I won’t harm your people. I will have everything I need right here in New Castle. Together, we can face the woman king and any other threats to our kingdom. Our sons will be the strongest and healthiest to have ever ruled. We can conquer the world together, Nor.”

  I blinked in disbelief. “You want me to marry you for the crown?”

  He smiled. “I’m not foolish enough to believe you’d marry me for love. No, I know that honor goes to my brother.” A flicker of sadness crossed his face. “And it should. He is as good and beautiful as you are. But you didn’t just come here to marry a prince. You came here to see the world, didn’t you? I can give that to you, Nor. And in exchange for becoming my queen, I can give your people their freedom.”

  “Their freedom.” I eyed the crown skeptically. “How?”

  “They can leave Varenia, if they choose. They can trade at the port like everyone else, and receive fair market value. No one will ever again cut off their food or water supply. Varenia will be a sovereign kingdom in its own right.”

  My pulse sped up at his words. Varenia, free and independent—it was more than I could have hoped for. “And no more diving for pearls for you?” I asked cautiously.

  He shook his head. “I don’t need them anymore.”

  “But if you don’t eat the pearls, won’t you grow weaker?” I asked, confused. “I thought you wanted to be physically strong.”

  He smiled again, that dark, sinister smile that always made me cold with fear. “I do. And I will be, thanks to you.”

  My stomach clenched in horror. My blood. He wanted to keep me as his source of blood. “But what are you going to do with me?” I asked. “Bleed me every day for the rest of my life?”

  “Oh no, my dear. I already have everything I need.”

  What was he talking about? What had he found in my blood? I looked down at the crown. The blood coral had given me my healing abilities when it entered my bloodstream. Was it possible that those same healing properties could be passed from my blood to Ceren’s? Had it already worked?

  I studied him again. There was more color in his cheeks and lips than I remembered, and the hard lines of his face looked less pronounced. As if sensing my appraisal, he raised his chin and pushed his shoulders back. He looked strong, powerful. Ready to conquer the world, as he’d said.

  “How?” I breathed.

  “The same way I get what I need from the pearls.”

  He read the horror and disgust on my face...and smiled.

  I didn’t know the limits of my powers, but I knew, based on my encounter with Salandrin, that I was difficult to kill. An ability like that, in the wrong hands, could be disastrous.

  And in that moment, it became clear to me that it wasn’t enough to just free Varenia. As long as Ceren lived, he would exploit anyone he could for his own aims. Even banishment wouldn’t be enough to stop someone like him.

  “I won’t marry you, Ceren,” I said coldly. “The only threat to our kingdom is you.”

  The proud smile faded from his lips. “You would refuse the bargain without hearing the terms?”

  I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. “Terms?”

  “You have two choices, Nor. Marry me, or die.”

  The blood rushed from my head. I should have known he wouldn’t let me refuse him.

  But Ceren didn’t realize that I had a third choice. And right now, that choice was the only path I would willingly follow.

  I thrust the crown at him and grabbed my knife as fast as I could, slashing out with the blade. I felt it tear through his doublet, but I had no idea if I’d struck flesh. He was reaching for a short sword at his waist, and rather than attempt to fight someone who had a lifetime of training, I ran.

  Fortunately he hadn’t locked the door to the cell behind him. A foxfire torch up ahead told me which direction to run. I tried to keep down the panic rising in my throat, but Ceren was already behind me, gaining, and he could see where he was going far better than I could.

  “Nor!” he screamed after me. “Where do you think you’ll go? You’re trapped, little bird.”

  I continued down the corridor and out of the dungeons into a forked tunnel. I could hear Ceren’s ragged breath behind me. I turned right, praying this fork led to the glowworm cave.

  When I felt the air around me shift, I felt a brief jolt of adrenaline. I’d made it. But then my eyes began to adjust, thanks to the small foxfire lanterns lining the walls of the chamber I was in, and I tasted the cloying scent of decay on my tongue. The crypt.

  Hundreds of bones were piled here without ceremony, as if the bodies of the dead had merely been flung on top of one another. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Ceren’s silhouette in the entrance. Without thinking, I fled farther into the crypt, to the part reserved for royalty, judging by the marble tables the skeletons had been laid on. A few still wore the remnants of their moldering robes, their hollow eye sockets staring back at me in warning. The edge of the coral knife gleamed in the low light as I held it in front of me, but I couldn’t tell if there was any blood on the red blade.

  I turned a corner and ducked down next to the nearest slab, praying Ceren hadn’t seen me. I felt around on the top of the table until my hand met a heavy bone, sticky with cobwebs. A femur, most likely. I pulled it down next to me and waited.

  Ceren had slowed to a walk, and I held my breath as he neared the table. When he’d gone two steps past, I stood, and he whirled toward me. “There you are—”

  I swung the femur against his face like a club. Instantly, blood spurted from his nose, and his hands flew up to it on instinct.

  I dropped the bone and reached for my knife. “Let me go, Ceren,” I pleaded, backing away from him. “You have what you need from me. Just let me go home.”

  He growled and lunged at me, exposing his bloodied face, and on instinct I raised my hands to defend myself.

  His eyes widened in shock, mirroring mine, as the blood coral blade slipped through his doublet and into the flesh beneath.

  I released the hilt and stumbled backward as a howl of anguish erupted from his bloodied mouth. “I’ll kill you for this,” he said, staggering toward me, blood spraying from his lips.

  “No,” I said, unable to keep the sadness out of my voice. “You won’t. That blade is made from blood coral, and there is one thing about blood coral you never thought to ask me.”
/>   He looked down at the knife still sticking out of his chest. “And what’s that?” he hissed as he sank to his knees.

  “It’s lethal.”

  Ceren stared up at me with his silver eyes, dark blood covering the lower half of his pale face. I couldn’t see the blood coming from the wound in his chest against his dark clothing, but I knew that the poison would already be entering his heart.

  He opened his mouth and screamed so loud I thought the dead would rise, but then he collapsed at my feet, his hard eyes boring into mine, and exhaled a ragged breath.

  I inhaled sharply, stumbling back against a tomb. I brought my shaking hands up to my face and began to weep at the sight of so much blood.

  I had killed a man. And not just any man. I had killed the Crown Prince of Ilara.

  33

  The sound of Ceren’s final scream seemed to echo through the caverns as I ran. I was so frightened it became almost impossible to recall Melina’s song.

  Deep in the mountain,

  Far below,

  Beyond the lake,

  Where the glowworms glow...

  I sang the words in my head until I saw a faint blue light coming from one of the caverns.

  When I finally reached the lake where I had killed Salandrin, I dived in headfirst, the icy water closing around my scalp like Thalos’s cold fingers. I imagined it cleansing me, taking away the stain of Ceren’s blood on my body and soul. I swam, straight and powerful, and despite the cold and the fear, it felt good to be in the water again. My limbs remembered everything, how to slice the water with the side of my hand, how to pump my legs to propel me forward. I was so caught up in my breathing that I didn’t notice the ground rising beneath me until my hand met it.

  I hauled myself out of the water and gasped for air on the slick bank. Sitting still gave me too much time to think. Ceren was dead, I told myself. If a tiny cut like mine had nearly killed me, a coral blade to the heart would be instantly lethal.

  Even with that knowledge, I couldn’t fight the feeling that someone was chasing me. So I scrambled up the bank toward what I hoped was the way out, though the farther I got from the glowworms, the harder it was to see.

  I reached the fork in the tunnel and tried to clear my head of everything but Melina’s song.

  The path is clear to Varenian eyes. What did that mean? I started down one fork, but I could see nothing here. If this was the path to freedom, it didn’t look promising.

  Follow the blood. What blood? I went back to the fork and stepped into the other tunnel. I waited for a moment, my eyes searching the darkness, and then I saw it: a faint glimmer of red up ahead. I ran toward it. There. Some kind of crystal was embedded in the stone. It pulsed with a soft red glow, as if it was lit from within. And suddenly, as my eyes adjusted, a long, snaking line of the crystal appeared to me. It ran along the tunnel wall like a vein.

  What had Ebb said to me about the bloodstones? They say the giants’ blood froze in their veins. This must be a bloodstone vein that had never been discovered. Not surprising, considering it was beyond Salandrin’s lair and a lake vast enough I doubted any Ilareans would dare to cross it.

  I began to jog down the tunnel, my body warming from the effort, and the hope that I thought had died with Melina burst back into flame. A sliver of light slowly came into focus ahead of me. I raced toward it, my lungs and muscles burning, but the light was growing larger, and the thought of freedom spurred me forward.

  I didn’t stop until I’d reached the crack in the stone, which was only three feet high and barely wide enough for a person to fit through. Fortunately, my clothing was slick from the lake water, and I managed to wriggle through, bursting free and rolling onto the dirt with a groan.

  I lay on my back for a moment, staring up at the thin crescent moon. A guard would find Ceren soon enough, and then the search would be on. I needed to keep moving.

  * * *

  The journey to Old Castle was a terrifying reminder of how far from safety I still was. The road was black under the canopy of the forest here, blocking out what little moonlight there was, and I was shaky with hunger and exhaustion. My wet leather breeches clung to me, chafing my skin with each step. I had nothing but the knife and the vellum map, which was useless to me now. I would need the pearl necklace, which I’d kept hidden in my bodice, to barter for a ride to Varenia.

  The thought of leaving Ilara without saying goodbye to Talin was even more painful than my injuries, but even if I found him, there was a good chance he would hate me.

  I had murdered his only brother.

  Ragged sobs tore from my throat when I realized that would be his last memory of me, and I prayed to Thalos that Talin would someday be able to forgive me.

  By the time the lights of Old Castle were in sight, I couldn’t tell if the moisture in my boots was lake water or blood. I crept toward the stables. There were lanterns burning in the barn, but it was quiet except for the occasional stomp of a hoof as I tiptoed into my mare’s stall. She lifted her head at my approach and nickered quietly.

  “Good girl,” I whispered, patting her neck as I looked around for a saddle and bridle. I spotted a door that most likely led to the tack room and had just started moving when I heard my name—my real name.

  “Nor?”

  I spun around. “Talin!”

  “What are you doing here? What happened?” He looked down at my sodden clothing, the pink stains of Ceren’s blood on my tunic. “Gods, are you hurt?” He rushed forward to catch me just as I started to sway.

  The full gravity of what I had done hit me as I remembered the feeling of Ceren’s warm blood spraying my face, the terror of that swim and running here in the dark. “Ceren came to my cell,” I whispered against him. I was shaking with fear and cold and exhaustion. “He offered me the crown if I married him. He said he would free the Varenians, but I couldn’t, Talin. I just couldn’t.”

  He gripped me harder. “What did he do to you?”

  “He said he would kill me if I refused. I managed to get away, but I got lost in the dark, and I somehow found myself in the crypt. Ceren came after me. I smashed his face in with a bone.” I shuddered again at the memory of all that blood.

  “I’m so sorry. This is my fault,” Talin said throatily. “I should have known he wouldn’t give you up so easily.”

  I looked up into his face. “Easily? You gave up the throne for me, Talin.”

  “I only wish I could have gotten there sooner. I tried to save Melina, too, but he...” Talin broke off, his voice thick with unshed tears. “It was you or nothing.”

  He kissed the top of my head, and I felt the warmth of him seep into me, pushing out the cold. He wasn’t wearing armor, just a linen tunic and breeches. Underneath, he was solid muscle, and I felt safe for the first time in weeks. I wanted to lay my head against his chest and rest in the comfort of his arms, but I had to tell him the truth.

  I pulled back slightly. “There’s more, Talin. I... I stabbed Ceren, in the chest. The knife was made from blood coral.” I swallowed, trying to find the right words. “You remember what I told you about the blood coral? How a tiny cut almost killed me?”

  Talin’s arms slowly slid away from my body as he took a step back. “What are you saying? Ceren is...dead?”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said desperately. “I know he was your brother, and that you just lost your father, too.” I wouldn’t beg for his forgiveness. I didn’t have the right.

  He sat down on a bale of hay and dropped his head into his hands. “Ceren is dead.”

  “I—I believe so. Yes..” I wanted so badly to hold him and comfort him as he’d done for me, but I kept my distance. I had destroyed any hope of us ever being together now. Even if Talin could somehow forgive me, I was a murderer. I would likely be put to death for what I had done.

  Finally, he looked up. “I understand, Nor
. I know you’d never hurt someone unless you had no choice. And I know what Ceren would have done if he had lived.”

  I sat down next to him and took one of his hands. “Then you don’t hate me?” I asked incredulously.

  He pulled me to him and buried his face into my hair, breathing deeply for a long time. I knew he had to absorb this knowledge: Ceren was dead, and at my hands. Yes, his brother had killed Talia, the person Talin loved most in the world. But I knew better than anyone how strong the blood bond between siblings was, even if they did something hurtful. Talin had to regret that things couldn’t have ended differently.

  At last, he said, “I could never hate you. You had no choice.”

  We held each other for as long as I dared. My body yearned to stay in the warmth of his arms. I was so tired, and the thought of running now felt almost impossible.

  “I have to go,” I said, smoothing my hands over his shoulders. “The guards will be looking for me.”

  He lifted his head, his expression puzzled. “But you’re safe now, Nor. If Ceren really is dead, then that means I’m regent.” Talin hesitated for a moment, then added, “At least until my mother comes.”

  I frowned, sure I’d misheard. “Your—”

  “My mother, yes,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. Queen Talia is still alive. And she is returning to Ilara.”

  I was so tired, and nothing he said was making sense. “I don’t understand. I thought... Everyone said...”

  Talin sighed. “Ceren tried to kill my mother because she was pregnant, Nor. When he found out she was with child, he began to worry about his right to the throne. Yes, he was the firstborn son, but if my mother gave birth to a girl...”

  “Then the kingdom would become a queendom again,” I breathed. “And Varenia’s contract with Ilara would be fulfilled.” I stood up and began to pace. “But why would Ceren assume it would be a girl? After all, there hasn’t been a princess in hundreds of years.”

  “So we’ve all been told,” Talin said gravely. “But what is more likely? That no king has had a daughter in generations, or that the men who ruled Ilara were afraid to give up their power to a woman?”