Page 61 of Lore of the Tides

Power soared into her hands, vibrating up her arms, and settled warmly into her chest. She had been incomplete without her grimoire, and Lore thrilled at the feel of the binding. The weight of it was lighter than she was used to, due to being in the water, but familiar all the same.

Now that she had it, she would never let it go again.

“Queen Naia,” Lore began, clutchingDeeping Luneto her chest and meeting the queen’s gaze. “I have one question before I decide. You have the power to sing your sacred song and force me to help. You could make it so my mind was not my own, and I would do your bidding regardless of my choice. Why, then, did you not just do that?”

“Some on my council rallied for that path,” the queen admitted. “They reasoned that the welfare of our people far outweighed our laws. But I forbade anyone from using the song on you.”

Lore glanced to Cuan, where they stood behind their queen. The queen noticed her look. “Well, I forbade itunlessit became a matter of your own safety. It was imperative that Cuan bring you here unharmed, so we granted them permission for the sole purpose of keeping you all alive and bringing you here in one piece. Despite the mythos surrounding our kind, we believe that to use our sacred song for evil—to force control or obedience or to rob someone of their will—is to defile our goddess Anuya and pervert our gift. Those who sin are punished most severely.”

“We melt their tongues with lava,” Prince Jaladri piped in from where he sat on the bench. “It’s long been a most effectual deterrent.”

Lore winced at the thought and ran her tongue against the back of her teeth, just to remind herself that she still had it.

“This is neither the time nor the place to be gruesome, Jaladri! Can’t you see she’s unsettled enough?”

“I thought it would put the girl at ease! To know that she didn’t have to worry about anyone using their song on her while she’s here,” Jaladri said in protest.

The queen guffawed. “Look at her! The thought alone made her turn green around the gills.”

“She doesn’t have any gills.”

“Oh, for kelp’s sake, youknewwhat I meant, you manatee! Now hush, let the girl answer.”

All eyes returned to Lore, making her want to squirm from the attention.

She gnawed on her lip, thinking of how this would delay her return home to Duskmere. She’d already been gone far too long. But she couldn’t abandon these people to be displaced, left at the mercy of the tides, and preyed upon by demonic sea beasts with tentacles in their mouths.

“I’m not sure how much you know about humans, Queen Naia, but we as a species know something about being banished from one’s homeland. We know what it is to be forced to leave all that you know and bend to someone else’s will, customs, and way of life. And even if my people didn’t know firsthand,Ido.”

The queen wrung her hands together, waiting for her verdict. Lore met Finndryl’s gaze. She asked him silently,Do you mind if we stay here a little longer?

He nodded, his eyes telling her that the choice was hers to make, he would support whatever she decided.

She looked back to the queen. Lore didn’t want to leave the queen waiting, but she had to be clear about her misgivings. “I make no guarantees. You are right, Iamnew. And that also means untested. I am neither proficient nor particularly skilled with being what they call me: a witch. But I vow to do everything in my power to help. To restore your empire to glory.”

The queen and even her prince consort smiled.

“Thank you. What do you need to begin?”

Lore gazed upon the pearl, studying it, watching as it pulsed withSource, steady as a heartbeat.

She didn’t know if this power had truly been born from a goddess’s love for her people, but she did know that within every story was a seed of truth, and truth was usually the answer.

She did not know what to ask for when she did not know what she needed to fix the problem. She would start with the one thing that could steer her in the right direction when she was floundering.

“Your Majesty, do you perchance have a library?”

The queen grinned and turned to her life partner. “Jaladri, will you take them to your greatest pride?” She looked at Lore, then said in a mock whisper, “His greatest pride afterme, of course.” Queen Naia winked.

Chapter 21

Having grown up on land, Lore struggled to comprehend the concept of an underwater library. Coretha, complaining of a headache, had been led away with Syrelle to another part of the palace. The moment they were out of sight, Lore relaxed.

As Prince Jaladri guided her and Finndryl to his “pride and joy,” Lore wondered what on earth it would look like. The books she was used to would disintegrate underwater. She held the grimoire to her gifted dress—a yellow gown Cuan had pressed into her hands upon reentering the palace—relieved that the grimoire, created fromSourceitself, could withstand the sea.

What could the books in the library be made of? Her grimoire was rare, possibly one of two on the entire earth. Jaladri’s library couldn’t be filled with others like it. She couldn’t imagine what she would find. And when the prince consort pushed open the doors, allowing her and Finn to step inside, they gasped in unison.

Finndryl whistled as he surveyed the library. “I could spend decades in here and never grow tired of it.”