Page 26

My anger at Lady Nahma vanished, replaced by fear.

In the center of the chamber, surrounded by sharks, my fellow prisoner Gen arose on a stream of bubbles.

In the hours since I’d last seen him, Solzaya’s curse had progressed quickly. He was unconscious now, his eyes closed and his bottom lip already turned to stone. His cheeks looked sunken in, as if he’d been trying to gasp before the curse overcame him. The fingers that had hurled glass to wake me were completely gray, still outstretched in a gesture of defiance.

“Let him go,” I appealed to Nazayun. “He’s only a child.”

I might as well have pleaded with the sharks.

“Soon he will be new gravel for the bedrocks,” Nazayun responded, the fair hairs of his beard crackling with lightning. “If you will not forget your past, then you will remember the pain you inflicted on this boy. It will be a scar you bear forever.”

Splotches of grisly gray appeared on Gen’s face, spreading fast, like spilt ink. As the lightning in Nazayun’s beard rippled, the boy’s eyes bulged and his temples convulsed with pain. He was seconds from turning entirely into stone. Seconds from being blasted into a pile of rubble.

“Stop!” I cried.

Seryu held me back, but I threw up my satchel to release the pearl.

“Help Gen!” I shouted to it. “Help him!”

The Wraith’s pearl didn’t even float out of my bag. It was a deadweight in the satchel.

The dragons jeered, and I cursed. Stupid, treacherous pearl. Without its help, Gen would surely die.

King Nazayun was laughing along with his guests. “Sit back down, Shiori’anma,” he said. “You’ll have your moment soon enough.”

I wouldn’t sit. With a hard thrust of my shoulder, I twisted out of Seryu’s grip and dove toward Gen. The jeers and laughs only multiplied. The sharks were nearly upon me.

“Help,” I pleaded with the pearl, shaking it. “Help!”

A low growl resonated from outside the hall. At first I thought it was the pearl, at last responding to my pleas, but as the sound drew nearer and louder and nearer and louder—

In one calamitous boom, the ceiling crashed open. Boulder-sized shards rained upon the dome, and a battalion of sea turtles barreled inside, led by a dragon in white.

I didn’t need to see him to know who he was. From everyone else’s astonished reactions, the answer was clear enough.

Elang, the High Lord of the Westerly Seas, had arrived.

Amid the din of dragon outrage over Lord Elang’s appearance, Gen and I were speedily forgotten. I didn’t think twice and dove after the boy, but Gen was heavy, and when his body hit the ocean floor, it sank into the sand and muck. I pried and lifted and dragged, but I could hardly move him.

“Didn’t I tell you not to do anything reckless?” Seryu said from behind me.

I swiveled, never more glad to see the dragon. “Can you help him?”

Seryu’s nostrils were flared. I half expected him to swim away, but instead he swept off the crabs and mollusks that were starting to crawl up Gen’s legs. He grabbed the boy, and me by my sash, lifting us both easily and placing us on a ledge set in the wall of the dome.

I pressed my palm against Gen’s forehead. His skin was cold, but a lone vein throbbed with the faintest pulse. He was still alive.

“He can’t stay here,” I said to Seryu. “Can you get him out of here?” I glanced at the shimmering panels of black crystal against the wall. “Use a whirlpool.”

“You think it’s that easy?” Seryu balked. “Whirlpools connect within the palace. They don’t take you out of the palace. The only way is—” He let out an aggravated groan, then with his tail he smashed the closest sheet of black crystal he could reach.

His pearl throbbed in his chest as he dug his claw into the crystal. A whirlpool materialized, barely large enough to fit Gen within. Seryu all but shoved the boy through, and the portal vanished before I could follow.

“Not you,” rasped Seryu. “You’re not done here.”

“Where did you send him?”

“As far as I could manage.” Seryu’s voice had turned hoarse. He was paler than before, and if he weren’t a dragon, I’d say he looked seasick. “Somewhere he won’t be pulverized into a pile of rocks.”