Page 11 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Cebrinne

T he calcified walls of the Venusian colony insulated every sound.

Lying against the far wall, I could only make out faint murmurs as Pheolix and my sister spoke in the room next door, though with my ear pressed against the cool shell, the soft current of the ocean beyond grounded me from the outside in.

I wasn’t surprised Selena refused to share my room, if that’s what this was called.

I’d never been this deep inside a Naiad colony before.

I would have preferred to strategize next steps with Selena.

Discuss how many of them we’d counted, whether there might be an exit besides the entrance we’d come in through, what we think their plan with us might entail. And what ours should be.

I understood why she denied me the right.

The split-second decision to confess my role in Aegir’s demise had been all mine. Though if I were honest, I’m not sure it was split-second.

Maybe.

If a second loomed in the back of a mind for years, waiting for a chance to voice itself.

If a second is a thing that can be stretched from memory to memory, each one fouler and more fueled with fire.

If a second can sneak up on you, warping your tongue into words you didn’t intend to speak until they were beyond the cage of your throat.

Then yes. I’d chosen the words in a split second.

I want you to help me kill Thaan .

A movement in my periphery rattled my attention. Vouri watched me just beyond my open door. Her mouth twitched when our eyes met, the green in her eyes flashing. She tipped her head the smallest fraction down the corridor outside. Then padded away without a sound.

I rose to my feet. Venusian byssus silk shifted around my calves, silvery where it creased under the blue light.

The cadence of my steps hid under the hum of the water beyond, past Selena and Pheolix’s doorway.

I caught a brief scoff from my sister as I went, the noise aimed at something Pheolix had said.

Vouri paused as she passed Sindri, pressing her hand against the side of his chest that lay bare. He didn’t stir at her touch, his gaze pointed forward, an unblinking vigil over the two doors behind me.

The walls wove and dipped, smooth as ceramic.

Markings had been etched into the calcified white.

The cycles of the moon, charted stars, crashing waves.

Selena would have asked Vouri what they meant.

She would have wanted to know who carved them, what tool they used, how long ago they were created.

I kept my eyes forward, searching for small landmarks in between the sheathes of blue light.

The tunnel opened to a broad room, littered with corners and alcoves, though the word room didn’t quite fit.

Temple seemed more appropriate, but even that felt deficient. This was a city.

Constellations stretched across the smooth canopy high above, the stars themselves carved with exquisite details, each of them multi-pointed and faceted. Diamonds chiseled from the sea.

A single, winding ramp wrapped the far walls, channels and tunnels leading from the main path.

Naiads strode along the walls, disappearing through the passages, the echoes of walking and splashing softer than I might have imagined, though still loud.

In the center, a wide pool glowed, its depths so far from view I couldn’t make them out.

“What is this?” I asked .

Vouri paused to give me a strange look. “Our colony.” She turned down the nearest tunnel, walls stained by blue light, and I trailed her, arms crossed.

We left noise behind and entered something quiet.

Sacred. Two long pools lay under a raised dais, though the platform was empty.

Instead, Aegir stood leisurely in front of it, his silk pants low on his hips, byssus cloak draped over one shoulder the way the other male Naiads wore them.

A nautilus shell hung from his fingertips, and he poured water from its spiraled basin into a shallow bowl seated on the dais before him.

Vouri veered to the right, opting to lean against the wall, the lines and angles of her face hard as she watched.

I simply placed my hands behind my back and stretched my neck, haughty as I waited for whatever he wanted.

“You may go, Vouri,” he said without looking at her. He didn’t look at me either. His gaze lingered over the bowl as he slowly poured.

“I’ll stay,” she replied.

“You’ll go.” A bite to his words this time.

She pushed off the wall with the bare pad of her toes with languid efficiency, hands on her hips as she circled around me and out of the room. Knives lay in her eyes when they met mine, poised to slash. I surveyed her just as coolly, my chin high.

Aegir set his nautilus down, rotating to look at me. The air around him vibrated softly. Silently. Not violently, though there was something about him that hummed the tune of a storm unpredicted.

“We can do this the political way,” he said, tilting his head just barely as he leveled his eyes to mine. “Tell half-truths, beat around the bush, avoid giving too much away. Or we can take a direct approach.”

“A direct approach to what, exactly?”

“This part.” His lips barely moved. “The part where I question you, you give me answers, and then I decide what to do with you. ”

Anger, sharp and cold, nipped below my skin in an instant. “If you refuse to help me and choose to kill me instead, you can at least let my sister go. She doesn't belong to Thaan.”

“Just your sister? Not the other Naiad with you?”

“I met him only hours ago. I don’t care if he dies.”

“We keep no drones here. He’s a rare Naiad in Venusian eyes.” Aegir leaned an elbow against the edge of the dais, crossing his hands. “Perhaps as rare as you.”

“I really don’t care.” The penetrating way he studied me made me itch to shuffle my feet, but I forced myself to stand still. “I don’t want my sister to die because of my choice.”

A small furrow worked its way between his brows. “So then, why did you give yourself away so quickly?”

“Because,” I laughed humorlessly, “when you live in a cage for ten years, you don’t stay still the moment you see a break in the wire.”

Blue iridescent light carved shadows under his throat and cheekbones. Not in a gaunt way but a way that made him seem sharp and unforgiving. As soft as his voice was, something about it left grit in my ears. The way smoke hides ash within its dark wisps.

“After ten years, some creatures find comfort in a cage,” he said.

“Not me.”

He turned his palm over, the thumb of his opposite hand tracing the lines in his palm. His green hunter’s gaze drifted across my face. “And how do you know Thaan didn’t send you with a weak backstory, knowing you’d destroy your own cover the moment we met?”

“It would be foolish of him, as he gave me sanguis proditionis as well. But I suppose he might have.”

Aegir shoved away the dais in slow motion and calmly stalked to me. It occurred to me, as my neck stretched to keep my eyes locked with his, how tall he was. “Where are they? The blood betrayal drops? ”

My muscles stiffened. From the way he stared into me, I almost thought he’d try to force them from my body. But he waited patiently, tracking the valley of my face with his dark gaze.

“Under my scales.”

He nodded once. Slowly. “May I see them?”

I exhaled, gauging him. Would he take them from me?

Sealed in preserved wax, Thaan’s blood would’ve been valuable to him.

Twice as much if Thaan were dead. The sanguis proditionis was my only lifeline in here.

As soon as a full day passed without ingesting one of the drops, my contract with Thaan would once again seal my loyalty, forcing me back into the trap of my own vows.

Aegir didn’t move. He watched me, patiently enduring the silence as I gathered enough of my thoughts and courage to sew a decision.

“Aren’t you going to tell me you’re not something to fear?” I asked, a slight taunt under my voice.

“No. I am something to fear.”

My jaw hardened. Neither of us shifted. We entered a silent duel, resolve our only weapons.

His was sharper. Deadlier. Quieter. But arrogance is a fortress, feigned or not.

I lifted my chin, not bothering to glance back at him as I drifted away, my back as straight as a ship’s prow.

Two long pools sat before me, but I ignored them.

Climbing the steps of his dais, I sat at the edge of the pool gracing his throne instead.

Then locked eyes with him again, drawing the bottom of the silk skirt up my leg.

He watched, amused, green eyes dark as I stared down at him. My hand lowered to the curve of my hip, fingers gently prying the patch of bronze scales where they lay flat, and I worked one of the blood drops free.

Aegir cocked his head as I withdrew it. He held out a hand, and I dropped the sanguis proditionis in his palm. A low hmm of curiosity rumbled from his chest as he tilted his hand, watching the tiny ball of wax roll. “How many did he give you?”

“Fourteen. ”

“Do you know how he acquired it? Did he cough his blood or drain it?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my lip curling in disgust at either possibility. “Does it matter?”

“Not really. The properties of blood from a lung will offer you a bit less freedom than that carved from a vein.”

“Fascinating,” I deadpanned, denying myself the impulse to snatch the drop back.

Selena would have launched into a series of questions, cataloging information away to bring up at the strangest times.

Unsolicited trivia had always bored me, but in this moment, watching a drop of my freedom sway in the canyon of his palm, an unwitting rope wrapped the center of my belly, wringing me tight.

Aegir offered his hand to me. “You’ll want to put it back for safekeeping,” he said, the smoke returned to his voice. I wedged the drop back under my scales. Green eyes cut into mine then dropped to the arc of my bare hip, his gaze laying warmth across my skin.

His height rendered him almost eye level to where I sat at the pool edge of the dais, and he laced his fingers again, leaning his elbows onto the surface of the platform.

“So,” he said. “Had you not confessed you’re a servant of Thaan, and had I believed that you came from Garieh Kon, what would Thaan’s next intended move be? ”

“He knew you’d be suspicious. Cautious. But he presumed you’d spend a few days familiarizing yourself with us before negotiating a corda-cruor with one of us, most likely me. Selena is gifted in incantation; I’m skilled in water-calling.”

“He expected me to take you as a cordae within fourteen days?” The hint of a smile played with the corner of his mouth as he pointed to the small supply of freedom Thaan had offered me.

Giving me a large quantity would have been a risk for Thaan.

I might have tried to flee. Might have been killed, his blood lost to an enemy.

I lifted a haughty shoulder. “Not quite. I’m here under the guise of negotiation, but if I had the opportunity to cordae , I’ve been instructed to take it.

Prizivac Vodes are rare. He expected the color of my tail to catch your attention. ”

“It did.”

We stared at each other. The thick weight of silence gathered within the blue lines refracting off the pool’s surface. Hands clasped, Aegir slid the pad of one thumb over the other. “And then you were to lead me into some sort of planned ambush?”

I raised a brow. “Eventually. I was instructed to report back first. Give Thaan a detailed account of your habits, the colony layout, the number of Naiads here. If we hadn’t cordaed and I needed more time, he’d offer me more blood then.”

“If you are to do this,” he said, thumbs stilling as he took me in, “if you are to play double agent, to go back and forth between him and I, I’ll need all the details about Thaan that he planned you’d give him about me.”

I lowered my chin. “Selena can help with that. My sister. She manages his private office, all his personal scrolls.”

“Perhaps. I’ll need certain information she can’t find in writing.”

“I don’t care what it is. I’ll get it. If you’ll help me kill him.”

He huffed a laugh suddenly. My brows tightened at the sound of it.

“Do not make the mistake of believing I trust you,” he said, adjusting the hem of his byssus cloak.

“You signed your loyalty to Thaan, yet openly intend to aid in his death. We can strike a partnership for now. But we won’t make any moves until I’m ready.

Keep taking the sanguis proditionis so that your blood and tongue remain free while here, otherwise I’ll be forced to take you captive. ”

Despite the abrasion in his words, something in me relaxed. “So you’ll help me? I’m not a prisoner here?”

“You're not a prisoner.” He began to move away and stopped. “That’s the side of the pool where the Queen of Venusia would sit. Step off my dais.”