Page 14 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)
Selena
C onstructed almost entirely of glass, the palace solarium hung over the sea, built out from the cliffs.
It boasted thick crystal walls on the eastern, southern, and western sides of the large room, catching the moon’s trajectory in the sky.
Vines and stalks hung over the aisles, forcing us to duck and lean.
“I’ve charted the administrative exits,” Vouri said, flipping through the pages of her parchment to show her notes to Cebrinne then me. Some of them were sketched by her hand, but I recognized a few ledgers taken from the offices as well.
“Thaan might not notice these are missing, but Madam Freisa might. I’d suggest returning them tonight,” I said.
We’d met long after dusk. High over our heads, the glass ceiling magnified the rays of the moon.
The potted plants surrounding us seemed to breathe, green and alive, a thin mist hovering over our knees, the condensation so thick it filmed across the bottom of the walls.
Vouri pursed her mouth. “That’s all right. I was just grabbing what I could, but these aren’t helpful anyway. Are there routes inside the office I’ve missed?”
I studied her hasty sketch, laying a fingertip against the corner. “You’ve left off the balconies.”
Vouri tilted her head. “These towers are massive. You think he might climb down to escape?”
“He can fly. ”
The Venusian rocked back over her heels, blinking as she absorbed the words. “The stories are true, then?”
“Not only that,” I sighed. “He could take the shape of one of us.”
Vouri’s lashes shuttered over wide eyes. Cebrinne nodded. “We should invent a code. Something Thaan wouldn’t think of. In case we suspect he’s among us.”
Finger tapping her notes, Vouri frowned. “How do you know I’m not him now?”
Selena smiled. “Thaan is too arrogant to believe some secretary off the street is any threat to him. He wouldn’t investigate you on your first day.”
Leaning away from a vine, Vouri’s mouth curved. “Maybe we should flood the administrative office with more Naiads, then. Plant Venusia here, right under Thaan’s nose.”
“How much blood would Aegir be willing to spare?”
“In an effort to kill Thaan? He’d rip out a vein.”
“A code,” Cebrinne repeated.
“Yes.” Vouri shifted, thinking. “If anything feels off, one of us will say, gray flecks in the shell. And the other will answer—"
“Calcium carbonate,” I finished, amusement playing with my mouth.
Cebrinne’s brows lifted in question.
“Pheolix’s observation,” Vouri clarified for her. She looked even more bewildered, but Vouri glanced at me. “How many drones does Thaan keep?”
“We don’t know. Pheolix guesses upwards of thirty.
” A silky green leaf brushed my waist, and I stole a small step out of its reach.
“Thaan rarely keeps them here unless he has missions for them. We’d see one in the palace every so often.
They all wear hooded cloaks. I didn’t realize they were drones until Pheolix joined our assignment. ”
A damp scent hung in the air, perspiration gathering delicately across Vouri’s forehead. “He uses them to infiltrate small colonies. Drones can’t be tracked, and when they enter a territory, they go unnoticed by a Videre . ”
Under the quiet moonlight, Cebrinne and I met eyes. We’d spent weeks in the north, tracing vulnerable Naiad colonies in the mountain lakes and rivers to hand over to Thaan. Had Pheolix carried out any of the captures?
It had all been to gather what we needed to stop him. All for good.
At least that’s what I’d told myself when we wrote names and locations, handing over a parchment full of lives for Thaan to take.
“So,” Vouri said, sensing the chilling thoughts that swung from Cebrinne and myself.
“Deimos is one of Thaan’s Oculoses . Avoid him whenever you can.
” I crossed my arms. Warmth draped over the solarium, even now in early spring.
But a draft floated across my shoulders and down my spine whenever I remembered the scars Thaan carved into my soul.
I swallowed, determined to shake it off.
Across from me, Ceba stared at Vouri’s notes, her expression hard.
“The other is a Naiad called Oberon,” I continued. “He’s stationed with the Rivean emissary, but Thaan intends to move him south after Ceba cordaes with your brother.”
Vouri stiffened.
“That’s his plan,” I said, waving the thought casually away. “Ceba doesn’t want to cordae with anyone.”
“Is that true?” Vouri asked, green eyes pensive.
Ceba’s mouth parted. She glanced at me and then back to Vouri, a tightness in her gaze, as though surprised the Venusian even had to ask. “Yes.”
Vouri nodded once. “Oberon,” she said, returning to her parchment.
My eyes lingered a moment more on Cebrinne, curious at her hesitation, then I pulled myself away to point at Vouri’s sketch of the office.
“Deimos and Oberon will likely be briefed with the plans for Aegir’s demise before we will be.
We could position you with the envoy who plays courier in the Aalton temple, but that takes you out of the palace.
Try to secure a desk with Thaan’s Rivean envoy and intercept his messages there.
Watch for red wax seals stamped by a scorpion. ”
Vouri tilted her head. “And what if my own messages are intercepted?”
Ceba and I met eyes. “Cypher,” she said. I nicked a blank parchment from Vouri’s pile and began marking down the Cyprillic alphabet we’d created years ago. “Keep it on your body until you memorize it. Then burn it.”
A soft click came from the back of the solarium. We froze, ears scanning for the presence of heartbeats nearby. The maze of tropical emeralds stared back, leaves dazzling and full as they drank the streaming starlight.
“The plants stretch and shift,” I murmured, catching the soft rustle of one such green offender, leaves shaking slowly as it settled into stillness.
“Would a drone be able to hide a heartbeat from our ears?” Vouri mused.
“I don’t know.” I chewed my lip in thought. “I heard Pheolix’s just fine when we were in Venusia, but I didn’t think to listen when he nullified our power.”
“It’s called an eclipse,” Vouri supplied in a whisper.
The small sound had only been a plant’s dance under the moon, but it had stolen a chink in the armor of our confidence.
“He eclipsed you. And me. And my brother.” She paused to study both of us.
“Drones aren’t natural. They aren’t what Theia intended.
I know Pheolix is involved in Thaan’s scheme, and if we pull this off, Aegir won’t touch him.
But I would caution you against lowering your own defenses around him. How close are you both with Pheolix?”
“Not at all,” I said slowly. Cebrinne watched me carefully, and I avoided her eyes.
“Good. My advice is to keep it that way.”
I frowned, suddenly invested in a change in subject. “How does Aegir plan to attack Thaan?”
“By luring him into his own trap. After we find the stones. ”
Cebrinne shook her head, a knot beginning to form between her brows. “If you’re hoping to lead him into an ambush, it won’t work. Thaan is highly suspicious, even of us. He won’t strike until he thinks I’m cordaed .”
A smile split across Vouri’s mouth, wide enough to crinkle the corners of her forest eyes. “Well, then. Let’s get you cordaed . I need you to send a message to my brother. Shall I write it in code, or will it be safe if you carry it from here?”
“Safe.” I cocked a hip, watching with a fraction of unease as Vouri stole her own parchment and began a hasty scribble. Whatever the message was, it wasn’t long.
Vouri folded it before offering it to me. “I’m sure you’ll read it,” she said. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t refer to either of you.” She wound a wide leather strip around her papers, tying them with a piece of cord.
“Are we finished?” Cebrinne asked, her fists over her hips.
“I think so.” I tucked Vouri’s missive into my dress. “Vouri doesn’t know the way to the servants’ quarters.”
Cebrinne stepped out of our circle, her face overshadowed by a hanging vine. “We’ll use the tunnels. You should learn them, anyway.”
“Tunnels?” Vouri shook out her chestnut hair, straightening her secretary’s uniform dress before falling into step behind Cebrinne.
“They connect to the servants’ passages.” My sister paused to glance at me. “Coming?”
I shook my head, holding up the files Vouri had taken. “I’ll put these back and meet you in our apartment.”
Cebrinne’s mouth hardened. “Be quick.” She led Vouri out the eastern exit toward the servants’ sky bridge. A blast of cold wind lifted my hair from my face and shoulders as they opened the door leading outside, and then I was alone in the damp quiet.
I’d been in the solarium at night before.
Cebrinne and I often moonbathed here. But I’d never been alone in the near-dark.
Suddenly, the jeweled plants seemed taller, their stalks thornier.
They sat around me, drenched in patches of thick moonlight and shadow.
The mist around my knees stirred against the door’s dying air current, the soft silence of it raising the fine hair over my arms.
I shuffled the stack I’d taken from Vouri, stepping over vines and under boughs as I made my way to the northern door. A parchment slipped from my hand. I bent to retrieve the errant paper, then stood.
A pair of eyes stared back at me from behind the leaves. Eyes I didn’t recognize.
A sharp prickle cascaded down the back of my neck.