Page 34 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Cebrinne

T he City of Towers buzzed with the ardent fervor of a horde of fruit flies drunk from a vat of wine-soaked fruit. Even the clouds had grown gluttonously fat and dark. Rain meant an early end to the evening, and I loved the scent of it.

A pig show , Pheolix had called it. The florists and decorators had done their best to tax the wrought iron frames of the walls with frivolous blooms and starry glass throughout the palace. It was pretty enough to make me puke.

Carrying a small brown bag, I stole through the servants’ passages.

I preferred them, anyway. Nobles wanted nothing more than to gossip about each other, or to pry gossip from you, all the while staring with eyes that scourge and tally, logging away every detail in your diction, your poise, your flawed sense of fashion.

I held little faith that servants didn’t also trade gossip within their own circles, but at least they kept me out of it.

The door to my apartment snicked shut behind me.

Selena peered from behind a wall a moment later, laden in violet silk and gauzy organza.

Swaths of lace crossed over her chest and behind her neck, leaving her back entirely bare to the lowest point of her spine.

A slit in her skirt revealed the full curve of her hip, black and gold embroidery gleaming throughout.

I followed her to our bedroom, where a similar gown waited across my bedspread in deep blue .

I tossed the small bag on top of the dress and crossed my arms, studying Selena’s gilded bodice through the reflection of her mirror. “Theia strike me dead, Senna. What does he have planned for you?”

She’d already applied rouge and kohl, her red lips bright, and blue eyes dark. Smoke hovering over a crystal sky. “Emilius.”

I gave an involuntary recoil. It’s not that Emilius wasn’t handsome.

He was. But the King’s gaze often lingered too long, his hands wandered where they shouldn’t wander, and when he leaned in to speak over the volume of his musicians, his breath misted over the shell of my ear, leaving a moisture that made me want to crawl from my skin and abandon it on the floor.

“Have you seen Thaan yet?” my sister asked.

“No.” By habit, I turned my cheek, listening for sound on the other side of the wall.

“He’s in his administrative office now. I tried to catch Vouri’s eye earlier, but I couldn’t stay with him there.”

“Aegir’s here.”

Halfway through securing an amethyst-drop earring into place, Selena halted. “Here? In the palace?”

“Outside. In Sidra’s water technically, though he says she won’t mind.”

Selena cocked a hip expectantly.

“He came to take Vouri back to Venusia. I told him I’d help sneak her out, though a part of me wishes she’d just taken it upon herself to piss on his need for permission and done it herself.”

She blinked. “It?”

I scoffed. “ Cordaed her big, silent knife-throwing Venusian.”

A muscle feathered in Selena’s chin, and she set to impaling her other ear with an equally dazzling teardrop. “We’ll need her to come back.”

“Why?”

She scoffed. “Because, Ceba, the only way Thaan will come close to the ocean is if he thinks you and Aegir have mated.” Sitting at her vanity, she preened at her sable waves, pinning them around the crown of her head while leaving most of her locks to cascade over the sharp angle of her shoulders.

“Selena.” I sat on her bed. In the mirror, her reflection hitched at hearing her full name. Her eyes darted to meet mine. “We can’t reach the stones. Pretending to cordae with Aegir walks us into a trap half set.”

She swung around in her gold-studded chair. “What if we don’t need the stones?”

“We do, though. Theia said they’re the only way to—”

“Ceba, listen.” She closed her eyes with a gust of breath, impatient. “Theia cursed Thaan. Who is to say she isn’t lying to us? What obligation does a god have to answer the questions of mortals? Thaan can’t touch the water. He can’t enter the sea. How do you know that isn’t how we free you?”

“Because it’s not.”

“But how do you know ?”

“I don’t know.” I whipped the words at her, lashing each one with my tongue.

“I don’t know—except that I do. I do know, and I’ve never been more sure.

I know it in my bones, Senna. I know it in my blood .

I feel it inside myself, stone steps on a path laid by the moon.

It’s prophecy to you, but it’s fate to me. ”

Selena lifted a hand, turning her face away and closing her eyes. “You’re confused. Confused and desperate, and I don’t blame you, but this isn’t the answer. You can’t go marching off to a fishing island to kill yourself just to get away from Thaan.”

“It’s not just to get away from him.”

“I don’t care what it is,” she snapped. Then sighed. “This line of thought, jumping into the Parian pit, not caring about the consequences of anything—I’m worried. I’m worried for you.”

I opened my mouth, but a knock came from the door. We both turned to it, our conversation spilling into sudden silence. Tension hovered across us like oil poured over water. Thicker than the air but somehow caught on the surface, unable to sink away.

“You should dress.” Selena pushed to her feet, making her way outside our bedroom.

I glanced at the sweeping fabrics strewn across my bed.

Tiny crystals were sewn throughout the skirt and bodice, as perceptible as dust falling through the air, though they caught the light at every tilt of my head, glittering softly.

My mask lay beside it: long, glossy swan feathers dyed a rich dark blue, more crystals studded along each feather’s spine.

It wrapped around one eye completely, leaving the other bare.

The mask oozed Selena’s eye for design, and I wondered when she’d commissioned it from her tailor.

Vouri’s voice floated down the hall. I muttered an internal curse to Theia, suddenly too tired to entertain the Naiad, even if it was just a walk through the palace halls and down to the water. Selena’s words wrapped around my neck like a pair of hands. Confused and desperate.

Maybe I was.

Except I wasn’t. Not really. If it weren’t for Selena, I’d have already left for the islands.

I would have abandoned my vows the day Theia told me I would, trading my blood promises for a fractured lifeline and three years of volcanic beaches, thick sunshine, and the rolling whisper of the turquoise sea outside my window.

Selena breezed through the open door, though I knew the friendliness in her eyes was the same weapon the rest of Calderian female society armed themselves with.

The cool grace of a woman with no problems, no afflictions, no sense of the churning anxiety I knew lay deep under her skin.

Vouri followed her in, hesitant as Selena sat at her vanity and reached for her mask.

“Everything all right?” Vouri asked. She leaned a shoulder into the doorjamb, crossing her arms, green eyes like poisoned darts.

With a blunt slap against my thighs, I stood. “Aegir’s waiting for you.”

The Naiad’s eyes widened. “Here?”

“The Juile water. ”

Vouri’s gaze narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I smiled. “He’s taking you to your cordae .”

Her mouth sprang open. She glanced at Selena for confirmation, but my sister rotated enough to view both of us. “Congratulations, Vouri. We’re overjoyed for you. Will you be returning to Calder afterward?”

“Senna.” I hissed. “It’s not necessary to discuss that tonight.”

Selena didn’t face me. “It is.”

Arms laced, Vouri’s thumb tapped the outer bend of her opposite elbow. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because the first weeks following a cordae are special,” Selena said. “And you’ll never get them back.”

“I realize that.” Vouri straightened, a small notch between her brows.

“But I’ve inserted myself here with a lot of careful planning.

I have access to Thaan’s correspondence, and my launderer’s key opens half the noble quarters in the palace.

If I wanted, I could trade duties for keys for the other half. ”

Selena nodded and said nothing.

I chewed the inside of my cheek. “That doesn’t mean you might lose progress by staying in Venusia for a few weeks.”

“Yes, it does.” Vouri’s mouth firmed. “Thaan killed my parents and my grandmother. He drove my grandfather to his death, and I have no doubts that my brother is next in line. The fact that he sent you to us only proves that Aegir is a target. But here I am, working under his nose. Yes, I intend to return. I’m sure I could convince Sindri to join the palace guard. ”

I stood, fighting the desire to run my frustrated hands through my hair. It was pointless to continue to thrust Vouri into danger once I left for Leihani. “Well, take your time to decide. Talk it over with Aegir if you need to.”

“Why would she do that, Ceba?” Selena faced me through the mirror, the delicate violet string of her mask between her fingers. “I thought Vouri didn’t need to ask Aegir for permission. ”

“I’m not saying she needs his permission. I’m saying she should discuss her role as a spy here with him.”

“Why?” Vouri shoved a heel against the wall, hauling herself away from it. “I’m not giving up my position here. There’s too much intelligence to gather.”

“Perfect.” Selena adjusted the mask over the bridge of her nose.

Heavy in gold and violet brocade, jewel-encrusted roses and feathers streamed from one side.

Her ocean-blue eyes shone through, challenging me behind a veil of lace and rubies.

“Vouri, you’ll come back tomorrow cordaed .

If we time it right, we can position you to enter Thaan’s office the same moment Ceba does.

Thaan will make his official decision to target Aegir.

We need to make sure he plans to attack near the water. ”

I shook my head, unwilling to outright argue with Selena but equally uninterested in entertaining her.

“It’s harder to leave this palace than it is to enter it if you can believe that,” I said to Vouri.

“Thaan might not have pressured you into vowing loyalty to him yet, but by now, he probably has his eye on you. We’ll have to sneak you out. ”

“All right.” Vouri glanced between us. “What’s the easiest way to do that?”

I shrugged a shoulder, eyes falling to my bedspread. My swan-feather mask lay unassuming next to my thigh, and I hooked a finger into it, lifting it for them to see.