Page 9 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Cebrinne

I glanced at Selena, her eyes round at the Venusian Naiads. Pheolix laid a hand on each of our shoulders, drawing us in close, as I’m sure he’d been instructed to do. My back met the smooth taper of his chest, warm in the cool saltwater.

They forced us into the wind, our heads emerging from the waves.

I shook my raven locks away as my eyes landed on Aegir.

I’d seen sketches of Naiads born and raised in the sea before, but those did the Videre ahead of me little justice.

If I was cultivated from the realm of civilization, he was something wild and reckless, the sides of his head shaved and the hair that sat on his crown braided in untamed ropes.

His face reminded me of an arrow, sharp and cruel, archer-green eyes pointed at the three of us before dropping to make note of our tails.

So. Ocean-borns looked at tails, too.

He sat upon the surface as though it were a raised throne, the rough tide around us falling flat. Faces popped up around him, a wide net of Naiads trapping us in place. I studied the distant cliffs, trying to gauge where exactly we’d wound up, but this stretch of rock wasn’t familiar.

“We mean no harm,” Pheolix announced, adopting an accent similar to the one I’d been trained to use. Rich and flowy, his pacing more even and elegant than common Calderian tongue. “Just passing through.”

“Naiads do not pass through colonies they don’t belong to.” Aegir’s voice rang low and resonant, a dangerous rumble against the waves. “They send scouts to wait at the edge of colony waters for guards to escort them to the colony Videre , where they ask permission to cross.”

Pheolix nodded. “Our apologies.” I shook my shoulder from his grasp, but his fingers tightened almost protectively over me. They must have done the same to Selena. Her teeth clamped together.

Aegir’s expression didn’t warm. If anything, it cooled even more, a knife poised our way. “You came from the south, but there are no males in Sidra’s waters.”

“We come from the road. You might find tracks from our carriage in the sand, about a league from here. A snake bit the driver’s horse, and he had to turn back.”

Aegir stared at us for a long moment, then nodded to a Naiad behind Pheolix. The male sank under the waves. Aegir’s attention returned to our tails. Then lifted to meet mine. Curiosity wavered somewhere under the green blades. “Where are you destined?”

“To Merriam,” Pheolix answered. “To hail a ride east—”

“And who are you?” Aegir interrupted.

“I’m Pheolix—”

“You,” Aegir said, staring hard at me. “Who are you ?”

For some reason, Pheolix chuckled under his breath. I straightened, tightening my harsh stare on the Videre , though I schooled my words into the same lyrical rhythm Pheolix employed. Unlike Pheolix, I didn’t offer details of our faux journey. “Cebrinne.”

“And where are you from?” Aegir asked.

“North and east.”

The monarch smiled without humor. Behind him, his Naiads whispered amongst themselves. “That does little to answer my question. What brings you south and west?”

“Negotiations.”

“Negotiations with who? Sidra?”

I shook my head. “Thaan of Safiro. ”

More whispers. Aegir didn’t move. He faced me, calm and hard as a mountain, eyes glinting with venom. Then shifted his gaze to the horizon at my back, where moon and sun had connected just hours before.

Moments passed. Distant waves battered the shores, a hum to my ears.

Selena stole a quick glance at me, but I kept my eyes on Aegir.

His hand curled around his chin as he studied me, the baked-sand color of his skin fading to a smoky gold where his tail began.

I forced myself not to stare at it, nor the dusted metallic scales that lined the backs of his arms.

“Take the females,” Aegir finally said. “Kill the male.”

We’d planned to be taken. Had bet on it. But instinct reared from my arm to my fingertips, sending a blade of water into them. It struck one female hard enough to stun her, sending her to float unconscious in place. The rest darted from the attack.

Selena huddled into me. Pheolix latched once more onto our shoulders as I prepared to strike a second time—and the water deadened from my grasp.

It unlatched from my call. Like it suddenly couldn't feel me commanding it.

A chill spread through the waves, sinking into my bones as though the cold itself had stripped my power.

Fog bloomed from my mouth, frost gathering along the strands of my wet hair.

The Venusian Naiads slowed, eyes wide as they too lost hold on the connection we shared with water.

Aegir’s liquid throne whooshed out from under him, rolling away with the tide.

We rode the waves to stay on the surface as roughly as humans might, though they lashed at us from the side, throwing my hair wildly over my face and neck.

Aegir lifted a hand, a stream following his call. It landed on something invisible.

Some wall that kept his water-call out.

Aegir smiled, though the sight sent a cold drip down my spine. He cocked his head. “Who sent Thaan two hive heirs accompanied by a gnat?”

Beside me, Selena straightened in sudden understanding, the motion only detectable as I held her in my periphery.

Unfamiliar with ocean-born vernacular, I turned the words over in my head.

Hive heirs was simple enough to understand.

Considering the hue of our tails, it was obvious Selena and I were Prizivac Vodes .

But I’d never heard of a Naiad being referred to as a gnat before.

Whatever it meant, Selena registered it more quickly than I. Pheolix understood it as well, or I assumed he did. A sound of amusement escaped under his breath. “ Garieh Kon.”

The Illuskian colony we’d decided to pretend we belonged to.

Aegir didn’t acknowledge the words, instead testing the boundary of the invisible wall with his fingertips. Directly behind my ear, Pheolix laughed coldly. “Enter my ring if you choose, Naiad King, but you will not leave alive.”

“I believe you,” Aegir said, ignoring the mockery of his monarch title and returning a cool smile of his own. “It’s either confidence or stupidity for a gnat to reveal himself while encircled by sirens. I won’t bet on the lives of my Domus to explore which one.”

Pheolix nodded slowly. “Then I suggest you grant us passage so we may return to our own colony.”

But Aegir didn’t move. Neither did any of the rest of them. They coasted the surface the same way we did, rocking with the pull of the waves and the hungry grasp of wind. Aegir again glanced at the sky, now moonless and bright. Green eyes slithered back to mine.

“What negotiations between Thaan and the Naiads of Garieh Kon? ”

Theia in the stars, wish me luck. “I was offered to Thaan as a cordae , but negotiations failed.”

“He turned you down? Or you him?”

“No. That’s what he hoped you’d believe.”

Selena shot a glance at me. Pheolix stiffened at my back. Around us, the Naiads sent slanted looks at each other, shifting along the surface.

Aegir raised a brow. “Really?” he asked, crossing his arms. “But that’s not the truth? ”

“No.”

“Ceba,” Selena hissed quietly, turning toward me and grasping my arm with both hands.

Shock laced her brows tight; worry widened her ocean stare.

Pheolix released a laugh of surprise, as though enjoying the game of tricks unfolding before him.

I ignored them, aiming my gaze straight and hard into Aegir’s calculating eyes.

“What’s the truth?”

“I was born a human on the island Cypria.”

Selena yanked me back, battling to steal my attention from Aegir. The sudden scent of fear stung in my nostrils, sweet and stale.

“Thaan captured me and my sister when we were sixteen.”

“Ceba, what are you doing?”

“I swore myself to Thaan ten years ago, but he sent me here with drops of sanguis proditionis sealed in wax so that you couldn’t scent him on me when we passed through.”

The color drained from Selena’s face. She shoved my arm from her own grasp, framing her face with her hands instead. “We’re dead,” she murmured, casting her gaze at the surrounding Naiads. “You’ve killed us both.”

Pheolix laughed, clapping in slow motion, surprised delight stretched across his sly mouth.

“I have no idea who he is,” I added blandly, motioning at Pheolix. “Feel free to kill him.”

“You’ve killed us,” Selena whispered again.

A muscle twitched along Aegir’s mouth. “He thought to use you to lure me?”

“Yes.”

“Thaan thinks I’m so desperate for a Prizivac mate?”

“Yes.”

The Videre of Venusia tilted his head. “He hoped you would cordae and then murder me? ”

“Eventually,” I said. “Or simply lead you to a place where you could be murdered.”

He harrumphed a chuckle, flicking his eyes to the members of his Naiad colony. They sneered back in turn. Selena’s heart thumped in her chest, wild and desperate. My own pulse lurched fiercely in my veins, loud enough I thought my ears might erupt. But I kept my gaze on Aegir.

He tapped his fingertips against his own arm. “And what do you want?”

I let myself smile. The words were more for Selena than me, though she didn’t know it. But I let myself relish them anyway. They passed from my tongue into the mist and brine, hovering in the salty air as spray peppered our sides.

Swallowing Thaan’s blood freed my vows only for a day. So I let myself taste every syllable, let my lungs savor each release of wind, the freedom of speech as decadent to me as the first drop of rain after a ten-year drought.

“I want you to help me kill Thaan.”