Crown of Coral and Pearl

“And where do you wish to go?”

I thought of Zadie at fourteen, pretending that she couldn’t reach an oyster she wanted but was too lazy to dive for. It had only taken a few flutters of her lashes, a single caress of his arm, to convince Sami to get it for her. I’d sat in awe of my sister that day, as she returned home with a nice fat pearl she hadn’t even dived for. Sami, however, had slid down a notch in my esteem.

“When I was a girl, I saw the port market from my family’s boat once,” I said, fabricating a memory from Sami’s stories. “I couldn’t make out many details, but the Ilarean ladies in their fine gowns and the handsome Ilarean soldiers in their leather armor fascinated me. I vowed that I would see them in real life one day.” I placed a tentative hand on his arm. “I would do anything to go, if you’ll take me.”

I held my breath while Ceren considered. After a moment, his lips twisted in a grin. “Your false flattery is wasted on me.”

I flushed, embarrassed that he’d seen through my act so easily, but at least I didn’t have to pretend to enjoy his company.

“But I will take you to the market next month, if you wish.”

I tried not to look too disappointed. “Isn’t the market this Friday?”

“I’m hardly in the best shape to travel at the moment,” he said. “You’ve waited this long. I’m sure another month won’t hurt.”

It wasn’t what I’d been hoping for, but it was a lot more than I had dared to dream of this afternoon. “Thank you,” I said gratefully. “That means more to me than you know.”

His lips curled in what was perhaps the first genuine smile I’d seen from him. “You’re welcome. Now go, before I change my mind.”



      23



I was foolish to think that just because he’d been kind to me, Ceren would let the accident go. He kept to his rooms for two days—“recovering” was the official word—but Ebb told me that his device had been brought to his chambers, and I had no doubt he would examine it until he found someone to blame.

I tried to keep to my room, too, feigning exhaustion, but Lady Hyacinth insisted I join her for tea. I was surprised to find it was only Hyacinth and myself when I arrived. As we waited for a maid to deliver the tea service, she asked a few more questions about the accident, but I could tell her mind wasn’t on gossip.

The maid finally appeared and filled our cups with tea before scurrying away, and Lady Hyacinth turned to me. For the first time, she wore her hair natural, the auburn curls cascading down her back. I couldn’t imagine covering up such lovely hair. Without the powder and makeup, she looked more like the twenty-year-old she really was.

“I’m so glad we finally have a chance to speak alone,” she said, adding sugar to my tea without asking. “Tell me, what’s it really like in Varenia?”

I was startled by the change in her demeanor. She was usually tipsy and jovial, laughing and gossiping like the other ladies she entertained. “I beg your pardon?”

“Are the people there going hungry, like Prince Talin says? He came back from his trip to your village with surprising reports about a lack of pearls and a very modest existence, which angered his brother to no end. But you don’t look hungry. You look strong and vital.”

I had no idea how to answer. I had never trusted Lady Hyacinth, per se, but she had always seemed relatively harmless. I should have known that a woman who sat on the king’s war council didn’t spend all her time drinking and playing card games with her friends.

“We are healthy, for the most part,” I said. “But our waters have been overfished, and we don’t get as much for the pearls as we used to.”

She sipped her tea and leaned back against the silk cushions. “So why not consume the pearls yourselves? Or come to shore and make a life for yourselves on land? All these years, and aside from the Galethian escape, your people have never ventured a coup. As a strategist, I find it mystifying.”

She had a point. They were questions I’d asked myself, but life in Varenia was relatively peaceful. People rarely talked about Ilara, aside from in the context of the ceremony. And the situation with the pearls had come on so slowly and insidiously. It wasn’t like people were feasting one day and starving the next. We’d all just learned to make do with less as time passed.

“I suppose it’s because it’s all we’ve ever known,” I said. “To be honest, I was hoping to understand it all a little better when I came here, but I still can’t explain it. I know there is a fear that if we come to land, we will be captured and executed.”

“But surely if you came a few at a time, you’d be able to make your way north unnoticed. There are so many refugees on the roads these days, you’d hardly be conspicuous.”

“Our news is controlled by what we hear at the floating market. We didn’t know about the uprisings.”

She tapped her lips with a long-nailed finger. “So ignorance is a large part of it. I see.”

I didn’t like the way she was discussing Varenian oppression like it was something to be studied. But maybe we were willfully ignorant. Yes, searching for pearls occupied most of our men’s time, but the women? I thought of Mother, how obsessed she was with the ceremony. The Ilareans had given us something else to focus on with the choosing of a Varenian princess, had even made it seem like an honor. But had the Ilareans done that, or had we? It was impossible to tell what had come first. All I knew was that in my seventeen years, the only people I’d ever heard question it were Sami and me.

“Why are you so curious about all this?” I asked finally.

Lady Hyacinth picked up a ball of unraveled yarn from a basket and began to slowly wind it around her hands. “Come now, Zadie. You must know the first rule of warfare.”

I shook my head, a voice inside of me screaming that I didn’t want to hear the answer.

She smiled, her dark green eyes glittering. “Know your enemy.”

* * *

My meeting with Lady Hyacinth haunted me. She had called Varenia an enemy, which seemed both ominous and illogical. We were firmly held under Ilarean rule and far too few in number to fight for independence. I wanted to talk to Lady Melina, to see if things had been different in Varenia during her time, but she didn’t respond to any of the notes I sent her.

On the third day, Ceren summoned me to a meeting in the great hall. I’d never seen him sit on the throne before; I’d never seen anyone sit on it, in fact. But with a dark metal crown circling his loose hair, and a cloak of black velvet over his shoulders, he looked the part of the king he would one day become.

I glanced around at the other people who’d been called to the meeting and knew immediately that something was wrong. Talin was there, with Grig and Captain Osius, along with the page, several of Ceren’s guards, and a smattering of lords and ladies. But it was the presence of Lady Melina that troubled me the most.

“Thank you all for coming,” Ceren said once we’d all gathered. “I’ve spent the past few days examining my breathing apparatus, and it has become evident that someone deliberately tampered with it. An attempt on the crown prince’s life is a heinous crime that cannot go unpunished, though thanks to my future bride, that attempt was unsuccessful.” He smiled at me, but there was no warmth in his eyes, and I felt my stomach churn as his gaze traveled to the little page.

“This boy,” Ceren said, pointing with one long finger at the child, “was the only one close enough to the device to have tampered with it, according to witnesses.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I realized what Ceren was preparing to do.

“Indeed, I found a telltale kink in the hose that is all the evidence I need to condemn this traitor to death.”

A few of the ladies gasped, and I could feel Talin’s posture go rigid next to me.

“Unless, of course, there is someone else who will take responsibility for this crime? I sincerely doubt that a boy of eleven plotted to kill his future king all on his own.”

My gaze slid to Lady Melina, and I suddenly understood why she was here. Ceren would never have invited her if he didn’t suspect she was involved somehow. And maybe she was. I had told her I couldn’t get the key the night before we went to the lake, and it was entirely possible she’d put the page up to this. Worst of all, tampering with the device had been my idea, and Ceren didn’t suspect me because I’d saved him.

“Well?” Ceren said. “No one will spare this child’s life? Very well. I’ve decided that since he didn’t quite manage to kill me, I won’t throw him from the mountain as I normally would. No, in my generosity, I’ll give him a chance to fight for his life. Guards, prepare to take him below.”

I turned to Talin. “What does he mean, fight? Where is he taking the boy?”