Crown of Coral and Pearl

“There is...” He swallowed before continuing. “There is a creature below the mountain. It lives in a different lake from the one you went to. Occasionally, Ceren will feed it a prisoner, rather than having them thrown off the mountain.”

My eyes went round with horror. “A creature? That eats people?”

He took my arm as we fell in line behind Ceren and his guards. Lady Melina was behind us, talking to one of the ladies. “I’ve never seen it,” he whispered. “No one but Ceren and his guards have. He calls it Salandrin.”

“We can’t let him do this,” I said, unable to keep the hysteria from my voice. “He can’t feed that poor child to a monster!” Oh Thalos, I should have let Ceren die in that lake, no matter what Varenian ethics dictated. I had spared him just so he could take the life of a child.

The tunnels leading to the bottom of the mountain became too narrow for us to walk side by side, and I crept along behind Talin, his back the only thing I could see in the darkness. The boy was weeping softly up ahead, despite the guards’ orders that he keep quiet. Every now and then I heard a grunt or a cry, and I knew they were beating him into silence.

The closeness and the lack of air here were making me light-headed. I reached out to brace myself on one of the walls and was surprised to find it rough and muddy, not at all like the finished corridors elsewhere in the mountain. And then I realized this was not a manmade tunnel at all. Whatever lived down here traveled through these holes.

I was starting to think I might faint when we finally reached our destination—a cave bathed in eerie blue light. I looked up expecting to see lunar moss torches and gasped when I saw what was creating the effect. There were thousands of tiny lights above us, shining like pale blue stars.

“What is that?” I asked Talin.

“They’re glowworms. They hang from the ceiling of the cave.”

Their beauty was shattered by the screams of the page. Two of the guards walked to a rocky outcrop ten feet above the water, dragging the boy with them. The lake was dark in places, but in the areas where the light from the glowworms reflected on the surface, I could see that the water was deep. Something white and massive swam past before disappearing again into the shadows.

I let out a startled cry and ran to Ceren, grabbing hold of his cloak without thinking. I heard the lords and ladies behind me murmur in disapproval.

“Please, don’t do this,” I pleaded. “He’s just a boy. Show him some mercy.”

“If not for you, I myself would be dead,” Ceren said sternly. “Don’t you think the punishment should fit the crime?”

In Varenia, we had a fairly simple system of justice. If you committed a crime, you were either forced to right the wrong—returning a stolen item, nursing a person you’d injured, disqualified from the ceremony if you harmed another girl’s chances—or, if the crime was severe enough, you were banished. We never killed anyone for their crimes, even though we all knew banishment was tantamount to death. A man had been banished a year earlier after trying to poison his brother with puffer fish meat. Fortunately, the poisoned man had lived. His brother was never seen again.

“I think considering the boy’s age, and that his brother died during one of your experiments, you should be more lenient than you might otherwise be,” I suggested. “The people here are terrified of water. To make those boys go into the dark lake below the mountain was cruel. Even the guards were afraid at Lake Elwin.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, and I realized I’d just admitted to following him to the other underground lake. “I gave everyone the opportunity to speak on the boy’s behalf,” he said, looking past me to Lady Melina, who stood among the other lords and ladies, her face blank. She was not going to sacrifice herself for the page, that much was clear.

My mouth went dry and my pulse raced, as if my body knew before I did what I was about to say. “I’ll go,” I blurted. I was terrified of whatever was in that water, but I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. Stopping Ceren had been my idea, and I’d promised Lady Melina I was willing to pay for the consequences of my actions.

Ceren’s brows knitted together. “What do you mean, you’ll go?”

“In the lake, with the monster. You said you’d give the boy a chance to fight for his life. Let me fight on his behalf.”

He stared at me in disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous. That boy doesn’t stand a chance against Salandrin, even with a weapon.”

“So you’ll give me a weapon?”

“I’m not letting you go at all.” He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me farther away from the others. “Why are you covering up for Lady Melina? I know she was behind this.”

“How do you know that?” I asked. “How do you know it wasn’t an accident?”

“That woman has always despised me, and I checked the device right before we left New Castle. There’s no way the hose got kinked all on its own.”

“So you have no proof, and yet you’re willing to kill a child?” I cried. “You’re alive, Ceren. That’s what matters. Send the boy back to his family. They’ve already lost one son.”

Ceren was quiet for a moment, and a spark of hope lit in my chest. But then he shook his head. “I can’t let him go now. I’ve accused him publicly.”

I shook my arm free of his. “Then I’m going in his place. I couldn’t stand by and watch you die, and I won’t let the boy die, either.”

His eyes darted back and forth, searching mine. “You’d really risk everything for some servant boy? His life is worth nothing compared to yours.”

“My life is worth nothing if I ever believe that.”

He shook his head. “You’re a brave girl, I won’t deny that. But I need you alive. I’m sorry.” He turned away.

“I’m the one who planned it!” I yelled, loud enough that all the lords and ladies could hear. “I put the page up to it. I’m the one who should be punished.”

Ceren whirled back to me. “Stop it!” he snarled. “You saved my life. No one is going to believe you did this.”

“I had a change of heart,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “And now that I’ve admitted it in front of witnesses, you can’t hold the boy accountable.”

The other members of the court rushed forward. “I always knew she couldn’t be trusted,” one of them said.

“We should have an Ilarean queen,” a lord muttered.

“She must pay for what she’s done,” another said.

I could feel Melina’s eyes on me, but she kept her silence. Apparently she wasn’t willing to sacrifice herself for me, either.

Ceren stalked up to Talin, who hadn’t said a word through any of this, though his eyes flitted between his brother’s and mine. “Tell her to stop this, Talin.”

“What makes you think she’ll listen to me?” Talin hissed.

Ceren scowled. “Oh, please. I’m not a fool. I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

I couldn’t bear to see Talin’s reaction, not after what had happened at the lake. I kept my eyes on the page, who was crying quietly. He was all that mattered now.

I heard Talin release a heavy breath, and then his hand was on my shoulder, drawing me aside. He leaned so close his lips almost brushed my ear. “You don’t have to do this,” he said. He swallowed thickly. “I know you want—”

“It’s not about what I want,” I said. “I can’t let that child die. I’m a strong swimmer. At least I have a chance.”

I could tell as our eyes met that he saw me—me—for who I really was: stubborn as a barnacle, maybe, but someone who fought for what she believed in.

For a moment, I thought he might insist on going himself. But he must have seen the resolve in my gaze, bcause instead of protesting, he nodded and drew a knife from the sheath at his waist. “Go for the eyes,” he said as he handed me the blade. “I’ll help in any way I can.”

His grip on my shoulder remained fierce, despite his words, and I let my hair fall forward, obscuring us as I brought my hand up to his, half expecting him to jerk away at the contact. But though he inhaled sharply against my ear, sending shivers down my spine, he made no attempt to move, and I knew he felt the same spark that I did.

“I’m sorry if I’ve been cold,” he murmured. “You did nothing to deserve it.”

“Thank you.” A moment later, I gently removed his hand, but kept my eyes locked on his. Ceren might suspect my attraction to his brother, but if I was about to die, I needed to make sure Talin knew it was more than that. “Your kindness has been like the break in a storm,” I said, understanding now what he’d meant in Varenia. Life here was dark and cold and unforgiving, but Talin had made it a little more bearable.

He held my arm for a moment longer, his jaw clenched tight. “I wish things were different—” he began, but I stopped him.

“So do I.”

He released me slowly, and I could see him wrestling with what to do. I shook my head a little, telling him silently not to dive in after me, no matter what happened.