Page 96 of Beneath the Haunting Sea
“What gave you the idea I was ever well-behaved?” Talia grinned. “I was in trouble with every single person in the palace at one time or another.”
He grinned too, scratching at his nose. The sunburn he’d gotten their first few days at sea had faded into a slight tan and an explosion of new freckles, and there were cutson his chin from his most recent attempt at shaving with Talia’s knife. She realized suddenly that he was rather handsome.
She shaded her eyes with her hand and peered ahead of them into the never-ending ocean. “I should check our readings again.” They’d been sailing nearly four weeks now, and she’d thought they were making good progress, but something felt off.
She unrolled the charts and Wentook out the compass. He read off the degrees for her and she marked them on the chart, frowning. It was the wrong time of day to take a sight on the sextant—she’d taken one at noon and would take another at midnight. “We should be getting close. At least, I think so. Maybe I miscalculated.” She sighed, letting the chart roll back up again.
“What happens when we do get close?”
Talia laid herhand on the tiller again. “The Billow Maidens’ curse is over.”
He looked at her, waiting for her to go on.
“Rahn cursed them for nine hundred years, and as far as I can figure out, their enchantment ends this year. In another week or two. The Billow Maidens know—that’s why they’ve been calling me. It’s too big of a coincidence to ignore.”
“And you think they’ll help you—help us—defeat Rahn?”
Talia nodded. “They won’t be bound to her anymore. Their power will return. And Endain should feel enough kinship with me to want to help. At least I hope so. Rahn plans to bind the Waves again when their curse is over. She means to renew her hold on their power, to join it with hers and rise from the sea and conquer the world.” She chewed on her lip and told him part of the truth: “That’s whatI saw the second time I looked in the mirror.”
He clenched his jaw. “There’s still more.”
She rubbed her thumb against the edge of the crackly chart. “There’s a reason you found the mirror room, why you saw me in your vision, why we’re both here now.”
“And what’s that?” he asked her quietly.
“Remember how you said you thought the house chose you? It—it did. The sailor—my ancestor—built theRuen-Dahr, wove Words into the stones so it would never lack for a guardian. Only the knowledge was lost and the mirrors forgotten—”
“A guardian against what?”
“Against the sea. Against Rahn’s return. Your mother sensed her coming, Caiden’s too. I think they were meant to be Guardians. But they didn’t know why and they couldn’t stop her. The not understanding—I think that’s what drove them mad.”
His face tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I didn’t want you to feel more responsible for me than you already did. You’ve been trying to protect me this whole time—you, the last guardian, me, the last of Endain’s bloodline. Everything’s come full circle and we’re here. Together. Against her.”
“What makes you think you can stop her?”
The sea sang to her ofeternityandrestandrelease.“I was born to it. Every moment of my life has brought me to this point and I can’t—I won’t—shirk from the fate the gods have led me to. It’s the reason for everything, don’t you see?”
He looked at her unhappily. “What’s your plan, Talia? Please tell me you have a plan.”
She quirked a smile at him. “I do, in fact.” She stowed the chart and dug her leather knapsack out from under therest of the supplies. “I read a lot about Rahn. She was strong once, but now she draws on the Tree and the Star to give her power, like Aigir did before her. Some historians believe that only the Tree and the Star could ever defeat her.”
Wen raised an eyebrow, listening.
And then she told him. “I stole something from the temple under the garden.”
“What did you steal?”
She undid the knapsack,drawing out a jar that pulsed with unnatural light, and a sliver of wood bound in a glass-and-iron casket.
Wen yelped and scrabbled backward making the ship lurch and water splash over the side. “Gods’bones, Talia!”
“It’s all right,” she said, cradling the jar in one hand and the casket in the other. “Honestly. They don’t seem to do anything bad to me.”
He came warily closer again. “That killedCaiden’s mother.” “I haven’t opened it, haven’t touched it. I won’t, not until we need to use it.”
He rubbed at his temples. “You shouldn’t have taken the risk.”
