“Yes, my Queen,” Aoede replied. The Naiads along the walls watched in silence with puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, but Aoede’s face remained dry. “A single drop is all you need to transfer her power to you.”
A single drop was still enough to make my belly squirm. I swallowed, resistant to the idea of drinking Sidra’s blood. Aoede placed the glass into my fingers. “She already named you her heir, etched her tally in the stone, vowed it in her blood. The Queenship is yours, but herpoweris here.”
I spun the stem in my fingertips, watching the liquid slosh around. Almost clear, tinged with the faintest pink.
The Naiads waited.
“It is an honor to drink the blood of a Queen,” Aoede said.
I’m not sure that hearing it helped. But I exhaled a quick and thoughtless burst of air, clearing my mind and tilting the glass to my lips, emptying it fully over my tongue and swallowing it in a gulp.
Surprise flashed in Aoede’s eyes, and I wondered if I’d just offended her, though amusement drew Nori’s mouth into a soft curve. The wine tasted like silver. It landed in my belly, soothing me as soon as it touched my lips. But that single drop warmed my blood. I felt it slide into my veins, down to the tiny capillaries in my skin, simmering with vitality. Calling myPrizivac Vodeheritage to answer to that of another, my body recognizing its ascension toVidere.
Nori slid her thumb across the spine of a nearby plant as Olinne had done, a hundred Naiads following her lead as Aoede reached to take the glass from me.
“Queen Maren of the Juile Sea,” Nori said, and though her eyes were swollen and her voice thick, she beamed at me with pride. “Today I vow to you my blood and loyalty.”
A hundred voices echoed.
64
Maren
Queen Sidra was laid to rest below the Juile Sea just hours after I took her throne.
In the center of waving kelp beds, Sidra’s face angled towards the twinkling night sky. A pod of humpback whales passed overhead as the Naiads offered their goodbyes, a parade of spirit guides inviting the Queen to cross the Sea of Stars. The Naiads stopped to gaze in wonder, and I wondered if, like Leihaniians, whales were sacred to them.
Aoede and Aitne stood in the mineral pool water, tracing my blood through the blackByssus—sea silk, Olinne informed me—mending the broken bone for a full day and night. I stopped them when it was strong enough I could stand on it. Tired, their energy dwindled, the two Naiads swayed on their feet. But they knew, as I stood to look around the room, that I intended to go.
“It might always pain you,” Aoede sighed, stretching her shoulders after an hours long session of water calling to my leg. “Aitne will go with you. She can continue healing your bone. An hour a day will mend it twice as fast as leaving it be.”
I exhaled, directing my gaze to Aitne, who had leaned into her mother’s side. “Give me a day. Let me ensure Thaan suspects nothing. Then I will return to the water’s edge at the palace and invite you in. I won’t bring you into a dangerous situation so recklessly.”
They looked as though they wanted to argue. But Aitne nodded. “Yes, my Queen. I will swim with you as far as you will let me.”
I gave a single nod. “Maren.”
Her mouth opened and closed. “Queen Maren.”
“Will Thaan know my contract is fulfilled?” I asked, redirecting my attention to Nori as I stood. I’d officially named her my firstOculos. Aoede had been Sidra’s second, I’d learned as they’d healed me. But I wanted to take my time getting to know the Naiads before I officially handed off the title.
“I think not,” Nori answered, her eyes flicking to Aoede for affirmation. “When Theia took Queen Sidra’s lungs, other abilities went missing too. Her sense of smell and taste, her body’s ability to keep warm. Sidra knew your blood was tainted by Thaan because I sensed it and shared it with her when we first entered the colony. She couldn’t have sensed it herself.”
I nodded vaguely, mind whirring in memory. Sidra had said that Nori and Olinne eventually scented mycordawith Kye, but Thaan hadn't sensed it himself the day he’d arrested me. By the time I’d met Selena, it had been over a month since I’d saved his life, more than enough time for any scent to fade.
“Thaan has no hold over you,” Nori continued, following me as I paced the outskirts of the mineral pools to the passageway. “If he threatens you, enter the Juile Sea with yourcorda-cruor. Thaan cannot follow you here. We have remained safe from him for centuries.”
The Naiads bowed their heads at me as I walked. I found myself gently reaching for them as I passed, lightly touchingtheir shoulders and arms, acknowledging their bow, as though the queen blood in my veins directed my movement.
“He is searching for a way to find this,” I replied under the twin staircase, my fingers curling around Sidra’s stone. The Breath of Safiro was just as I remembered. A prism of clear, icy blue that faded into a sharp, frosted corner. It hung from my neck, weighted and warm. “He doesn’t know I retrieved it for Sidra.”
Nori nodded, closing her eyes. “You wear a cloak of secrecy. It is your advantage. Do not unveil it, no matter the cost.”
I swallowed. Below me, the water lapped at my calves, warm against my skin.
“I will come to you every seventh day,” Nori promised. We stopped at the exit, pale turquoise sea water waiting for me to climb down and swim away. “If you cannot meet me, hang a white cloth from your balcony.”
I nodded, eyes on the water. It was time to go, and I wasn’t quite ready to leave. All my life, I’d been alone.Apart. Now, surrounded by Naiads who welcomed me in the passageways, who leaned into my words as if hungry for my thoughts, the idea of returning to Calder left a weight in my chest, hard and heavy as the ivory floor I stood upon.
