40

Kaylin

Blessed seawater rushes over me. My skin comes alive and every cell in my body tingles. I miss this feeling each moment I spend on land, except for when I’m with Ash. Those moments have their own form of pleasure and quickening of the heart. Still, a stalemate is nigh. Soon there will be no moving forward or going back, not without making a terrible choice. I dive deeper, swimming faster, a blur in the dark green currents, as if the answer to all my troubles lay at the bottom of the sea.

The sunken ship lists hard on her side, ringed with swaying kelp. The hull is partially intact, and a tall mast shoots up from the rotting deck. The crow’s nest pokes out of the water at low tide, though on a slant. Oysters and barnacles cluster on both masts, fore and aft, and it doesn’t take long to fill the bag.

The world’s on the brink, and I gather oysters. What black-robe foresaw this?

“Having a picnic are you, brother?”

Curse the bones and throwers, where did she come from? “Salila, what a pleasant surprise. Teern let you off the leash?” I break the surface and make a show of taking a breath before diving again. “Or perhaps you have lost your way?”

“Me? Lost?” Salila sweeps by, a rush of water knocking me back. “I’m hardly lost.”

“Good, then. Be a help and gather more oysters, will you?”

She swims back over the ship, kelp dragging along in her wake. Finally, she stops in front of me, arms crossed, hair fanning out in all directions. “You have nerve, asking me for more help.”

“Taxed, are you, sister?”

Her lower lip sticks out. “I did everything you wanted, Kaylin. Followed the Heir on his little detour. Brought the fish run to empty the harbors, both Cabazon and Toretta. Made sure you knew to be there at precisely the right moment for the party of five. And for what?”

“To accomplish Teern’s will, what else?” When she doesn’t answer, I soften a bit. “Sounds like you’re free now, the price for breaking Teern’s law paid?”

“I wish, but no.” Her voice turns conspiratorial. “He sent me to watch you. Thinks you’re mucking things up.”

“You can tell Father I have it under control.” I keep my mental voice calm, but it’s not easy.

She snorts. “Then you’re the worst assassin in the history of the profession.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. The Heir and his party are still alive?”

“I have my reasons.” Ash’s face flashes in front of me. “Good reasons.” I surface again and dive. Salila follows but doesn’t break the water.

“I will report this. Don’t think I won’t.” She swims past me in a shot.

“By all means, do.” I catch up, my fists tight. “Just know, I plan to tell Teern myself.”

She stops dead in the water and I stream right by. It takes her a moment to fire off her next retort. “You do that, Kaylin, and be sure to mention the Heir, alive and well on the training field of Aku. I imagine that will stir him.”

I force a smile. “Are you done?”

“Not quite.” She spins like a whirlpool, tangling my hair in front of my eyes. “Tann’s on the move.”

My stomach drops to the ocean floor. “High Savant Tann? Are you sure?”

“The one and only, gathering a large Aturnian fleet while he’s at it, too.”

I think of the flags bearing the twin suns. The tattoos. The notice. “Is he—”

“Seeking the first whistle bones?” Her hair floats around her face as she nods. “What else?”

“The crown is once again to be formed?”

“Not by him, if Teern can stop it.”

So…it has begun.

She rolls onto her back, gazing up at the surface, hands pillowing her head. “You’re welcome.”

I shake myself back to the present. “Thanks.”

I mean it until she adds, “Chop-chop with the murdering, brother. There’s no time to lose.”

No time, indeed.