I manage to pull Aris away before he and Royce come to blows. I steer him toward a section of the ship mostly cleared of debris and therefore mostly devoid of sailors.
“I’m sorry.” His shoulders slump as we turn to face each other at the edge of the ship. “I don’t know why he would act that way. He hasn’t been himself lately.” He moves closer until one hand cups my cheek. “I shouldn’t have fought with Royce that way. I just want you to be safe.”
I put my hand on his arm. “I know, but I think it’s part of a larger problem.”
“What problem?” He drops his hand from my cheek and looks around the deck.
I recount what I overheard, focusing on Royce wanting to use me for my powers and marooning or killing him.
Tiny muscles contract around his jaw as he clenches it. He slams his fist against the railing. “I trusted him. We grew up fishing with one another, playing pranks on our siblings, competing to see who could climb to the top of the old oak the fastest. He was the one who carried me back to my house when I fell out of that tree and nearly broke my neck.” His knuckles whiten as he grips the rail. “I let those memories get in the way of what everyone was telling me, of what was right in front of my face.”
“I don’t understand,” I say, lowering my voice as Phipps and Thipps hoist a broken beam over their shoulders and carry it off, each one complaining that the other isn’t carrying their fair share.
“I didn’t want to tell you this before because I didn’t think it could be true.” He finally meets my gaze. “There have always been rumors about what happened when we lost the treaty. I’m sure you heard some of them yourself.”
Toward the end of the wars, I’d overheard some noblemen say Royce Denes had only been promoted to captain because of his father’s influence and that he wasn’t qualified for such an important mission. And Aris had reminded me Royce was the one who’d lost the treaty, but beyond that, I hadn’t heard any mumblings about the true cause of the mission’s failure.
Aris sighs as he continues. “Only Royce and I knew the treaty was on board. How did Captain Skulls find out? And how could one small woman move a barrel full of oil all by herself in order to blow up the ship? Someone on board must have helped her.”
“Royce,” I breathe.
Aris drops his head. “He’s been to the Island of Lost Souls before too. After months of searching, he traced the pirate woman there. I tried to tell him not to go, but he said he wanted to find out how they knew about the treaty.
“I went with him because I thought I could help prove his innocence. That was only a few weeks before I sailed to meet you.” He chokes on the last word, on whatever realization he’s made. “While on the island, we split up to search for the woman, and he could’ve met up with Skulls there, especially since he was trying to gather money for repairs. This could all be my fault. I—I told Royce about you, about what I knew of your family, about why I wanted to meet you.”
My body goes cold. I cling to the railing to stay anchored to the world as everything crumbles around me. Could Aris be responsible, even by accident, for the theft of my father’s gold?
But how would Royce and Captain Skulls have known about the gold, about where to find it?
Archduke Ralton. The thought bolts through me. He easily could’ve shadowed my father or bribed a guard to figure out where the gold was.
“Do you think your uncle may have been the one to tell Royce and Captain Skulls where the gold was?” I ask.
Aris’s eyes go wide as realization dawns in his face. “I knew he wasn’t happy with the monarchy, but if I’d thought . . . if I’d known . . .” He trails off, shaking his head.
“You couldn’t have known,” I reply. “It’s not your fault. Your uncle has probably been a part of this scheme from the beginning.” He likely planned the whole thing.
“Kora, I have to warn you.” His voice wavers. “My uncle may not only be after your kingdom. If he’s working with Royce and Captain Skulls, he may be after you too.” He takes a deep breath. “I know it might be difficult for you, but will you tell me what it is they could be after? There have been so many stories over the years, but perhaps if I know the truth, I can protect you.”
I open my mouth to reply, but the words don’t make it past my constricting throat. I’m paralyzed by the memory flooding back.
It happened a day or two after I was turned back from a statue, when I was seven. Alongside my father and uncle, I entered the tower room where they stored the gold. It was the first time I’d seen the other golden objects.
Everything was stacked on the table. A golden pheasant rested on the round gold platter my father had touched when throwing the feast celebrating The Touch. An embossed leaf design ran around the edge of the platter. Alongside the pheasant was the big carving knife he’d grasped. Its long, transformed blade gleamed. Next to those rested the single rose he’d plucked from the garden, its petals trapped in a perfect bloom. There were three coins that had previously been worth next to nothing but now carried their own hefty weight. Only the fish symbol stamped on each marked them as having originally been copper. I doubted any shopkeeper would see anything but the color and willingly accept it.
Two chalices, each with a rose border running around the lip, glimmered on the table. My father had ordered them made for my mother as a wedding gift, and they’d toasted their marriage with those cups.
Next to the chalices was a small golden tapestry no longer than my arm. It was rolled up, and I recall thinking it resembled a hollow log more than a piece of art. I never did find out what design it concealed. I’m not sure even my father knew.
At the end of the table was a golden necklace. My mother’s necklace.
My father ran his fingers along the edge of the table. “What are we going to do, brother?” He turned to look at Pheus.
“The gold must be destroyed if you ever want the curse to fully end,” Pheus said.
“Would it destroy me too?” my father replied. His gaze turned back to the golden objects. “Already, I can feel the gold taking over my thoughts. It’s all I can think about. Waking, sleeping. At all times, it’s there, waiting for me to let it take over.”
Pheus laid a hand on my father’s shoulder. “We’ll find a way to end this. Together.”
I wanted to offer some comfort, but I couldn’t concentrate on their conversation. Being that close to the gold ignited something within me. It was almost as if the gold hummed softly, inviting me to come touch it. Just one touch wouldn’t hurt.
But it did hurt.
I touched the necklace, which sat on a plump purple cushion. It looked like the one my mother wore in the portrait hanging in my father’s room. I’d wanted to see what it would look like on me, to see if I could ever be as pretty as my mother despite my now-golden skin.
I never got to find out because the instant the gold grazed my skin, it absorbed into my body. The necklace dulled to silver.
I managed a sharp intake of breath before my insides turned to ice. The gold spun its web across my veins and down my bones, just like it had when my father hugged me in the garden. I flung my hands, trying to shake it off. I cried out.
My hand collided with something. It was the guard, roused by my cry. And the moment my skin touched his outstretched hand, the gold rushed from my body. It climbed over the guard, hardening him in place.
He’d become a statue.
His arms reached out for an invisible object. One leg was frozen backward. Golden eyes stared unblinking.
My father slumped against the wall with a groan. Pheus stood open-mouthed, looking back and forth between the guard and me. “What have you done?” he whispered.
“I didn’t do it,” I stuttered, unable to take my eyes from the guard’s golden form. From my own distorted reflection gleaming back at me.
I reached out to my father and uncle.
Pheus moved away in terror, his eyes wide and his hands clasped to his chest.
I collapsed to the ground, horrified by what I had done. As I fell, my elbow crashed against the golden boot of the guard. Before I could even think my elbow should hurt, the gold careened back into my body, navigating its way toward my heart. All I’d done was touch it, and it had jumped right back into my body.
The guard sputtered back to life. Although his skin, thankfully, hadn’t retained any of the gold coloring, the wild look in his eyes showed he hadn’t escaped unscathed.
He stared at me. His breathing was as heavy as mine.
Before I could explain or apologize or form whatever words my brain was trying to produce, the man ran from the room.
Pheus tarried only a moment before cursing and chasing after him.
I did the only thing I could think of: I reached back and wound my tiny fingers around the necklace. My skin tingled as the gold passed through it, returning the necklace to its golden state.
Only my father remained in the room. I waited for him to speak, to explain or reassure. Even his anger would’ve been better than his silence. But he just stared at me like I was a monster. A monster he’d created.
I fled past him to the library.
When the door to the library creaked open hours later, I stuck my tear-stained face out from between shelves full of nautical books. I expected my father’s form to grace the entryway.
It was Pheus.
He carried a golden candelabra in his hand and remained in the doorway until I emerged. I waited for him to punish me. But what he said surprised me.
“Touch it,” he said, placing the candelabra on the floor and backing away.
I shook my head.
“I need to know if it’s all gold or just the objects your father turned.” He crossed his arms and waited. “This will help me keep the people in the palace safe.”
I didn’t want to know what the powers could or couldn’t do. I just wanted them to go away. I never wanted to touch gold again.
But Pheus wouldn’t leave until I did.
I neared the candelabra.
I knelt a few feet away. I could feel the gentle heat of the candles wafting toward me as I leaned forward ever so slightly. I placed my hand over my heart for a moment, hoping it wasn’t the last time I’d feel it beat.
I extended a trembling finger and touched the base. Gold drained from it into my body. The flames didn’t even waver.
“Do you have the same power your father did?” Pheus pondered. His eyes took on a somber color in the candlelight.
I wanted to shout that I didn’t have the same power; I had the same curse. But I couldn’t answer. The gold was adhering to my insides, clinging to muscles and ripping down sinews, but it hadn’t consumed me. I was still alive. Still breathing.
That didn’t mean I could control it. The longer it pulsed through my body, the harder it got to contain. My head pounded. My muscles ached as the gold dug deeper into them, finding grooves and spaces I didn’t know existed within my own body.
The metal spun through my mind. The room spun in response. Without thinking, I reached out an arm to steady myself against the ground. I didn’t even feel the softness of the rug beneath me before it turned to gold. My body only felt the instant relief of the gold draining into the rug.
Pheus jumped when the rug beneath his feet hardened.
As I gathered myself, I began to realize that as I absorbed gold, anything I was already touching, like my clothes, remained untainted, but the next thing I touched instantly turned to gold. And the size of the object didn’t matter. The amount of gold in a tiny necklace could turn an entire man into a statue. A candelabra’s gold could cover a rug that spanned half the library.
Pheus had moved to the other side of the room by the door. His face was unreadable in the shadows. “Put it back.”
I removed my hand from the rug and then plunged it back down again. The gold jumped back into my body.
I returned the candelabra to its golden state and was left shivering.
Pheus frowned and pursed his lips, as if he already understood the weight of my curse. “Now, I can make a full report to your father,” he said. He moved toward the candelabra, but stopped before picking it up. He withdrew his hands and clasped them behind his back instead. “You must be very careful, Kora. For now, it would be best if you went back to your room.”
Then he’d left to go tell my father about what my curse could do. I’d stayed in the library for hours trying to find a legend, a mixture of herbs, anything my young mind could think of that would fix it. I found nothing and had collapsed, crying and begging to the library rafters for Dionysus to return.
Later that night, I snuck toward my father’s room. Maybe he and Pheus had found a way to cure us. Or maybe my father would just hold me and tell me it was going to be all right. I crept into his outer rooms. The fireplace was cold and unlit, but light spilled out of his bedroom chamber. I stood outside the cracked door and took a breath, praying that when I walked in and he saw me, he wouldn’t make the same disgusted face I’d seen when he turned me to gold.
Whispered voices leaked out of the room.
“She can’t control what she can do any more than you could,” Uncle Pheus said. “Our only stroke of luck is that the guard she turned to gold ran down to the ocean and drowned himself. No one else can know. The people are superstitious. They’d revolt if they thought the curse was still alive, still active.”
My heart clenched in my chest. I instinctively reached forward to steady myself and collided with the door, pushing it inward.
Uncle Pheus’s eyes went wide at the intrusion. He stood next to my father’s ornately carved wooden bed. My father lay among the silken blankets, looking drained and weak. He didn’t smile. He didn’t react. He only stared somewhere past me.
“Please.” I staggered toward Pheus. He could fix anything. All the people in Lagonia went to him for advice. “Please,” I said. “What can we do?”
He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, Kora. We’re trying to find a cure, but I don’t know if there’s anything that can fix this.”
My lower lip trembled. I stared at the ceiling as though I expected to find an answer hiding up there. “What about Dionysus?” I said. I’d found nothing about him in the library, and my earlier begging had failed. But someone had to know his whereabouts and how to bring him to the palace.
Pheus lowered his gaze. “Even if we could find him, I doubt he’d help us again. He deals in tricks and wordplay, always leaving chaos in his wake.”
Guilt coursed through me faster than the gold had earlier. “I didn’t know this was going to happen,” I said. It was the only explanation I could offer.
Pheus nodded solemnly. “All we can do now is prevent it from ever happening again.”
I swallowed. “I promise. I promise I’ll never touch gold again.” Even as I said the words, it didn’t fill the emptiness I felt. I doubted anything ever would.
Pheus made it an easy promise to keep. All the gold objects disappeared from the palace. The candelabras were stripped bare. The gold plates were replaced with silver. The golden mirrors were taken away and sold. Even my father’s crown was replaced with a silver replica. Only a few ornate carriages were left in case visiting dignitaries arrived and needed to be carted around. Pheus outlawed the wearing of gold in the palace. Silver became the highest currency in Lagonia. He passed it all off as my father not wanting gold around, but I knew it was all because of me. He was right to be scared of what I could do, of who I could hurt.
My father lost all the strength he’d gained over the previous days, and a man had died because of what I’d done.
I was a monster.