The wooden chair my father uses to sit near the gold lays in pieces on the floor. I pick up what used to be the seat of the chair and hold it like a shield across my chest.
Footsteps pound up the staircase toward the tower room.
Maybe it’s the ghost of the man I killed. Still lurking here, waiting for me to come back after all this time. Or maybe whoever decapitated that guard is still nearby. I shouldn’t have run off on my own. I shouldn’t have come here at all.
My eyes widen when a figure does appear. I stumble backward until I collide with the wall. I clutch the broken chair fragment closer to my chest.
It’s not a thief or the man I killed come back to haunt me. It’s Aris.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I say. “It’s not safe.” I’m not safe is what I meant, but I can’t tell him that. I tighten my hold on the chair fragment, willing myself to look at him and not at the table. Oddly, that seems to help. My rising panic subsides the longer I look in his eyes.
Still, the ever-pulsing glow doesn’t let me forget that it’s there. Just one touch away.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” he asks breathlessly. His eyes are wide as he takes in the room.
“It’s gone,” I say, my voice strangely hoarse, as though being this close to the gold has strained that too.
“What’s gone?” The words echo hollowly around the room. He takes a hesitant step forward. He must’ve taken the same staircase I did. Bloody footprints trail behind him.
“My father’s gold.”
“We’ll alert the palace guard. The thieves can’t have gotten far. Come on.” He reaches out to me.
“No.” I answer as much to his statement as to his waiting hand. I’m afraid to step closer to him. Not with the table so close.
“Why not?”
I take a steadying breath. We’d never told anyone outside the family about my . . . ability. My curse. Most people have realized something was off about me, something more than just my gold skin. But we never confirmed it. Uncle Pheus always said it was better to let them wonder, to dream up their own ideas, than for us to confirm any weakness.
And yet, I feel that if anyone is going to understand my family’s curse, it will be Aris. There is nothing else to lose anyway.
“The gold my father . . . created was stored in this room.” The dingy space looks even dimmer with just one large gold table in the middle. Spider webs cling to the corners of the rafters. Oddly, none lace their way around the table legs, as if even the spiders are afraid to touch the gold.
“All of it?”
I nod. The whole reason my father had wanted The Touch in the first place was because the treasury was nearly empty, and he knew war was on the horizon. But he hadn’t turned many things to gold before turning me to gold, after which he’d refused to touch anything.
“Surely your father can survive without a few gold pieces.” Aris runs his fingers across the top of the table, leaving trails in the dust.
I shiver.
“That’s just it,” I force out, dragging my gaze away from the gold. “He can’t. Dionysus was very specific after my father begged to be released from the curse. The god told him to take everything that had been touched down to the spot where the river met the ocean to be washed before the sun set on that very day.”
I’d so often heard my father and uncle repeating the words Dionysus had said to them: “Make sure everything gets washed as I instructed, or there could be unhappy consequences. For my gifts take on a will of their own sometimes, and if it’s not fully cleansed, especially from humans, well, sometimes they find their own ways of surviving.”
“My father bathed in the water,” I recount to Aris, “and had me carted down as well. My skin turned back to normal, and after that, he forgot about the other objects.” I ignore the memory trying to surface of suddenly finding myself underwater and a halo of white light shining through the deep blue water as I sputtered back to life.
“My skin was gold again at sunset.” I shudder, remembering how I thought I was turning back into a statue. My skin never hardened—it just took on its awful hue. “And the next day, my father started showing his first signs of weakness,” I continue. “He’d lost the ability to turn things to gold, but everything he’d already turned was still enchanted, still contained a piece of him.”
At first, I didn’t understand the turmoil the gold was causing in my father’s life. I didn’t understand magic has a way of seeping into the soul like a poison bent only on making its victim do as it says. And the longer my father left the objects in their golden state, the more the magic pulled at him, convincing him that he needed the gold.
I toss the chair fragment back into the pile at my feet.
“Then we have to get it back,” Aris says. “For your father.”
Pheus appears in the doorway. “You shouldn’t be up here.” He’s talking to me, but his gaze switches to Aris. He starts to gesture for the duke to leave, but he must’ve overheard part of our discussion and decided it was too late for that.
“I’m all right,” I say, pulling Pheus’s gaze back to me. It’s not exactly the truth. I’d rather be anywhere else in the palace right now. Even the swan fountain.
He displays no emotion. “So, it’s gone. I expected as much.”
“Who could have taken it?” I ask. “No one else knew it was here.” Pheus had carried the table up with the help of several servants who’d been paid off. But the servants had never known about the other objects.
“I don’t know,” Pheus replies. “I’ve alerted a few of my most trusted guards to discreetly search the city and check what ships were in port this morning.”
“Why can’t we just tell the people it was stolen?” Aris asks. “It would make it almost impossible for the thieves to sell it that way.”
“If we did that, we’d have to tell them why the gold is so important in the first place,” I say. Everyone knows all the palace gold was exchanged for silver ten years ago, when my father and Uncle Pheus learned that keeping gold around me was dangerous. We’d dealt in silver ever since. Announcing the gold had been stolen would eventually lead someone to question why that particular gold had been kept, why we needed it back now.
“Whoever has that gold,” Pheus adds, “holds the fate of the kingdom in their hands. We don’t want to start an uprising, and we can’t have the monarchy appearing weak.” He clasps his hands. “I doubt they’d ransom it, and even if they did . . .” He trails off before admitting we couldn’t afford it.
The kingdom has barely survived on the meager tithes people can manage after the Orfland Wars ravaged so much.
“What else can we do?” I say. Now that I know the gold is gone, I want to leave the room and its memories behind. But if I don’t get answers now, I’m afraid my uncle will shut me out of the discussion about what should be done for my father.
“I fear there’s not much else we can do,” Pheus says. “Your father is being moved to his bedchamber as we speak. I imagine he’ll continue to weaken as the gold moves farther away. Unless my guards find the gold before the thieves smuggle it away, I’m afraid the healer might be our only hope.”
My uncle sighs. “I’m sorry, Kora.” He turns to leave, no doubt to take up vigil next to my father’s bed as he’s been doing for years.
The glow coming from the table seems to increase along with my heart rate. I try to catch Aris’s eye, but he seems fixated on the table.
His tale about his own father echoes through my mind, how he’d tried to dig his father out but had been too late. I can’t let that happen to my father.
“Wait,” I call, stalling Pheus, and praying I don’t regret my words. “I might be able to find it.”
“What?” Pheus’s eyebrows shoot up. “How?”
Aris’s eyes jump to mine.
“I can . . . I can sense the gold,” I say quickly. I wring my hands. If nothing else, it prevents me from reaching out to the table.
This isn’t exactly how I hoped Aris would find out about one of my side effects. Actually, I had hoped he’d never find out. Especially when it came to the other one.
I’d never told Pheus about my ability to sense the gold for the same reason I never told anyone else. I didn’t need everyone watching my eyes, seeing if I was looking toward the tower, waiting for the day the gold would take over my thoughts. Things were bad enough after I killed that man, and though I was young, I’d learned to keep my mouth shut, even around my family.
“What do you mean?” Pheus asks cautiously.
“Ever since . . . it happened, I’ve been able to sense the other objects my father turned to gold. That’s how I knew to come here . . .” I trail off, staring at the floor.
“Why have you never mentioned this before?” Pheus looks around the room to make sure it is secure for such a conversation.
I’m afraid to look at either of them. “I . . . I don’t know.” I can’t admit I don’t want them to think I’ll lose my mind to the gold like my father has.
“How could you keep this from me, Kora?” Pheus demands.
“I’m sorry.”
Uncle Pheus looks like he’s about to snap at me, but instead he takes a deep breath. “No, this is good news. I just wish you’d told me sooner. By now, the thieves may have already departed on an outgoing ship or have a lead on us over land. Can you sense the gold now?”
“I can’t pinpoint its exact location,” I say. “It’s more like I know when I’m getting closer.” I close my eyes and try to steady my breathing. I’ve never looked outside the palace. But I can do this. I have to.
I reach out with my mind. I don’t know how long it takes—it feels like I stand there forever, eyes closed and fists clenched. But eventually, I sense a familiar aura, and I follow the light. After the table, the tapestry is easiest to find because of its size. I locate it with the other objects. They keep sliding up and down. I’ve never concentrated on the objects for so long. I wonder if they’re bouncing up and down because I can’t control my connection with them.
I shake my head to break the connection. I then stretch out my hand in the direction they’re traveling and open my eyes. “There.” I point to the far wall. Toward the ocean. “Somehow, they’re moving. They must be on a ship.”
“This certainly changes things,” Pheus says, rubbing his chin.
“I could take one of my father’s ships and go after it,” I say. My heart, already beating quickly from having to track the gold, skips several beats at the thought of sailing out of Lagonia’s harbor and straight for the gold.
“You’re much too valuable here,” Pheus replies. “If something were to happen to your father—”
“I’m the only one who can find the gold. How long do you think my father will survive without it?”
Pheus frowns, troubled by my question. “You haven’t been out of the palace since you were a child. You’re not ready to face the world outside. It wouldn’t be safe.”
“If you’d allow me, I could go with her,” Aris says.
I shoot him a look of surprise. I can’t believe everything he’s learned about me, about what’s going on, hasn’t scared him away. His generosity, his loyalty to the crown, makes my chest swell. I haven’t encountered kindness like this in years.
“Thank you, Duke Wystlinos,” Pheus says. “But I’m not sure I’m comfortable sending my niece away with a man I don’t know.”
His words threaten to send a blush creeping across my cheeks. Despite his gruff demeanor, Pheus has always looked out for me, more than my father has in the past ten years. And despite his desire to keep me safe, I know Pheus can’t come. Someone has to look after my father and the kingdom, to make sure Archduke Ralton doesn’t try anything. Pheus is the only person I trust.
“I have to be the one to go,” I add, pleading. “No one else can track it.”
“It could take two weeks or more to outfit the Royal Armada for such a journey.” Pheus’s eyes jump around as he makes calculations. He lowers his gaze, his shoulders deflating like my father’s always do. “Even if I let you go, you might not make it in time.”
My eyes land on Aris. Maybe we don’t need an entire armada.
“What about Ar . . . Duke Wystlinos’s ship?” I blurt out.
Aris’s face brightens as he steps forward. “My ship is much faster than anything in the Royal Armada, and I could have it ready to sail with tomorrow morning’s tide.”
“Yes,” I practically shout. “And his crew has experience dealing with thieves and pirates.”
“Indeed,” Aris replies. I can already see the adventurer in him rising to the surface. It’s like seeing one of the heroes from my books come to life. “With your ability to locate the gold and my crew, we’ll have no trouble getting the cursed items back.”
Pheus paces the length of the room several times. I watch him, saying nothing. It’s always better to let him think than to force him into a quick decision, and this decision could mean my father’s life or death.
I rub my fingers together to keep them from shaking.
“We could pass it off as a suitor taking the princess out sailing for a few days,” Uncle Pheus says slowly, “since that’s something she’s always wanted to do.”
If I wasn’t so nervous about what happened the last time I touched a person in this room, I would hug him. “Thank you, Uncle Pheus. I promise, I won’t let you—or Father—down.”
“Then it’s settled,” Aris says with a nod. “We leave in the morning.” He gives me a reassuring smile, which I return, even though the reality of what I’m about to do starts to sink in.
The three of us depart from the tower, and the golden table sends its flashing shadows chasing down the winding steps after me. It’s only when we reach the hallway below that I feel I take my first real breath since stepping into the room.
The guard’s body is gone by the time we reach the stairs, but I can’t help but overhear one of the other guards say that they haven’t been able to find the head.
My stomach clenches.
Maybe the rumors about Captain Skulls are true. Or maybe it is a copycat. I pray it’s only a coincidence. But it doesn’t matter. I’m still going to have to face whatever twisted soul is capable of doing that.