“Last chance, Ekata. I have a ring for you,” he said over her head.
My insides buzzed. I didn’t answer.
Water churned in the moat. A dark blue head, covered in scales, emerged from the wavelets and blinked round eyes at Prime Minister Eirhan.
Urso came forward, rubbing a damp hankerchief under his collar. How could he be sweating? The breeze froze the tears at the corner of my eyes, and Sigis’s bold smile was starting to look forced. With a last squeeze of my hands, Aino and Inkar stepped back, leaving me alone. “Your Grace,” Urso said, sounding more nervous than ever. “Your Highness.”
Sigis and I nodded.
“The trial Below is a test to win the alliance of our dearest partners. Once Below, you will receive instructions for the competition. He—erm, the one who earns the favor of the duke Below wins the trial. Are you prepared?”
“Yes,” said Sigis, as though the question itself were ridiculous.
I tried to keep my tone even, calm, befitting a grand duke. Because that was what I was, and Sigis wouldn’t take that away from me. “Yes.”
“Then disrobe.”
Sigis made a great show of unclasping his cloak and letting it fall to the ground. He pulled his clothes off piece by piece until he stood in a pair of scarlet shorts that made me roll my eyes. It couldn’t be often that he had permission to parade his royal butt for his subjects. One of his hands made a loose fist, and I thought I knew what was held inside it. I removed my layers one by one, thankful that Aino had made me wear my crinoline and corset, if only to watch him grow more and more uncomfortable as he waited. By the time I stood in my shift, he was trying not to rub his arms.
More shapes disturbed the surface of the water. Something glittered on the moat’s surface, and ice began to spin out in petals and leaves, filling in the water until just one dark hole remained. One way in, one way out.
We moved to the edge of the hole. My toes squeezed together at the cold. “Do you really think you’ll be a better grand duke than me?” Sigis asked in a low voice.
Not alone. But I’d vowed to give up my absolute power, something I knew he’d never do.
“I was begged to come save Kylma from you. Why fight for it? Why insist on ruling a country that will never love you?”
Something snapped in me. “Maybe you’re right,” I said, filling my voice with weariness. “It’s not like anyone ever taught me how to rule.”
“It’s not your fault.” Sigis’s voice was syrupy-warm. “Your father taught you that hating your siblings was more important than nurturing your own people. You simply don’t have the necessary skills, Ekata.” He opened his fist. A little ring sat on his palm—far too small for his fingers, but not the wrong size for me. He held it up with a smirk. Behind him, identical expressions of horror crossed Aino’s and Inkar’s faces. Eirhan looked hopeful, the utter bastard. “Take it,” said Sigis gently. “Don’t be a grand fool.”
I plucked it from his fingers. I couldn’t help myself. “Sorry, but grand fools make grand gestures.”
I drew back my arm in a wide move that everyone could see. Then I hurled the ring into the moat.
It tumbled into the depths, losing sparkle as it fell. I had the satisfaction of seeing, for a bare instant, a look of utter shock on Sigis’s face. Then I dived. The cold hit me, and I couldn’t think about anything else.
I began to shake. The moat was so much colder than the water in the palace entrance to Below. I fought not to gasp. It had been too many years since I last dived in. I wasn’t used to it anymore.
The water began to feel warmer—or maybe I was losing all feeling. I tried to pump my arms and legs, but they dragged and refused to work. My heart worked slowly, painfully, and my lungs began to burn.
Above me, the roar of Sigis’s army was muted by the water as he leaped in, too. His face transformed into horror as the cold hit, and his mouth formed around a curse. Maybe the trial was about who could last the longest underwater.
A shape appeared beneath me, and I recognized Meire’s green mane. Hands glittering with magic pressed against my face, and the need for air receded. Next to me, a citizen Below I did not recognize brushed Sigis’s mouth and nose.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Meire pressed a long finger to her lips. A kick of her feet took her down, away from me, and I knew not to follow.
Light grew around us. Dozens—no, hundreds—of lamps strung beneath the ice gave it a blue-green glow. Flowers hung next to them, laced through seaweed orbs. Thirty or forty feet below, I spotted a dark net of woven seaweed, meant to keep the rest of Above from Below’s business. And as the light grew, so did the warmth. I saw Sigis’s mouth turn a slightly less violent shade of blue.
A fishman swam to meet us. He bore an electrum staff that glittered blue and green, and his dark mane was edged with gray. “This is the trial Below. You shall proceed to the Stonemount. There is a pearl, a gift from the duke Below for the crown of the duke Above. Whoever retrieves the pearl receives our blessing to wear the crown.”
He looked from Sigis to me, blinking his great eyes. “You will not harm each other. You will not touch or be touched by a citizen Below. You will not leave the light.”
Sigis moved first, shoving past him and shooting off through the lamps. I swam after him, though my brain pinged a warning. He couldn’t possibly know where the Stonemount was. Could he?
Something flashed beneath me, far enough that I nearly missed it. Meire coiled behind a burst of pink flowers, about twenty feet away. She met my eyes and beckoned. I turned from Sigis’s retreating form and set off after her, sticking close to the net.
Meire disappeared as I drew near, showing herself only in brief flashes to let me know I was on the right track. From time to time, I glanced around the hanging garden; Sigis’s body became a thin line moving between lamps, then a dot, then disappeared. The tightness in my chest began to unclench. Inkar might be right. I might win this after all. And maybe I wouldn’t win through superior intelligence, but who cared? I’d win through making allies, and perhaps that was more important for a grand duke. I set my pace.
Something gripped my ankle, and I let out a short scream. Sigis pulled me back and propelled himself forward until we were shoulder to shoulder. He hadn’t tried to get ahead of me at all. He’d let me think I was secure, and now he was going to steal my victory.
He swam with practiced ease. A hot fist squeezed around my heart. Even if I did find the pearl first, he would just take it from me.
Meire had vanished. She couldn’t let Sigis see her. As the net dropped away beneath us, I angled down, feeling the water stir as Sigis followed me. You must outthink him, Inkar’s voice whispered in the back of my mind. Sigis knew that I’d been Below and would consider that my advantage. And he expected me to lead him to the Stonemount.
I slowed my pace, as though I were tiring. Then I dived straight down.
I heard a bubbling shout of anger as Sigis followed. The water darkened instantly, reducing the ice to a creaking monster somewhere far above. A figure swam up beside me. “Go back,” said a voice I did not recognize. I shook my head and kept swimming. The guard didn’t touch me. He couldn’t touch me.
Sigis’s shoulder slammed into mine, sending me spinning through the water. He shot me a look of pure hatred. Two years ago, that look would have pinned me like an insect, made me run off to some servant’s corner and hope that someone else would make him angrier before I had to venture out again. Now I bared my teeth, kicked him in the knee, and hurtled into the dark. The guards called after us: Stop. Come back. It is dangerous. But I ignored them, and so Sigis ignored them, and we plunged toward the deep dark.