“Can’t wait,” said Safire.
After the ship dropped anchor, Safire and a handful of others went to find the king and queen’s escort, leaving Eris in the charge of two soldats. The dragons were taken away for a brief quarantine. Apparently, they made the empress uneasy.
Eris’s guards forced her to sit at the edge of the dock, where her only mode of escape was the sea. With her hands bound, if she tried to jump in and swim, she would drown.
Eris was contemplating such a fate as she stared down at her wrists. Her skin was caked in dry, cracked blood now; and the wounds were getting deeper. By tomorrow she’d be able to see the bones. If she lived that long.
What would the empress do once she finally had her precious fugitive?
A sudden splash interrupted her thoughts. The smell of rotten fish wafted over her.
Eris’s skin prickled. She knew that smell.
Turning toward it, she found two eyes greeting her. Bulging and fish-like. The thing had pulled itself up out of the water and now sat on the dock, perching there and staring at Eris. Its lithe body sometimes made of scales, sometimes made of starlight.
A sea spirit.
Eris’s heart thumped wildly as the rest of her went stone-still. She remembered the sound of teeth tearing the flesh of Kor’s crew as they rowed for shore.
“I know you,” said the spirit, its voice liquid and lilting.
“I doubt that,” said Eris, her lungs freezing in her chest. She didn’t dare look back over her shoulder to where her guards stood. Eris didn’t want to make any sudden movements. Right now it was being friendly. But that could change in an instant.
She looked past it instead, around the wharf, where the crews of other ships were milling about. Did no one else see it?
“The Shadow God grows stronger.” The creature kicked its scaly legs, letting them dangle off the dock. “We thought you’d want to know.”
“Why would I want to know?” asked Eris, keeping her eyes on the wharf.
“Because you feel it, too.” The sea spirit smiled a sharp-toothed smile. “Once he’s free, he’ll come for her.”
Eris frowned. This thing was talking nonsense. She felt no such thing. “Come for who?”
“You know.”
“I really don’t,” she said.
Suddenly, it leaned closer, reaching scaly fingers toward Eris’s wrists. “Who did this to you?”
Eris pulled her bound hands back. “Please. Just go away.”
“I could help. I could soothe.”
Eris paused, studying it. The thing had no eyelids, only liquid black eyes. Its feet were slightly webbed, and its teeth were needle sharp. But there was something ethereal—something almost serene—as it pursed its thin lips at the sight of her bound wrists.
“I could . . . remove.”
“Yeah?” Eris hissed under her breath. “I know your kind like the taste of flesh. Is that what it would cost me?”
It wrinkled its nose. “Silly thing. Not you. It would be a gift . . . from those who want him free.”
A sudden chill swept over Eris. She glanced up into gleaming, razor-sharp teeth.
“Want who free?”
It sighed a long sigh. “I just told you. The Shadow God.”
A noise interrupted. Footsteps on the dock.
Behind them, a familiar voice said, “Eris, we’re—”
The sea spirit’s eyes snapped toward the sound. Eris turned to find Safire, frozen at the sight of the monster. When Eris looked back, she realized why. The sea spirit’s eyes were now blood red, its face changed from serene to . . .
Hungry.
It lunged for Safire, its white teeth flashing as its jaw yawned open.
Eris grabbed its scaly leg. The creature hit the dock. It kicked, hands scrabbling for a hold on the wood, trying to drag itself toward Safire. Desperate. Crazed.
Safire drew her knife, trembling as she did.
Eris’s grip was slipping. Knowing exactly what would happen if it slipped entirely, she dug her fingers in hard.
The spirit screamed, then swung back to face Eris. It hissed in her face, angry and wild.
But it didn’t bite. It didn’t want Eris.
When it hissed again, Eris hissed back.
The spirit blinked, as if startled. “Fool,” it spat, then it glanced back once at Safire, eyes ravenous, before turning sharply toward the dark sea. Eris let go as it dived into the water and disappeared with a plop.
Safire’s chest heaved. She lowered the knife.
Eris held up her bound hands, signaling for her not to step any closer to the water. But the sea was calm, and all sign of the sea spirit was gone. The only sound remaining was the rubbing of hulls against the wood of the wharf.
Beyond Safire, the soldats had all drawn their blades, their eyes on Eris.
She ignored them, looking Safire over. “Are you all right?”
Safire tore her gaze from the water to stare at Eris. After a long moment, she whispered, “Why did you do that?”
Eris’s mouth parted, but she didn’t have an answer.
The sea spirit had been offering her freedom. It would have killed Safire—the very person determined to bring Eris to her enemies. It would have even taken the manacles off Eris’s wrists.
If Eris hadn’t stopped it, she’d be free right now.
She clenched her teeth. Why are you so stupid today?
And then the sound of heavy footsteps thudded down the dock. Eris looked to find several men dressed in black. The lamplight pooled around their polished black boots, reflecting off the silver buckles. Blades crisscrossed against their backs.
Lumina soldiers.
The sight of them brought a rush of panic.
She saw Day, suddenly, kneeling before one of those blades. Smelled the scrin burning behind him. Heard the weavers screaming, trapped beyond the doors.
She stumbled backward.
Safire grabbed her, stopping her from falling into the sea.
As the Lumina shoved her up the dock and through the city gate, she said to Safire, “I wish you had let me drown.”
Better to drown than be given over to them. The ones who took everything from her.
This was Eris’s worst nightmare come true.
Twenty
Eris saved my life.
Safire’s mind hummed with the realization as she fiddled with the ends of the blue ribbon tied around her wrist.
Why would she do that?
Eris could have easily let that monster kill her. Kill all of them. She’d be free right now if she had.
As they walked the streets of Axis, Dax and Roa rode on horseback up ahead, flanked by their guards. But Safire kept back, watching over Eris. Several Lumina soldiers walked with them, each one bearing a circle of seven stars across their chest.
All around them, the sounds of drunken voices clashed with music and clapping. Everywhere Safire looked, ribbons streamed from ankles and wrists, faces were smeared with silvery paint, and blue forget-me-nots were plaited in the hair of men and women alike—as well as strewn all over the cobblestones.
Safire, who would normally be memorizing every street corner and storefront and face right now, kept her attention on Eris—whose hands were now free of their bonds.
Safire had made the girl a promise. So, as soon as they entered the city, she demanded they find a blacksmith to remove Eris’s manacles. The Lumina soldiers refused, saying the empress was impatient to meet her guests. Safire insisted, saying she hadn’t brought the empress’s fugitive all this way for the girl to lose her hands to such a barbaric practice.