We’d spent a fortnight discussing everything we knew about Thaan with Aegir and Vouri. When Thaan woke. When he slept. His daily schedule.Monthly. Yearly. Who he kept close. Who he kept distant. His methods of recruitment. His role in the Calderian court. The layout of the palace. Selena and I supplied most of the information.
Pheolix’s lips had pulled flat with dislike when Deimos’s name surfaced. He’d sat beside us, ankle crossed over his knee, only offering pieces of information that aided our knowledge of Thaan’s drones or the Sylus Mountains, of which Aegir needed little. By then, Selena had explained to me how she’d met him. I vaguely remembered the young Naiad whom Deimos attacked the night of our first transition, but she recalled it clearly.
Our time and my stash of blood drops spent, Aegir decided to send Vouri to Calder City with her own pouch of wax-sealed blood to be hired in the administrative offices as a rogue Naiad, feeding information through Aegir’s own channels at port, a decision he’d been determined to avoid until the last minute.
“Are you still thinking about Leihani?” Selena asked, cutting into my thoughts.
“No,” I lied.
In the corner of my eye, she sat up straight, the focus of her gaze demanding I look at her. But I continued to watch the ceiling.
“Good,” she finally said. “Because I’ll help you do this. I’ll help you spy on Thaan, and I’ll help you give him to his enemies. But I won’t help you abandon me. I won’t help you escape to an island to find a husband, have a daughter, and then abandon them.”
“All right, then,” I said.
“I mean it. I won’t protect her. I won’t train her. I won’t help her find her mate just to lead them to their own deaths. I won’t, Ceba, and you can just tread water with that knowledge whenever you think of seeking some relief fromdrowning.”
I blew a slow breath from my nose. We’d asked if there was a way to kill Thaan. And Theia, Goddess of the Moon, Keeper of the Future, hadanswered. My death started the prophecy.The Blood. Then my daughter’scordae.The Lover.Then, finally, my daughter herself.The Warrior.
Theia had explained where to find the stones. The Breath of Safiro, in a volcano. The Scale of Safiro, in an underwater cavern. That we’d need both, but we wouldn’t be the ones to reach them. The warrior would.
Theia had explained that a human boy would find her. Selena would mentor her. Aid her. Deliver the final message for her.
At no point in her prophecy had Theia said,Aegir will help you kill Thaan.
Faced with Aegir’s Naiads, I’d broken from our plan to ask for his help out of desperation. Not for myself.
For Selena.
Thaan glanced up from a scrawled parchment over his desk as Deimos closed the door of his private office behind us. He was in his smaller form, Cain, but he pulled his spectacles off by the frame, depositing them carelessly on the table, then pressed his fingertips together as he looked over the three of us. His limbs lengthened, chest broadening as he shifted to his true self, though the cut of his eyes remained cold. TheVidereof a colony of land-Naiads.
Pheolix leaned against the back wall, only his mouth and sharp jaw visible under the drape of his wide hood. Selena stood at my side before the desk.
“You didn’tcorda-cruor,” Thaan finally said, though he didn’t sound surprised.
“No,” I replied. “Not yet.”
“You entered his colony?”
“Yes.”
Thaan indicated a finger at Deimos, who leaned over Thaan’s desk to clear it of paperwork, his silver chain glinting as he did. TheOculosunrolled a map of the Venusian Sea onto the bare wood. Thaan lifted a brow at me.
“Here,” I said, pointing to the home of the Venusia. “In an old conch shell. A giant one.” We’d agreed against supplying false information on hard facts. Things that could be verified. Thaan was a thousand years old. I don’t know how deep the well of his knowledge ran, but I was confident he’d test mine.
“A prehistoric ammonite,” Selena corrected under her breath.
I shrugged.
“Did he question whether you truly came fromGarieh Kon?”
“Not quite.” Standing, I crossed my legs, then forced myself to still over my feet. “He questioned whether you turned me down as acordae. He thought we were sniffing for the chance at a better offer by passing through their water.” I wasn’t an adept liar. I’d never cared to craft the skill of keeping other people happy, whether through deception or otherwise.
Thaan leaned backward in his seat. He tossed his fountain pen aside. “What did you think of him?”
I paused. Thaan had never asked me such a question before. I wasn’t even certain I’d heard him correctly. What did I think of Aegir? What was there to even think of?
“He’s very serious,” Selena answered for me. “He loves his colony.”
