Even if this girl wasn’t some kind of demon, even if Safire could overpower her and flee, they were out at sea. There was no way Safire could escape in broad daylight.
More important: she needed to find out why they were hunting Asha.
“Where are you taking me?” asked Safire.
“You would find out sooner if you walked more and talked less,” said Eris, nudging her on and nodding toward a door straight ahead. Just before they reached it, Eris reached for her arm, stopping her. Safire flinched, jerking away. That same prickle of memory bubbled up in her: Jarek. His soldats. All of them hurting her. With the memories came the too-familiar panic.
Safire willed herself to calm. Jarek was dead. She was commandant now.
She could handle this.
“Behave yourself in there, princess.”
Safire cringed at that word, thinking of their last conversation in her bedroom three nights past and the things Eris accused her of.
Despite what this girl thought, Safire had no claim on the throne. She wasn’t a draksor—not wholly, anyway. Her mother had been a skral. Aslave.And even though the skral had been freed from their bonds in Firgaard, most draksors still didn’t see them as equals. Didn’t seeheras equal.
In no world would Safire ever sit on that throne. Nor did she want to. It was Dax’s throne, and she intended to keep him on it.
“It must have been nice, growing up in a palace. Having servants to dress and feed and bathe you. Having guards to protect you.” Eris said this with bitterness. Like the thought of it—of Safire—sickened her.
Safire thought of her childhood. Of how she was never allowed near her family at formal events, how she was forbidden to touch her cousins, how she lived every day in constant fear of Jarek and his cruelty.
“Actually,” she said softly, “it was a nightmare.”
Eris paused, studying her.
Safire stared straight ahead.
Finally, Eris opened the door and pushed her inside.
The room she stumbled into lay at the stern of theHyacinth, full of light that flooded in through the portholes. An ornate desk loomed before her, its sides carved with images of ships and waves and sea monsters. On its surface were a familiar pair of black boots, crossed at the ankles. Just beyond the desk, that same black raven perched in a gold filigree cage, staring at Safire with its eerie eyes.
“Eris.” The captain uncrossed his legs and lowered his feetto the floor, looking from his Death Dancer to Safire and back. “What are you doing?”
“Saving you from a grave error.”
Jemsin frowned, leaning over the desk and setting aside the stack of papers he’d been reading. “And what error is that?”
Eris shoved Safire closer. Safire had to plant both palms on the surface of the desk to stop herself from tumbling over it. She scowled over her shoulder.
Eris ignored it. “Your men are brutes. They’ll accidently kill her before they get anything useful out of her. I want you to putmein charge of her.”
Safire shot Eris a look.Huh?Hadn’t she just told Remy she was taking Safire on the captain’s orders?
Jemsin’s weathered face showed no hint of emotion or decision as he looked Safire up and down.
“If you give her to me,” Eris continued, “I’ll find out the Namsara’s location before tomorrow morning.”
The captain’s brows lifted. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “And if you don’t?”
“I will,” insisted Eris. But then she shrugged. “If I don’t, I’ll give her back to the boys.”
The captain steepled his fingers, thinking.
“We don’t have time for that.” He shook his head. “If she doesn’t cooperate—if she doesn’t give you the Namsara’s location beforemidnight—you’ll give her to me. And I’ll send a very clear message to every corner of the Silver Sea.” He fixed his eyes on Safire, speaking directly to her now. “As of midnight, for every hour the Namsara doesn’t come for you, I’ll takesomething. Starting with those pretty blue eyes of yours.”
Safire held his gaze even as a cold fear spread through her. In that moment, she hated this man even more than Jarek. At least Jarek was loyal to something. Jemsin was less than that. He would use someone’s loyalty against them.
