Page 34 of The Stolen Crown

I did not move to greet her like some of the other men did.

My duty was not to be accommodating or cordial. I was to see to it she arrived to my queen in one piece, healthy, and comfortable enough.

A few crewmen hurried down the gangplank to gather the trunks and packs Mira seemed to always bring to the Ever when she visited. Hells, the woman had more alternative gowns than the Ever Queen.

I feigned indifference, adjusting a crate near the quarterdeck steps, moving the helm this way and that, testing its motion. From the corner of my gaze, I could make out her vibrant sapphire gown spinning between the king and queen as they bid farewell.

Glamour folk were always rather theatrical with their goodbyes. There was laughter, more embraces, a few murmured words, laughter again, then shouted demands to write as the princess backstepped her way toward the dock, waving as though they might never meet again.

By the hells. Did every farewell need to be so drawn, so overflowing with affection?

I’d never needed such things.

“Ready the mainsail!” I barked over the deck. “Hoist the banner.”

Swordeater and Seableeder stood on either side of Mira and helped her on deck. She laughed, head tossed back, the sunlight cascading over the dainty chain around her neck. I could not make out the charm, only that it settled neatly at the top cleft of her—

I peeled my gaze away only to glance ashore and find the king handing his wife back into the coach, but his attention was locked on me.

I swallowed.

There was a threat in those eyes, one he did not need to speak. Keep his daughter safe, or I doubt anyone but the creatures of the bottommost abyss would find the pieces of my bones.

I gave a curt dip of my chin, then faced away and gripped the helm. “Windswayer!”

A spindly man with an overbearing chin and severed tips to his ears he’d lost in a battle with a jealous mate in the House of Blades snapped his head up from where he rolled rope. “Aye, Heartwalker.”

“Get us on our way.”

Slender as he was, he had a knack for raveling gusts of the breeze into gentle nudges to fill the sails and set us out to the tides. A bit like Stormbringer, though not as violent.

The Sea Void shuddered, and I moved with the dip in the hull as it embarked into the currents. I kept my regard pointed on the shimmer of dark water over the Chasm flow, never once looking down at the mossy gold eyes I felt burning into my skull.

Why I thought there wouldn’t be a damn revel on deck with that woman aboard, I didn’t know. A mere pointless hope.

We drove the bow of the ship beneath the waves, sailed underwater through the Chasm, and surfaced into the humid edges of the Ever Seas, was when that the mutiny began.

There was a frightful power in that dainty royal mouth. Pretty and full as those lips might be, it was Mira’s tongue that carried a siren’s call. For a time, she’d chattered with merfolk over the rail, bidding them to come visit with her in the Royal City in the coming days.

I rolled my eyes and shouted more commands to meet posts.

Next, the princess began her prowl to coerce my crew into turning against me. Against their duties. Might as well rally a coup against their bleeding king.

Simple and cunning, but Mira knew how to puff up the pride of every man aboard. She knew how to play her innocence to the roughened men of the Ever.

“Steelcarver, how you manage to tie those knots so tightly is a marvel.” A snicker behind her slender hand. “I fear should I try, I’d destroy the sails and sink us to the trenches below. Will you show me?”

I took out another paper smoke and pinched it, unlit, between my teeth, glaring at distant ashen clouds on the horizon.

Then, “Oh, Legbinder, I can practically see my face in the deck!” A gasp of astonishment. “I hear you make your own concoction for the wood polish. I’d love to know the secret. We’ve so much wood flooring back home.”

I cracked every finger at the middle knuckle.

And more. “Don’t tease me, Windswayer.” A playful swat to the man’s bony arm. “Now, teach me how to handle these cutlass blades. They’re much trickier than our axes. I imagine you could make me proficient before I return to the isles.”

I finally lit the paper smoke. Three more bleeding nights of this. We had duties at a few ports along the way to the Royal City, and since earth fae could not tolerate the swifter undersurface sailing, we were forced to stay above the currents for Mira’s sake.

It would take three damn nights.