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The mermaid scoffed. “Well, none of you silly ground-walkers will ever truly be safe, not with that family curse of hers still as active as it is. You should just break it, you know.”
I blinked at her. “Yeah, great advice,” I finally murmured. “Do you have any idea how to do that, though?”
She shrugged. “Why don’t you just ask its creator? The curse maker would know. For, you realize, a curse cannot be created without a way to break it.”
No, I’d never known that. But…
“That woman’s long dead,” I explained.
Jemma furrowed her brow as if confused. “Why does that matter?”
Quilla snorted out a laugh, wondering, “When was the last time you spoke to the dead?”
“I speak with my father daily,” Jemma answered logically, gazing at Quilla with an odd, confused expression, as if she thought everyone did such things. “For I still have many questions about ruling my people.”
“So you’re suggesting necromancy?” Quilla countered on an incredulous tone. “Well, sorry, Your Majesty. But that doesn’t work up here on the surface. Not in this world.”
“What’s necromancy?” I asked, lowering my voice to keep the question confidential, even though Jemma could hear me clearly.
Quilla rolled her eyes. “It’s a mythical earthly practice that involves speaking to the dead to predict the future.”
“Ah, well, there is your problem,” Jemma interrupted, smiling broadly. “Seeking the future from the dead would be worthless. How are they to know what is to come? Their thoughts stop at the moment of death. They’re unable to say anything new and present, much less futur
istic.” She threw back her head and laughed over the mere idea, only to lift her finger and continue. “But you don’t wish to know the future, do you? You’re seeking answers from the past. You’re just trying to hear an echo of something they already said. And echoes are always bouncing around out there somewhere. You just need to know how to capture the one you’re seeking.”
“And how do we do that?” I asked.
“Why, it’s as simple as pressing a seashell to your ear and listening, sweet Indy. You find something the curse maker once owned and figure out how to listen to it. I recommend finding a magical interpreter to help you, though. Otherwise, it’d probably be impossible to decipher and understand what she’s saying.”
“Right…” I said slowly, kind of hoping for a little more detail than that. But when I opened my mouth to ask questions—a lot of them—Jemma lifted her face as if hearing something in the wind.
“Excuse me. I’m being summoned below and must go.” With a rueful shrug, she added, “A queen’s work is never done, I’m afraid.”
To Quilla, she nodded her head respectfully. “It was nice to meet you, mate of Indigo. If you stay anywhere near a water source, we’ll return your aunt to you when she’s finished with Torrent.”
And with that, she was gone, down into the water and out of sight.
Chapter 30
Indigo
Quilla and I rode quietly for nearly half an hour, following the stream that fed into the other end of the loch before we spoke. From atop my horse that Melaina had taken over, I glanced over, sensing a swirl of worry, contemplation, and sadness wafting off my true love.
“I’m sure Melaina will be fine. Jemma’s never given me a reason not to trust her.”
But Quilla shook her head. “I’m not worried about her,” she murmured, except I thought that was partly a lie. She couldn’t help but worry about her aunt when they were separated.
I sighed, trying to figure out what her main concern was. “So what do you think our next course of action should be? Melaina will still probably want to question the Tyler jeweler regardless, but after that? Should we look for something that belonged to Locasta Blayton instead of seeking more amulets?”
Quilla closed her eyes and rubbed the center of her forehead, shaking her head. “Even if we found something of hers, then we’d have to find someone to help us decipher what she was saying. And if we did figure that out and get an answer of how to break the curse, then we’d have to go about actually trying to break it. And if we broke it, would King Ignatius even drop his decree to hunt down all Graykeys then?”
Exhaustion blanketed my mark.
“So you’re saying it’d be easier to just find another amulet?” I concluded.
She sent me a cross look but didn’t answer. And I noticed she didn’t correct me, saying we needed two more amulets, either.
“Hey,” I murmured, slowing my horse in order to stop and dismount. Going to her, I held up my arms.
