Page 160 of The Stolen Throne
“Two amulets are together—”
“Together is good.” Vos takes a long swig of his drink.
“—at the bottom of the Whirlpool.”
He sets the glass down hard enough that it sloshes over the rim. “Well, isn’t that a river of fool’s gold.”
My friends all pucker like a bitter-tasting brew was slipped into their drinks. Pella’s string of swear words is a little more explicit. Beside me, Cain sighs. “Figures.”
Pretty much my reaction when I was told. The Whirlpool sits at the mouth to Mariana’s inner bay, protecting it from the Devourers. Mariana is the only dominion that’s been able to remain seafaring because at its center is a massive bay with the dominion made up of a relatively narrow stretch of land circling it. The problem with the Whirlpool isn’t only the violence of the waters—it’s the Devourer who incessantly lurks at the edges of the swirling death trap.
The Reverie.
Thanks to Bene, I now know she’s the Goddess Mariana’s consort. The Reverie—once called Andromeda—is said to take different shapes to lure fools who come too close into the Whirlpool.
“It’s obvious who goes this time.” Cain leans in. “Vos and Tabra need to stay here for the Rites. Tziah and Omma can stay with them. We shouldn’t risk Meren, as she’s the only acting sovereign of Aryd. Reven’s too unstable. That leaves me, Horus, and Pella. Bene, too, if he’ll leave Meren.”
Pella snorts. “I just knew you were going to say me.”
“I’m not leaving Meren,” Horus butts in.
“Why you?” Vos is the one to ask.
Cain offers a cocky smile, but I’m close enough to see the harder look in his eyes. Determination. “Think about it,” he says. “If anyone could survive that particular Devourer, it’s a water Hylorae.”
“The Reverie has lured other water Hylorae into the Whirlpool, and they’ve never come out,” Omma points out. She and I went over this already, and we still don’t agree.
Frustration ripples over Cain’s features as fast as relief ripples over Pella’s. But it’s not going to matter. “Um…the thing is… The spirit told me what to do. I was allowed only one question, so I asked how to get the amulets, not where they were.”
It was the only question I could come up with in the moment that got me more than one answer in a roundabout way.
“And?” Tziah prompts with a sharp wave of her hand.
Reven is going to hate this. “Cain and I have to go together.”
“What?” Pella shakes her head hard enough for strands of hair to come loose from the plait she has it braided into. “No.”
“We don’t go into the Whirlpool,” I assure her. “We use sand and water together. Push the walls of water at the center of the whirlpool wider straight down to the bottom of the ocean to expose the floor, and then lift the sand, and everything in it, up to the top.”
“Assuming you don’t fall victim to the Reverie,” Horus points out.
Omma waves at him like, “I told you so.”
The feel of Reven’s shadows inside me takes on an edge. “What spirit did you speak with?” he asks.
I don’t look at him. I can’t. “I was told that we needed me and Cain together,” I say to the group. He’s really going to hate this next part. “…and that Reven can’t be there.”
This time, the whole room dims, and everyone else in the pub looks around as if trying to figure out why, since all the fires and lamps are still lit.
“Watch it,” someone—Horus, maybe—mutters.
I reach under the table and nudge Reven with my foot, all I can reach him with. Immediately, the room brightens again. I only relax, though, when I sense him relax.
“Why not me?” Reven’s voice is low.
“It didn’t say why not, but given what just happened…”
I’m pretty sure we’d all agree Reven doesn’t exactly react well when I’m in danger, and I’ll be too busy to try to practice this curse thing on him. That’s assuming I can do anything to help him keep control. With my luck, we’d get to the Whirlpool and find out that’s not what’s happening at all. And who knows what he’d do there?
