Page 40 of Salt in the Seas
“And if any sort of”—Sylmar turned a thoughtful gaze on Emeris—“connection is found between the two sisters, we’ll reevaluate our plans.”
“Witches, blood magic, a bargain made with the sprites,” Emeris mused. “Maybe it’s a combination of them all.”
“I hope the witches weren’t involved.” Iris shuddered, tightening her hold on Holm’s arm.
“Are the sprites any better?” Aeliana asked.
Emeris shrugged. “Maybe it was none of those things. It could be some sort of prophecy, foretold by the Stars.”
Orra hesitated, her eyes clouding over before she shook her head, as if she’d caught and stopped herself from sifting the future.
“The point is that nothing should be discounted, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.” Emeris’ chin rose a fraction.
Aeliana caught a glimpse of the high priestess and potential queen everyone had been bowing to, and she couldn’t help grinning while checking Sylmar’s reaction.
Except he was already studying Aeliana, his eyes troubled as he hesitated. Whatever he considered saying got tucked away as he turned back to her mother. “We’ll all keep an open mind.”
“So, again,” Velden said, “we’re looking for a black rock that transports people across the barrier and clues about a curse or experiment gone wrong.” He linked his webbed fingers and stretched them out, letting his knuckles crack with a satisfying ripple. “All while keeping it under wraps so any secret brands back at the fortress remain unaware of our efforts. It’s cake compared to what we’ve all been through.”
Sylmar grimaced. “And we hope that the curse doesn’t work the way Emeris thinks it does.”
Aeliana tensed as everyone turned sad eyes on her mother.
In that moment, the reality of what a curse would mean hit Aeliana in the chest with such force that her starlock warmed in preparation for a defense. But there was no defense for this truth: if the curse was real and it worked the way her mother said, it didn’t matter how much they all loved the priestess. Every single one of these people would be willing to sacrifice her in order to get rid of Mayvus.
Fear slithered through Aeliana’s gut, bringing her back to the night on the balcony when her mother had asked to be killed. Was it so different from when Aeliana had asked Gaeren to kill her before she could be branded by Mayvus? But what if her mother’s request came from a place of confusion rather than sacrifice?
Stems unfurled at Aeliana’s feet with unnatural speed, the daisies already looking wilted and diseased as her fear tainted the magic growing them. She finally understood why Sylmar looked so haunted every time talk of a curse came up. It wasn’t just becausehe thought Emeris was losing her sanity; it was because he expected her to die if the curse truly existed.
They’d rescued their high priestess from the fortress not just because they cared for her, but because they thought she knew how to defeat Mayvus. Except her own sacrifice was the solution Emeris had been guarding all these years. It was the price she’d been willing to pay that night on the balcony, and it was a price she’d be willing to pay all over again.
Only Aeliana wasn’t willing to pay it. She set her jaw and smashed the daisies down with her boot. She needed to be the one to uncover whatever curse or magic had kept Mayvus alive, because she also needed to find a way around it.
CHAPTER 16
Even though thedays grew shorter, the time spent combing the mountains for the stone starbridge grew longer. Aeliana tried to go out with the others as much as possible, but there were just as many hiding spots left to explore within the fortress along with all the research they’d found tucked away with Mayvus’ blood stores. Now that Sylmar was on board, she found several more stockpiles, including one with some of Emeris’ blood, giving them hope Mayvus wouldn’t be able to brand Emeris again.
They even found a map marking out every brand Mayvus had had on the Wheel of Magic, including each point of the spokes she’d managed to control. The number was horrifying, but Sylmar was more distraught over the names on the list. He’d known almost all of them, and while they’d buried at least a dozen, there were still almost fifty more unaccounted for. Perhaps they were dead, perhaps they were with Mayvus, or perhaps Mayvus had already found the starbridge and they were with her on the other side of the barrier.
That was the option Aeliana feared the most—that they were searching for two things impossibly out of their reach—which was why she focused more of her energy on finding the source of the possible curse. But whenever it all seemed impossible, Sylmar insisted she head back out to hunt for the starbridge to at least burn off her nervous energy.
After two more weeks with no sign of Mayvus, the onyx stone, or a clue about the curse, he sent her out more often than he let her stay in. But today she sat in the chancery, poring over more of Mayvus’ notes.
“Find anything new today?” Sylmar hobbled into the room and bent over her papers.
“Not really.” Aeliana rubbed her palms over her eyes as all the words blended together. “Just more experiments. This time on someone named Anara.”
“Can you show me?” He settled heavily into the chair next to her, laying his staff on the table.
His lips moved silently as he read through the papers she’d passed him, and his face grew pale.
“Did you know her?”
“I knew of her. She was young when I left. No results?” He flipped the papers around, frowning at their blank backs.
“No. I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing. Same for this man. Ermen?” She passed him another set of papers.
Sylmar clucked his tongue. “He was older than me. I can’t imagine he survived the experiments.”
