Page 19 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

When she dared to look up at Sylvia again, the concern glimmering in Sylvia’s pale eyes stunned her. The thick band of scar tissue on her cheek seemed to shine with fresh blood in the candlelight. “Lorelei, will you tell me what happened?”

A part of her wanted to close her eyes and pretend the last ten minutes had never happened. Another more animal part of her wanted to snatch the candlestick sitting beside them and bash in Sylvia’s skull, to replace one problem with another. But there was no escape from this nightmare. Ziegler was dead, and Lorelei had been found alone with her body. There was no explanation she could offer Sylvia that would incriminate her less.

“I fear I am not in my right mind,” she rasped. “I don’t want to talk.”

“You’re never in your right mind,” Sylvia said, not unkindly. “Tell me.”

“Ziegler is . . .” Saying it aloud would make it real; she didn’t know if she could bear it. “Ziegler is dead.”

“What do you mean she’s dead?” Sylvia’s voice was as loud as glass shattering in the quiet of the hallway.

“Dead, von Wolff. For God’s sake.” Her voice sounded broken. Lorelei buried her face in her hands. Somehow, she couldn’t even muster the energy to be furious with Sylvia. “There is no hidden meaning.”

It did not seem possible.

Ziegler had survived everything her adventures had thrown at her. She had summited mountains in the thick of a blizzard and cut through jungles with jaguars stalking her at every turn. She had crossed deserts with a single canteen of water and all of her equipment strapped to her back. To Lorelei, she had been a god, untouchable and unimpeachable. But she had seen her broken body. She’d touched it.

She was really gone.

It felt like a star had winked out. What a banal death. What a waste. The pitiless brutality ofit—thesheerinjusticeofit—stoleLorelei’s breath away. Not twelve hours ago, Ziegler had been incandescently alive, and had lied to her. Lorelei couldn’t even remember the last words she’d said to her. All she could remember now were all the things she wanted to accuse her of.

“What a tragedy.” Sylvia’s expression crumpled. “I’m so sorry you were the one to . . .”

The thorns around her heart tightened until she could scarcely see through her anger. After all these years, after every insult they’d traded, howdareSylvia pretend to care about her? Lorelei wanted to throttle her. She wanted to repay her sympathy with cruelty. Anger, at least, was a balm to the rawness of her grief. But she was too tired to sharpen it into a blade, so she wound it around herself like armor.

As cold as a winter night, she replied, “Thank you.”

Sylvia hesitated. “You should get some rest. I can wake the others. They’ll want to know.”

A bolt of panic shot through her. Without thinking, she seized Sylvia by the elbow. “No!”

Both of them stared down at her hand. Lorelei slowly let go of her, flexing her fingers as though trying to work out a cramp. Sylvia, meanwhile, looked as though she’d been struck with a blunt object.

“I, ah, of course want to give you space to grieve,” Sylvia said weakly. “But I don’t think this is something we can keep from them for long.”

“Of course not. But you can’t tell them yet, and you certainly can’t do it on your own. Think for a moment, will you? If we don’t present a unified front, they’ll be suspicious.”

“Are you suggesting they’ll think one ofuskilled her?” As if something more fundamental dawned on her, she paled. “You’re suggesting one of our friends killed her.”

Our friendswas perhaps an overstatement, but Lorelei would not press the point. “She was stabbed.”

“What?”Sylvia went deathly pale. “Why would someone do such a thing?”

“Wilhelm wants the Ursprung to secure his reign. The heir of every major province is here on this ship. Not everyone believes a unified Brunnestaad shouldexist—orthat Wilhelm should be the one to rule it.” The righteous anger unspooling through her was intoxicating, a sweet poison chasing away her despair. “He’ll now also choose a queen fromAlbe—whichwill almost certainly be you. Perhaps someone resented that.”

Johann and Heike certainly did.

“As I recall,” Lorelei continued, “you weren’t thrilled at the prospect yourself.”

“No, but I wouldnever—”An edge of desperate, affronted panic knifed into Sylvia’s voice. “What are you suggesting? You’re the one who found her. That meansyou’rethe most suspicious of us.”

Lorelei had nothing to say to that. It was damningly true, but they were at a stalemate. “Calm yourself. I’m not accusing you of anything.”

“I cannotbelieveeven now you would beso...!”When Sylvia realized what Lorelei had said, all the fire bled out of her. “Huh?”

“I don’t believe it was you.” She was almost disappointed to admit it. But when she had turned Ziegler’s body over, it was still warm. Lorelei fought the panic that threatened to unmoor her from reality again.

Think, she scolded herself.