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Jarin straightened up, his face guarded. “And she was right. The palace did pursue me. It’s how I came to be a stowaway.”
“What crimes?” pressed Riella.
He hesitated again, the blade of his saw suspended over the wood. “I suppose you’re going to find out anyway. Everyone knows about it. I’d rather you hear it from me, while I’m armed with a saw.”
She raised her eyebrows, her curiosity reaching fever pitch. “What?”
“Did you know of Queen Petra Nikolaou of Zermes?”
Riella nodded. “She was a great friend to the sirens. We gifted her a Sirenstone for helping us during the war. I was quite young then, but we were enraged and devastated when we heard she’d been—” Her eyes narrowed in comprehension. “Queen Petra was murdered by a mad sorceress. You don’t mean to tell me that?—”
Jarin heaved a sigh. “Yes. My mother was Levissina. Is Levissina. She lives still, in Velandia, being a scourge upon Petra’s son, Davron. I don’t condone what she?—”
Anger stirred Riella’s blood. “How dare she!”
“Petra’s husband, the king, had my father murdered, that’s how,” retorted the pirate. “My mother loved my father beyond reason, and yes, madness took hold. But her actions weren’t unprovoked.”
“I don’t understand humans,” said Riella, her fury fading as quickly as it appeared. She never realized the sorceress’s mate was slain by the king. “You kill each other over feelings.”
The pirate scoffed. “And sirens don’t? Rage is a feeling too, you know.”
She resumed sawing. “Our fury is righteous.”
“Everyone thinks their fury is righteous.”
Riella recalled Kohara saying that humans and sirens were more alike than many thought. Certainly, since being given legs and other human attributes, Riella was experiencing unprecedented levels of emotion. She shivered as she tried to imagine the rage that would take hold of her if she loved someone, and that someone was murdered.
The siren had never been in love, of course. The notion had never interested her. But now, as feelings filled her like floodwater, she wondered if she might ever experience it. Did she even want to, given the atrocities humans were prone to committing when it was taken from them? How was love worth the risk of such destruction and pain? It must’ve been, though, for humans to continue seeking it out.
Another thought occurred to her. “The spell of invulnerability your mother cast, why does Polinth not perform it on himself?”
“Because he can’t. No one can.” Jarin made a derisive noise in his throat. “She was more gifted than any of them, the High Magus included. No one will ever admit that, of course, after what she did.”
When he continued, Riella detected an odd blend of bitterness and sadness in his voice. “But to answer your question. My mother cursed the Nikolaou family for killing my father, right? Such a curse takes an enormous amount of energy. Spell-work that potent would be too unstable to last beyond a few moments, had she not figured out a way to balance the energies. She extended the spell to me, except I got the backward end. The light to the dark, or the dark to the light—not sure which you’d call it. But the ongoing counter-energy from the curse preserves my life. She felt guilty for choosing vengeance over her only child, so she solved the problem the same way she solved every problem. With magic. As long as the curse is in place, I can’t die.”
“Can you not break it yourself?” asked Riella. “If the magic was cast on you, too?”
“No, she would never make it that easy.” He shook his head. “Every now and then, I hear news of Prince Davron from other sailors. He’s been alone in his Velandian castle for a decade. Given up hope, probably. Not that you could blame him.”
Riella nodded slowly. “You said Artus wants the same thing that you have. But if a mage can’t give it to him, how would he do it?”
“Not by a curse, but a trinket called the Amulet of Delphine. It’s why the royal patrol came after us at the docks. He sank a ship in pursuit of it. It’ll give him life, apparently. I’m sure he believes it will allow him to surpass me, and all others.”
A cold shiver ran through Riella. “The Amulet of Delphine. Polinth wants it, too.”
She tilted her head, trying to remember what he’d said, exactly. She’d been shackled and incandescent with rage at the time, so it was hard to recall. “He draws life from Seraphine, but sooner or later that will kill her. The amulet would restore him in full, he believes. Ever since I was young, I’ve heard stories about the Sea Witch and the amulet she created. Strange to think it might be real. The idea of a vile human stealing it infuriates me, though. Stories say the Sea Witch gave her mortal life to create something beautiful and everlasting.”
Jarin grunted. “Artus reckons he has the map to find it.”
“He has the what?”
Riella burst into unhinged laughter, which made Jarin frown in bemusement. He watched as she put her hand down the front of her dress. A moment later, she retrieved a crumpled piece of parchment.
“Do you mean this map?”
CHAPTER 15
Riella smoothed out the parchment with excitement. It was damp and grubby, but the symbols were still legible.
