“Fit for a queen,” he smiled.
Balancing the weighty crown upon my head, I looked around. There was more opulence in this room than I had ever seen before.
“Did you take it from ships that you forced to crash, like the one I was on?” There was more bite in the accusation than anticipated.
Lumina’s forehead crinkled in concern. “Just like the library’s books, we’ve salvaged these items from the ocean floor. We aim to save and restore. Not take.”
“Yet here I am.” The snap of the statement was purposeful that time.
“You are the only one on that ship who was saved.” She looked at me squarely, a scowl carving her gentle mouth. “The rest being taken from the ship goes against everything I stand for.”
So she did not agree with her leader, then. Good to know.
Were there others like her who disagreed as well, and so openly?
But then my attention tore across the room when I spotted it. “Is that a virginal?”
I stepped over gold coins and jewels, drawn to it.
“Be careful,” Lumina urged me. “These relics are priceless.”
My eyes scanned the basic wooden instrument. It wasn’t as nice as the one I’d played at Highthorn; it was far more simple, like the one I’d possessed at Granger House. My fingers pressed into its simple wooden keys, awaiting that sweet sound I was craving among all this chaos. A flat, clunky sound clanged instead. I frowned.
Morvyn bounded to my side. “What is it?”
“A virginal,” I said.
“A what?” His features twisted in confusion.
“A musical instrument.”
“Can you play it?”
“Yes, and well.”
He grinned at that. “Then we should have it brought out. It’s not doing any good hidden in here.” His webbed hands glided across the keys. They didn’t sing to his touch either.
“It’s broken,” I said.
He stuck out his bottom lip in a frown.
“What did you find?” Lumina called from her spot across the room.
“A virgin, quite rare in Naiadon!” Morvyn bellowed back.
“Avirginal,” I corrected as we waded through the wealth back to Lumina.
“Ah, do you like music?” Lumina brightened a bit with the question.
“Yes, very much.”
“Please don’t get Lumina started on the topic of music or we’ll be here for hours,” Morvyn said, walking out the door.
“Music is the world’s gift from Nymphaea,” she said, following Morvyn.
I looked back longingly at the virginal, yearning to lose myself in its keys, but followed Lumina and Morvyn instead.
“Every siren has their own unique song that manipulates water in a brilliant way. Despite all the studies of siren scholars, there is no clear rhyme or reason why our songs all differ. One day I wish to figure it out. But, the most brilliant part—”
