“Victoria might be our tenth offering, but she will be our last. We have presented the best the Eversea has to offer to Lord Krokan, but it was not enough. Victoria will be.” Ilryth looks back to me with a warm smile, his eyes alight with nothing but compassion. “She is smart, astute, and capable. She has a zeal for life, and I swear on my mother’s life that I can see the spark of Lady Lellia within her. Never, in all my years, have I known a woman finer than Victoria.”
My heart swells at his words, pressing with a sweet ache against my ribs. Has anyone risen to my defense so eagerly before? Has anyone ever said such sweet things about me?
It contrasts with all the times before the council with Charles. How he screamed of my failings until he was red in the face. The names he called me. The lies he spun…
“More than anything else though…” Ilryth turns back to the council. “Victoria has proved to me, time and again, that she is a woman of her word. She will keep all promises and oaths above all else. Her every action is the picture of honesty.”
My heart deflates, leaving a hollow in my chest.Stop, please, I want to say. All the names the rumors of Dennow called me are back, reverberating around all the blank spaces of my mind.Contract ender, oath breaker, deserter…
But he continues, ignorant to the truth about me. “She would never, under any circumstances, go back on her word or break an oath. So if you refuse to believe me, then believe her.”
I float in pained silence. It’s hard to keep my face passive and relaxed.Never broken an oath… If only he knew. My earlier thoughts return:What would happen if he knew what the money we retrieved was really for? If he found out it’s because I nullified my marriage? That I am not the woman he thinks I am?
My mind begins to spiral like a whirlpool.
“Then it seems there is no cause for concern.” Crowl shrugs.
Ventris sulks. “This is a dangerous precedent.”
“He took appropriate precautions. The offering is fine and has given us her word that it was necessary—a word Ilryth would have us believe is as virtuous as Lady Lellia herself. Moreover, there are no more risks of them leaving. Are there?” Crowl glances to me.
“None,” I assure them. Ilryth is right about one thing: I’m ready to accept my fate.
“Then let us put this matter to rest. We—”
“What of the matter of him touching her?” Ventris interrupts Remni. “I have multiple witnesses of it.”
“Yes, what of that touch?” I interject just as quickly, pinning Ventris to his shell with my stare. “In fact, I was touching him. It was necessary for transportation through the pool and nothing that could anchor me to this world. But”—I continue speaking even as he tries to get a word in—“what ofyougrabbing me? Wasthatnecessary? A touch those same knights of yours could corroborate?”
Ventris leans back in his shell, face draining of what little color was there. I think I hear the faintest reverberation of a chuckle from Ilryth. My duke is fighting a smirk with all his might. The other dukes seem equally amused. Remni has the expression of one dealing with a gaggle of young children.
“Ventris, would you care to put this matter to rest?” Remni rephrases her earlier statement as a very pointed question.
Ventris glowers at me then looks to the duchess. His expression drops before returning to me. I tilt my head in a gesture to suggest,your move.
“Very well,” he begrudgingly says, sinking farther into his shell.
“I think that’s wise,” Remni says curtly. “As I was saying, we have more important concerns, like the remaining preparations and the organization of court for the final blessing and send-off.”
“If you would care to take your seat, Ilryth.” Sevin motions to the shell at the far right.
Ilryth swims effortlessly over to it, settling in one fluid motion. Even though he’s the one settling into his place, something in me softlyclicks. My muscles unlock and thoughts slow. As though I needed to see all was right with him to truly feel at ease.
“Shall the offering be escorted out while we discuss these matters?” Remni asks.
“I wish to stay,” I say. All eyes are on me. I want to make sure they don’t go after Ilryth when I’m gone and…I’m curious. I’ve grown fascinated with the sirens and their ways.
“That is quite irregular,” Sevin observes. He doesn’t sound disapproving, nor pleased. Merely factual.
“You have additional anointments to be made,” Ventris says as if I am an unruly child.
“Anoint me later.”
“There is little time,” he counters.
“I think there are a few months left till the solstice, aren’t there? It’s time enough.” I smile slightly.
Ventris scowls and goes to speak.
