Eira tried to answer without really answering. “I’m going to help her test out some magic.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Cullen said warily.
Eira shrugged. “What choice do I have? It’s better to chance it and regain my power.”
“What if she wants to experiment with some kind of torture on you?” Cullen frowned.
“She hasn’t yet, and I’ve been completely vulnerable.”
“If Adela says she won’t harm someone, she will always honor that,” Ducot insisted.
Eira had her doubts. Ducot’s opinion was likely colored by Adela having been the one to take him in and shelter him. The whole crew’s was. But this was the same woman who had committed regicide and could laugh about it. While all rulers had their flaws, the last King Solaris had been generally regarded as a fair and fine ruler in all the history books Eira had read. But she had made a promise to someone not to attack Meru and seemed bent on honoring that… Perhaps there was something to Ducot’s claims.
“Eira might not be the one at risk.” There was a touch of chill to Lavette’s usually calm and level words. “She might be the one helping the torture of others. Can you live with your magic being used for Adela’s more nefarious purposes?”
Eira hadn’t fully considered that notion. Though, it didn’t change her plans. “I can’t change how Adela will or won’t use her magic. And she has a lot of means to hurt people as it is.”
“But will you enable her learning new tricks—expanding those means?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Lavette narrowed her eyes slightly. “Wealwayshave a choice.”
Eira pursed her lips. What she didn’t risk saying on deck with pirates—even with Ducot—was that her plan was to get her magic back as quickly as possible and then use it to flee at the first second she could, teaching Adela as little as possible. But Lavette was right in that she might not have the chance. In truth, just speaking through magical theories could’ve helped the pirate queen gain new and horrible ideas.
“Well, I like living, and I don’t think me helping Adela or not will change anything about her terrorizing the seas.”
“You’re more heartless than I thought,” Lavette said with a faint note of disappointment. It rubbed Eira wrong.Who was she to judge?
“I am trying to help us all survive,” Eira said firmly. She pointed back behind the boat, back in the direction of Warich. “My family might still be out there. My uncle could be a prisoner of those zealots because they had already begun going after him as a result ofme. My heart is with us and them and keeping us all as safe as best I can. I will do whatever it takes to accomplish that.”
“There is more to this world than just your family and friends.”
“Not anymore. You saw the royals’ box. No one could’ve survived that.” The words were like blades against her heart. She knew she was talking about her uncle as much as she was Vi or Lumeria. It was the folly of hope. Where logic and reason fought against what her better sense told her.
“Aldrik and Vi were powerful Firebearers; it’s possible they could’ve manipulated the flames,” Noelle suggested hopefully.
“They were flames made from flash beads,” Varren said grimly. “That is not normal fire.”
“Don’t doubt the power of people’s magic.” Noelle clearly wasn’t going to let herself be dissuaded.
“Yes,” Lavette agreed. “Some could’ve survived.”
“You’re right. And I hope they did. I really do.” Eira hoped her uncle had succeeded in getting people out. She’d seen him summon ice to defend himself from an avalanche that was seconds from toppling him. Maybe he did survive and saved others. “But, even if some did, not all of them made it out. Lumeria certainly didn’t. She was too far forward. And she was the one holding together the Treaty of Five Kingdoms. Whether we like it or not…governments have fallen and the ones that survived are hanging by threads.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Lavette raised her voice slightly. It was uncharacteristic and that stilled Eira. “I also watched my father die that day. You aren’t the only one who doesn’t know where your family might be, or hopes against hope they’re alive.”
“Then you should want to do whatever it takes to get back to him, too.” How was it they were so similar and yet not seeing eye to eye? If getting to her father meant working with Adela, then why not?
“If my father did manage to survive, he would want me to move forward, not back. I need to go home. Our people need leaders as desperately now as ever. They need the truth of what happened brought back to them from someone they trust—someone who was there, because rumors will no doubt spread. With the treaty falling apart, we will be vulnerable to Carsovia. And all that is why I can’t look solely at myself. I must focus on the big picture and how everything I do will impact the world around me, intentionally or not.” Lavette stood, looking down at her. “All your power… You could do so much good, Eira.”
“I have always tried to ‘do good,’” Eira said quietly, frustration seeping into her voice. And where had “doing good” got her? Never very far. “But I have no power right now. I can’t doanythingwithout magic.”
“Your strength is, and always was, in more than magic.”
“We can agree to disagree there.” Eira smiled thinly. What did Lavette really think she could do without magic? What power did Eira have without it? Her magic was her bargaining chip with Adela; it was the reason they were all still alive. Her magic would be what ultimately ended Ulvarth.
Lavette continued to give her a hard stare for another long minute. Finally, she said, “I took you for better. But perhaps you really are the daughter of Adela. Because only a frozen pirate queen could be so callous and think only of themselves.”
