The water churned underneath the vessel. Eira caught on to the currents, shifting them. Relaxing wasn’t just a function of keeping her magic a secret from her enemies. Once she stopped trying to exert force, controlling water became easier than she’d ever imagined. She had to move with it, not against it.
The ship groaned and swayed as the currents swelled around it, under Eira’s control.
“A bit more to starboard.”
Eira inhaled air and exhaled power.Stormfrostturned.
“Good,” Adela praised. Eira opened her eyes to see the pirate queen lowering her compass. “We’re back on track. Keep us there this time.”
Eira caught the compass when Adela tossed it to her as she stood. “I’ll do my best.”
“I don’t want your best. I want perfection.” The sentiment could be harsh, but it came off as an expectation. Adela truly believed Eira could continue managing the direction of the ship. Her friends ascended the stairs and the pirate queen’s focus shifted. “I appreciate your timeliness today.”
“I believe yesterday I was late because I was providing wind to the sails.” Cullen’s lordly audacity had empowered him to have no fear when it came to sharing his every thought and opinion with Adela. A trait Eira found herself admiring. For once, he wasn’t using his noble training like a shield to hide himself behind, but like a sword to be brandished.
“Ah yes, because I was entirely at the whims of the weather before you came along. However did I manage before Lord Cullen Drowel boarded my vessel and graced me with his powers?” Adela’s tone was drier than the Western Waste.
The muscles in Cullen’s jaw bulged slightly but he said nothing more. Noelle sniggered.
“And what is so amusing?” Adela turned to her. “I don’t see you contributing much on the vessel.”
“Just wait until we get to these mines.” Noelle folded her arms. But there was no burst of flame. She’d already been scolded once for recklessly using fire on the boat. Even on a boat covered in ice, fire was still handled with extreme care.
“For your sake, hope you are more than talk when the time comes.” Adela tapped her cane. “Now, if we are quite finished, I have more important things to do than wait on you all and make small talk with those I couldn’t care less about.”
Adela constantly reminded them of such, but Eira had yet to see it. Because every day she would wake and join Adela on the topmost deck and they would work together on Eira’s magic. By the time the sun was high, her friends would join her. They would spar until they were too exhausted to move, Adela usually overseeing them. Sometimes Crow. Occasionally others. Sometimes they did it alone, knowing without ever being told that if they neglected their training, they would certainly hear it from the Pirate Queen.
Dinner was in the galley, together with her friends. After, Eira would always return to Adela for another hour or two of magical work and experimentation.
“You seem different again.”
Eira was jolted back to the present at Olivin’s words. She hadn’t heard him approach, being too focused on maintaining her magic on the waters curling underneath the ship. The moment she turned her attention to him, her powers wavered. It was a subtle shift in the vessel, but a noticeable one—at least to her, and to Adela, since the pirate queen’s gaze snapped her way. Only for a second. But long enough to assure Eira that Adela had felt it.
With a slow breath, Eira shifted her magic and the ocean moved in tandem. The vessel leveled out again. It was as though, in the back of her mind, she was carrying the ship within her own hand. Like a muscle she could never quite relax, but could forget how tense it was.
“Differentagain?” Eira repeated. He’d said that almost every time their paths had crossed over the past four days. “Goodness, I should watch out, or you might not recognize me by the time we make it to Carsovia.”
“I’ve begun to think that’s your intention.” He shifted, hands in his pockets. They’d been given some additional clothing from the crew’s communal pile. Olivin wore loose-fitting trousers that pulled in tightly around his ankles and tucked into his boots. His shirt was more of a vest, loose. Freer than she’d ever seen him during the competition.
“Perhaps, but I could say the same for you.” Eira tugged lightly on the hem of his sleeve by his shoulder. “You’re looking less like a lord of Meru and a lot more like a pirate by the day.”
“Would you believe me if I said this is closer to how I would dress when I wasn’t at state events?”
“Not in the slightest.”
He chuckled. “Well, it’s true. I might be a lord by title, but remember my family was on the cusp of disgraced. After the circumstances surrounding my parents’ deaths, the assets were seized by the crown.”
“I had no idea,” Eira whispered. Her attention went to Yonlin, and then to Cullen. Their conversations during the tournament returned to her.Things are not that simple, Eira,Cullen had said. When she’d looked to him to make his own choice and stand up for himself, he had looked back to her in confusion. She’d had no idea, really, of the stakes that surrounded his family. If the truth of what he’d done in the East ever came out…would his family lose everything the crownhad given them? It seemed too cruel for the Emperor and Empress Solaris…but Vi had shown Eira that appearances could be deceiving. Perhaps more was at stake for him and his family than just appearances. “What happened to you and Yonlin when it all was taken?”
“Lumeria is—was,” he corrected with the slightest wince, “a fair ruler. She wasn’t cruel enough to put two young men on the streets. But we were effectively under house arrest in a place of her choosing. We were supported by the crown, but nothing wasours, for a time.” He sighed softly, shoulders sinking slightly. Eira wondered if they sagged from the relief of hardships long passed, or from the weight they still carried. “Once her knights had proof that we weren’t involved with what happened at the Archives, they reinstated my title and some of our family’s assets. But the damage was done to our reputation. The lands our family had owned had to be sold off as the coffers had mysteriously dried up. Our home was in ruins. There was nothing to go back to.”
“How did you prove you weren’t involved?” Eira didn’t want to linger on damaged reputations or lost fortune.
“We didn’t. Deneya did.”
“And that was how you learned about the Court of Shadows,” Eira realized.
“If they could get enough information on the Pillars to clear Yonlin’s and my name, then I knew it was my best chance to find my sister. Deneya had been the one appointed to oversee our care while we were wards of the crown; I’d already known her.” His tone turned harsh whenever he mentioned his sister. Eira wondered if he realized that he, instinctively, looked back toward Meru.
