“That’s not what we heard…” said Thalassa.
“We heard you slipped and injured yourself quite badly,” said Pearl. “Take your rest with us, sweet prince. We can take away any pain.”
Thalassa tilted her head. “Your shirt is undone.”
“Let us help you with the rest of it,” added Pearl.
“Oh, that’s… that’s all right,” said Arris, taking a step back. He looked at the archway. It was about ten paces away. Maybe if he—
Thalassa gripped his chin, turning it sharply to her. The twins were far closer now. Pearl licked her sharp canines.
“Marriage sounded sweet, but you seem far sweeter,” said Pearl, her jaw hinging open.
From the archway, a great shriek echoed and the surface of the tranquility pond trembled. Light spangled the air. Arris felt his tongue loosening, an impulse to speak grasping hold of him.
Thalassa shook her head, clapping her hands over ears. “What in Wrate’s name—”
“Who else wishes to harm Prince Arris?” demanded a thundering voice.
Pearl’s jaw slackened. Her eyes glazed over. “I remember Oona speaking of it in her sleep… that she wondered if the prince would realize it was a compliment to use her grandfather’s dagger on him…”
Oona?thought Arris with a pang. But they’d had such a wonderful conversation the other day. Still, he had to know:
“Is the grandfather’s knife considered a precious family heirloom at least?”
“Sylva spoke longingly of the taste of his blood,” said Thalassa, ignoring the question. It seemed that the one who heard Demelza’s song only answered directly to her. “She wondered if it would sparkle when she drank it.”
“Tell the prince your intentions.”
Pearl was the first to speak.
“I really did think of marrying you,” she said, her voice flat. “But in the end, desire and appetite won out… you’re delicious, Prince Arris. Your yearning floats atop your blood like the thickest of creams. Your beauty is so sweetly unripened… so unlike the lean souls of sailors whose very imagination has gone tough with disuse.”
Arris blinked. “Thank you? I think?”
“Power would have been nice,” said Thalassa, shrugging. “We would never be without a feast.”
The effect of Demelza’s song was beginning to wear off. Thalassa shook herself. The glazed look in Pearl’s eyes vanished. Both twins’ eyes turned lambent and bulbous.
“You take the legs, Sister,” said Thalassa.
“With pleasure,” said Pearl.
Before Arris could move out of the way, there was a blur of blue to his right, followed by a loud splash. Thalassa and Pearl had tumbled backward, pushed into the pond of tranquility by a breathless Demelza.
“Hello!” she said brightly.
Arris was not sure what he was more shocked by: thestartling revelation of Thalassa and Pearl or the sight of Demelza in a dress. Her hair was still matted with mud like the wattling of a roof. Her hands were a touch grubby, and despite wearing a silk dress, she was barefoot, with a heeled pair of shoes dangling from a belt of pearls around her waist.
“This morning during breakfast I heard them discussing all the ways they planned to eat you, but no one else seemed particularly concerned and I realized it was because they were speaking in an odd patois of formal Famishing and the marsh vernacular of the common mer-bog,” said Demelza, excitedly. “It’s all rather genius, to be honest. I believe Thalassa and Pearl made up this language to speak only to one another, which is—well, anyway, I was able to catch enough sentences here and there to figure out how to reveal their true nature to you.”
Arris thought back to how the twins thought he had been… weakened.
“You set up a trap!” said Arris.
“For them,” said Demelza.
“Yes, but I was the bait!” said Arris. “I’m not sure that I appreciate being used as such.”
