Aradella said loudly, “We’ll send the most beautiful men from Selkan to you.”
The women gave a cheer so loud that Mekos’s ears flattened against his head. “You can’t promise them that,” he said.
“These women have been fornicating withanimals. The ugliest men will look good to them.”
“Hey!” he said. “My mother is half fox.”
“Yes, but the other half of you is from Tanek, who is the best-looking man on the planet.”
Mekos gave a sound of half groan, half laughter. “Wait! Since he’s my father, does that make me second best? On the entireplanet?”
“With those ears? Not possible,” she replied. They turned back toward the women.
On the seat behind them, Tanek and Kaley looked at each other in shock. “Even if I hadn’t seen what we did, I’d know now,” he said. “They aretogether.” He smiled. “I am the most handsome man on the planet?”
“Ha! There’s Prince Bront and Garen and I’m still looking for that guy who has wings. You have lots of competition.”
Tanek gave a scoffing laugh, then snapped the reins and they started moving. He said over his shoulder to his son, “What did you do to win this much favor from them?”
“I sang to them,” Mekos said quickly. “They love my voice.”
“And he put on a display of soaring. All the women were in awe of him.” Aradella caught more flowers and waved to the women who were standing still. She put her finger to her lips, meaning that they were to keep the secret, and they nodded in understanding.
“They loved me so much,” Mekos said to his father, “that there may be a few pointy-eared babies.”
Aradella scoffed. “If you’d touched one of them, Valona would have made you into a girl.”
Tanek and Kaley blinked at each other at this banter.
“Where is Valona?” Kaley asked. “We only saw her from a distance.”
Mekos leaned back against a bag of coconuts. “I heard there was a fire and every plant in her private garden was burned to the ground.”
“We were told that the six prettiest girls in the Lair set it,” Aradella said. “They even danced.”
“There was nothing left,” Mekos said. “So maybe Valona is dealing with that.”
Aradella leaned against a bag of pineapples across from Mekos. Their outstretched legs were so intertwined, they were like latticework.
Kaley turned around to Tanek as he guided the horses down the long road back to the Cauldron. “I’m afraid you’re right. Something happened that we know nothing about.”
“Yes.” He lowered his voice. “And under no circumstances do Ieverwant to know what my son was up to.”
Kaley reached into her pocket and pulled the Truth Necklace halfway out. “I don’t think I should put it on, do you?”
“Not unless you want a burn to go all the way through you,” Tanek said, then snapped the reins.
Behind them, Mekos and Aradella held hands under the cover of her big dress. Early this morning, women had come to them and told them about their lives. For generations, everyone in the crater, from guards to children, had lived under the dictatorship of one woman. There were no prisons. The punishment for breaking any of Valona’s rules was death. Even the women who pretended to love her were glad she was finally gone. Their talk buzzed of going to other craters, of meeting people. Some were talking of visiting other islands. They smiled at each other, feeling good at what they had accomplished, but minutes later, they passed a woman riding a horse. Tanek and Kaley paid no attention to her, but Aradella and Mekos knew she was the guide they’d run away from. The look she gave them was full of hate.
“Someone’s not glad Valona is gone,” Aradella said.
“Now she has no one to worship.” Mekos replied.
Aradella frowned. “My aunt-queen will not be happy to see that I’m still alive.”
He squeezed her hand. “By the time she makes another plan, ours will be done.”
They looked at each other. They couldn’t speak of what they were going to do, but they were thinking about it so hard they could read each other’s minds. They were confident that their plan would work.
