But it was so tightly bound up inside him, I couldn’t distinguish the threads of the two entities. And theremustbetwo. As a student at Dewspell, I’d learned that a death curse was like spreading one’s soul far and wide, putting the essence of the caster into everything it touched. So for the first time, I was sensingher.The Bride. And it did me not a lick of good.
It was as if she had wrapped this man in her arms, winding her limbs through his rib cage, snaking her eyes behind his eyes, joining with him instead of simply latching on.
And as I tried to probe her curse further, I felt herpush back.
I recoiled, sucking in a breath. Thatstung.
“Impossible,” I muttered. This spell was acting like a marionette curse, a type where a living caster actively manipulated the curse and its effects. It cost a tremendous amount of energy and concentration.
How could all that come from touching a cursed object imbued with adeath curse? None of this made sense!
“You were right,” Aoki said. “Thatdidn’ttake long.”
I looked up at him quizzically.
“We’ve been inspected by all manner of sorcerers and mages. All the ones worth their salt confirmed what the legends say. It’s an unbreakable curse.”
I clucked my tongue, not bothering to hide my disdain. “No curse is unbreakable. They all have exit clauses.”
“Not this one.”
“It has one,” I insisted. “I just have to find it.”
“By the time you sift through all its otherclauses,“ he said, his eyes burning bright, “we’ll either be at the Hidden Isle, or you’ll be dead.”
“If that’s true, then why in the gods’ names would your captain pursue such a treasure?”
Aoki rolled his eyes. “I don’t expect you to understand, beachmaid. Whether you’re a privateer, a pirate or part of some rich country’s navy, the Queen of the Sea is every sailor’s dream.”
I felt the floor undulating like waves beneath me. “The treasure you’re after is theQueen of the Sea?”
He inclined his head in confirmation. Confirmation that I was on a ship full offools.
In the legends, the Queen of the Sea was a treasure imbued with magic, an astrolabe that allowed anyone to navigate any body of water safely. I could see why pirates would want it, especially in this day and age, when huge swaths of the ocean—most notably the Diam Sea—had become so filled with chaos magic, they were now unnavigable.
Most legends also said it was cursed. Just, not like this. I had never heard of the Bride before Bluebeard spoke of her.
“It’s a myth,” I said, almost angry now. “And if itwerereal, it probably would’ve been crafted in the world of monsters. You’d have to have a death wish to meddle with it.”
“It’s powerful,” he said as if agreeing with me. That wasn’t the point I was trying to make at all. “That’s why it’s so jealously guarded by the Bride. Some say only the worthy can master it. That’s the trouble right there. Every great pirate thinks he’s worthy.”
“You people are mad.” I turned, ready to storm out of my own cabin, then froze.
I remembered fireside tales of isles hidden by magic, whose locations moved. They could not be found except through magical means, usually a compass that had a habit of disappearing, or a map that was always changing its ink. But were they really more than just folklore?
Whatever Bluebeard had gotten his crew into, it was knotted up with more complex magic than anyone ought to mess with. It would take the best and brightest minds of Dewspell—myself included—forming a team and working at this curse for years to break it.
And I probably hadweeksto do it. Alone.
Master Aynia would scold me for being so rash and making a deal with Bluebeard. And right now, I wanted to scold myself, too. Either I was about to prove myself as a legendary-level sorceress, or I was going to fail miserably.
“You’ve been to this Hidden Isle,” I prompted the first mate. “Bluebeard must have touched the treasure in order for the curse to affect him.”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Aoki said, a shadow passing over them. “I’ve even seen the Bride, the horrible hag.”
What?
“Your captain claimed this was death magic,” I said, fine hairs rising on my arms. “How could you haveseenher?”
