But I knew I would not sleep. Not until I spoke of what was on my mind, keeping me awake when I shouldn’t be sparing it a second thought.
“I answered your question,” I said at last. “Will you answer one of mine?”
Sofie sighed. “Fine.”
“Why did you help Marigold but curse an infant princess?” I asked. “You make no sense to me.”
Sofie was silent for a few heartbeats. “I’m a balancer.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Is that not enough? Or will you finally admit you don’t have the slightest clue what that means?”
I cleared my throat. “I have the general idea.”
“Everyonehas the general idea, but no one seems to really understand it, do they? A balancer is tasked with maintaining order in this world’s chaotic magic. It’s like water sloshing in a vessel. If there is any one place it’s concentrated, it will tip toward that end, emptying the other side. Except when it tips back—and it always does—it will be wild again, unusable by most magic-wielders. That’s the current theory of magic preservation, with plenty of evidence to back it. It’s why the position of balancer was created.”
I hesitated before speaking again. “What’s that got to do with the child?”
“It’s not to do with her at all, but with the idiots bestowing her with magical blessings and boons to curry favor with her parents. Not one butthreefairy godmothers arrived at court before me, each one lavishing the babe with great magic. The magic of glamour, so she’d always be beautiful. Magic to dull her temper, so she would always be patient and understanding and slow to react. The magic of enhanced sight, so she would see what others did not and therefore grow in knowledge. Three powerful, beneficial gifts. Which means that I, as the last to arrive, had no choice but to gift her a curse so powerful that her kingdom wouldn’t run out of magic before the next harvest. So yes, from time to time, I help someone helpless if I can. It’s my way of balancing the ledger.”
Her words were running together, her tone growing darker as anger crept in from the memory. And how could I blame her?
“You’ve been forced to play the villain,” I said gently.
She scoffed. “I suppose you’d know something about that.”
“Not at all. I volunteer myself to play the villain. Therein lies the difference. Villainy should always be a choice.”
That earned me a half-hearted laugh from Sofie. It was better than nothing. Better than seeing her so angry and hurt, or catching the glint of a tear rolling down her cheek in that dragons-blasted sliver of light.
I still had questions for her.Why did you have to look so beautiful last night? Are you trying to make me fall for you?But I would not ask them. I could not.
So I turned away to face the wall, resigning myself to rest without sleep.
Chapter sixteen
Sofie
ThestormpassedwithBlue Moonsailing just on its nausea-inducing edge. I would say our travels were peaceful after that, except that I’d spent the last several nights enduring the Bride’s increasingly frustrated attacks in my dreams. She was trying her hardest to breach them. As if I would let her!
It was something of a surprise, then, when instead of more shadowed dreams, a voice snapped me awake just after dawn.
“Wake up, Dar’Vester. We’re under attack.”
The figure in the doorway was not the one I expected. Slowly, he resolved into that of the man I’d once mistaken for the captain.
“Aoki?” I blinked at the first mate, not understanding.
I glanced at the captain’s bed. It was empty, and in complete disarray.
“You need to get below deck, sorceress. He’ll want you alive.”
“How can you be under attack? I didn’t sense anything.” With horror, I realized the Bride’s attacks must’ve been wearing me down. I should’ve felt the approach of other ships.
“It’s Blackbeard,” Aoki said. “He’s rallied and come for us at last.”
“But…but you’re protected. The death-curse—”
