“Perhaps,” she said.
I studied her, seeing more truth brimming in her enigmatic eyes. My shoulders slumped. “You don’t believe he’ll agree no matter what I do.”
“I didn’t say that.” A delicate shrug, but not careless. “My father does not move for those who cannot move themselves.”
“Then why ask me to cut off my own arm for nothing?”
“Because he will demand it,” she said simply. “And because it’s in your best interest to not refuse him in front of our entire court.” She paused. “Our people are… fond of games at another’s expense.”
“What kind of games, exactly?”
“They like a drama. A prince who swore himself to Summer’s flame before she sent him away to please our king? It sings.” Her gaze softened the smallest amount. “But singing doesn’t save your friend. And I think you came for her more than for songs.”
“Lesha,” I said because speaking her name out loud helped keep me pointed in the right direction. “She is being held prisoner by Heliconia.”
Nali nodded gravely. “We know where she is.”
I stepped closer without meaning to, desperation making my voice rough. “How do you know?”
“Just because we have not pledged our swords to this war does not mean we have buried our heads in the sea,” she said. “The river people know everything that happens in their waters and on their banks. Your friend is being held at a camp tucked into the Concordian side of the river, just above the north fork, in the shadow of Nygard.”
Nygard Peak was the tallest point in the Concordian Mountains. It sat on the bank of the Osphanis far to the north, the center point that divided the southern regions of Autumn and the Broadlands.
“Is there a way in? From the river, I mean.”
She inclined her head. “There is a sluice there. Our currents touch it.”
“How close?”
“Close enough to get in,” she said. “Not close enough to get out again. I’ve seen what Heliconia has bred there.”
“Obsidians.”
“Yes, and other creatures far worse than those. But it won’t matter. You’d never get that far without my father’s blessing for passage. Nor would your fae lungs survive it without his help.”
My shoulders fell.
She was right; we’d need naiad magic for that. And without Patamoi’s blessing, we had nothing.
“Thank you,” I told her quietly. “For giving me this information, for the clothes, for your friendship. Especially after everything that happened in Grey Oak. The danger I ended up putting you in. I am in your debt for all you’re doing for me and my friends.”
“It is what friends do.” She stepped closer, enough that the scales along her throat caught the light like a net. “Be careful, Aurelia. The naiad play games. Our smiles hide our teeth.” Her voice softened at the edges. “And our teeth are very sharp.”
I shuddered.
But she was smiling again, the foreboding gone from her otherworldly eyes. She nodded at the dress again. The green one. Of course.
Her guard had already untied the laces and unhooked the shoulder fastens. “I had it cut to your measurements.”
“My measurements,” I repeated, arching a brow. “From our first meeting in Grey Oak?”
“From when you walked past one of our mirrors on the way in,” she said, unabashed as she smiled sensually at herguards. “We like to keep track of our favorites, don’t we, darling?”
I pretended that didn’t make my cheeks flush with heat and went behind the screen to change.
The dress slid on like water. It left my shoulders bare and fell straight to the floor, heavier than it looked, with slits I could move in and seams that didn’t stretch when I reached for an imaginary blade.
If only I had one to reach for.
