He snorts while I smile, but too soon, my mind veers back to the battle of Primanivi, and the uptick of my mouth wanes.
I pat Furia’s sweat-soaked neck. “Does that mean that, now that you’re back, some of your people have awakened?”
They can only break out of their obsidian form once all five of my crows join.
“Stone? Don’t they turn to iron like you?”
No. Only I turn to metal.
I squint at the brightening, shimmering sea. To think that beneath it lies a ship filled with stone statues of men and birds. The distant white caps catapult an idea inside my skull.
I whip my gaze toward Morrgot. “Can serpents touch obsidian, or does it affect them like it does your species?”
It doesn’t affect them. Why?
Thank Gods because I threw those spikes inside the canal. The breath I loose could tip a ship. “You know how I can sort of communicate with animals? Well, I’m friends with a serpent.”
He eyes me warily.
“I could maybe teach him to remove the spikes from your people and crows? Or tow the ship closer to shore? Or something. He’s massive and very strong.”
I nibble on my lip as I think logistics. First, I’d have to lead Minimus to where the ship sank off the southern coast of Luce. It would tack on a few days to my overall mission, but if it worked—
Antoni and his crew are dredging the ship to shore so you can free my last crow.
My eyes grow as wide as my mouth, and I suck in too much air. “Every boat that wanders those waters sinks! You’ve condemned him to death.”
He won’t die.
“Why? Because Bronwen foresaw he’d be fine?”
Yes.
“What if she’s wrong?”
She never has been.
“How come she has this power? No faerie I know can foretell the future.”
She struck a deal with a Shabbin sorceress. Her sight of the present for the sight of the future.
My blood runs cold at the idea that the Shabbins possess such power. “What did she give the sorceress in exchange?”
Her eyes.
“No, I got that. I meant . . . coin, jewels, her firstborn?”
Her eyes. The Shabbins can see everything she sees. She’s become their eyes.
Oh . . .Oh!“They’re spying on us?”
They’re our allies. All they desire is to help us rise and take back what’s ours so we can help them shatter the wards.
How strange to think that Luce will be divided between two monarchs. “She can truly see the future?”
Truly.
I sit up straighter in the saddle as though a crown already graces my head. I’m curious to know when and how Dante will propose. I dream of a lavish affair with music and flowers but decide I’d prefer a simple one.
