Day, are you coming?We’ve explained everything to them and they’re ready.Enzo’s entreaty pulls my mind off one problem and pitches it toward a more immediate one. Though is transforming two new souls into shifters a problem?
Yes, if the ocean keeps ridding itself of salt,my mind parries.
My musings must penetrate Cathal’s mind, because he says, “An antidote will be found.”
I hope he’s right because the memory of what it did still haunts me.
Ready?
I nod. As he shapeshifts, a thought strikes me. One that I share with him through the mind link.The Shabbins can communicate with serpents.When his voice doesn’t flare through my mind, I ask,Can you hear me?
Yes. I can hear you. I didn’t realize there was a question in there.He extends one of his wings for me to climb.
It’s not so much a question as a deliberation: what if a Shabbin—my gaze strays to the house Behati and Kanti have moved into—has commanded the serpents to keep aspirants out in order to stop me from growing my den?
We’re already exploring that avenue.
Of course, Cathal’s already entertained this idea. He’s so much more learned about the world and cautious about its people than I am. We reach the beach just as the sun pokes over the horizon and turns the ocean molten.
Heads crane as we land.
When Erwin mentioned twins, I expected them to look identical like the Glacin sisters, but these twins are vastly different. Yes, their eyes are both hazel and their hair cropped within a millimeter of their scalp, but one is female and the other male. Not only that, but the boy is as tall as a date palm while his sister is as petite as Behati. The hue of their shorn hair is also vastly different—the boy’s the same white as the Glacin King, whereas the girl’s is Crow-black. That will change soon, though.
Where Erwin had wondered how they’d survived their voyage, I wonder how they’ve survived, period. Both areagonizingly skinny, with bones pressing into severely sunburnt skin, patches of which have begun to peel.
As I approach, my bare feet sinking into the soft sand, the girl shuffles the slightest bit nearer to her brother.
“They’re orphans,” Agrippina explains in Shabbin. “Their mother died in childbirth, while their father, like many, succumbed to frostbite wounds acquired during the Great Dig.”
I nod, having heard of the Great Dig during lunch in Isolacuori. King Vladimir raved about how his mountains were being excavated to accommodate a railway system that would revolutionize Glacin life and commerce, quieting only when his son asked a question. One I’d forgotten to have translated with everything that had happened subsequently.
Conceivably, these children can explain their kingdom’s inner workings once they speak our tongue.If, I correct myself, notonce. Though it worked with both Agrippina and Enzo, neither intentionally sacrificed themselves.
“Tell them there’s no guarantee that the transformation will take,” I say in Serpent, which blows the twins’ lashes wide. “I won’t make empty promises.”
Agrippina, who speaks their tongue, dispatches my words. Brother and sister exchange a look, link hands, and nod.
I ask the Mahananda for advice, but it remains quiet.
“How do we kill them?” Enzo asks.
“Wedon’t.” Agrippina’s nose rumples as she tucks her shoulder-length blue strands behind her ears. “At least, I don’t think we should. Daya? Thoughts?”
“I agree with Agrippina.”
“I’ll do it,” Reid volunteers. “On your command, Sumaca.”
I unknot my robe and hand it over to my unsettled mate, then approach the ocean’s edge.Agrippina, Enzo, keep any curious serpents at bay.
They nod and tread into the waves, shifting almost instantly. “One at a time,” I tell Reid.
Cathal slings my robe over one shoulder, then crosses his arms as the brother releases his sister’s hand and follows Reid. I don’t ask for his name. I’d prefer not to know it yet.
“May the ocean reshape you,” I whisper in Serpent, before sinking into scales.
Chapter 62
Zendaya
