Aizel watched in horror as a guard led her sister into the room through a door on the opposite side.
Celesta looked confused but otherwise unharmed. She was wearing a white ribbon snugly around her neck. A small jewel was attached to it. The sight of the hated device gave Aizel a small moment of relief.
If they had silenced her, they hadn’t yet discovered her sister could not speak.
When Celesta saw Aizel, her face lit up in disbelief and she leapt forward, throwing herself into her sister’s arms.
Aizel hugged Celesta tightly as her heart pounded. She would do anything to get her sister out of this place.
Celesta pulled back, her face twisted into a frown as she poked Aizel in the chest. She rapidly made small movements with her hand, pointing at Aizel, slicing through the air with a flattened hand, and then pointing to herself. “You left me.”
Aizel nodded, her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry.” It was not uncommon for Majis to speak to each other with their hands on Istroya, so Aizel was not worried that their method of communication would reveal Celesta’s secret.
Celesta pointed to herself then Aizel, then slashed her hand across her face. “I thought you were dead.”
Aizel nodded. “I know,” she mouthed. “I’m sorry. I was trying to save you.”
“I always wished I had a brother,” the king’s voice cut into their silent conversation.
Aizel pulled Celesta close, keeping her sister’s face angled away from the king so that she couldn’t read his lips.
“Or a sister would have been fine as well,” he continued. “Someone to share the joys and sorrows of life. A friend. Someone to confide in.” His face was pensive, as if he had the wisdom one only gained in old age. “But I was never given that gift. Instead, I was given a broken kingdom and some weak alliances, along with the mandate to unite them all. To make it the true place for all people to live in contentment rather than constant fear.”
Celesta had tried to turn in Aizel’s arms to see the king and find out what was going on, but Aizel gently twisted her back, burying her younger sister’s face in a hug.
“What does that have to do with my sister?” Aizel’s mind was too full to follow along with his word games.
“You want what is best for your sister?” the king asked.
Aizel did not deign to give him a response.
Not seeming bothered by that, he continued. “Imagine feeling that sense of responsibility for every living soul on this continent. I do not have a sister, sorceress, but I do know how you feel. We are alike, you and I.”
Aizel shook her head. She was nothing like this young king and she would never admit it.
“One day you will see it more clearly.” Again, he seemed relatively unbothered by her direct opposition.
“Now, imagine someone took your little sister, the one you love so much, and did something that put her in harm’s way?”
Aizel did not have to imagine very hard to understand how that would feel.
“I am doing everything in my power to make the lives of those in my responsibility better. They are living in fear. And your actions have upset those plans, hurting my little brothers and sisters.” His voice was both sorrowful and accusing as he looked down at her from his throne.
Aizel stared back at him, confused. Were it not his Quotidian soldiers who had caused the giant wave, destroying at least one ship full of men and dealing damage all along the coast? Or was there some other Quotidian faction he was working against?
“You see,” his face softened into a smile. “We do understand each other quite well, do we not?”
“My sister?” Aizel lost her carefully composed façade. “What does my sister have to do with any of this?”
“Justice begs for fulfillment,” the king said. “You have wronged me, by taking something I want.”
“I don’t understand,” Aizel said, eager to keep the conversation away from Celesta. The only thing she had done was to stop collecting pearls for him and his taskers. “You had no idea I existed until a short time ago. Will you actually miss the work of a single diver who isn’t even very good at diving?”
“No.” The king shook his head. “You saved a life I was trying to destroy. You took my well-laid plan and rendered it useless.”
Aizel narrowed her gaze. He was speaking of the prince she had saved from the sea.
But this boy king was far too young to be a father, which meant the prince she had saved was the son of a different king on the continent.
