Page 49

When we reach level ground, I loosen my grip but don’t remove the tentacle immediately. Valerie doesn’t ask me to.

A group of jellyfish drifts from behind a rock formation before either of us says anything else. Their translucent bells pulse softly through the water, casting brief blue light across the darkness.

Valerie stops and leans forward inside the armor. One hand lifts instinctively toward them before she catches herself.

“Don’t go any farther. The ground still drops on your left.”

“I’m only looking.” Her hand settles against the front of the suit as another jellyfish passes nearby. “They’re incredible.”

I stay beside her while she watches them. Light moves across the visor for a few seconds, enough to show the fascination on her face before the creatures drift farther into the trench.

This is nothing like the version of Valerie I imagined down here. She isn’t enduring the abyss because of me. She likes being here.

“It’s peaceful,” she says after a while. “I thought I’d be terrified, but everything on the surface feels very far away.”

Guilt presses hard beneath my ribs.

Rakan is still working on the basin. Lotan has promised nothing beyond considering the offer once the water is ready. Valerie believes Saltweather is safe because I let her believe it.

I should tell her now.

Instead, I look at the ease in her face and hesitate. “The deep has fewer complications,” I say instead. “Most of the time.”

Valerie looks toward me through the visor, then back at the jellyfish as the last of them disappear into the dark.

We turn toward the fortress. Her steps are slower on the way back, but she no longer has to think through every movement before taking it. By the time the outer wall rises ahead of us, I only have to steady her once.

I open the outer airlock, and warm light spreads across the seabed. Valerie pauses at the threshold instead of stepping inside.

“The suit still has plenty of charge. We could stay out a little longer.”

I’m tempted enough that refusing takes effort. She has spent the last hour finding things I stopped noticing centuries ago. I want to see what else she would make me look at again.

“We’ll come out again after Ysra checks the suit. Next time, we can go farther.”

Her smile appears immediately. “I’d like that. I wish you’d trusted me enough to bring me out sooner, but I’m glad you finally did.”

I loosen the tentacle around her waist and let it slide away from the armor. Valerie steps into the chamber, and I follow her instead of remaining outside. The outer doors close behind us, and neither of us speaks while the water drains.

Valerie seems content to watch the level fall across the visor, still carrying some of the quiet from the trench with her. I stand beside her and hear her last words again.

She thinks I finally trust her. By the time air fills the chamber, I know I can’t let her walk away while still keeping secrets.

The pressure wards release, and I move behind her to open the clasps she can’t reach. Valerie pulls the helmet free once the seal loosens and draws a deep breath, damp hair falling around her face.

“That might be the strangest thing I’ve ever done.” She sets the helmet on the bench and gives me a tired smile. “I want to do it again.”

“We will.”

I remove the heavier shoulder section and help her work one arm, then the other, out of the suit. Once the bulk of the armor rests on the bench beside us, Valerie rolls her shoulders and flexes her fingers. She looks happy, and I am about to destroy that.

“There’s something about Saltweather I should have told you,” I blurt out.

Valerie’s tired smile disappears, and she turns toward me with sudden wariness. “What happened?”

“The eviction is canceled. That hasn’t changed, but it was never the only claim against the town.” I stay beside the bench rather than moving closer. “Before you came to me, my mother made a territorial agreement with a leviathan named Lotan. His kind needs enormous stretches of water to raise their young. Solveig promised him the coastline around Saltweather to keep a territorial dispute from becoming a war.”

Valerie stares at me for a moment, plainly trying to reconcile what she has just heard with everything I told her before.