Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,3

explain everything. I promise. But I need to speak to Governor Kristos immediately.”

“Oh, child, I wish you could,” Father said. “But he won’t see our family. Not after Sami’s abduction.” The pain Father felt at the loss of both Sami and his parents’ friendship was etched in the lines of his face.

Zadie had explained to me that while Governor Kristos was furious at Alys’s mother, Phaedra, and her cronies for abducting and abandoning Sami, he feared punishing the culprits would result in retaliation, given the fragile state of the village. Kristos had ordered the Varenians to pool their resources in an attempt to make sure everyone had adequate food and water, but some people rebelled and stopped diving altogether. Punishing Phaedra could backfire, given the large contingent of villagers on her side.

Mother and Father exchanged a look I couldn’t interpret. “You can try,” Mother said, surprising me. “He has always been fond of you. But we’ll wait until after sundown, so you aren’t seen. If Phaedra catches sight of you... Well, who knows what she’s capable of?”

My eyebrows rose. “Does she really wield that much power?”

“When the emissary came to pay your bride price, Phaedra told him you had switched places with Zadie. Our water supply was cut off not long after. In the wake of that event, she convinced the villagers that your betrayal of the king caused all our hardships,” Father said gently. “I don’t think we can be too cautious.”

I thought I saw the sheen of tears in Mother’s eyes, but she blinked before I could be sure. “Zadie, come help me. I caught a sunfish, and I intend to make a feast of it.”

Now it was my turn to gape. “You caught a fish?”

“Don’t look so surprised,” Mother snapped as she lifted the trapdoor. “Catching a fish is nothing compared to raising twin daughters.”

As the hours passed, my worry about how Governor Kristos would perceive my presence in Varenia only grew, especially knowing that Sami had been banished for “conspiring” with me.

“What if Kristos refuses to see me?” I asked Zadie, who handed me another fishing net to mend. Normally I would have found any excuse to avoid such a boring task, but keeping busy was the best way to pass the time.

“We won’t let him,” Zadie said, though judging by the way she was pulverizing the fish for our supper, she was as anxious as I was.

“If only we had some way of knowing if Sami made it to land.” I dropped the net and began pacing over the floorboards. Kristos would welcome me with open arms in that case.

“Surely he would have gone to see the kite seller if he had.”

The kite seller. Of course. He was Sami’s best contact on land, as far as we knew, and Sami trusted him to keep his secrets. “What exactly did the kite seller say to you when you saw him at the port market?”

“What do you mean?” she asked. “And for the love of Thalos, stop pacing! You’re making me nervous.”

I took a seat on one of our driftwood stools. “You said he gave you the rose, but did he say anything to you? Did he give you any hint that he might have seen Sami?”

She shook her head. “Not really. When I arrived at the tent, he was already packing away his kites for the day. He smiled when he saw me—he must have thought I was you—and handed me the rose.”

I put my hand on my knee to stop it from bouncing. “You’re right. He would have thought you were me,” I mumbled. “Which means he thought he was giving me the rose. You’re sure he didn’t say anything?”

“I suppose he must have, but I was so worried about finding you.” She chewed absently on a fingernail, an old habit I hadn’t seen since Mother put bitter squid ink on Zadie’s fingertips. “I do remember several Ilarean guards walking past us, which seemed to make him anxious. He was humming a tune over and over. It was familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

I leaped up from the stool, too excited to sit still. “Try to remember it, Zadie. It’s important. He wouldn’t have been humming for no reason. It was a message, I’m sure of it.”

Zadie still looked doubtful. “Why wouldn’t he have just told me?”

“You said the market was crawling with guards. He had to be careful.” I turned to look at my parents, who had just emerged from their room. “Sami was