Vectra warned me that not all worlds shimmer like Tripolis. She said I would find ugliness in its truest form, and worse—ugliness masquerading as beauty.
But the Lioness was only ugliness. No disguise, no secret gleam. Her decks reeked of tar and sweat, her timbers groaned like wounded beasts. The only beautiful thing aboard was Bonnie: the first mate with storm-bright eyes, tethered to a captain whose mind drifted like wreckage.
Sailors I understood only from Vectra's half-whispered tales of distant systems. Their crude rituals, their lust for tides and ale. Yet standing here, I realized even those tales had been too kind.
I needed Isla Rhea.
Bonnie appeared with a hunk of bread, crust edged in green mold. "Here, girl. You need to eat."
I did not. Hunger was foreign to me, thirst a memory my body had long outgrown. But her gaze lingered, sharp with suspicion. So I tore the bread and forced it between my teeth, letting the sour crumble on my tongue. "My name is Milada," I said.
"I'm Bonnie. First mate." She watched, then moved her eyes to my brother lying pale on the cot.
"He's a handsome one," she murmured, arms folding across her chest. Her tone was casual, her stare hungry for answers. "How'd you end up in the water?"
"Shipwreck," I lied. To speak of Tripolis, of the fall, of our mission—impossible. Vectra was right: not all worlds should know of their guardians. Some were simply too - well, simple, to understand the powers that kept their little lives spinning.
I dipped a rag in the basin, pressed it to my brother's brow. His skin, usually luminous as gold in sun, burned with fever, flushed red as if some fire raged beneath his veins. "Please," I whispered to him alone, "hold on."
Bonnie stepped nearer, searching my face, then nodded once. "Milada, is it? You said you wanted dropping at the nearest port. Is someone waiting?"
"No." My voice was clipped, not unkind, but closed. "I'll find our way."
She tilted her head. "We're already a transport. If you've coin, we could take you where you're going."
Temptation licked at me—her offer real, her eyes not unkind—but risk outweighed mercy. "The port will suffice."
A long pause. Then she shifted, conceding. "Very well. But if you change your mind…" Her words trailed into the salt air, an unfinished lifeline. She turned, boots thudding on planks, leaving me again with my brother and our silence.
The lantern swayed above us, shadows swam across the wood. I bent close to his ear. "My other half," I breathed, "we'll find the dragon heart. I'll tear it from flame if I must."
****
Later, I climbed to the deck, needing air that was not choked with fever. The sea met me in all its salt-bitten vastness. Captain Kinsley stood alone at the railing, eyes shut. "Captain," I called softly.
His eyes opened, bleak fire smoldering in the depth of his black irises. "Milada, is it?"
I nodded. "May I join you?"
"Of course. Bonnie's clothes look good on you. You look like a pirate."
We stood at the edge, the waves murmuring below. For a moment there was only sea and silence. Then he asked, "What destination drives you?"
I hesitated. To lie again? But my brother's fever pressed against my heart. "A new beginning," I said carefully. "A place where my brother might find salvation."
"And where might such a place be?"
"An island." The name tasted of risk, of hope. "Isla Rhea. I've been told by a trusted friend there is a cure there that can restore anyone."
His brow lifted, just slightly. A silence followed, weighted as anchor-chain.
He studied me, then said, "Curious how you tend to him. How you… are toward him."
"Because he is me," I answered. "We are twins, one life split in two. His plight is mine."
The wind rose, tugging my hair across my face. His profile turned against the horizon, hard as carved stone. "I don't trust beautiful people," he said suddenly, a confession cracked raw.
I laughed, bitter as brine. "What, did one of us break your heart?"
"Yes."
He turned back, eyes narrowing. "If you wish to remain on my ship, the mystery ends here. Who are you, girl?"
The knot in my throat tightened. "I'm just a sister worried for her brother."
"Are you?" he asked. "How come I've never seen you in Aazor? I know everyone in the port city. It's the only port city that brims with intelligent life on Valorian."
"It's better you do not know, Captain. Trust me. I wish I didn't."
A flicker crossed his face, exhaled like a man drowning. "Neptune was god of the Twelve Seas. His wife, Salacia, murdered him. She commands sirens now, hunts us. I sail to end her terror." His jaw clenched. "He is gone. But not forgotten."
I studied him then—this strange captain, draped in torment, haloed in absence, I so feared myself. If I were Lasicus, I could tear into his mind and taste the truth. But I was not my brother.
The sky bled red as the sun drowned. Edward's voice was low, final. "We'll set course for Isla Rhea at dawn."