Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,4

at the port market. He left a coded message for me.”

Father scratched at his head, and Mother looked more skeptical than hopeful. “What message?”

“The rose, and a song, if Zadie can remember it.”

“I could remember it much more easily if everyone would be quiet!” Zadie had taken up my pacing and was still worrying at a jagged nail with her teeth. “It reminded me of our childhood,” she added in a softer voice.

“A lullaby?” Mother suggested.

Zadie shook her head. “No, something more obscure than that. Maybe one of those songs Sami used to sing, the ones he picked up at market?”

I hopped in place, more certain than ever that I was on the right track. “The one about the goat and the donkey?” It hadn’t been my favorite, since I had no idea what a goat or a donkey looked like, but Sami assured me it was funny.

“No, no. Something pretty, but with a melancholy tune.”

I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward me. “‘My horse has a mane of handspun gold, and hooves of finest silver?’ That one?” It was a song that Sami had taught me when we were twelve or thirteen. I had never seen a horse then either, but Thalos knew I had imagined them a thousand times.

“Maybe. Can you sing it?”

I hummed the tune, then gasped as the final line came back to me. “‘And roses red around her neck, for no other horse is finer.’ Red roses, Zadie!”

I spun my bewildered sister in my arms. “I don’t understand,” she replied.

“Sami is alive!”

Zadie planted her feet to stop my spinning, and I waited for the room to come back into focus. “What if I’m wrong about the song?” Zadie asked. “What if it’s just a coincidence?”

“It is not a coincidence,” I insisted. “We have to tell the governor.”

“I’m sorry, Nor, but you can’t tell Kristos about the song,” Mother said.

Father placed his hand on my shoulder. “I understand that you want to help. But it might give him false hope.”

I hesitated. Maybe they were right. If I was wrong about this, Kristos would have even less reason to trust me. But hope was hope, and Varenia had been in short supply of it for too long. I couldn’t go to the governor’s house and prove to him that Ceren was dead and Varenia was free, but I could give him this.

“It’s not false hope,” I said, lifting the trapdoor. “Sami is alive. I know it.”

I wouldn’t give up on finding Sami, no matter what everyone else thought. Not only was he imperative to Zadie’s happiness, but he had risked his life twice to see me at the port market, and it was his loyalty to Zadie and me that had made him an easy target for Phaedra. If the tables were turned, there was no question Sami would search for me.

The only real question was whether, once I found him, I could return to a place that had turned its back on me and the people I loved.

And more importantly, would I even want to?

2

“I can’t believe they wouldn’t even hear me out.”

I sat on the bed next to Zadie, tears of frustration welling in my eyes. My conversation with Governor Kristos had gone horribly. In the past, I had been one of the only villagers allowed inside his house, thanks to the close relationship between him and my father. But today, I could barely get out my theory about Sami and the kite seller without Kristos speaking over me.

Far more painful than his dismissiveness was the realization that he didn’t believe I had killed Ceren. Every time I spoke Ceren’s name, I flashed back to my last moments with him, the warmth of his blood on my hands, the sheer hatred in his eyes. It was bad enough that I had stabbed him; the fact that no one believed me made it a hundred times worse.

Zadie brushed my hair with her fingers. “I’m so sorry, Nor. I know how much you sacrificed, and soon enough so will the rest of Varenia.”

I sniffed and wiped my tears on my sleeve. Despite Zadie’s warnings about the villagers’ anger, in the back of my mind, I had still hoped for a peaceful homecoming. How could I have expected to be welcomed back when I was more despised here than ever?

“Let’s get some rest. Surely we’ve earned that.”

“I’ll come to bed soon,” I said. “I need some more time to think.” I walked out to the balcony and