Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,77

capturing people like me. I’m clearly too weak to fight.”

She did look weak, I had to admit. Perhaps it was just that I’d gotten stronger since I’d seen her last, but her arms were as thin as branch coral, and there were purple smudges below her eyes.

“What about your brother?” I asked. He’d been a prisoner in New Castle since before I had arrived.

Ebb bowed her head like a wilted flower. “He’s still in the dungeon as far as I know. The alternative is too grim to consider.”

“We’ll rescue him when we free the Varenians,” I said hopefully.

A shadow passed over her pale eyes. “I wish it were going to be possible, Nor, but I don’t see how. All the secret routes the servants used to get around the castle have been cut off. The passage you escaped through was sealed up after the bloodstones were extracted. You might be able to smuggle in one or two people the way I escaped, but Ceren is surrounded by guards at every moment. As long as he lives, you’ll never defeat his army.”

Seeing the utter hopelessness on her face made my stomach twist with unease, but I did my best to hide it. I made my way to where the horses were grazing. Titania’s black coat was difficult to see in the dark, but she whickered when she heard me approaching.

“There you are, girl,” I said, handing her a small lump of sugar I’d pocketed back at the inn. “I missed you.”

“She missed you, too.” Roan stepped out from behind his gelding, materializing like a wraith in the dark. “Apologies if I startled you. I was just checking Kosmos’s hoof. He bruised it earlier.”

“Hello, Roan. I figured you’d be here when I didn’t see you at the campfire.”

He came to stand beside me as I ran my hands over Titania’s legs, checking for any heat or injuries.

“I really am sorry,” he said after the silence began to grow uncomfortable. “I shouldn’t have left you alone in Galeth. It was foolish of me.”

I straightened to look at him. “You couldn’t have known. Besides, you didn’t have a choice.”

His profile was even sharper in the moonlight, as if he’d been carved from stone. “There is always a choice.”

I scratched behind Titania’s ears. “And what will you choose now? We’re almost to Talia’s camp. You can head back to Galeth at any time.”

“I thought we might meet with this woman king,” he said. “Or girl king, as the case may be.”

“I think you’d be meeting with her mother. Zoi is only four.”

“You can tell a lot about a person when they’re four.”

I laughed. “Oh really? Beyond their favorite color or food?”

“I’ll know not to trust her if her favorite food is spinach. And of course, I’ll meet with her mother, too, if she’ll agree to see us.”

“Talin will make sure she does.”

He was silent for a few moments. “Nor, I know you were hoping to free the Varenians before any fighting starts. But from what everyone has told me, that’s going to be impossible.”

I started to weave Titania’s forelock into a braid, then brushed it out again with my fingers. “It was also impossible that I would survive cutting myself on a blood coral or that a girl with a scar would leave Varenia to marry the prince. It was impossible to escape New Castle and make it home again, and it was impossible that I’d visit Galeth and learn about healing from a witch.” I fed the last granules of sugar to Titania. “Everything I’ve done for the past seven years is impossible, depending on who you ask.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“My plan hasn’t changed. I just need to figure out how to get Ceren away from New Castle.”

I expected Roan to ask me how, but instead he glanced up at the sky, and I was glad I didn’t have to answer. A plan was beginning to take shape, but it was desperate to say the least, and I knew if I had to defend it now, it would crumble.

I leaned against Titania and looked up, trying to picture the future, but all I saw was the same thing I’d seen every night of my life in Varenia: a black sky studded with stars, each one a possibility that I hadn’t yet imagined.

“Good night, Roan,” I said, and left him staring up at the stars.

* * *

By the time we reached the border the following day, Talia’s soldiers had already claimed the crossing. There was