Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,93

and forth for nearly half an hour, neither one of us backing down. “Even if I trusted Ceren not to hurt you,” Zadie said, “you’d be winning the battle just to lose the war.”

“And what do you propose?” I had shot back, exasperated. “If we do nothing and Talia marches on New Castle, Ceren will have the Varenians to use however he sees fit: as troops, cannon fodder, or collateral. And I’m not sure Talia cares enough about them to let that stop her.”

She had paced for a few minutes, considering. “What if we only let Ceren believe he was getting your blood?”

I shook my head. “Ceren isn’t stupid. He’ll want to collect the blood from my arm himself.”

That was when Zadie had proposed her idea, and our arguing had only escalated from there. But I had recognized the same determination in her eyes I’d seen the night she scarred herself. I had always been known as the stubborn one, but when it came down to it, Zadie was even more obstinate than I was.

Now, as Zadie explained to the gathering what we had agreed upon, it was Samiel who exploded in a fit of rage.

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this!” he shouted, practically leaping from his chair. “We can’t send Zadie in Nor’s place. Assuming Ceren even falls for it, she doesn’t have Nor’s healing abilities. If he cuts too deep or too hard—”

“He never has before,” Zadie said calmly.

I turned to Talin, who was staring at me with silent, seething anger. “Say something,” I pleaded. I hadn’t expected him to like the idea of me offering my blood in exchange for the Varenians, but I had hoped he would at least understand why I did it.

“I can’t believe you made a deal with Ceren without consulting me first,” he said finally.

“I knew you’d never agree to it. Anyway, you should be thanking me. We needed to lure Ceren out of New Castle, and we have. There is a place where the forest grows relatively close to Ceren’s camp. You can ride there under cover of darkness tonight with your troops. When we make the exchange, we’ll give a signal. By the time Ceren realizes what we’ve done, you’ll have cut him off from New Castle and the rest of his army.”

I was afraid Talin would dismiss the deal outright, but he closed his eyes for a moment before speaking. “I need to discuss this with my mother. We’ll meet again in an hour.” When he opened his eyes, they went straight to me, and I half hoped he would ask me to stay so we could talk through this. Instead, he dismissed us all with a wave of his hand.

Sami and Zadie disappeared to their room to argue in private. Adriel followed me back to our room in silence. Once the door was closed, she had plenty of say.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” She flopped down on her bed, arms and legs stretched out like a starfish. “Because I have absolutely no idea.”

“Zadie wants to do this, Adriel. And I’d be a hypocrite if I wouldn’t let her do the very thing I proposed. She asked me to trust her, and believe me, knowingly putting my sister in harm’s way is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. But she’s braver than people realize—than I realized—and I believe she can do this.”

“And what if Ceren realizes what you’ve done? He could kill her, Nor.”

It was the very same point I’d made to Zadie, but she’d had a counterargument. “Ceren knows he would never get my blood if he killed Zadie.”

“And if he drinks the blood right away? He’ll expect a vision.”

“Which is why I’m going to be there, hidden. If he won’t wait until Zadie is back with our troops, I’ll cut myself the moment he drinks it.”

She shook her head again but finally scooted over enough for me to sit on her bed. “I don’t like it. I know you want to protect the Varenians, but we both know they wouldn’t do the same for you.”

I lay down next to her. “Would the people of Galeth heal you if you were the ailing one?”

“I doubt it.”

“Exactly. And yet you work for them anyway.”

“At least I get paid.”

I turned to face her. “You know that’s not the reason you do it. I know in my heart this is right, Adriel.”

She sighed, resigned, and reached onto her nightstand for the leather book. “There’s a