“Hey, Arion,” I call out. “Where in the world are we?”
Arion uses the black ropes to pull himself over the deck. The strong winds ripple against the sails so he tightens them. “Steady on the Southern Channel. We’ll have to wait for Lady Thalia to return with an approximation of time.”
“She’s been gone since sunrise,” Layla says.
Arion tugs on his black beard. “It won’t be long now, Master Tristan. The trick to the Vanishing Cove is making sure we don’t miss it.”
“You’re not saying it literally vanishes?” Layla asks, wonder-struck.
“I don’t like this.” Gwen pounds her fists on the wood. “I don’t like being stuck on a boat.”
Casting a long shadow over Gwen, Kurt points an authoritative finger in her face. “None of us are stuck here, Lady Gwenivere. You’re more than welcome to return to Toliss Island and resume your duties at court.”
Under the shade of the mainsail, we stand in a broken circle. Now I know why Thalia volunteered to swim off and scout the remaining distance to the cove.
“Ah, right you are, Kurtomathetis of the Sea Guard.” Gwen crosses her slender arms over her chest, emphasizing the cleavage her bikini barely covers. “The only one stuck here is our captain. As is this foot-fin over here.” She waves at Layla dismissively.
Layla seethes, “Don’t call me that.”
Gwen smiles through it. She sees the argument forming on my lips and looks away, but doesn’t apologize. “What I mean is, we’ve been on this ship for nearly two days.”
“Congratulations on your accelerated ability to count,” Layla says.
Gwen throws her hands in the air and makes very un-princesslike exclamations. “What I mean is there are other ways of getting to the Vanishing Cove. We are Sea People. We swim.”
Unbidden, the attack of the merrows returns to the forefront of my mind. “We’re stronger together.”
“The championship ends in six days and seven nights,” she reminds me. “Then the champions return to Toliss for the final duel. Need I remind you that, without a trident, there is no king, and without a king—”
“We know what happens,” Kurt says roughly. “Without a king, we will be left with destruction and chaos. That is why the champions travel on ships armed to the masts with soldiers. When the throne is weakened, not even the sea is kind to us.”
Gwen’s cheeks are sucked in like she’s holding back the venom on her tongue. I can see the rage in her with nowhere to go. She throws it at the most vulnerable person she can find. “Oh, is that it? Here I thought we were staying dry because the foot-fin can’t swim.”
Layla, one the fastest swimmers I know, freezes. She takes a step toward Gwen, but Kurt gets between them first. On any other day, I wouldn’t mind watching a girl fight. Especially when it’s pretty much about me. But the thing Layla doesn’t know, the thing even Kurt doesn’t know, is that if it weren’t for Gwen, Layla wouldn’t be alive.
“Layla…” I warn. When she turns to me, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to say. Under the scent of washed wood and the salt of the ocean, I get a whiff of her—lavender and honey and light. Her nose is sunburnt and peeling. It makes me want to stand in the way and let the sun set me on fire instead.
“Fine,” Layla says, steadying her breath. She turns around and climbs the steps to the ship’s wheel. “Take her side. I’ll be over here doing whatever footfins do.”
“It’s not about sides!” I yell.
Gwen pushes past Kurt and me, growling, “You know that I’m right.”
With Layla and Gwen at different corners of the deck, Kurt and I are left standing at the mainmast. “We have to fix this,” I say.
“Lord Sea—” Kurt says.
I put my hand on his chest and press him against the mast. “Don’t. Call. Me. Lord. Sea.”
He looks down at my hand and smirks.
“Tristan,” he lowers his voice, “come with me. Your sword needs sharpening.”
•••
Kurt and I duck past the barrels of sea mead and the trunk of weapons. Two cannons are lined with seaweed so soft that it feels like velvet.
“I think I found where the urchin bros sleep,” I say. “Definitely more comfortable than the deck was last night.” Kurt unloads his weapons on a table slab.
I unbuckle my sheath. I add my beat-up sword and Triton’s dagger to the mix. Unlike the dull broadsword I’ve been training with, Triton’s dagger is pristine. Handed down