“Odd she didn’t just kill you.”
I glance over at him. He could just as easily have said, “Odd she didn’t serve pheasant at dinner.” Sinta might survive after all.
“I’m too valuable to kill. Kingmakers are rare, and useful. She bribed me. More guards, food, clothing, beautiful accommodations. It worked for a while. I was only nine, and I’d just been tortured and deprived of all comfort for eight months.”
A mixture of fury and disgust contorts his features. “How did you get away? People don’t just let a weapon like you go.”
I give him the evil eye. “You should know. But you asked about the royals. Let’s talk about the royals.”
He starts to say something, but I cut him off. “Of the eight children, four were left. I killed Otis. That leaves Laertes, Priam, and Ianthe. They’re probably busy trying to kill each other off now that they’ve each moved up a rank.”
Ianthe had only just turned nine when I escaped Fisa City. Priam was eleven, Laertes thirteen. Andromeda was already hard at work turning them into monsters. Otis was fourteen. Now he’s dead.
“Are they all Magoi?” Beta Sinta asks.
I snort. “Andromeda’s line would produce nothing less. If by some fluke of nature it did, she’d probably drown the child at birth, like the unwanted runt of the litter.”
He grunts. “She sounds like a treat.”
I almost smile. That was funny. It would have been funnier if she hadn’t terrorized me for years.
“They mostly have Fire Magic. It’s common among Fisan royals, but they can all do different things with it. Needles of fire, Chimera’s Fire, fire whips, fire balls, flaming attack birds… You know, that kind of thing.”
“No,” he says broodingly. “I know very little of that kind of thing.”
I stare into the fire. Rabbit fat drips from the spit, making it spark and hiss. “Use your imagination. None of it’s fun.”
He’s silent for a while, using his imagination, I guess. “Did they attack you with fire in the cage?”
I sit up, drawing my knees under my chin. “Among other things. Torture is a favorite pastime in Castle Fisa.”
He looks at me strangely, a crease settling between his eyebrows. Compassion? Pity? I can’t tell. I don’t want either.
“But you absorbed it and sent it back?”
I shake my head. “Not then. I couldn’t do that then.”
I see the exact moment he puts the pieces together. It doesn’t take long. “The Oracle. The gift.”
I don’t deny or confirm, and I don’t tell him I was granted two gifts, or that I’ve felt Poseidon’s presence close to me ever since.
“The Fisan royals are abominations,” Beta Sinta announces.
I nod. I couldn’t agree more.
“What do you say we kill every last one of them?”
I turn, and my eyes crash into his. For me? “I’d say our goals have common ground,” I answer cautiously, a little breathless.
His gaze turns even more intense than usual, and heat swamps my insides. “Tell me about the others. The first four.”
“Why? They’re dead.” Mostly, anyway.
“Humor me.”
It’s not in my nature to humor people. I start talking anyway. “Thaddeus killed Ajax. Lukia killed Thaddeus. Otis killed Eleni. And Lukia is missing.”
“The Lost Princess?”
I smile vaguely. “Heard of her?”
He nods. “I didn’t know her name, but I think everyone has heard of the Lost Princess of Fisa. Do you know why she disappeared?”
“The ambiance in Castle Fisa wasn’t exactly homey,” I answer tartly.
He grins. It’s wide and unexpected and sends a sudden thrill through me.
Shifting uncomfortably, I push the feeling aside. “Andromeda trapped Lukia and Eleni and then forced them into an arena, intending them to fight to the death.” I use words Beta Sinta will understand. “They were a team. They worked together to stay alive. The two girls actually liked each other, and Andromeda couldn’t have that. They were growing up, becoming more powerful, thinking. Their popularity was reaching dangerous levels, especially since Andromeda had none.”
“So she found a way to tear them apart?”
I shake my head. “They refused to fight. She deprived them of food, then water. When that didn’t work, she got in their heads. Compulsion,” I explain. “Planting ideas. Controlling actions. Making things seem…not what they are. They resisted. It took seven days and a lot of weakening for the princesses to come to blows. They were both half-dead by then. Eleni was older, stronger, and Lukia’s magic wasn’t useful in combat. But Eleni wouldn’t kill her sister, no matter what Andromeda did.”