“If I tell you, then there’s no use in you keeping me around. And I’m not going to spill the best leverage I have so you can leave me stranded here.”
She has a point. The best habit I have is keeping only what I can use. And Lira is definitely something I can use. Even thinking it makes me sound too pirate-like for my own good, and I imagine my father’s crude disappointment at how I’ve come to regard people as a means to an end. Bargaining chips I trade like coin. But Lira is in the unique position of knowing what she is and of being more than happy to play along if it gets her what she wants.
“Tell me something else then.” I swap a card from the deck. “What do you know about the crystal?”
“For starters,” she says, chastising, “it isn’t a crystal, it’s an eye. The ruby eye of the great sea goddess, taken from the sirens so their new queen and her predecessors would never be able to hold the power that Keto did.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Okay,” she says, like it’s a challenge I’ve thrown down. “The Sea Queen’s trident is made from Keto’s bones and Keto’s second eye is what powers it. When the goddess was killed, her most loyal child was nearby. She couldn’t prevent Keto’s death, but she did manage to steal one of her eyes before the humans could take both. With that and the few pieces of Keto that remained, she fashioned the trident and became the first Sea Queen. That trident has been passed down from generation to generation, to the eldest daughter of every Sea Queen. They use it to control the ocean and all of its creatures. As long as the queen has it, every monster in the sea is hers. And if she finds the other eye, she’ll use it to enslave humans in the same way.”
“What a thrilling story.” Kye stares at his deck. “Did you make that one up on the spot?”
“I’m no storyteller,” Lira says.
“Just an outright liar, then?”
I press my fingers to my temples. “That’s enough, Kye.”
“It’ll be enough when we leave her stranded here like we planned.”
“Plans change,” Lira says.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Kye tells her. “If you think that just because you’ve manipulated your way into this mission that it means you’re part of our crew, then you’re wrong. And as long as you’re on the Saad, there’s not a step you’re going to take that I won’t be watching. Especially if it’s near Elian. So put just one foot wrong and it’ll land you back in that cage.”
“Kye,” I warn.
Lira clenches the corner of the table, looking about ready to come undone. “Are you threatening me right now?” she asks.
“Nobody is threatening anyone,” I say.
Kye throws his deck down. “Actually, that’s exactly what I was doing.”
“Well, great,” I tell him. “Now that you’ve let her in on the fact that you’re my hired protection, maybe you can be quiet for five seconds so I can ask her a question.” I turn back to my glaring new crew member, ignoring the irritation on Kye’s face.
“What did you mean, enslave humans in the same way?” I ask.
Lira releases her grip on the table and turns her stony eyes from Kye. “Sirens are not a free species,” she says.
“Are you trying to tell me that they’re just misunderstood? No, wait, let me guess:They actually love humans and want to be one of us but the Sea Queen has them under mind control?”
Lira doesn’t blink at my sarcasm. “Better to be a loyal warrior than a treacherous prisoner,” she says.
“So once I kill the Sea Queen, they can hunt me of their own free will,” I say. “That’s great.”
“How are you even going to navigate up the Cloud Mountain of Págos to get to the eye?” Lira asks.
“We,” I correct her. “You wanted in on this, remember?”
She sighs. “The stories say that only the Págese royal family can climb it.” She eyes me skeptically. “You may be royal, but you’re not Págese.”
“Thanks for noticing.”
I slide more red coins into the center of the table, and Torik throws his hands up.
“Damn you all,” he relents, folding his cards over in a dramatic declaration. “Sweep my deck.”
I grin and slip two of his cards into my own deck – one that I want, and another that I want them to think I do. I split the rest between Kye and Madrid, and they don’t hesitate to shoot me disparaging looks at having ruined their hands.