61. Zendaya

Chapter 61

Zendaya

D ay, we have volunteers! Enzo's voice jolts me awake.

The light that seeps beneath my curtains is watery and gray. I roll onto my back and stretch to realign the bones and muscles I strained making love to Cathal multiple times after we knotted. I smile at the memory, then twist to locate my mate but he doesn't lie on the other side of the bed.

Day? Enzo says again.

I'm awake, Enzo.

Reid's about to fly me and Agrippina up to the beach. Aoife's waiting there with Asha. Come on! He sounds giddy, like someone about to go on some great adventure.

I toss the sheets off my legs and jump out of bed, calling out my mate's name aloud. The only sound is the skitter of claws against stone. I must've awakened Cruaih. Sure enough, the tiny feline comes pouncing down my hallway, meowing as she wraps her body around my ankles.

I scoop her up and kiss the top of her head. Cathal?

I'm outside your door with Erwin, mo Sífair.

Unlike my Serpents' voices, Cathal's resonates not only in my mind but also in my blood. It tightens my abdomen and spurs my pulse. I wonder if it affects him the same way. Apparently, two volunteers have arrived.

I've heard. Get dressed. I'll fly you up to the beach.

I forgo my usual dose of flakes—I'm at twelve now, and barely have any reaction—and dress in a bathing suit, then slip on a robe as pink as my hair and cinch it closed with a belt made of golden pearls. Enzo's excitement must've rubbed off on me because, after replenishing Cruaih's water bowl and making sure she has plenty of what Asha calls kibbles, I all but skip out of my bedchamber.

My excitement takes a slight nosedive at the tension wreathing my mate and Erwin. "What is it? Did something happen to Liora? To Lore?"

"No, Sumaca." Erwin smiles and though it looks genuine, it's not quite as bright as I'd like. "Everyone's just fine. Even the injured."

"Then why do the two of you look so fretful? Is it because volunteers finally showed up? Are you worried about me expanding my den?"

"Of course not." Cathal shakes his head, winding his arm around my waist and pressing a kiss to my hairline, which is crown-free this morning, as it is most mornings.

Though I like my crown, it isn't the most convenient accessory. "Must I keep making guesses or will one of you spit it out?"

"Erwin was saying that there have been other volunteers, but most of them have drowned before making it to Samurashabbe. They've been collecting floating bodies for days now."

"Humans tried to swim across?"

"Most humans do not know how to swim." Cathal slides his jaw from side to side, making it pop.

"Cathal, please. Just tell me everything," I all but growl.

Their boats have been sinking. He gestures to Erwin. "Lore sent a few Crows to survey the waters to find the culprit. We assumed it might be the former members of the Akwale, but it's not; it's the serpents. They've ringed Shabbe and have been splitting every hull that tries to come through with their tusks."

I gasp. "Serpents have only ever saved people. Since when have they become homicidal?"

"We believe it's either some side-effect of that Nebban-made toxin," he says. "Or some collective decision to keep foreigners out of Shabbe to stop its spread."

I frown. "I thought it was no longer being manufactured and poured."

"It's not"—Erwin scrapes a hand through his orange hair—"but the waters around Eponine's shores and around Isolacuori are still depleting themselves of salt and underwater life. No solution to counteract the toxin has been found yet, even though Arin believes we could try and combat it with clay." The blood must leach from my cheeks because Erwin says, "We're just about to start trying it, Sumaca."

I mull all he says over. "The boats that were sunk…did they all originate from Nebba?"

"No. From all over the realm. The twins I collected from the surf and dropped off on your shore were sailing in from Glace. Mórrígan only knows how they managed to ford the Northern Sea on their bonafide raft, but where there's a will, there's a way, I suppose."

Day, are you coming? We've explained everything to them and they're ready. Enzo's entreaty pulls my mind off one problem and pitches it toward a more immediate one. Though is transforming two new souls into shifters a problem?

Yes, if the ocean keeps ridding itself of salt , my mind parries.

My musings must penetrate Cathal's mind, because he says, "An antidote will be found."

I hope he's right because the memory of what it did still haunts me.

Ready?

I nod. As he shapeshifts, a thought strikes me. One that I share with him through the mind link. The Shabbins can communicate with serpents. When his voice doesn't flare through my mind, I ask, Can you hear me?

Yes. I can hear you. I didn't realize there was a question in there. He extends one of his wings for me to climb.

It's not so much a question as a deliberation: what if a Shabbin— my gaze strays to the house Behati and Kanti have moved into— has commanded the serpents to keep aspirants out in order to stop me from growing my den?

We're already exploring that avenue.

Of course, Cathal's already entertained this idea. He's so much more learned about the world and cautious about its people than I am. We reach the beach just as the sun pokes over the horizon and turns the ocean molten.

Heads crane as we land.

When Erwin mentioned twins, I expected them to look identical like the Glacin sisters, but these twins are vastly different. Yes, their eyes are both hazel and their hair cropped within a millimeter of their scalp, but one is female and the other male. Not only that, but the boy is as tall as a date palm while his sister is as petite as Behati. The hue of their shorn hair is also vastly different—the boy's the same white as the Glacin King, whereas the girl's is Crow-black. That will change soon, though.

Where Erwin had wondered how they'd survived their voyage, I wonder how they've survived, period. Both are agonizingly skinny, with bones pressing into severely sunburnt skin, patches of which have begun to peel.

As I approach, my bare feet sinking into the soft sand, the girl shuffles the slightest bit nearer to her brother.

"They're orphans," Agrippina explains in Shabbin. "Their mother died in childbirth, while their father, like many, succumbed to frostbite wounds acquired during the Great Dig."

I nod, having heard of the Great Dig during lunch in Isolacuori. King Vladimir raved about how his mountains were being excavated to accommodate a railway system that would revolutionize Glacin life and commerce, quieting only when his son asked a question. One I'd forgotten to have translated with everything that had happened subsequently.

Conceivably, these children can explain their kingdom's inner workings once they speak our tongue. If , I correct myself, not once . Though it worked with both Agrippina and Enzo, neither intentionally sacrificed themselves.

"Tell them there's no guarantee that the transformation will take," I say in Serpent, which blows the twins' lashes wide. "I won't make empty promises."

Agrippina, who speaks their tongue, dispatches my words. Brother and sister exchange a look, link hands, and nod.

I ask the Mahananda for advice, but it remains quiet.

"How do we kill them?" Enzo asks.

" We don't." Agrippina's nose rumples as she tucks her shoulder-length blue strands behind her ears. "At least, I don't think we should. Daya? Thoughts?"

"I agree with Agrippina."

"I'll do it," Reid volunteers. "On your command, Sumaca."

I unknot my robe and hand it over to my unsettled mate, then approach the ocean's edge. Agrippina, Enzo, keep any curious serpents at bay.

They nod and tread into the waves, shifting almost instantly. "One at a time," I tell Reid.

Cathal slings my robe over one shoulder, then crosses his arms as the brother releases his sister's hand and follows Reid. I don't ask for his name. I'd prefer not to know it yet.

"May the ocean reshape you," I whisper in Serpent, before sinking into scales.