I thought of the guard at the bridge, of the woman king to the south. Was an attack on Ilara really so out of the question?

“Shall I leave, Your Highness?” Grig asked.

Ceren waved a hand at him. “No, no. You’re here, you may as well stay. Wouldn’t want to anger dear Prince Talin, would we?”

Prince Talin. At the sound of his name, my mind went back to yesterday, to when he’d dismounted his horse and taken my hand. I blushed at the memory of his gaze holding mine. I couldn’t imagine Talin taking sick pleasure in tormenting me the way Ceren did.

Of course, Talin was also the only person in Ilara who might be able to guess my secret. I should be grateful he lived far away and that our chances for interaction were limited.

I should be. But I wasn’t.

“Ah, I know that look,” Ceren said, taking my arm and prodding Grig on ahead of us. Gods, was it that obvious? “My brother is blessed with both a handsome face and a charming disposition. He’s a favorite here at court.”

There was a bitterness to his tone that hinted at jealousy. But Ceren was not unattractive, and my mother was living proof that charm could be an illusion.

“Did he make an appearance at Old Castle yesterday?” Ceren asked.

“Yes. And we met in Varenia, as I’m sure you recall.” The words were deliberately pointed. I wanted to know why Ceren had sent his brother as his errand boy.

“Oh yes, I’d forgotten. He said you were perfect. ‘As pure and unblemished as a Varenian pearl.’ I hate it when he’s right.”

The night we’d had dinner at the governor’s house, Talin had said he couldn’t imagine anyone more lovely. He had been looking at me when he said it, but if he truly believed that lack of imperfection equaled beauty, then I must have been mistaken. My scar tingled as my cheeks heated with embarrassment.

“‘Beware the lionfish, my dear,’” Ceren said in a low voice.

“What?”

“Isn’t that how the Varenian song goes? I remember Queen Talia singing it to Talin when he was little. You wave children love your lullabies.”

The line was part of a Varenian cradle song we all grew up with. It warned children to stay away from dangerous sea creatures, but each line had a hidden meaning. For example, lionfish are curiously beautiful, a spectacle of a fish that begs to be touched, despite their venomous spines. But we weren’t just to beware of lionfish; we were to steer clear of anyone too flashy, too proud. I was surprised Ceren knew this, and that he would use it to describe his own brother.

“‘Beware the lionfish, my dear,’” I murmured. “‘Beware the fish that’s made of stone.’”

“Hmm?”

“That’s the next line of the song.” The stonefish was even more dangerous than the lionfish, in part because it had stronger venom, but also because it was hard to see. A stonefish could blend in to the rocks around it so well you wouldn’t know it was there until it was too late and you’d placed a hand or foot directly on top of it. The message there was clear: be careful and cautious with your heart, for things are not always what they seem. At least the lionfish made its presence known.

“I haven’t heard it in years, so you’ll forgive me for forgetting.”

I inclined my head.

“Your name means pearl, does it not?”

“Yes,” I said, my thoughts immediately turning to my sister. I had always been the coral, never the pearl. Now I was supposed to be the thing everyone wanted, the object a future king desired above all else.

I had slowed my pace to match the prince’s, and Grig was now almost out of sight at the end of the corridor. Ceren moved his hand from my arm to the small of my back.

“There’s something in here I’d like to show you,” he said, reaching for a door I hadn’t noticed in the dim corridor.

I wanted to call out to Grig, but Ceren ushered me through the door before I could say anything. We were in a chamber roughly the size of my bedroom, and for a moment I feared this was Ceren’s personal chamber. He went to the far side and lit a match from a small lantern, then touched it to a pile of logs in the fireplace. As the wood caught fire, more of the room came into view.

It appeared to be a workroom, not a bedroom. There were three tables of varying sizes, all covered in glass bottles and bowls, as well as various objects I had no words for. On the floor in the corner lay what looked like an empty sack. A long hose was coiled next to it.

“This is my study,” the prince said. “I love to learn, about anything and everything.” He picked up a small bowl that was filled with pink pearls of all shapes and sizes. “One of the things that most fascinates me is the Varenian pearl. I’m sure you know people here use them in creams and ointments for all manner of ailment. I burned my hand on the fire last week.” He held his hand up, palm out. “Not a trace of the blister. No scar. Miraculous.”

I looked at the bowl of pearls and felt my anger rise. There were enough there to feed my family for a year. We were harvesting the pearls to extinction, and for what? To spare one man from a blister?

“Your people know far more about the pearls than I do, no doubt,” he continued. The words coming out of his mouth were perfectly harmless. He’d said nothing sinister or frightening in the past few minutes, and yet my heart hammered in my chest. He clearly harbored some sort of animosity toward Queen Talia and Prince Talin, maybe toward all Varenians. I wiped my sweating palms on my skirts. My body was telling me I was in danger, even if my mind didn’t want to accept it.

Ceren walked over to the empty sack and held up a corner of it to show me. “This will be my greatest invention yet. It’s an underwater breathing apparatus. With this device, a man can stay underwater for ten minutes, maybe more. But it’s not ready, unfortunately. The test we conducted yesterday had rather disastrous results, I’m sorry to say. We lost a servant in the process.”

He watched me for a reaction as I struggled to conceal my horror. How could anyone dismiss death so casually?

“Such a shame, really. He was just a year younger than you. By the time—”

“Milady?”

I spun around at the sound of Grig’s voice. “Grig!”

“I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t realize you’d stopped until I was halfway down the next corridor. Is everything all right?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Ceren snapped. “She’s been with me the entire time. What could be safer than that?”

I could think of a thousand things safer than this man—a hammerhead shark, perhaps. Or even a riptide.

I took hold of Grig’s arm. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I’m afraid I’m not feeling well. Still adjusting to land, I think. I’ll return to my chamber for a bath, if it’s all right with you.”