Page 19 of Ocean of Silver

“So, where have you been?” Brock gestured toward the field ahead of us. “What’s been occupying your time that’s more important than all of this?” It was meant to be a joke. Brock and I both hated being soldiers, having to spend every second of our day with men we despised. There were a few soldiers that I admired, Brock being one of them, but most of them were brainwashed by the King. To make it into the Luxian army was a rite of passage. It became a stamp of approval to Lux, making it known that you were better, stronger than the rest of society. I found it to be a vindictive cult.

“The King ordered me to train the Tennebrisian girl.” If Brock was shocked he didn’t show it. He always held his emotions back, mastering a blank expression was crucial to survive. We’d both learned that the hard way.

“Dovelyn told me about her. She said that you were there when they got her from Tennebris.”

“I was.” I didn’t add more. I didn’t want to talk about it. It’d been a long time since I’d let my emotions get the best of me, and seeing how the Dark Prince treated his so-called love of his life made my blood boil. It was the cherry on top when I saw everything else he’d done to her during her interrogation.

“Dovelyn also told me that the girl looked one second away from death.”

“She wasn’t wrong.” I blew out a breath. “She’s even worse now. The King’s men tortured her for information about the Dark Prince.”

“I hate them.” Brock’s voice was bone-chilling. He had every reason to hate them, sometimes I thought, his reasons were worse than mine.

“You and me both.” The King’s men were hand selected and they were some of the most vile Advenians I knew. “Speaking of them, I’ve arranged for Lansting to come back to training.”

Brock nodded. He knew what I wasn’t saying—make sure he pays.

“I’m going to be missing a lot of practices,” I added into the silence, after a minute of us watching the soldiers train.

“How many?”

I looked over at him. I felt terrible knowing that he would suffer from my new task too. Whenever I was around, no one dared to act out of place. I wasn’t sure if it was from my appearance—the only good thing that came from my array of scars—or my reputation and status with the King. My friend, on the other hand, never caught a break. He was second in command and was one of the best fighters I knew, but men like Polaris liked to prove they were better than him. “Almost all of them,” I answered. “I’ll try to make it to most of the evening sessions, but I’ll be missing all morning and afternoon ones for the next ten weeks.”

He nodded. “What does he want with the girl?”

I sighed. “What he always wants. What this is all about,” I gestured to the half beaten men scattered across the open field. They were drenched in sweat and covered from head to toe in bruises. “The King wants to know how strong she is. He wants to know what her powers are.”

“And what are they?”

“She has water abilities, but I’m not sure how strong she is with them as she never practiced. The King believes that she has two abilities though.”

“What do you think?”

“I think he might be right.”

“And you only have ten weeks to find out if she has more?”

I nodded.

“And if she comes up with only water as her ability after the ten weeks, you’ll be punished?”

I nodded again. Brock and I both knew the brutality of the King firsthand. “He threatened as much,” I said, “but I think the girl’s punishment will be worse.”

“Does she know that? Maybe it will help motivate her.”

I sighed. “It’s only been a day. I’ll see how it goes.” But I knew I was damned. It took Brock nearly fifteen years before he discovered his second ability, and the Tennebrisian girl had only nine weeks and six days left.

NINE

SCOTLIND

I remainedat the edge of the pool until my toes wrinkled and turned to prunes. I stared at the water, repeating the mantra in my head,“I am not afraid of you,”over and over again. I thought about what Tezya said to me, how my ability could save me, not harm me. How my ability was a part of me, an extension of my soul. I tried to think of the water like I would a limb. I wasn’t afraid of my arm, so why would I be afraid of this? But whenever I thought I was making headway, the tile would flash under the surface, and I would be right back at square one.

By the time Patricia finally came into the private training area, night had fallen. I wasn’t used to the sudden change in light during such a small time span. When the shadows came out each night to steal the sun away, it felt like a reminder that I had failed. I definitely hadn’t mastered my fear of enclosed water. The only thing I could say I accomplished was that, by the end of the day, I stopped hyperventilatingeverytime I looked at it—I only did itsometimes.

When I got back to my chambers, I still opted for the washcloth bath. Then, I stuffed my face with dinner, begging Patricia to stay and join me, offering up my rolls as enticement. I’d been alone for so long that it felt nice to have someone to talk to. I enjoyed her nonsense and her kindness. It felt like I was tempting fate by having her assigned to me. I was surprised that the Lux King gave me someone so nurturing. I’d never known a mother’s love, or at least I couldn’t remember it, but I assumed it would have been similar to Patricia. The King of Lux didn’t seem like the type to notice or care about that sort of thing.

But maybe they gave me her because of her age. She talked in riddles and seemed just as confused by the castle and Luxian traditions as I was. Maybe they didn’t even pay heed to their servants or their tasks. In school, we learned that all zeroes were servants here. I didn’t doubt that they weren’t treated fairly. Either way, I was thankful for her. Her company felt like a gift from Pylemo—it felt like the only thing that went my way in such a long, long time. I was almost scared to like Patricia or my current situation. I didn’t want to get too comfortable only for it to be taken away from me like everything else had. I knew better than to believe that whatever treatment I was getting, that whatever this was, would last.

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