Page 2 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

But Reva refused to respond with anything more than a frown. “Oh, please. At least I’m wearing a dress. I’d make one ridiculous-looking cabin boy in this ensemble.”

“If that can even be called a dress.” Cassandra’s voice dripped with displeasure. “Would it have hurt you to wear something pretty? With a little color?”

“Yes, it would have hurt me,” Reva said with thinly veiled impatience. “I’m here to bargain with Desta, not throw myself at their mercy or dither behind a fan. This is a mission of necessity, and I’m dressed to suit the occasion.”

“People are hungry.” Rency’s quiet words held an unusual note of genuineness.

Reva slanted a look in his direction. “Very hungry. This blight has gone on for far too long.”

“It’s strange—” Rency stroked his jaw with a thoughtful air. “—that Etthan is the only island that seems to be affected. Is it not?”

Reva ground her teeth together. “Yes, yes, it’s strange.”

“One might think,” the pirate captain said, his gaze holding Reva’s, “that your island is cursed.”

Cassandra fell prey to a sudden fit of coughing. Rency thumped her on the back and earned himself a foul look as repayment for his assistance.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cassandra said as she fanned herself violently. “Cursed, indeed. That’s complete nonsense.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Rency locked his hands behind his back and watched the boat’s progress. “Curses come in many shapes and forms.”

Dread coiled in Reva’s stomach. “I’ve considered almost every cause imaginable and must confess a curse never occurred to me.”

“Of course not!” Her stepmother grumbled under her breath.

Reva, while not given to flights of fantasy as a general rule, wondered if Rency’s suspicion held any merit. The blight was something no one had seen before, a festering sort of disease that caused the roots of their crops to rot. By the time the leaves began to turn black, notifying the farmers of an issue, it was already too late. The harvest was beyond saving.

Unaware of her grim train of thought, Cassandra snapped open her fan and waved it about with irritated flare. “It’s more likely the sea elves did something to the island, just out of spite.”

Reva suppressed an impatient sigh. She would never understand her stepmother’s deep-rooted hatred of the elves. “I don’t find that any more likely than cursing—we haven’t seen or heard of the elves in my lifetime.”

“Doesn’t mean they aren’t out there,” Cassandra said grimly, two bright spots of color inflaming her cheeks.

Reva wished for the hundredth time that she understood the regent better. Her stepmother had always been aloof and private about her life prior to her short-lived marriage to Reva’s father. His death a year after marriage to Cassandra had stunned everyone, Reva most of all. To be left alone in the world at the age of fourteen with only a stepmother she barely knew acting as regent until Reva turned eighteen…

Tears pricked at the back of Reva’s eyes. Three years later, and the pain still felt as fresh as it had the day they laid her father to rest at sea.

“But you’re right, of course,” Cassandra was saying. “We’re here to find genuinely helpful solutions. And, regardless, Reva, you’re still dressed to wake the dead. You’ll hardly snag Prince Felix’s eye while wearing that.”

“I’m not here to catch his eye.” Reva repositioned at last and stood as her stepmother suggested, in a ladylike pose with hands folded in front of her. “I’m here to secure his trade routes.”

She spoke the words with sickly-sweet innocence and batted her eyelashes at Cassandra, who glared and fanned herself with a fury.

“It’s easier to catch flies with honey,” Rency said.

A muscle twitched in Reva’s cheek, but she refused to respond to the remark.

“Such wisdom in a fair maiden,” Rency said. He splayed a hand over his chest and smiled at Cassandra as if she’d sprouted angelic wings along with her eternal wisdom. “I know I’m easier to catch with honey.” His gaze cut back to Reva’s. “I’m fond of green, myself. The emerald kind, especially if it’s paired with dark, lovely skin and ebony tresses—”

Reva swatted his hand away when he tried to trail the back of a calloused finger down her cheek. “Touch me with that finger, Rency, and it will never leave this beach.”

His eyes glinted with dastardly humor as Cassandra gasped an appalled, “Really, Reva! Such language.”

“Dear me,” Rency said and hugged his threatened appendage to his chest. “You’d actually cut off my fingers because I couldn’t resist the allure of your flawless complexion?”

“I can remove your tongue too, pirate. That silver bit of your anatomy might sweeten the pot.”

“Reva! That will do!” Cassandra’s voice had grown more sour, if that were possible. “You sound like a cannibal! What if Prince Felix hears you? They’re pulling up on the shore now.”

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