Page 31 of From the Mouths of Sirens

“These blades have been fortified against enchantments,” the blacksmith warned. “Do not attempt to put any wards on them, for it will be futile.” Saoirse had no doubt that they’d inspected the weapons a thousand times since they’d been forged, but one could never be too careful where the Tournament was concerned.

Saoirse grabbed a blade from the table, testing the weight of it in her hands. The blade was heavier than she preferred, sluggishly responding with each flick of her wrist. Where her Torqen-issued blade was curved and light, this iron sword felt bulky and far too long. She swung it expertly, sending a whoosh of metal through the air that sang through the armory. It would have to do.

She had no other choice.

16

ROOK

“You should’ve gotten much worse than a bruise from your stupid game with that Mer princess,” Raven chided disapprovingly. She dabbed Rook’s forehead with a damp towel, a frown on her face. “You could have died.”

“I know it was foolish.” Rook sat on the ledge of his windowsill, gazing out at the eastern sky bridge across the city. It was risky to tell his sister what had happened, given that she hated the Mer more than anyone else in Aurandel. But it would be no easy feat to lie about the huge, dark bruise that crept along his forehead. His sister could see through his deception as easily as looking through a glass window. He prayed that her sense of duty to the Tournament would outweigh any of her urges to punish the Mer princess.

“And on the eve of the Tournament,” Raven added, her tone sharpened to a lethal edge. “What were you thinking?”

Rook jerked his head free from her grasp and turned away from her scolding eyes. It was a question he had been asking himself the whole morning. Unspoken or not, he and Saoirse both knew that the wager had been made in jest. At any time, either one of them could have declined the invitation. And even still, they had both appeared at the sky bridge at dawn. She was determined to prove herself to him, that much was certain.

“I know the history between our people,” Rook sighed, leaning back against the window sill. “But there is more, isn’t there? All of that hate and malice. There has to be more.”

Raven narrowed her eyes at him, putting the damp cloth back in the bowl. “You can't evade responsibility that easily. Don’t try to change the subject.” She shook her head, running a hand through her hair wearily. “Why did you agree to something so foolish? How could it have been worth your time and strength?”

“My pride was at stake,” Rook retorted. “If you had heard the insults she threw at me during the Banquet, you would’ve done the same.” He realized how childish he sounded. Of course he hadn’t flown up there with Veila and Eros over a mere argument. But if he hadn’t wanted to simply defend his honor, why had he felt so compelled to see the Mer princess?

Just as he predicted, Raven seemed to see right through his pitiful explanation. “You’re more reasonable than that, Rook,” she said, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “I know you wouldn’t risk your life over a stupid wager.” She frowned, dipping the cloth back into the water and ringing it out. Clouds of his blood seeped from the cloth and into the clear water. She scanned his face, her eyes surveying his forehead. “Don’t tell me you are attracted to her,” she warned, her voice dropping low with astonishment.

“Rave, don’t be ridiculous,” Rook snapped entirely too quickly. “Of course not. Even I wouldn’t be so foolish as to dally with the princess of Elorshin.”

“You would do well to stay away from Princess Saoirse and her kin,” she warned. “If you aren’t careful, she will try to deceive you and undermine Aurandel’s reign. The Mer are crafty sorts, unafraid to stoop low in order to win.”

“Why do they hate us so much?” Rook asked, trying to steer the conversation away from Saoirse and back toward the root of the tension between their people. It was a fair question, and one he had been wondering about the past couple days. But he was also desperate not to discuss Saoirse and their fight on the sky bridge any more. “We rule fairly. We allow them to indulge in their isolationist policies. We hardly ever ask anything from them. We have been most gracious to them over the last century, offering them forgiveness for the War of the Age that they caused.”

“The Mer have always been power hungry,” his sister assured him. “We have seen that time and time again. They were the ones who declared war on our people a hundred years ago, not us.”

“But should be be so quick to condemn them? Wouldn’t we have done the same thing in their position?” he shrugged. “Princess Yrsa married their king and turned on him. She gave our people their secrets and tried to corrupt them from the inside. Surely that would give them cause to hate us.”

Raven was looking at him as though he were a stranger, her frown deepening with every word he spoke. “That is what they believe,” she retorted. “They have their own version of the story. You know that as well as I do. They see what they want to see, nothing more. Princess Yrsa didn’t kill Lorsan,” Raven went on. “Lorsan’s power-hungry brother was the one who ended his life. But the Mer would never believe that. They chose to blame her instead, to blame our people.”

“Where is the truth?” Rook asked, pushing away from the windowsill and striding across the room. “I despise the Mer as much as the next Auran, but I want to know what really happened all those years ago. We have one account, and they have another. But where is the truth?” he asked again.

“The truth is all around us,” Raven replied sharply, flinging her hands out in frustration. “The Tournament exists so that the Mer and any other dissenters stay in their places. The Order of Elders proposed the Tournament as a fair solution in the wake of the war. It exists so that no one else is killed because of their hatred and greed.”

“Is it true that the Tellusun lands are dying?” Rook asked, unable to help himself. It had been a question weighing on him ever since Hasana had mentioned it. “Are they starving?”

Raven’s eyebrows lowered, something like anger flickering across her face. “What lies have you been told?” she asked darkly. “If the Tellusun are starving, then it is due to their leader’s incompetence. We aren’t responsible for the health of their land.”

“But we trade with them,” Rook argued. “Their food supply and harvest affects us, doesn’t it? They tithe to us every year, giving us their best products. Surely we could give them more goods if they did not have enough to eat?”

Raven gave out an exasperated sigh that bordered on annoyance. “Our tithes have nothing to do with this. You know as well as I that Tellusun has struggled to receive imports in recent months. I shouldn’t have to explain that the Mer have been interfering with our maritime trade routes and refusing to comply with our treaties. You know that several merchant ships have gone missing in the Maeral Sea. Your little Mer princess could’ve told you that,” she barked a bitter laugh. “Or have you been listening to her lies?”

“Have you seen the destruction of these trading ships with your own eyes?” Rook dared to ask. “Can you prove their interference without the shadow of a doubt? What if there is something else going on?”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Raven spat in disbelief. “Don’t you ever think for a second that Elorshin isn’t plotting their revenge against all of us. It is foolish to believe otherwise. Even something as small as a missing merchant ship could suggest a potential rebellion. Where the Mer are concerned, there is always more to the story.”

“Saoirse denies having knowledge on any attacks to our trading ships,” he countered. “In fact, judging from her own accounts, the Mer themselves are barely able to provide for themselves. If Elorshin was disrupting maritime trade, don’t you think they would take the goods for themselves? There must be another reason why the merchant ships are disappearing and the Tellusun lands are not receiving enough food.”

“You would believe that Mer princess over your own queen?” Raven asked, her voice lethally still. A shadow of distrust passed over her face. “Over your own sister?”

“I never said that. I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he replied, throwing up his hands in frustration. “In the past few days, I have met more foreigners than I ever have in my life. They are all people, with motivations and dreams just like our own.” He thought of Saoirse and her companions, their faces still fresh in his mind. He thought of Hasana in the library, and how sad she looked. Rook stared Raven directly in the eyes, barely comprehending the words that came out of his own mouth. “Surely the Tournament only fuels our hatred even more. Why do we continue it, if it causes such discord and distrust?”

---