Page 62 of Ship of Shadows
Bastian swore softly.
“I followed the ship all the way to Sorrengard, where I saw the boys get carted off, marched onto the island like they were in some trance.”
I shot a look at Bastian, whose jaw was locked.
“And then I saw Mal and Lochlan sneaking off the ship and going after them into the jungle.” She sniffled. “They never returned.”
My heart squeezed painfully. Bastian’s hand curled around my elbow, steadying me. He was the last person I wanted any kind of comfort from right now. I wrenched my arm free.
“So they could be dead,” Leoni said.
“No.” Marian shook her head. “I said they never returned, not that I didn’t see them again.”
I rushed forward, hands gripping the railing so tight my knuckles turned white. “You’ve seen them?”
She nodded. “Their shadows are gone—all their shadows have been taken.”
“But why?” I asked. “What does the shadow court want? To weaken us? To get revenge because of the Shadow War?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “The shadows swirl over the island like a dark cloud, hundreds of them. All trapped, just like the bodies they belong to. They protect the island, keep out intruders and keep those trying to escape trapped. They don’t want to be reunited with their bodies, so catching them is difficult.”
My hand floated to my mouth. How awful.
“The island is... odd,” she said. “Mal and Lochlan had been reporting to me for a few months, and the situation seemed dire, so dire.”
My heart dropped like a stone.
Marian’s eyes welled with tears. “Your brothers never gave up hope, but it didn’t seem like there was a way out. Not that any of us had found. I visited as often as I could, but it wasn’t easywith...” She gestured to her father. “I couldn’t come as much as I wanted to. I found out your father was planning an expedition to save Mal and Lochlan, so I went to him, told him everything I knew. I started working with him, planning. He was trying to find the trident. He believed that the key to helping your boys lay in Spirit Water.”
Of course he did. My father would rely on his faith ’til the end.
King Salazar shook his head. “My daughter going behind my back like this. It’s shameful.”
Marian kept her eyes on me.
“How did you lose your voice?” I asked, willing her to keep going despite her father’s disapproval.
“What did the shadow court do to you?” King Salazar demanded.
She looked down, her scaled hands twisted together. “It wasn’t the shadow court that took my voice. It was the sea witch.”
The seafolk behind her sucked in sharp breaths, and her father’s face turned purple.
“What?” he asked, voice dangerously low.
I looked behind me to Leoni, who just shrugged. She didn’t know this sea witch either.
“Who is the sea witch?” I asked, not knowing if I even wanted to know at this point. “And what does this have to do with my father? With Mal?”
Marian swallowed. “My aunt. My father’s sister. She was the oldest, the crown was supposed to pass to her, but my grandparents bestowed it upon my father because they believed he’d be a better ruler. She’s been disgruntled ever since, trying to find ways to hurt my father, so he banished her. She has followers, others who haven’t been happy with the way my father has ruled. They were tailing me. They knew of my visits to theshadow court, knew of my affair with Mal. They’d been spying on me for months.”
A vein throbbed in King Salazar’s temple.
“They found me crying after a visit with Mal, told me to follow them and I could get the answers I seek.”
My chest tightened.
“So I went.”
