Part of Noa’s brain thought, How did she know Beauty liked cakes? Another part guessed that Gabriela had managed to steal Beauty’s daughter by inventing some spell in Salt that allowed her to breathe underwater. She filed the first question away—something told her it was important. “How did you do it?” she asked, to give Gabriela a chance to brag about her cleverness. Noa wanted to make her feel clever, certainly cleverer than Julian’s poor gullible little sister.
Gabriela smiled. “I came up with a spell that allowed me to breathe underwater. Julian’s not the only inventor in Florean.”
Duh. Noa made her eyes wide and surprised. “But how did you know Beauty had a daughter? Have you been spying on her?”
“No, but we’ve had salt mages spying on her, er—husband,” Gabriela said. “That’s what the creature calls himself, anyway. He visits her whenever Astrae crosses deep water. He told another one of the beasts that she was expecting, and when.”
Noa didn’t have to fake surprise that time. She’d had no idea that Beauty was married—whatever that meant in sea serpent terms. She wondered briefly what a sea serpent wedding looked like, then wished she hadn’t. She doubted the guests would be served cakes. Or if they were, you wouldn’t want to know the ingredients.
“Why didn’t you just kill her?” Noa said. “She would have died anyway if she stayed away from her mother.”
“Eventually,” Gabriela agreed. “But the king wanted to use her as a bargaining chip. He thought Julian would be persuaded to abandon some of the territory he’s stolen if it meant saving the life of his creature.”
Noa shook her head. Julian probably would have done that, too, which wouldn’t have been particularly clever or villainous of him, but she didn’t see the value in pointing that out to Gabriela. She doubted King Xavier would have given Beauty’s daughter back. No, he would have tricked Julian into retreating, then killed her.
Gabriela crossed the room and held the glass to Noa’s lips. Noa just looked at her.
Gabriela gave another one of her sad sighs. “Noa, you have to drink. Please.”
“I will,” Noa said. “But not with you.”
Gabriela set the glass down. “I’ll release you as soon as I’m able. Please be patient.”
Noa blinked. “You’re going to release me?”
“Of course. Do you think I would hold a child hostage?” The look on Noa’s face made Gabriela sigh. “Well, I wouldn’t. Not even if it ended this war.”
“Right,” Noa said. “So you tied me up for my health?”
Anger flickered in Gabriela’s eyes before it was replaced by that annoying sadness. “I don’t know what powers you have, Noa. Do you think I would risk you lashing out at me or my servants?”
“Oh, I see,” Noa said. “You’ll hold me prisoner until you figure out exactly what I can do, so you can tell Xavier about it. You don’t actually mind holding children hostage, as long as it’s temporary.”
Gabriela’s jaw tightened. “If you promise to conduct yourself honorably, perhaps—”
“Honorably!” Noa said. “You know all about honor, do you? Is lying to someone honorable? Is spying honorable?”
“I was doing what my king commanded.” Gabriela’s face was red.
“Ugh,” Noa said. Gabriela was such a goody-goody. Still, it was clear that Noa had gotten under her skin. She made a mental note to add “morals” to the list of Gabriela’s weaknesses that she kept in the Chronicle.
“I’m only doing what’s best for Florean,” Gabriela said. “Julian is tearing it apart.”
“Xavier is the one who—” Noa began hotly, but Gabriela talked over her. “He’s surrounded himself with criminals. He’s willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Does that sound like someone who’s cut out to be king? What do you think he’ll do if he takes the throne?” She leaned forward. “You were probably too young to know this, Noa, but your mother was a lot like Julian. Whenever an island rebelled against her, she sent in mages to burn their villages to the ground. She put pirates and thieves on her council. All dark mages are the same.”
“You’re wrong,” Noa spat. “All those things—that’s just what Xavier wants you to think. He spread all kinds of rumors about Mom to get people to hate her.”
“Noa, I know she had criminals on her council. So does your brother, for that matter. Kell Brown is the most wanted pirate in Florean. She’s the captain of Astrae! How could Julian trust someone like that if he wasn’t just as bad as her?”
“That’s not . . .” Noa didn’t know how to finish. She didn’t know how to convince Gabriela that when Julian had hired Kell, it had been the right thing to do, even if it sounded wrong on the surface. That was how Xavier had made everyone hate Mom—he had taken all the things about her that sounded bad and mixed them up with lies until he’d created a twisted mirror image of the queen that most people couldn’t tell from the real one.
“You know those villages your mother burned?” Gabriela’s hand briefly tightened on her knee. “Mine was one of them. Why do you think my family lived on our fishing boat? We had nowhere else to go. She left us with nothing.”
Noa stared at her. It couldn’t be true—could it? Growing up, she’d sometimes heard her mother speaking to her advisors of rebellions. They were over quickly, and Noa had always had the impression that her mother didn’t see them as important. She’d never really thought about what it meant to quell a rebellion. About the children who might end up without a home.
Gabriela touched her arm. “Noa, I know that Xavier—well, he’s
