“I did, but—”
“You have been lying to us from the moment you washed onto Estrelle’s shores. You called him the Swordscale traitor, even though he’s your brother, and you have been working with him—”
Vesper yelled, “I’m not working with him. I’m trying to save him.”
There was a moment of silence. Melda glared at her. “I don’t believe a word you say.”
Engle stepped forward, putting a careful hand on Melda’s shoulder. “One chance to explain yourself.” He turned to Tor and Melda. “Right?”
Melda fell back next to Tor. They both said nothing.
Vesper nodded. Her fingers shook—was she nervous because she was about to tell another lie? Or upset she’d been found out? “Ever since my parents died, my brother has been…troubled. He knows who killed them and what happened that day. He’s been searching the seas, against all of our city’s rules, for a chance at revenge. The blood queen turned him down, I’m not sure why. When the Calavera curse was broken, he sought them out, and offered the pearl in exchange for their help at vengeance. When they found that the pearl wasn’t where it was supposed to be in Swordscale, that it had been stolen, I suppose he offered to help them find it…
“I only learned this when it was too late, when they had already invaded. He seemed to believe they wouldn’t harm us, but I told him we couldn’t trust them, so he locked me in my room, the same way my parents had, years before. My grandmother let me out and told me to flee. I tried to warn others, but a Calavera intercepted me on my way out of our palace—and put his sword through my side. I was able to get to the portal to the ship just off Estrelle, and you know the rest.”
Melda shook her head. “I don’t believe you,” she said. “Why wouldn’t you tell us?”
“You already didn’t trust me. I thought if I told you the truth, you would find another way to the pearl, one without me. You were my best chance at finding my brother—and stopping him.”
“So, you used us,” Tor said.
Vesper laughed without humor. “Only as much as you used me. You don’t think I knew you were going to leave me somewhere once you found a way to the pearl that didn’t require a Swordscale? You used me for the compass, to even get this far.” Her eyes narrowed. “And don’t pretend you all have been perfectly honest. You’re not even honest with each other.”
Engle took a step forward. “Now that’s where you’re wrong.”
Vesper stood her ground. “Ask your friends about your nightmares, then.”
Tor froze. Next to him, Melda quietly gasped.
Engle turned to face them. “What does she mean?”
“It’s nothing,” Melda said. “We made an elixir for you. To help you.”
“What?” The sightseer’s face twisted. “You gave me an elixir without telling me?”
“You wouldn’t talk about it,” Tor said. “You were suffering. We just wanted to help. And it worked.”
Engle backed away from them. “By going behind my back? Both of you?”
Melda’s eyes were wide. “Don’t you see what she’s trying to do? She’s trying to distract us, divide us—”
“I’m not doing anything,” Vesper said. “You three are so quick to judge me, to mistrust me, but if you all looked deep within yourselves, I’m sure there is something you’ll each find there that you have been keeping from your best friends. For good reasons, I’m sure. Just like I had mine. This is my brother.” She kept her head high. “I would do anything to protect him, far worse things than I’ve already done. And I’m sure you three can understand that, too.”
She walked across the deck, then stopped just short of the stairs.
“I lied, I stole, and I know how it must look—but I’m not working with them. I want to find the pearl and keep it out of the hands of the Calavera just as much as you do.”
* * *
Engle wouldn’t speak to them. Even after Tor had made a feast appear that ran the entire length of the deck, he stayed below.
After dinner, Tor made an entire platter of desserts appear in Engle’s room, with his favorites: sapphire pie, emerald-cream meringue, diamond-dusted doughnuts. But a few moments later, Tor heard Engle’s door slam shut and found the plate of sweets outside.
Melda and Tor sat on the deck, wrapped in layers of fabric, both unable to sleep.
“For a long time, I disliked him,” she said staring at the moon, just a crescent in the sky. “Even before I knew him. Engle.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “I was so excited to start school, so proud to be a leader. I knew how rare it was, and, when I learned there would only be one other person in my class, it made me even more excited.”
Tor gave her a look. “Melda, you hated having me in leadership.”
She scowled at him. “Would you let me finish?” She took a breath. “School was always a welcome relief. I love my brothers, and I’m glad they’re better now, but I didn’t always want to be home. I never really got to play or make friends, because my mom always needed help with them. School was different. I had to go. So, when I saw only one other person in leadership, I thought—” She cut off and rolled her eyes, like she was embarrassed. “But then, I saw you with him. You already had a best friend. You two ate lunch together every day, even when everyone else sat with their emblems. So…I disliked him.”
“Melda, I had no idea.”
“I know, I know. I’m not saying this to guilt you. I’m saying it because I get it. I get why you’ve been friends with Engle for so long. I know he’s family to you.”
Engle was family. Since his parents worked far from Estrelle, at the Alabaster Caves, he stayed most nights at the Lunas’ house. Engle came to every dinner, was
