“Throughout it all, and encouraging me to continue down the path I was on, I could not avoid Farren’s bruising hands.

  Although, he used to spend a lot of his time outside our home then. He was often gone for several days in a row, and I know now that it was his business successes which kept him away—the beginning of the end which kept him unusually busy. Of course, if I’d known what that change would come to mean, perhaps I wouldn’t have taken such bliss in his absence…

  Though, I’ll admit, it would have been difficult to suppress my relief at the sight of his packing a chest and readying the cart for travel. Even knowing what I know today, perhaps I still would have sobbed with elation to see him go week after week, if only for the small respite from him.

  Oh, how he liked to hurt me. How he rejoiced in it…

  You know I’ve met a lot of men like him over the years, the decades. But the truth is that few have matched his sheer viciousness.

  It was my blood he sought, my tears, and the rasp in my wails after a session of his ministrations. He was… He was truly a cruel person through and through.

  And hah! I can’t even say that I don’t understand his motives. Can you believe that? Can’t even call him a monster. Not anymore.

  Do you know what that’s like? Do you? To be able to relate to him, to comprehend his reasoning? That is what I am now.

  I’ve lived thousands of lives—and a select type of foul, wicked lives that is. And I understand them all, every single man I perused through, from knowing them so very intimately. I’ve learned how they think, what drives them. And—

  How greatly would it horrify you to hear that their motives are simply our intrinsic human impulse? That it’s only our desires manifesting beyond the feeble laws of civilized society? They aren’t at all monsters. No. No. Oh, how simple that would be, how comforting. Don’t you think? If only they were a different kind than us, a rotten malformation of the human being. But no. What they do is no deviance or disease of the mind. It’s nature. To seek pleasure, to dominate, to rage and resort to violence. It’s a part of what we are.

  And yet here I am, aren’t I? Despite this cursed knowledge I still am what I am, because I cling to the belief that we must control those parts of us which contribute to the degradation of our species. That is what we have agreed upon as a people, as a collective, to improve our shared existence on this land. We must all repress our insidious instincts, even if we have no say in their inception. Yes. And that’s that. A simple enough rule. By being born into this shared land we’ve all given our implicit word to live by that basic norm.

  And those who cannot—or will not—shall be dealt with by the rest of us as need be.”

  Teela was disappointed when Mantis refused to make explanations for how the day would go. Despite her few and clever attempts at getting information out of the woman, she remained in ignorance by the time her brother and Mantis were ready to depart.

  Teela’s creeping ideas of accompanying them had been swiftly stifled, too, so she was feeling entirely dissatisfied. She’d stay and look after Yilenn again, Mantis had made her promise. She—they—would not leave the house. They would wait in the safety of Pirria’s shelter for Mantis to return, and under no circumstances would they leave without her protection. Or else nobody would go anywhere. Mantis would do nothing more to help, and they would have come all the way here for naught. It was a difficult threat for Teela to argue against.

  “He’ll be needing some of that, also,” Pirria suggested, gesturing to the small pot of cosmetic Mantis was setting down on a low table by the bed.

  Leroh was dressed in a white undershirt that clung a bit too tightly to his frame—as it had been one of Teela’s—tucked into his usual green trousers of rough linen. He looked confused by the older woman’s words, but not overly so. His face indicated that his mind was on other matters.

  Beside him, Mantis nodded once and lifted the tin container up to Teela’s brother’s face to add some of the pigment to his lips and cheeks, painting him with a bright red mouth and unnaturally flushed skin as she’d done to her own face. They both looked a bit silly, one short and the other spindly long, dressed so uncharacteristically and as outlandishly decorated.

  Mantis had picked up her gleaming wavy hair of reddish light brown into a comical fancy updo and secured it tightly at the back of her head with little metal pins. She was wearing Yilenn’s blue gown, and in it she looked particularly bizarre. The garment was beautiful, doubtlessly meant to make its wearer appear sweetly alluring, but on her it looked anything but—only enhancing rather than subduing her innate menace.

  Ruffles of gauze and silk decorated the large skirts, and small orbs of ivory the neckline. Pearls. Teela hadn’t ever seen pearls prior to her acquaintance to the siren. Would they feel as smooth to the touch as their appearance suggested?

  “What even is this?” asked Leroh, while a serious-faced Mantis dabbed bright red paste onto his cheekbones with lax fingers—which he kept looking at from the corner of his eye as if she were using a knife for the task instead.

  “Grease,” Pirria replied. “The red pigment comes from beetles.”

  “And I’m to be a whore as well,” he pointed out. “Why?”

  “Less conspicuous. Any more questions?” Mantis threw him a look that made him bristle, and Leroh tightened his lips, lowering his gaze to the floor.

  “Be good to Clover, please. He doesn’t take so well to the carriage—” Teela began.

  “Not taking the coach. Your horse will be fine,” Mantis cut her off, and Teela was surprised but grateful for that small bit of good news.

  Then, before she’d even gotten a chance to understand where they were going, and so abruptly that it baffled her to silence, the two were out the door and walking down the street arm in arm like the best of friends.

  Pirria, Yilenn, and Teela watched Leroh and Mantis go through the filthy glass of the window. They turned a corner and walked into the mouth of one of countless enigmatic little side streets sprouting inwardly toward the center of the city, Teela lost sight of them, and she found herself saying an unexpected mental farewell.

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  Her heart was frantic and her eyes were dry from being kept so widely open for so long.

  She didn’t know much of much, but she’d been given enough to understand that the Sun capital was a particularly perilous place for her kind. She’d also confirmed that judgment herself from just viewing the fringes, merely the edge designated for the free folk. Everything about the city seemed to repel, to scare away any who did not naturally belong there.

  Would Leroh return to Teela with his life intact?

  She’d always thought she’d be his eventual end. It had been said to her so often and so earnestly that she’d come to accept it as the truth. And yet the fear making her twitch and tremble now was in a way foreign to her. It was because she’d expected to be there when danger came for her only sibling. Maybe subconsciously she’d never taken the possibility seriously because she’d expected to be in control of the situation when it came to it. Unlike this.

  This time she wasn’t going with him into the trouble she’d so longingly sought. He’d be alone and scared, with a person who did not like him as his only means of defense.

  Would Mantis even try to help him if it came to it? Would she protect a man who’d shown her nothing but loathing since they’d met when Teela wasn’t there to judge her for her choices?

  “They will be fine.” Yilenn put a gentle hand on Teela’s shoulder and offered her a supportive smile. She truly was the most magnificent person she’d ever seen. It was always a small surprise to look upon her and be reminded of it.

  “Do you even know where they’re going?” Teela asked neither of the women in particular as she turned to recline against the windowsill where she’d been standing gazing out at the street.

  Pirria had gone back to mending an article of worn clothing. A frock, perhaps. Her eyes were on her work as she said, “It sounded like she intended to go snooping around the homes in the Rays—the district that surrounds the castle. Big, fancy houses there. Your friends must’ve been turned into a new batch of slaves for the royals and the clergy who live there. ‘Course his favored lot should get first claim to any spoils the Sun takes! Good for the heavy lifting, repairs, dirty work, all that. They’ll make good hands for the dirty labor other servants would turn their noses up at.”

  “But what about the prince? Do you think Mantis’ll do something about that now, with Leroh accompanying her?”

  “I’m sure no harm will come to your brother. She wouldn’t put him in danger,” Yilenn’s voice was soft and kind.

  “You must not know her very well, then, if you believe that,” Teela snapped at her, but seeing the hurt in her expression made her feel a little guilty to have done it. “She’ll kill him. I know this. What I’m asking is if you think she’s planning to do it now.”

  “She did say she couldn’t see him,” Yilenn offered.

  “Yes. Hm.” How could Mantis pursue a man she could not sense?

  There was a memory…

  The mention of Mantis’s words brought a different but somehow connected conversation to Teela’s mind. “What were you saying last night, about the sailors and the sirens? In Okedam. Mantis said she couldn’t sense them, either?”

  Yilenn recoiled with raised eyebrows. “How could you have heard that?”

  “I thought I dreamt it.” Teela’s recollection of the interaction was unclear. She wasn’t certain of which parts were real and which parts were the nonsense of dreams, but she could vividly remember awakening to the unsettling sound of Mantis’s laugh. “Were you saying the sailors assault your kind? How common an occurrence is that?”

  “We were whispering so quietly. Your hearing is not sensitive enough—”

  “How sure are you that there are rapists among the sailors? Among the ones we saw. The men all around the harbor.”

  Yilenn was shaking her head slightly with confusion still. “Entirely,” she muttered.

  Oh.

  “Why?” the siren asked, but the distress in her eyes indicated that perhaps she knew part of the truth already.

  “She couldn’t sense them as targets because they’re servants. As is the prince. She’s not to take any lives that are already claimed. It makes sense, I think… When she took those two men who’d sworn to the Sea, there was a price. She wasn’t meant to take them, and it brought her trouble.”

  “Oh,” Yilenn sighed.

  “Well, of course. No one can do everything,” Pirria spoke. “It’s enough that she takes care of the animals among the free folk. Can’t expect her to rile other, bigger Gods, by taking from their pools. Can you imagine the conflict? They’d destroy her. They’d eliminate her. I can understand that. You shouldn’t judge her, girl. She can only do so much.” She kept her gaze on her sowing and her voice casual, evidently unaware of the reality before her.

  “No. She just doesn’t know,” Teela tried to explain. Pirria lifted her eyes to her then, skeptical. “She doesn’t know servants…do this. That they’re allowed. She doesn’t know.”

  “Of course she does! Don’t be silly,” Pirria waved her off with a hand.

  “No. I believe you’re right, Teela.” Yilenn covered her forehead with a long-fingered hand.

  “She was surprised that you didn’t know her, Yilenn, but I don’t think she’s much known among servants. Is that right?” When Teela looked to Pirria, she got a stiff nod of reluctant confirmation as an answer. “It’s Ombira—her Goddess, I mean—curses! Sorry! But it’s her Goddess who makes it this way. Mantis thinks she’s doing the people an honorable service, but how can that be true if she’s neglecting the whole sworn population? Men like this Siebos prince do what they want. The sailors. Oh, my, all the children in the Sun town, in Okedam… is it—is it encouraged? This behavior?”

  “Well, we don’t have a choice when it comes to procreation. It’s certainly encouraged to breed, yes.”

  “But what’s stopping cruel men from doing whatever they want?” Teela asked, maybe yelled.

  Were these feelings wholly her own?

  “Nothing’s stopping them. Luckily they prefer their own kind,” Pirria looked sickly all of a sudden. “The Sun has them all rutting like rats. But they certainly enjoy us too. It’s a sort of perversion for them, because we’re so weak and different from them, so inferior. They look down on us like we’re dogs. But some people like to fuck dogs, I suppose.”

  “Ma’am! She’s just a girl!” Yilenn scolded the older woman, rare disbelieving outrage painted on her soft face.

  “That is exactly why she should know. No one needs know more urgently than one like her, Sea servant.”

  “I want to tell her,” Teela declared.

  It took a few breaths for the intensity of the moment to die down, and for Yilenn to understand her meaning. She looked slightly alarmed, but tried rather admirably to cover it up with a placating expression as she said, “You will. We’ll talk to her about this when she returns, ensure she understands—”

  “She’s being deceived. She will not tolerate this.”

  “No. I know. She will be very upset, and I suspect she already is. Perhaps she does know,” Yilenn could definitely see what Teela was trying to get to, her appeasing tone indicated.

  “She certainly is upset. And I know this because I can feel her emotions and she mine.” Teela tried standing upright and looking the siren in the eye, tried making herself as formidable as she’d seen Mantis be. She desperately wanted her words to reach. “What I am not so certain of, however, is whether she will continue to deceive herself some more. I would like to make sure she doesn’t, and that she’ll not miss her opportunity to eliminate this Siebos person—and that she’ll not let my brother die in the process.”