"I would also guess there's nothing wrong with that eye," the captain said.
Katsa pulled the cloth away from her green eye. She looked into the face of the captain, who met her gaze coolly. She turned to Patch and Jem, who looked back at her, understanding now, eyebrows high. So familiar, in the features of their faces, their dark hair, the gold in their ears. The evenness with which they looked into her eyes.
Katsa turned back to the captain. "The princess is in great danger," she said. "I'm taking her to Lienid to hide her from... from those who wish to harm her. Po said you would help us when I showed you his ring. But if you won't, I'll do everything in the power of my Grace to force your assistance."
The captain stared at her, eyes narrowed and face hard to read. "Let me see that ring more closely."
Katsa stepped forward. She wouldn't remove the ring from its place around her neck again, not when the sight of it inspired such madness. But the captain didn't fear her, and she reached out to Katsa's throat to take the gold circle in her fingers. She turned it this way and that in the light. She dropped the ring and narrowed her eyes at Bitterblue. She turned back to Katsa.
"Where is our prince?" she asked.
Katsa deliberated and decided that she must give this woman pieces, at least, of the truth. "Some distance from here, recovering from injury."
"Is he dying?"
"No," Katsa said, startled. "Of course not."
The captain peered at her, and frowned. "Then why did he give you his ring?"
"I told you. He gave it to me so that a Lienid ship would help us."
"Nonsense. If that's all he wanted, then why didn't he give you the king's ring, or the queen's?"
"I don't know," Katsa said. "I don't know the meanings of the rings, aside from which people they represent. This is the one he chose to give me."
The captain humphed. Katsa clenched her teeth and prepared herself to say something very caustic, but Bitterblue's voice stopped her.
"Po did give the ring to Katsa," she said miserably. Her voice was thick, her body hunched over itself. "Po meant for her to have it. And as he didn't explain what it meant, you should explain for him. Right now."
The captain considered Bitterblue. Bitterblue raised her chin, grim and stubborn. The captain sighed. "It's very rare for a Lienid to give away one of his rings, and almost unheard of for him to give away the ring of his own identity. To give that ring is to forsake his own identity. Princess Bitterblue, your lady has around her neck the ring of the Seventh Prince of Lienid. If Prince Po had truly given her that ring, it would mean that he'd abdicated his princehood. He'd no longer be a prince of Lienid. He'd make her a princess and give her his castle and his inheritance."
Katsa stared. She pulled at a chair and sat down hard. "That can't be."
"Not one in a thousand Lienid gives that ring away," the captain said. "Most wear it to their graves in the sea. But occasionally – if a woman is dying and wants a sister to take her place as the mother of her children, or if a dying shopkeeper wants his shop to go to a friend, or if a prince is dying and wants to change the line of succession – a Lienid will make a gift of that ring." The captain turned to glare at Katsa. "The Lienid love their princes, most especially the youngest prince, the prince. To steal Prince Po's ring would be considered a terrible crime."
But Katsa was shaking her head, from confusion that Po should have done such a thing, and from fear of the word the captain kept saying over and over. Dying. Po wasn't dying. "I don't want it," she said. "That he should give me this, and not explain – "
Bitterblue leaned against the table, her face gray, and moaned. "Katsa, don't worry. You can be sure he had some reason."
"But what reason would he have? His injuries weren't so bad – "
"Katsa." The child's voice was patient but tired. "Think. He gave you the ring before he was injured. It wasn't such a strange thing for him to do, knowing he might die in the fight."
Katsa saw then what it meant; and her hand went to her throat. It was just like him. And now she was fighting back tears because it was just the sort of mad thing he would get it into his mind to do – mad and foolish, far too kind, and unnecessary, because he wasn't going to die. "Why in the Middluns didn't he tell me?"
"If he had," Bitterblue said, "you wouldn't have taken it."
"You're right, I wouldn't have taken it. Can you see me taking such a thing from Po? Can you see me agreeing to such a thing? And he's right to have given it, because he is going to die, because I'm going to kill him when next I see him, for doing such a thing and frightening me and not telling me what it meant."
"Of course you will," Bitterblue said soothingly.
"It's not permanent, is it?" Katsa asked, turning to the captain. She then noticed for the first time that the captain was looking at her differently. So were Patch and Jem. Their faces white, and something shocked and quiet in their eyes. They believed her now, that she hadn't stolen the ring, and they believed that their prince had given it to her. And Katsa was relieved that at least that part of this ordeal was behind them. "I can give it back to him," she asked the captain, "can't I?"
The captain cleared her throat. She nodded. "Yes, Lady Princess."
"Great hills," Katsa said, distressed. "Don't call me that."
"You may give it back to him at any time, Lady Princess," the captain said, "or give it to someone else. And he may reclaim it. In the meantime, your position entitles you to every power and authority held by a prince of Lienid. It's ours to do your bidding."
"I'll be content if you'll take us quickly to Po's castle on the western shore," Katsa said, "and stop calling me Princess."
"It's your castle now, Lady Princess."
Katsa's temper was beginning to throw out sparks, for she wanted none of this treatment; but before she could argue, a man knocked on the door frame. "We're ready, Captain."
Katsa pulled Bitterblue to the side as the room erupted with commotion. The captain began to bark instructions. "Patch, get back to your post and get us out of here. Jem, see to Bear. And clean up that mess in the corner. I'm needed on deck, Lady Princess. Come above, if you wish. Princess Bitterblue's seasickness will be less there."
"I've told you not to call me that," Katsa said.
The captain ignored her and marched to the doorway. Katsa swept Bitterblue under her arm and followed her, glaring at the woman's back as they passed through the corridor. And then in the blackness at the foot of the ladder, the captain stopped. She turned back to Katsa. "Lady Princess," she said. "What you're doing here – and why you're disguised, and why the child princess is in danger – is your affair. I won't ask for an explanation. But if there's any assistance I can give, you need only to voice it. I'm at your service, completely."
Katsa reached to her breast and touched the circle of gold. She was thankful, after all, for the power it gave her, if that power would help her to serve Bitterblue. And that might be an explanation for Po's gift as well; perhaps he'd only wanted her to have full authority, so that she might protect the child better. But she didn't want everyone on deck to see the ring, if it inspired such adoration. She didn't want everyone talking about it and pointing it out and treating her this way. She loosened the neck of her coat and tucked the ring inside.
"Prince Po is recovering from his injuries?" Captain Faun asked; and Katsa heard the worry, the authentic worry, as if the captain were inquiring after a member of her own family. And Katsa also heard the royal title, less easily dropped from Po's name than added to her own.