by Chanda Hahn
“Lucy.” I waved her down. “Do you know who I am?”
She gave me an uncertain look. “Why of course, Miss Meri.”
I sighed. “Have you seen Vasili?”
She shook her head. “I think he went home.”
“Home? The Undersea?”
She nodded.
“Can you get a hold of him? Tell him to come back?”
“Why, after they closed the whirlpools, no one can go to the Undersea except those who were born there or have a royal signet ring.”
“But do you know where an entrance is? To the Undersea.”
“Those are closely guarded secrets. I can’t tell you.”
I chewed on my lip, resting my hand on the dagger at my hip, and wondered. I originally thought it was the same stone in Vasili’s ring, but maybe the knife was made from a previous royal signet ring, and the only one I could think of was King Septimus.
I was running out of time. Plus, going to the Undersea would mean if I stayed too long, I could come back too late and miss the wedding all together.
I had to do it, and I had to find a mystical whirlpool to take me there. But I had only seen the one, somewhere in town. But Vasili said there was one in the palace.
“Are you telling me you’ve never seen him go somewhere then disappear for hours or days on end?”
Lucy shifted the basket filled with shells and dried Islayan flowers. “Well, that would be his bedroom.”
“Okay, great. Where is it?” She gave me directions and I ran back through the palace and down the hall toward the door I assumed was Vasili’s. I knocked.
No answer. I tried the handle. Locked.
I rubbed my throat and tried to sing.
“Lochni.” I grimaced in pain.
The lock clicked, and the door swung open.
Vasili’s room was laid out very similar to mine, except it was darker, painted and styled after the deep ocean and Undersea. And like mine, he had a built-in fountain.
I rushed to the fountain and searched the spout, the marble tile, and even the grout work. Kneeling on the ground, I ran my hands under the lip of the fountain, feeling for the symbol.
A shuffling and familiar huff came from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder as Lad was making his way over to me. His curious and beady eyes appraising me.
“Lad, have you seen this Undersea symbol?” I dipped my finger in the water and drew on the stonework. The water darkened the stone and revealed the swirling vortex. “Have you ever seen it on this fountain or anywhere? I need to get to the Undersea.”
Lad pressed his nose to the wet stone and sniffed, and I inwardly groaned. His human mind may have been too far gone. He might not have even remembered what I was talking about.
He shuffled his weight from side to side and then turned, hopping his way out the room and down the hall. I had a moment to decide. Do I follow him or keep up my futile search?
Lad turned and barked at me, waving his fin. Follow him.
For a seal, Lad was unexpectedly fast. I had to run to keep up with him. He led me outside, down the steps, and into the throne room. I hesitated upon entering and took in the vaulted ceilings, the blue-and-green sunlight that pooled in from the stained-glass windows, and the two thrones.
One golden and manly with a trident etched into the back of the throne. The second one, smaller and made of silver, and upon the backrest was the vortex symbol.
Lad stopped before the throne and then nuzzled the chair where the queen would have sat. Brennon’s late mother. Or the future queen would sit.
Standing in front of the empty throne, I had mixed feelings. I understood the necessity of Brennon needing to marry Velora, but I didn’t understand why, and there was only one person I could ask.
I pulled the dagger from under my skirt and stood upon the throne. Gently, I pressed the stone to the symbol and closed my eyes.
Nothing happened.
I groaned. And tapped it again and again. Each time expecting a different outcome.
“This is stupid.”
I was about to step down, but Lad stopped me. He leaned his head back and gave a long bark that was awful. I clapped my hand over my ears and grimaced.
“What?”
He half barked and howled again.
“Sing?”
He nodded.
Maybe he was right. Vasili said the magic came from music, which was why all the royals held instruments in the paintings. It was why Vasili played the flute.
I licked my lips and closed my eyes. I hummed a few notes then hummed my childhood lullaby. The throne moved backward. I grasped the back of the throne as the floor opened up and a deep hole appeared. I could hear the rushing of water below but couldn’t see it.
Was this a whirlpool to the Undersea or a watery trap? I clung to the throne in terror and decided against jumping. I would close the hole and find a different way.
As I made my decision, Lad had other ideas. He shuffled forward and dove headfirst into the darkness.
“Show off,” I muttered. I couldn’t let him outdo me. I took a breath and jumped after him.
Unlike last time. I was prepared for the cold, the darkness, and the abrupt ending. I broke the surface and wiped the water from my eyes, the dagger still held in my hand. I swam to the edge of the pool where Lad was shaking his fur and splattering water everywhere.
I was about to pull myself out of the water, when silver spears appeared in front of me.
“How did you get here?” Queen Darya decked in a slim black dress with a shimmering train sat upon her throne. Her face was pale and somber. “You shouldn’t have been able to get here without an escort.”
“The throne opened for me.”
“Impossible.” She didn’t stand but lay slumped in her chair. “Where’s Vasili?” She looked past me toward the pool of water I had just came out of.
“I don’t know. I thought he was here, which is why I came.”
“You really came here on your own?” She waved her hand, and the four royal guards wearing armor made of fish bones and tortoise shells stepped back into formation on either side of me.
I ungracefully pulled myself out of the pool, and the water dripped from my dress. I was still clutching the dagger in my hand.
The queen’s observant eyes zeroed in on it. “Where did you get that dagger?” Her voice was harsh. The spears came out, and one jabbed me in the back.
“It’s my bane,” I admitted. I didn’t have time to play coy. I had to get straight to the point. I placed the dagger on the ground and with my foot pushed it into the middle of the room.
One soldier brought it to her, and as she looked at the ring carefully, her face paled. “It’s my late husband King Septimus’s ring. I thought we lost it the day he died. How dare someone take his royal signet ring and curse it so? For they sullied it. I feel the darkness within.” She hissed, revealing pointed canines. She tossed the dagger back to me. “It is dead to me now, and so are you. Begone.”
“No!” I cried out and prostrated myself before her. “You’re my only hope. The man I love will marry someone else.”
“That’s what happens with arranged marriages.” She seemed bored. “My husband was from the Overkingdom. A prince of Isla.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Why should you? We were married for over nine hundred years, before they murdered him.”
“That’s what I came here to learn more about.”
Her lip curled in distaste. “What a horrible conversation topic. Begone, I tire of you and your prattling ways.”
“No. I want to know more about what was taken all those years ago and why you blame Vasili.”
She leaned forward, her fingernails digging into her throne. “Because he failed to do his duty. The royal males in our kingdom have one duty. They are born to protect the song of the sea.”
“Vasili mentioned that. He said the ocean sings.”
Darya rubbed her forehead. “It hasn’t sung for a lo
ng time. She is in mourning.”
“You mean you are in mourning,” I said softly. “For you are the sea.”
Darya’s eyes turned glassy with tears. “I have lived a long time. The day they took the song from us was the day I started to die. All I had to do was live long enough to protect it. But I failed.” She clutched her heart and sighed, leaning back in the throne. I could tell the crown weighed heavily upon her brow.
“Who took it?” I asked. “Who came from above and took the song?”
“He goes by many names,” Darya muttered. “King breaker, Curse maker, I don’t know the name he goes by now. Al—”
“Allemar?” I asked.
She nodded.
Her answer didn’t surprise me. In fact, it only solidified my own fears. How else would he get the king’s signet ring and give it to the sea witch? “He was the one who killed your husband, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.” She sighed again and closed her eyes.
Lad, who had stayed on the edge of the pool, chose that moment to make a loud and bawdy appearance. He flopped out of the water and came to stand in front of the queen. He barked, and she opened her eyes to listen then leaned forward with interest. “Is that so?”
Lad barked a last time and, like a dog protecting his owner, came and plopped down on my feet.
“The selkie says I’m not giving you the respect you deserve.”
“I beg your pardon? You can understand him?” I nudged Lad and glared at him. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand what his problem is?”
Queen Darya pushed herself off the throne and slowly came down the steps as if each movement pained her. Her back was straight from years of sitting on a throne, her neck long and elegant, and her eyes were the purest green.
“Yes, I do. I can understand him. In fact, he is of the Undersea. The sea grants the ability for its queen to speak to all of her many races. And he says I’m a fool.”
“Lad.” I nudged the selkie. “That is no way to speak to the queen of the Undersea.”
“No, he may be right. He said you sang. That the ring didn’t work for you, but you sang, and the doorway between our worlds opened.”
“Uh, yes. He told me to.”
“No, he said you sang a certain song. One he knows from his time as a guard here.”
“I don’t understand.” I was feeling cornered, and I backed up. “Lad was a guard?”
“Before he became trapped in this form, he was one of the many guards of our treasure room. Vasili, my son, was the head guard. Follow me. Lad says I need to show you.” She beckoned with a long, elegant hand and headed out of the throne room.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. But Queen Darya led me down a hall. She paused before a set of blackened double doors scorched by magic. Her hand touched her chest, and she took a deep breath.
“I haven’t stepped foot in this room in many years. There are too many painful memories.” She waved her hand, and two more guards opened the doors. Queen Darya entered first, her black train trailing behind her. I waited, following at a respectable distance.
The room was circular, about a hundred feet across, with alcoves big enough for a person to stand every five feet. I could almost imagine Vasili standing in one alcove, armor and spear at the ready. Lad shuffled over to an empty alcove on my right and turned around, showing me the spot where he once stood guard.
I looked up and saw what was left of the dome glass ceiling that shattered. The room was frozen in time. Broken spears, helmets, and armor lay abandoned around the room. But I didn’t focus on the aftermath. The object in the center of the room drew me. The epicenter of the guard’s focus.
It confused me. I expected to see a podium, with a pillow or resting place for a great treasure. I was not prepared to see a cradle.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Something crunched beneath my feet, and I picked up the shells and crystal sea animals strung together and hung from a reed. I ran my thumb across the back of a crystal dolphin with a broken tail as I studied the other crystals, which included a blue whale and a green mermaid. Holding it up in the air, the light caught the mermaid, and she reflected a green glow across the tiled floor. I was holding a broken mobile, and my hands trembled.
“It’s a baby,” I spoke in awe.
Darya trailed her fingers around the edge of the bassinet. “Yes, a daughter born of magic.”
“Who would want to steal a baby?” I asked.
“One who wanted to cripple two kingdoms,” Darya said. “For only once every thousand years, the sea births a song. A female siren. That child is the embodiment of all the ocean’s might and power. But it is too much power for one kingdom to hold, so the daughter is then engaged to the prince of the overland. The sea’s magic is wild and chaotic and anchored by the magic of the Overkingdom. For only their line is strong and brave enough to survive our love. And then the couple rule and live a thousand years together in the Undersea until the next song is born. By then, many generations have passed in the overland, so a match can be made again.”
“A song,” I whispered. Holding up the broken mobile, I hummed the soft melody I had known for most of my life, ignoring the aching rasp of my throat until the pain was gone. No words, only a haunting melody that always comforted me. And in this confusing time, I knew I needed that comfort.
Darya sang with me, harmonizing to my melody. Our voices, both hesitant at first, grew in confidence as we sang together. And as we sang, the ocean above us came alive with sea life. Jellyfish congregated and showed off in an intricate dance. The bioluminescent lanterns flickered and grew brighter at our song.
Silent tears fell down Darya’s face. “It is you. That is the song I used to sing to you every night.”
I looked around the destroyed nursery and tried to imagine the room before the destruction. My eyes focused on a small rug, and I could almost remember a dark-haired man kneeling on it, holding a small stuffed seahorse over my head. Was it a memory of King Septimus? “It almost doesn’t seem real.”
“It’s real. My prayers have been answered.” Darya clasped her hands around mine. They felt so frail and cold. “How are you alive? I thought for sure when you disappeared that night that they had murdered you. I never once suspected you would still be alive.”
“I don’t know how I escaped.” I closed my eyes and tried to remember, and I was getting flashes of memories. Of a great storm, a ship sinking, then floating in the sea. “I think the sea shipwrecked his boat. I washed up on the shore of a fishing village and later was taken to Lady Eville.”
“The sea saved you when we could not. And brought you to the one person who could hide and safeguard you. I’m sad I did not get to see you grow up into a beautiful young woman. So many memories I missed out on.” Her hand trembled as it reached out to cup my cheek. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
“How did I come to you?”
She closed her eyes as she recalled the day magic created me. “The tides changed, the sea groaned with the storms of her labor pains, followed by a mighty hurricane. One that does not bend to our will or magic. I traveled to the eye of the storm, and in the calm, cradled in a protective shell—was you. As with all the songs before us, we are born of storms and magic. And one day, you will have to brave the storm and find your daughter.”
I leaned into her hand and tried to feel the connection that a child has with its mother. It was there, a small feeling of recognition and an even bigger feeling of unconditional love.
“I’m sorry I never found my way home sooner.”
She shook her head. “No, no. Don’t feel bad. It was meant to be. We have to trust in the ocean. She made her choice to not return you to me. She must have had her reasons. After all, you are the sea’s song. You will bring the life back to both our worlds.”
“I can’t.” I traced the mark on my shoulder that had almost reached my heart. “Do you know what this is?”
She shook her head. “Explain.”
�
��I can’t. There’s a sp—” The words became stuck on my lips, and I cried out in pain.
Queen Darya stepped forward and pressed a finger to my mouth. “Speak,” she commanded. I felt Sirena’s spell not break but bend. As if Queen Darya was nullifying it with her magic.
Quickly, I fumbled out what I could not explain to anyone else. The curse, the deal, my inevitable death. She paled, and then she faltered. The spell wrapped itself around my mouth again.
Darya stumbled from shock. I reached out to catch her, and we both fell to our knees. “No.”
Two guards rushed in to help, but Darya waved them off. She grasped my shoulders and studied the marks that now touched the top of my breast. “Sirena,” she rasped out between clenched teeth. “She found an old scroll and convinced King Roald that the only way to gain the favor of the sea is for the prince to marry one of her daughters. By stealing your powers through blood, she is stealing your birthright and cementing their family on the throne. We can’t let that happen.”
“I don’t know what we can possibly do. It’s too late. Brennon has been bespelled to forget me, and if I try to fight them with my magic, I will only kill myself faster, and I really don’t want to kill Brennon.”
Darya stood up. Her face took on a faraway look as she tried to think. “I don’t understand what the connection with the dagger is or how she put my husband’s ring in it. But you are right. You have to stop the wedding. You have to fight them.”
“I can’t with my magic.” I touched the mark. “I won’t be powerful enough.”
“Then you will have to use mine,” Darya said adamantly. “Come, it’s time.” She signaled to the guards, and they came and stood around her. Even Lad, who had hung back, came up and pressed his head on Darya’s leg.
She took her crown off her head and held it before me. “I, Queen Darya of the Undersea, by blood and song hereby appoint my adoptive daughter Merisol as my heir and Queen.” She placed the crown on my head and adjusted it. She stepped back and gave a stern look to her guards. “Do I have a witness?”