by Hannah Reed
Ethan smiled in thanks. One of Perch’s attendants came and opened the doors to the Jet Stream and ushered everyone inside. Ethan swam to a seat and immediately called his parents. April and Alex chose seats across the Jet Stream to give him some privacy.
The Jet Stream journey shot by, April spent her time explaining the wonders of Hanaria to Alex. Her fatigue had left her now that she was so close to home. Her dress was sweat-stained and her skin was mottled with different shades of red from the poison rash, but she still had a smile on her face.
“The whole city rests on a giant floating platform, like the one we were just on. That way the city can be kept at an optimum distance from the surface,” April said to Alex.
She was giddy with excitement at finally returning home. April couldn’t wait to see her Dad, her sister, Setha and all her favourite members of the household. She tried to keep the less joyful tidings out of her mind: the loss of her Mum, the absence of her pearls and the awakening of the Tenebrasco darkness. She didn’t relish explaining what had happened to her or informing the mer that the legged in power wanted war. April wanted life to go back to the way it was. But, then she looked across to Alex staring in awe out the window. Not everything had been bad she thought.
The Jet Stream pulled up to the station just outside the city by the Floating Labyrinth. Large craft weren’t allowed into Hanaria unless for emergencies. Perch didn’t want to draw attention to April’s return so he had arranged for them to stop just shy of the surface. April swam from the Jet Stream and floated above the city looking down at the sea life below. Alex swam up beside her.
“It’s beautiful,” he said. His eyes trained on the teeming city below.
“That’s home,” Ethan said swimming up beside them.
“I’m home,” April said. Finally, she had made it home. It felt as if more than two weeks had passed since she had been preparing for the Peace Treaty. So many things had happened. She felt as if she had changed. April was ready now. Ready to take on the responsibility of her position. She was ready to become the pearl wielder the mer needed to bring peace to the legged and the mer.
A smaller Jet Stream appeared and the doors opened before the vehicle stopped. Ethan dashed forward into the arms of his parents. They immediately moved him into their own private Jet Stream. Perch and his men moved over to the Vale’s to explain how they had found him. Ethan barely had a chance to wave goodbye before he was bundled into the back of the Vale Jet Stream and then he was gone. April turned to Alex.
“Can you cope with one final swim?” she asked.
He nodded. April ignored her Grandfather’s insistence that they take another vehicle to the palace. It was not far away and she wanted Alex to see Hanaria. Alex swam alongside her but they were both too exhausted to talk. He looked down and marvelled at the city below. He could see the palace. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. Tall turrets, large windows, intricate architectural embellishments and the whole building glistened a light metallic blue. It was a magical world, one he couldn’t imagine living without now he had seen it.
CHAPTER 52
They neared the palace and without thinking, April went to swim straight to the front doors by passing over the entrance gates. She was quickly stopped by an angry mer.
“All visitors must report to the front gate,” he said.
April swam down to the front gate as asked.
“He’ll be feeling foolish shortly,” Alex joked.
They presented themselves to the gate.
“What is your business at the palace today?” the guard asked not bothering to look up from his Iris screen.
“I’m returning to see my Father, King Nathaniel, ruler of the seven seas,” April said. The guard looked up. His face went bright red.
“Princess April, right this way,” he said hurriedly opening the gates.
Tapping on his Iris screen he called up to the palace, “Inform the King, his daughter has been found.”
“Thank you,” April said, if she wasn’t so exhausted she would have made the point that she had not been found, she had returned herself.
“Should I go somewhere while you see your Dad?” Alex asked. He was suddenly very anxious about meeting the ‘ruler of the seven seas’ as April put it.
“No, where would you go?” April asked.
“You have a point.”
The doors suddenly burst open. Two giant seahorses raced towards them. Alex faltered in apprehension.
“Titan, Tarzan,” April called. They whirled around her then darted over to Alex who tentatively patted them.
“Dad,” April said. She dashed forward.
“April.”
A warm pink light glowed around April and the King as they hugged in the doorway. Clyde slipped out of the doorway and moved over to Alex.
“Hello, Alex I assume. Perch called to inform us of your arrival.” Clyde extended his hand. “I’m Clyde, would you like me to show you to your rooms.”
Alex shook his hand and nodded. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be back in a bit, I just need to talk to my Dad,” April said.
“Thank you for helping my daughter,” Nathaniel said and he grasped Alex’s hands.
“It was no problem, Your Majesty,” Alex said and tried to bob a bow.
Nathaniel and April swam off and Alex was left awkwardly in the palace hall.
“Let’s head to your rooms,” Clyde said kindly.
“Yes please.”
His tail was starting to seize up after all the swimming. He didn’t even have the energy to marvel that he was in an underwater palace.
“I will send up some food as well,” Clyde said as he led them up a spiral slope. “You must be starving after swimming all that way.”
“Yes. It was quite a long swim, especially as it was my first time,” Alex said, following slowly behind him.
“Your first time?”
Alex internally berated himself. April may be his friend but that didn’t mean all mer were friendly to humans. “I mean, my first swim in these waters.”
Clyde smiled politely.
“Here is your room.” He opened a gilt door.
Alex swam through and was surprised by how normal the bedroom looked. The walls of the room were inlaid with little white shells. The large bay window looked out over the front beds of the palace. Alex swam over to the bed and sunk into the large squashy mattress. He closed his eyes and in a matter of moments was asleep.
~
April sat with her Dad in her Mum’s library.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t find you April.”
“It’s okay Dad. I’m fine. I was fine. Alex and Connor looked after me. You needed to be here.”
Nathaniel beamed at his daughter.
“I miss your Mum terribly, but having you back I can’t help but feel like celebrating.”
“What about Kayla?” April asked smiling at him too.
“Your sister is not taking things well,” Nathaniel said not wanting to go into details.
“When is she coming to Hanaria?” April asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“Okay, tomorrow we can talk and fix this mess together.”
Nathaniel smiled, April was always the optimist.
“We can, you must be exhausted though.”
At that moment April yawned.
“Just a bit.”
Nathaniel rose from his chair.
“Go, sleep, we can talk more tomorrow.”
He kissed his daughter’s forehead and together they swam from the room.
April swam down the corridor. She saw one of the maids and asked them where Alex was.
“He’s in the North turret guest room, overlooking the beds Your Highness.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s lovely to have you home safe Princess April.”
April smiled and swam off to find Alex. She wanted to check he was okay. She knew first-hand how odd it was being in a strange place. Swimming
up the spiral she found his room. She knocked and waited politely.
“Alex,” She called.
There was no response so she pushed the door open slowly figuring he was asleep. She swam into the room. He wasn’t there. She moved into the lounge area and then the bathroom. But, there was no Alex. She swam to the Iris pad on the desk and dialled Clyde’s number.
“Clyde, where’s Alex?” she asked as soon as he answered.
“He’s in the guest suite in the North turret.”
“No, he isn’t,” April said. “I’m in the North turret and he’s not here.”
There was a pause on the line.
“I’ll ask the staff to keep a look out for him.”
April hung up and made her way down the turret spiral.
She didn’t have time to relish that she was finally in a safe environment. Something felt wrong. She closed her eyes and connected to her Essentia pearl powers. She spread out her awareness until she could sense the life force of every mer in the palace. Every life force she touched that wasn’t Alex brought an increasing sense of panic to her. She opened her eyes and dashed for the central spiral. Swimming as fast as she could she made it to her Dad’s suite of rooms. Without knocking she barged in.
“Dad, Alex is missing. He’s gone.”
“When?” Nathaniel asked. He shot up out of his chair.
“I don’t know, while we were talking.”
Suddenly the door burst open and Clyde swam into the room.
“Your Majesty, Perch is here to see you,” he said breathlessly. A moment later Perch swam into the room. His face was grave.
“Gregor has just contacted the legged President. He wants to unite with them to overturn you as ruler.”
“What?” April said stunned.
“How do you know?” Nathaniel asked.
“I’ve been hacking into his personal Iris account.”
“President May can’t be trusted. He’ll use Gregor to try and destroy us and then turn on him,” April said.
“Gregor is more of a fool than I thought he was,” Perch said.
“Peace is going to have to wait,” Nathaniel spoke gravely. “Contact Yelta. Tell Kayla we’re going on the offensive. It’s time to stop this war before it spreads any further.”
“Do you think Gregor took Alex?” April asked.
“Alex is missing?” Perch asked. April nodded in response.
“I went to find him and he was gone. I can’t find his life force in the palace.”
“For his sake, I hope Gregor hasn’t found him. I shall get my mer on the case.”
Perch bowed and swam from the room. Clyde glided after him escorting him out of the palace.
“Dad, I wish Mum were here,” April said. The look on her Dad’s face said it all. His Iris pad started to ring so she swam from the room. After all she had achieved in the last twenty-four hours she felt like she was back at square one. She wanted to be close to her Mum so she swam back up to the library and out onto her parent’s balcony. April looked out over Hanaria. It didn’t feel as much like home anymore. She made a silent promise to Alex. She would find him. Without thinking April swam out of the balcony and down towards the nearest entrance to the Great Pearl dining room. Making her way into the room she was unsurprised to see the Great Pearl pulsing a deep black. April floated in front of the pearl. She closed her eyes and relinquished herself to its power. It was time to stop running; it was time to take control.
COMING SOON
Want to know what happens next?
Read on for an excerpt from the highly anticipated Book Two of the Pearl Wielder series…
ESSENTIA - Available on Amazon September 16, 2020
ESSENTIA
April surfaced at the bottom of a great cliff face. She shuddered; the water was a lot cooler than what she was dressed for. She looked around. The area was familiar, but she was sure she had never been there.
“Go deeper,” a distinctly soft voice whispered in her mind.
“Deeper,” April muttered. She sank back under the waves. The water was relatively shallow with russet rocks jutting out of the cliff. The fish around her glistened a dark silver. They swam up to inspect her as if unused to seeing mer in their parts of water.
“Where is deeper?” she asked them.
The school floated for a second and then darted towards the cliff face. Then suddenly they veered down.
April followed them, pushing past the mounds of seaweed so she didn’t lose sight of them. The fish kept swimming and April put on a spurt of speed to keep up. Then suddenly they disappeared. April swam down to where they had seemingly vanished. She shivered in the colder waters looking around in vain for a flash of their silver scales. It was eerie down here she thought and shuddered involuntarily. The water seemed to be moving, sighing even. There was a definite up and down movement as if it were breathing. She projected her Factus energy out to try and create some light. Along the cliff face she could just make out a jagged crack. Swimming forward she could now hear a sucking noise. The sea was rhythmically moving in and out of the slit in the rock face. She followed the dark line deeper.
Eventually, she found an area wide enough to pass through. The noise was even louder here, the cliffs sounded alive. April shot her Factus energy through the opening to check for a dead end but the white light kept on going. April looked around her before entering the cliff face. But there was nowhere else the fish could have gone. She turned back to the cliff and peered inside. Her back tingled and she whipped around expecting someone to be watching her. But, she was alone.
Carefully she started swimming, even with her Factus energy lighting the way, the tunnel was dark. She had to curve her tail to slide through the impossibly narrow crevices.
She winced as she scraped her arm against a particularly jagged piece of rock. Her arms stung from where they were grazed and her scales tugged as they were scraped out of place but she persevered through the tunnel. Eventually she could feel the suction growing stronger. Finally, April pulled herself through and into a cavern of water. It was like a vertical tunnel had been carved through the cliff. A groan sounded below her then suddenly a rush of water dragged her down. Her arms flew in the water and her hair streamed behind her.
“Your Highness.”
April swam upright with a jolt.
“Your Highness,” a guard repeated, floating awkwardly in front of her. “Your Father has requested that you join him in his study.”
“Oh, okay,” April said trying to recover her composure. “Thank you very much. Tell him I’ll be along shortly.”
The guard swam off with a small bow and April turned her attention to the Great Pearl.
April eyed it angrily. She wished the pearls would just talk to her. She wanted to know if these blackouts were dreams or some sort of pearl memory. April pressed her hand against the pearl. The Great Pearl flickered through the colours of the pearls in response. April placed her other hand on the pearl and wielded her Factus and Essentia energy into a ring around it. She lifted the pearl and started to swim it back to the dining room, not bothering to make sure the Great Pearl didn’t hit the ceiling. As they reached the dining room the Great Pearl settled itself above the dining table. As if sensing its work was done its outer glow faded. April could just identify an Essentia heartbeat deep at its core.
“Are you not going to tell me anything?” she asked, arms folded. The Great Pearl did nothing in response.
She swam from the dining room and headed to her Dad’s study. At the last moment, she ducked down a corridor to grab a jumper from her room. She didn’t want to face him after the Reflexus. But, she knew she couldn’t put it off forever. She grabbed a pale, pink, fluffy jumper and pulled it over her head. Its heaviness comforted her.
April knocked on her Dad’s study door, unsure of the formality of the occasion.
“Come in,” he called. April pushed the mother of pearl door open slowly and swam into the study. She paused and let the door swing shut b
ehind her. It felt as if she hadn’t been in here for years, yet it had only been two weeks.
“Kayla,” She said in shock as her eyes scanned the room and landed on her sister.
“April,” Kayla said. She sat in the comfy sea sponge by her Dad’s globe of the sea. Kayla span the globe with her tail. Her arms folded, she stared straight ahead.
“Please,” Nathaniel said from the window. “We need each other now more than ever. Your Mum wouldn’t want you two to fight.”
“How do we know what Mum wanted?” Kayla said. “She had her own agenda.”
April frowned at her sister’s words. Kayla idolised their Mum.
“What’s happened to you?”
“I grew up April. I took on some responsibility,” Kayla said rising from her chair. “While you were playing damsel in distress, I was busy trying to stop a war from escalating.”
“Kayla,” Nathaniel raised his voice.
“And you, you talk about not ‘breaking down’ but here you are addicted to your Curo pearls. I know that Clyde has been taking away your medallion.”
“Stop, this,” April said.
“You just swam back here like everything’s great again now that your back,” Kayla shouted. “But it’s not!” Kayla floated with her fists locked. All three stared at each other.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are several different versions of this acknowledgment – the pithy short version and the theatrical long version. Hopefully this final version is a good mix of the two.
I can’t believe I have finally gotten to this point and published my first book. There are so many people who have helped me get to this point and I hope to pay tribute to most of them here.
I must thank my tireless editor Sarah for all her time, effort and dedication to the Pearl Wielder Trilogy. To the hours of editing and debating commas and speech marks, to the months of agonising over a title (I’m still not sure we chose the right one.) Thank you for all your support and hard work.
TV shows like Gossip Girl, 90210 and Avatar: The Legend of Ang, books like Sweet Valley High, the Lioness’ Quartet, the Stravaganza series, Hunger Games and Twilight – all these stories helped to shape me as I returned to them time and time again as a fictional sanctuary.