“Princess Kailani. Consider the—”
“No.” She straightened and raised her chin, shoulders back as she stared him down.
Manu set his jaw, wishing he could turn her over his knee like an unruly child. Alas, she was not a child, nor his to discipline, and...her decision was admirable, all things considered. This was the inflexible princess attitude he’d both come to love and hate. But as a member of her guard, it was his duty to discourage endeavors that would risk her life. “There’s nothing more you can do here,” he told her in a gentler voice. “You need medical care, as does he. Medical aid is en route.”
“I’m fine. It’s only a bump.”
“You’re bleeding, Your Highness.” Desperate for help, Manu glanced over the group of assembled mers, silently urging one to side with him.
Heracles gave him a helpless look, shrugging one shoulder. “She wouldn’t allow us to keep her in cover, Commander. Our princess is a stubborn one.”
“I won’t leave until the streets are secure. You wanted to make me a leader, then that’s what you’re going to get. A leader doesn’t leave her people behind to suffer.”
Manu gritted his teeth but relented, unable to defeat her logic and all the more irritated that her argument was sound. He’d brought with him three dozen Myrmidons to assist the keepers, and Elpis wasn’t far behind, she and her combat medics dispersing to look for wounded mers requiring medical assistance. “Fine. But at least stay close to me or Heracles at all times. You’ll wish that you left when you had the chance.”
19
Standing Ground
Kai proved him wrong a second time. Shortly after reinforcements came from the keeper depot and Myrmidon barracks, the rioters dispersed into the city and vanished as quickly as they’d come. The whole while they secured the streets, she tended to the wounded with Elpis, helped combat medics apply bandages, and relocated the injured to safety.
Watching her made him damned proud. In only a few weeks, Kai had proven herself to be the princess they needed, but he wasn’t entirely convinced they deserved her. This became painfully apparent when he saw a discarded sign on the sidewalk, its hastily scrawled art depicting her gory demise in the jaws of sharks.
What for? While Manu had no true love for the high mer bloodlines of Atlantis, it struck him as ignorant to wish death on them all for the circumstances of their birth. No one could control who they were born to, otherwise he would have chosen an actual father.
Hours later, long after Heracles guided Amerin and Kailani to safety and the streets were clear of rabble, he retired to the palace and decided to check on their princess.
“Commander, is it true?” a guard asked him when he approached the gate. The two were wide-eyed and alert, youths in their early thirties and barely out of training.
“Is what true?”
“That the princess used the gift,” said the other guard. “They say she extinguished a fifty-meter fire raging over the Coral Spire. Saved a dozen families.”
“Fifty-meter fire,” he repeated.
“That’s what they said.”
“If such a thing occurred, it was prior to my arrival,” he said patiently. Their faces fell in disappointment.
The poor lads were old enough to remember the breathtaking spectacles Queen Ianthe once performed in the coliseum for the entertainment of her subjects. There hadn’t been a better magic-user in all of Atlantis compared to the queen; no surprise given that she’d descended from their prime goddess of the sea. He entered the palace and made his way to the royal healer’s suite, suspecting Kai hadn’t yet been released. His senses led him right, and he heard her protesting further treatment before he even entered the room.
His princess sat on an examination table, eye-level with the old sage who administered curatives and medical care to the palace residents. When Manu strode inside, Kai snapped her attention toward him, away from the attending healer’s craggy face. Vitalis was an elderly, no-nonsense sort of mer, hundreds of years old and probably present for the birth of every high mer in the city. Though he seemed moments from crumbling into a pile of dust, his weathered face split into a big grin at the sight of Manu.
“Good day, Commander.”
“Manu, tell him that I’m fine!”
“I don’t know about that. You may need to be kept overnight,” he said slyly, watching her unconcealed exasperation flare into visible fury. A flush kissed her cheeks, though it was so fetching against her golden complexion that he couldn’t look away. His gaze remained on her brown eyes—trapped in the depths of them.
“What? Manu—!” Her incredulous screech snapped him out of the moment.
“What do you think, Healer Vitalis? Will it be necessary to amputate? Our princess is quite sassy. I don’t know if it can be cured in a single visit.” He watched her expression transition from genuine anger to delight as understanding dawned.
The old man chuckled. “She’s quite well. I kept her for additional observation, as head injuries can be quite concerning. But I do believe she’ll be fine after a little rest.”
“Ha!” She set her gaze on Manu. “I told you I’d be fine.” She stuck out her tongue afterward.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you are indeed fine. A little spoiled, but fine nonetheless.”
She swatted his bicep playfully and grinned, wearing a smile on her full lips. He wanted to kiss them but found the strength to keep his desires at bay. Kai was not his to covet, no matter how much she haunted his thoughts.
“What about Amerin? I expected her to be here.” He glanced around the small examination room but saw no sign of the servant.
“Healer Vitalis allowed her to leave first. She wasn’t injured.” As the amusement faded from Kai’s face, the corners of her mouth turned down and her brows notched together. “Something happened out there, and I don’t know what to make of it. She was petrified and said they’d kill her.”
Manu frowned.
“Ah,” Vitalis said, clicking his tongue. “The poor child. I sent her off to rest with an anti-anxiety draught. She shook like a leaf, though she wouldn’t tell me why. Now I understand.”
“Understand what? What’s wrong with her?”
“Loyalists hate nobility, but they loathe the servant class most of all,” Manu said in a quiet voice. “They see her kind as your enablers and spies. Last year, there was a rash of murders across the city, and they were all servants.”
Gasping, Kai raised a hand to her mouth. “No!”
Manu’s shoulders dropped when he sighed. “Unfortunately, it is what it is, Your Highness. The keepers only caught a few of the blowholes responsible. They’re cowards and often aim their fury at harmless mers like Amerin who can’t defend themselves. They only know how to flee and have no formal weapons training. This is why we don’t allow her to travel alone without a protective detail.”
“That’s awful. I thought…when you assigned so many to me, I thought it was for my safety.”
“It’s for the both of you to remain safe, Your Highness.”
Her lower lip pushed out, and it killed him that there was nothing he could do to return the smile to her face.
A mer rapped his gauntleted hand against the door frame. “Pardon my intrusion, Commander. General Lago requests your presence in Lord Regent Aegaeon’s private to discuss this evening’s bombing.”
“Ah. I’ll go at once. Thank you.”
When Manu strode for the door, Kai jumped down from the exam table.
“What are you doing?”
“Following you,” she said.
Because he knew better than to argue with indisputably the most quarrelsome woman in all of Atlantis, he gestured with a hand toward the door in an unspoken invitation for her to lead. They walked in silence. He didn’t need to be a seer to know concern for Amerin weighed heavily on her thoughts.
“She will be safe, Princess.”
“I know she will be. I won’t let anyone hurt her.”
His respect f
or her continued to rise, skyrocketing in great leaps and bounds. He couldn’t wait for her to come fully into her powers and prove the Loyalist scum wrong. Life for their people was difficult enough without Atlantis tearing itself apart from within.
Understanding the depth of Amerin’s terror only fueled Kai’s determination to become the powerful queen of Lago and Aegaeon’s expectations. Even if she had to bleed to make it happen, her suffering was worth it as long as another servant like Amerin never had to cower in fear for her life. The longer she dwelled in Atlantis, the more easily she recognized the flaws in their civilization.
The underwater kingdom and surface world weren’t so different after all.
Here, she could make a difference.
Here, she could create change.
“It may bring you some amusement to know a strange rumor met me at the palace gate,” Manu said as they descended the stairs side by side, almost close enough for their hips to brush.
“Oh? What rumor is it this time? Another tale about the princess swimming stark naked in the gardens?”
He gave one of those husky chuckles that always made her core clench tighter than a drum. “No. They said you channeled a fifty-meter wave of slush into the skies and extinguished a fire in the Coral Spire. Figured I’d share that one since you could use the laugh.”
When Kai didn’t laugh, Manu glanced at her with slow-dawning wonder on his face, eyes slightly enlarged, lips falling open.
“It’s not a tale,” he guessed. “You really did it.”
“I don’t know what happened. I ordered Heracles to give me his rifle, but when I had it in my hands and was facing this Loyalist, I…I couldn’t pull the trigger. I couldn’t kill another person. I froze.” She swallowed the dry tension at the back of her parched throat, relieved when Manu didn’t laugh at her. Instead, he paused, and he took her hands in both of his.
“I understand. Taking the life of another mer is never easy, even when that mer is infected by the Gloom. When they’re not, it’s even harder.”
“I could have gotten myself killed. I could have got one of them killed. I mean, I pulled rank and ordered him to pass his weapon over, and then I just stood there like an asshole holding it. Anyway, this Loyalist wound up like he was pitching a fast ball, then suddenly this thing was flying at us. He’d been throwing them at the Coral Spire, hurling them into windows. People inside were screaming for help.”
Manu’s thumb stroked over the back of her knuckles. “So you found your powers when they were needed most.”
“I did. One of the Myrmidons shot the fire bomb, but the liquid ignited in the air. Instinct just took over at that point and I whipped a wall of ice water at it.”
“Then you saved the Coral Spire.”
“Yes. I still can’t believe I did it.”
When Manu didn’t release her hands, she didn’t tug either free, appreciating the strength of his grip and the comforting warmth imparted by his callused fingers. She could have stood there all night soaking it in, but he snapped out of it first and dropped both hands to his sides. “We shouldn’t keep the general and regent waiting.”
“Oh. Right.”
Kai cleared her throat and fell into step beside him, saying nothing else the remainder of the walk to Aegaeon’s study. A palpable kind of tension seemed to emanate from the room long before they crossed the threshold, like an inaudible siren screaming for her to turn tail and leave. Her uncle sat behind his desk and Lago stood near one corner of it, big arms crossed against his massive chest. Loto, Elpis, and Cosmas were also there.
The moment she and Manu stepped inside, Aegaeon’s brows knit in consternation. “Shouldn’t the princess be in her chamber resting?”
“Her Highness wanted—”
“You were given orders to see to the princess’s safety, Commander Manu,” the general spit out, further irritating the hell out of Kai because the man had been nothing but rude to his son in every encounter she’d witnessed.
“The princess is right here and doesn’t appreciate when others discuss her as if she isn’t present,” Kai said. Cool blue eyes darted her way, narrowing. She stood her ground with Lago. “I’m not a child. If you’re serious about me one day taking the throne, then you need to include me in whatever you six plan to discuss.”
“Very well then,” Aegaeon muttered. He vacated his chair and gestured for her to take the seat behind the desk, opting to stand beside her. “Still, I don’t understand what they thought they could possibly accomplish by rioting in the middle of the street.”
“Neither do I,” Manu said.
“Isn’t it clear?” Lago straightened his back and gazed out the window. In the distance, Kai saw the lingering fog from the fire bombs clouding the air. “This was a test of our defenses and response time. The moment our Myrmidons arrived, all hostilities ceased and the perpetrators scattered to the waves.”
Aegaeon’s brows knit in consternation. “Why would they test our response times when they’ve seen the Myrmidon force react to emergency situations in the past?”
“It means they’re up to something,” Kai suggested. “It means the next time we hear from them, they’ll have a plan, and it won’t end when our forces arrive.”
20
A Light in the Dark
Manu gave Kai the next three days off from training. Though he claimed to be occupied with Myrmidon matters, she thought he was showing her pity when she awakened the morning following the Loyalist attack aching from head to toe. A migraine throbbed behind her eyes, and light sensitivity kept her in bed with the lamps dimmed. Aside from rousing once around noon to peek in on Amerin, she listened to her body and slept.
The next day, much of the discomfort had dissipated, leaving only a dull ache.
“It’s the magic use,” Amerin explained, sitting opposite Kai at the round table in the nook. Cook had already brought them a delicious brunch to enjoy together. “Using magic taxes the body, and since it was your first time using the gift in years, your mind will have to adjust.”
“Oh.” As her belly rumbled, Kai stared at the smoked fish and sweet strands of seaweed salad, for once doubting it would be enough. She could have eaten a whole tuna. “I guess it’s another skill I’ll have to practice. Manu mentioned it once, but he said he didn’t want to overtax me by introducing so much at once.”
“Manu isn’t a high mer, so he can’t really instruct you. I overheard the regent and general discussing whether to have Cosmas teach you.”
Kai thoughtfully forked a bite of salmon into her mouth. “I don’t see why they’d change my tutors now. Manu did a fine job teaching me to use my tail.”
“True.”
They stayed in together and enjoyed a quiet day of reading. Kai had determined the only way to improve her understanding of the underwater language would be to immerse herself in it completely.
On the third day of her break from training, Aegaeon called her to join him on the balcony overlooking Atlantis where he often took his morning tea. If not for his summons, she would have lain in bed insensible for another hour at the least.
“Something wrong, Uncle?”
A big grin slid across his face when he offered her the morning newspaper, the paper thick and green-tinged. The Atlantic printed squid ink on paper pressed from kelp pulp. “On the contrary, Kai, something is finally right. Feast your eyes on this, my niece.”
Upon unfolding it, she saw a photograph of herself knelt beside a fallen keeper, feeding him small amounts of healing tonic from a vial. Above it, a bold headline stretched across the top.
PRINCESS KAILANI, OUR LIGHT IN DARK TIMES
“Someone photographed me.”
“Indeed. Someone captured this, and it took a few days for news to reach the Atlantic. I had no idea about it, but I’m thrilled nonetheless. This is an enormous step toward proving yourself to the citizens.”
“The Loyalists will still hate me.”
“They hate everyone. You and I are no exception.
They are foul people with no love for anyone or anything.”
“Is what they want that bad, though? Votes, a government, a hand in the decision-making process—why is this all so awful?”
“It isn’t awful, but it isn’t up to me to change Atlantian law. Our kingdom has been this way for centuries, my dear, and we thrive. If they wish to be like the surface, then the surface awaits them. We have contacts within many of the human governments, and the ability to plant them into surface society.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Regardless, these laws have guided us for nearly two millennia. Have no worries about the Loyalists. They will be squashed soon.”
“How do you know?”
His shark-like smile sent ice trickling down her spine. “A belief that our keepers will triumph. But please, I’m sure you have better things to do with your morning than to listen to the ramblings of your old uncle.” Then he paused, appearing to reconsider dismissing her. “Actually, how are you recuperating from your magical use?”
“Well, I think.”
“Good. The first large expenditure can be quite taxing. But you are your mother’s daughter. You’ll rebound in no time. Next week perhaps, we’ll assign a tutor….”
And there went the rest of their brief conversation, their discussion surrounding her studies and a planned visit to the healing house to see the keepers overwhelmed during the riot. Aegaeon appeared delighted by the idea of future photo opportunities to prove her worth to the Atlantian people.
So she agreed.
By the time Kai returned from her impromptu breakfast with her uncle, Amerin had become her usual bubbly self.
“How was it? Is everything all right?”
“He wanted to show me the morning paper. Someone photographed me working alongside Commander Elpis and her medics.” Kai sighed as she thought back to that night and the hours spent seeking the wounded. She’d worked until exhaustion overcame her, not that the experienced medics had needed her mediocre help.
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