Yet their praise for how quickly she’d taken down the homunculus struck her as undeserved. They’d had one chance to protect their friends, loved ones, and citizens, and Narkissa still overwhelmed them with her numbers using the element of surprise.
All along, they’d known it was possible for the vile carriers of the Gloom to crash the wedding. What they hadn’t expected was for Narkissa to make an appearance herself while throwing hundreds of her monstrosities at them.
In exchange for slaying one of Narkissa’s homunculi, they’d paid with dozens of civilian lives, one slain Valkyrie, and a hundred warrior losses split between Pacifica and Atlantis.
Troubled by her guilt, Kai tossed and turned longer, though Manu slept undisturbed beside her. His bare chest rose and fell in even breaths. She watched for a while, counting them the way she would count sheep. It didn’t help.
Finally, after a long while full of fruitless attempts to slumber, a warm breeze carried the sweet fragrance of the hellebores through the window and lured her to the balcony. The pink, blue, gold, and violet blossoms growing across the palace grounds were a special variety grown for Atlantis alone, infused with magic and genetically modified to thrive in a world without natural sun. But their smell was as sweet as the flora from the surface, if not improved by the traces of magic infused to their plant DNA.
Down below, Royal Guards stood watch at the palace gates and at key points throughout the Palace District.
“Kai?” Manu’s voice reached her from within the bedroom. He appeared moments later, clothed in so little it would have caused a public spectacle. Her own garment was one of many silk gowns gifted by a noblewoman hoping to curry favor with her. It struck Kai as so extravagant it seemed a waste to don it for bed.
Yet she had. Tradition, Amerin said. A dress from a mother to bless her with fertility.
As if they had spoken of babies yet. She couldn’t imagine bringing a child into the world so early in their marriage during worldwide chaos. Weren’t the first months of a marriage intended for wild bouts of sexual frenzy?
Manu stepped onto the balcony and lowered with a groan into the seat beside her. He said nothing at first, but he didn’t need to for her to read the weariness in his face.
The evening after Narkissa’s attack, Manu went to rest and didn’t stir for close to a day. Elpis, as well as Vitalis claimed he must have exhausted a great amount of energy when he’d joined them to push back the water wave, and that, understandably, his body wasn’t accustomed to large magical expenditures.
Training to use magic was about more than learning to harness the gift. It also required one to build the mental stamina to wield it.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Hm.”
“Did I wake you?”
“Doubtful. I’ve slept for so long for so many days I tire of it now,” he replied, reaching out with one arm to sweep her into his lap. She landed softly, without resistance, and soaked in the simple pleasure of no longer hiding what they were or what they had come to mean to each other. “What troubles you?”
Everything, Kai wanted to say.
“I miss them,” she replied instead. “I’m sad that the only opportunity I had to see my mother and sister was wasted.” Even if their continued separation wasn’t the worst thing that had happened recently, she hated the ruined moment.
Kai sighed. At least Sunshine and Sadie had made it home unharmed, in no small part thanks to Cosmas for getting them and Amerin to safety, and the elf king for protecting them in the shelter of the trees before he’d joined them on the shore in battle. “I’m sad that for all of that loss and pain, Narkissa is still out there somewhere scheming and plotting. And…more than that, I’m furious that so many good people came to our wedding ceremony and lost their lives.”
“As am I. It seemed a fruitless venture, didn’t it? An attack for the sake of an attack with insufficient numbers to end your reign. Narkissa may be a petty creature, but she’s never struck any of us as stupid. She had to realize she would never succeed at an assassination.”
“Maybe she did realize.”
Manu snorted. “Time after time, she has tested boundaries. If this was yet another test to sow fear, the true attack has yet to come. Something was gained that day. What, I do not know.”
“For a moment I truly thought she had come for me alone.” She turned her face against the warmth of his throat, soaking in his warmth against her cheeks. “But not once did I feel in danger. I want that for the rest of our citizens, for them to feel protected at all times. What are we for, if we can’t protect them?”
“A new king and queen learning to govern for the first time.” Manu eased one arm beneath her knees and rose, lifting her in his arms. “A king who desires his wife in bed.”
“Insatiable.”
“While I’m always eager to have you beneath me, returning you to bed is unrelated, my queen. You’ll need to be rested for tomorrow.”
Manu may as well have doused her arousal with ice water.
A cool draft snaked into the palace’s oversized throne room and raised goose bumps over Kai’s bare arms. Had it not been sent as a donation from some struggling artist of a designer, she would have opted for something practical instead of the semi-diaphanous layers of sunset-dyed silk. The leggings she wore beneath it had come from an impractical fish, each scale an individual mirror sparkling beneath the crystalline throne room lights.
In the early weeks following their return from the catastrophic royal wedding, a never-ending stream of presents from devoted citizens flooded the palace, matched only by the number of requests for their aid.
Every noble house wanted something from the new king and queen. Letters flew in from distant colonies, requests for audiences poured through the proper channels, and some individuals even tried to contact her via connections with Cosmas and Aegaeon. The former blatantly refused. Kai knew this because he told Manu everything, and he in turn shared the information with her.
A member of the household staff scheduled official audiences one by one to discuss matters deemed worthy of their time, then Kai and Manu held court within the palace throne room as someone pled their case.
“Tradition sucks,” Kai muttered, fed up with their opulent chamber and increasingly wealthy guests. The morning had been one aristocrat after another all hoping to kiss enough tail for Kai to grant them whatever they dreamed of.
“Indeed, it does,” Manu agreed. “We’re down to the final three.”
“Thank the gods.”
His large hand sought hers, their thrones near enough for Manu to raise Kai’s hand from her lap to his lips with a slight lean. “Patience, my queen.”
Pleasure blossomed in her chest and flushed heat through her face. The simplest things brought her happiness from Manu.
“Of course.” Realizing seconds had passed of her staring at him like a lovesick puppy, she cleared her throat and called out, “Who’s next?”
Manu’s assistant stepped inside, a thin merman holding a clipboard that he surveyed while peering down the length of his long nose. “Lady Nammu, Your Majesty, followed by Lady Thalia and Lord Pericles,” Hector said. “Shall I send her in?”
Inwardly, Kai groaned. She would have preferred to have nothing at all to do with her uncle’s spoiled wife. Not only was it not their first audience, the others hadn’t been through official channels, fleeting moments within the castle where she tried to sell one idea or another to Kai like a mall kiosk salesman peddling Dead Sea salts and cheap sunglasses.
In addition to Nammu’s frequent demands for an official audience, communications with her uncle had never been more strained. Aegaeon never visited anymore.
She missed her uncle, mourning the loss of their quiet conversations and friendly lunches as much as his counsel.
Every bit as overdressed as Kai had come to expect of Nammu, the woman entered in a dress designed to resemble a coral reef, every inch of the outlandish garment teeming with hermit crabs ca
rved from rare jewels. Her ostentatious tiara sported a new strand of betrothal gems every month. This time, she’d forced Aegaeon to purchase her a rare gem from Dwarven lands that sparkled like fire captive in glass.
It’d be worn twice, then likely discarded. It was rare that she wore the same strand a second time.
Her aunt strode toward them on her tall, pointed heels and paused to curtsy at the end of the violet carpet stretched down the length of the polished floor. “Greetings, Your Majesties.”
“Good day,” Manu said, the picture of civility. Kai mirrored him despite her rising irritation.
“Thank you for accepting me. I won’t take much of your time, but I hoped to discuss a particular topic.”
On and off since the party preceding Kai’s enthronement, Nammu had taken every opportunity to sell the idea of Kai—and by proxy, Atlantis—financially backing Lord Orphaeus’s explorations into the melding of magic and technology.
Kai placed both hands on her lap. “Mm.”
Every fiber of Kai’s being shouted out for her to kick off her figurative war against the noble class by telling Lord Orphaeus to kiss her tail. He may have owned the largest magitechnology corporation in the underwater realm, but she had no intention of giving gold to him.
Careful, Kai thought, recalling a lesson from Aegaeon during the early days of her return. Diplomacy was an art, one her own mother had mastered during the course of her reign.
When Kai said nothing, Manu cleared his throat. “And what do you propose, Lady Nammu?”
“I’ve come to discuss many critical matters of importance with the queen regarding investments that will greatly improve Atlantis and quality of life for all within the monarchy.”
“Critical matters,” he repeated, staring.
“Yes. I’ve brought a list of businesses for her to consider.”
Not us. Me.
“No,” Kai said succinctly.
“No?”
“I spoke plainly, didn’t I?”
“And why not?” Nammu demanded.
Manu cleared his throat and found a distant object to study.
Sunshine would have called him well-trained. Kai felt the respect radiating from him however, along with other feelings. Unease.
“Several reasons,” Kai said as she leaned forward on the throne, fingers curling tighter around the scepter in her hand. “None of which I am obligated to share with you—”
“My queen—”
“—yet I find myself in a mood to educate and will grant you the honor of my time. First, a matter of protocol. When you address me, you will also address my king. Manu is my husband and to exclude him from conversation and decision-making is nothing less than a slap in the face to me.”
Nammu’s eyes flared wide. “I didn’t mean—I merely thought since the topic came up between us months ago, it would be fine to resume our discussion—”
“There was no discussion, Nammu. You barged into my space and demanded for me to meet your rich noble chums and have harassed me about it ever since whenever you’re in my space. I have made my decision. The crown will neither donate to nor invest in Prometheus Corp. If you want them to receive additional coin so badly, you can part the gold from your personal accounts. I certainly will not.”
Heat might have spread across Nammu’s cheeks. Given the amount of makeup caked over her face, it was difficult to say. Hints of mottled red glowed hot with fury around her throat. “You—”
“Think very wisely about the words to next leave your mouth,” Manu interjected, speaking for the first time since their cordial greeting. “You may not like our queen and you may disagree with her decisions, but you will respect her.”
“I…” The merwoman cleared her throat and lowered her gaze to the floor. Cognizant of the consequences of her actions, Nammu turned meek as a guppy. “Yes, of course. I would never disrespect our queen or you, Your Majesty. I merely hoped to impress upon Queen Kailani the importance of continued support for the business sector of Atlantis.”
“They will have our support, but ultimately, I must take the welfare of all citizens into account. Prior to your arrival, I took the liberty of reviewing the accounting records of Prometheus Corporation, and it appears that your dear relative made tremendous profits.”
Nammu’s large eyes peered up at her with genuine confusion. She blinked, doe-like at that moment. “What does that have to do with investing in the company?”
“He took home an earning of 9.8 million drachma last year. He can invest his own money into the company by accepting a smaller wage.”
“But the workers—”
“Can be paid from this.” Kai smiled thinly. “I have far more important matters to discuss at this moment, Aunt Nammu. This meeting is adjourned.”
A moment of flabbergasted dismay passed, in which Nammu stood before them opening and shutting her mouth in the way of a fish gulping air in lieu of water. Her stiff curtsy and parting farewell preceded the woman blazing from the throne room as if a barracuda were on her tail.
Once they had the throne room to themselves, Manu tilted his head to her and grinned. “How much did you enjoy that?”
“More than anyone should.” Kai slouched down in the chair with one elbow supported on its arm, cradling her head against one hand. Her temple throbbed. “She’s going to go home to Aegaeon now and cry and he’ll try to convince me to hear her out. But I don’t care. I refuse to squander tax money.”
With Amerin’s help, Kai had already spent much of the previous night researching struggling businesses and small companies that lacked the financial backing to grow. Her time on the surface and political studies in school gave her the experience to experiment with Atlantis’s economy without fearing she’d plunge the entire kingdom into hell.
It seemed criminal to ignore the large sum of coin in the royal coffers.
Worse would be giving it to a man already wealthy and comfortable with his place in society. Lord Orphaeus didn’t need charity from the crown.
“How did my parents endure this each week? I’m already tired.”
Chuckling, Manu left his seat and pulled Kai to her feet as well before returning to the oversized throne and positioning her on his lap. It wasn’t dignified, one of her advisors would say, for a queen to sit upon the lap of her king. Kai also didn’t care. She leaned into him and shut her eyes, rubbing her cheek against his soft beard.
“They endured the same way that we will, Kai. Necessity. Now, are you ready to once again decline Lady Thalia’s covert way of pleading with us to institute compulsory military service?”
“More than ready. I’ve reached the end of my patience. I think it’s time to tell diplomacy to kiss my tail.”
8
Virtuous Predictability
Aegaeon was nothing if not predictable. Her uncle paid a late-morning visit the following day, supposedly under the harmless guise of wanting to take her to brunch. Despite the innocence in the request, Kai viewed the official invitation with suspicion. Her uncle was nothing if not clever, and she suspected he did nothing without calculating all the angles and ways he could benefit. He was a politician at heart, and mers differed very little from their surface-world counterparts in that regard.
Not long after his arrival, Amerin rolled her chair into the office to fetch Kai from the duties she’d vowed to spend at least a few hours each morning performing, whether it was skimming through months of financial reports, military data, or any other matters of the kingdom that had gone without her direct attention. There, she read about the many colonies, the outlying villages and communities beyond the Atlantian dome, and citizens who lived in the rural, underwater wilderness.
Understanding the history of the kingdom seemed as vital a part of ruling as any other matter, since knowing Atlantis’s long history meant she’d be well-armed to avoid repeating past mistakes whether they were made by Aegaeon, or her mother, or any of her other predecessors. Unfortunately, there simply weren’t enough hours in the da
y to keep abreast of it all. if Amerin, Cosmas, or Manu didn’t drag her away, she’d sit behind the desk from noon until Atlantian evening reviewing data.
“Are you coming or not?” Amerin demanded, her chair parked in the open doorway. “Your uncle is here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Kai irritably shut down her console. She would have preferred reading dry financial reports and council minutes over another attempt by Aegaeon to win her over to Nammu’s side. “I don’t even know if I should go,” she muttered.
“You’ll go because you’ve spent too many days recently staring at that screen this past month. And also because he’s your uncle who means well but is rubbish at showing it to you. You have moaned about missing him at least three times this week.”
“The only thing that man means is to talk me into listening to Nammu’s next great idea.”
“Of course. And you will tell him off, as is appropriate. The man needs training, not shunning.”
“Hm. Your idea has merit.”
Amerin beamed and wheeled away. “Naturally.”
The two merwomen parted ways in the corridors, Amerin to return to her duties overseeing household operations, Kai to meet with Aegaeon in the receiving room. She found her uncle waiting near one of the windows of the upper stairwell instead, saving her a trip to the palace’s ground floor. The position presented his troubled features to her in side profile and revealed a mouth drawn into a mild frown. He stood with both hands clasped behind his back, his spine straight, face highlighted by the glow of the silver lantern lights blazing through the sea-glass windows. Recent months had aged him, and he appeared older than she remembered, crow’s feet defining the corners of his eyes and laugh lines framing his mouth. When he turned from the window to face her, a smile overtook his expression and prominently displayed both sets of stress lines.
“At last,” he called up to her in a jovial tone contrary to the previous strain. “I wondered if I was to be kept waiting like a commoner, or if you’d arrive at any moment. How does married life suit you, Kai?”
Goddess of Sea and War: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 3) Page 6