Hidden Crown

by Emma L. Adams

  “The person who did this already stole at least one talisman,” I reminded her. “They’d need one to get into the Erlking’s territory to begin with. Maybe they targeted the bow in an attempt to pin the blame on your Queen.”

  She shook her head. “I really don’t think so, Hazel. The Sea Queen keeps the talisman with her all the time, even when she’s sleeping.”

  “That might not be enough to convince the Court, though.” When the Sidhe fixated on a theory, they wouldn’t let it drop.

  “It won’t.” She sighed. “The Queen’s talisman can’t miss. And the Sidhe seem certain an enchanted bow killed the Erlking. If I’d known he was shot with an arrow, I’d have realised she might be accused.”

  “I should have told you.” I lowered my head. “Faerie is rubbing off on me.” That, and Darrow’s safety lectures.

  “About that,” she said. “How’d you know a bow killed him before I did? They couldn’t have let that much slip at your own interrogation.”

  “Lord Kerien,” I said. “He showed me the crime scene.”

  She halted mid-step. “Whoa. Is that why Lady Aiten went after your family?”

  “She doesn’t know,” I said, “but she just plain doesn’t like me. I managed to force her to promise to leave me and my family alone, but I didn’t know she’d go after you next.”

  “Given the nature of the Erlking’s death, it was inevitable,” she said. “I don’t blame you, Hazel. There are no easy choices here. But my Queen hasn’t left the water in years—that is the truth.”

  “I believe you,” I said. “I think the Sidhe are desperate. Not to mention at odds with one another over this supposed funeral. To be honest, I’d rather not stay here and get dragged in as a scapegoat. Darrow says this mission counts towards my Trials, so I’m all for letting the Sidhe fight it out while we’re not around.”

  She smiled. “I appreciate the support, regardless.”

  I just had to hope my decision wouldn’t come back to bite me.

  The instant I entered the Lynn house, Mum appeared before me wielding a knife in her hand.

  I raised my palms. “Whoa. It’s only me.”

  “Hazel.” Mum lowered the knife. “I thought you were staying in the faerie realm for the foreseeable future.”

  “I’m taking a quick detour,” I explained. “To the Sea Kingdom. It seems they have a talisman which matches the criteria for the weapon that killed the Erlking.”

  Her brows rose. “The Sea Queen’s bow?”

  “Did I learn about it? I forgot.” No wonder, since my education had skimmed over the Courts outside of Summer and Winter. “Anyway, I need a spell for water-breathing and a wet suit. Preferably one with built-in armour.” Grindylows, merrows and other nasties lurked in the deep, keen to ensnare human prey.

  “There’s a spell in the store cupboard,” she said. “And a spare wet suit upstairs. It should fit you.”

  “Cheers.” I gave Coral a thumbs-up out the window, glad I hadn’t invited her into the house when Mum was in such a trigger-happy mood. “The Sea Queen’s ambassador, Coral, is waiting outside, by the way. Please don’t throw any knives at her.”

  I made for the hall, where the door into Mum’s study lay open. So many piles of junk filled the small cupboard-sized room that it was a wonder she could find anything at all in here.

  “The Sidhe didn’t go after Ilsa and Morgan, did they?” I called over my shoulder.

  “No,” Mum said from behind me. “Do they suspect the Sea Queen had a hand in the Erlking’s death?”

  “No idea.” I picked up a box of spells, sifting through in search of a water-breathing charm. “The Sea Queen’s bow might be powerful, but it sounds like it would have been difficult to smuggle it into the Court. Besides, it’s not in the Sea Kingdom’s interests to start a war with a Court so much bigger than theirs.”

  “Perhaps, but it seems a prudent time for the Seelie Court to check up on their allies,” she said. “Especially as the murderer may have hidden the Erlking’s talisman in a neighbouring kingdom.”

  Yeah, right. She and I both knew that was bollocks. There was one place the Erlking’s talisman and its thief must be, and she had nightmares about it even more often than I did.

  The Grey Vale. The land of the outcasts.

  “They’re trying to decide whether to hold a funeral for the Erlking.” I returned the box to the pile and tried another, finding a water-breathing spell nestled among a collection of other handmade charms. “I also got attacked by a group of fanatics who think the Erlking never died and he’s going to be reborn as their messiah or something, but they were about as threatening as a dead slug.”

  “I’m surprised it didn’t start sooner,” she said. “Word of his death has spread among the half-blood communities here in the mortal realm, and many are claiming to be the Erlking’s relations in the hope of getting an invitation into the Court.”

  “Already?” I withdrew from the study with the water-breathing spell, which was shaped like a silver bracelet patterned with leaves. “How’s the family tree going?”

  “I’ll show you later,” she said. “You’d better go and change. That water-breathing spell lasts three hours, by the way.”

  “That should be fine.” I climbed the stairs to Mum’s bedroom and pulled her old wet suit out of the back of the wardrobe. The two of us were the same size, and sure enough, it moulded to my body like a second skin. It wasn’t the most flattering garment, but it was custom-made with padded armour to keep me safe from underwater fae and came with a hood to cover my circlet.

  Downstairs, I pulled the accompanying flippers onto my feet and hop-shuffled out of the house to find Coral.

  “Don’t laugh,” I said. “I know I look like a penguin.”

  She snorted. “At least you’re well-protected.”

  I slid the spell onto my wrist. “This lasts three hours. How are we getting there?”

  “We need to find somewhere with water,” she said. “Anywhere works. I can create a pathway to the Sea Kingdom from there.”

  “That saves time,” I said. “I did wonder how you hoped to fly to the coast from here. We can’t use the pond in the grove—the waters in there are magical, they might have side effects. But there’s another pond over by the fence.”

  I shuffle-hopped over to the pond at the garden’s edge and gave the bracelet on my wrist a firm twist. Magic rushed up my arm, making my chest flutter. Hope that means my lungs are ready to be submerged.

  Coral leaned over the pond’s murky surface. “Ready?”

  Not really. “Sure.”

  Coral spoke. “We wish to enter the Sea Kingdom, by invitation of the Sea Queen herself.”

  At once, the pond’s surface turned dark and shimmering. My heartbeat kicked into gear.

  Coral took my hand and pulled me close to the edge. “Let the current take you. Don’t try to fight it.”

  I sucked in a breath. “You know, Coral, I’m really not that sure about—”

  A torrent of salt water rose and crashed over my head, carrying me into its depths.

  14

  Darkness descended, and despite the water-breathing spell, my lungs constricted, the world shrinking to a bubble. The current continued to tug on me, and I held myself still, letting myself be pulled along. The tight sensation in my chest disappeared, and I blinked to clear my vision as the currents slowed enough for me to look around and see Coral swimming alongside me in the form of a seal. Sleek and graceful, she swam in a circle and waved at me with a flipper, beckoning me to follow her.

  “That was rougher than I expected.” Hey, at least my voice was still working. Another effect of the water-breathing spell. It wouldn’t be easy to negotiate with the Sea Queen if we couldn’t communicate with one another.

  Coral waved her flipper again, beckoning to follow me. Then she swam down into the deeps, leaving me in the dust—or rather, water.

  I was in good shape, but swimming wasn’t something I did on a regular b
asis. Muscles I didn’t even know I had burned in protest by the time I caught up to her. She’d turned into her human form, her golden hair streaming behind her in the water and her feet touching the sandy floor. Behind her, I spotted the outlines of several stone buildings etched against the surrounding gloom.

  A grey seal waited nearby. He had the same markings as Coral did, white splotches on his grey skin, while his dark eyes regarded me with suspicion.

  “This is my brother,” she said. “Shift to human form, Cliff, won’t you?”

  “You can go without breathing even in your human form?” I asked.

  “We don’t,” she said. “Breathe, I mean. Not when we’re in the water.”

  “Guess you learn something new every day. I have a three-hour time limit.” The bracelet on my wrist glowed while it was active, but I wished it came with a timer to let me know how long I had until the spell ran out. Three hours should be enough, but in the faerie realms, time had a tendency to disobey the usual rules.

  The grey seal shifted into the form of a man with sandy hair grown to his shoulders and knotted with strands of seaweed. “My sister didn’t tell me she was bringing visitors.”

  “I didn’t get much warning,” I admitted. “The Sidhe ordered me to come here to talk to your Queen.”

  He scowled at Coral. “Our mother is not having one of her best days.”

  “Your mother.” Wait. “You’re the prince? That means Coral…”

  “Shh.” She pressed a finger to her lips. “He’s next in line, not me. The Summer Court doesn’t know.”

  “Really?” That surprised me, but I wouldn’t begrudge her right to privacy. “She will speak to us, won’t she?”

  “Yes,” said Coral. “Cliff, can you let her know we’re on our way?”

  His gaze flicked to the Gatekeeper’s mark on my forehead with dislike shimmering in his dark eyes, before he shifted into a seal and swam away towards the stone houses.

  Coral frowned. “Sorry about him. I could have sent a warning, but given how the Sidhe were acting earlier, I thought it was better for us to just show up.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Maybe you should be the one to talk to the Queen, though. I’m not so sure I’m welcome here.”

  “We just don’t get a lot of outsiders. Obvious reasons.” She beckoned me to swim after her. The outlines of the houses became more distinct, most of them made of stone and curtained with swaying water plants. Others had been converted from the ruins of capsized boats and decorated with barnacles and kelp.

  The further we swam, the more people we saw. At a guess, the Sea Court was about half merfolk, half selkies, with a few nereids gathering in clusters. The merpeople had long tails and blue-green hair and wore thin dress-like garments, pointing up at us and goggling at the mark on my forehead. Selkies were recognisable by their seal skin capes, and while some remained in their seal forms, the majority turned human when they saw us, gathering to whisper among themselves.

  We halted in front of the carcass of a sunken ship, covered in barnacles and shells in decorative patterns. “This is the palace?” I whispered to Coral.

  “It is.” She swam up to the wooden door placed in front of a hole in the ship’s side, whose faded paint made it look like it’d been snatched from a human establishment. Around us, amphibian-like fae clustered, their webbed fingers reaching to touch me. I pulled my arms closer to myself, suppressing a shudder.

  “Don't worry, the grindylows here don't bite,” Coral said over her shoulder.

  “I'll take your word for it.” I swam up behind her, peering into the gloom beyond the door. “Are you sure the Sea Queen is at home?”

  Despite the glowing rocks placed at intervals within, the empty vessel had a distinctly abandoned air. I swam close behind Coral, and movement ahead jerked me to a halt. A wild-haired faerie woman lurked in the gloom, pointing her bow at me.

  “Uh,” I said. “I take it you’re the Sea Queen?”

  The weapon in her hands could only be the talisman. Elegantly carved and shimmering with green light, the bow was almost too big for the woman holding it. Thin and frail-looking, she stood in stark contrast to the other selkies, barely able to support the bow’s weight even in the water.

  “Mother, stop that at once!” Cliff called to her. “You’re not strong enough to fight.”

  “I am strong enough to shoot down traitors.”

  This was going well. I squinted around the gloomy room but saw no signs of the Erlking’s crown—or his talisman. “Who am I supposed to be a traitor to, exactly?”

  “Not you,” said the Sea Queen, aiming an arrow at her daughter.

  Coral stiffened. “Mother—you asked me to spy on the Summer Court.”

  “You brought an outsider into my home.” The bow sagged in her grip and Coral swam to her side. She caught her mother’s shoulders, gently steering her into a throne formed of discarded planks of wood and decorated with rows of glittering jewels. I debated asking if splinters were an issue, but now didn’t seem a spectacular time to bring that up.

  Cliff, meanwhile, returned the talisman to its place at the Sea Queen’s side. Magic rippled around the gleaming bow, stirring the currents in the water and bringing a chill to my skin. Not Summer or Winter magic, but the magic of their predecessors, the beings who'd walked in Faerie before the Courts had ever existed.

  The Sea Queen regarded me with bleary eyes. “Get out. Both of you. Leave me and the Gatekeeper alone.”

  Coral shot me a worried look, but I gave her a reassuring nod in return. She and her brother swam out of the room, while I positioned myself at a safe distance from the throne, keeping one eye on the gleaming talisman.

  “I’m grateful for the chance to talk to you, your majesty,” I said. “It’s an honour to meet you.”

  “We are not friends of the Gatekeepers,” the Sea Queen said.

  Thanks for telling me that, Mum. “I’m not Gatekeeper, yet,” I said. “And I am not here on my own account. I elected to accompany Coral on a mission from the Sidhe to speak with you about the Erlking’s passing.”

  “I heard.” The words rippled through the water, laced with melancholy. “I also heard he was infirm for years. Then again, they say the same about me.”

  Tread carefully. I didn’t want to give away anything the Sidhe would prefer to stay within Summer, but I didn’t fancy being impaled by an arrow, either. Her veiny hands dug into either side of the throne with a wooden creak.

  “I'm not sure how much you know about the circumstances of his death, but we still have yet to find the murderer,” I went on.

  “You overstep, Gatekeeper. You are not Court, nor will they ever let you forget it. You’re a tool, no more.”

  “Let's say I am, then.” Arguing with her would use up my three hours and it couldn't be clearer that she was a card or two short of a full deck, to say the least. “I’m here to find out if anyone in your kingdom knows who shot the Erlking. He died from an arrow wound, fired by a bow that cannot miss.”

  Her gaze snapped to the bow at her side. “The Sidhe think I would seek to break my promise and undo decades of peace, do they? Or is it a ruse so they can steal my talisman back once again?”

  “No,” I said. “I came here to aid a friend, nothing more. I was ordered to bring Coral here and speak to you, on pain of punishment from the Sidhe of the Summer Court.”

  “And who rules your Court now?”

  “There is nobody on the throne.”

  “Nobody.” She chuckled. “Finally, a worthy leader. In that case, nobody has authority over you.”

  I blinked. “You just said I’m a tool of the Court.”

  “A tool is still a tool, whether anyone wields it or not.”

  Right… “Are you sure your talisman hasn’t been used against the Erlking? Might anyone have taken it without your knowledge?”

  “The Sea Kingdom can only be accessed by its own members,” she said. “No outsider can have stolen it.”

  Whether
she told the truth or not, I doubted she’d made it all the way to the surface and into the Erlking’s territory in her condition without being caught. “What about someone from inside your Court?”

  “The outsiders are from no Court,” she said. “You’ve seen the place no light can touch, have you not?”

  A deep chill settled within my bones. Yeah, I’ve seen the Vale. “Has anyone removed the weapon from this room in the last few days?”

  “No. I have been here the whole time. My servants can verify it.” She waved a hand, shifting it to a flipper. “You may leave.”

  She shifted into seal form, which in selkie speak meant go away. I backed towards the door, treading water. I wasn’t convinced her word would be enough for the Sidhe, but they wouldn’t be able to deny I’d followed their orders to the letter. If they wanted to argue with the Sea Queen, they could send one of their own people instead.

  Coral and her brother weren’t waiting outside, to my disconcertion. I swam alongside the sunken ruin of the ship, peering through the dull glass windows to see if they were inside.

  Out of nowhere, a pair of webbed hands caught my legs, dragging me into the shadows. Another hand clamped over my mouth to muffle my scream. Merrows. Grey-skinned humanoid creatures with flat heads and eyes on either side which made them look like angry frogs surrounded me on all sides. Their appetites sought human prey, and they knew I was no sea fae, which made me fair game.

  I kicked out, hard. One leg broke free of their webbed fingers. I gave another firm kick and felt something solid crunch beneath my heel, then reached for the nearest strands of sea plant, calling magic to my hands. Green light spread from my palms to the plants, which grew, wrapping around the merrows’ ankles and anchoring them to the spot.

  Then Coral appeared, a rock in her hands. She hit a merrow on the shoulder from behind, forcing him to let go of me. Gasping a thanks, I reached for a rock of my own and struck the merrow who held my ankle, breaking his grip. A pair of webbed hands reached for me and I hit out, pain splintering my knuckles. Ow.