Breakwater

by Catherine Jones Payne

  “Depths! I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’d give it to you if I could.”

  “My employer will pay you for it. Or you can keep hiding it and die.”

  Exasperation drove out my fear. “If you’re so convinced I’m hiding it, why kill me? How do you plan to find it if I’m dead?”

  He stared into my eyes, and I tilted my chin upward in defiance. Finally, he broke the stalemate. “You really don’t know. But it must be here. Pippa fled with it from her home the day the vandals tore through. She came here with you.”

  “Pippa’s in and out of here often. She probably took it back some other time.”

  He shook his head. “She’s been watched, carefully. It’s here.”

  “Then find it!” I spat. “And get out of my house.”

  He released my hands. “Has Pippa been here unsupervised?”

  “I thought you guys had been watching her carefully.”

  He shot me a warning look.

  Realization dawned on me. “Yesterday at the statues. You thought I was carrying it. That’s why you didn’t pursue us.”

  He grunted.

  “But it was just a blank tablet for drawing.”

  “Would’ve been better for you if you’d had it with you,” he said.

  “Look for it,” I said. “I won’t stop you. Tear the house apart if you have to. But Mother will be home soon, and given her connections, I don’t think you want to explain this to her, so move fast.”

  He gestured for me to swim in front of him. “Stay in front of me, where I can see you. I’ve just about finished.”

  I held up my hands and complied. I couldn’t have explained why, but his presence just didn’t fill me with the terror that the situation probably justified. Which was odd for me. But I really don’t think he wants to kill me.

  I crossed my arms when he guided me into my room and continued his frantic search.

  The door opened and closed a level below us, and Cassian held up one finger over his mouth.

  “Jade?” Mother called.

  “Hi, Mother,” I said, looking at Cassian.

  His face tightened. He threw open one more drawer and rifled through it. The tablet wasn’t there.

  Glaring at me, he opened my window and darted away on the current.

  Three days passed without any sign of Cassian. I knew I should tell Mother about his threats, but I just couldn’t. She’d freak out again, and I couldn’t handle more tension and drama. Neither could Benjamin—he faced enough of it at school.

  The morning of the third day, I awoke with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Today they announce the verdict.

  I wanted to believe that they’d convict my skub ex-fiancé, but at the end of the day, Tor was right. I now knew Anna as Pippa’s sister and William’s sweetheart. But to the king?

  She’s just a naiad.

  It was naive to think that the king would risk convicting Tor for the murder, even if he wanted to. But I would attend the sentencing and hold my head high, like the ancient queens Eliana and Jade. I might not ever possess their strength and dignity, but at least I could prove myself a worthy citizen of their kingdom.

  I floated over to my closet to find a wrap for the sentencing. As I inspected my garments, I saw a glimpse of gray at the back and pulled it out. I smiled.

  “You don’t belong back there, silly,” I murmured.

  It was a simple but regal stone-gray wrap, as soft as a fuzzfish. One of my favorites. I hadn’t gotten a chance to wear it in weeks because it’d had a tear in it. I pulled it off the pole and began to wrap it around my torso, but then I stopped.

  Something wasn’t right. A section of the wrap felt stiff like . . . Like there’s something sewn inside.

  I ran my hand across it. Whatever was hidden in the wrap was hard, thin, and rectangular, about two hand-lengths tall and one across.

  Like a tablet.

  A thrill ran down my body. So this was what Cassian had been looking for. Pippa must’ve sewn it into the wrap to hide it and pushed it into the back of my closet so I wouldn’t discover it.

  I dropped the wrap on the floor, tucked my sleeping wrap back around my body, and darted down the corridor to grab a knife.

  “Morning, Jade,” said Aunt Junia.

  I pulled up short. “You’re here early.”

  “I’m coming to the sentencing with you,” she said. “Moral support, you know.”

  I smiled at her. “Thanks, Aunt Junia. You’ve been a rock through all this.”

  “Breakfast?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” I said. “There’s a—a thread loose on the wrap I’m planning to wear. I need to grab a knife to trim it off.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” she said. “Be careful not to tear it.”

  “I will.”

  I hurried back up the corridor and laid the wrap on the windowsill. I hesitated when I positioned the knife along the seam. Did I really want to know the information Cassian seemed so desperate to get his hands on?

  For that matter, did I really want to destroy one of my favorite wraps?

  Yes. Yes I do. Pippa would be able to fix it. With shaking hands, I ripped seam by seam along the area parallel to the tablet until I had a hole big enough to pull it out. I scanned it and then furrowed my brow.

  This was what Cassian had attacked me in broad daylight for? In my hands I held a list that looked like a trade invoice.

  It showed the amount that Tor’s father had been paid by an overlander named John Taylor for a single white pearl. Nothing about it looked peculiar. Overlanders paid extravagant sums for pearls, and I knew that Tor’s father dealt in them.

  But it can’t just be a pearl. That’s not something he’d need to hide.

  A chill took hold of me as I wondered if Tor had been telling the truth about the blackmail. Maybe this, somehow, was the information Anna had been killed over. It would explain Cassian’s ravings.

  I pushed the thought away. I’d have time enough to dwell on it later.

  I studied the tablet for a few minutes to no avail, then decided I’d ask Pippa about it after the sentencing. I stuffed the torn wrap and the tablet into one of the drawers I’d seen Cassian search already, returned to my closet, and selected a light blue wrap dotted with pearls.

  Absurd that the overlanders pay so much for them, if you ask me. I finished wrapping it around myself and secured it with a small conch clasp, then I picked up my dolphin pendant and hung it around my neck.

  “There,” I murmured, looking in the mirror. Satisfied, I drifted down the corridor to leave for the sentencing with Aunt Junia and Mother.

  “You look lovely,” Aunt Junia said when I returned. “You’re sure you don’t want breakfast?”

  Nauseated, I shook my head. “I can’t eat. Not until after.”

  Mother furrowed her eyebrows. “I think you should eat something.”

  “I can’t,” I said firmly.

  “If you say so.” Aunt Junia shrugged.

  Benjamin emerged from the corridor, dressed in a school-uniform wrap.

  “Hey.” I floated over to hug him. “Are you sure you want to go to school today? No one will fault you if you stay home. I’ll talk to Principal Lira myself.”

  He shook his head. “Mother didn’t want me to go today either, but I talked her into it. If I don’t go, it’s sort of like Tor wins a little bit, you know?”

  I smiled. “I know. I’m proud of you. You know that?”

  He grinned at me. “I’m proud of you, too.”

  I rolled my eyes and ruffled his hair. “Eat your breakfast, and get out of my sight.”

  He stuck his tongue out at me and turned toward the table. “I’ll eat Jade’s breakfast, too.”

  “You overhear entirely too much,” said Mother. “But yes, there’s plenty of food.”

  I swam back and forth across the room until Benjamin left for school. As soon as he closed the door behind him, I said, “Let’s just go now. I know we’ll be early, but I can’t
handle waiting here.”

  Mother nodded. “I think we’ll all feel better when we get there.”

  I doubted that, but I wasn’t going to protest. I needed to escape the house.

  Maybe I’ll go find Kiki, and we’ll swim off somewhere together and never come back. I bet there are cities of mer so far away that no one from Thessalonike would ever track us down.

  It was an absurd thought, but I took comfort in it during our swim to the court, past the long line of houses belonging to the nobles.

  It struck me how different everything looked from the naiad quarter. Almost ostentatious by comparison. I wasn’t sure I liked it all that much anymore.

  A young naiad girl—perhaps ten—lugged a large, covered bucket out of one of the houses. I wondered what was in it and why she was working at such a young age.

  Then again, why did Alexander have to quit school to work?

  A deep, heavy sigh racked my body.

  “What’s the matter, dear?” Aunt Junia asked.

  “The city’s just such an unfair place,” I replied.

  Aunt Junia chuckled. “Yes, it is. So’s the rest of the world.”

  “You’ve never left the city. How would you know?”

  “We all know the stories,” she said. “Besides, why wouldn’t it be? Why would you expect one city to corner the market on good or evil?”

  “I suppose so,” I said. “Even Tor isn’t all bad.”

  She huffed.

  I tried to suppress a smirk. “I’m serious, though. I mean, sure, he’s entitled and manipulative and, well, a murderer, but . . . ”

  But he’s loyal to a fault. I couldn’t get the tablet out of my head.

  “But what?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing. I guess I’ve just been wondering if he told me a half-truth that night. Maybe he was trying to protect Felix from some kind of embarrassing revelation.”

  She pursed her lips at me.

  “What? It’s not like it excuses murder or anything. But maybe he felt trapped between two bad options and just made the wrong choice in that moment.”

  “Well, he may not be all bad, but he’s certainly bad enough,” Aunt Junia said with a hmmph.

  I fell silent as we turned the corner and passed under the solid marble archway that marked the entry to the king’s palace. I hesitated.

  “Court’s this way.” Mother jerked her head to the right.

  Of course I know where the court is, I wanted to retort. But I kept silent.

  Instead, I closed my eyes and imagined myself swimming off the reef with Kiki. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t stop the dread from clenching in my chest.

  “Are you ready?” Aunt Junia asked, her forehead creasing.

  “Should I be?” I tried to force a smile.

  “You don’t have to be,” she said. “You just have to get through it, and we’ll be here to help you no matter what.”

  I turned to Mother, emotion brimming in my throat. “I’m sorry I dragged you through all this. I know it hasn’t made your life easier.”

  She met my gaze. “Like I told you during the trial, Jade, I’m proud of you for following your moral current even though the tides were against you. If your father were here, he’d be proud, too.”

  We entered the court, and my stomach felt as heavy as a boulder. I’d expected that we’d be the first to arrive, but we weren’t; Yvonna already sat in a hammock at the front, her fin curled up underneath her and her arms crossed over her chest.

  When we passed by her, she sat up quickly and pasted a stiff smile onto her face.

  “Lovely to see you,” she said in a sharp, biting tone. “I’m so looking forward to my son’s vindication today and the end of your schemes.” She brightened. “Perhaps the king will even make you go to trial for filing a false report and trying to destroy a merman’s life.”

  My lips tightened into a thin line. “Your son killed someone, Yvonna. I don’t know if you refuse to believe it or if you’re intentionally covering for him, but the king can see through all of you.”

  She scoffed and studied her fingernails. “I will not dignify your impudence with a reply.”

  You just did. I shrugged it off.

  “That’s enough, Jade.” Mother grabbed my elbow. “Let’s take a seat before anyone else gets here.”

  I wanted to rage at Yvonna, to tell her that she and the rest of her disgraceful family could sink to the depths for all I cared, but one look at Mother’s stern face dissuaded me.

  No need to cause yet another incident. I’d instigated enough drama to last a lifetime.

  I sank into a hammock chair in the front row, several spaces away from Yvonna, and tried to shut out everything around me as mer and naiads filtered into the room.

  Just before the appointed start time, Pippa walked in, her lips tight and her eyes heavy, and took a seat behind me.

  I turned to ask her about the tablet, but she leaned forward and whispered, “William took a turn for the worse. We don’t know if he’ll make it through the day.”

  My heart dropped. “Depths. How’s Miriam?”

  Pippa’s chin quivered. “She’s a wreck. We all are.”

  “Are you sure you want to be here?” I asked, grabbing her hands.

  “I have to be. Anna would want me to see this through.”

  I sucked water through my gills. “Pippa, I know this isn’t a good time to ask you this, but I found—”

  “His Majesty, King Stephanos of Thessalonike!” yelled a herald from the front of the room. A hush fell over the crowd, and I turned back to the front.

  The king swept in and took his seat on the throne. “I hereby call this hearing to order.”

  I hazarded a glance at the room, looking for Alexander, but I couldn’t find him in the crowd. Every hammock in the room had been taken.

  Instead, my gaze settled on Felix. I narrowed my eyes in thought. Then I tore my focus away, no closer to an answer. Tor floated several tail-lengths in front of the throne.

  Yvonna and I looked at each other, and something like fear shone in her eyes, stronger even than her venom.

  My gills pulsed, and my heart pounded. This is it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “We are here today,” said the king, “to render the verdict against Captain Tor Felicipolos of the Royal Mer Guard on the accusation of the killing of the naiad Anna Brook.”

  Please say guilty. Please say guilty.

  The king drummed his fingers on the side of his throne. “On that charge, Captain Tor’s transgression is apparent. He is declared guilty.”

  The room burst into a cacophony of noise as mer rose in protest and naiads cheered.

  Relief washed over me. I thought the sobs that I’d worked so hard to restrain might burst forth from my chest at any moment. Tor held perfectly still, and I wished I could see his face.

  “Silence!” called the king, his face stern and his beard wagging. “We are not yet finished.”

  The members of the Guard who floated on either side of the king tightened their fingers on the clubs strapped to their fins, and the room quieted.

  “Yet,” said the king, “there is insufficient evidence that Captain Tor planned the killing in advance or even that he intended to commit it when he initiated the attack. As a result, his sentence is mitigated.”

  The mood of the room lightened, and my exhilaration gave way to confusion.

  “Captain Tor,” he continued, “you are hereby stripped of your military rank and expelled from the Royal Mer Guard. You will remain under house arrest in your parents’ home for a period of one year, during which time I expect you to reflect on the severity of your actions and their consequences. Should you commit such an egregious offense again, I will have no choice but to banish you from the borders of the city or commend you to the currents of the fountains of the deep.”

  The crowd’s murmuring grew louder. I looked behind me and made eye contact with Pippa, who had tightened her hands into fists. Yvonna trained
baleful eyes on me.

  “Well,” muttered Aunt Junia, raising an eyebrow. “That’s a verdict to anger everybody, isn’t it?”

  “Silence,” hissed the king in a low, dangerous tone.

  The crowd quieted again, but I sensed a swell of emotion lingering just beneath the surface, like the aftereffects of a lightning strike. The water nearly crackled with it.

  “I expect every citizen of Thessalonike, mer and naiad alike, to abide by the verdict I have decreed,” he said. “The Royal Mer Guard will escort Sir Tor back to his home to begin his sentence. You are dismissed.”

  I rose from my hammock. So many emotions collided in my chest that I despaired of sorting them all out. But at the bottom of them all, a refrain resounded in my head: We won. We won. We won.

  I turned back to Pippa. She sat still, her face pale, her hands clenched in her lap.

  “Come on.” I reached for her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here to give things a chance to settle down. Everyone looks tense. It could get dangerous.”

  She batted my hand away but remained still otherwise.

  “Pippa?”

  “Leave me alone,” she whispered. “Please.”

  “It’s okay, Jade,” said Aunt Junia. “She’s had a shock. Several, in fact. She needs time.”

  “I have to ask her about something,” I said. “It’s important.”

  “Not right now. Let’s go.” Aunt Junia grabbed my elbow. “We’re going home.”

  I didn’t look at Tor on my way out.

  Unrest simmered in the city. Each day when George reported for work, he shook his head. “The canals are uneasy,” he said. “I wouldn’t go out if I were you, Miss Jade.”

  Stir-crazy though I was, I decided not to tempt the tides. Instead, I stared out my window, watching the traffic on the canal and pondering the strange tablet. Benjamin came in periodically to try to cheer me up.

  “Hey, Jade,” he said. “I just tore a hole in my hammock with a dolphin tooth.”

  I furrowed my brow and stared at him. “What are you talking—”

  “But I don’t think Mother will be mad,” he said, grinning, “because I didn’t do it on porpoise.”