Breakwater

by Catherine Jones Payne

  My mind flashed to the tablet that Pippa had hidden in my wrap. I wondered again what was so important about it.

  I looked at Mother. “I’m sorry that I can’t promise what you want to hear.”

  Her voice had settled into an even tone. “If you want to get yourself killed, I suppose that’s your business.”

  “Your passive-aggressive protest is duly noted.”

  She glared at me.

  “I’m sorry, Mother.”

  She remained silent.

  “I’m going out,” I said at last. I swam for the door.

  “You’ll be letting him get away with it,” she said just as I opened it.

  I paused on the threshold. “What?”

  “If you marry him or agree to an engagement so that everything can go back to the way it was. You’ll be letting him reclaim his old life, ensuring he suffers no lasting consequences for the murder. That is neither brave nor just. Don’t mistake a desperate desire to salve your conscience for bravery.”

  My hand trembled on the doorknob. “I’ll think about it.”

  I fled into the canal.

  My emotions were spiraling out of control again. Where could I go? Aunt Junia’s?

  I shook my head. She wouldn’t rest until she found out what was bothering me, and I didn’t want to talk about it. She’d react the same way Mother had.

  Alexander’s? My heart sank into my stomach. Definitely not. Not when I’m thinking about getting engaged to Tor.

  I turned down the canal, hoping Andronicus’s rally had dispersed.

  Pippa, I decided. I’d go see if I could find Pippa.

  I hesitated for a moment. Entering the naiad quarter wasn’t the wisest idea, but it had seemed quiet enough earlier, before I went swimming with Kiki. Besides, I didn’t know where else to go. Oh well.

  The sound of shouting somewhere off to my left drew my attention as I swam deeper into the naiad quarter. It sounded like a clash between mer and naiads, and I didn’t want to swim into it.

  I’d have to swim a little out of my way to get to Pippa’s, but that seemed a far better option than darting headlong into a riot. I wanted to scream at the mer who had invaded the naiads’ territory, but it wouldn’t do any good.

  Just focus on what you can control.

  I hurried down the canal and broke off to the left when it seemed like the raucous shouting had faded. I managed to arrive at Pippa’s without attracting any attention.

  When I found myself staring at her door, panic strangled me. This was a terrible decision. What if she doesn’t even let me in? Clearly she doesn’t want to talk to me right now. She’s been avoiding me for days.

  I visualized the tablet she’d sewn into my wrap. I had to figure out what Felix was doing before I made any decisions about the king’s request. I rapped on the door.

  Shuffling sounded inside the house. Then Pippa called out, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Jade.”

  She unbolted the door and swung it open. “Get inside,” she hissed. “What are you doing here?” She dragged me inside and closed the door.

  “I needed to see you,” I said.

  “It’s dangerous around here today.”

  “I need to know what you know about Felix.”

  She studied her hands. “What makes you think I know anything?”

  “You know I like that gray wrap.”

  She cast a ball of shimmering water and ran it between her fingers. “I didn’t think you’d find it so soon.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “I hid it there knowing you’d find it. Eventually. The truth needs to come out. But the truth can wait a bit,” she said. “Until things calm down. Until we have more to go on. Sewing it into a wrap seemed like the best way to keep it hidden for a time. Your home is more secure than mine.”

  “Why didn’t you answer the king’s questions in the trial?”

  She twisted her hands together. “If Anna was murdered over the tablet . . . it just didn’t seem like I should talk about it publicly yet. The tablet was vague, and if we can’t prove anything . . . I was just going to get myself killed by bringing it up.”

  “Why is Cassian looking for it?”

  “Cassian?” She wrinkled her nose. “Do you think that’s why he attacked you?”

  “He ambushed me in my house, looking for it. He knew you’d hidden it there. He said his employer wanted to expose Felix.”

  Her eyes widened. “That’s serious.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea who he’s working for or how they’re involved. I didn’t think anyone knew for sure that I had it. Anna smuggled it out of Tor’s house shortly before . . . before he killed her.”

  “Do you know what it’s for? It can’t really be about pearls. It wouldn’t be important.”

  She tightened her lips. “I know what Anna thought. But I can’t prove she was right.”

  “Tell me.”

  “I think Felix is abducting naiads and selling them as slaves.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Pippa leaned forward. “Anna said she’d stumbled onto something. That the timing of Felix’s sales of single pearls to that overlander—his name is John something-or-other—always seem to coincide with disappearances in the naiad quarter.”

  “Disappearances?” I said slowly. My mind raced.

  “We can’t prove anything. Sometimes naiads decide to return to the river system in hopes that some of our people have survived. Or sometimes they venture too far away from the city and get caught by sharks or webbed-foot dragons—at least that’s what we say among ourselves. The inspectors have never found any evidence that anyone’s been taken . . . ”

  Dread curdled in my stomach. “But you think Felix is selling the missing naiads to an overlander?”

  “I don’t know if this John is really an overlander or if he lives in Marbella or even Thessalonike. But Anna had seen one of Felix’s servants—a mer—lurking in the naiad quarter on several occasions. She thought it seemed like he was watching our friend Charlotte, and shortly thereafter she disappeared. She’d left a note saying she couldn’t stand the saltwater any longer and hoped to find a livable river system. It wasn’t like her. She didn’t complain about the salt any more than the rest of us.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. Then an even more horrific thought struck me. Did Tor know?

  Even as I tried to push it away, the idea gained momentum, forcing me to face it.

  She was threatening my family, he’d said. He’d tried to paint it as extortion gone wrong, but it hadn’t rung true to me even then. Why would he have killed her if it weren’t true? If he could easily discredit her story?

  “She really got suspicious of Felix when she stumbled on those invoices. She just took the one, but she said there were five others that were similar, for one pearl each. And it didn’t make sense to her because Felix made his money shipping large batches of pearls to the overlanders. There wasn’t any reason for him to sell small batches, let alone one at a time. Maybe if he acquired a pearl of extraordinary value, but six? And all to the same buyer?”

  “Maybe this John doesn’t have the money to purchase a large batch.”

  “It’s possible.” She hesitated. “But Anna was killed over it.” Her voice trembled, and I knew she was right.

  I thought I was going to be sick. “Why didn’t you go to the king with this after Anna’s death?”

  “With what? A stolen invoice and speculation?”

  “The king is fair—”

  “The king’s position is precarious, and you know it.”

  I blinked. “No. I mean, it’s not perfect, but he’s a strong leader.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Really?”

  “What?”

  “You honestly think the king is in total control of the city? That he can maintain control if he defies the will of the most powerful mer in Thessalonike?”

  “I mean, some of the nobles don’t really l
ike him, but there isn’t much they can do about it.”

  She shook her head. “For the king to exercise power, he needs the support of the Royal Mer Guard. If that can be undermined . . . ”

  My hands felt weak. “I suppose we don’t like to think about it very often. My family relies on the protection of the monarchy.”

  “You need other friends. Within the Guard.”

  “The Guard are loyal. Maximus protected me even when he thought I was lying about Tor.”

  “Who did he protect you from?”

  “An angry crowd and . . . ” I trailed off.

  “And?”

  “And other members of the Guard.”

  She nodded but said nothing.

  “So, what you’re saying,” I said, my voice unsteady, “is that you didn’t go to the king because you don’t think he’s powerful enough to take down Felix?”

  What the depths have I gotten myself into?

  “Maybe it could be done if Cassian's employer is a member of a powerful family. Assuming the employer really is against Felix, but we just don’t know that. Cassian's employer could be Felix for all we know. Probably is, actually, because who else would know that a tablet was missing?”

  “I don’t want to imagine any of this,” I said, avoiding her gaze by glancing at her home’s drab furnishings.

  “I don’t either,” she whispered. “But I don’t have a choice. My sister is dead.”

  I massaged my temples and tried to calm the rhythm of my gills. My fins were clamped, and I couldn’t seem to relax them. What I wouldn’t give for a dose of puffer fish tincture.

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this earlier?” I whispered.

  She shrugged. “It didn’t seem like I should. Until we can get our hands on more proof, the fewer people who know, the better.”

  I remembered William and wondered if she’d heard about his death yet. From her demeanor, I doubted it. I wouldn’t be the one to bring her that news.

  “The king wants me to marry Tor,” I said. “For the good of the city. It makes sense if his power is waning. Why else would he go to such lengths to mollify Yvonna and Felix?”

  Her eyes darkened, and her whole body stiffened. “He wants you to what?”

  “That was my mother’s reaction.”

  She shook her head. “Out of the question. Such a move would solidify the stranglehold that family has on the city.”

  Because you’re an expert in royal politics, I wanted to snap, but I thought better of it.

  Instead, I said, “I’m going to talk with Tor, at least. I don’t think I’ll marry him, but I might agree to announce an engagement that we quietly break off in a year. Maybe that will calm tensions.”

  Her nostrils flared. “Well, it’s your life. But if you let him off the hook for his actions, Anna died for nothing.” She clenched her hands.

  “It isn’t ideal, especially after everything that’s happened, but—”

  “I think you should go back to your city,” she said. “Have that chat with your precious fiancé.”

  “Pippa, what are you—”

  She strode to the door and swung it open, her shimmery white dress swaying. “Be careful out there. Most people are staying indoors because of the riots.”

  I cast a long look at her. Then I bolted past her into the canal.

  When I returned home, I was relieved to find that Mother had left. Probably to confront the king. Benjamin’s schoolbag lay on the table, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  As I floated up the winding coral corridor to my room, I wondered if Pippa was right. Had we grown so reliant on our connection to the monarchy that we couldn’t face the unpleasant truth that the king couldn’t protect us forever?

  I reached my room, opened a drawer, and pulled out the dolphin pendant that Father had given me. I clutched it to my chest, and my chin quivered.

  “I don’t know what to do, Father,” I whispered. “You’d want me to be brave, but I don’t know what brave is.” I stared at my reflection in the ornate gold mirror on my dresser. “How do I do the right thing when I don’t know what the depths is right in all this madness?”

  What would Alexander say?

  My throat felt hot and tight. I let my mind wander through a pool of memories. Moving to the window, I opened it and leaned my forearms against the sill. A gentle current flowed southward on our canal, and I bent forward to let it wash against my face.

  Once, Alexander and I had gotten caught in a current while playing near the cut in the reef. We must’ve been twelve. Maybe thirteen?

  Even then, I’d known better than to go off the reef without Kiki, but I’d overlooked the danger of a powerful rip current.

  “Kiki!” I screamed as I flailed back toward the reef.

  Alexander, a more powerful swimmer, had recovered and made it halfway back when he realized I wasn’t with him. He turned back toward me.

  “Go back!” I yelled. “It’s dangerous!”

  But instead, he surged toward me, reached out, and grabbed my hand.

  “Go back,” I said, pushing him away. “You can’t pull me in. It’s too strong.”

  “I’m not leaving you out here. Come on,” he urged. “You can do this.”

  But I couldn’t fight the current, and my heart raced faster and faster as it sucked us farther away from the reef.

  “Let’s swim sideways.” He gestured to the left with his chin. “We need to get out of the current.”

  I nodded, turning so I was parallel to the reef and kicking my fin as fast as I could. We burst out of the current into calm, open water. We hovered over the depths in silence for a moment, and then, quivering, I threw myself into his arms.

  “Shh.” He wrapped his arms around me and planted a soft kiss on the top of my head. “We’re alright. I can still see the reef.”

  “We—we can’t get back through the cut.” Sobs strangled my words.

  “Not right now,” he said, “but all that’s left is to swim back to the side of the drop-off and hang out there just a little ways down from the cut. Once the current dies down, we slip back in, and your parents are none the wiser.” He pulled back and tilted my chin up toward him. “Easy as can be.”

  I locked eyes with him, and a manta ray flipped in my stomach.

  A shrill whistle resounded through the water, and I looked back in time to see Kiki burst through the cut in the reef and soar toward us.

  With a half-sob, half-laugh, I swam toward her and wrapped my arms around her body.

  She whistled again and turned toward the reef.

  “Hurry!” I said to Alexander. “Grab on. She’s going to tow us in.”

  We each wrapped an arm around her dorsal fin, and we swam back toward the reef, steering clear of the current until we made it almost all the way back. With a warning click, Kiki surged into the fast-moving water, and the three of us kicked as hard as we could toward the reef.

  When we made it back to the field of seagrass, I collapsed to the sandy seafloor and reached out to take Alexander’s hand.

  Smiling softly, I reached out and let the gentle current in the canal caress my fingers. Then I moved back to the mirror.

  I’m not a child anymore, and I have to think about what’s best. Not just about what I want. I set the dolphin pendant back in the drawer and straightened my back.

  Above the waves, the sun was setting, and darkness descended on the city. It wouldn’t do any harm one way or the other to hear Tor out, I decided. And the sooner the better. Before anyone else got hurt.

  I twisted one of my most expensive wraps, made of jet-black fabric and adorned with diamonds, around my neck and over my body so it left my shoulders and the lower half of my torso bare. Then I slipped the dolphin pendant on underneath it so I could carry Father close to my heart.

  I combed my hair but left it cascading down over my shoulders. When I looked in the mirror, I almost smiled. It was the perfect look to negotiate w
ith status-conscious sharks like Tor and Yvonna.

  I picked up a dagger Mother had given me for my fifteenth birthday—supposedly as a decorative piece but wickedly sharp—stared at it, and then tucked it into the folds of my wrap. I hoped the king would forgive my transgression if a situation arose in which I needed to use it.

  I doubted he would. The use of blades except in times of direst communal need—like the siren invasion in the days of Eliana—ran contrary to our most time-honored traditions. Punishment was swift and severe, for the offender was judged to have placed their own welfare above the safety of the city.

  But I won’t enter Tor’s house without it. If I bring the wrath of the king down upon myself, I can flee to Marbella with Alexander. A glimmer of hope lifted the tightness from my chest. Better exiled than dead.

  Then a twinge of guilt nagged at my conscience. Maybe part of me was looking for an excuse to leave with Alexander.

  After one more look in my mirror, I steeled my nerves and made my way down the corridor and out the front door, locking the door behind me.

  When I turned into the canal, I caught Cassian staring at me from the corner. I held his gaze for a moment before I set off in the other direction toward Tor’s house.

  I didn’t look back until I arrived on Yvonna’s threshold, and when I did, Cassian melted into the crowd. I grunted as I rapped on the door.

  By the time a servant—a merman, I noted—opened the door, I had composed my face into a picture of calm. The servant invited me into the entryway and hurried off to inform Tor of my arrival.

  For ten minutes, I floated alone in the entryway, and I wondered if Tor was making me wait to try to intimidate me. When he finally arrived, a wave of dislike rushed over me. I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.

  “Lady Jade,” he said with an exaggerated bow and an affected drawl. “What a surprise. To what do I owe the honor of your presence?”

  “Let’s skip the pleasantries, shall we?” I said, forcing a smile.

  “I don’t see why not.” He dropped his grin. “Why are you here?”

  I glanced at the servant. “Can we talk in private?”