by Starla Night
“Banished!” The king released Faier’s forearm to point to the exit of the prison. “To the Life Tree. Replace Warrior Luin on patrol there. His punishment is yours.”
Warrior Zaka hung his head and swam, his soul light dark, for the exit.
King Kayo heard him well enough. “Insolent rebel! I just told you I will defend her from any injury to her body.”
“But not in her soul.”
“Her soul!”
“There are many ways to injure a female,” Faier told him. “Lying is one.”
“You didn’t lie on purpose, Faier,” Harmony said, brightening with hope. “You made a mistake. I make those all the time.”
“Go to Haiti,” Faier urged. “Once you are safe, I will find you and keep my vow. I promise.”
Her brow cleared. “I know you will. But I can’t. I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Harmony, you do not need me. Complete your rescue yourself.”
“No. I still need you,” she insisted, making his chest hurt. “I will never stop needing you. We’re rescuing each other now, okay? We have to both go. Together.”
He had rescued many people. Humans with the Coast Guard. Mer in his previous cities. All had been grateful. After the rescue he was no longer needed.
Harmony was different. “You…need me?”
“Yes.” She glowed with promise. “I can’t get rescued you.”
A harder truth choked into his happiness. “Harmony, you must go alone. I am too injured to swim with you.”
She shook her head.
“Yes. You must.”
“The journey will take days,” the king argued, trying to break between them. “Stupid exile, you will not hold me prisoner for days or weeks.”
“To protect Harmony, I would wait years.”
Harmony covered her mouth. Her soul flared with feeling. She reached for his—
“But I will not.” Tibe lofted his trident. “No warrior insults my king. Now, die.”
The mango-tattooed first lieutenant kicked forward with deadly intent. Warriors Chiba and Kusi flew into line behind him.
King Kayo stiffened. “Wait, Tibe.”
“Tibe, stop!” Elder Bawa shouted. “Do not risk the life of our king!”
Faier kicked backward, dragging the king away from the first lieutenant’s deadly strike.
King Kayo held on dumbly, neither fighting nor assisting. “We are negotiating!”
“You had the chance to free yourself,” the mango warrior said coldly. “Now I will free you.”
“Stop! I do not wish for this. Do not help me!”
“I should have killed you on the surface.” Tibe veered to follow Faier. “Every moment you are alive wastes my time.”
“Do not test me, First Lieutenant.” Faier flew backward fast and hard. His side ached. But thanks to Harmony, he felt strong. “You do not know what I am capable of.”
“Oh?” Tibe bunched his muscles and lofted his trident to strike. “Show me.”
“Tibe!” the elders shouted. “No!”
The first lieutenant thrust at King Kayo’s chest.
The strike centered on the king’s heart.
Faier watched the blade tines approach as the other warriors and elders screamed. Harmony froze in horror. Xarin roared and flew to attack Tibe.
But he would be too late.
Everyone would be too late.
King Kayo stiffened in Faier’s arms.
Curse it.
Faier twisted again—agony—and pushed King Kayo out of the way. King Kayo fell backward.
Tibe’s trident spear lanced the water over his face.
King Kayo’s eyes widened.
Faier gripped his throbbing, hot side and kicked hard.
Tibe blocked his path and slashed at Faier. Faier brought his trident up and met Tibe’s attack.
Too slow.
The long tine of Tibe’s trident scored his cheekbone.
Faier jerked back.
Pain.
His blood salted the water.
Faier slashed up. Their tridents tangled.
Tibe pushed. “Disgusting rebel. Where is your honor?”
But Faier was angry. He pushed back. “That is a question you should ask yourself.”
Tibe growled.
He dropped the butt of the trident and swung it at Faier’s belly.
Faier kicked out of the way.
Into a wall of seething warriors—and the king.
King Kayo lifted his trident. “Drop your weapon.”
Chapter Eighteen
Faier lowered his trident, his gaze flicking back to Harmony, and the fear there stabbed her in the heart.
She couldn’t breathe.
The warriors swarmed Faier, taking his trident and binding him.
Good thing she hadn’t been convinced to leave him for Haiti. Tibe would have lost his patience and attacked before she was even out the door.
She was the only leverage they had. Somehow she had to figure out how to use herself to save him.
Tibe floated to Faier and raised his trident.
“Don’t hurt him!” she cried.
The mango warrior she hated rammed the butt of his trident into Faier’s bleeding injury.
Faier arched and roared in pain.
Xarin whirled between Faier and Tibe, edging the first lieutenant out of his way, while he continued to bind Faier so he could not vibrate a single word, not even a scream. “Warrior Luin. Call Healer Hobin.”
Warrior Luin, with thin red tattoos, swam for the exit.
“Do not bother.” Tibe sneered and raised his trident again. “We kill him now.”
“No!” Harmony shrieked.
Just as before, the word popped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
King Kayo’s gaze flicked to her.
“No, you promised!” She shoved free of the harness—which she’d entered the moment Warrior Zaka had told her Faier was holding King Kayo hostage—and wiggled her tiny, stubby human feet like crazy to reach the distant mob. “You promised the All-Council would judge Faier.”
King Kayo rubbed his throat, winced at the forming bruise, and glared daggers at Faier. “I promised.”
Tibe’s head reared back. “Wait for the All-Council? No. You must show your strength by immediate execution.”
“I gave my word, Tibe.”
“Aiycaya cannot be weak.”
“I promised Harmony.”
“Who cares about a sacred bride? She does not know our ways. This is for the good of our city.”
King Kayo regarded Tibe with a dark arua.
Tibe’s lip curled in a silent snarl. “Other cities will attack. Rebels and exiles will flood us. We do not have the warriors to fight them. You would endanger our city because of one misguided promise to a sacred bride?”
“Tibe.”
“The insult cannot stand. We must enforce our laws. Do not pity this rebel. He attacked a king!”
King Kayo nodded slowly. His grip tightened on his trident. He closed his eyes tight and opened them with new anger. Anger directed at the wheezing, trembling, defeated form of Faier.
Because of her.
And there was nothing she could…
Tinkle. Tinkle. Tinkle.
“So did you,” Harmony said clearly.
King Kayo stopped. “Harmony. Wait quietly.”
“‘He attacked a king.’” She repeated Tibe’s words. “And so did you.”
The king’s eyes narrowed.
Then the realization struck him. His brows lifted. He stared at the trident in his hand as if seeing it for the first time. Then he looked at Faier. And, finally, beyond Tibe to her.
Tibe hadn’t heard her. Or if he had, he hadn’t paid attention. He gestured for the king to continue. “End him, King Kayo. He tried to kill you.”
“So did you,” Harmony called, louder and clearer.
Faier looked over at her. Through his cloudy aura of pain, he still heard her. And des
pite her hesitation that had so badly hurt him, he smiled.
The smile stung her chest.
I will save you.
King Kayo’s trident lifted, and the blade pointed at Tibe’s chest.
Tibe looked up. “What?”
King Kayo vibrated with firm anger. “You also tried to kill me.”
Tibe’s thin lips parted. His eyes widened. “I?”
“When you flew with your trident. It would not have stabbed his chest. It would have stabbed mine.”
His mouth snapped shut, and his chest vibrated with cold fury. “This, then, is what you think of me?”
King Kayo gripped his trident more firmly. “The blow would have been mortal.”
“And you think I would kill you? When a deadly rebel already chokes you, you think I would rather stab you myself?”
King Kayo glanced at Faier’s sliced abdomen, which Tibe had continued to strike. “I saw the angle of your attack. If he had not moved, I would be dead.”
“Twelve years.”
King Kayo hesitated. “What?”
“Twelve years I have been your first lieutenant. I have advised you. Guided you. Given you my wisdom, my blade, my life. And now, you question my loyalty.”
“I saw the angle…”
“And you think I had not the wisdom to calculate my opponent’s weakness, use it against him, and ensure I would not harm you in my attack?”
“So you…” King Kayo blinked. “You knew he would move and your trident would not strike me…and so you…hmm…”
Tibe grabbed King Kayo’s trident just beneath the fork and brought the sharpest tine to his neck. “If you doubt my loyalty, then take my life.”
King Kayo closed his eyes. “Tibe…”
“Take it. I do not need it.”
“Tibe.”
“Now.” He jerked the blade across his own throat. It scratched and drew blood.
“Urgh. No!” King Kayo dragged his trident away and glared at the mango warrior. “I believe you. You are forgiven. Do not give me cause to doubt again.”
“My king, it is not I who cause doubt.” He pointed at Faier. “It is the rebel whose life you must end.”
King Kayo returned to Faier with resignation. His brows lowered along with his trident.
“No!” Harmony wiggled faster toward the group. It took forever to reach them. She was a little closer. “No, you can’t!”
“Now.” Tibe jerked his chin. “Administer justice.”
“King Kayo! This isn’t justice.”
King Kayo wrinkled his nose and whirled on Harmony with irritation. “It is justice!”
“It is not.”
“It is.”
“It is not.”
“It is.” King Kayo returned to Faier, snarled at the bound warrior, and repositioned his trident. “The sentence for attacking a king is immediate death and dismemberment over the nearest vent. You will not be sung. You will not be remembered. You will not be honored. I sentence you to—”
“Faier saved your life!”
King Kayo bit down on a snarl and whirled to face her again. “What?!”
“Faier saved you.”
“I do not… How…?” He looked at Tibe.
“Your bride is confused.” Tibe turned away from her. “Carry on.”
“I’m not confused.” She kicked harder.
Elder Wida scratched his white-tattoo-swirled nose, his voice booming. “Her words are odd but lucid.”
“Her words are hysterical.”
“Yes, my king.” Elder Bawa swam forward, inserting himself as a new authority. “Your bride is hysterical from being outside your castle so long. She is an air breather who cannot handle the stress of the mer environment. Remember that your mother never once left her castle the entire time she was in Aiycaya. Even those extra months.”
They regarded Harmony with pity.
Faier’s chest vibrated. Muffled by the ties. She couldn’t hear.
King Kayo leaned in, frowned, and shook his head. He couldn’t hear either.
Listen.
“Do not listen to her,” Elder Bawa blurted.
Tibe agreed. “Ignore her.”
King Kayo turned his shoulder against her.
They wouldn’t listen. And she couldn’t make them.
She couldn’t…
The warmth of the Life Tree swirled around her again even though it was far above in the city. She shivered from her toes up to the base of her neck and tingled all the way down. Clear righteousness filled her.
“Fine. Don’t listen to me.” She jabbed her index finger at Tibe. “Listen to him!”
King Kayo looked at his first lieutenant.
“I told you to execute him,” Tibe said smugly.
“Tibe admitted he aimed to kill you,” she corrected.
King Kayo’s frown deepened.
“I did no such thing,” Tibe declared.
“He ‘calculated Faier’s weakness’ and ‘used it against him.’”
The other warriors murmured.
“What is your meaning?” Elder Wida asked with a deep bass rumble.
“Faier’s ‘weakness’ was that he would not let you die.” She spoke to King Kayo. “Faier saved your life.”
King Kayo’s brow furrowed so deeply, his eyebrows almost receded into his hairline. “That makes a strange kind of sense.”
Elder Yane and Elder Wida also nodded.
Elder Bawa pursed his lips, searching for the argument.
“No.” Tibe shook his head. “I freed you from the rebel. He threatened your life. I saved you from him.”
“By striking a mortal blow at me,” King Kayo intoned. “And trusting the rebel would move me away from your strike.”
“He moved out of the strike,” Tibe insisted. “His bravery faltered before my blade.”
“And your blade was aimed at King Kayo’s chest plate,” Elder Yane said. “It upset me. I would never advise my warriors to perform such a reckless attack.”
“Because I knew you would not be hurt! He shied away. The rebel did not commit to ‘win at all costs.’ He is as weak-willed as Xarin!”
Xarin glared at the mango warrior. “Upholding mer law is no weakness.”
King Kayo tensed. “Stop this argument.”
“You would let raiders destroy our city before you compromise on ‘principle,’” Tibe sniped at Xarin. “That is why you are second lieutenant. So a true warrior with strength can ensure the city’s safety.”
“I would not entrust my king’s life on the morality of an unknown rebel.”
“For the last time, I knew he would yield!”
“Because it would have been much better for him if he had not. After a king’s death, how much more easily could the rebel have taken his sacred bride and escape—”
“Enough!” King Kayo vibrated to a shout. “Xarin, secure the prison.”
“The king’s sacred bride,” Tibe corrected with a growl, prowling in front of Xarin and preventing him from carrying out King Kayo’s orders. “How dare you mistake his bride for a rebel’s sad, sickly female?”
“Move,” Xarin growled.
“You dare to order me? Second Lieutenant?”
“The king issued a direct order, First Lieutenant Tibe. You are in my—”
“Silence!” King Kayo roared. “Xarin! Go. Now.”
Xarin eased around Tibe, trident at his side and refusing to show his back. He led the warriors and most of the elders out. They streamed past Harmony. Only Elder Wida and Elder Bawa remained.
“Such insubordination.” Tibe lowered his trident.
“Tibe, go with Xarin,” the king snapped.
He looked startled and then stiffened correctly. “Yes, my king.” But he did not float away.
The king didn’t seem to notice. He raised his voice loud enough to vibrate to the entrance. “And summon Healer Hobin!”
The vibrations echoed in the barren prison.
An older warrior with coral-pink tatto
os flew in. He knelt and tsked over Faier’s injuries. “They muffled you. Suppose I replace the bandage…”
Harmony reached Faier’s side. Finally! She hovered behind the healer.
Faier focused on her.
She looked into his pain-darkened eyes and promised, once more, that she would save him. Together.
King Kayo turned to his elders. “Elder Wida. You have prepared the hunt?”
“Elder Yane assembled the nets and harpoons.”
“Good. We will soon launch.”
While the healer worked, Harmony noticed her small green octopus squeezing through the coral wall. She walked down the wall to the floor and crept close.
“Elder Bawa. When will the All-Council representative arrive?”
The elder harrumphed. “It is too early to hear, my king.”
“I want to know before they arrive.”
“My king! I can fully prepare the city for the All-Council representative. You should focus on your bride.”
His lids lowered to half. “I am.”
“And on your hunt! Do not distract yourself with All-Council matters. As you know, there was no greater hunter than King Kamuy.”
“Yes, I said I would hunt.”
“You have taken after King Kamuy in almost every way. He supported his warriors even on his deathbed. He would not abandon his warriors for small, trifling, unimportant All-Council business.”
King Kayo gritted his teeth. “Does it sound as though I am abandoning my warriors?”
“A king must never rest easy. No matter how tired. If a deathbed will not stop your father, then you too must focus. Do you not want to be seen as the greatest king?”
“Yes. Of course.” He turned his shoulder to Elder Bawa. “You carry on.”
“Thank you, my king.” Elder Bawa looked at Tibe meaningfully behind King Kayo and swam to the exit.
The healer finished rebinding Faier’s wound and rose. “Rest now. No more sudden movements until you heal. Or you will mortally damage your insides.”
Faier closed heavy lids and forced them open again.
“Can’t you untie him?” she begged. “It’s cruel to leave him so he can’t even speak.”
The healer glanced at the king. “He attacked a ruler.”
“After Tibe attacked him!”
“A misunderstanding,” King Kayo dismissed.
Fury welled in her body and heated her cheeks.
What.