“Can you first explain what is going on? I assume that you are the one whom the king engaged to do this to me.” I motioned toward my legs, making special emphasis where my legs met.
Ai nodded again. “That would be part of the proposition, yes.”
I fought back fury with gratitude, realizing that too much here was obscured. Seeing the ease with which she broke the necklace, I knew that she probably could have made me as a normal land dweller woman instead of giving me that reprieve. “Go on then.”
a foregone choice
“This land needs a new ruler.” She pinned my gaze with hers, her expression stern and implacable. In that instant, the mask fell away and revealed someone much older and much more powerful than I’d expected.
“You have met the king. You know what atrocities he is capable of. The land struggles under his rule and it will wither if left to his mercies.”
My skin tingled, the fine hairs on my arms twitching. I rubbed at them, smoothing them back down in an effort to scrub away unease. Unease trebled by the unpleasant discovery that this body had fine hairs. All over.
“So why help him entrap me?”
Ai shook her head. “Don’t be obtuse, child. You know why. The land needs a ruler.”
Jaw slack, eyes wide, I shook my head again. “You cannot expect me to believe that you helped me trap me so I could rule in his stead.” In all my dreams of vengeance and justice, I’d never considered remaining on land. The sea folk did not leave the ocean.
Could not. Would not. Did not. It was all the same.
Her brows twitched into a derisive curve. “Why ever not?” She huffed out a breath. “Did you think it was sheer coincidence that your beloved looks the way he does, made from the same mold as the king? That he would be there to be saved by you, the daughter of a king? The gods have given this land a chance, and that chance is you.”
My head spun and I looked toward Xin in confusion and dismay. The moment my gaze landed on him, he strode back to us, wrapping my hands in his, chafing them to bring back the warmth.
“What did you say to her?”
Ai barely glanced at him. “You can take your man and go tonight if you wish. I have lifted the spell upon you so you may shift back to your other forms at will. There is a river a short ride to the west that will take you to the sea.”
“What will happen if I simply leave?” The urge to cast everything aside, take on my more powerful form and swim for the sea as swiftly as current and scales could take me was almost overwhelming.
Water whispered to me caressingly, but for the first time since my capture, there was no insistence to its wordless murmurs.
Her eyes were clear when she turned to me. “You return to the sea to be the princess you are and he as your father’s guard, of course.”
A shudder ran over my skin at the cool clarity of her words. She, whoever she might be, was truly placing the decision in my hands. There was no judgment, no condemnation. Neither was there even a hint of a threat to her statement. Whatever Fates had brought us to where we were then would not interfere further.
Whether Xin and I had a future together if we returned to my father’s demesne was in our hands.
For a moment, I allowed myself to dream. It would not be a bad life. Not in any sense.
Father-king would likely place more guards upon me, insist on my further training before I would be allowed back near the surface, but this adventure-ordeal would also see his easy capitulation for my marriage to Xin. He’d allowed the mind bond, after all. I could remain in the ocean, at home, with my family and all I held dear and familiar and be with the man I adored. It would be an easy life filled with known blessings.
I gripped Xin’s hand, “And what is my other choice?” I asked the question, called it a choice, but my decision was already made.
She smiled, a bloodthirsty arc of satisfaction. “The king has been proclaiming to all and sundry that he has managed to secure the daughter of the sea king as consort. You can kill him tonight, have your warrior take his place, and take up the reins of the kingdom with no further bloodshed.”
Xin’s brows shot up. “I can’t just take the place of a king. It’s absurd to think this a seamless plan.”
Ai’s smile turned cold and calculating and one shoulder rose and fell in nonchalant dismissal. “Not if I rip his memories from his mind and give them to you. Why else would your beloved princess save him? With his memories, there’s no reason why anyone would have cause to suspect you aren’t him. In fact, they may be so relieved to be free of his malignant rule that they wouldn’t look too closely.”
Yet. The choice was clear.
I looked at Xin, at that face I loved so much it had lured me into folly, and slanted him a wry smile. “Why be a princess when I can be a queen? With your agreement, of course.”
Xin frowned. “Princess.” Reminder, endearment, and caress all at once.
He raked a hand through his hair. “I cannot believe you’re considering this.” His eyes narrowed.
“The penalty for killing royalty is death, love. The penalty for impersonating royalty is death. This isn’t taking up the lives of some unknown lord and his lady. We would be under constant scrutiny. There must be those in this castle who have seen the king since he was a child. There is too much possibility for discovery.”
“You can always shove him down some stairs first. I hear that often those who suffer a traumatic brain injury can have a change of personality,” Ai interjected, her words without either heat or glee. “If you think that any who have known him since he was a boy wouldn’t be relieved to see him change for the better, you are mistaken. I don’t interfere in mortal affairs for petty evil.”
Xin stared at me, deep green eyes stormy. “There can be no returning from this, once you set things in motion.”
Hope lightened my heart and fluttered in my stomach. “Is that a yes?”
His expression twisted, his eyes squeezing shut for a long moment. “When have I ever been able to say no to you?”
I yanked back my hands. “This isn’t something you go along with, Xin.” His worries and anxieties pulsed through my mind, surely just as mine pushed at his and I refrained from mentioning that he’d certainly said it to me enough times over the past few years. I wouldn’t forget, but perhaps I could forgive.
A lopsided smile curved his mouth. “No. It’s not. And that was unfair, given our past.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Forgive me. You’re right, that was neither fair nor correct.” He took a deep breath. “Give a man a moment to adjust, will you? It wasn’t so long ago that my entire mind was consumed with how to get you out safely. It’s a bit of a leap to regicide and taking over an entire kingdom.”
I stared back at him, tipping my chin up in challenge.
That wry smile deepened.
“I love you, my princess, and I would do this and more to stand by your side.”
He reached out for my hands and entwined our fingers. I held on, squeezing hard against the tears that rose in my eyes.
When I could breathe past the knot in my throat, I looked at Ai.
“I will do this, but I will do it my way.”
Ai winced. “I expected as much. So tell me, how do you wish to proceed?”
I threw open the door to his council chamber the way I’d seen land-dwellers thunder the first strike of their war drums. Begin as you mean to go on.
And I would. Oh, I would.
Strange, how one didn’t fully appreciate the lack of pain until it no longer hung around like squid ink, seeping into every crevice and almost impossible to shake off fully.
I didn’t think my songs had accomplished anything, but the soldier guarding the door had taken one look at me, and his eyes had softened before he stepped away. Then he’d bowed, the barest bend of his waist, the slightest incline of his head, but it was enough.
The king was seated at the head of a long table, head propped up on one hand, ennui written in every line. I had t
o give it to him, he yawned before raising his eyes, as if I was utterly beneath notice.
No matter. It was the rest of the men I’d come to assess.
There were four of them, an older man with wary eyes, a kelp-thin land-dweller, a solid one with a soldier’s bearing, and a youngling with the barest layer of fuzz on his jaw. The previous king’s adviser, the General of the Armies, and his current favorite lords.
“Darling” -- his voice cut through the air like a whip -- “whatever are you doing here?”
Violence hovered at the corners of his eyes, every line of his face a threat. Despite the bluff, unease strained his eyes and mouth.
I faced him head on, allowing a small smile to curve my mouth. You no longer hold all the power here, I told him silently, laying down a challenge with the rise and fall of my lashes, the breath I took.
I stroked my fingers over my neck, slow and languid, drawing the motion out with a flourish as I dipped in a full court curtsy.
Another stroke across the base of my throat with my other hand, giving him no chance of missing the bareness of my skin, his filthy charm dropped down the nearest garderobe’s hole.
It was an imperial princess’s curtsy, my gaze kept level to his, arms held in a gentle wave parallel to the ground, only my skirts pooling around me in a deliberate display of balance and flexibility. The trick was in kicking the skirts out with the dominant foot while sinking so they frothed out of the way so I could rise again without getting tangled.
“I am Hai Qianya, First Daughter of the Emperor of the West Seas and the Empress of Everlasting Night, Eighteenth Heir to the Unending Coral Throne.” I smiled, all teeth and no humor. “I call judgment upon you for abduction with intent to rape, illicit use of magic to pervert another sentient’s true being, torture, and general gross outrage in the name of myself, Hai Qianya, imperial princess of the celestial dragonry. Who here will stand witness? Who here will support my claim?”
Silence.
The soldier exchanged a look with the former adviser and sat back in his chair, mouth turning down. The adviser studied me, the pallor of his skin deepening with every breath.
The too-slender man looked from me to the king and back again. And again. And again before breaking into nervous laughter. “Your Majesty, who is this madwoman?”
I only smiled. Another man to drive from power. I allowed the bitter laugh to spill from my lips, forcing it to reverberate on the stone walls. Better that than succumbing to rage.
“Indeed, who am I?” I asked sweetly. “Who am I, who you called darling just now?”
His eyes narrowed, thoughts spinning in their feverish glitter.
Surely he wouldn’t claim me as his future queen now. Would he denounce me with the out the bottom feeder had just provided him?
The two flags of crimson in his cheeks receded and his eyes went flat like an eel’s before it lunged.
“Ungrateful wench. Is this how you repay me for plucking you from the seas, bringing you back to my castle, and offering to make you my queen? You were nothing. Not a stitch of clothing, not even the simplest hovel to call your home. You disappoint me.”
He sighed, as if in grief.
“Enough. Guards! Take her away to the dungeons.”
I didn’t insult Xin and Eldest by looking behind me, but kept my eyes on the land-dwellers in front of me.
The soldier tensed in his seat, but didn’t move.
The councilor’s shoulders drew up to near his ears. “Your Majesty,” he tried.
“Guards!” he shouted again. “One of you, do something!”
A soft laugh bubbled up, almost against my will.
He was so deliciously afraid, knowing what I could do. Was this the creature that had held me captive? The creature that thought to take me to wife against my will? Where was his self-assurance now that I was no longer bound by his evil tricks?
“Your Majesty,” the old man tried again.
“Get her, or I will have you all thrown in the dungeons.”
Enough. I’d seen what I needed to know.
“Not one move,” I commanded.
They froze, as if paralyzed by the water-mother’s sting.
“I knew honor was beyond you, but I had some hopes for your counsel. I should have known that a court unable to rein in its king’s excesses would also be past saving.”
I surveyed the room again, making sure to look each and every single one of them in the eye. The room was large enough. Just.
Finally.
Calling water to me, I released my other form. My very angry other form.
Shrieks filled the room, dismay, fear, and disgust, and I drank it up as was my due. The ceiling rushed at me and I pushed a coil of my body toward the door, blocking their escape and freeing up space for my dragon to unfurl.
Bind me, would he? Control me, would he? Seek to fill me with his revolting seed, would he?
I bent my neck until I was snout to face with the coward. The stench of loosened bowels drifted up my nose and I huffed out a breath to cleanse my palate.
“I am Hai Qianya, and today I am vengeance.”
One flick of my tail across his throat and it was done. I’d briefly considered biting off his head, but as the octopuses would say, he was tainted meat.
I peered down at the other land-dwellers, huddled in a knot beside the table, and sighed.
What to do with the only moderately evil?
What had I done?
Faith and blood and heart and shards of bone.
Moon mother above, what had I done?
I didn’t regret the decision, but the enormity hung over me, waiting to spill over. I couldn’t let it.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Kateri’s suggestion. Somehow, she thought it would help, and it did. Yet it also terrified. The fill of air in my chest. My organs shifting, displacing. The dull emptiness of lack when I breathed out that never happened in the sea. Air was a fickle mistress, and I didn’t love her the same way water loved me.
That would have to change. Much as water held my heart, was my heart, I lived on land now. Would have to live on land now, oh Moon mother.
“Elle,” Xin’s voice was a soft caress against my hair.
I shivered.
That was another change both lovely, comforting, and terrifyingly different.
Fascinating, how the arrival of something so wanted could ache just as much as the desiring. My skin was too tight against me, my new legs stiff and unresponsive, and I felt as if I would dry up and crumble away if even the slightest puff of air brushed against me.
“Qianya.” Eldest’s voice came from behind me.
I turned.
Unbidden, the tears came. Again.
Eldest held out his arms, nacre shimmering in his eyes.
A heartbeat later, I was wrapped in his embrace. A bobble as he shifted, and then three tentacles started petting my arms and back, not so unobtrusively checking for hurts. My brother pressed my face into the hollow of his throat, the bone in his throat bobbing hard against my head as he swallowed.
“What have I done,” I whispered.
Two tentacles wrapped around my wrists and squeezed, the gentle pressure soothing my heartbeat down so it no longer thundered in my ears.
“Do you regret it?” Eldest asked.
I knew what he was asking, what he was offering. If I said yes, Eldest would do all he could to ensure my return home. Be it carving out a road of blood or telling one of our siblings to take the reins in my stead.
“I can’t know yet.”
A tentacle stroked my hair. “The hardest thing in battle was knowing when to stop,” he said. “It is why King-father taught us to have a clear plan of attack. One must know what victory looks like. One must define failure. One must know where the line is between justice and brutality or else one is left adrift to emotion.”
Yes. I tightened my hold.
“You do not need to make any immediate decisions.”
But I did.
>
“I want to move the royal city closer to the sea and I would request your help as Eldest of the King of the West Seas.”
Strange, so strange, to be making a request as a sovereign to my own brother. To Eldest, heir to my father’s throne.
“Consider it done, little sister.” He kissed the top of my head. “King-father will also help. You know this. You are still our little Eighteen.” He hesitated, and the two tentacles around my wrists stroked up my arms and down again. “I was about to say, still our little Eighteen, not yet returned from her coming of age quest, but this more than counts, I would think.”
A shudder ran down my spine, reverberated between us, and was echoed by an answering shudder from my brother.
“You weren’t prepared, but you were ready,” he said.
To my surprise, the words felt right.
I stood on the parapets and looked out over the sea. Sunlight glimmered at me, brighter than the usual flash of the waves. I narrowed my eyes, squinting at the horizon, and caught the flip and flare of a familiar silhouette as a mer sliced through the air and dove back into the water.
Xin. My husband. My king. My love.
The spawnling kicked in my stomach, as if in imitation of her father’s acrobatics. I rubbed a slow circle in response and she kicked again, softer.
In the end, the political side had been easy. Almost too easy. The lords who were there that day had crumbled like dried sea grass and that was that.
Obviously, we hadn’t bothered trumpeting the news from the parapets, but the court knew. Rumors and whispers initially quelled only by Eldest’s show of force. Then they realized perhaps they enjoyed having a king who did not rape and pillage as part of his daily routine and everything quietened. Perhaps too quiet, but we would cross that bridge when we came to it. For the moment it was enough to be me, to carry my child under my heart, and dream of a better world for her.
My daughter turned a somersault and flopped on my kidney. I winced. It was almost as if the little hellion knew that she was born of spilled royal blood and the justice of the gods. No shy anemone, she.
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