*****
I couldn’t believe the destruction that we swam past. For the last five years I had pictured Atlantis the way we had left it. Never changing, just glowing in its perfection and providing security to those who lived within its walls. I had been naïve and idiotic to believe that it would stay that way. Not with Amara gone. Even the fish we passed by seemed to know that something was wrong.
“Where are the guardians?”
Vander stopped and scratched at his black hair. “Gone,” he replied, “switched sides.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, not able to trust myself to speak. When I had lived here, my parents had worked with the guardians to keep us safe. From orcas, to squid, and even a stray ray or two had been known to guard our secrets; keeping the humans from finding us for all of these years. To know that they were our enemies now was heartbreaking.
A few sallow faced mermen swam by, not even noticing or caring that I was among them. Maybe I wasn’t going to be punished. Maybe Vander was right and they were trying to lure me back. I just wasn’t sure I was ready to find out why.
There was a burning need to tell Vander the truth burning inside of me. I had never told her secret before now, but somehow seeing all that had happened since that awful day, I needed to tell someone the truth about what happened.
“Vander, I…” I began, but it was too late. Three merman with eyes as steely gray as the ocean and beards woven with small shells swam toward us.
“We have been asked to escort you to the palace Jane.”
Vander swam in front of me. “I have things under control.”
One of the elders laughed. “You got her here. That was your only charge.”
My eyes narrowed and pushed past him, “you were a part of this?”
“Janie I can explain…”
“No,” I said, holding my hand up to stop him. “I would have never gotten in the water if it wasn’t for you. So I’ll thank you for convincing me to jump, but I would have rather come on my own terms.”
Another of the elders chuckled, “she always did have spirit this one.”
“Jane, please let me explain,” Vander pleaded.
I shook my head sadly. “There is nothing to explain.” I turned to the elders. “Please lead the way.”
“Janie wait!”
I kept swimming. The four of us swam in a single line. Two of them were in front of me and two of them behind me. It reminded me of a funeral procession, and my heart was just as heavy. Why had I trusted him? Because he had been a part of my past? Because he had gorgeous turquoise eyes? Or was it simply because he enticed me to do something I had been afraid to do for the past five years? Either way, I was over it. I couldn’t trust anyone here. Isn’t that was Amara had told me that day?
All around us, mermaids and mermen stopped what they were doing and watched as we swam by. There was no question now that I was a person of interest. I wouldn’t be with the elders if I wasn’t. Some of them may have even recognized me. I was almost positive that I heard the word traitor whispered a few times, but I could have just been paranoid.
The castle was the only thing that seemed unchanged to me. Its walls still shone with abalone shells and gems that sparkled in the water. It was still intimidating and cold; a fortress more than a home. Amara had hated it there. She had felt oppressed and bounded by its rules. I shivered remembering the last time I had been there. The trial – they had wanted to kill me. It wasn’t until the last possible minute that King Ativi had spared my life, hoping that one day I would lead him to the daughter he had lost.
“Janie! Thank the Gods.” My mother yelled when she saw me. My father looked up from his where he was chained to the floor and smiled slightly in relief.
Warmth flooded through me. So Vander had been right all along. Then I mentally kicked myself. Of course he was – he was one of them. He had been involved with their plans from the start; had probably even been there watching me as I fell apart in the storm.
“Mom! Dad! I was so afraid.”
Ignoring the outraged class from my so called jailors, I swam to them and hugged them both. The chains that contained them dug into my skin, but I didn’t care. It felt so good to see them. Other than being locked up, they looked virtuously unharmed and I had to remember to thank the King for that. I didn’t have to wait long.
With hair flowing behind him and eyes the color of a black sea urchin, King Ativi swam to his thrown. The elders flocked to his sides and smirked at me as though they knew that my punishment was coming. I braced myself for the worst.
“Well, well, well… if it isn’t little Janie. The mermaid I practically raised as one of my own you were so close to my Amara.”
I bowed as was customary. “King Ativi, I want to thank you for bringing no harm to my parents.”
He laughed, but it was cruel almost unnatural sound. “Yet…” he murmured, considering us. “I wonder little Janie if you are ready to tell us all the truth about the princess once and for all.”
My heart stopped beating. “I have told you all I know,” I answered, my voice wavering slightly.
“I don’t believe you. Five years ago we found you sobbing on the stairs of the palace because you claimed that Amara had been killed. We have received information that leads me to believe that you lied. Now seeing as how you were exiled because I couldn’t stand the sight of you after what you claimed had happened to my daughter, something had to have happened that you felt was worth giving up your life for.”
I gulped and shook my head, prepared to die before telling them the truth. “Amara was killed that day, your highness.”
“Bring in the prisoner,” the king yelled.
A door opened toward the back of the chamber and a young merman brought forward a beautiful and regal looking prisoner. I gasped when I recognized her. She was never supposed to return.
“Annessa… but why?”
The girl who had been mine and Amara’s best friend, a soldier committed to protecting the princess at all times, looked at me as if she had never seen me before.
“I don’t have time to play these games your highness,” she said coolly. “I have told you what you wanted to hear. The princess is not dead. She has simply been forgotten.”
Tears streamed from my eyes. We had all promised. My only thought was that at least it hadn’t been me to betray the princess.
My Life Would Suck Without You Page 4