Death Beyond the Waves

by Aleera Anaya Ceres

  I’d never show him how much he unnerved me. How much I truly despise him. Percival would never see to what extent my hate went. It was, after all, his fault the backs of my hands were as hard as a workmer’s. How I hardly had any feeling in them anymore because of his constant punishments.

  Punishments that he’d been delivering since I was a child.

  “No,” I said coolly, confidently. “We will not.”

  His fists tightened, likely on the invisibly strap of leather.

  I could almost feel the pain on my hands. Even if my feeling was gone, I remembered the pain of it. That was terrible enough.

  “We must,” he urged. “There is a schedule we must keep.”

  I looked around for some sort of escape ploy I could use to get away from him. Leaving my room had been a bad idea, but I’d had no other choice. I hadn’t wanted to be in the middle of whatever sick love games my cousin had going on with Tiberius.

  As if being with the Lizard Prince wasn’t bad enough, she went after a commoner, and a stiff one at that. I mean, the Black Blade was even worse than commoner filth, but at least he was a king in his own right, even if it was of ill repute. At least he had money.

  But there was no one around to save me from this situation, nothing but a flock of servants averting their cowardly gazes as they swept their sponges across vases and picture frames. And then my gaze landed on a merman swimming leisurely about the halls and winking at the mermaids as he passed.

  This merman was obviously of rich make. He was wearing what looked like thick draperies of velvet—rich, of course—lined with thick fur that hung down to hide any evidence of his tail. By the gods, wasn’t he scorching in that get up? Nevermind that, I told myself, as I took him in further. He wore a belt and scabbard, from which hung a sword that appeared to have been carved from ice, the pommel bearing the symbol of an orca. Hm, Iolish then. My eyes raked over his face for my final assessment of his usefulness. He was blond, rather, his hair was yellow, and wisps of long curls that swept over pale lashes. Lashes that framed eyes as blue as jagged chips of ice.

  He would do fine.

  The moment he came towards us, he stopped to gift me with a bow that would have been proper, had I not sensed the mocking in the way he purred, “Princess.”

  “I have plans of my own, you see,” I hurriedly told Percival. “See, I promised our Iolish visitor I’d gift him with a proper tour of the palace.” I made an absent minded, yet elegant, gesture in the Iolish’s general direction. “So you see, I have my own schedule. Such a shame I’ll have to miss such a stimulating lesson on smelly reptilian mating dances.”

  Percival opened his mouth to argue, but before he could say a thing, I grabbed the Iolish stranger by the arm and tugged him away, past Percival and rounding the corner until the merman was out of sight. Even then, I did not stop. Taking various twists and turns about the palace, until I finally deemed it safe, with enough distance between me and the advisor.

  I took a breath, releasing the Iolish’s arm. Immediately, he leaned against the nearest wall, propping a shoulder up against it to stare down at me with mocking eyes.

  I straightened and glared at him. “Pray tell, what are you still doing here?” I demanded, shooing him away with a wave of fingers. “You’ve served your usefulness. Leave.”

  An irritatingly perfect eyebrow rose, and his full lips quirked into a half smile. “I don’t think I will.”

  He stared at me challengingly. All it did was make me scoff and tear my gaze away. “Whatever. Loiter around if you must, but I’m leaving.”

  “What about the tour you promised me?” he demanded goodnaturedly. I despised the good natured. They always seemed to be hiding something.

  My eyes narrowed on him. “As I’m sure even your tiny Iolish brain can comprehend, that was a lie.”

  He blinked at my words, and then threw his head back with a bark of laughter. I chastised myself for being momentarily distracted by the arch of his throat, and the way he laughed in a way that seemed so sincere, and according to my treacherous thoughts, pretty. Ugh. I had to leave. Now.

  I started to turn away from him, but for the second time within a few minutes, the Iolish grabbed my arm, right over the spot where Percival had touched me. And as if by magic, the warmth of his touch banished the other entirely, leaving no memory of that disgusting creature’s hand print at all.

  “Wait,” he pleaded. “Stay, please.”

  I yanked my arm away, startled by the command, and unnerved when I felt the need to do what he asked. I glared. “You’re no one to be giving me orders, Iolish.”

  His smile didn’t even falter. He took my insults in stride, as if the words just bounded off of his body like a lumpy sea sponge. “I’m ‘Iolish’ now? Please, you can still call me ‘Ytgar’. Especially since I wanted to apologize to you for my earlier behavior.”

  I blinked. Ytgar. Gods. I knew who he was. Recognition of the name hit me like the collision of a hippocampus. Prince Ytgar Neves Isolde of Iol. And he was apologizing for his earlier behavior. I blinked again. What behavior?

  He probably meant something offensive he’d said to my cousin.

  I recalled then when she she’d come bursting into the room, face flushed.

  “Who were you talking to?” I’d asked.

  “Just Prince Ytgar of Iol and his whale trainer friend…”

  I looked him up and down.

  Some Prince.

  Okay I’d not lie, he was attractive. But he smiled too much. As if he knew some massive joke no one else did, and had no plans to share it. It was unnerving.

  “I should have never insinuated we should… begin an affair… and on the eve of your wedding to Prince Kai.”

  My gods. He did not.

  I startled, staring at him, searching for some sort of lie. There didn’t appear to be any. Gods, he’d insinuated my cousin, the kelp.

  I laughed, cold and cruelly, straight to his face.

  “You and I?” I gestured back and forth between us. “You insult me by even imagining it, Princeling. As if I would ever stoop so low.” I snorted. Really. The nerve.

  He looked briefly offended. “Well why would this…” He gestured between us. “...be so disgusting?”

  I made a point to look at him, from head down to his hidden tail fin with disgust. “Need I give you a list of all your flaws? You live with yourself on a daily basis. Surely you know what you lack by now.”

  The hurt left his face quickly, replaced with swagger and arrogance. By gods, his moods seemed as interchangeable as two-legger weather.

  “I’ll have you know, I am considered a catch by the mer at home.”

  “Oh?” My own eyebrows rose in response. “By who? The starved and deprived?”

  Ytgar laughed again, and again my threat had no affect. It was growing quite irksome that nothing I said was absorbed. “By many, many mermaids back in Iol. I am quite popular.”

  I snorted. “I can’t see why.” And this bragging about the many, many mer who wanted him did nothing to impress me.

  “No?” He took a stroke forward that I was sure he meant with swaggering arrogance and threat. I straightened my back just a bit more as he came impossibly close. Too close. Until I felt his arms brush against mine. Arrogant stick. As if he were entitled to share the same space as me. Yet for some maddening reason, I could not bring myself to move. And when he bent down so our faces were but an inch apart, my breath held. “Possibly,” he whispered, “because I am an excellent kisser.”

  My heart thumped so loudly, I feared he’d hear it. Blast my body, being treacherous and infuriating. I swallowed, and was glad when my voice came out steady. “I doubt that.”

  His eyes glowed with the promise of a challenge. “You be the judge of that.”

  And then Prince Ytgar Neves Isolde of Iol kissed me.

  My hands gripped his shoulders, my mind screaming at me to push him away and punch him straight in the jaw. Even as my body melded closer to his, even as I
opened my mouth to let him slip his tongue inside to tangle with mine, my fingers curled into his fur-lined coat to hold him tighter.

  Treacherous, foolish body.

  But, oh, his touch felt so good.

  It was like I was drowning on air, and he was the only thing that could supply me with the water I needed to survive. A strange notion, to think of a kiss that way. To feel it so refreshing and down to the marrow in my bones, the blood in my system, the beating of my heart.

  And like everything in my life, it lasted too short a time.

  We pulled away slowly, and even if I was aware of the flush brightening my cheeks. Slowly, he pulled back from me, a gleam of triumph in his eyes.

  Well, we couldn’t have that, could we?

  I willed the blush away, and snorted.

  “Apparently, our definitions of the word ‘excellent’ are quite different, indeed.” That being said, I whirled, and swam away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Maisie

  “WHAT DO YOU think I should do?”

  Tiberius stilled his fingers at the question for but a moment before resuming tracing lazy circles around my skin. He was silent for a while, so long, in fact that I thought I’d receive no answer. But when he spoke his voice was calm and reassuring. “What do you want to do?”

  I groaned, burying my head into the crook where his arm met his shoulder. “I don’t know,” I confessed. “That’s why I asked you.” I sighed and turned, only regretting the loss of his touch as I did so, to look up at the canopy of buzzing jellies above us. “It would be infinitely easier if someone just told me what to do.”

  “You know you wouldn’t like that.” I could hear the smirk in his voice.

  “You’re right, I wouldn’t. But, really, what should I do? Should I go along with this maddening plan, marry Kai, take back the kingdom?”

  Tiberius sighed and pulled me close. He’d been doing a lot of that the past few minutes. Whenever we suddenly found distance between us, he’d pull me closer, as if he couldn’t quite stand the concept of space. It was a warming feeling, to be in the circle of protection his arms provided.

  “I won’t pretend to understand every aspect of politics and hierarchy, but I do think you have a good chance of winning back your throne. If you are able to gather up enough evidence.”

  I turned up to him, eyebrows furrowing. “Is my existence not evidence enough?”

  “Unfortunately, no. That conch is good evidence, as well as all the conches in the Royal Records room. The old mer who witnessed the event, maybe even King Dorian himself. Even the mortician…”

  I slumped back down on his arm. “So I’ll have to make a whole case for myself so that the royals can evaluate my claim?”

  “Perhaps…” His voice trailed off in a way that was slightly suspicious. I wanted to ask what was on his mind when he answered before I even could. “You know, you could always go to Kappur instead. King Dorian… he’s been searching for you for years. He will welcome you back with open arms and place you on the throne without a trial, if you don’t want to go through everything else…”

  I thought of the possibility he was placing before me. If I rose a claim and I ascended the throne, it’d mean I’d reside over two kingdoms: Thalassar and Kappur—three, if I agreed to marry Kai and Draconi. Who wanted that much on their hands? That many kingdoms, triple the lives. Such a simple thing, it would be, to abandon Thalassar and go to Kappur, where I was wanted, where I wouldn’t have to fight. Where I’d likely be accepted unconditionally.

  Could I do that? Could I abandon the only home I’ve ever known to live at the root of all my problems? Kappur had waged war. Perhaps I understood the why, but would I really be comfortable living there, father or no?

  “It’s the safest thing to do,” Tiberius went on. “To give up Thalassar, and the scheming and the death threats for a home, a family.” He pulled me closer still, as if we weren’t close enough. “I just want you safe, Maisie. If anything were to happen to you, I—” He broke off, emotion filling his voice that tightened my stomach into knots. “If something happened to you, I would die.”

  The words seemed to gut me, waking me up to reality. This wasn’t just some game Odele was playing. This was dangerous. Our mothers had already died for it, and we were being hunted just as viciously. If I risked this, I not only put myself in danger, but those around me. What was to stop the Queen from finding out what I cared about the most, who I cared about the most and taking it from me?

  I gripped Tiberius just a little tighter and pressed a kiss to the edge of his exposed collarbone. “I’ll figure it out.” I tried to sound reassuring, but all I felt inside was fear. “Eventually, I’ll figure it out.”

  Tiberius pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I know you will,” he whispered. “And I don’t want to rush you but I fear we don’t have much time left.”

  ~~

  WE DIDN’T have time.

  I didn’t have time.

  The next few days were a whirlwater of activity. With Odele tucked safely away in the room, I was forced to go through the tedious routine that she should have been doing. Hauled from one end of the palace to the next, I was forced through hours of dress fittings with the seamstress, where we poured over her sketches of the wedding gown. It was a monstrosity in white with glittering diamonds and sapphires, to bring out the color of my skin and hair.

  If I wasn’t with her, I was being ushered into the royal coffers, where I was forced to undergo crown fittings, to see which fit me, and which one I’d wear for the wedding, and then the coronation. These things weren’t just the dainty little tiaras the Queen and Tiberius had fitted on me for last minute events. These were the real deal. Thick and heavy, I could hardly bear the weight of them.

  There were lessons with Percival, which I dreaded the most. Not only because of the way he whacked my hands on occasion—despite Prince Kai’s dire warning—but because he made me feel very much the fool. A servant playing Princess, who knew nothing about royal etiquette or how to address the Emperor of Draconi or the Draconian Princesses. By the time lessons with him were done, the backs of my knuckles were always scratched and bleeding.

  Preparing to ascend the throne was a lot more complicated than I ever could have imagined. There was so much entailed… I thought it was ‘receive the crown and be done’, apparently not. There was a whole series of swim strokes and words, preceded by the coronation and many days of celebration. I’d thank the Queen for her assistance to Thalassar and promise her that I’d follow in our ancestors’ swim strokes, and rule Thalassar with dignity.

  Or something to that effect.

  I kept getting it wrong.

  “I vow, as the Tides, the Sea, the Stars, Moon and Ocean as my witnesses—”

  “No, no, no! Stop!” Percival shrieked at me with fury. “Foolish child, this is the sixth time you have messed up.”

  Fifth, but who was counting?

  My face flushed brightly at his scrutiny. I shouldn’t have cared what he thought, what any of them thought. But I had an audience, and I was sure they all thought the same thing. I was doomed to fail.

  I was in the presence of Queen Circe and King Xristo, as they looked in on our rehearsal. Prince Kai was at my side, his advisors watching from a few strokes away with obvious disapproval. Servants had stopped to stare, and to make matters worse, Prince Ytgar and Val were also in attendance. Granted, they were at the very back of the room, but their presence was dominating, overpowering and intimidating.

  “One more time,” Percival ordered. “From the top. ‘So the seas, tides, stars, moon and sun be my witnesses,’ is the line.” He clapped his hands together, and Kai and I, once more, swam down the steps and took our places.

  The nerves in my stomach were making me forgetful. I could hardly retain the information Percival was throwing at me for more than a few minutes at all. I’d thoroughly ruined practice, and wanted to do nothing more than cry.

  Through the pain of my own help
less thoughts, I felt a firm squeeze on my hand. When I looked down, Kai’s fingers were intertwined through my own. I tried to fight away the tears that glossed over my eyes as I looked up at him, and his soft smile.

  “It’s alright, my gem,” he reassured.

  Something about his patience made me feel worse, especially since I still wasn’t sure if I could go through with his and Odele’s plan. After they discussed it a few days ago, we’d all gone our separate ways and hadn’t discussed it again. I didn’t want to, even if I was aware that we were swimming out of time. The wedding was practically around the corner, and I had to decide what I wanted to do, and more importantly, who I wanted to be.

  Slowly, I pulled my hand from his and turned back to face the front, not before seeing the brief look of hurt slash across his features. It wrenched my heart. I hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings. The stress of everything was weighing heavily on me, and Kai had so many expectations. He was happy to be here doing this, to make wedding plans, picturing a future we would have.

  I wanted to picture it too.

  But with the threat of death over us all, I couldn’t bring myself to come to a decision.

  The music started, breaking me out of my depressing thoughts. Trying to muster whatever was left over of my dignity, I started forward, in slow, easy strokes. I counted the seconds, and when I made it to the front, where two chairs had been arranged side by side,—where Queen Circe and King Xristo would sit—I bowed deeply and stayed. I’d done this enough times already to expect the cramping in my fin. It’d been hurting for a while now. What I hadn’t expected was the zing of pain to cripple me the moment I bent low.

  I cried out softly, fanning it rapidly to no avail. It cramped up painfully, and I toppled to the side, hitting the ground with a painful thud.

  How embarrassing.

  There was a shift through the water, the sound of whispering and choked back laughter coming from Ytgar at the far end of the room. That was even worse. I started to get up, but then Prince Kai loomed over me, and bent to help me up.