Page 27 of A Kingdom Restored

“Andre.” Merletta cut him off with a look. “However the governing of the triple kingdoms theoretically works, everyone here knows the truth of who’s in control. And it’s not the regents of the cities. I’ll go to the central spire tomorrow and see if I can speak to the Record Master himself.”

Andre bit his lip, but didn’t attempt to argue. “I can come with you,” he said staunchly.

“Thank you, but no,” Merletta responded. “I started this, and I’ll finish it. You should be enjoying your well-earned break. Besides, there’s something I need to do first. Something I want to do alone.” She looked back at August. “Is there anything else we can do?”

He ran his hand over his spear, the motion seeming unconscious. “The only other advice the dragon gave was to search the island for some clue as to our origins, in the hope that we find information that will convince the rest of his kind that their assumptions regarding our existence are wrong.”

Merletta nodded uneasily. “That’s what Paul and Griffin are supposed to be doing while waiting for you to come back. Heath and I never found anything much, but it’s definitely worth looking harder. It won’t be easy for me to get there without attracting notice, though.”

“No one is suggesting you do it, Merletta,” Eloise said patiently. “We’re leaving the triple kingdoms at first light, provided we can get away unnoticed and be sure no one is following us. We intend to remain on the island for the foreseeable future. We will search, along with Paul and Griffin. If there’s anything to be found, we’ll find it.”

Merletta nodded again, although her heart remained heavy. It was, after all, a slim hope on which to base the survival of their entire civilization.

Chapter Nine

Merletta slept little that night. It wasn’t the first time she’d suspected that the following day could be her last—or, at the very least, that her world was about to change dramatically—but this time the sensation was doubled. Not only was she going to approach the formidable Record Master and confess to the devastation she’d brought on their civilization, but she was going to return to the El residence, and tell them who she really was. Or might be, at any rate.

She figured she might not get another opportunity, and it was no time to leave questions unanswered out of fear or embarrassment.

As soon as the first faint hint of light reached the Center’s depths, Merletta was out of her hammock and swimming toward the dining hall. She had prepared herself for a solitary meal, knowing that Andre had returned to his home the evening before. So she was stunned to see not only her fellow trainee, but Sage and Emil waiting at the otherwise deserted trainees’ table.

“What are you all doing here?” she demanded, sliding into place alongside Sage.

“Refusing to let you be a martyr,” Sage told her calmly. “Andre told us what you mean to do.”

“I wish I didn’t have to do it, too,” Merletta assured her. “But to keep what I know secret any longer would be criminal. I appreciate the sentiment, Sage, but you can’t talk me out of being amartyr, as you put it.”

“None of us expect to talk you out of it,” said Emil calmly, as he shucked down an oyster.

“Of course not,” Sage agreed. “But honestly, Merletta, you must be out of your mind to think we’d all just float idly by and let you go alone.”

“I don’t want you all mixed up in this,” said Merletta desperately. “I can’t have that on my conscience.”

“We are mixed up in it,” Andre told her bluntly. “And it’s by our own choice. We’re not going to desert you now.”

Sage was nodding determinedly, and Merletta took Emil’s silence as acquiescence.

“I appreciate it,” she told them, genuinely touched. “And I recognize that whatever my own feelings, I don’t have the right to exclude you from whatever’s going to happen. But I’m not going to the central spire now. There’s something else I want to do first. Something more personal that I really do think will be better without a crowd.”

Sage frowned suspiciously at her, and Merletta raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I’m telling the truth, I swear. I can meet you all back here at lunch if you’re determined to come with me to the spire. This morning I’m going to Hemssted.”

Emil looked up sharply, his gaze seeming to lift Merletta’s thoughts right out of her head.

“Very well,” he said, in a voice of finality. “We will meet you back here at lunch, as you suggest.”

Neither Sage nor Andre attempted to contradict him. Merletta felt three pairs of concerned eyes follow her progress across the room as she rose from breakfast a short time later. But she tried to push it all from her mind. The afternoon would be for world-shattering confessions. The morning was for a different kind of confrontation.

The city of Hemssted was well and truly awake by the time Merletta swam once again through the noisy central square. Another rest day meant another market, and the same flurry of activity she’d witnessed the week before.

She ignored all of it, swimming for the El residence with much surer strokes than the previous time. She knocked on the limestone door, trying to calm her nerves as she waited for the disapproving servant to appear.

Sure enough, the door was opened by the same merman she’d seen last time. He frowned slightly as he looked her over, a spark of recognition in his eyes.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes,” she said confidently. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I was here last week. I need to speak to Elfin on an important matter.”

“Appointments can be made with the master’s—”

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