Page 36 of A Kingdom Restored

“We’ll talk later.” Heath cut off Bianca’s spluttered protest, turning to Rekavidur. He needed to think, to figure out what to do now Reka had confirmed his vague and absurd suspicions. And more immediately, he needed to know what Merletta was up against.

At a beseeching lift of Heath’s eyebrow, Reka clasped his talons around Heath’s shoulders, taking at once to the air.

Chapter Eleven

“Where are we going?” Reka called calmly over the wind, as they streaked up into the sky, Brody and Bianca shrinking to the size of ants below them.

“Somewhere I can think,” Heath shouted back. “Where we can talk freely.”

Reka said no more, directing his flight southeast, so that they would bypass the capital. Heath didn’t try to guess their destination, his focus already back with Merletta.

I’m still not entirely sure what you’re hoping to find here,Sage was saying.Why did we need to come to the restricted records room? I thought Emil already found out about your family.

Heath locked that information away for later—clearly there had been developments in that area.

He did, Merletta acknowledged.That’s not what I meant when I said I had to know the truth. I was thinking of this section.

She gestured, and with an effort, Heath stretched his farsight, expanding the vision far enough to see what she was pointing at. It was a section of shelving marked in large letters:Dragon Aggression.

I saw records from this section,Merletta went on.In Tilssted, when they were trying to convince everyone not to leave the barrier. They described our ancestors’ attempts to create new settlements outside the barrier. But the records were truncated. There’s definitely more to the story, and I need to know what really happened.

Sage looked troubled.Why? What will it gain you at this point? And how can we trust any account we find here, given the Center’s record with falsifying our history?

I thought it was all nonsense at first, too,Merletta acknowledged.Fear-mongering. But now I’m not so sure. I’m starting to suspect that the records in here are real—and that’s the reason they’re so restricted. There’s nothing so dangerous as the truth, at least from the Center’s perspective.

The wind whipped past Heath’s face, his clothes flapping wildly around him as Reka flew over farmland. But Heath was aware of none of it, lost deep in Merletta’s world.

As for what it will gain,Merletta was adding,it could be invaluable. Rekavidur thought our best hope was to prove that we don’t originate from dragons siphoning off their magic into fish so as to enable themselves to die. Maybe if we find accurate information about encounters between our kind and dragons, it might help answer those questions. And while we can’t search the island, you and I—and Emil and Andre—are the only ones who can hunt for whatever answers might be hidden in here.

Sage didn’t look entirely convinced, but she drifted across the space in Merletta’s wake, examining the records in the relevant section.

For a considerable space of time, the two mermaids rifled through the waxy leaves in silence, and Reka sped over the Valorian countryside. Heath felt suspended, fully existing in neither world, but painfully aware of both.

Here. Sage’s sudden speech was intended for Merletta, but it made Heath lift his head sharply.This account gives a lot of detail about the incident you mentioned.She grimaced.A lot of gruesome detail.

Merletta hurried to her friend, looking over Sage’s shoulder. Heath tried to read the words on the page, but his extra sight wasn’t refined enough for that. He had to be satisfied with Merletta’s reflections.

They tried to create the new settlements because of overpopulation?Merletta said, sounding uneasy.But this is generation upon generation ago. If the triple kingdoms were already overflowing back then, how have they managed to stay contained inside the barrier in all the time since?

I don’t know, Sage said thoughtfully.Is it possible they expanded the barrier somehow?

I doubt it, Merletta responded.If that was possible, I’m sure they’d be talking about it now.

She fell silent again as she continued to read.

This description certainly sounds like it could be near Heath’s kingdom, she mused.They must have known the benefits of settling near land then, even if the information has been forgotten—or obscured—in the time since.She frowned.Did you see this part? It says there were only a very few instances of contact with humans as the settlement was being built.

Sage nodded.I saw it. And where it says the humans were more inclined to be afraid of the merfolk than aggressive toward them.

‘But then disaster struck,’Merletta read aloud.‘A pair of mermaids strayed further east along the shore of the land, and encountered a dragon. From the accounts of their ancestors, they expected an amicable response, but instead were met with fear and outrage.’ That’s…sinister,Merletta commented, once she’d finished reading aloud.And fits with my own experience in the same waters.

Sage nodded again, her expression solemn.Did you see what comes next? The mermaids thought little of it when they saw no more dragons for a couple of months, then a horde of them descended on the fledgling settlement and attacked.

Merletta took a moment to reply.Yes,she said at last.I see it. They were absolutely brutal. No wonder the merpeople gave up on the idea of a settlement out that way, and the survivors all retreated back inside the barrier.

Her eyes scanned the page, then rose up to meet Sage’s, her expression stricken.Are we reading our future, Sage?she whispered.These descriptions…diving into the deep, pulling mermaids from the water, spearing them like fish as they swim, with a single talon piercing through the heart…is that what they’re going to do to everyone in the triple kingdoms?

Sage’s face was devoid of color. She said nothing, clearly having no answer.

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