Page 4 of Tide of Waves and Secrets

“You best be getting rid of him before the festival then,” she said. “I look forward to spending those days with you, even if you refused to challenge?—”

“I look forward to it as well,” I said, stopping what would be a futile new line of conversation. I kissed Aneri on the head. “I will see you soon. Enjoy yourself,” I said with a conspiratorial wink.

“I have no notion what you’re talking about.”

Since Aneri’s male friend had not stopped looking our way this entire time, I was pretty sure that was a blatant lie. But I had to get back, so I let it go.

“Keep practicing,” I called to the young ones, walking across the square toward the white marble palace which could be seen easily from here. Most of Thalassaria was flat until you approached the borders. But the palace was built on a hill, for fortification.

Wondering who the human was, and what he wanted from the palace, I hurried my steps, growing more and more curious with each one. It wasn’t every day a human visited us.

It was promising to be an interesting day ahead.

3

ROWAN

I’d been to Thalassaria before, but never the palace. This time, when I crossed the border, immediately being stopped by the Stormcaller guards, instead of registering myself and passing through, I was forced to wait. Though I’d seen marisol before—the teal and silver shimmering fish with teeth that could be fatal to humans—it was the first time I’d witnessed one being used. Watching as the guard leaned into the canal to place a delicate, waterproof scroll in a marisol’s teeth, a bioluminescent line along its spine began to gently pulse as it swam away. The first time I’d come to Thalassari, standing along a canal with my father watching those fish messengers swim, I told him I wanted to live here. I understood, however, by the end of that mission, that a human may be welcomed to Thalassaria as a visitor, but to its fiercely independent people, I was an outsider. My place was in Estmere, in the human kingdom.

“You are welcome to pass,” the guard said, interrupting my thoughts. In a remarkably short time, the message had been sent and received by palace. Queen Lirael would see me. “You know the way?”

Mounting Ember, the warhorse that had been bred over hundreds of years from Elydor’s native horse stock, I made my way through the dense coastal fog that clung to the Thalassarian shores. The steady rhythm of Ember’s hooves was a constant companion as we navigated the rocky path that wound along the cliffs. Below, the waves crashed against jagged rocks, their spray catching the early-morning light. The air smelled of salt and seaweed, the distant call of seabirds reminding me I was a long way from Estmere.

As I arrived in Maristhera, passing through the bustling Serenium Square and heading toward the palace, I focused on my mission in favor of my surroundings. Having long ago shed my cloak, the perpetual warm climate of Elydor’s southernmost clan the reason they favored nearly sheer fabrics had me also stopping to remove the heavy tunic that I should have left in Estmere. It had been many years since I traveled this far south, and I’d not been thinking of its weather when I set off from home.

I had been thinking of my grandfather.

But now, I needed to concentrate on what I would say to the queen when granted an audience and rehearsed my speech again.

King Galfrid’s daughter has returned, though we are not certain how she slipped through the closed Aetherian Gate. With her return, the king is determined, more than ever, to reopen it. As you know, we need the Tidal Pearl in order to do so.

She would refuse.

I was as certain of that fact as my own name. It was Thalassaria’s most precious relic. That she’d allowed King Galfrid to use it once, when he opened the Gate more than five hundred years ago, was a surprise to all who knew of that fact, of which there were precious few.

She would refuse, but it was my job to convince her that it would benefit her people to do otherwise. Queen Lirael may not despise humans, but neither would she lend the Tidal Pearl to Galfrid for their benefit. But for her own people? She would do anything.

If I wasn’t trained as a spy, I may not have noticed the Thalassarian guards hidden behind the trees. Because it was my duty to see what typically went undetected, I easily spotted the camouflaged warriors. By the time I arrived at the palace gates, I’d passed at least ten of them on both sides of me.

No other Elydorian leader was as well-protected as the Queen of Thalassaria, whose reputation for paranoia was well known.

“Hold.”

Finally, one who made himself seen. Or themselves, to be more precise. Well ahead of the gatehouse, four of the queen’s guards stepped directly into the sand and shell-ridden path on which I’d been traveling.

“Identify yourself.”

The guard knew well my name already. Tempted to tell him as much, I reminded myself that glibness was not my friend in this situation.

“Sir Rowan of Estmere,” I said.

“Your guide has not yet arrived. Dismount.”

Again, I held my tongue. Reminding the guard that a polite command was just as easily given as a rude one would serve little.

By the time my belongings and I were searched, I’d expected my guide to have arrived. Since none of the guards deemed it necessary to update me at any point, I waited without communication of any kind until a rider finally appeared in the distance.

I could see it was a woman, but little else. By the time she fully came into view, I was well and truly enamored. Wearing a teal tunic which hung off one shoulder, black, glistening, form-fitting breeches and a wide belt which appeared from her like scales of a beautiful, multi-colored fish, the woman epitomized a Thalassarian.

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