Page 98 of A Forgery of Fate

“Shells out!” Caisan hollered at his soldiers. “Spears forward!”

Kunkoi immediately leapt forward to marshal the soldiers, followed by the merfolk who had accompanied us from Nanhira. I started too, until Elang took my arm.

“Stay with Her Majesty,” he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Please.”

I regarded him, my heart skipping a beat.

“Don’t look so disappointed, Lady Saigas,” said Queen Haidi, smiling at us. “Your husband can fend for himself. Come withme.”

I followed her, but I kept looking worriedly over my shoulder. The sharks had pinpointed Yonsar’s every weakness, from the cracks that had yet to be repaired to the injured turtles stacked on the Gate of a Thousand Shells. From the looks of it, they’d begun their offense while we were away. Again and again, they rammed the gate, each time ripping just a little deeper past Yonsar’s defenses.

“Let the soldiers do the fighting,” said Haidi. “You have your own task.”

I turned to her, confused. “What am I to do?”

“Ah, I take it Elangui didn’t explain. He requested that you be the one to speak to the seas.”

“Speak to the seas?” I repeated stupidly. “Are they…alive?”

“Not quite.” She took my arm and drew me into higher waters, farther from the fray. “As you know, the waters of Ai’long are enchanted. But the magic has no mind of its own, it takes no sides; it is simply here, as universal as air on land. Yet it is powerful magic—older than the gods themselves—magic that gave the Dragon King his pearl. And you, as the lady of the Westerly Seas, are connected to it.”

“Forgive me if I don’t understand,” I said. “What does that mean?”

“It means the seas will listen to you when you speak to them,” Haidi explained. “They may not heed you, but they will hear you. Sometimes, that is all you need to change the tides.”

She passed me a swath of iridescent cloth, exquisite as a fragment of rainbow. “I have woven this ward to protect Yonsar from the Dragon King’s wrath.”

I stared. The cloth was barely wide enough to cover my shoulders.

Haidi acknowledged my disbelief with a nod. “Yes, it may not look like much, but the threads are strong. Therein comes your part. You must appeal to the waters and ask them to disperse it across Yonsar.”

Appeal to the waters,she said, as though it were as easy as planting a seed.

“And if they don’t?” I asked. “Help, I mean.”

Haidi’s calm was unflappable. “Then today will be Yonsar’s last.”

I was starting to wish I’d eaten a second bowl of breakfast. At least then my stomach wouldn’t be churning the way it was, with immense anxiety.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“Swim as high as you can,” said Haidi. “Then plead your case to the seas.”

All right, it was a start. After taking a deep breath, I jetted up high above the seafloor until I overlooked the castle. A battle raged below, lashes of kelp whips and clangs of spears and swords disrupting the peace of Yonsar’s waters. Each second I hesitated, the sharks advanced deeper. I needed to hurry.

I had no idea how to speak to the seas or even make myself heard, so I simply swam upward, the silken ward shimmering in my arms. I was nearly high enough to see the streaks of crimson in the tides, the mysterious auroras of light like an underwater sun. Here, I slowed. I listened. The calamity of the battle below had grown distant, replaced by a low and constant hum.

It was gentle, yet persistent enough that it made my skin buzz. I had never heard it before; then again, I’d never tried to listen.

Could this be the magic of Ai’long?

It was worth a try. “Reverent waters,” I murmured, “I beseech you for aid. Yonsar is in danger, we are in need. Her Majesty Queen Haidi has woven this ward of merfolk silk to protect us. Please, accept it. Help us.”

I held out the bundle in my arms, as if I expected someoneto come and take it from me. But there was no response. The sea was as still as it had been before I’d spoken, and the hum went on, unbroken.

The disappointment stung, and I hugged the silk to my chest. Here I was, floating in the middle of the sea without a clue what to do next. Below, I picked out Elang fighting among the sharks. He ought to be the one appealing to the seas, not me. I wasn’t raised here, I had no connection to Yonsar. Or to Ai’long.

That’s not true,I thought.I have Baba. He’s here, waiting to be found. He needs me, just as Yonsar does.

---