Page 1 of Secrets Among the Tides
CHAPTER ONE
Maisie
DEEP IN THE FRESHWATERS OF LAGOONA,in a backwater pond of the mer Kingdom of Thalassar, the current stirred. The waters today were in violent movement, a sure sign that there was a storm up top. It was a cold and dark day, like the skies reflected the somber mood of the ocean, rivers and ponds below.
Thick forests of cattails beat back and forth against the wooden and tin walls outside of Tides’ Tavern, and I was sure that by the end of the night, the place would need repairs. Made of two-legger materials that had fallen into our waters, the structure of the tavern was already weak and shabby. Square, with wooden walls that were rotting away from years of being in the water, algae and moss covered nearly every inch of the place. The ceiling was a sheet of metal, tied down by a fisherman’s net. There was a second floor where Josiah, the Tavern’s owner, lived and it was just as ill kept as the bottom floor.
Not that anyone seemed to mind the drear of the place. It was still one of the best in the Lagoona because it was affordable. The customers didn’t seem to mind that gators swarmed through the backyard. They knew that as long as they didn’t venture further north, into the breeding grounds, they were safe.
I, for one, didn’t know why Josiah had built this place so close to dangerous grounds. Perhaps it was because he was from up north from the swamplands, the bayou that bordered our own little town. He wanted to keep his past close and so he had.
Despite the day, the tavern was full, though voices were kept low and somber as opposed to the usual loud chatter that tended to fill the place. I could only blame one thing for the quiet, and that was the Selection that would take place tomorrow.
I didn’t want to think too hard on it because I knew it would fill me with rage. But not thinking about it, not talking about it, seemed like I was somehow laying down who I was and letting the royals win. They had soldiers by the thousands, but still they went from village to village, selecting able bodied mer to fight in their war against the enemy kingdom, Kappur.
Any one of the mer currently in the tavern could be chosen tomorrow to go and fight off an enemy we scarcely knew about. That knowledge made me smile wider at them, if only to brighten their moods before the truth came crashing down on them.
“Another bowl?” I asked one of the customers, a merman with webbed hands and feet like a frog’s.
His face had been etched in grave lines but at my words, he startled, looking up at me and at the warm smile on my face. His amphibious features softened as he pushed the bowl towards me as well as his cup. “Fish eye stew,” he said quietly. “And a bit o’ ale.”
Picking up the bowl—a large two-legger plastic hat—and the cup, I turned and swam behind the counter. Josiah was shining cups with a strip of kelp as I passed him, going to the kitchen in the back. Enormous pots sat on small mountains of sand on the ground. They were like small volcanoes, containing hot blue lava on the inside that bubbled out heat to keep the food warm. I went to one of the pots and ladled up a spoonful of stew and then poured fermented ale into his cup before taking it back to him.
“Enjoy your meal, sir.” I smiled.
He returned the gesture before grabbing the bowl and dunking the contents into his wide mouth.
If there was one thing people came to Tides’ Tavern for, it was the food. Josiah teased that they only came to see me, because I was so ‘exotic’. I think he’s full of sand. My featureswererather extraordinary for a pond mer. My hair, long and below my waist, bordered between dark purple and blue. Not quite one but not the other either, with a long tail to match. My skin was the color of a pearl and so different from the mer here with webbed hands and feet, snake tails or dull green scales.
I stood out, I knew, but by no stretch of the imagination was Ibeautiful. I swam with a slight limp because a fin on the side of my tail, an aquamarine color, had been mauled by a gator when I had first started working here. It was a shredded mess and it made navigating the deep pond slightly difficult. Still, Josiah liked to tease. So I’d self consciously taken to wearing my hair up in a hat to hide it. My tail was harder to hide but at least the long, dull tunics I wore covered most of it.
I leaned against the counter on my forearms, my tail curling leisurely under me, as I smiled at my boss. He didn’t return the gesture. He shined the cups with great fervor, his knuckles going white with the effort. He wasn’t even looking in my general direction. His eyes were glued to the ivory clam shell that rested on a high shelf behind the counter. The center of the shell held a floating bubble, which glowed a bright yellow and depicted moving images. It resembled what the two-leggers called a television, propelled by rare magic, it was the fanciest thing in Tides’ Tavern.
Despite the poverty in Lagoona, all mer were required by the King and Queen to have a telly shell. They liked to project images all over the kingdom of their grandeur, if only so that we would be informed of the going-on’s at the capitol.
Josiah thought differently. “They’re trying to manipulate us!” he said angrily, gesturing with the strip of kelp towards the image of the King and Queen of Thalassar greeting the foreign Prince of Draconi. “They’re trying to distract us with announcements of the royal wedding so that we can take our eyes off the war. It’s their way, you see. They dangle shiny things in front of us so we don’t realize that they’re sharpening the knives intended for our backs.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t dare interrupt. Josiah was all about conspiracy theories. He spoke of nothing else and since he had an audience, I knew he was just getting started. I wondered if he was hoping to start a riot, to raise arms against the King and Queen of Thalassar. A part of me relished in the idea of a revolution. I’d seen first hand how we suffered during the Selection. It had been going on for years now. And none who were chosen ever came back. Those who tried deserting suffered the consequences of their actions.
“They send out the poorest of us to fight a battle they started while they lounge about in their fancy castle, surrounded by experienced soldiers and plan the Princess’s wedding! I’d like to see the King go out and die beside the best of us.”
I hissed from between my teeth, “Quiet, Josiah,” I warned, glancing warily over my shoulder. “You know they double security ‘round these parts before the selection. If a guard hears you, you could be executed.”
Josiah snorted. “Let them come!” he shouted. “Not even royal guards are strong enough to get past the gators!”
I sighed, knowing he wouldn’t let up any time soon. He’d scream and shout for an hour more and the customers would scream and shout with him, as they always did. But in the end, nothing would change. We were nothing, we had no power and little resources. We’d never start a revolution or raise arms against the capital city. To speak of it was to welcome death. To not speak of it meant cowardice.
I turned my attention back to the telly, frowning. The images moved around oddly, waving, elongating and stretching with the movement of the bubble. In them, the Prince of Draconi sat next to the Princess of Thalassar at a state dinner. The Prince’s face was grave, almost as if he had no desire to be there. His fiancée, however, smiled widely, relishing in the attention.
I rolled my eyes at their images, knowing Josiah was right. How could they sit there all day, eating from diamond encrusted silverware while their kingdom suffered greatly from the effects of their war? It wasn’t just the Lagoona who suffered, but the swamplands and most other backwater towns who sent their young mer off to war. The war had led them to poverty and near starvation, it had instilled fear and had made life nearly unbearable. Out of fear of being Selected, some mer would rather try and swim away. Those who were caught were executed in Artisan’s Square. To remind the rest of us what should happen if we tried neglecting our duties. A law, cruel and barbaric, passed down by the royal family.
A sudden, violent part of me had the urge to reach through that bubble and strangle the Princess on her pretty little throne. I’d seen enough images of her to know she seemed as daft as a tadpole. I turned my gaze abruptly away from the image of her and the Prince trailing about through the palace gardens.
“Spoiled, is what they are,” Josiah continued.
I rolled my eyes and reached out to place my hand over his own. He stopped polishing the cup to look at me. “You’ve been cleaning that same cup for thirty minutes,” I pointed out. “How ‘bout I take over?”
His features softened as he offered me a warm smile, revealing his sharp teeth. Josiah was slightly robust, with gray hair that was cropped short. His skin was covered with the gray and green ridges of an alligator’s scales and his tail was long and thick, with stumpy fat legs at the end. His eyes were yellow with slit pupils that would have been frightening, had I not known the merman my entire life.
