Page 18 of Secrets Among the Tides
It was my turn to tense, so hard my body might have snapped. So it hadn’t mattered how hard I’d tried to hide it, he had noticed my limp. My knuckles went white against the reins and I slowly released them, feeling pain in my fingers. The last thing I wanted to do was to be taught how to swim like some guppy. “No,” I replied.
“No?”
“No. Teach me somethin’ else.”
I could feel him glaring daggers at the back of my neck. “I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter.”
“Please…” I hated that I had to beg, that I had to be reduced to this. I did not want the embarrassment of him watching me, of the freezing bite in his words as he judged my every move.
“It’s best you get the notion of embarrassment out of your head now, Maisie,” he said, not unkindly, but roughly. “If you think I am a harsh judge, know that in Eramaea they will be a thousand times harder. I judge you because I want to see you succeed. I want you toconvincethem.”
There was a truth to his words that relaxed me. And he was absolutely right. I had no idea what the royal life was like, had no idea what was in store for me, but I knew he was right. If I wanted this to work, if I wanted to stop a war then I had to be convincing. And the only way to do that was topracticeand to not fall on my face once I got there.
“Fine,” I conceded. “But I think we should multitask. Teach me to swim like royalty and quiz me on etiquette while we do it.” Determination filled me. Yes, if I was going to do this, I was definitely going to do it right.
~~
“HEAD UP!”CAPTAIN SABER COMMANDED.
I lengthened my neck, chin turned up, eyes straight ahead. My back was curved, my tail graceful beneath me. Well, it would have been graceful if it weren’t for my torn fin. It was a hard thing to do, to try and keep my balance with fins fanning out at my sides, especially when one of those fins was shredded.
We were away from the camp, away from prying eyes that wanted to spy. My hair was undone, flowing down the length of my back and on my head, the Captain had placed a thin stone slab. He’d commanded me to swim without it falling. So far, it hadn’t worked out.
“Arms lightly at your sides or clasped together in front of you,” Captain Saber instructed. I did as I was told and started forward. “You look too stiff. The movements should be more natural.” I fought back a groan and focused on what I was doing. My fin was hurting. It usually did when I put too much strain on it. It throbbed as I flapped it to keep me balanced. “You’re tilting to the side,” he commented.
I supposed the good thing about this was that the dresses were long enough to hide my tail and my deformity, but loose enough that they could move around as freely as I willed them.
“Why must royalty swim so precisely?” I grumbled, unable to stop myself.
The captain didn’t grace my comment with a reply. Instead, he began quizzing me on the brief information he’d given me before our swimming lesson. Since it was all basic history, I answered them with ease.
What are the names of the King and Queen of Thalassar? King Xristo Oriana de Malabella and Queen Circe Malabella.
How many children do they have? None.
Who was Princess Odele’s mother? The late Queen Odette Malabella.
Who was the supreme ruler of Thalassar and why? Queen Circe. In Thalassar, the Queens have more rule than Kings because they are direct descendants of the Malabella line. Only the daughter of a daughter can rule on the throne.
It was all quite simple.
But soon he started quizzing me on distant relatives of Princess Odele, relatives I’d never even heard of before. Cousins, second cousins, aunts and uncles on Princess Odele’s mother, father and step mother’s side. Pretty soon, it all became a muddled mess in my mind. Names blurred together, one after another until I couldn’t remember a thing.
When my tail started to cramp up, I finally sat down to take a break beside the captain. I longed to lift my skirt up and run a hand across my battered fin, to ease the pain, but I’d never shown my deformity to anyone, and I wouldn’t start now. Especially not to the captain of the royal guard. Not when he was eyeing my tail like it was something to be ashamed of…
“What happened to you?” he asked, his voice sharp and prying. His eyes never strayed from my tail. I almost wondered if he stared at it long enough, would he be able to see through it?
My lips pressed tightly together before I opened my mouth to answer. “That’s not your business, Captain.”
He stiffened, and I knew that our time of amiability was over. He got up, adjusted the lapels of his jacket and tossed my hat to me. I dropped the stone slab and caught it. “We should be getting back.”
Well, so much for a break,I thought as I began stuffing my hair into the hat and securing it on my head. When I finished, I picked up the stone slab and handed it to him before following him out of the thick forest of grass.
After moving on from this town, we’d be making it to the salt waters and then to Eramaea. I couldn’t deny either the excitement or nerves that tingled through my body. Soon, I’d be in the capital city of Thalassar, in audience with the Queen and King, disguising myself as the heir to the throne, stopping a war.
Soon.
~~
