Page 19 of Secrets Among the Tides
WE FELL INTO AN EASY ROUTINEwithin the next few days of our journey. While we rode Geronimo, he would school me on the history of Thalassar, the royal family and Princess Odele’s busy schedule. There was a lot to learn, and I held onto every scrap of information. Like I would hold onto change at Tides’ Tavern. The Princess, despite the shallowness I believed she possessed, was skilled in a number of things. Riding, sewing, fencing, and music, among other things. And I was expected to learn every single one of her abilities. For now, though, we stuck with the knowledge I was supposed to have.
At nights, after everyone went to bed, Captain Saber would discreetly escort me out into a more private area and we would practice swimming like a royal for a few hours as well as proper speech in the Eramaean accent. The lessons were exhausting, to say the least, but I was determined to push through.
I was so occupied in my lessons, that I barely noticed when we’d left the sweet waters behind us and arrived to saltier places. My body wasn’t used to the excess salt and I worried my skin would break out in hives. It seemed harder to breathe the salt in, the gills on my neck flared briefly when we’d arrived before settling. I could tell many of the other selects were also having trouble. The water here felt heavier, harder to swim through. The soldiers, though, had more experience and so did their mounts. I felt Geronimo speed faster through the water.
I held on to the reins, shutting my eyes against the viciousness of the current’s sting. Captain Saber’s arms were around me, caging me in so I wouldn’t fall. I should have felt safe, instead I felt nothing but dread. My stomach roiled with nausea until the captain finally pulled Geronimo to a halt. When I was sure the beast wouldn’t make a move forward, I lifted my head and looked around at the vast expanse of the ocean.
“Have you ever traveled outside of Lagoona?” the captain asked me, lips close to my ear.
I shook my head, eyes still glued to the sights before me. I’d never seen anything like it. Never seen a space so open or so…blue. The waters of Lagoona were nothing like this. My home was muddy, bathed in colors of pinks and greens and yellow sunlight. It seemed there was barely any sunlight here. Fish darted in and out of coral reefs of red and pink. Though there weren’t any merpeople in sight.
“Wait until we make it to Eramaea,” the captain said, almost as if he’d read my mind. “The closer we get, the more populated it will seem.”
With that, he started forward and we made our journey through the ocean. By the end of the day, when the waters darkened, we set up camp and sat quietly around the warmth of glowing blue lava. My eyes wandered over everything, from every flickering fish to the bioluminescent specks that floated in particles around us.
The captain had set up more guards than he had when we’d been in fresher waters, and I wondered if it was to protect us from the dangerous creatures of the ocean like sharks, or if it was to prevent the selects from swimming away. The closer we got, the more reality seemed to crash over us. I could tell from the way their eyes widened as they stared into the bubbles of the lava, or by the way their hands tightened around their cups. We were getting closer to our doom.
“Can you believe tomorrow we’ll be in Eramaea?” one of the selects asked. His webbed fingers were tight on his cup, I believed it would shatter under the force of his nervousness.
“It’s so surreal,” I replied quietly. To think, tomorrow I would be in the palace, and my new life would begin. My gaze flickered around at the rest of the selects. The blue lava casting soft hues across their skin and scales, my heart clenched at the fear in their eyes. My life would begin, but theirs might just end on a bloody battlefield unless I could stop it.
“Would you all laugh at me if I told you I was scared?” the mer went on.
No one replied.
Because they were all terrified as well.
~~
I AWOKE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHTto the sound of a scuffle, to shouts. We selects nearly jumped up at the sound, looking around the tent warily. I noticed, heart sinking, that one of the mats was empty. The shouting of the guards echoed louder towards us.
Nervously, I got up and swam to the entrance of the tent, ignoring the protests of the other selects. I pushed the flaps aside and peeked outside, suppressing a gasp. The merman who had confessed his fear hours earlier was pinned to the ground by the end of a guard’s spear. He struggled against their hold, his cries muffled in the sand. One of the guards kicked out at his face with his tail fin, silencing him immediately. I watched with dread in my heart, the bioluminescents illuminating Captain Saber as he calmly swam up to the scene.
“We caught him trying to escape, Captain,” a guard said.
The captain looked down at him and there was disgust in his eyes, so shocking that I almost staggered a few strokes back, but I stayed still, watching in silence. He bent down low, observing the struggling merman. The merman lifted his head. From here, I could see the tears swarming from his eyes and the captain batted them away with a furious gesture of his hand. “Please, Captain,” the merman begged. “I’m not a soldier. I can’t fight in a war!”
Compassion almost seemed to flash through Captain Saber’s eyes but he masked it just as quickly, expression going hard, angry. Every bit the fierce commander he was. “You know the penalty for fleeing.” He straightened and looked at the guards, giving them an almost imperceptible nod.
I felt fear thrum my heart into an erratic rhythm as I watched the guard pull back his spear and then bring it crashing down to the merman’s head.
I jerked back, letting the opening fall back into place. A sob was stuck in my chest, but my breathing was harsh, chest heaving. Nausea roiled in me, worse than when I’d been riding Geronimo. I knew what the punishment was for fleeing Selection. We all did. I’d seen the consequences so many times that I should have been used to it by now. But this was somehow worse than any Selection I’d witnessed. It was worse because of all the time I'd spent with Captain Saber. In the time we’d been together, it was like I’d somehow forgotten what he was and who he worked for. He was carrying out orders from a corrupt monarch, and I’d fallen prey to his scheme. I’d started to trust him, as much as I could trust a soldier. But the truth ofwhohe was lay beyond this tent, at the end of a sharp point of a blade.
Captain Saber was a soldier. And I was merely a fool for forgetting.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tiberius
IKNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG THATmorning when we left camp behind. In a few hours, we’d be in Eramaea, and Maisie had not said a word, sarcastic or otherwise. I wondered if she was nervous about what was to come, and though a small part of me wanted to comfort her, I could not. I had to be honest, above all things, regarding what was expected of her. She did not have the luxury of choking on her nerves. Lives were at stake.
I leaned forward to guide Geronimo by the reins and when my chest brushed against her back, she stiffened and leaned away from me. My jaw clenched at that minuscule action, but I tried to push it aside. She hated soldiers. Why would I be the exception?
We spent what felt like hours in silence, with nothing but the slapping of Geronimo’s hooves and tail pushing against the current. Finally, I opened my mouth to speak, “We should continue our lessons before we reach the palace.”
Already, we were arriving into more populated towns on the outskirts of the capital. Mer swam about, some of them bowed to us as we thundered past. It was a sign of respect for the royal guard that kept them alive and protected. I was used to the bowing, to the mer thanking me as if I was something close to royalty. I wasn’t. Far from it. But I accepted their praise with grace. They needed to believe in the crown. And I would ensure that they did.
“You’ll need to know how to greet the Queen and King at the palace.”
