Page 31 of Secrets Among the Tides
I smiled mockingly at him and didn’t lose the expression even when the Queen leaned in to hiss in my ear. “What are you doing?”
I turned to her, smile still in place. “Blending in,mother.”
The Queen had the power to kill me where I sat. I shouldn’t provoke her. But right now, I was safe. Right then, I was the Princess and there were reporters crammed in every corner of the room, keeping a watchful eye on us all. For now, I was safe.
She leaned away from me, but I didn’t miss the slashing anger in her eyes. And the King, he merely looked at me while stroking his beard. As if he knew a secret that I didn’t. It was unnerving.
Soft fingers against the back of my hand had me turning to Prince Kai. “Thank you,” he whispered low.
“My pleasure.” I picked up my spoon and began eating what was before me, listening intently as the conversations picked up once again. Trying to grasp any words regarding the war or Kappur that I could jump on and join in.
I’d almost given up on the royals entirely. Their conversations were filled with nothing but shallow babble. Most of them seemed as dumb as guppies and as clumsy as tadpoles. The conversations left much to be desired and I wondered if the Princess hadn’t swam away from home just so she’d never have to deal with another minute of this.
“Come Wavesday, the new Selects should be ready to head over to enemy lines for battle.”
My attention snapped up to the Queen. She was deeply engaged in conversation with the King and diplomat Shallows. I leaned closer to listen.
“And how are the Selects looking this month around?” Shallows asked.
“Stronger than the last. No one has tried escaping yet, so we can thank the tides for that,” the King replied.
Shallows snorted as he reached for his goblet. “Ungrateful mer. You’d think they’d be proud to service the royals that keep them fed and alive.”
My nails scraped against the polished table, anger bubbling up my throat.
“You know how the freshwater mer are,” the Queen flicked off his concerns with the wave of her fingers. “They cannot think past the ponds they see. Think everything revolves around them.”
I couldn’t hold my words back any longer. “That’s not true!” I nearly shouted. When every head turned to look at me, I cleared my throat and repeated in a much softer, but no less firm, tone, “I am sure that’s not true. The freshwater mer are not born and bred for battle, after all.”
The Queen glared at me, and I was sure she’d kill me with her eyes if she could.
“No one is born and bred for battle, your Majesty,” Shallows said dismissively. “It is something that is taught. Only cowards swim away from their duties.”
I tried to keep my voice civil, but my teeth were grinding in my rage. “It is not the job of farmers to wield weapons of war while royal soldiers remain safe at the palace.” They all looked at me as though I’d sprouted a bulbous squid head. Still, I pushed on. “It could be the reason why Thalassar is suffering under this war.”
They sent selects out to do their fighting so they wouldn’t have to pay soldiers, so that their coffers wouldn’t suffer. Why pay widows of war when they are sending out widows to fight in the first place? Another lesson learned from Josiah.
“The soldiers remain at the palace in case of the event of an invasion. Who else to protect the kingdom’s rulers? It is thanks to them that Eramaea remains safe.” Shallows had his chin resting on intertwined fingers and was watching me intently, almost as if he couldn’t quite believe that the Princess was involving herself in the first place. Had she really been that daft?
“The wine is going to her head, I’m afraid,” the Queen said and then she leaned closer to me. “If you want to keep your head intact, I suggest you keep your mouth clamped shut.”
I wanted to argue, to convince them to look for peace instead, but I turned away and let them resume their conversation without me. Did I really think it would be so easy? That I could convince royalty who had thrived off of lesser mer’s hard work to change their ways over one dinner?
I felt his fingertips trail against the bare skin on my arm. I turned to look at Prince Kai and he offered me a sad smile. “Are you okay?”
Yes.The word was stuck in my throat. The truth was, I wasn’t okay. They didn’t seem inclined to listen to me at all. I was the Princess, but I was a foolish one, at that. How could I get them to listen to someone who had never cared for politics in the first place?
A waiter showed up and placed a pitcher of wine before us and Prince Kai reached for it immediately, topping off his own goblet and then mine. “When they see you as a child, they will brush you aside until you are useful to them.” He picked up his goblet and gestured that I do the same. I reached for it and held it up. “We are smarter than they think and know more than what they’d like to admit.”
I smirked, because in that moment, he was right. “They fear the knowledge we hold.”
He nodded once and then clinked his glass to mine. “When we become better rulers than they ever were, they will see.”
I brought the cup to my lips eagerly and downed most of the drink in one go. It wasn’t Princess-like or even merlady-like but I did not care. I set the goblet down and turned to smile at Prince Kai, only to have my world spin wildly around me.
A sudden, blinding pain clenched my gut within seconds and I groaned, reaching for my stomach.
“Princess?” Prince Kai was looking at me with concern, but his face blurred across my vision. A vicious wave of nausea roiled over me and I tried to get up, but only managed to knock over dishes.
