Page 44 of Secrets Among the Tides
The merman, a small, greasy sort of fellow laughed. “The Princess of Thalassar.”
I could have killed him right then. But I needed information. “Why? Why were you trying to kill the Princess?”
The merman scoffed. “I don’t ask questions,” he spat. “My boss tells me to kill and I do it.”
Sea scum. I wanted to bash the hilt of my sword into his nose. “Who sent you? Who hired you to kill the Princess?”
He laughed. “I don’t have to tell you a thing.”
I grit my teeth together. “If you don’t, I’ll make you suffer. I’ll rip your scales off one by one until your in tears, begging for mercy. You think I won’t?” I slide the tip of my sword down his flesh and he trembled. “Tell me who sent you.”
Bubbles swarmed from his eyes and when he opened his mouth, I waited eagerly for his answers, but he let out a gasp and all that spilled forth was blood. It was then that I noticed the arrow piercing his chest.
Cursing, I pulled it out. “No, no, no. Don’t die on me now.” I tossed the arrow to the side. My soldiers crowded around me, their weapons drawn, eyes scanning every inch of the water to protect. “Who sent you? Tell me who sent you!”
But the blood was bursting from his mouth, clouding in front of us. His eyes and body twitched.
“Captain, the arrow was poisoned,” one of my soldiers said as he examined the tip of the arrow.
The merman twitched and made terrible, dying gasping noises.
He was dead within moments.
I let out a curse and dropped his body to the silt. “No sign of the sniper, Captain,” one of my soldiers said. I sighed through my nose. Rage, hatred boiled hotly inside my chest. He’d been hired to kill Maisie and then someone had killed him. No loose ends. No witnesses.
It seemed as though my job had gotten a lot more complicated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Maisie
MY HEART STILL RACED MILES IN MY CHEST.I tried controlling it, tried calming that nervous sensation that ran down through my veins and bones, but it just wouldn’t leave. Someone had tried shooting me, had tried to kill me. Now I knew it was urgent I get the disk back and watch every conch down in that cove.
But first, I was before the King and Queen. And they were both fuming, directing their anger straight at Captain Saber. I sat in the background, my hands clasped in my lap, my mind racing miles a minute.
“…no use to us if you cannot keep her safe!”
“What will they say if the double dies and the Princess is found?”
“Find the culprits or your life is forfeit!”
It was the King who swam up to me moments later and took my surprised hands in his own. “Are you well?” he asked, genuinely concerned. “Were you harmed?”
The Queen scoffed before I could answer. “Of course she wasn’t harmed, Xristo. She’s alive and well.”
I held back my glare. I knew the Queen ran things in Thalassar, but I hated her. I hated that the Selection was alive because of her. My people had died because of her. And she cared about no one but herself, and her image.
King Xristo dropped my hands and then swam back to his throne while his wife glared at him. After he sat back down and fixated his gaze on me, she began screaming at the captain all over again. I ignored most of what she said, my mind too focused on other things.
Someone was trying to kill the Princess.They’re after me.Had that been why she’d disappeared? Because someone had been chasing her? Who? And why? What did she know, and why did they want her dead because of it? I had to get to the bottom of this and stop whatever was happening. Because if someone killed me, thinking I was the Princess, then I’d never be able to change a thing in Thalassar.
So after the King and Queen dismissed me and stayed with Captain Saber to talk, I was escorted to the Princess’s rooms, where I barricaded the door and swam quickly down to the cove. I needed to go into that alleyway, find the Black Blade and get that disk back. I needed to watch every single conch and learn more about the Princess.
I was positive a confession would be in one of them. There had to be answers there.
And I wouldn’t rest until I got them.
~~
