Page 17 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
I picked up a handful and started scrubbing my arms slowly. It scraped against my skin in circles, smoothing it out and making it shine. I scrubbed everything, making my way down to my chest, where I paused, remembering the feel of Elias’s lips there, just on my collarbone, and lower still.
I looked down at myself. I hadn’t had much of an education in Lagoona. The school there only served to teach the young ones how to read, write, and do math. Afterwards, the mer were expected to work. Those who were lucky enough to leave Lagoona had probably enrolled in a school somewhere else in Thalassar, if they hadn’t had the misfortune of being selected later on.
Needless to say, I wasn’t very well educated in things like the anatomy of the mer. I mean,I knew. I worked at Tides’ Tavern, and there we got all manner of creatures, male and female alike, and I’d heard talk. I knew what made us different, how everything worked, and how babies were made. I knew mer kissed and touched, the same way Elias had touched me. I just never knew it could feel so… pleasurable.
I trailed my fingers lightly over my skin, over the swells of my breasts. Where mermaids were soft and supple, mermen were all hard panes and muscled skin. I let my fingers roam lower, over the dip of my stomach. It wasn’t so thin anymore. Not like it’d been before I’d come to Eramaea. The palace had given me curves in places I never thought I’d see. My hips flared at my sides and the skin that had clung to my frame was fuller. I was muscled from the constant swimming and exercise I’d done. My touch veered lower where my skin met my tail, touching what my dresses hid. My skin dipped below my waist in the figure of a V where it met the lining of purple-blue scales.
I touched that V, fingering the line where the scales met. I knew that this was how the mer mated. There was a small slit that ran down the center of the V that opened to accommodate a merman’s member. I slid a finger up the line then, pushing against the slit of myself. A tingling sensation ricocheted through my body and that slit opened, allowing me to push a single finger inside.
My face heated as I explored myself. I’d done so before, back in Lagoona when I felt curious but it had never felt like this. I’d never felt like I was filled with such urgency and I’d certainly never imagined someone else while I was doing it. But I did. I could all but feel the Black Blade’s kiss on my skin, the shape and imprint of his lips against my body as my own fingers moved to the slow rhythm of that memory. I was reaching for something that I couldn’t quite grasp. I had no idea what it was or why it was so unreachable…
I dropped my hand into the sand with a groan and grabbed a fistful of it and resumed scrubbing at my body, trying to push away the feelings and sensations Elias had awoken in me. The very thought of it frustrated me. I wasn’t here to feel these things. I was here to stop a war, discover what had happened to the princess, and go home where I belonged.
Scrubbing vigorously until my skin shone, I finally finished and swam out of the tub. I reached over to a claw-shaped hook on the wall and pulled off a pink robe, slipping the garment on. When I made my way out to the room, I lifted the ivory shell of the telly in passing. A bubble rose from it, depicting clear recorded images of happenings in Thalassar.
As it started to play, sound beginning to resonate through the room, I swam into the closet and grabbed a comfortable—miraculously, as the princess only seemed to own extravagant, uncomfortable garments—dress. I slipped it on, the silk pooling around my sand-sensitive skin and swam back into the room to plunk myself down on the bed.
Anemones reached for me, caressing my skin and scales. I was about to plop back onto the cushioning of the bed and fall into a long sleep, when the voices and words on the telly caught my attention.
I stared at it. On the telly was a mermaid and merman, two mer I recognized. They were news reporters, and they reported all major events on Thalassar broadcasts.
“...have informed us that the princess is in the palace, and that she is alive and well,” the mermaid said.
“That’s quite a relief! I think it’s safe to say that we were all worried about the princess facing this dire situation.” The merman smiled at his co host, like they were having a normal conversation, pretending that the conch recorder wasn’t in front of them. Like they weren’t being watched by thousands of Thalassarins.
“I think this whole situation deserves a conversation, don’t you? What is your opinion on what the princess did at the execution? Do you think she was in the right at stopping it?”
I leaned closer to the edge of the bed, holding my breath to wait for his reply.
“It was certainly a surprise. Up until now, we’ve only ever seen the princess take part in lavish state balls and parties. We’ve never actually seen her take an interest in political affairs before. I have to say, and this is my opinion, mind you, that it was refreshing to see how our future leader cared so much about the merpeople, even if itwasjust a criminal. Let’s have another look at the footage, shall we?”
He turned his body and suddenly, him and his cohost disappeared, the image of them on the telly replaced by another one. This one from a high angle inside that death arena, images depicting me before the mer, pounding a fist against my chest.
“Stop the violence! No more!” I’d cried out.
I wasn’t sure how, or what to feel about seeing myself on a telly screen like that. All I knew was that, in the moment I had gone to save Elias from death, I had looked fierce like I never had before.
The screen switched back to the mer hosting the news. “A very brave thing for her to do!” the merman complimented, an enormous smile on his face.
“Or very foolish,” the mermaid added. I glared at her. “She put herself in harm’s way to save a criminal. That rouses another question, do you think she should be punished for what she did? Though she is the princess, she acted above royal law—a law set byherancestors—and aided in a wanted criminal’s escape.”
The merman laughed off the mermaid’s reply as if it meant nothing. “She’s going to be queen once she marries Prince Kai and comes of age. She can change laws on her whim if she so wishes. As for punishment… Well, according to interviews we’ve conducted since the incident, polls state that the middle and lower class mer are enamored with her suddenly, all because of what she did. If she is punished, there are sure to be riots. Let’s have a look at more footage we’ve gathered…”
The telly changed again, this time showing the image of hundreds of mer gathered near the palace of Eramaea, screeching and screaming. Some of them held up signs that were hard to make out. The screen cut to another image of a merman interviewing a mermaid.
“Can you tell us why everyone has gathered here today?” he asked.
The mermaid was middle-aged, wearing a simple commoner’s dress similar to those I wore in Lagoona. She smiled into the conch. “We are gathered here to celebrate Princess Odele for her valiancy in saving the Black Blade from death!”
“You do realize that the Black Blade is a criminal, right?”
The mermaid frowned. “To some of the upper class he might be. To others he is a savior, a symbol of hope. Sometimes he’s the only hope mer like us have.”
The interviewer looked genuinely confused. “Mer like you?”
She nodded vigorously. “Poor mer selected or living in fear of being selected to fight against Kappur. He’s given more to our community than those in the palace have.”
They cut to another merman. “I always thought that the princess was just another stuck-up royal and that she didn’t care about any of us. Today proved differently. For her to sacrifice herself to save the Black Blade? I never thought I’d live to see the day when a royal fought for a poor mer’s life.”
