Page 22 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
I’d seen what the mer on the telly had said, but I dared not hope.
“They’re calling you a changeling. And they’re completely enamored with you for savingme. I’d say that makes you special. They loveyou.Not the princess.”
I knew it was true, they loved me, but it still didn’t make me special by any means.
“You earned their love, Maisie.”
“Yeah, but do I deserve it?”
One merman. I’d savedone. So far I wasn’t any closer to stopping a war or discovering why the princess had vanished.
“I guess that depends onwhyyou’re here. What do you have to gain from this?”
This wasn’t the first time he’d asked me this question, and I wasn’t sure I should answer. Sharing aspects of my life, my biggest shame was one thing but sharingthis…
What was it? Was it really any different? I needed someone to confide in. And Elias’ goals were practically the same as mine. To stop the war with Kappur.
And maybe… maybe he could be the one to help me accomplish that.
I decided to take the dive.
“The princess has been missing for months…” I said slowly. But of course, he knew this part already. “And I think she left because someone was trying to murder her.”
It tookan hour to recount everything to him. From the moment Captain Saber disrupted my quiet little life, to the nearly being murdered twice, to the passageway, to the conches and to the marriage contract.
I retrieved it from its hiding place, stuffed safely inside one of the many conch shells. He read it in silence by the light of the lava globe, and I anxiously watched his expression. It was rather serious, and he gave nothing away. When he finished reading, he looked up at me.
“Do you realize what you’ve found, Maisie?”
Yes. Evidence. Evidence of why there was a war with Kappur.
“We could finally find outwhythere’s a war. And stop it.”
He nodded and looked down at the kelp parchment held in his hands.
“We need to find out why this contract didn’t go through. To do that, we need to find those witnesses and ask them what they know.”
I swam over to him, looking down at the marriage contract as well. There were four names signed on the witnesses lines.
“Lysandra Mako. Percival Pike. Nigel Gillson. Jesse Fenson. Well, I don’t know any of these mer…” However, the name Percival rang familiar.
Elias shook his head. “Me neither. But they must be royals or royal associates. Witnesses from each kingdom.” He folded the contract up and handed it to me. “You need to find out who they are, little fish. Ask them if they know anything.”
I nodded gravely. I wasn’t sure where to begin. “I’ll need to keep a low profile from now on. The queen was quite angry with me for what I did.” I placed the contract back into its respected conch, and set it on the cave floor near the chest.
“No more saving criminals?” he joked.
I shot him a look. “No. Definitely not.”
“That’s certainly too bad.” He came forward and tilted my face up by tapping my chin. “I liked the way you felt against me.”
My face heated and I was glad for the dimness of the cavern and that he couldn’t see me. Because I knew my coloring would betray me entirely.
“We should probably watch some of these conches…” I whispered. If it wasn’t the color of my face the thing that gave me away, than it would certainly be the low rasp of my voice. I turned away from him and went over to the recorder, trying to remember what conch I was on. Flustered, I bent and picked one up, looking at the number before placing it on the device and starting it up. When I turned, Elias was on the couch, beckoning me to sit next to him.
I did, as far as I could be on his other side. He rolled his eyes and tugged on my dress, causing me to fall onto him.
“Come closer. I’m not a shark, and I won’t eat you, little fish.”
