Page 27 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
White columns marked the open doored entrance to the place, and it seemed palatial in its own right. Blooms of brightness burst, like lanterns, stars, and fire had melded together to illuminate the vast expanse of space. The colored glass windows on the far side of the library ranged like the shelves did, from floor to ceiling. Each shelf was filled with conch shell recordings and scrolls of kelp parchments.
In Lagoona, we’d never had libraries this grand. In fact, we hadn’t had a library at all. We’d had a house of public records, but nothing like this.
There were tables made of quartz and coral, chairs all around them, rows and rows of shelves, and a desk behind which sat a very old and bent merman with skin that glowed like the light of a lantern. Off to the side, there was a room that was closed off from the rest of the library, encased in walls and darker windows. A sign on the door informed me that they were ‘Royal records. Royal access only.’
Percival swam up to the desk with the glowing merman. Without a polite word, he pulled a large, leather bound book opened and began flipping the delicate kelp pages. I watched curiously as he took the quill,—the elongated and sharp tooth of some creature—dipped it into an opened vial of squid ink, and signed on a page. Turning, he handed the quill to me.
I shouldn’t have been nervous as I went up to the book and looked at the scrawling letters. It was a sign in, sign out ledger.
“Princess Odele, how nice it is to see you well again!” the old, glowing man exclaimed. His voice reminded me of the whistle of the current blowing between cattail stalks. It was the pleasant sound of home.
I smiled widely as I bent gracefully over the book and started to sign Odele’s name as neat as I possibly could. “It’s good to be back.”
“We missed you around here. I was hopelessly lost without my little helper.”
I froze mid-letter. The Princess of Thalassar helped the librarian? That wasn’t something she ever mentioned in any of her conches. I had to admit, it caught me off guard, and I couldn’t very well imagine her inside this place, joyously stocking shelves or among the conches. That seemed like servant’s work, something she would deem beneath her.
I finished signing her name and set the quill aside. I wasn’t sure how to respond to him, so I just gifted him with a smile that he returned a second too late, for he’d been observing my hands. Before I could contemplate his stare, Percival impatiently waved me away from the front desk and to a table in the center of the library. I sat and watched as he went to gather conches and parchment in his arms. He worked quickly, long fingers pulling things from shelves efficiently. His long robes flowed behind his tail, like a dark wave or a sinister shadow following his every move.
He came over and gently laid the contents down onto the table before taking a seat across from me. “Let’s begin where we left off, shall we?” He opened a roll of parchment and tapped his fingers against the looping scrawl of handwriting written there. A beat of silence. “Well?” he asked expectantly.
Internally, I panicked. My lessons had started from the beginning. Eating. Drinking. Swimming. What did I know about the lessons of the princess? Foreign languages, history of the Malabella lineage, things that an outsider couldn’t possibly know.
And that was what I should know. The queen had known that. So had this been some sort of test on her end? To humiliate me? As if to say, ‘imposter’.
Imposter. Imposter. Imposter.
But Percival didn’t know that.
I scoffed and pushed the parchment away. “Ugh.” I made a noise of disgust deep in my throat. “Howboooring.” I looked down at my nails. Flippant. Rude. Wearing her mind was too easy. And I was good at it.
“Princess,” Percival sounded exasperated. “Wemuststudy.”
“I am sure we must, Percy. But I really don’t feel like it.” I slowly got up from my seat, palms pressed tightly against the surface of the table. “There are many other things I’d rather be doing.” I made a move to turn away.
“If you could at leastlistento the lessons?” A vehement demand.
Nothing bad could come from just listening. As long as I pretended. I let out a suffering sigh and plopped myself indignantly back into the seat. “If youmust.But make it quick. I have things to do today.
As it turned out,there were things I’d wanted to do that day—visit Elias—that Percival didn’t allow. I barely got time to breathe. Lessons were shoved down my throat and, at first I feigned disinterest, but after a while, though I still refused to write and answer questions, I paid rapt attention.
There was so much to learn. About politics, foreign trade, strategic battle planning… It was all insider information. Things to be tucked away in my mind for future use. Whatever use I’d find for them.
After lessons, we went in for a light lunch that I fought hard not to devour, despite its bland taste. When we finished there were more lessons, listening to conches, and to my immense fear, hippocampus riding.
I tried not to tremble as I was brought before the massive beast. It was gargantuan, and it wasn’t so much the height I feared, but rather falling and then being trampled by it.
I recalled the first time I rode one of the beasts, the gut clenching fear, and the way Captain Saber had felt behind me. The protective way his arms caged me on the animal. The heat of his body against my back…
No. I had to stop thinking about Captain Saber. A feat that proved difficult without his presence. I expected to see him around every corner or trailing the shadows behind me. I’d been the one to chase him away. I never expected to feel his absence like a phantom, or to feel an ache for the slightest bit of teasing and banter.
Pushing thoughts of him away, I swallowed my fears and nervously approached the beast, trying to appear confident, though I was sure my features were pulled tightly into a grimace. I gripped the reins and hauled myself up, hugging my tail to the side of its body. I rode slowly with the instructor at my side, an instructor that didn’t give me much instruction, and the guards at my back, flanking almost all around me like a wall of bodies.
The guards were supposed to make me feel safe. I felt anything but. The excess mer was just a reminder of everything I still had to figure out. Marriage contracts. Why a war had been started. And what Percival knew about it.
I was having a hard time figuring out how to approach the subject. It wasn’t until later that I got my opportunity.
After surviving the hippocampus ride, we went back to our studies. I was listening to a recording on marriage contracts and found my opening.
