Page 31 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
We were closer than any two other mer could quite possibly be, and we didn’t even really need words at all.
My face flushed, and I felt the sudden whack of a whip on the backs of my hands. Pain broke me from embarrassing reverie. I cried out, yanking my hands to my chest. Red welts began rising on the backs of my knuckles. Unfortunately, I was well versed in Percival’s punishments. My hands wore the bruises and hard skin of his beatings. He’d started hitting me often enough in the past few days that my hands should have been used to the pain by now. They weren’t. The first time he’d struck me, I’d been so surprised that tears had welled behind my eyes. The second time as well. By the third time, I’d learn to expect the lashings.
“Pay attention!” He waved the whip around in front of me. The tadpole. “Now, I’ll ask you again, when was the treaty of Fraema signed, who signed it, and what did the treaty consist of.” He didn’t even phrase it like a question.
I racked my brain for the correct answers. So. Much. History.
“It was signed on the...thirtieth?...year of the Malabella rule. It was signed by… Thalassar… Prague and… Iol?”
The whip came crashing down onto the table with such a force, it rattled it. Luckily, my hands were pressed tightly to my chest, and didn’t suffer the brunt of his wrath.
“Wrong!” he snapped. “The treaty was signed by Thalassar, Prague, and Ventlair. What did the treaty consist of?”
My hands trembled, but I did not dare bring them down. Tears prickled behind my eyelids, threatening to swarm out. I pushed them away. I’d not embarrass myself by crying in front of him. It’d be like placing a loaded speargun in his hands just so he could shoot me with it.
Gone was that docile, exasperated merman from that first day. Now, he was a cruel teacher. And this obviously wasn’t the first time he’d administered such punishments.
No wonder Odele had fled.
“It allowed for free passage between the nations to supply equal trade and commerce?” I was doubtful of my answer and tried hard not to be.
A princess must be sure of all things. Even if she is unsure, and incorrect.
Again, he slapped the whip onto the table.
“Hopeless and brainless,” he critiqued.
He liked to do that, to toss out insults that made me forget myself. The confidence I feigned while wearing Odele’s mask waned as bit by bit, he tore into my every action. Soon, I’d not be able to take it anymore, and I feared that day’s arrival.
Besides, how had the queen’s advisor come to be little more than a glorified nanny to Princess Odele? Was it because she was the future ruler and he was passing on his experience?
I could tell him now that if he treated Odele half as bad as he treated me, the moment she ascended the throne, he’d be out on his fins in the streets.
The welts on the backs of my hands stung.
“That is enough study for now. Unfortunately nothing stuck. Hopefully you carry yourself better in the gardens while taking tea with your cousins.”
Dear Tides. Not again.
After what had happened between me and Odele’s cousins that first round of tea time, I had no desire to repeat such an incident.
I’d single handedly turned Odele’s closest confidants against her.
Not that they hadn’t deserved it, the wretches. But it had been a harrowing experience. They’d no doubt accept me with disdain.
Percival got up from his seat and gestured to a nearby servant, who began gathering up all the conches and kelp parchments quickly. I smiled at her almost absently before I caught myself.
A princess does not thank the help.
“Hurry along now,” Percival urged. “You have a schedule to keep.”
The schedule. To the flippin’ abyss with the schedule. It was like swimming in shackles. I was told what to do, how to speak and dress, what to eat and even who to see. And to my regret, this schedule did not allow for many breaks or to see Elias or Prince Kai at all.
I probably shouldn’t have even been thinking of the Prince of Draconi, considering all the intimacies I shared with Elias, but I couldn’t help it. Hewasbeautiful. He was a prince. I could hardly help it if my heart fluttered whenever my thoughts went astray to him, especially when I caught sight of his guards trailing after me alongside my own. Besides, Elias hadn’t helped with whispered words in between kisses of what he would do to me, to Prince Kai. Sultry fantasies that feathered against my skin and made me imagine things I shouldn’t.
Prince Kai was kind, a stark contrast from other royals I had met.And, he had kissed me. It hadn’t been anything like the feverish caressing between Elias and I. Kai’s had been sweet. A promise of something else.
I couldn’t help but want to see him again. I could pretend to be Odele with everyone else, but with him, it was harder. I so desperately wanted to mend whatever rift was between them, even if I had to be myself to do it.
