Page 51 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
He had left me, claiming we’d see each other again. Had it been a betrayal to him, to be with Kai the way I’d been with him? No. The sentiment couldn’t wedge itself in my chest. Somehow, I figured he’d be strangely proud of what I’d done. Happy I’d taken what I wanted, to the abyss with the consequences.
I was still restless, though. So I wandered the palace until I came to a stop in the hallway with the portraits of the royals. Odele’s portrait hung there. As did her father’s, and more importantly to Thalassar, the Malabella ancestry. Queen Circe, her gaze regal and cold. Queen Odette, Odele’s mother, was painted there. She was a pretty mer, with the purple-blue hair and black eyes that was common in the Malabella lineage. Stories whispered of her kindness, and the love between her and King Xristo.
Beside the portrait of Queen Odette, there was another one. Identical, save for a few changes in features. An upturned nose, darker eyes, higher cheekbones. My hands went to this portrait, fingers tracing along the contours of her face. I couldn’t help but wonder if the artist had captured her likeness, or if she’d been different in real life.
“Princess Odessa Malabella Sanitorum,” a sleezy, oily voice interrupted my musings. My whole body tensed as Percival swam up beside me, staring at the portrait I had my hands on. I pulled them away, clasping them tightly at my stomach. “The elder sister to your mother, Queen Odette. Twins, in fact, though she was born mere minutes before.”
Not tearing my gaze from the portrait, I snapped, “I know very well who she is, Percival.”
I could feel his gaze swivel to me and then back. “Of course. Pity she died a few years before your birth. You never knew her.”
How did she die?I didn’t voice the question, but it was on the tip of my tongue, begging to be released.
“And then years later, your mother followed her to the grave.” He spoke unkindly. So unkindly that, despite Queen Odette not being my mother, my hands still curled into angry fists on Odele’s behalf. “And now, someone is making attempts on your life. Strange, don’t you think?”
My throat tightened. I cocked my head to the side. “Strange?”
“Strange, how the Malabella lineage is slowly dwindling. First, your aunt Odessa, then your mother, and now…” He shrugged.
An uneasy feeling slipped through my stomach. “In case it’s escaped your notice, I am not dead.”
“No,” he agreed. “Yet I cannot help but wonder if your lineage is somehow…” He gave a slight pause to look at me. I was too cowardly and could not meet his gaze. “…cursed.”
Chilling words, and they sounded like a threat. A promise. Luckily, I didn’t have to reply, because he bid me a good day and swam off, after asking me to be careful and to not leave the palace.
My skin and body felt dirty even minutes after he’d already left.
His words kept trilling through my mind.
Cursed. Cursed. Cursed.
I didn’t believe in curses. Magic existed, but I knew there was a limit to certain things. The Malabella line wasn’t cursed, but I didn’t doubt they were being hunted. Why else had Odele gone away? How had her mother died? And her aunt? I couldn’t quite remember details.
A thought occurred to me. Perhaps the details of their deaths were important to my own investigation. And there was one place that could give me answers. One place where only royals were allowed. One place that Odele had, surprisingly, spent a great deal of time at.
The royal library.
“Princess!”The old, glowing librarian smiled warmly at me. His skin went from a soft blue to a bright yellow at the sight of me. He was sitting behind his desk, old bent fingers studying the ledgers. He put his quill down when I approached, flipped to a clean page, and let me sign my name in. When I finished, he said, “You came alone today. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I’d like to see the royal records, please.”
He nodded. “Of course, of course. Follow me, Your Majesty.”
I swam after him, to the room set apart from the rest of the library.Royal Records. Royal Access Only.He produced a key ring, fiddled with the dozens of keys there, and finally slipped one into the lock. He pushed the door open for me but didn’t go in himself.
“Remember now, if you need anything, just call out to me.”
I told him I would and went inside the room, closing the door behind me. It was a small space, with hundreds of conches and kelp parchments, like the outside. Little jellies glowed in a canopy above my head, buzzing in soft colors of yellow, orange, and white.
There was one table in the center of the room, a stone slab with rose quartz bleeding through the cracks.
Taking a breath, I made my way over to the shelves. They were dated back years before I was even born. Years in Thalassar, and in the entire ocean, were not measured like in two-legger lands. The twelve months existed, yes, and yet times changed with the phases of the moon, earth, sun, stars, and tides.
In Draconi, years were measured by seasons and named after their Dragon deities. In Thalassar, the years were measured by the reign of the Malabellas, and the queens’ respective consorts.
We were in the forty-fifth year of the Malabella Oriana reign, and yet when Odele married Kai once she turned eighteen, it would become the forty-sixth year of the Malabella Li reign. It was all to make royal records easier, I supposed. Nowadays, the mer tended to speak like two-leggers. No longer speaking of moon months, but ofyears.
Each shelf was labeled into sections. Royal Deaths. Royal Marriages. Marriage Contracts. Royal Births. Each marked with a different reign, number, and moon phase.
