Page 9 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
He smirked. “The moment we met, you introduced yourself as ‘Maisie’ easily enough. And you speak with a Lagoona accent with so much ease, it’s like you’re from there, as opposed to when you try to keep that Eramaean accent in place…”
I was breathing heavily now, so unsure what to do, how to rebuff his every claim. There seemed to be no way to do so, no denying what I’d so desperately tried to hide. Elias had seen through me since the very beginning.
“Not to mention on our little outing yesterday.” He leaned back on the couch again, the gesture appearing slightly nonchalant. “You ordered almost every food native to Lagoona. Your sympathy for peasants, and your sympathy for me facing a beheading… You risked a lot for a criminal and I know the real princess would rather starve than sully herself like that.”
Heknew, and there was no going back from this now. I could deny it until I was as purple as my hair and tail, but he would see right through any lie I’d try to whip up. There was nothing to do now but proceed cautiously.
“You’re very observant,” I commented, dropping my practiced Eramaean accent completely, replacing it with my native one. The one of Lagoona.
“In my line of work, I have to be.”
“Right. Thieving.”
“And deserting, and spying, and blade making.”
The arrogant piece of kelp. I huffed indignantly and got up from the couch. “Fine,” I conceded. “I’ll heal your wound. But I don’t have anything to sew it up with.” I’d have to go through the little tunnel, on the opposite side of the cove, the one that led to the princess’ chambers. “Wait right here.” I turned and swam up, feeling my way up for the little tunnel. I didn’t take the lava globe with me because I’d bring another one on the trip back. To sew up his wounds, I was going to need all the illumination I could get.
Squeezing myself into the little tunnel, I crawl-swam through the silt and debris until I made it out into the dark stone hallway that led to the rooms. I was lucky there were no twists and turns here, or I’d be completely lost in darkness. Swimming forward and trying not to imagine what creatures slithered along the walls, I finally made it to the end of the hall, and pressed my hands against the stone. The doorway opened and I pushed aside the tapestry to swim into the room.
It was brighter in here, swathed in hues of gold, magenta, lilac, and blue. The ivory shell bed looked so inviting after the trying day I’d had. I longed to throw myself into it, letting the soft kiss of the anemones against my scales lull me to sleep. But Elias was waiting.
I swam around the room looking for sewing notions. The princess didn’t seem to have anything useful in her rooms. There was nothing but figurines, toys, and pampered princess things, like jewelry and makeup strewn about.
Making my way to the bathing room, I searched through the stuff there until I finally found a little shell container. The inside held sharp needles and sea thread. I also grabbed a hidden bottle of fermented sea wine that the princess kept hidden there as well. I knew she kept it there, because I’d watched dozens of conches on her miserable, royal life.
I shoved the contents into a simple messenger bag I found lying in the princess’ closet and grabbed a lava globe on my way out. The stone doorway closed behind me. I went down the hall, then wriggled my way through the tunnel, coming out on the other side with silt buried in my hair.
I shook myself off and coughed, before I realized that the silence in the cove was eerie. Cautiously, I looked around. The lava globe I’d left with Elias was no longer where it had been. In fact, it wasn’t anywhere in sight. And there was no sounds of Elias gasping in pain, either.
Unfortunately. Okay, maybe I didn’t want to see him die, but I was petty enough right then to want him to suffer, at least a little.
Holding the lava globe in my palm, I started to turn and gasped when I felt the sudden cold, sharp edge of something press to my throat. I froze.
“Are you alone?” Elias’ voice whispered in the dark.
I started to nod, but stopped when my skin dug into what felt like a blade. “Yes,” I answered.
There was a pause as he waited for a minute, and then another. When it was obvious I’d come alone, the blade pulled away from my throat, and Elias swam out into the illumination of the globe I held in my hand. He gripped at his wound with one hand, and in the other he held a silver studded blade.
I eyed it suspiciously.
“Found it in that treasure chest of yours.” He started down for the couch and I followed.
“That’s the second time you’ve held a weapon to my throat today.”
Once we made it back to the couch, he tossed the blade across the cavern and shrugged, looking at me unapologetically. “One can never be too careful when it comes to survival.”
“One can never be too careful when choosing their friends, either.”
Elias just pierced me with a look that I chose to ignore as I made my way to the couch and sat down on it. He followed much more slowly, this time sitting as close to me as he possibly could. I tried to ignore the proximity, but I couldn’t help how my heart sped up.
“I never claimed to be your friend, little fish.” He moved his hands aside so I could examine the wound. “We just owed each other favors.”
My face heated with the beginning of humiliation. I always saw goodness where there was none. Imagined friendship where it didn’t exist. I should have known by now that mer were liars. The proof of that lied in the scars on my side.
There was so much I wanted to say to him, so many replies that came to mind. None of them would have been productive to the situation at hand. Instead, I bit my tongue and bent over to look at his skin. I’d been a fool to think we were friends. To think that the Black Blade, a merman I once admired, turned out to be sea scum instead. The idea of him was better than the bundle of flesh and blood I had in front of me.
I pulled out the bottle of fermented sea wine and uncapped it, dipping it over to pour the contents onto his wound. The dark color of wine floated gently down onto his flesh, looking like swirls of squid ink vanishing through the water. He winced when it touched him, and let out a hiss and a curse.
