Page 122 of The Eye of the Fifth
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Nevatis.
Kano.
There were strangers on Nevatis’ border. Landwalkers. The twins had alerted the merking so. Cyraneous had ordered him to stay below with them, and Kano had been happy to oblige… until he’d heard his own name.
The weight of the water above him was no dampener on his hearing: he’d heard every word they had said, as though he’d been right there in front of them. The water seemed to bring their voices to him, as though it wanted him to hear.
Ignoring Akraia’s protest and shaking off her lithe fingers from his arm, he disobeyed the merking’s order for the first time in his life.
Cyraneous had not been happy when he’d seen him emerge from the depths, but Kano couldn’t bring himself to care. These strangers knew him. Did he not have a right to know them in return?
There were three people on the long boat. One of them, Kano was astounded to see, had magnificent grey wings on her back. The other female was darker skinned, with green eyes that reflected the light of the moon. The last was a man of his own colouring, a Lorishman, no doubt about it. He blinked down at Kano in disbelief, the wide smile on his face faltering. ‘Kano, it’s… it’s me. It’s Kawai. Your brother.’
Kano peered, uncertain, at Cyraneous. The merking said nothing at all, his expression void of emotion. Perplexed, Kano turned back to the stranger and said blankly, ‘I’m sorry… but I don’t have a brother.’
Kawai’s shoulders seemed to deflate at those words.
Guilt twisted Kano’s stomach, but it was true. He didn’t have a brother. Or any family at all. Unless he counted the nymph twins. He supposed Akeria was like an annoying, stubborn sister who undermined him at every turn. But Akraia… well, he didn’t like to think of Akraia as a sibling. Not at all.
‘Kano,’ the older, winged female addressed him gently. How was it they all knew his name? Had Cyraneous told them?
He hadn’t known landwalkers could have wings. They were quite incredible, and looked as though they could be as powerful in the air as a mer’s tail was in water.
‘My name is Naal Westerra,’ the female continued with an importance to rival the merking himself. ‘I am the Air Warden.’ She paused, waiting for a reaction as if that was supposed to mean something to him. ‘Do you know what that means?’
Cyraneous gave a grunt of warning behind him. Kano looked at him once more to find that the merking’s expression had significantly hardened. ‘No,’ Kano told Naal Westerra. ‘Should I?’
‘Enough,’the merking hissed in his own language.
Naal Westerra’s grey eyes narrowed. The great wings at her back rippled with the warm breeze as her gaze levelled the merking’s. To Kano’s surprise, the merking was not instantly enraged by her daring to look him in the eye.
‘He has no idea who he is. Does he?’ Naal Westerra asked the merking, a cold expression befalling her striking face.
‘Kano,’ Cyraneous’ deep voice resonated behind him. ‘Find the nymphs. I do not doubt they are somewhere doing something they should not be.’
Kano was inclined to agree, but he didn’t want to leave. He had questions, so many questions.
Like why the merking was even entertaining these landwalkers at all. And how did they all know his name? And what did Naal Westerra mean by “he has no idea who he is”? And-
‘Kano,’ Cyraneous said again, though this time it was a warning to do as he was told, as though the merking could somehow hear the questions running rampant through his mind.
He took one last look at the strangers, then reluctantly obeyed the merking’s orders, diving back under the water in search of the twins. He knew they wouldn’t be far: an exciting event such as this was not something they would willingly miss. He was eager to tell them every detail of the strange encounter, and hoped they would be able to make more sense of it than he could.
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Kyra
Kawai glared down at the merking, his chest heaving with fast and furious breath. Before Kyra or Naal could stop him, he accused the merking in a deadly tone, ‘What thefuckhave you done to him?’
The effect was immediate.
Every single mer surrounding them shifted into something nightmarish. Their faces, which hadn’t exactly been pleasant before, contorted with predatory intent. Their lips pulled back to reveal impossibly sharp teeth, and their black eyes bled onto the surrounding skin in branching veins of fury.
Kyra’s heart hammered even faster than before, and it was difficult,so difficult,to avoid their terrifying eyes.
Kawai was completely past caring. He was seething in a way that made Kyra think he might just jump in the water and attempt to fight them all single-handedly.
