Page 100 of The Eye of the Fifth
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Mischief of Nymphs
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Nevatis’ Border, The Birlissus Ocean.
Kano.
The mer-king was sure to scold him for this.
But this job he had given Kano was far too hard for a person to doalone.The demon twins did whatever they pleased. Did Cyraneous honestly think they would listen to a word he said?
Keep them out of trouble.
That had been the mer-king’s order, though Kano would have more luck trying to convince an outlawed mernotto eat him.
Trouble. That’s all the twins were. That’s all they had ever caused him.
‘Akeria!’ Kano hissed furiously, but he may as well have been talking to thin air, for the nymph and her sister were nowhere to be seen, and the shallow water remained free from telling ripples.
They were toying with him, as they always did, diving under the surface and hiding as if he’d opted to play some big game of hide and seek. He wanted no part in it, and if they weren’t so beautiful, Kano was certain he would have left them to their mischief by now.
Heat rose in his cheeks at the thought.Nymphs,he cursed inwardly, hating the effect the two sisters had on him.
‘Akraia,’ he tried again, hoping the other, marginally less troublesome of the two would hear him. They weren’t even in Nevatis anymore. If Cyraneous caught wind that they had crossed the border into outlaw territory… ‘Please, I’ve had enough now!’ Kano exclaimed. ‘I’m tired and hungry and the mer-king will have my head if you don’t-’
‘Oh, sowhiny.’He swivelled around on the jagged rock. A shimmering deep blue head appeared behind him, her scaled skin glistening in the late afternoon sun.
Kano groaned at the lack of a second twin. ‘Where’s your sister? We’re supposed to be backbeforesundown.’
Usually traversing the open waters of the Birlissus Ocean on the mer-kings orders, the nymph twins took their rare days offveryseriously. Kano had never known exactlywhatthe sisters did for Cyraneous, except that sometimes they would be gone from Nevatis for days at a time. He knew they were the mer-king’s personal spies, but who they were spying on and why… Kano had no idea.
He would never admit it, but on those occasions they were gone, he was rather lonely. It had been three years since he’d wound up on Nevatis’ borders, with absolutely no memory of having got there in the first place, nor where or who he had been before. He’d remembered just one thing: his name.
The mer-king, for some unfathomable reason he still did not understand, had taken him in. Kano had lived amongst the mer ever since, but they were a very proud and private people, and deeply distrusting of humans. Kano had found no real friends in the mer-king’s subjects.
Until he’d been introduced to Akeria and Akraia. They were outsiders like him, a different race entirely yet roughly the same age as he was, living in a world that was not their own.
They were the closest thing to friends that Kano could ever remember having. Even if they did drive him absolutely mad.
‘Ria found something,’ Akraia said in a hushed, excited voice, eyes sparkling.
‘No,’Kano said irritably. ‘I amnotdoing this again. You go down there right now and tell her to-’
Akraia climbed onto the rock with elegant ease. Water dripped down every inch of her body, her soft skin sparkling in the sun’s rays like sapphires. She smiled at him, black eyes glinting with mischief as she held out a webbed hand. ‘Come see it.’
Kano’s cheeks heated again. He quickly turned away. ‘No.’
Akraia’s featherlight touch on his shoulder sent shivers down his spine. He shrugged out of her reach, needing his mind free of any foggy spell she was trying on him. ‘Don’t do that, Akraia. Don’t pull those tricks on me.’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy them,’ she said, an amused smile on her silky voice.
Kano gritted his teeth. ‘Get. Your. Sister.’
‘Just come see what she found!’
‘No!’
