Page 50 of Oceansong
And then from the suffocating darkness, golden light emerged. She tightened her grip on Kaden’s hand, and she observed and soaked in the sight before her. The light brightened, spotlighting a magnificent, gold and silver multi-tiered pagoda-like structure on the seafloor, its height and width rivaling a sea knoll. The ground level hugged an open archway, and each level above it had rocky balconies protruding from the sides. Stone pillars lined the eaves, wrapping around the structure’s outer walls. A grand courtyard, with a floor of smooth sea glass stretching for days, lay sprawled before the palace’s sweeping entrance, elaborate coral in the shape of a tree adorning its center. The building was flanked on two sides by carved coral and stone.
She had seen pagodas when she was younger, but to see one of this scale, and underwater, no less, stunned her into awe and reverent silence.
Smooth coral puzzles climbed the rock walls at her side, and she flinchedas it snagged a lock of hair.
She was definitely tying it back next time.
“What is this place?” She glided over it alongside Kaden. “It’s beautiful!”
“My family’s queendom and towns. And that is our palace. Once they were visible to all, welcoming sea animals to live among us. But as landwalker exploration became more widespread, threatening sea life and us and our home, we made the decision to shroud our lands from the human eye. You are the first to see it in over three centuries.”
Angie went completely still. “That’s why the mer seemed to disappear.”
“Yes, we have lived among you all this time.”
She turned her attention back to the palace. “How did you shroud it?”
“There is an invisible barrier that surrounds it. Magic maintains it.” He pointed above her head. “Like that mermaid is doing. She’s one of the five oracles who protect the palace.”
Angie looked up. A single mermaid with a metallic blue tail swam high, and stopped. She put one hand to her lips and reached upward, a golden flicker of light bursting from her palm, and disappearing in a second. Then she darted off.
“How often do they maintain it? If it surrounds all this.” She motioned to the palace with her hand. “It must be huge.”
“There are ten oracles per tidesday for this region, and they rotate daily.” Kaden made a noise, as if he were going to say more. He didn’t.
Angie looked back to the palace. Mer swam in and out of the structure, their tails a rainbow in the dark. Splotches of green moss decorated the structure’s sides, and curious, vibrant fish and a stray octopus zipped about.
“I’ve thought about what you said. About being the change you want to see in the world,” Kaden admitted. “I agree. I would rule if I had to. But I still don’t desire it.”
“Not everyone wants to lead. That’s okay.” She put a reassuring hand on his forearm.
Another pod of mermen and mermaids came into view on the palace’s side, their tail-ends pointed to Angie and Kaden. They swam around a stone formation reminiscent of undersea mountain ranges, decorated with lively corals and emerald-hued sea moss, and partially shadowed in the deep sea’s gloom. One by one, the pod swam into a grotto and disappeared.
“Will anyone see us?” She bit her lip, hesitant to draw closer.
“No. We will not go into the palace proper, and I know where we will not be spotted. Or, where there are mer I can trust not to utter a peep. Your mother’s resting place is not far from here.” He gave her hand a gentle tugwhen she stopped to gawk at an oblong, sandy brown fish with a scaleless, limp body, slithering by without a care in the world.
A ragfish. Angie counted her lucky stars. If only she had a camera to capture this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
“We have towns and villages scattered throughout the region, and our territory stretches from north of here to three thousand nautical miles south.”
“That’s a lot of land. Or water? It looks like Atlantis,” she said once they were out of earshot of the mer. “Or maybe, Pacifica?” She angled her head and caught the teasing grin tugging at Kaden’s full lips.
“It could be the Pacific Ocean’s version of it.” They circled around the back of the palace.
“Does Atlantis exist?” His comment piqued Angie’s interest.
“I’ve heard stories, but I haven’t been there yet, myself,” he replied. “These.” He turned his body around so they faced each other, his long tail circling her. “Are the burial grounds. Your mother is this way. Come, look down.”
Beneath were rows upon rows of long coffins, each brushed with golds and silvers and embellished with characters she didn’t recognize. A tombstone and coffin in the same structure, packed together with an inch of space between them.
Of course, the mer didn’t need to walk between coffins.
Kaden slowed down once they hovered above the burial grounds, and Angie followed, slowing her steady kicking.
“The royal sentinels and their family are tucked in this corner.” He gestured with one arm to a blocked off corner to their northeast, boxed in with dense, clear material. His voice cracked. “Some of our sentinels’ bodies were never retrieved after we lost them.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”
