Page 128 of Midnightsong
He left the sanctuaries to where a pod of mer awaited him. Kaden recognized them. They were one of the mer pods who were his staunchest of opposers and often led mobs to call for his dethroning.
For a moment, Kaden and the mer group floated still, and he clenched his fingers in anticipation of them spitting vitriol at him.
The head of the group, a mermaid with a pebble gray tail, bowed her head. “Thank you, Your Majesty. For saving the queendom.”
Kaden blinked. “Of–of course.”
The other five mer echoed their thanks before darting off.
Kaden wound through the palace halls and knocked on Cyrus and Adrielle’s bedchamber doors. No response, and he slid the seaglass door open.
The room was empty, empty hammock swaying with the currents. The tables and the chair Cyrus sat at bare.
Furrowing his brow, he left the chambers and stopped the first sentry he found patrolling the halls. “Do you know where my brother is?”
The sentry straightened to a vertical position and bowed. “Your Majesty.” She pointed in the opposite direction Kaden was going. “He and Princess Adrielle are in the infirmary.”
“The infirmary? When did that happen?”
“We moved Prince Cyrus after Shangjiang Narea and her sentinels ensured their safety during the attacks,” the sentry replied.
Kaden made a mental note to find the Shangjiang and thank her.
When Kaden arrived, Cyrus was sitting up in his rock bed in the infirmary, and Hadrien floated beside his father.
“So, you finally gathered yourself and sent those landwalkers back to where they came from?” Cyrus’ lips quirked into a partial smile, and his face fell. “I heard Uncle Varin perished while fighting alongside you.”
Kaden rolled his lips between his teeth and stared at his hands on the proximal part of his tail. Fresh hurt, mingled with culpability bloomed in him again, of Varin’s passing and of sentencing Saeryn and Celia to their deaths. “Yes. I can’t shake my guilt. He helped me with the wave, and when we returned to the palace, a group of divers ambushed us and speared him. If only I had taken the throne earlier, or insisted he go back to Aunt Cassia, he might still live.”
“I checked in on Aunt Cassia. She told me his funeral will be at the end of the tidesmonth, once they’ve recovered from their own attack,” Cyrus said.
“Thank you for speaking with her,” Kaden swam to float on his brother’s other side. “Did she say anything else?”
“Not much, only that she has ordered the building of memorials for the human deaths from her and Uncle Varin’s tsunami.”
Kaden gave a single nod. “Good news, then. But brother, why are you here, and not in your bedchamber? And where are Adrielle and Libbi?”
Cyrus gritted his teeth. “When the humans attacked and Shangjiang Narea came for us, Raina and her healers fled.” His hands balled into fists, and his tail tensed and straightened in front of him. Kaden put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “At the moment, Adrielle took Libbi to gather some food for us.” Cyrus patted Kaden’s hand and pulled Hadrien onto his lap.
A healer came by with a stone bowl with a grayish paste inside, interrupting them. “Your Majesty, Your Highness. We were able to determine why you have not been recovering at the pace expected of someone with your condition.”
“Why is that?” Kaden focused on the healer.
“Well, the medicines your private healers were administering were not medicine.”
“What do you mean?” Cyrus’ eyes rounded, and his hand shot out and grabbed Hadrien’s tail before his son could swim away, his attention fixed on a manyu gliding past, their long body undulating.
“The residual pastes and tonics we found in your bedchambers, and in the rooms where they worked, were made from poisonous flora, blue inkberry and spiny seanettle. They were preventing you from healing at your full capacity. It’s odd.” The healer put his index finger on his sharp chin. “You’ve shown some signs of healing, so we investigated further. They mixed the inkberry and seanettle with healing herbs.”
Kaden gritted his teeth, and Cyrus’ face was as white as bleached coral. “Who were they? My uncle told us they were his best healers.”
The healer shrugged. “I don’t know. They kept to themselves when they were, erm, ‘working’ with you, Your Highness, and they didn’t interact with the rest of us.”
“I’m going to have them found and arrested.” Kaden squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again.
“They deserve no less,” Cyrus said with a groan.
“We will do our very best to have you healed up within the next few tidesmonths. And Your Majesty. Cyrus told us of your own condition, and we would like to offer you a poultice to ease the symptoms temporarily. Do you want it?”
