Page 64 of Midnightsong
“Do you think you could do more though?” Cyrus shifted in his seat, using the tip of his tail to slide himself back in his chair and straighten up. “Going back to what I was saying earlier about you taking the throne.”
“It’s all I’ve been thinking about the entire trip down here! But how can I go up against Uncle? He’s got most of the queendom on his side and our citizens despise me. I’m not trained to lead and I never was.” Kaden swept his arms out in protest.
“Do you think you would be the first monarch to have that problem? You must get them to trust you, especially as the queendom knows you’re allied with humans. And again, you could learn the ways of being monarch. I’m happy to teach you.”
“Perhaps,” Kaden said with a listless shrug.
“For the second part of your concerns, I understand why Angie is upset with you. It might have boded you well to confide in her of your symptoms and condition.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the rock platform in front of him. “I tell Adrielle everything, even from before we were bonded. She would not forgive me if a lie passed my lips. I’m sorry, I agree with Angie in this case. What you did was wrong.”
Taken aback, Kaden gawped at his brother. “That’s all you have to say? I know that; you didn’t have to jab a piece of coral in my wounds.”
“It is the truth, no?” Cyrus’ unsympathetic gaze turned to him.
His harsh tone caught Kaden off guard, and his facial muscles went slack, followed by his muscles freezing up inside. “She won’t talk to me. But thank you, brother. For nothing.”
Cyrus said no more as Kaden loosened his tail from the stalactite and took his leave. A quick glance behind him, prior to departing, revealed Cyrus had his eyes shut, head leaned against the rock wall behind him.
He confided in Cyrus, and all his brother had done was make him feel worse. In many ways, Cyrus’ austerity and matter-of-fact mannerisms and tones mirrored their mother. He didn’t need to be emotionally beaten down more than he already had.
Some fresh air would do him some good, and though he knew he wasn’t to swim to the surface, he needed a moment to clear his head. Kaden swam ten seamiles west, to an area where he knew humans had never been seen.
He stopped before swimming upward, listening and watching. When he was sure no watercrafts or divers were in the vicinity, he broke the surface.
As he expected, he was alone. No land in sight, save for mountains shrouded in fog and mist surrounding him. He breathed in the icy, brisk air, and floated in place, moving his tail back and forth and side to side beneath the surface to keep himself in place.
The sight of the mountain range brought back memories from a time shortly before he met Angie. One of the first times he and Cyrus were exposed to the human world.
They visited the surface together when they were younger, and before Cyrus bonded with Adrielle and stopped joining him on his trips as frequently.
The first human he ever saw was an elderly man, a former sailor and shipbuilder, who enjoyed painting by the seaside on Alaska’s southwest coast. One of the few humans who had seen a mer before they warred with the humans two tidesyears ago.
He and Cyrus learned tales of the world on land and humankind, and in return, the brothers regaled him with stories of life in the depths, and about mer culture. When Cyrus returned to the queendom, Kaden would stay, watching the old man’s watercolor painting, marveling at the colors and how such faded hues and seemingly amorphous shapes came together to form a beautiful picture.
The old man taught Cyrus and Kaden how to paint. Each tidesweek for six tidesmonths, they conversed and learned.
Until one day, the man wasn’t there and never returned. Kaden never found out what happened to him.
The mountains reminded him of such a painting, the last one he ever saw the old man do, shadowed grays and whites melding into the smoky sky. He envisioned the old man sitting at his corner by the sea, hard at work. He never learned the man’s name and the man never learned theirs. Their camaraderie was enough.
Kaden took a deep breath, filling his lungs, and expelled the air in a loud whoosh. What sort of painting could he do for Angie?
Angie.
Had she found it in her heart to forgive, or at least have a conversation with him?
He swam back past the palace, his destination unknown.
Small towns and villages he passed had pockets of civilians grieving for missing family members and children. At least, those that hadn’t become military bases. Ten mer missing or dead that they knew of—many of them sentinels during the occasional small skirmish with divers. Others were civilians, some of them young and rebellious, defying Saeryn’s orders, who snuck outside the queendom, and were caught by fishermen and divers.
Kaden’s heart constricted. His people were suffering. Time felt like it slowed. He didn’t know what to do, and he tackled this alone. Without Adrielle or Cyrus, and worse, without Angie.
He had never felt so alone.
He looked up at Saeryn calling his name, breaking Kaden out of his ruminating and feeling sorry for himself in the palace’s coral gardens. “Uncle.”
What Cyrus had said about Saeryn’s plans made his skin prickle. Not to mention his uncle’s convenient habit of saying one thing and doing another.
Yet Saeryn’s presence was oddly comforting as he stopped next to him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I heard you returned. Back so soon?”
