Page 33 of Midnightsong
He wasn’t to go near the surface, but he had to see what they were doing.
He paddled while keeping a safe distance behind them yet keeping their tailfins in sight. The group circled the peak of a seamount range and swam in between a passing hujing pod, the large black and white animals passing overhead. Kaden dipped beneath the deepest-diving one, their white underbelly in view as they glided away.
Swimming through a seaweed forest and a bed of smooth, hard seagrass, Kaden kept pace.
Another two hundred fathomspans upward and he caught glimmers of the moon’s rays filtering through the sea. They were nearing the surface.
His head broke through the water, frothy waves lapping around his shoulders.
In an instant, glacial air and a salt spray met with his skin, jabbing at his head and shoulders in an unrelenting grip. The sentries were swimming away from him, only their heads visible.
Kaden moved to the nearest rock and climbed atop it, keeping them in sight.
They circled a land mass ahead of him. Why did this area look so familiar?
He leaned forward, focusing his gaze.
The sentries were circling the docks, empty and foreboding in the night.Angie’sfamily’s docks. His grip inadvertently tightened, his fingertips digging into the slick, cold, rocky surface. Heaviness weighed down the pit of his stomach.
Diamond-like stars sprawled across the night sky above. Darkness weighed on him like their impending war, and it was his hope that as twilight always transitioned into day, light and peace awaited both the humans and mer at the end of their fight. The midnightsong was melodious and soothing, joined by howls and grunts and growls of distant animals.
Chilly, winter air enrobed and embraced him and he shivered. Strange how he was acclimated to the cold of the deep sea, but not the air. One more circle of the area later, the sentries disappeared under the surface, presumably to return to the palace with their findings.
Kaden slid down the rock and followed suit.
If they wanted to use the docks as a point of attack—
The thought made his head spin.
Saeryn left after Kaden followed the sentries and sentinels to the surface and he didn’t find his uncle again until the next tidesday.
“Why are there sentries patrolling the docks?” he asked, the moment Saeryn finished talking to the sentinel in his throne room.
“Why were you at the surface?” Saeryn crossed his arms as he floated a tailspan across from Kaden, his fingers tap-tap-tapping his biceps, caudal fins sweeping back and forth in a show of impatience.
Kaden placed his arms behind his back, gripping his left wrist with his right hand, and cursed under his breath at Saeryn dodging his question. “I saw a group of sentries and sentinels leaving when I was at the pantry and I wanted to see where they were going.”
“And you got your answer?” Saeryn arched an eyebrow.
Kaden rubbed his face. “I did. Which is why I asked why they were patrolling the docks.”
“I asked them to go and look for landwalkers. Caution them not to come into our territory.” Saeryn’s gaze flickered around Kaden’s face before finally looking him in the eye.
That made no sense. “Why would you send them to the surface to warn landwalkers? There are plenty of sentinels patrolling the queendom. A human wouldn’t be able to sneak past them. And humans wouldn’t be able to understand them without our magic.”
“Are you questioning my orders after you defied me and went to the surface?” A raging tsunami roared in Saeryn’s gaze.
Kaden shut up.
“Because you’re family, I’ll let this go for now. But if you want to keep your high advisor position, don’t let me catch you going to the surface again, you hear? It’s for your own safety.”
Kaden gave a begrudging nod and left. He was tired of this. Tired of being made to feel like he was crazy for simply asking his uncle’s plans. Of having his questions dodged or given half-answers. Flashbacks struck of his failed attempts to talk to Serapha and Aqilus two years ago. Now he had a chance to make his voice heard, his concerns known to the council, as Saeryn’s advisor.
From outside the throne room looking in brought back memories from the day Kaden watched his father speared.
Seeing his mother tidesdays later as she held court—her expression that day was burned into his mind as if he had seen it only moments ago. She kept her head high, but an aura of sadness had haunted her—the subtle twitch on her eyelids, as if she held her emotions hostage beneath them, her tail gripping the throne like she was afraid it would slip out from under her.
He had now lost both of his parents, and there was the possibility of another war.
