Page 39 of Midnightsong
Kaden bolted for them, holding one hand out, as if it would stop them. “What are you doing? Let them back into their homes!”
The group ignored him and swam past, but one sentinel stopped to appraise him briefly. She passed by him, saying, “We’re under orders from King Saeryn to relocate them.”
“You cannot force them out of where they live.” Kaden followed.
The sentinel floated in front of him. “Why should we listen to you, traitor prince? I work for the king, not for you.”
The sentinel’s emboldened, impudent statement stopped Kaden cold, and his jaw fell open. He knew he wasn’t loved. He heard the whispers when mer thought he wasn't around. But this was the first time someone had the audacity to snap at him face-to-face. The sentinel paid him no further mind, and vanished into the dark, presumably to join the rest of her group.
By the black depths, Kaden cursed.
He changed course, heading in the direction to where the citizens and sentinel had gone.
Fatigue set in when he picked up speed, but he forced himself through it.
They were going toward the surface. Why would Saeryn order that? Kaden stopped for a break, gills opening and closing as he sucked in water to oxygenate himself. Was that why mer were going missing? What if humans were catching them? How long had this been going on for under his nose?
The sentinel stopped at forty fathomspans and ushered them into a cave. “You’ll be safe in here. Stay until we give you orders to return.” He eyed the mer family and Kaden with a scrutinizing gaze. “Or I suppose you can leave. King Saeryn only wants you to be somewhere safe, wherever that might be.” He swam off.
The mermaid tried to swim out, two merlings at her hips, but her lifemate, carrying a third merling, grabbed her arm with his free one. “Where are we going to go? They’ve taken over our village; we can’t go back now.”
No, they were too close to the surface where there might be human activity. Did Saeryn truly wish for the citizens’ safety, or remain under the guise that he did?
He approached the family, still at the entrance of the cave. “A word?”
The mermaid exchanged a look with her lifemate and the two children clinging to the proximal part of her tail. She nodded at him to continue.
He had to find them shelter somewhere safer. He couldn’t leave them there alone where they were prone to encountering humans and without a home after they’d been forced out of theirs.
“There’s somewhere you can go. Much safer than here.” Kaden motioned for them to follow.
The family exchanged a nervous glance and the merman leaned in to speak to the mermaid. Kaden hung back, not wanting to invade their privacy. He still caught slivers of their conversation, mostly from the merman’s harried, furious voice.
“How can we trust him? He betrayed his own people. What if he’s luring us to the landwalkers? For all we know, he might already be betraying our location to them.”
Inadvertently, Kaden rounded his shoulders and faced the sandy seafloor. The words cut him as if a sharp piece of coral sliced through his skin.
Finally, the mermaid’s voice rose above her lifemate’s. “I trust him. It’s better than being left to fend for ourselves.” She cast a sideways glance at the merman, her eyes glinting like emeralds.
“Where are we going?” one of the merlings, a young merboy spoke up, once they were away from the caves.
“There’s a group of caves my brother and I used to play in as children. It’s empty. You’ll be safe there, it’s far enough from the palace and your village,” Kaden replied.
“Can we invite others? Half our village was displaced,” the merman spoke up.
Kaden’s heart constricted. “Of course. There’s space for three families to stay comfortably.” Fatigue attacked him again, a burning soreness in his tail. He clutched onto the portion of sea stack, giving himself a pull so he could glide for a short time. His plan had been to talk to Saeryn again, but perhaps he should turn his mind to taking the throne. If it led to less casualties, he would and he’d find a way to make his people trust him again. If they could achieve peace with the humans, all the better.
Most importantly, it would lead to him being able to keep Angie safe, keep her from being attacked or killed by the mer.
Even if he would never be able to take her as his queen and his posture wilted at the thought. Perhaps if it was three hundred tidesyears ago, she could be. There was a human-mer ruler once, but since the genocide, the laws were changed to forbid human rulers.
Kaden reached his landmark for the caves; a peculiar group of perfectly spherical rocks arranged in a triangle. He stopped before it, raking his gaze over the opening.
He ushered the family into the cave’s open, welcoming maws, and mused at the uninhabited cave as they entered. It was smaller than he remembered, but of course, he and Cyrus were also much smaller the last time they were there. It felt like a lifetime ago that the two laughed and hid there from the palace sentinels, playing make-believe sentries and sentinels. They took turns being sentries, the scouts and observers, and sentinels, the fighters.
Thinking of Cyrus caused his heart to skip a beat. Would he one day be well enough to bring Libbi and Hadrien here?
The family moved ahead of him, passing him with a quick nod of thanks, and explored the interior. Their young son stayed behind, waving fervently at Kaden. “Thank you, thank you! People say you’re a bad mer, but you’re not. You’re nice!”
