Page 68 of Midnightsong
“Oh, yes.” Kaden followed Adrielle down the winding hallways to their chambers. Raina left the room with a mermaid and a merman when they entered, greeting each other in passing. “Who are they?”
“Raina brought in some support staff to ensure Cyrus gets the best care. She was orienting them today, and they will start rotating out. I fear his condition is only minimally improving.” Despondency laced her tone and Kaden placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s too much for only her to provide care for him.”
To his surprise, Cyrus was out of his usual seat and making a listless swim to his and Adrielle’s hammock across the room, where he all but collapsed in it and faceplanted, his arms and tailfins lagging and then settling next to him. Libbi was following him, short arms waving about. “Dada! Dada! Stop!”
“Cyrus!” Adrielle gasped, and she passed Hadrien’s hand to Kaden’s, before darting to her lifemate. “Why are you moving? You’re going to make yourself worse!”
“I only wanted to see if I could do it,” Cyrus ground out, turning his head enough to speak clearly. “I’m tired of not moving all day. My tail hurts. My arms hurt. I’m losing muscle because I’ve barely moved in over two tidesyears. Another tidesyear and I’ll sink to a heap on the seafloor and join the haichongs.”
Kaden stared at his brother. In his position now, he looked very much like a haichong in his hammock.
He tightened his grip around Hadrien’s hand, and led him to the table, where stone bowls full of kelp and seaweed and sea fruits sat encased in clawed protrusions, beneath a removable, heavy stone covering.
“You will not sink and join the haichongs, you dramatic merman. If you don’t listen to the healers and stay still, you’re going to slow down your recovery. Now stay there and don’t move anymore. We’ll bring your food to you.” Adrielle scolded him the way Kaden and Cyrus’ mother did when they were caught doing something they shouldn’t have been.
Kaden removed one of the stone tops from a bowl of spiced seaweed and took a handful to Cyrus. “Here, brother."
Cyrus grunted. “I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat.” Adrielle sounded positively exasperated. “Even a little bit.”
“Fine.” Cyrus swiped the seaweed from Kaden’s hand and took a bite.
Hadrien and Libbi swam to their father, floating above him and giving him more strands of seaweed and kelp, eating some for themselves along the way.
Adrielle swam beside Kaden while he nibbled on a delectable, candied red algae. “You believed the nice things Saeryn said to you?” she started, not giving Kaden a chance to finish eating his algae handful.
“He made me feel better when I was down on myself.” Kaden didn’t understand why he was so quick to defend Saeryn when the merman had lied to him repeatedly, but he needed a sympathetic ear, and Saeryn was the only one who gave it to him, sincere or not. Not making eye contact wasn’t something to worry about, he convinced himself. Saeryn must have been distracted by the myriad of other issues on his mind.
“What about the other things he’s done?” Adrielle’s eyes held an erupting volcano. “For one, he’s dismissed nearly all Serapha and Aqilus’ staff at this point. And he’s making plans toretaliateagainst the humans instead of seeking answers from them.”
Kaden flinched at her accusatory tone but stayed silent while she continued.
“He spoke to six citizens in total when the collective mer have proven their distrust and anger toward you. He conveniently does not consult our council before making decisions like murdering human divers on sight, or preventing mer from going near the surface, and he barely holds court for our citizens.”
“He’s done it twice,” Kaden muttered.
“Twice,” Adrielle repeated, her expression aghast. “Twice in nearly two tidesmonths. You were the one who told me that. The people are unhappy their king is so inaccessible.”
Kaden was running out of ways to defend his uncle. But it was Adrielle’s next note that grabbed his attention.
“You’ve talked to Aiereka recently, yes? You have not noticed how she has been?”
“What do you mean how she has been? She looks like someone who’s busy with schooling and her extracurriculars.” Kaden folded his arms over his chest. “What are you getting at?”
“She respects her father on the outside. That I got from the rare moments I’ve seen her. But I have the niggling feeling things are much different behind closed doors.”
“Adrielle, with all due respect, I know you’ve never liked him, but we don’t need to be dragging him through the trenches.”
“Since I met him at our first family dinner, he rubbed me the wrong way. I cannot put a fin on it though.” She looked thoughtful.
“I’ll talk to him after this.” After all, Saeryn had been so calm and understanding the last time they spoke. Perhaps being king for some time now had mellowed him, and he was returning to the uncle from Kaden’s childhood.
“I don’t know what that will help.” Adrielle grunted, reaching for a small handful of kelp and chewing off half of it. Kaden chalked her irritation to simply being under stress, and the two had the rest of their dinner in silence.
Kaden knocked on Saeryn’s bedchamber door. Though for the time he seemingly convinced Adrielle there was a rational explanation for Saeryn’s behavior, he needed to have an honest discussion with him and see if there was any truth in Adrielle’s concerns.
“Who calls?” Saeryn’s muffled voice filtered through his thick door.
