Page 96 of Midnightsong
Thank the Goddess it was enough for them, as they made their way to the surface afterward.
“I didn’t expect to find you feeding dujiaojings.” He recognized Adrielle’s voice in an instant, and he faced her.
“I didn’t expect to feed them either. They were going for our yu.” Kaden waved his hand in the sanctuary’s general direction.
“We’ve been getting a lot of them around the palace lately. And shayu.” Adrielle’s expression was grim, her tail flicking back and forth, index finger on her chin.
“What brings you around here?” Kaden raised an eyebrow. “Did something happen to my brother?”
“No.” She coupled the word with a vehement shake of her head. “But he asked me to check on you. We know you were trying to stop Saeryn with the attack.”
“Oh.” He glazed his fingers over his abdomen, where the gelatinous bandage had finally come off. “I’m alright, thank you. I wasn’t hurt. I was on my way to the Northwest Villages to get some information on my uncle.”
“Why’s that?” Adrielle asked.
“I talked to the council. If we find evidence he committed a crime, it’s one way to get him off the throne.”
Adrielle reached out and put a hand on his forearm. “We’re proud of you for your initiative. As always, let us know if you need anything.” She pulled her hand away, and Kaden gave her a firm nod of affirmation.
“I will. Here’s hoping I can find some information from the mer who lived around him.”
“I hope so too.” Adrielle darted backward an inch. “I must get back to Libbi and Hadrien. They’re due for their feeding soon. I spent much longer looking for you than I thought.” Her tail stiffened.
Kaden bowed his head. “I’ll see you—”
Adrielle had already gone, the tips of her caudal fins vanishing into the dark, and Kaden folded his arms over his chest. “Then I suppose I’ll go now,” he said to nobody in particular.
He left the sanctuaries, and continued on his way, swimming over a seamount range, pacing himself, and stopping and resting when his muscles and joints complained.
He traveled two seamiles until endless, bottomless trenches stretched out before him like a winding tunnel—the only way forward to Saeryn’s village.
His uncle, like the rest of the royal family and noblemer, lived in the outermost village, where it was quieter and less congested.
To his left, a group of giant haichong congregated around an unidentifiable carcass, feasting on its remains. He wrinkled his nose. The bugs never failed to make his skin crawl. Their size, the way they slithered across the seafloor, shooting out from the dark like surprise visitors nobody wanted.
Kaden peered into the fathomless depths. No sign of life or movement, only pitch-blackness.
Consternation bloomed in his chest and Kaden bit the inside of his cheek.
A bright light shone overhead, and shielding his eyes, Kaden glanced up.
Another human submarine hovered with the same letters, MDRT. Who were they?
Taking in a long swallow of water and letting it filter through his gills to work up the nerve, he descended into the trenches, far from the submarine.
Forty-Two
Kaden
The darkness was stifling, even forhim. It bore down on his back, enveloped him in it like an overprotective parent’s too-tight embrace. The trenches felt like they would never end and he kept paddling forward.
A vent hissed when he passed it and he jolted, the black plumes grazing his cheeks. It was the lashing of a haihuangfeng’s–or sea wasp, in human terms–tentacles, and Kaden clenched his jaw, his shoulders jerking upward.
Glints of ivory and light yellow caught his eye, and he balked at the sight below him. Scattered bones littered the floor, some in full view, others half-buried—ribs, skulls, spines, and a smattering of leg bones.
He imagined they had been dormant there for at least two tidesyears—from their last war. Kaden slowed, hovering above them, and his emotions played tug-of-war. Whether to feel sorry the humans had been dragged into a watery grave, particularly if some were innocent casualties. Or hatred that they brought this on themselves for stealing their resources, and for the brutal torture and massacre they inflicted on his people, many of them civilians.
Another gulp of seawater and he quelled the rising anger. He wouldn’t become like his mother and leave a path of destruction in his wake.
