Page 16 of Of Songs and Silence

I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising considering the home I was raised in. Mother surrounded herself and our chateau with beautiful, deadly things.Sands, she raised my sisters to be just that as well.

Still, I can’t help but stare in wonder at the world that unfolds around me. Vast orchards of sea-fruits and vegetable farms line the seafloor. There are dense forests of plant life as tall as the palm trees back home and gardens with glowing flowers and sea grass.

I never could have imagined what it would be like to live in the water, what life lurked just beneath the surface of the waves. How many amazing things there were to discover.

Of course, as the time passes, a bit of the wonder does, too, crushed by the weight of my mounting fatigue.

We swim for what feels like days, though the men assure me that it has been far less than even a single hour. The soreness in my muscles says otherwise, but my suggestion that time flows differently beneath the water is quickly shot down.

My temples are throbbing, my aching head and body trying to keep up with the instruction Ari tries to drill into me. Between swimming lessons and never-ending information on the deadly flora and fauna of the sea, I’m struggling to keep up.

When lights appear in the distance, I stop swimming all together.

At first I think it’s another reef, but I quickly realize it’s so much more.

Ari spins around as we draw closer.

“There is a village ahead,” he says, gesturing behind him. “I would tell you to try to blend in—”

“But that will be impossible.” Kane chuckles, though the sound is without humor.

“You need to put on a show of strength,” Ari continues. “The people will likely acknowledge you in some form. Don’t engage them.”

He waits for me to nod at that dubious order, ignoring the questions he no doubt hears swirling in my mind. Why will they acknowledge me? Would that be true if I were anyone?

“Our people pounce on any perceived weakness,” Ari continues. “You need to make at least a show of it, or you will not survive here.”

I’m not an idiot. I can surmise that the king would punish him for his failure to keep me alive, but I could swear there’s something more in Ari’s voice than fear for his own sake when he speaks of my survival like a tenuous thing.

Still it grates at me, the way he expects me to cower at every threat on my life when I spent my childhood in the shadow of fear.

“Something new and different for me, then,” I say dryly.

He glowers at me. “This isn’t a joke, Kala.”

But Kane lets out a light laugh. “You have to admit it’s getting fairly tiresome.”

Ari’s blue-green gaze darts between us and he shakes his head.

“It will be more than tiresome if we don’t get her to the palace in one piece,” Ari mutters with another shake of his head, leading us forward.

The noise grabs my attention first.

Compared to the empty sea, and more than that, to the empty bedroom I spent most of my childhood, this village isloud. Chaotic. Fascinating.

The people are all as varied as the barrier reef surrounding us. Brightly colored hair, eyes, and clothes adorn the Mayima, each of them even more beautiful than the last. Some of them wear the same scaled trousers as Ari and Kane—though the women, I note, do have fitted vests that keep their chests firmly in place. It seems more for practicality than modesty, as they come down in a deep, revealing V.

Kane wasn’t lying, though. Most are dressed like me in outfits made of netting, accented with shells that oftentimes highlight the color of their hair.

My escorts swim protectively at my sides, the three of us making a wide berth down the main roads. It isn’t long before I understand what Ari and Kane meant before. Even without them acting as my armed guards, the people take note of me.

Their eyes widen in shock when they catch sight of me. More than shock, though, is the unmistakable tremor of fear.

For me? Or for the men at my side?

As we get closer, more than one person bows. They nod to the men next to me, folding an arm across their chest, their fist on the opposite shoulder. But they bow to me, and they use that…word. Insult? Name? Something else entirely?

Kala.

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