Chapter 14
AYA
“What in the trenches do you mean ‘you don’t know where the twilight market is?’” Aya demanded when at last, panting, they reached the edge of the city limits. “I thought you’d been there before!”
It had been a very long night. The inner city of Atlantis was a veritable caddis nest of streets, towering estates, air domes, and gaudy houses of the arts, making it impossible to navigate without practice. Both Kai and Aya knew more about the back alleys of Atlantis than the half-blind palace night shift. Disappearing into the winding streets and seaweed beds had been a matter of course. Kai had gotten the chief’s contingent off their tails in the first few minutes; however, not half an hour later, the waters of the whole kingdom had stirred in the precursors to an unnatural storm.
There was no doubt the guards had reported her alleged kidnapping to the high king. Aya could feel her father’s anger in the riptides that hunted them through the city, snapping driftwood signs, and uprooting seaweed strands around the path of their escape. Without Kai’s strength to pull her through the currents, or his ability to see through the churning waters, she would have been dragged back to the palace as easily as flotsam caught in a whirlpool before they’d even made it to the city’s outer rings. The fact that Kai had been able to take her halfway across the kingdom to the reef’s edge in one night, despite the obstacles, was both comforting and concerning. Yes, it spoke well of Kai’s strength, but even he shouldn’t have been able to fight currents summoned by the bident of the high king. Her father was getting weaker, and she could feel it.
“The twilight market is an offshoot of the Depths’ territory. Didn’t you wonder why your father was having such a hard time getting a hold of Cetus when he sent courtship messengers?” Kai panted, his pale face flushed with purple blotches once they’d finally exited the reach of Titus’ storm.
Their swimming had slowed to a crawl, Kai still tugging Aya behind him. Her arm was sore from the buffeting and pulling, but she was far too tired to let go. At last free from the buildings, businesses, and farms, Kai navigated them toward an open reef, where stone and coral formed natural arches, and there would be plenty of hidden alcoves safe for rest.
Picturing what her geography instructors had taught them about the other kingdoms, Aya couldn’t recall much at all about the Depths. The palace tutors didn’t emphasize the location of the Depths as much as the types of creatures that were down there—and those creatures were used to fuel the nightmares of mer-children and keep them in bed at night. Realizing she’d never questioned what was really true or false about the seventh of her father’s fief kingdoms, Aya couldn’t help feeling stupid.
“No,” Aya answered Kai simply, embarrassed. Truth be told, she hadn’t paid attention to the courtship messengers at all.
Kai grunted, unsurprised. “It’s not exactly a shock that Titus won’t teach you a witches’ tale…”
Aya winced. Kai was usually so careful never to mention Aya’s father. Aya knew her father’s laws made things difficult for Kai and the other cecaelia, but it was very rare moments like these, glimpses of his tone and expression, open criticism of his rule, that gave her glimpses into how much he hated him.
“If you don’t know where it is, and if most of the merfolk in the palace don’t know where it is, then how do we find it in three days?” she asked more bluntly.
At last selecting one of the few spots free of anemones and urchins, Kai drifted them down onto a rocky protrusion covered from view by one of the larger stone archways. It was illuminated only by faint shafts of light filtering down from the distant city, but it was enough to see a short distance into the blue and black that loomed in every direction away from the city. Around them, sea ferns swayed gently in the slow current, providing cover.
Aya sank onto the rock with a grateful sigh.
“The way starts beyond the dropoff.”
“Starts?” she moaned, pulling her fingers from his grasp.
A shoal of silver fish darted by, drawing his attention.
“Aya, the location of the kingdom of the Depths has been hidden for centuries. Whatever the tutors told you about who lives there, it’s all probably true. In fact, it’s probably all worse. There are reasons it’s hidden.”
“Reasons?”
He ran a hand through his hair with a huff. “How to put this…Imagine you’re a king, and there's a certain quota of trouble that you have to deal with from every class. From the nobles, its politics and treachery. From the merchants, greed and treachery. From farmers, it’s territorial disputes and treachery—”
“Are you going to tell me the working class is involved in treachery, as well?”
“I’m a worker currently involved in a princess kidnapping, so yes.”
She nodded. “Alright, I’m a king, and I have a bad case of treachery. Go on.”
“Yes, your majesty,” he gave her a mock bow. “Considering you run a kingdom of treacherous citizens, all plotting to overthrow each other for survival and the general fun of it, now throw in the idea that your people might have access to every kind of magic. To creatures who seem put in this great ocean for the soul purpose of scaring guppies, hatchlings, and the occasional grown merman. Say that it becomes some right of passage for every young idiot to try and get to this kingdom, and strike bargains with these creatures, in exchange for advantages here above?”
Aya tapped her tail on the rocks, and stared into the waving sea-fans a moment.
“I would have petitions for rescue parties to this kingdom every other week, which would be a political nightmare. Tax-payers don’t want to pay a king who doesn’t keep them safe….”
“And?” Kai prompted approvingly.
“And, I’d eventually have to deal with a kingdom overrun with magic and creatures, possibly at a pace that I couldn’t control.”
Kai tapped her nose with one finger. “There you are. One of the reasons for the purges in Atlantis, for the ostracization of the Kuroshio, for the lack of contact with the Arctic, and for magical exile in the Aegean, is all the same. Control.”
She cocked her chin at him. “So why do you somewhat know how to get to the twilight market?”
“Like I said, the market is just an offshoot of the Depths. I have no doubt that each of the kingdom’s rulers have some idea of how to get there, which is how messages can travel to Cetus. The thing is that no one kingdom can exist completely cut off from the others. Likely the market is full of Cetus’ spies who act as a filter for supplies and refugees who are able to travel in and out.”
Aya chewed on her lower lip. “Refugees?”
Kai had gone back to studying the fish. “Lots of sea witches left the kingdom when your father announced the purges, Aya,” he said softly. “The city watch was indiscriminate in who they tested for magic, and they did it with Titus’ bident.”
Aya scoffed, brushing her arm against his. “That’s not funny, Kai. There are lots of ways to test for magic. My father wouldn’t have had the time to do it personally.”
Kai stopped breathing.
“They didn’t tell you? No… no, of course they didn’t.”
“The purges were just for people who didn’t have a magic license living in the borders,” Aya said, giving him what was supposed to be a soothing smile. “It was supposed to be for business. You know, to help them as much as it helped the census.”
“Anyone suspected to have strong magic was tested personally by your father, Aya,” Kai said softly. “I saw a lot of them being escorted in. Old mermaids. War veterans. And then, some were just hatchlings. They would have taken Krill in as well were it not for Cirrina.”
“And like I said, that’s impossible,” Aya insisted, her fins twitching agitatedly. “No one can touch the bident without royal blood, and magic. It would give you a heart attack if you did. You’d die.”
He stared at her, blinked, and then looked away.
“The purges were a paperwork trail. Nothing more. Well, maybe some banishments were issued for the illegals…” she trailed off.
Kai wasn’t saying anything, only staring at her with a mixture of sadness and relief.
“You didn’t know, then….” he murmured. “How many others didn’t…?”
She cleared her throat, unwilling to argue with Kai, and terrified that he was about to say something that would prove his claims beyond doubt. If what he was saying was true—and it wasn’t—then she would be desperately furious with her father, and with herself for being so blind. Before she could spiral into wondering what her ‘friends’ in the reefs really thought of her for her blood ties to the royal family, she gripped her fingers so hard that her nails bit into her palms. One desperate situation per day, thank you very much.
“You were talking about getting there,” she reminded.
Kai snapped back into himself much the same way she had, by clenching his fists, and focusing on what what right in front of him, which for now, was her.
“There were clues left behind for cecaelian refugees who wanted to find the market. I think some of the sea witches even go there on the regular for ingredients. Cirrina used to…”
“That’s great! Cirrina told you where it is?” she said with faux-brightness.
“I know the path starts just beyond the dropoff.”
Her fins fell to her sides, and she caught a sea fan that blew into her face, almost ripping it out by the roots in her panic.
“We have a trailhead that leads into the trenches?”
He nodded.
“The trenches off of the dropoff—right at the start of squid season, that leads into a kingdom filled with worse things than Archeteuthis squid?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Now she’s understanding,” he muttered, using one tentacle to flick a piece of sea fan out of his own hair. “We don’t need to reach the depths, just its filtering village that will be plenty cut off from the actual thing. All of the peddlers, magic, and hopefully, a cure, should be there.”
“Oh, just that, then,” she said flatly. “I’m doomed, aren’t I? I suppose if this is the family I come from, then it was always coming.”
Kai rolled his eyes, and pulled himself up off the rock. “If you have the energy to mope, then you’re clearly ready for more swimming.”
She ignored him.
“—In fact, there are all the precursors of doom. We have a curse, an impossible time limit, half the ocean is going to be after us by sunrise, and I can’t imagine Cirrina is too happy with your disappearance either, so add one annoyed sea witch into the mix.”
Kai offered her his hand in an imitation of an invitation to dance. Distracted, she barely noticed when she took it; it was just like every other time she’d gone through that motion.
Kai gently pulled her up to speed, heading for the edge of the reefs.
“Oh, and I forgot, come sunrise, you’ll be fighting me, too! I’ll be head over heels for a spoiled, randy, psychopathic eel!”
“What, is that all? Where’s my cheery princess?”
As Kai led her further along the rocky archways and lingering bits of reef, the dropoff menaced into view. Both were careful to keep even a fin from crossing the border-lines back into Atlantis where Titus’ currents would sense them.
“Don’t call me that,” she grumped at the back of Kai’s head, following as best she could. “What about Cirrina, Kai? You don’t think she’d help the guards track us?”
“Cirrina has other things to deal with for the next few days—at least, she had better,” Kai said darkly enough that Aya didn’t pry further. “As for helping the guards? There’s not a chance in the trenches.”
Then, Aya didn’t have the breath to question him further as they sped toward the open emptiness of the dropoff.
The dropoff shelf was a dramatic transition from where the lively reefs and rocky structure simply ended, and dropped into a nearly vertical slope. The familiar light blue hues of the waters she was familiar with deepend into rich shades of indigo and navy as any light left from the setting moon struggled to penetrate open ocean. Far too soon, they were swimming over the lip of an endless chasm, the walls of which would dwarf even the tallest mountains on land.
Something about this place made her feel small and weak, and desperate not to be spotted. A cold shiver rippled down her spine and tail when they reached the edge, as the first tendrils of icy waters reached her scales. Instinctively, she shrunk closer to Kai’s warm torso, wondering how he could be so unaffected, when a dark thought occurred to her.
“Kai, I’m a mermaid,” she said, quieter than necessary. They were, afterall, completely alone out here.
Kai barked a surprised laugh that echoed oddly over the empty water. The water before them swallowed sound as well as it did light. “Yes, I’d noticed. Something about the tail gives it away. The tail, the fins, the talent for cheek.” He poked the side of her face with one of his tentacles.
Aya found herself rolling her eyes at him in an impetuous fashion.
“No, I mean, I’m a mermaid. I can’t survive in deep water. Even if we knew where to go, the pressure would kill me.” She put a hand to her ribs, her breath speeding up at the thought of miles of water crushing her, if the oxygen imbalance didn’t do it first.
“Oh, do calm down, Aya. That’s the least of our problems.” Kai didn’t hold himself back from an eyeroll. “Yes, there is a way for you to get to the depths. It’d be pretty hard for Titus to marry off his daughter to its king if there wasn’t a way for her to live there.”
Kai was right. Sephina had an engagement contract already written up with King Cetus.
“The ambassador from the depths had to drink a potion just to come up so far from the surface—and,” she recalled aloud, “he had to keep drinking it throughout the ball. There’s no way we could find ingredients to brew something out here, though…”
As she stared into the abyssal blackness, her gills were finding it harder to take in water. If Kai hadn’t pulled her back to his side, she might have stopped breathing altogether.
“I’m going to get suffocated and crushed, and then eaten by the monsters—”
There, Kai really did laugh. “Monsters? What have they been teaching you in the palace? I said the depths were dangerous, Aya, not mythical.”
She squirmed against the side of his vest enough to glare up at him.
“Okay, o great master of magic. How do you plan on getting us down there?”
Kai raised one lofty silver brow. “I’ll have you know, it wasn’t a potion the ambassador was drinking, although he certainly didn’t have to drink it all night. He’d have been fine with a taste or a breath of it, and that should have lasted him the whole next day. I suspect he was doing that to be dramatic.”
“You think he wanted everyone to think his journey was much harder than it was.”
“Quite possibly,” said Kai, looking impressed. “And, don’t worry, any cecaelian can get to the depths. It’s really the last safe haven for us.”
Aya’s heart twinged a bit at that.
“I will change that someday,” she promised without thinking, but even she didn’t know if that promise really held water.
Of her sisters she held the least power in the palace, and the thought that she would someday be able to change anything for real would have been laughable to anyone else, but Kai only accepted her claim with a solemn:
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“—If I’m not in love with a sodding eel,” she amended.
“And I will change that,” he vowed with equal conviction.
“Right, well, I’m still not cecalean,” she said, swimming closer again and nudging him with her elbow, “so if you want to get rid of me, there are easier ways. How are we getting down there?”
Kai made an odd puckering expression, and then blew a stream of black ink into the water from his mouth. Aya coughed when the dark cloud hit her face, swatting at him annoyedly, but Kai dodged and fixed her with a mischievous grin.
“Did you just spit on me?”
“Cecaelean ink will let your body adapt to any pressure, and let you breathe—and as long as you have me near you, it’s in relatively infinite supply. You should react to the pressures with as much natural protection as I do.”
“And here I thought it was only good for binding dubious magical contracts,” she cleared her throat, her gills struggling a moment with the black water, but as she breathed it in, her body warmed, and she grew more comfortable, and even without entering the pressured water, she already felt lighter.
“I’ll have you know it’s good for all sorts of dubious things,” said Kai, observing her progress with some satisfaction.
At last, she smiled with him, and he let go of her entirely. On her own initiative, she leaned over the edge of the dropoff. Even with the new warmth surging through her veins, the looming darkness was intimidating, and she found herself edging back toward Kai. He was the only other thing besides her in the vast, open expanse. Something about the gaping trench reminded her of a colossal jawbone, ready to swallow her up.
“Let’s go,” she breathed.
“I thought I’d find you two here,” growled a voice from the arching reefs.
Kai rounded on Adin much more calmly than Aya did.
“Adin, how did you find us?” Aya took in Adin’s irritable scowl, and official regalia.
He’d chased them in the full uniform of her father’s dayguard, complete with the green tunic of the Atlantean palace, protective breastplate and pauldrons, and a narrow spear the length of one of Kai’s tentacles. He wasn’t pointing the weapon at them—but only just. Adin’s eyes were red-rimmed from too much salt exposure, and exertion.
“Just let her go, Kai” Adin snarled so viciously that Aya jumped back in confusion. She’d never seen Adin this angry. “And for that matter,” Adin continued, picking up speed in his rant. “Why didn’t you just call for the guards, Princess Ayalina? I would have come? Do you know how easy it would have been to keep anyone you didn’t want around from approaching you? We could have come! I could have come. All you had to do is shout! You didn’t have to go and get kidnapped!”
“I wasn’t kidnapped, Adin,” Aya scoffed in disbelief. Adin knew her. He knew Kai! “You think that Kai would kidnap me?”
“I think Kai would do a lot of things,” Adin said dangerously.
“I’m swimming here telling you that he didn’t! He’s helping me, Adin!”
“There you go, you’ve heard it from the princess, herself,” said Kai, holding his hands up. He was still, even-toned, and controlled in the face of Adin’s rage.
“I also heard you announce in front of hundreds of witnesses, just hours ago, that you were excited for your engagement! What’s this change of heart? So soon? It’s suspicious,” Adin growled. “Aya, just come with me, and I’ll return you to the palace. You can explain to the others what happened, and they’ll call off the hunt. If we both vouch, then maybe Kai can get off easy.”
With that, Adin made a grab for Aya’s arm and tried to pull her away, but Kai quickly moved in front of her.
Adin lowered his spear toward Kai.
“I really don’t want to fight you, Kai, but I will.”
“I’m not being kidnapped,” Aya repeated from behind Kai’s shoulder. “And, I can’t go with you! Kai’s helping me break a curse the prince put on me! We don’t have time for this!”
“You know what I think?” Adin’s hands shook on the spearhandle, but he held its aim true toward Kai’s upper heart. “I think Kai is a mage, and Prince Ellian is from royal blood. If anyone potioned you to change your mind like this, Aya, who do you think is more likely to have done it?”
“You’re accusing Kai?” Aya was starting to get angry.
“Adin,” Kai growled in front of her. It was a sound that vibrated through his torso under her fingers like a sliding stone. There was something wild about the sound that made Adin and Aya both flinch back. “Be careful what you say. I’ve been patient, but Aya really doesn’t have time for this. Sunrise comes any minute, and the prince’s spell takes hold again. We have to go.”
Aya saw something steely and unfamiliar flash in Adin’s expression, and the only warning for his actions was the grip he tightened on his spear.
Adin lunged for Kai’s chest, who neatly dodged, jerking Aya away with him.
Adin let out a scream of frustration and swam for him again, faster this time. Aya gasped as Kai shoved her out of the way. Then, he caught the weapon and swatted Adin away as easily as if he were redirecting an errant salmon.
“If that blow had landed, you would have skewered through me, and Aya, too,” he said, his voice low and quiet. While I don’t think there’s a chance of you getting through me, I don’t like risks, Adin,” Kai said again. It was a warning—one that Adin ignored.
He ripped the spear out of Kai’s hand and lunged for him again. Aya stifled a gasp. Kai, however, hardly had to move. One of his tentacles shot out to grip the spear, inches before it could graze his skin, and another caught Adin around the waist. With a sleek flick that hardly seemed to cost him any effort, Kai flung Adin over the edge of the dropoff into an unseen current.
“Aaagh!”
Before Aya had the time to breathe again, Adin was being dragged down into the murky darkness below.
She stared after him, dumbstruck.
“What was that?” she stuttered.
Kai tilted his head, as though it were obvious.
“Our trailhead.”
The trailhead is a violent magical current, she thought. Okay.
“He is your guard. I’m sure he doesn’t mind scouting ahead,” Kai said, following her gaze.
“I saw the blue lines show up when the current took him, but they’ve all disappeared. I can’t see any magic there, now. How did you know that current was there?” Aya said quietly, still staring at the spot where Adin had disappeared.
“I didn’t,” said Kai.
Folding her arms over her blouse, Aya willed her glaze to do the scolding for her.
“I guessed,” he amended. “I did say I knew where to start, yes?”
“Right,” she said with a shaky laugh. “Let’s find Adin.”
“Let’s find you a cure.”
Kai fastened her to him with one arm before the current could take them, gentlemanly enough to protect her face and eyes from the pounding waters. Together, they entered the current, and let it spin them downward, sucking them down into the blackness.