Chapter 2
AYA
“Adriatta!” Aya darted out from between Adin and Marlin, and threw her arms around her sister’s neck at full swim once they’d entered the palace gates.
In the excitement of seeing her sister returned to Atlantis, it escaped Aya how unusual it was for Adriatta to wait for her beyond the entry guard past dark—alone.
“Oh, and Earl! Brawn!” Open confusion took over Adriatta’s expression as Aya lowered a curtsy in greeting to the two guards, a pair of swordfish posted at the doors. “Stationed outside the gates, now? I didn’t know you’d gotten promoted. Well done!”
The guards kept their blades high in the water at attention, but Aya knew they secretly enjoyed the acknowledgement. So many visitors passed by during the work day as though the guards were just more of the statues that lined the palace gardens. It seemed that Adriatta hadn’t noticed them either. She jumped back from Aya as though she’d been stung when Brawn twitched his blade ever so slightly in acceptance of her greeting.
“Aya!” Adriatta coughed sternly, though not unfriendly when she’d slipped back into her usual composure. Adriatta moved back from Aya, away from the palace, and cast a furtive glance over one shoulder. For the briefest moment, her diamond-brown eyes flashed black, but just as quickly, the shadow was gone, replaced with her usual bright gaze. Flipping her tail with more poise than Aya ever could have managed, Adriatta righted herself just in time to get crashed into a second time by one of Aya’s insistent hugs.
“I missed you!” Aya cried into her neck. “The palace isn’t the same without you.”
“Aya, you’re here! You’re late!”Adriatta’s furtive glances to the guards were quickly smoothed over by her usual distant smile.“Look at you! Your tail! Blue scales all but gone. I always did say you’d go red like me.”
Self-consciously, Aya hid the last of the blue on the end of her fins by curling her tail ever so slightly away from her sister. Though he was looking straight ahead like a good guard, she was overtly aware that Adin was nearby and watching. Even if he felt like a brother to her, it was still embarrassing. The blue in her scales and tail was the last of what was left of her hatchling camouflage. While all of her elder sisters had all changed into their adult scales, for some reason the vestiges of Aya’s childhood still clung fast. Seline and Sephina knew better than to mention the problem to her, but Adriatta had been gone for so long…Even the palace physicians were baffled as to why the hatchling stain had lasted so long, and Aya was beginning to wonder if she would forever be marked as the palace child.
“Ahem,” Marlin cleared his throat behind them. “Princesses. Your father will have my shell for a serving bowl if Ayalina is any later for the summons.”
“Right, you’re late! Father’s been looking for you, and the planning’s nearly finished.” Adriatta exclaimed, and grabbed Aya’s hands to tug her through the palace main doors and toward the throne room.
It didn’t occur to Aya to ask what ‘planning’ Adriatta was talking about. Swimming next to her sister, in her regal gown and pearl-trimmed regalia, she was being starkly reminded that the clothes she’d made to blend in with the outer reef, made her stand out badly in the palace. She was travel-worn, and underdressed. She bit her lip as she examined her blouse.
Was that a tear under her ribs? And not one of the boys or Marlin had deigned to say anything? No wonder Adin refused to look at her!
Aya fidgeted free of Adriatta’s grip.
“Do I have time to change? It’s just, it’s really late at night, just now, and I’m not sure if—”
If father knows I’ve been out of the palace so late, she didn’t say. And I’m dressed like the reef-dwellers. And I’m indecent!
“Not tonight, Princess Ayalina,” Marlin answered quite firmly.
Adriatta was also shaking her head. “You should see him sooner than later. Ezra saw him earlier today, and said that things went quite well. It’s good news, Aya. Don’t fret and just go.”
Marlin made a small strangled sound next to her, but just as quickly hid it with a cough.
It was subtle, but Aya noticed. Marlin had been oddly quiet on the swim back. It had taken them all day to swim back from the outer reef back to the inner city, and even longer to reach the palace. Aya had pinned his silence on breathlessness. However, there was something strange about the way he wouldn’t meet her eye, and several times he’d opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing ever came out. In fact, these were the first real words he’d said to her since they’d left Shipwreck Valley.
Marlin coughed again, clearing his throat with more drama than necessary. Adriatta shot him a fond look, but Aya’s concern was growing. What kind of good news had to be discussed in the middle of the night?
“Aherm-herm-herm! Is your father still in the throne room, Queen Adriatta?”
Adriatta tutted gently. “Marlin, you don’t need to call me that. It’ll take away the nostalgia of being home.”
“I am coming to realize that one must accept the duties that come with new roles…and titles,” Marlin said wearily.
“You’ll always be our nanny-turtle, Marlin,” Aya teased.
“Then you’ll both listen when I say come along!” Marlin harrumphed and lead them a little faster down the nearly-empty hallways.
Giggling and clinging to Adriatta’s hand, Aya followed along. Usually, Aya would have made her way back into the palace through the servants’ corridors to avoid unnecessary attention, but tonight, she entered through the main doorways in full aire of her royal title.
“There are still servants awake? Shouldn’t everyone but the night guard be asleep?”
“They are probably still… getting ready,” Adriatta said, smiling as though she knew some secret.
“What?” Aya tried to get a better look at Adriatta’s face.“Do you know what this is about?”
Adriatta only pulled forward faster. “Not yet,” she said. “Not for sure.”
Deeper into the palace, they encountered more staff, and though it wasn’t nearly the amount of life Aya would see in the daytime, plenty of fish and merfolk were still darting about by the light of glowing green lamps. Colorful schools of tropical fish darted through the water, carrying messages and tiny parcels between rooms. Graceful manta rays kept their traffic high overhead with heavier parcels, which seemed primarily heading to the kitchens.
More food, more mouths to feed. They were expecting more guests, then?
The sea-glass spires and windows up above had been freshly cleaned since that morning, and the moonlight that streamed through the shimmering ceiling made the coral pillars along each wall seem taller. Aya saw cleaner shrimp still polishing the fine details near the floor.
Pink-tipped anemones that both guarded and hid side corridors were all in full bloom, and were even letting more than just their designated species through. Aya’s eyes widened when several triggerfish that a particularly grumpy anemone had tried to eat not days before let them pass without so much as a sting.
“Make way!” Adin barked in his young, but authoritative voice. “Make way for Advisor Marlin!”
Aya jumped. Adin hadn’t said a word since the squid attack, and his voice was loud and harsh in her ears. With his help, they approached the closed doors of the throne room, two stoic blowfish watched their approach impatiently, as though itching to announce their arrival.
Aya turned to Adriatta, whose silky dark hair pooled elegantly around her silver dress and dark crimson tail, as she swam. Though their coloring was similar, Aya felt that they couldn’t look more different. Adriatta held herself with usual perfect posture—there could be a hurricane raging outside, and that posture would never falter. Adin’s efforts were focused on keeping Aya and Marlin clear of tangling fins and moving packages, but Adriatta hardly needed his efforts. She swam calmly and confidently through the mass of fish and runners, her presence alone seeming to clear a path for her. Aya was envious, to be sure, but something else panged in her chest. She hardly knew her sister, Adriatta having married before she was born. If only they were closer, perhaps she would spend some time teaching Aya to look like royalty—and then perhaps someday Aya might feel like one. Aya clutched at at Adriatta’s hands, suddenly gripped with an irrational urge to buy a little more time.
“You’ve been gone so long, Adriatta. Are you happy? Do you like your marriage to—to Ezra?” Aya questioned, carefully inspecting Adriatta’s face for any dissatisfaction.
“King Ezra,” Adriatta corrected gently, and suddenly the black rings around her brown irises were back.
Aya pulled back and nearly tripped over a lemon shark toting a pile of rolled vellums in her shock. “Adri. Your eyes. Are you alright?”
Adriatta fixed her with an achingly familiar annoyance. “I’m fine. Aya. And you knew King Ezra’s entourage would come today—or at least, the rest of the palace did. If you don’t pay attention to the currents, you're going to miss things!”
She’d dodged the question. Hm.
Aya opened her mouth to question her sister again, but only bubbles came out when Marlin cut her off. They were already at the doors.
“Ahem,” Marlin cleared his throat behind them. “Princess Ayalina, answering a summons from the High King!”
“Entering Princess Ayalina of Atlantis!” one of the impatient blowfish stationed at the throne room announced as soon as they were in range. The other flung open the door, visibly deflated over the first one having beaten him to the yelling portion of proceedings.
Adriatta squeezed her hand as they entered, but she and Adin both hung back, as though unable to move beyond the doors. Adriatta gave Aya the tiniest of shrugs in response to her questioning look, and mouthed “wait for you,” before the doors closed behind her. Aya couldn’t resist a sly smile, understanding a bit more of why her sister had been waiting so far away from her entourage. Waiting would place her next to the throne room doors where no one could rightly accuse her of eavesdropping.
With only Marlin as her escort, Aya approached her father’s seat.
A small crowd was gathered around the throne dais. Captain Kael and the king’s personal retainer were all present—looking tense—as well as a few high-born nobles—looking bored—and a few armored Kuroshio cecaelia—looking menacing and amused.
She tried not to look at them, and instead focused on the room. Her father. Anything but all of those staring eyes.
The walls had been polished and given another coat of oyster wash. Even at night, it was the brightest place in the palace. Not for the first time, Aya was impressed at the detail that their mosaiced designs displayed. A history of the wars undersea, from the time of Poseidon to present, was depicted in glittering jewels and shells behind looming pillars that led to the throne. The plain stone floor was decorated with an impossibly long rug woven from kelp and creepvine fibers. The color it brought to the room was in stark contrast with the grave expression on her father’s face. Aya cringed. There were shadows beneath her father’s eyes, and a hard line between his brows. And he’d been waiting for her.
Adriatta was right. I should have expected a summons today. How did I miss the arrival of the entire Kuroshio entourage? she berated herself. She hadn’t said a word yet, and already, Aya was mortified.
One might not think that three dozen merfolk was a lot of people, particularly in a room as vast as the Atlantis throne room, but three dozen sets of eyes was enough to make anyone nervous, regardless of room size.
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Aya tried to keep her posture as regal as Adriatta’s as she approached, wishing she’d at least brushed her hair that day. Wishing her shirt hadn’t been torn up by a giant squid. Wishing she was almost anyone else. She held her chin high all the same, even biting back the scowl that tried to twist her lips when she noticed that Ezra was in the room—and in Marlin’s seat, no less. Ezra’s black and brown tentacles spilled over Marlin’s usual perch, and though it seemed far too small for him, he didn’t seem to mind as long as he had proximity to the king.
That arrogant slimy little cod, she thought, though there was nothing ‘little’ about any cecaelia.
Ezra was hardly recognizable from the days when she’d first met him. The old scars on his back, shoulders, and wrists—coward’s scars left over from his turning in the war, had faded, and were hidden by garish chains, amulets, and pendants strung over his chest. His face was paler than usual, and his mien healthy, even for a cecaelia. Aya had no doubt he spent most of his time in the dark caves of his castle in the eastern region. Clearly, marriage to her sister had been good for him, and she felt a curling tendril of annoyance as she wondered if the same could be said for Adriatta.
For the life of her, Aya had never been able to understand how Ezra had come into power. Considering his dwindling population, he certainly hadn’t been doing a very good job. Aya could only assume it had been Adriatta’s influence that had bolstered his kingdom since their marriage—but then again, it might have only been the war reparations that she begged their father to extend so regularly. Not trusting her own face not to give away her disdain, Aya forced herself not to look at him.
“Princess Ayalina,” King Titus addressed her when she’d reached eye level with the throne. “My daughter, perhaps you would have more say in the order of your own festivities were you present for their planning.”
Aya curtsied politely to her father, and then to Ezra, forcing herself to smile diplomatically at the latter. Though a whole shoal of excuses for her lateness flitted through her head, she knew none of them would endear her to her father in front of so many.
“Apologies, father. Thank you for sending advisor Marlin. He delivered me quickly.”
“No matter.” King Titus was stern, though his expression softened considerably as he regarded Aya. A quick glance at Ezra told her that he certainly didn’t think this was ‘no matter,’ and hid a smile from him behind her hair.
“As we’ve already been waiting for your arrival the better part the day we’ll make this brief—” said Titus.
Aya rose from her curtsy, daring a curious glance at Marlin, who had taken a spot by her father’s silver tail. He wasn’t looking at her.
“You and your sisters are expecting suitors for the lunar ball. Your suitor Aya, is the Eel Prince Ellian of the Aegean. I am told he will arrive in Atlantis tomorrow. At that time, formal introductions, and a chaperoned meeting will be arranged by Marlin.”
Aya felt the blood in her tail run bluer than a coldwater loach. The remnant blue at the edge of her fins edged all the way up her tail to her scales. Under the gaze of so many, she wanted nothing more than to have the days of her hatchling camouflage back so she could flee and hide. Her father had said ‘suitors,’ but that word was never used lightly in the palace. This prince was coming to draw up a contract.
“Ah…a suitor, Father?” Aya could hardly breathe past her shock. “For me?”
“Is that a problem for a princess? For one of my daughters?” King Titus said evenly, but from years of experience, Aya caught the warning in his voice.
She’d expected suspicion from her father about her surface-visiting habits at night when she made most of her astronomical charts. Even outright scolding had been possible for her many near-misses with the forbidden territories at the Atlantean borders. In fact, she’d thought that somehow her father already knew about her near-miss with the squid. But this…suddenly things were starting to make sense, and a sense of betrayal pricked her senses. Marlin’s refusal to meet her eye, and Adriatta’s obvious listening at the door. They’d known, and they hadn’t told her! They hadn’t given her time to prepare!
“Not at all, father,” she gulped, scrambling to collect her thoughts. “I’m only surprised, as you see,” she gestured toward the blue tips of her tail, “I would hate to disappoint a prince when he finds out his intended hasn’t fully come of age.”
She was grasping at bubbles with that argument, and she knew it, but she had to try, the words spilling out quickly now.
“And my sisters, Father. Seline and Sephina are older than I. It is their right to wed before me.”
Titus dismissed these protests as soon as she’d voiced them.
“Worry not, my children are born for rule.” Titus said it like an order, as though daring anyone, including herself, to disagree. “Seline and Sephina have their own suitors arriving. Three unions together will demand the full attention of the royal family in the coming week.”
“The coming week…” Aya said aloud. She would miss the eclipse. Her eclipse.
Unbidden, an image of Kai flashed through her mind. What she’d really thought was that she’d had more time to prove that she didn’t need to be before her royal birth caught up with her.
“Will that be a problem, your highness?” It was the first time that Ezra had spoken, and the way he was smiling… Aya didn’t have anything against Ezra personally—except of course the way he was making old marlin hover about the base of the throne like a servant—however, something about that smile was less than friendly. No, it was downright devious.
Aya squared her shoulders, and, ignoring the warning glances from Marlin, spoke again. Afterall, this was her entire future they were talking about! What did she really have to lose?
“Yes,” she said, her own voice uncomfortably loud in the throne room, as every eye, including the guards lining the columns, turned to look at her. It wasn’t every day that someone tried to defy the high king of Atlantis. “Yes,” she repeated. “It will be a problem. One week from today a white eclipse is coming. It will blackout all of the kingdom’s spells—”
“How is this relevant to the upcoming suitor, princess? The high king has given you excellent news. Surely, you cannot be worried that during an event lasting only a few minutes that the bident of Atlantis cannot keep its citizens safe.”
Aya glared. In for a copper…
“That is exactly what I am saying, father,” she made a point of looking her father in the eyes, daring him to defy her. “A white eclipse will undo all of the spells not issued by something the bident. Permanently. Afterward, everything from the current guides to the garden lighting will have to be remade. There couldn’t be a worse time to have out-of-sea guests.”
The bored nobles looked up from where they’d been murmuring and gossiping on the room’s lower levels. That certainly had their attention. Spells and enchantments were expensive, and the thought of undoing all of them was downright dangerous. In the lower reefs, farmers, merchants, and workers would use lesser magic for things like cures for scale-rot, and the occasional wave-cleaning spell. Nobles would be able to afford magic such as giant current-proof windows, and seemingly-impossible towers, air-domes, and other showy feats of construction. Any spelled jewelry, clothing, or even physical enhancements they’d purchased could come apart at the seams—literally.
That thought almost made Aya laugh, as she noticed exactly where the nobles attention had turned, when Ezra spoke up again.
“Impossible,” he stated smoothly. That smug arrogant twist on his lips riled her gills. “Predictions of this sort have been made before. The sea-witches do so to incite panic—”
She grit her teeth. “This prediction wasn’t made by the sea-witches, or with any ulterior motive other than the safety of this kingdom. It was made by me.”
Ezra actually laughed, and to her disbelief, Marlin joined him. Oddly enough, they were both united in something in that moment—diffusing the tension that rose in the water around her as the throne room palpably heated a degree or two as the bident in King Titus’ hand glowed.
Her gaze snapped back to her father, hoping that he, at least, would see the value in the information she’d brought, but any hopes she’d had were quickly dashed.
“Are you admitting, in my throne room, that you have deliberately disobeyed my orders? You have been practicing seer magic?” The king was visibly controlling his displeasure.
It was bad luck that Ezra was there, Aya decided. His questions weren’t exactly out of turn, but each time he spoke, it goaded her father’s frustration. If Aya had been anyone else, he might have thrown her out on her tail that very moment.
“Nothing of the sort, father,” Aya corrected. “The prediction didn’t come from magic. It came from science. From studying the star-patterns. My predictions have been strengthening the kingdom now for years, father—” she paused. This was it. He was letting her speak! She cleared her throat.
“Father, I can be of use. Here. I can strengthen Atlantis by staying here in the city more than I would in any marriage. I’ve already been strengthening its magic for years.”
There it was, her great secret, and her boldest claim. Aya had been wanting for years to tell her father all of the little ways she’d helped the denizens of Atlantis by reading the heavens and all their riddles. She’d sorted out the direction of road currents, and helped direct tainted water into krill fields for cleaning, and disinfected kelp beds before gill-rot could spread. Little things, but her efforts were worth something. They had to be. Because of the gratitude of minor witches, and farmers, and gardeners along the outer reefs, she’d convinced herself that perhaps, she might someday get those reactions from her own family.
“Strengthening the kingdom’s magic?” Titus said dangerously, not a hint of gratitude, or even favor in the hard glare he was leveling at her as he sat forward in the throne. “Assisting the sea-witches? Unlicensed, by your own admission, for years?”
“Imposible,” Ezra repeated, but he was now regarding Aya with something akin to interest—something closer to greed.
Aya was in hot water now, literally. The throne room was growing warm to an uncomfortable degree under his ire.
“Where were you today, Ayalina?” Titus asked bluntly, pulling her from her own swimming thoughts. “Aiding sea-witches?”
If her earlier admission hadn’t garnered the nobles’ attention, Titus anger did, now. If there was anything that caught the court’s attention more than imminent financial danger, it was gossip.
Aya fought to keep her voice steady as she answered. “I was visiting the citizens in the far reef-district near the borders. I bring them food and castaway materials from the palace once a week. I suspect that was how Marlin knew where to find me.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. Her morning had been spent among the citizens in the slums. It was just fortune that those citizens had been Kai and Krill. And it wouldn’t hurt her argument to let her father know, if subtly, that she’d informed her ‘caretaker’ where she would be in advance.
“In the third ring?” King Ezra said quietly. Though his voice was also even, Aya avoided his piercing gaze. “A princess of Atlantis in the third ring?”
“I try to be familiar with all of the rings of my kingdom. There’s only so much one can learn from inside the palace,” Aya met, though she kept her voice carefully respectful under her father’s glare. Her face burned, and not just from the warmth of the water around her.
That was another mistake, however. Titus turned his displeasure on Marlin, the bident glowing in his fist under his irritation.
“What’s this, Marlin?”
Under the scrutiny of the king, the nobles, and now, the guards—who had probably never seen Marlin make a mistake in their lifetimes—Marlin had retreated so far into his shell that the only part of his head still visible was his little turpine nostrils.
It was to her great surprise, then, when Ezra was the one who came to their aid.
“It is a wonder then, that you both made it back so fast,” Ezra said, his voice ringing uncomfortably in the throne room as every head, including the king’s turned to him. “It is a wise ruler who considers all her people. And… a generous one. Perhaps though your actions might have been unrefined in the ways of the court, still—” He moved a sly hand to one of the pendants on his chest, and tilted it so that the light caught it just so. “How rare to see such potential.”
No one else seemed to notice Aya’s stunned reaction, nor Marlin’s suspicious stare. They certainly noticed, however, when the High King extended an unusual decision.
“Your methods will have to be more refined when you ascend in title, Aya,” Titus scolded gently, “but perhaps your interest in the citizens is more organized than I’d thought.”
That shocked Aya as much as the marriage arrangement. The king hadn’t just given her praise. He’d changed his mind. It wasn’t like her father at all.
“Considering that your interests are already in line with running the kingdom at all of its rungs, it seems any other concerns are unfounded. You are more ready than I’d thought. And here we find that you have not only decided to hone a skill, but learned to use it in the domain of your future rule.”
The glow of the bident dimmed as Titus grip on its shaft relaxed. The room cooled down, and a palpable relief rested over the guards, Marlin, and even Ezra as things returned to normal. Then, Titus did something she hadn’t seen in ages. He smiled.
“I—father?”
Her heart fluttered. Even in her wildest dreams, she’d thought it would take so much more to convince her father that she was useful. That she could stay and work in her own kingdom—”
“If anything, Princess Ayalina, you have proved to me just how ready for this union you are. I am more convinced than ever that you will be a great boon to this union. It will be easier to convince the Aegeans to enter into this alliance than I had dreamed.”
Her mouth fell open, and her joy halted in its tracks and was dragged backwards kicking and screaming.
“B-but my scales…” Aya tried again, weakly.
“Of course the events won’t be rushed, little one,” Titus said in what was probably supposed to be an understanding voice. “Although this subject may be too delicate for the throne room, you have changed color a little later than your sisters. However, you have reached nineteen, and are already eligible…”
Aya distantly heard herself agreeing to whatever scheduling propositions Marlin made. Whatever brief platitudes her father offered, she couldn’t hear any of them over the sound of her own rushing failure.
Her life was being signed away, and years of preparing her defense had been worthless.
How had this happened?
She’d practically written and signed her own devil’s deal. But then, none of her sisters had avoided this fate. And yet she had thought she might be able to avoid it. Was she really so naive?
She had waves crashing in her ears and her head had been filled with sand. If someone had told her her tail had been sewn to anchors, she would have believed them.
When she was at last dismissed from the throne room, Aya found Adin and her sister pretending not to listen at the door. Hardly seeing them, she swam past without a word. Her head was buzzing with desperation, unable to grapple with her new reality. Option after option presented themselves—from forced abdication, to running away—none of which would ever work with her father as king.
Aya only had one option left. She would have to persuade the Aegeans to back out. She would have to make them hate her. To think that she was the worst possible option for a queenship. And she would have to do it herself.