| |
Pain dragged me in and out of unconsciousness for hours, until it was the cold of the cove that finally pulled me from the darkness. My teeth clattered together, the sound echoing across the cavernous stone walls.
Darkness enveloped me, the only source of illumination was a dusting of phytoplankton floating around. I reached a hand up to grab the particles but they dispersed while I cringed in pain.
Never, in all my years as an outlaw had I been caught until the night before last. Since Maisie had swam into my life, I’d been captured, beaten, and nearly killed. Now, I was the most wanted merman in the whole kingdom. Not that I hadn’t been before, but this was different. Before, I’d just escaped Selection. This time, I’d abducted their princess. I tried to make myself despise Maisie for what had happened, but in truth it was my fault.
I’d grown careless. The moment I’d dropped her off in the alleyway, I’d turned and had been filled with nothing but thoughts of what it’d be like to have her body flush against mine. I’d neared the poorer half of Eramaea when they’d grabbed me. Seven royal guards pummeled me with fists and the blunt ends of swords. When the beating stopped and I’d opened my eyes, I’d seen him.
Captain Tiberius Saber.
They’d parted to let him swim through, and he’d tried so hard to look the formidable opponent as he bent to glare at me from my position in the silt.
He’d smiled at me in a gesture that was neither fortuitous or boastful. He smiled at me with manic possessiveness. A look that said much more than words ever could. Moments later, I was hauled up, bound, gagged and blindfolded, taken away to what could only be the dungeons.
I’d been stripped, beaten by prison guards, given dirty rags that reeked of mud and a rotting corpse, and awaited my fate.
I guess the greatest joy I’d gotten out of this entire situation was bashing the captain’s face in with two-legger kitchenware. I hoped he’d bruised, both his body and his ego. That and the way Maisie’s body felt against my chest. The way she’d defied all rules to protect me. The worry in her gaze.
That mer was invading my every waking thought. I tried pushing her out. After all, she hadn’t given any indication that she dreamt of me with the same fevered passions I’d dreamt of her.
But even so, I knew that there was a reason we had met. Like the gods themselves were pulling our futures together, threading our fates. There must have been a reason she wielded the other half of my blade, and the reason was only one I could fathom.
Maisie was meant to be mine.
I sat up in the dark with a groan. This place, though I couldn’t see well in the dark—I’d shoved the lava globes away so I could sleep—was too spacious, it was nearly suffocating. I got up and wrapped the rags and cloak around myself, swimming blindly through the cove. My tail bumped into hard objects as I passed. I tried to remember the layout of the place, swam up and forward, until my hands came into contact with a wall. It was furry and covered in barnacles. I pushed down on the stone, feeling my way across the surface, the imperfections digging into my palms. I pushed against the stone and it gave way, screeching together loudly, the wall parted to form a doorway.
Smiling, I swam into the alleyway, the doorway closing behind me.
Night had fallen in Eramaea. For hours, I’d succumbed to the pain and darkness. It didn’t matter because this, I could deal with. I could become one with the shadows and do what I needed to do before anyone was the wiser.
I was the Black Blade, after all.
I pulled the hood of the cloak over my head, tying the drawstrings together at my neck. I started forward to the mouth of the alleyway, looking around. The streets were relatively empty, save for the occasional mer strolling about.
There were a few guards patrolling, but I was careful to let them pass before I slipped out into the shadows of the streets. I stuck near the underside of buildings, letting the cover of darkness camouflage me.
I swam cautiously through back streets, making my way by memory instead of sight. There were no lights to illuminate the way here. Not that I’d need it.
I made my way out of the busier parts of the city into the poorer parts of Eramaea. I paused, straining my ears, and feeling for even the slightest of stirrings in the water. I would not be foolish enough to swim blindly there and get caught a second time.
And there were ways to sneak in undetected, secret ways, and I knew each and every one of them.
I swam slowly, taking my time to circle around the area, swimming in between homes. I made my way to one specific house, looking around before trying the back door. It swung open with ease and I darted in, closing the door behind me.
The house was as dark as the waters outside, but like the outside, I knew every nook and cranny of this place.
I swam to the corner of the room where I knew a chest was located. I dug through the contents until my hand came in contact with something cold and sharp. I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my black blade and pulled it out. Though the weapon was dark, the obsidian shone in the room.
The blade was the length of my forearm, bigger than the one Maisie wielded, though no less deadly. They were mates to one another. Hers, studded with a single sapphire gem, while the hilt of mine glittered with the hint of black diamonds. I dug into the chest again, pulling out the black leather scabbard and belt. After securing the blade in its place, I pulled out a long, black tunic.
After stripping, I changed into clean clothes, strapped the belt around my waist, the sheathed blade bumping against my hip and tail with comforting familiarity.
Just then, a door opened to the room I was in. Defense came easily. I whipped the blade from the scabbard and held it out before me. A bright blue light shone from the inside of a lava globe, a globe held in the hands of an old and bent merman.
My weapon lowered, and I sheathed it back into its rightful place. The old merman’s face was set in a wrinkled frown, cast into the soft shadowing of blue and white light. His expression changed as he saw me, eyebrows rising, mouth dropping open.
“Elias?” he asked incredulously.
“Mr. James, sorry if I disturbed you.”
“Not t’all, son.” He gestured that I follow. I did so without reluctance, following him out of his back storage room and further into the small house, to the kitchen and dining area. He placed the lava globe in the center of his table—a slab of stone with piled rocks holding it up—and pulled out a chair, seating himself.
I kicked out a chair with my fins and sat myself in it.
“Heard you had an exciting day, son.” His face was clearly amused, though with a slight undertone of worry.
“Yeah?” I pressed my elbow into the table, resting my chin on my palm. “What have you heard?”
Mr. James rolled his eyes at me. “You have ears, son. Don’t act like you don’t know what the mer are saying about you and the princess just so I can stroke that big ego of yers.”
“And what are the mer saying about the princess?” I asked, genuinely curious. I hadn’t heard what they’d said, though I could imagine.
The old merman’s thin shoulder lifted before his palms met the surface of the rough stone table. “There are a lot of rumors going around that you hurt her.”
I leaned forward, eyebrows raising. “Really?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed. “Load of bullshark, if you ask me. You wouldn’t hurt a mermaid, let alone a princess. But the things that are floating around about her, that stuff I can believe.”
“What exactly are they saying about her?”
“So many things. The loudest of the rumors is that she’s a changeling.”
My skin tingled at the sound of that. Changeling. I schooled my features into a mask of nothing but sarcasm, so as to not give anything away. In a way, a changeling was what Maisie was. Someone put into Princess Odele’s place. Impersonating her. Living her lavish life.
But if there was one thing I was absolutely certain of, it was that Maisie was nothing like Princess Odele.
“Indeed?”
Mr. James gauged my reactions, to see how much I cared. Whatever he was trying to read on my face, he would find nothing. I would show nothing.
“It’s all so strange...” Mr. James continued. “How quickly someone can change...”
Strange, indeed. I smiled and got up from my chair. Mr. James followed the movement with his eyes. “Thank you for keeping her safe for me.” I patted the side of my sheathed blade. “And for hiding the rest of my belongings.”
Mr. James got up himself. A sign of respect towards me. I didn’t bother telling him not to. It wasn’t as though he’d listen. The mer revered me despite my protests. They treated me like a hero. I was, but a real hero did not want recognition and neither did I. I just wanted change. “No problem t’all son. It’s the least I could do after all that you’ve done for us.”
I frowned at that. There was always endless heaps of gratitude among these mer. As if I was doing it so they’d owe me. I didn’t want that, either.
“I’ve done nothing, sir,” I denied.
Mr. James snorted. “You’ve done plenty and you know it. And should you need anything else, the mer here are loyal and would gladly help.”
I knew that, but I was being hunted right now. I wouldn’t put the mer in danger. I’d already been here too long. No. The safest place for me and everyone else right now was hiding in Maisie’s cove.
I started to turn. Stopped. “There is something you could do for me.” I dug into the pocket of my tunic.
“Anything.”
So quick to agree... I thought with wry amusement. I flicked a cold coin at him, which he caught before it could spiral through the water.
“Take that to old mer Seth Spiketail. Tell him thanks for the cloak.”
Mr. James started to smile, but I turned before I could see the full extent of his admiration. It wasn’t something I deserved. I professed myself a hero in their story and even in my own. Yes, I’d helped them evade Selection and start a new life. I kept them hidden and gave them money...
But I was still a criminal to the crown, after all.