Azor yelled at the group of nearby soldiers to assemble. “We must go now, before they get anywhere on foot!”
Panic coursed through her as his men swam past with spears and tridents. If they got through, would they injure her family? Kill them? She moved her tail, intent to follow—all the way to Tahoe if she had to.
“Tatiana!” yelled Queen Desiree.
Tatiana ignored her and chased after the weapon-wielding mob. She pounded her tail harder, unable to keep up due to the heaviness of her gemmed dress. The cave opening leading to Tahoe eventually grew closer, and her heart sped up. Why did her old home feel like enemy territory?
Azor’s head flicked back and upon seeing Tatiana, he slowed, turning around with a scowl.
“Go back to the palace, Tatiana!”
“No, please. Don’t do this.”
Azor glared. “Go home, now!”
As she grabbed his arm, determined to latch onto him like a starfish, a wall of churning white water ricocheted from the gate’s opening and blasted into them, pushing Azor’s body into hers. They clung to each other as another earsplitting boom rocked the water and shot fire all around them. She watched in horror as the cave mouth crumbled and collapsed shut.
“Holy crawfish!” she yelled, gripping to him tighter. “What was that?”
The sand ballooned around them and slowly settled down like fine snow. The other mers were floating haphazardly, clutching body parts and their heads.
Azor mouthed something as childlike fear crossed his face, but she couldn’t hear him or anything beyond a loud buzzing.
“What?” she asked, realizing she couldn’t even hear herself. Warm liquid poured out into the water—blood. Her blood. She shrieked, or at least she tried to, as knives carved pain through her scull starting at her ear.
Azor pulled her tighter into his body and rocked her gently. She sank into his chest, filled with pain, yet enthralled to be encased in his glorious touch. She could feel his body reverberating, one from his escalated heartbeat and the other from something he was saying. She assumed they were words of love and thankfulness they’d survived. She imagined he’d apologized, and vowed to call off the hunt now that the gate wasn’t traversable. Most important, she imagined he told her he loved her with all his heart—and would forever.
Bits of silvery material floated down from the cerulean ceiling like falling stars, as the crystal ball freed itself and glided gently down behind a group of mer houses. Half of the sunlight tunnels dimmed, leaving them in the dark. Her eyes adjusted as bubbles bounded upward from the collapsed gate and escaped through new large fissures.
They held onto one another for a second longer, then Azor pushed her away. She watched his features darken when green-cloaked Dradux guards swam up with scythes in their hands.
They were all speaking with large hand gestures, but she heard nothing. Only incessant ringing. Blood vessels popped out of Azor’s neck as he motioned to Tatiana and the damaged gate.
Then reality hit. If she hadn’t have stopped Azor, she would have lost him. The thought pulsed a shiver up her spine. From nowhere, tears poured uncontrollably from her eyes and she couldn’t stop the sobs. The men gawked.
“What?” she said, embarrassed. “Azor almost died.”
Azor shook his head, said something to the men, then tugged at her arm. The men gathered the injured and swam off in the other direction.
“Can you hear okay?” She pointed to his ears.
He nodded, but pursed his lips and latched his arm around her torso, pulling her through the current. Why didn’t the blast affect him? Were his eardrums thicker? Mermen and mermaids were so different.
She let him lead her away into the darkest corner of Natatoria—his compound. The silvery spires came into view first. Something was different, though. The huge stone pillars, that contained the great whites between the mouth of the Pacific gate and Azor’s compound, had crumbled into piles of rock in his yard.
The sharks were free.
2
: : :
Sea Sponges
Azor shoved Tatiana into the entry of the compound and slid the heavy stone door shut. She whirled around, stunned he’d left her side, and tugged at the iron handle in a panic, unable to lug the monstrous thing open.
“Azor!” she screamed, fearing he’d become shredded into chum if he stayed outside too long. “Get back in here!”
She scrambled over to the window and wrapped her fingers around the bars, scanning the outer corridor for him. The tail of a great white whipped in the current, disappearing in the direction of the palace. She held her breath, waiting for Azor to reappear. Sharks, mindless zombies of the water, craved mer flesh, especially their blood.
A hand gripped her shoulder from behind. Tatiana squealed and jerked away. A girl with black eyes and onyx hair held up gloved hands as if Tatiana had pulled a gun—a servant. Her lips moved and her smile faded into distress. In sadness, she studied Tatiana’s torn promising dress.
Tatiana held her ears, the pain maddening. “I can’t hear you. There was an explosion.”
A concerned frown covered the girl’s face before she slowly swam closer. Filled with uncertainty, Tatiana lowered her hand and allowed the sweet girl to shift her tresses aside and assess for damage. At the edge of her long flowing nightgown, Tatiana saw one of the flukes on the girl’s tail was missing, indicating the reason for her servitude.
Typically, only the severely maimed—or worse, the orphaned—were royal servants. Though sacrificing your life to the royal family was deemed honorable, everyone knew the real reason why they’d been
volunteered
to serve—no one wanted to promise their “perfect” child to the maimed for fear their genes would carry on to their offspring. And orphans, the lowliest of the mer, whose mothers weren’t discussed and fathers were unknown, had no one to petition their hand. Gloves hid the fingers of servants as a symbol of their commitment not to promise.
Tatiana tried not to gawk and rubbed her ring finger instead. The coveted white tattoo hadn’t had time to appear yet and Tatiana couldn’t wait to see the proof of her eternal bond to Azor.
The girl finished her exam and gestured for Tatiana to stay. Then she swam past the mermaid statue in the foyer and disappeared through an arched doorway. The statue looked familiar. One she’d remembered being in the outer courtyard before. Had he moved it? Twin beams of light illuminated the statue’s bare breasts from hidden sun tunnels in the ceiling. Tatiana couldn’t stop staring at her, feeling inadequate about her own anatomy.
In the servant’s absence, a chilling emptiness consumed Tatiana. She moved inside farther and her gaze panned the interior of the Prince’s home, realizing this was hers now, too. Though wide and spacious, the inside lacked décor—a direct opposite of the palace’s lavishness. A stone table surrounded by rock stumps for chairs stood before a hearth, glowing from trapped lava behind the gel cover. Above, bluish light from sconces illuminated bones of fish heads on one wall and weapons resting in harnesses on the other. Straight ahead, down a long hall flanked with arched doorways, were the iron doors to the dungeon—the ones she’d broken Fin out of not too long ago.
Incessant ringing assaulted Tatiana’s brain. Then vertigo set in, spinning the room. Quickly, she rested her backside on the nearest stump and clutched her queasy stomach. Where was Azor? Why hadn’t he returned?
Unable to stay upright, Tatiana doubled over, wishing her body would heal itself already. Gloved fingers prodded at her shoulder. Tatiana looked up as the dark-haired girl produced two fluffs of cotton and put them into her ears. A warm sensation flooded into Tatiana’s skull and traveled down her neck. She hummed in relief as the horrible ringing lessened.
The girl then showed Tatiana a green seed and motioned she eat it. Nauseous and riddled with fresh memories of the effects of the healer’s drugs on her earlier, Tatiana declined.
“I need to stay alert and wait for Azor. We need to help him. Where are the guards? He can’t defend himself alone. Not against sharks.” Tatiana eyed the wall of tridents and spears, tempted to grab one and lead a rescue attempt herself. Her body, on the other hand, veered sharply to the right and Tatiana practically toppled off the stump.
The girl grimaced and held out the seed more urgently. Her lips moved and she pointed to Tatiana’s ear. “No—help you.”
At the vision of Azor being torn limb from limb, Tatiana’s heart pumped harder, amplifying the pain with each excruciating beat. She doubled over, cupping her ear, and moaned. The girl forced the seed into Tatiana’s mouth and, desperate for a reprieve, she swallowed. Within seconds, relief and sleepiness overtook her.
The girl tugged on Tatiana’s hand and led her past the naked mermaid statue, through the arched doorway. On the left, Tatiana discovered a kitchen, and on the right, more doorways covered in seaweed strands that led somewhere else. At the end of the hall, a hole was cut out in the ceiling. They glided through easily to the second floor. The same eerie blue glow illuminated another hall lined with iron doors, ending in a set of two at the end.
Tatiana yanked her hand free. “But what about Azor?”
The girl’s mouth curled into a frown. She shook her head and spoke slowly so Tatiana could read her lips, “Gone—to the palace.”
“But how? All the sharks!” Tatiana ran her hand through her hair, forgetting the multitude of pins and golden chains that had held her tresses for the happiest day of her life. A few launched errantly into the current like falling stars, but Tatiana didn’t care. Azor needed her.
Numbness deadened her limbs as flashes of her last visit to the compound surfaced. The thrill of breaking in, her heart racing like mad, the ink, the dumbfounded guards passing out, the fumbling of keys, the effortless escape from the dungeon, freedom with her brother in Tahoe, short-lived freedom that seemed a lifetime ago. Azor’s compound stood empty today. Where were the guards? Had they all attended the ceremony?
Again, the servant girl persuaded Tatiana to go with her and took her by the arm. Tatiana almost pulled away, but the warmth through her gloved fingers was comforting. Together, they floated into the closest room, the fight melting inside.
On the floor was a grouping of sea sponges in a perfect square. Tatiana wanted to laugh, and probably would have if her lips weren’t so anesthetized. She’d rather sleep in the current than rest on slimy sponges. In truth, she’d rather not sleep at all. There was a rescue plan they needed to execute.
The servant ignored her hesitation and motioned she lay on the sponge bed. Without warning, blackness drenched the room, enveloping everything around them. An odd sensation rolled over her and her body tilted parallel to the floor. Something heavy draped over her fin and settled her slowly to the floor.
: : :
Muffled voices outside the door woke Tatiana. Groggy, she sat up and winced, gaining her bearings. The sunlight filtering through the window was dim—morning perhaps? Sponge slime covered her skin and face. She wiped off the goo, then pulled the fluffs from her ears and almost squealed in joy. She could hear without the incessant ringing.
“Nothing’s changed,” Azor said in the hall, “I promise you.”
“But…” The longing in the female’s voice froze Tatiana in place.
“You know the delicacy of the situation. If I could have done things any other way, I would have. Just be patient. I have a plan,” he finished.
Tatiana strained to hear, her joy he’d survived the hungry sharks short-lived. Her heart constricted like a fist. Only men occupied the compound and female servants. Who was this woman and what
situation
was
he referring to? After another moment of silence, she flipped the woven kelp blanket off with her tail and swam to the door, pressing her ear against the crack.
“Azor?” she called out before opening the door.
An empty hall greeted her. From the first floor, angered voices from mermen filled the water. Anxious to see Azor and the source of the commotion, Tatiana swam down through the porthole. She had so many questions. What had happened? Who had he spoken with in the hall? Why hadn’t he checked on her? But most important, when were they leaving for their honeymoon? She closed her eyes and corrected herself: promisetide.
In the main room, a dozen mermen milled about, stinking up the place with their fishy musk. Problems surrounding the destroyed gate and the sharks dotted the mermen’s conversation. Jealousy arose in Tatiana as she scanned the area for the woman, finding no one.
“I say we go through the Pacific gate if we can’t reopen Tahoe’s in time,” a man yelled from the other room. “We’ve already shown those sharks who’s boss!”
Tatiana’s chest jolted at the mention of Tahoe. She snuck past the mermaid statue to the corner and peered around. Mermen cheered and clanged their metal weapons against one another as if toasting glasses, happy to go after her parents and her brother. She recognized none of them, save Badger. Their eyes met at once and his bearded lips remained still, his eyes apologetic.
Upon seeing Azor, everything faded as her blood sang through her veins. Like a sunrise, she wanted to bask in his love, feel his arms around her, enjoy his tenderness he’d briefly shown after the explosion, and get to know every inch of him.
A few others saw her and fell silent, glaring at her and her white promising gown. Azor turned to find the distraction and frowned. Her shoulders sank at his disapproval.
“Tatiana! Go back to your room!” he yelled with a jab of his finger.
The rest in the room quieted and stared. Her mouth turned dry like a desert. Shocked and hurt, she choked down a swallow of seawater to loosen her vocal cords.
“I-I can hear you just fine,” she said.
“Oh.” He dipped his head to the side. “Well, Love… this meeting is for men only. So why don’t you go find something else to do.”
She frowned at his lack of concern. Never mind the fact she wanted alone time with her new husband. Their last interaction involved his suicide mission through shark-infested waters. As the stares continued to linger, she waited for him to suggest, at the very least, a short conversation in private.