Chapter 23
Asta’s patience grew thin when all three rescue fleets failed to return. It had been three days since Kaid’s abduction. Three days of silence with no trace of him to be found. Three days of him at risk of being tortured, beaten, and the gods knew what else.
The blonde princess paced in front of her hearth, a wide-eyed Linnea sitting on the sofa next to Halsten, who buried his face in his palms.
“We need to send another fleet. We need to do something,” Asta announced.
Linnea shook her head, not allowing her eyes to meet her cousin’s. “Three ships of men have been sacrificed, Asta. Nearly one hundred sailors never to return home.”
“And I will sacrifice one hundred more to find him!” Asta snapped, her voice raspy from lack of sleep.
Halsten ran his hands down his face. “Unless either of you know some magical sea creature who can rescue him for us, I can’t think of another way.”
She had stayed awake day and night watching the sea.
Hoping to see a change in pattern, a creature lurking too close to shore, anything that would give her answers.
But all that had come was a vicious storm, fat rain drops pelting the stone of the castle and lightning striking the ground as thunder boomed loud enough to rattle the windows.
Linnea stood up and made her way to the rack near the doors, lifting a cloak off a hook. “Maybe it’s time you go see Thurs, cousin.”
Dyri, the goofy canine, perked up at that.
He had been going with Asta to visit the wild horse each time she went to the stables, the visits now becoming a part of their regular routine.
Progress with the beast had been slow and grueling.
The mare was wildfire but begrudgingly obeyed Asta’s commands, never fully willing to please her new partner.
Asta remained hopeful and determined that she and the horse would ride together someday.
Asta approached Linnea by the door and wrapped herself in a fur-lined cloak, gesturing for Linnea to put hers on as well. Halsten excused himself to his suite. The courtier had not been himself since Kaid’s abduction.
Asta patted her thigh and Dyri sprang up, running to her side as they began their descent through the castle.
When they got to the stables, the energy within was charged.
All of the horses were on edge because of the multi-day storm that had engulfed Orntali.
Dyri shook the rain drops from his short coat and sauntered down the path in front of them, running ahead and sniffing various stalls along the way.
When he got to the one tucked in the far back corner, he sat in front of the gate.
“Good boy,” Asta said as she and her cousin approached the dog guarding the stall. Within was the dapple gray mare standing in the back corner, her ears pulled back as she stomped a hoof on the floor.
“Yeah, yeah. You hate me. Get in line,” Asta threw a thumb over her shoulder, thinking about Maren’s betrayal and the harsh words they had exchanged on the beach, “But you won’t let anyone else touch you, and I can at least bridle you, so I’m your only option.”
The stablehands had turned the mare out the day after Kaid’s disappearance and she had refused to let anyone catch her and return her to her stall. Asta had been summoned to come down and escort the horse inside, which she had succeeded in, but not without the mare giving her a fight.
Asta grabbed a curry comb from the bucket hanging on the gate and stepped inside with the horse.
“Be careful,” Linnea whispered.
Asta only nodded in response. Thurs didn’t scare her, though she probably should.
She was quite positive the horse’s previous owner had probably released her on purpose after giving up on taming her.
Either that, or Thurs had taken it upon herself to end her previous owner's life, which would not shock the princess one bit. Asta still couldn’t track down any information on the crest that was on the horse’s bridle and the horse seemed to have chosen her, so for the time-being, she would care for her.
The princess got to work on grooming the horse, picking her hooves, brushing her body, combing and braiding her white mane.
The process took a little longer since her arm was still healing, but she was able to get it done regardless.
As Asta started to relax, she watched Thurs’s posture loosen.
The anxiety never fully relinquished, but her ears were no longer turned fully backward and she had ceased her rebellious stomping.
Finally, once she finished up her horse’s grooming, Asta felt calm enough to go speak with her father once more.
Asta strolled into her father’s study composedly and found him where he always was, scribbling away at his desk.
“We need to send more fleets,” she declared.
King Botmar sighed and pushed back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “We cannot lose any more men to find them.”
He rubbed at his eyes and Asta noticed how irritated they looked, the corners damp and puffy.
Had her father been crying? She wouldn’t be surprised if he had.
Over the last three days, they had to unravel the last two decades of his life.
The sea witch’s curse on his memory had leaked to all parts of his brain, blackening much more than the existence of the finfolk.
“But he’s still out there!” Asta gestured to the wall which held the shoreline on the other side. “A member of your nobility has been abducted by another kingdom and you just give up?”
“And how many of my loyal army members would you be willing to sacrifice to save him? Would you send Major Bohr into the depths of the ocean to find the lord?” Asta’s father snarled, his tone laced with command only a king could conjure.
Major Bohr. Gyrial. How dare he use her best friend as an example. How dare he guilt her into changing her mind.
“Do not bring him into this. You know he would depart immediately if asked. They are here to protect our people, and Lord Kaidian is one of them!” Asta slammed a fist on her father’s desk. “We must bring him back!”
“Your sister is out there, too, Asta. Believe me, I am sacrificing everything I can for their rescue. I cannot lose more good men. I cannot lose anyone else.” Asta watched the king rub his temples as he mastered his breathing.
Something washed over her, dulling her frustration.
He had lost a daughter during all this. She had lost a sister.
Even if their relationship meant nothing to Maren now, Asta held onto the belief that their childhood together wasn’t a complete lie.
With that realization, she excused herself, knowing there was no arguing with the king.
If he could sacrifice more men to find his daughter, he would.
But that wasn’t what a king would do. That wasn’t what a princess should want to do, either.
Asta was exhausted, having hardly slept in days since Kaid had been taken, but she couldn’t fight her weariness anymore. When she returned to her suite, she called Dyri to bed with her and fell asleep straight away, the large pup delighted to take a midday nap.
She had no knowledge of how long she had been asleep when she heard a whisper of her name.
Asta.
At first, it felt like a dream. A woman’s voice as smooth as sea glass winding its way through her thoughts.
Asta.
The more she heard the woman call to her, the more awake she became.
“Asta.”
The princess’s eyes sprung open and she screamed when she saw a black-haired woman with golden eyes staring at her from the threshold of her bedroom door. Asta grabbed the dagger she kept under her pillow and pointed it toward the woman, who did not flinch at the sight of the blade.
“Who are you?” Asta snarled as she stood. Dyri was barking loudly beside her on the mattress, but backing up with each vocalization.
Cowardly clown.
The slender woman swept her long obsidian locks back behind her shoulder.
“Your presence has been requested for a meeting, Princess Asta,” the woman said. “If you could please come with me, I will escort you.”
Oh sure, walk off with the complete stranger after a man has been abducted by the finfolk queen and a Salendreon princess has been revealed as a spy for said finfolk. This sounds very safe.
Asta scoffed, somewhat toward the woman’s vague request and somewhat toward the cowering Dyri, who had spooked himself by backing his rump into the headboard.
“Why would I go with you? How do I know this isn’t a trap?”
The stunning woman let out a soft chuckle. Her beauty was the kind only seen in paintings, where women’s features had been vastly over-exaggerated.
She stepped forward gesturing to the room in a sweep of her arms. “Do you think one would be so foolish as to enter their enemy’s territory unarmed just to request an audience?”
She has a point, there. Besides, what more did Asta have to lose? She knew the finfolk would never let her live a peaceful life from here on out. She knew too much; had seen too much.
Asta turned back to her massive whimpering canine. “Stay, Dyri. Linnea will be here soon.” She kissed his head and ran her thumb over his velvety ear before turning back to the woman. “Lead me.”
The woman of indescribable beauty sauntered down the castle halls as if she had been within hundreds of times, which made Asta uneasy. None of the guards stopped her or questioned the female because, Asta now noticed, she was wearing a royal maid’s uniform.
Asta was stupid for following this mysterious person. She knew that. But something deep down told her it was okay; that she was to be trusted.
They walked across the eastern terrace and stepped onto the beach. Asta silently followed behind the woman as they strode farther and farther away from the castle, quickly approaching the bend that held the cave she and Kaid had slept in the night everything had changed.
The woman’s pace slowed and she approached a strange spotted lump lying in the sand. At first, Asta had thought it was a seal carcass, but when they got closer, she could see that it was a blanket of seal skin. She shuddered. Who would make a blanket of seal skin?
As the woman lifted the blanket and draped it over her shoulders, she looked back to Asta and gestured to a rock about twenty feet off the coast, “It was nice to meet you, Princess Asta. The queen will see you now.”
Asta didn’t know where to look between the woman silently walking into the water with a seal skin blanket draped over her or the fire-red-haired woman sitting atop a rock.
At first, Asta’s heart skipped a beat when she thought the female was her sister, but when she observed the woman more closely, the similarities were scant.
Her hair was a far more vibrant shade of red, like a cooked lobster shell, and her eyes were a shade Asta knew well—a turquoise as bright as the waves crashing around her. Kaid’s eyes.
Asta watched as the obsidian-haired woman disappeared under the waves, no sign of her once she fully submerged herself. The princess’s gaze bounced back to the woman on the rock once more and discovered the female’s gentle smile.
She waved a hand, beckoning Asta closer, so she toed off her slippers and pulled up the skirts of her dress as she stepped into the water, the icy temperatures of the autumn ocean making her toes numb immediately.
From her new angle in the water, Asta could see the female’s royal blue fin containing golden outlines of each scale that matched her gold crown made of coral and crystals. Her elongated torso was covered by a pearly seashell-shaped corset.
Asta went to take a step back, fear roiling through her from the memory of the last finned creature she met on these shores. As she leaned away from the woman, her back collided into something hard.