Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Kaden
Kaden made a slow circle around the palace, his movements torpid. He had planned to pace himself and conserve his energy, but he was moving slower than a dwarf haima.
Blowing out a stream of bubbles, he traveled back to his room. A partial sculpture of a zhangyu sat nestled in a clawed setting from his table, half their body and four tentacles missing.
A gift for Angie—in the hope they would come together again soon. Yet he couldn’t find the motivation to finish it.
A knock on his door drew his attention and he slid it open. Adrielle floated outside holding Hadrien’s hand.
“Hi susu!” Hadrien piped up as soon as their gazes met. His tiny rose tail flicked side to side. “We visit!”
“A visit from my handsome nephew and his mom? How can I say no?” Kaden smiled, reaching out to ruffle Hadrien’s hair and give him a tickle on his small ribs, and his nephew giggled in response. He turned to Adrielle, and after greeting her, asked “Want to come in?”
“Ah, no, thank you. I came to see if you’d want to come for dinner with us.”
Kaden’s heart thumped with consternation at the mention of his brother. “Now?”
“Well, yes.” A corner of Adrielle’s lips tugged up into a semblance of a smile, and she turned her head into her elbow to stifle a yawn.
“He told me what happened, when the two of you spoke. You know as well as I do how he is. He loves you and worries and cares for you and sometimes he—well, he doesn’t express it in the most eloquent way. ”
Kaden pursed his lips. “I wasn’t in a good mental place when I spoke to him, and his words didn’t help. But I talked to Saeryn afterward, and I feel better.”
He swore a shadow crept over the princess’ face. “Your uncle has a silver tongue, I hear.” She motioned to her right side with her head. “Are you joining us?”
“Oh, yes.” Kaden followed Adrielle down the winding hallways to their chambers. Raina left the room with a mermaid and a merman when they entered, greeting each other in passing. “Who are they?”
“Raina brought in some support staff to ensure Cyrus gets the best care. She was orienting them today, and they will start rotating out. I fear his condition is only minimally improving.” Despondency laced her tone and Kaden placed a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s too much for only her to provide care for him. ”
To his surprise, Cyrus was out of his usual seat and making a listless swim to his and Adrielle’s hammock across the room, where he all but collapsed in it and faceplanted, his arms and tailfins lagging and then settling next to him.
Libbi was following him, short arms waving about. “Dada! Dada! Stop!”
“Cyrus!” Adrielle gasped, and she passed Hadrien’s hand to Kaden’s, before darting to her lifemate. “Why are you moving? You’re going to make yourself worse!”
“I only wanted to see if I could do it,” Cyrus ground out, turning his head enough to speak clearly.
“I’m tired of not moving all day. My tail hurts.
My arms hurt. I’m losing muscle because I’ve barely moved in over two tidesyears.
Another tidesyear and I’ll sink to a heap on the seafloor and join the haichongs. ”
Kaden stared at his brother. In his position now, he looked very much like a haichong in his hammock.
He tightened his grip around Hadrien’s hand, and led him to the table, where stone bowls full of kelp and seaweed and sea fruits sat encased in clawed protrusions, beneath a removable, heavy stone covering.
“You will not sink and join the haichongs, you dramatic merman. If you don’t listen to the healers and stay still, you’re going to slow down your recovery.
Now stay there and don’t move anymore. We’ll bring your food to you.
” Adrielle scolded him the way Kaden and Cyrus’ mother did when they were caught doing something they shouldn’t have been.
Kaden removed one of the stone tops from a bowl of spiced seaweed and took a handful to Cyrus. “Here, brother."
Cyrus grunted. “I’m not hungry.”
“You have to eat.” Adrielle sounded positively exasperated. “Even a little bit.”
“Fine.” Cyrus swiped the seaweed from Kaden’s hand and took a bite.
Hadrien and Libbi swam to their father, floating above him and giving him more strands of seaweed and kelp, eating some for themselves along the way.
Adrielle swam beside Kaden while he nibbled on a delectable, candied red algae. “You believed the nice things Saeryn said to you?” she started, not giving Kaden a chance to finish eating his algae handful.
“He made me feel better when I was down on myself.” Kaden didn’t understand why he was so quick to defend Saeryn when the merman had lied to him repeatedly, but he needed a sympathetic ear, and Saeryn was the only one who gave it to him, sincere or not.
Not making eye contact wasn’t something to worry about, he convinced himself.
Saeryn must have been distracted by the myriad of other issues on his mind.
“What about the other things he’s done?” Adrielle’s eyes held an erupting volcano. “For one, he’s dismissed nearly all Serapha and Aqilus’ staff at this point. And he’s making plans to retaliate against the humans instead of seeking answers from them.”
Kaden flinched at her accusatory tone but stayed silent while she continued.
“He spoke to six citizens in total when the collective mer have proven their distrust and anger toward you. He conveniently does not consult our council before making decisions like murdering human divers on sight, or preventing mer from going near the surface, and he barely holds court for our citizens.”
“He’s done it twice,” Kaden muttered.
“Twice,” Adrielle repeated, her expression aghast. “Twice in nearly two tidesmonths. You were the one who told me that. The people are unhappy their king is so inaccessible.”
Kaden was running out of ways to defend his uncle. But it was Adrielle’s next note that grabbed his attention.
“You’ve talked to Aiereka recently, yes? You have not noticed how she has been?”
“What do you mean how she has been? She looks like someone who’s busy with schooling and her extracurriculars.” Kaden folded his arms over his chest. “What are you getting at?”
“She respects her father on the outside. That I got from the rare moments I’ve seen her. But I have the niggling feeling things are much different behind closed doors.”
“Adrielle, with all due respect, I know you’ve never liked him, but we don’t need to be dragging him through the trenches.”
“Since I met him at our first family dinner, he rubbed me the wrong way. I cannot put a fin on it though.” She looked thoughtful.
“I’ll talk to him after this.” After all, Saeryn had been so calm and understanding the last time they spoke. Perhaps being king for some time now had mellowed him, and he was returning to the uncle from Kaden’s childhood.
“I don’t know what that will help.” Adrielle grunted, reaching for a small handful of kelp and chewing off half of it. Kaden chalked her irritation to simply being under stress, and the two had the rest of their dinner in silence.
Kaden knocked on Saeryn’s bedchamber door. Though for the time he seemingly convinced Adrielle there was a rational explanation for Saeryn’s behavior, he needed to have an honest discussion with him and see if there was any truth in Adrielle’s concerns.
“Who calls?” Saeryn’s muffled voice filtered through his thick door.
“Kaden.”
The door slid open. “What brings you by? Is everything okay?” Saeryn sat atop his hammock, curling his tail to keep himself in place. He motioned for Kaden to sit next to him and he did.
“Can I talk to you about something? A few things.” Kaden rested his hands on the proximal part of his tail.
“Sure, anything you need.”
He didn’t want to bring Adrielle into it, and he turned a quarter way around so he could face his uncle when he answered. “I’ve had some concerns that you’ve dismissed almost all of my parents’ staff.”
Saeryn blinked. “I am King, you know. I can have the staff I want. But!” He held up a hand when Kaden’s eyes widened. “I know the queendom is in turmoil, and our relations with landwalkers are in question. I will put a hold on this. Does that make you feel better?”
“Yes.” Kaden sat upright. What Saeryn said made sense. “And why are you not seeking answers from the humans instead of planning to attack them?” Before Saeryn could shoot him down, Kaden spoke his next point. “I know you’ve been mobilizing our sentries and are in talks with the sentinels.”
“Kaden, Kaden, Kaden.” Saeryn tsked and put his fist under his chin, and Kaden caught the slightest shake of his uncle’s head.
“I know you want peace. It’s no surprise, given your affiliation with them.
But the mer do not want answers; they want vengeance.
You must understand this. I only seek to give them what they want.
And might I remind you, their opinion of you is quite low, as well?
Hmm?” Saeryn folded his arms. “Clearly, the humans do not want peace, either, given they started all this.”
Kaden clenched his jaw. Again, his reasoning was not uncalled for. He didn’t have to make that jab at the end though. “You’re not wrong, but why have you not said a word in my defense to their accusations against me?”
He thought Saeryn answered far too easily. “Who am I to question their free will? I’m not here to tell them what or how to think. I cannot perform mind-control. Do you have any further concerns I can address? I only want to ease your mind.”
“You didn’t talk to the council before banning mer from seventy fathomspans, or ordering human divers to be killed on sight. And the citizens are unhappy you hardly meet with them.”
Saeryn’s face fell, and he slumped forward. “I am sorry. I have not learned the protocol here, but I will make more of an effort. I mean, I’ve never been King before.”
Kaden kept quiet, searching for signs of deceit in his words, but Saeryn’s expression was unreadable. “I see.”
“I must say. Your boldness to approach me on this is impressive. As is the way you care for your people, despite their opinions of you.” Saeryn moved away from the hammock and swam in front of Kaden. “We have a council meeting next tidesweek. Please attend.”
“I will.” Kaden followed him to the door.
“I only wish to prove to you that you made the right choice turning the throne to me,” Saeryn replied. “You trust me, right?”
Kaden gave a weak nod, and Saeryn shut the door, leaving him outside.
The next council meeting he vowed to speak up against Saeryn’s defensiveness, and soon, offensiveness against humans.
His uncle had been so accommodating. Kaden would be able to talk sense into him now, or so he convinced himself.