Chapter 35
Thirty-Five
Kaden
Kaden’s focus was only on Angie and the way his heart fluttered and danced now that they had spoken and reaffirmed their love and commitment to each other.
He put his seaflute away and held his half-carved zhangyu from its setting, his tailfins bouncing with excitement, inspiration striking to finish it.
“Your Highness?” A faint voice called outside of his door, and he swam to it, sliding it open.
Raina floated outside, her hands behind her back, sandy braid over her shoulder. “Your brother is doing well today and wishes to speak with you.”
“Oh, wonderful.” Kaden followed her through the gilded hallways, twisting and turning until they reached Cyrus and Adrielle’s chambers.
Raina stopped in front of their door. “I’ll leave you two and will check on the crown prince at the turn of the tide. I will be in the infirmary in the meantime; please let me know if he needs anything.” And with a small bow of her head, she left.
Kaden let himself in, finding Cyrus sitting upright in his hammock, swaying back and forth with the currents. His brother lifted an arm to wave, and Kaden returned to the stalactite, wrapping the bottom of his tail to anchor himself.
“Have you done your inner healing?” Cyrus had his hands folded on the thickest part of his tail, tailfins sweeping side to side.
“Somewhat. Angie contacted me and we had a long talk.”
“Ah, so she bolstered your confidence?” Cyrus raised a knowing eyebrow.
“Yes, and I don’t want to be scared anymore.
I have to believe I can do it. That I can help our queendom and make a difference.
” Kaden clenched his fingers together, jittery.
The prospect of taking the throne was still daunting, overwhelming.
But if he didn’t change course, his uncle would drive their queendom into devastation with a renewed war.
Cyrus swam the short distance to Kaden, grimacing as he did so, and put a hand on Kaden’s shoulder.
“You could have asked me to swim to you,” Kaden protested.
“No, no. I wanted to try moving a little bit, since the aches and pains appear to have subsided. And you’re still recovering yourself.
” Cyrus unhelpfully pointed to the bandage still around Kaden’s sides.
“You might have been let go from our chambers, but you still need to keep those bandages on you for another tide cycle.”
The one around his tail had come off, his dorsal fin patched up, but the deep wounds in his sides were taking their sweet time. “Yes, yes, Father,” Kaden said in a mocking tone, laughing, and Cyrus gave his shoulder a light shove.
“I am impressed with your change of heart. We’ll have to speak with the council about what we can do to get Uncle off the throne.
But first, is there anything I can do to build your confidence further?
” With a single tail kick, Cyrus drifted back to his hammock, sitting on the edge again, scrunching his face before his features relaxed. “Are you ready for this?”
“No,” Kaden mumbled. “I’m not you. I don’t know a smidge of what you do, and I don’t have your presence that instantly commands respect. You make everybody love you, while most the queendom hates or is indifferent to me.”
Cyrus’ gills flared open as he took in a long swallow of seawater.
“I’m going to give you some advice.” He pointed a finger at Kaden.
“You must believe yourself worthy or nobody else will. You may not rule with an iron fist, you may not be a disciplinarian, and your mere presence may not command the attention of those around you—”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Kaden grumbled.
“—I wasn’t finished” Cyrus’ gaze pierced Kaden’s, and he waited for his older brother to continue.
“But you are kind, you are open of heart and mind, and most importantly, you relate to the people. That will get you far as a monarch.” His smile was encouraging. “You are enough. Always remember that.”
Kaden held those words, you are enough, close to his heart.
“Thank you, brother.” He put a hand on Cyrus’ shoulder. “Then I suppose my next question should be, what did Mother and Father teach you? Could you share some of your lessons with me?”
“That is the question I wished to hear. We could start with diplomatic relations, and afterward, I could go over other lessons in the coming tidesdays, so I don’t overload you.” Cyrus searched Kaden’s features.
Kaden nodded. “Okay.”
“The first thing when working with mer of any station, but especially to those who serve us, is to remember to never feel like you’re so above them that you cannot praise them for a job well done,” Cyrus started.
“It is easy to show our respect and our finest sides to other royals, but you cannot let the power get to your head when speaking with citizens and palace staff. You need them as much as they need you. Next...”
Kaden relaxed his tail around the stalactite and turned his full attention to his brother as he continued, committing his lessons to memory.
Cyrus’ lessons continued until his older brother became fatigued and lied in the hammock to rest again before the tides changed.
Kaden hated to admit he had already forgotten half of what Cyrus had said when he left, but he believed it was somewhere in the back of his mind, and the lessons would reveal themselves later.
He stopped by the throne room to seek out Saeryn, but it was empty, with two sentinels outside the doors. Kaden found his uncle leaving his bedchambers with his blue seaflute in hand.
“Uncle, a moment?” He had to act as usual, not inadvertently give away that he was plotting to overthrow him.
“Yes, Kaden?” Saeryn’s forehead was wrinkled, and he twirled his seaflute around in his fingers.
“I met with Washington’s governor with Angie. He seemed committed to restoring human-mer relations and is willing to work with Aunt Cassia and Uncle Varin.” Kaden straightened.
“That’s good news,” Saeryn said evenly. “Is that all you came to tell me?”
“I thought we could try to meet with the Alaskan governor next. She had expressed she would bring the humans who tried to assassinate me to justice.”
Saeryn’s countenance darkened. “You conducted such an important meeting without speaking to me first?”
“The meeting was meant to be with Aunt Cassia, but Cassia cast Angie out of the queendom and refused to meet with the governor,” Kaden replied, tilting his head. He thought Saeryn would be proud of him for taking a step toward diplomacy, but his uncle was acting exactly the opposite.
“So, Cassia did not go.” An undercurrent of impatience rode on Saeryn’s tone.
“Well, no, why are you so upset?” Kaden scratched absently at his cheek.
“Because landwalker leadership is not negotiating through the proper channels. If they wish to circumvent the monarchs, go behind our backs, then I will not cooperate with them.” He turned to leave again, but Kaden followed.
“I’m asking you to meet with the Alaskan governor!”
Saeryn spun around, his tail trailing behind his upper body.
“The landwalkers have shown that they are not trustworthy. That they will betray us. Enough is enough. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s something I must do.
” With that infuriatingly, vague statement, and another abrupt turn, he propelled down the halls.
A sense of despair struck, and Kaden picked up speed, following, ignoring the aches and pains in his chest, spreading to his arms, but he couldn’t let Saeryn leave.
“Uncle!” He was lightheaded and dizzy by the time he caught up to Saeryn, and he squeezed his eyes shut, repeatedly until the seas stopped spinning.
Saeryn turned again. Gone was the genial, charismatic uncle he always thought he knew. In its place was a merman who personified a dark, stormy sea. Saeryn’s eyebrows drew together, jaw clenched, and a violent tsunami raged in his glare. “You will address me as King.”
Kaden jerked himself backward. “Wh-what?”
“I know what you’re trying to do. I have eyes and ears everywhere, and I know you’re planning to usurp me.
I no longer want you as my high advisor, or on my court.
” He stared Kaden down. “The citizens are right. You are a traitor. To the mer and to your own family.” Saeryn said nothing more, leaving Kaden staring after him, limp, spots exploding in his vision at his uncle’s volcanic accusation.
The currents carrying Saeryn’s voice snapped Kaden out of his shocked state.
“We attack now.”
Attack? No, no, no.
It was the voice on the other end of the seaflute that sent Kaden’s mind into a tailspin.
Cassia.
“On your command, brother.”
Silence.
Gathering his strength, will, and power, Kaden kept following Saeryn’s path outside the palace.
There, nearly a hundred sentinels and ten Shangjiangs, each commanding a military unit, surrounded Saeryn, who floated above their heads.
Two hujings surrounded them, specifically bred and trained by their military as pups to fight with the mer.
“Uncle, don’t!” Kaden bolted forward, carried on a burst of adrenaline.
Saeryn stopped talking to his troops and turned to face Kaden. “Take him away.” He gave a dismissive wave in his direction and the mer traveled upward.
Toward the surface.
Kaden gave chase, but two sentinels swooped in front of him, grabbing his arms, pulling him back toward the depths.
“Let go of me. I’ll leave. I won’t interfere.” Kaden wiggled his arms in an attempt to break free. He needed to get back to his chambers and warn Zixin and Mia.
A blast of water shot downward in his and the sentinels’ direction, and Kaden kicked his tail, faster, faster, to dodge it and prevent the massive water funnel from pulling him into its vice grip. The sentinels followed suit.
The scene before him was a waking nightmare.
Kaden floated, as if stone manacles bound his wrists together, his tail frozen and refusing to move.
The sentinels, now in his peripheral vision, stayed put, their lance and trident held in front of them.
Human bodies, some dead, some flailing, killed by the sentinels and hujings as they sank.
The hujings snapped up two of the bodies, both well protected by a circle of sentinels.
Kaden made a dash for the humans. Where did they come from? Were they on the ships and caught up in the attack? If he hurried, he could grab some of them, bring them to safety.
He decided against it. That wouldn’t be good enough. He’d have to give each of them breath.
Wooden crates came down with another water funnel, and he curved his body and swam downward, circumventing the funnel. The harsh sound of rushing water filled his ears.
Shards of ships followed, some donning the words MDRT.
A snapped hull with the words MV Castaway came down.
Two ships were destroyed. He knew the Castaway; had seen it during the moments he spent ashore with Angie after the war.
His eyes felt like they were sealed open, unable to look away from the destruction. An uncontrollable shudder racked his limbs down to his tail at the knowledge that Saeryn struck the docks.
As quickly as they had come, the water funnels disappeared, the seas calm once more. But the seafloor was covered in ship parts and a smattering of human corpses.
Saeryn, surrounded by his sentinels and Shangjiangs, made his way back to the palace, passing Kaden on the way. They released the hujings from service and swam off together.
“Uncle, what have you done?” Kaden whispered, trembling fingertips covering his mouth when his uncle crossed his path. “You know it’s only a matter of time before they come for us. This was a grave mistake.”
Saeryn stopped, his expression was flat. “They can try. And don’t try to stop me again.” His glare was a freshly forged lance: lethal, pointed, and glimmering, before he continued on his way.
Kaden cocked his head, fixing a stare on Saeryn’s retreating tailfins—wrestling with the realization of his uncle’s true two-faced nature.
Kaden had fallen right for his honeyed words and false promises.