Chapter 41
Forty-One
Kaden
Kaden floated in his bedchambers, reading from kelp sheets stuck firmly to his wall.
The information from the sentries that they dropped off when he was at the banquet, scribbled on kombu kelp, were tacked at the forefront of the sheets.
It pained him that what they uncovered was only Saeryn’s family tree, his village of residence, and the schooling he received.
Nothing he didn’t already know, but he let them know he appreciated their efforts, nonetheless.
He reached for his two gifts from Angie, running his fingers around them.
One was a mermaid tail paperweight that was much heavier than it looked, and the second was a snow globe with a qi’e couple inside facing each other on a bed of ice.
The base was decorated with two more qi’e, their flippers up and tiny, yellow feet appearing to be dancing, as if they were diving toward the snow globe.
When Angie handed it to him in exchange for the seaflute last tidesyear, she looked so proud of herself. “This could be us,” she said as they exchanged gifts, an inside joke of when she once compared him to a qi’e.
Kaden hadn’t accepted her gifts without a fight. Shortly before they left for the Pacific Coast, she wanted to give him the mermaid tail paperweight. “I got this for you. Thought it would be nice to spruce up your room.”
He initially refused it, and they butted heads for several tidesdays. His culture dictated he was the one to court her, and she only needed to choose. But her culture, on the other fin, saw gift-giving as important and a way to show gratitude, respect, and strengthen relationships.
Four tidesdays after their disagreement, he relented and accepted that gift from her, and a single other one after that, the qi’e snow globe, with the condition he would always be the one giving more to her.
Renewed by thoughts of her, he placed the sculptures back in their proper places on his table, and set off for Saeryn and Aiereka’s village, making one stop on the way.
The animals in their nearby sanctuary clamored around him when he drew near.
Kaden tossed a handful of macro and microalgae out, watching them scatter with the tides, and he smiled to himself.
Angie’s excitement when he took her there last was palpable. In his mind, he heard her as she named the yu here: colorful pink snailfish, arctic cods, arctic chars and sablefish raced for them and snapped them up.
He floated to watch them and winced when something sharp poked his back.
“What the—?”
His gaze met with the tip of a female dujiaojing’s–Angie would call her a narwhal–long tusk, and it was clear she was eyeing the fish swimming around the sanctuary. A second one meandered in and joined the fray—a male with two tusks.
“Oh, no. No, no, please don’t touch them.
” Kaden moved forward, waving them away.
Neither one budged. Their collective gazes held in a standoff, and the female barreled her way through.
“Black fathoms,” he muttered under his breath.
He had to find them something to eat before they plowed through the sanctuary population.
There were already less fish since they started releasing fish to the open sea to help feed the humans.
The last time he’d seen a dujiaojing hanging around the palace, it had been tidesyears ago. The council had said the yu population was thinning at the surface. Kaden took to the seafloor, looking for xia or youyu.
He found a colony of tiny xia nearby, and scooped them up in his hands, wincing with guilt when they struggled to escape.
When he returned, the male dujiaojing skewered two xueyu, and sucked them into his mouth.
The female was at the seabed, chasing a flat-bodied yu across the sands. Kaden shoved one handful of xia at the female and one at the male, and both accepted the meals, sucking the wriggling critters clean off his palms.
Thank the Goddess it was enough for them, as they made their way to the surface afterward.
“I didn’t expect to find you feeding dujiaojings.” He recognized Adrielle’s voice in an instant, and he faced her.
“I didn’t expect to feed them either. They were going for our yu.” Kaden waved his hand in the sanctuary’s general direction.
“We’ve been getting a lot of them around the palace lately. And shayu.” Adrielle’s expression was grim, her tail flicking back and forth, index finger on her chin.
“What brings you around here?” Kaden raised an eyebrow. “Did something happen to my brother?”
“No.” She coupled the word with a vehement shake of her head. “But he asked me to check on you. We know you were trying to stop Saeryn with the attack.”
“Oh.” He glazed his fingers over his abdomen, where the gelatinous bandage had finally come off. “I’m alright, thank you. I wasn’t hurt. I was on my way to the Northwest Villages to get some information on my uncle.”
“Why’s that?” Adrielle asked.
“I talked to the council. If we find evidence he committed a crime, it’s one way to get him off the throne.”
Adrielle reached out and put a hand on his forearm. “We’re proud of you for your initiative. As always, let us know if you need anything.” She pulled her hand away, and Kaden gave her a firm nod of affirmation.
“I will. Here’s hoping I can find some information from the mer who lived around him.”
“I hope so too.” Adrielle darted backward an inch. “I must get back to Libbi and Hadrien. They’re due for their feeding soon. I spent much longer looking for you than I thought.” Her tail stiffened.
Kaden bowed his head. “I’ll see you—”
Adrielle had already gone, the tips of her caudal fins vanishing into the dark, and Kaden folded his arms over his chest. “Then I suppose I’ll go now,” he said to nobody in particular.
He left the sanctuaries, and continued on his way, swimming over a seamount range, pacing himself, and stopping and resting when his muscles and joints complained.
He traveled two seamiles until endless, bottomless trenches stretched out before him like a winding tunnel—the only way forward to Saeryn’s village.
His uncle, like the rest of the royal family and noblemer, lived in the outermost village, where it was quieter and less congested.
To his left, a group of giant haichong congregated around an unidentifiable carcass, feasting on its remains. He wrinkled his nose. The bugs never failed to make his skin crawl. Their size, the way they slithered across the seafloor, shooting out from the dark like surprise visitors nobody wanted.
Kaden peered into the fathomless depths. No sign of life or movement, only pitch-blackness.
Consternation bloomed in his chest and Kaden bit the inside of his cheek.
A bright light shone overhead, and shielding his eyes, Kaden glanced up.
Another human submarine hovered with the same letters, MDRT. Who were they?
Taking in a long swallow of water and letting it filter through his gills to work up the nerve, he descended into the trenches, far from the submarine.