Chapter 51
Fifty-One
Kaden
Kaden and Varin floated side by side, with the two sentinels who returned to guard them, putting his mind at ease.
Another seaquake hit.
“I cannot wait here to die.” Varin swam to the doorway. He hovered at the entrance and faced Kaden. “I must return to Cassia.”
“King Varin, we cannot permit you to pass until we have word that it’s safe to leave here,” one sentinel with a gray tail said, holding out her lance to block Varin’s path.
Left alone with his thoughts, a startling one struck Kaden. “Where are Cyrus and Adrielle? And their children?”
“Shangjiang Narea sent another unit to retrieve them, and the nobles. Hopefully they can get to them before the landwalkers do,” the other sentinel, with a light green tail said.
Kaden sent a wordless plea to Sanyue. To save Cyrus and Adrielle and their merlings. To save his people.
A scraping sound outside drew the sentinels’ attention, and they pointed their lance and trident outward. Kaden craned his neck to look over their heads but saw nothing.
The sentinels darted inside, dodging a spear sailing across the opening.
Two male divers swam past and spotted them. They raised spearguns, but the sentinels struck first. A lance through one diver’s chest took one down, and the other sentinel caught the other, grabbing him by his foot before he could escape and brought him to a stranglehold.
Both humans fell. A third emerged, a woman, firing a speargun through one of the sentinel’s hearts, and the sentinel faded before Kaden’s eyes.
The sight of his soldier bleeding filled Kaden with dread. The remaining sentinel went after the third diver, spearing her and yanking her weapon out while she bled out and sank.
“Black fathoms. I need to do something. I need to fight.” Kaden’s words hitched, and he looked to Varin for support. “I can use my monarch magic.”
“You cannot. You will get swarmed,” Varin replied.
“There’s more coming. You need to get out,” the remaining sentinel said. “Go!”
She whirled around, trident facing the swarm of divers approaching, and Kaden clutched Varin’s wrist, pulling his uncle with him as they swam over their heads before the humans could blink an eye.
They sped through the halls, tails pumping, never looking back. Kaden was fatiguing, but they needed to keep going. More divers in camouflage emerged from the corners of their palace.
“How many are there?” Now Varin was the one to pull Kaden along as he slowed, giving in to his tired muscles.
“Sharp left.” Kaden urged, and they exited the palace from its apex. A spear skated by and grazed his tailfins.
A human submarine advanced on the palace proper, firing another torpedo into their gardens.
It pushed the mer back, and a cloud of sand from the seabed stirred up.
Sentinels swarmed them, using a burst of magic to push it back.
The submarine hardly moved, and a second smaller one was visible, coming in from Kaden’s left side.
So many dead bodies on the seafloor, attracting a small shiver of shayu.
In the distance, divers were escaping with filled nets, and submarines and more divers prevented the mer from going after them.
Any hopes of him being a good leader sank right along with the dead mer and humans. He didn’t know what to do now, what to tell his soldiers. How many more mer had to die?
What had Saeryn caused? He swore to execute his uncle without mercy when he saw him again, the coward.
“Your uncle did this.” Varin spoke Kaden’s thoughts aloud, morose. “And now he’s left you to clean up the mess.”
Kaden set his jaw. “He did.”
“We need to go there. Use our magic. Keep them back. With you and I, they won’t stand a chance,” Varin said.
By using our magic, Kaden knew he meant a tsunami devastating enough to carry the entire human army and their ships out of their seas. Memories raced of the destruction Serapha had once wrought in her fury. Not just with a tsunami but followed by a cataclysmic maelstrom shortly after.
The docks and land miles up the coast were empty. This would be their chance to drive the intruders out without hurting human civilians.
Still safe in their place, Kaden stared, sweeping across the mer and human horde, brushing away a lock of hair that had drifted into his eyes.
From the left, another unit of sentinels and Shangjiang Marron appeared from the humans’ flank, saviors slicing their way through the illuminated sea.
Following them were three hujings and two dabaisha, and a shiver of what Angie would call salmon sharks raced past them for the dead divers. The unit approached Kaden and Varin.
“There. The humans are undefended from the seafloor. If we can direct a wave upward, we can drive them out,” Kaden pointed out.
“We’ll take you,” Marron said. The hujings, shayu, sentinels and Shangjiangs surrounded him as they moved through the depths.
“Why are the sentinels not using our magic to keep them back?” Kaden asked.
Marron grunted. “There are too many of those Goddess-forsaken landwalkers coming from all directions. Some of our sentinels have tried using their magic to sweep them back, but now they’re too tired to fight.”
When the front of the palace came into view, Kaden was going to be sick.
There were blood blooms everywhere. Blood and dead bodies, humans and mer, and discarded spears and lances were sunken to the seafloor.
Missiles flew at the mer soldiers and the palace proper.
And yet the mer still fought. With their reinforcements, they outnumbered the humans, but the humans were relentless in their attacks.
Still more divers made off with what seemed to be loaded nets, and Kaden’s gut churned.
Did the mer still have a chance to beat the humans back? He wasn’t so sure.
Cries surrounded him, carried on the currents.
“For King Kaden, King Aqilus and Queen Serapha!”
“Kill them all!”
From the distance, a shadow of a third and fourth mini submarine approached the back of the palace. A missile grazed Kaden’s tailfins, striking the courtyard and shattering the coral structure on the palace’s left side.
The barrier had been broken, leaving the palace and mer fully vulnerable and exposed.
Thoughts of retreating and regrouping filled his mind. But was that the right thing to do now? He had never been so paralyzed by uncertainty.
Marron and the sentinels created a dome around Varin and Kaden as they dove to the seafloor.
Kaden’s pulse slammed relentless in his temples, his mind fuzzy and blank.
The screams and cries and shouts around him blended until they became a muffled cacophony in his ears.
Part of the queendom had fallen to ruin, littered with the dead.
The queendom that now belonged to him. Those were his people out there, fighting for their lives. Fighting for their king, for him.
They reached the sandy bottom and glided along it, and Marron released the hujings and shayu from service. The animals dispersed into the dark, some swimming away from the direction of battle, others turning to join the rest of the mer in their fight.
“We will use our magic to draw the humans together and away from us. Then it is up to you, King Kaden, King Varin,” Marron said.
Kaden took a large swallow of water.
“Take the lead, as this is your queendom. Sanyue will answer your call first. I can only lend my magic once She has blessed you,” Varin said quickly.
Kaden gave a stiff nod. Could he do this? He had to try, try to remember how Serapha summoned Sanyue to her aid.
Above them, more submarines and divers appeared.
Marron kept his gaze upward and raised a hand. “We will rejoin Narea and her unit. Await my command and strike.”
Kaden, Varin, Marron and the sentinels surrounding him launched to the middle of the mer from the bottom, and Marron and his sentinels made for the largest submarine.
“Now!” Marron screamed.
At the sound, the shayu and hujings returned to their sides, racing for the submarine ahead of them, snapping at the humans who tried to get in their way.
Currents intensified around them, enclosing them in a whirlpool. The force was drawing the mer closer together, their gills opening and closing faster and faster.
They sent the whirlpool to the humans and their ships, an aquatic blast sending the humans and mer at the forefront flying back, twisting and turning, and clearing the palace courtyard.
Kaden braced himself to stay in position, tightening his shoulders and tail.
The hujings moved underneath the submarine, overturning it, and the mer, able to regain their balance quicker than the humans, struck immediately, and with another blast of magic, sent it crashing into a seamount behind them.
The sentinels followed suit in the chaos, giving chase to the smaller submarines while the hujings and shayu descended to the dead humans and mer as a reward.
“Chase them to the surface!” Narea called from behind him, and the mer moved into formation.
Kaden followed them with Varin in tow, his head light and spinning, paddling his tail relentlessly to keep up with the moving army, making abrupt turns and dives and ascents to catch the scattering human army.
Sunlight shimmered around them.
It was time.
“Your Majesties! Send them back and keep them out of our home!” Marron’s authoritative voice rang loud and commanding in his ear.
Kaden said nothing, his heart racing. He had to do it, now. But if he didn’t get a hold of his new magic potency...no, he wouldn’t think of the alternative.
He took a quick peek over the surface to check their location.
“Sanyue,” he whispered. “Grant me your blessing. I need you. Help me save my people.”
A brief flash of heat scalded his insides, and he jolted. The currents stilled, appearing to await his command.
“Stay back,” Kaden said. “It’s coming.”
“Goddess be with you,” Varin whispered.
The sentinels, Marron, and Narea obeyed.