Chapter 83 Aria
Chapter Eighty-Three: Aria
My fate is to be decided today by Queen Amari.
The throne room is plunged into darkness, the cloudy sky above and the lack of crystals within making it feel no better than a jail cell.
Perhaps that is an omen of things to come.
Allegra has just finished presenting the information she received from Nia, telling my mother of my cave of treasures and that I had been in communication with the seamount sirens since their escape from the Queen’s Legion.
Allegra’s dark blue eyes sparkle with her usual level of animosity towards me, contrasting the way her belly is softly swollen with life.
Where my closest sister is gentle in her movements, Allegra’s body moves as if she is on the hunt.
She is abrupt and curt, behaving so on edge that it coaxes the feeling alive in me.
I have already swapped out my old mantra for Myla’s, and as my mother’s gaze pores over me from where she sits on her throne, all I can think about—all I can focus on—are those six words: Who am I willing to become?
Sirens eagerly wait behind me to see what my fate will be, Allegra ensuring all knew that I was to be investigated by the queen today.
I feel their attention on my back as harshly as I feel the queen’s at my front, but I already know that if my mother is to condemn me for these supposed crimes, I will fight it.
I will fight for Lyre. For Mashaka. I will fight for myself.
For all the times I didn’t before. And though our alliance is still tentative and new, I will fight for Sade and her secret crusade against our mother.
Another person enters my mind—one with dark hair and even darker eyes.
One whose ruthlessness is only outdone by the intensity of her stare.
I find myself continuously letting my mind wander to her, even in the most unlikely of circumstances.
But if our last interaction had been any indication, Myla prefers to keep her distance from me.
My mother pounds her trident on the stone at the base of that rotten throne and the room falls silent.
“Allegra, you bring serious accusations against one of your own,” she says, her voice resonant as it fills the throne room.
“A princess’s duty is to her queendom and queen.
To her people. One found to be acting against those priorities should be punished in a manner that befits the severity of the crime. ”
“I agree,” Allegra chimes in, her eyes meeting mine as she snarls.
“Sade, General of my legion and second eldest daughter, what has your investigation of Aria revealed?” My sister swims forward from her place in line above me.
We had already discussed what she would say and how she would have to act so both our mother and Allegra would not become suspicious.
While Sade has the queen’s trust, my sister reminded me that all it takes is one slip up, one moment where our mother might not believe we are loyal to her, and everything will fall apart.
“Your Majesty, I followed up with the information Allegra was given by the banished Nia Adanna. She was correct in saying that there is a hidden cave among the rocks.”
The females gathered behind me hiss in disapproval, bubbles swirling from their frenzied movements.
Allegra’s smile is a vicious thing, as if she can already taste the bloodshed that is dancing around in her mind.
When I look at the queen, there is an emotion I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from her before.
It isn’t quite shock or disappointment or anger but some mild mixture of the three.
“However,” Sade continues, her voice loud enough to be heard over the chattering sirens, “when I entered the cave, I did not find the items and correspondences that Nia claimed would be there. It was empty. No sign that anyone had kept anything there.”
“Impossible,” Allegra growls, darting to Sade and stopping right in front of her face. “That is a lie!”
Sade’s expression remains bored, one hand holding her trident while the other lays lax at her side.
“By all means, Allegra, go check for yourself. Ask the queen for permission to prove that I’m wrong.
Surely, you, someone who has not left the palace in months, must have proof that what I’m saying is incorrect. ”
“Don’t insult me, Little Sister,” Allegra snaps, her talons growing from her fingers.
“We both know that Aria is sympathetic to those traitors. That she is the weakest of us all. To suggest that there is nothing when we were told there would be many things there to prove Aria’s pathetic bleeding heart is to suggest your own compliance to her treason. ”
Sade leans into Allegra’s space, towering over our eldest sister in a way I had never noticed before.
Because Allegra has been bound to the palace, her muscles have grown smaller, her curves more voluptuous.
But Sade is sculpted, her body a testament to her training.
There was a time I believed Allegra was the fiercest of us all, but as Sade forces her to back up with nothing more than a low-pitched growl, I recognize that I was wrong.
“To suggest that my intentions—that my heart and soul and blood—are not fully devoted to this queendom is to show your stupidity, Sister. Perhaps the better question is why Nia would come to you of all sirens with this information.” She turns to look at our mother.
“My Queen, I am nothing if not your humble servant. Ask me to take you to the cave, and I will. I have no love for those who aim to hurt us, and I do not believe Aria is one of them. Is she aloof? An annoyance? Someone I wouldn’t trust as a member of the Queen’s Legion?
Absolutely.” Despite knowing the words were coming, I still lift my shoulders with a cringe.
“You have always shown your loyalty to me, My Daughter,” Queen Amari says, making Allegra tense at her side.
“It is not your devotion I question but hers.” She nods to me with her chin, her face now perfectly masked with indifference.
“Princess Aria, you are accused of treason in the highest order for helping those I’ve banished and working with them while they avoid prosecution.
You’re also accused of direct violations of our laws regarding those we kill for our benefit by attempting to honor their lives after death with a collection of treasures and trinkets found that belonged to them.
Have you anything to say before I give my final judgement? ”
“Your Majesty, I am innocent of these accusations. To believe I am guilty of them is to assume that I have not only secretly been helping an entire group of sirens underneath the noses of Sade and Allegra but under yours as well. As my sisters have pointed out, and as I know you believe, I am not the kind of siren capable of such sleuthing. I may have shown empathy to the youngest of the sirens when they lived in the seamounts, but I would like to remind some of you here that I was gone when they escaped. It would be impossible for me to have contacted them when I wasn’t even here.
Nia Adanna is a vengeful siren, and it would not surprise me if her reaching out to Allegra is less about painting me as a traitor and more about weakening the queendom by tearing our family apart.
” I practiced my answer to this question in the mirror on repeat last night, Sade helping me perfect it.
The shake infused in my voice is real enough, as is the slight tremble in my hands.
I had never stood up to my mother before, never once defended myself.
But I am not alone in this, and too much is at stake to risk failing now.
My mother’s gaze is uncompromising as she stares down at me, and my stomach churns at not being able to even guess which way she is leaning towards.
“We will vote on your fate, then,” she says, looking down the line at my sisters.
There are only three as Dyanna had been given permission to sit this hearing out in favor of her pursuit of whatever knowledge my mother wants her to find. Lyre is the first to speak.
“I find Princess Aria Malika not guilty,” she says, her voice steady and calm. I swallow, my gaze falling to Sade.
“I find Princess Aria Malika not guilty.” The sirens behind me feign shock at this, apparently sure they were going to witness me being punished today.
There is still a chance of it. Regardless of how my sisters vote, the final decision is the queen’s.
Allegra’s vote is, predictably, one finding me guilty.
All the attention turns towards my mother.
Her eyes haven’t strayed from their position on me, her gaze piercing as if she is hoping to see the truth by looking hard enough.
A part of me wonders if she is waiting for the right opportunity to finally strike me down.
Not that she needs one. As each second ticks past, the knot in my stomach grows larger.
Sade has already vowed to help me escape should this take a turn for the worse, but leaving is not something I want. Not unless Lyre is at my side.
The queen’s trident meets stone three times again, and in the silence that follows, she announces her decision.
“Based on the information presented and the votes of my daughters, I find Princess Aria not guilty.” Brief chaos erupts, siren voices riding the current of the water as the queen rises and leaves the room, Allegra close on her tail.
It isn’t until Lyre joins me at the bottom of the dais that I let my mother’s decision wash over me.
“This is good news,” Lyre says, her hand coming to my shoulder.
All I can do is nod. It is good news, and for reasons I don’t quite know how to verbalize, that scares me even more.