Chapter 20 #3
“I see. Now, I don’t want to rush you or sound rude or ungrateful, but I need to return to Lidiane—”
“Wait. Let me get you a container with the best water.” He opens the door, calls a guard, then gives him instructions that I can’t hear very well, but that sound like Gold Reef and water bag.
I am relieved that there’s a cure for Lidiane, for Ferer, and even for me, and yet a little suspicious that it’s so easy. Perhaps I don’t want to raise my hopes too soon, don’t want to imagine what might happen, especially when we still have so much danger hovering over us.
The king closes the door and sits again, and I ask him, “The Witch King, do you know how to defeat him?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“But you knew he wasn’t dead.”
“Yes, I knew that.”
I wonder if the Sea King’s holding back information. “Aren’t you concerned? Worried?”
“He never attacked our court, and I don’t think he’d be so foolish.”
“Your children are on land.”
He pauses, then extends his hand, where he’s holding two dark pearls. “If either of these pearls touches the sea, I’ll come to them.” He passes them to me. “You can give them to Ferer and Lidiane. If things get bad, they can seek me, and I’ll harbor them.”
“How do you trust I’ll give it to them?”
The king raises an eyebrow. “After you jumped into the ocean and asked to duel the kraken to save Lidiane? If that’s not devotion, then what is it?”
“Duty.”
“Hmmm.” He looks at the door. “While they collect the water, would you like to hear what happened? I can see the censure, the judgement in your eyes.”
“I’m worried about Lidiane, that’s all.”
“Is she aware she’s my daughter?”
I try to think of all the moments when she mentioned her childhood or family. “I don’t think it has even crossed her mind. Unless she’s in denial. All she knows is that she needs to avoid the sea, and that the Sea Court murdered her mother.”
“And yet you figured it out.”
“I’ve been around royalty a lot more than she has.”
“True. Tell her…” He closes his eyes. “No. I’ll tell you what happened, and then you can tell her what you think she’s ready to hear. Do you know her brother too?”
What I remember the most is his murderous glare, but I don’t think that’s what his father wants to hear. “Not very well, but we’re on speaking terms.”
He smiles. “What are they like?”
“He’s honorable, powerful, smart. Again, I don’t know him well.
She…” There are so many things I could say, so much, and yet I have to condense it into words.
“She’s kind. Smart, too. Brilliant, I’d say.
Hopeful. Brave to the point of almost being foolish.
Honorable. She’s also an artist, the most talented seamstress in the entire fae lands, and it’s because she likes it, likes to create beautiful things. She’s… special.”
The king smiles, even if sadness clouds his eyes.
“Kary was like that. Special. A land fae, with affinity for water. We met on land…” He pauses, his voice choking with emotion.
“And she came to live here, with me. Even though she was not in her element, we made it work. I wanted to marry her. Would have married her, but my advisors kept saying it wasn’t a good idea, that nobody would accept her, so we postponed.
I was overjoyed when she was expecting our first child, a boy.
I still recall his little hands, his dark eyes, his gills. And then…”
He looks away, pain visible in his expression.
“He was poisoned. I held his little body. It was rigid, cold, lifeless. I held it. It was him. Kary asked to take the body back to her home, to her mother, and I let her. Then… she left me. Could she have tricked me like that? I can’t even understand.
I couldn’t stay away from her, so I found her.
We… she came back here, but she was always returning to land.
Always. And now I’m thinking I understand why, but at the time, I didn’t.
Either way, she got pregnant again. This time, it was a girl. ”
“How did you know?”
“Some sea fae can see, not really see, but they sense things in the water. The womb is water, isn’t it?
And they can see the baby. So it was a healthy girl.
At that time, Selena… Her family wanted her to marry me.
My counselors wanted that too. I was going to marry Kary, though.
This time, I was more careful, and protected our future queen, but then Selena told me it wasn’t my child, and that Kary had a lover on land.
I did not believe those words, and asked Kary to go through the truth ceremony.
It’s when a sea fae is questioned in front of the council.
Lies will cost their life. I was so sure of Kary that I thought it would be a good idea.
But she ran away. The night before the ceremony, she disappeared.
I never found her, and the only conclusion I could come to was that she had indeed betrayed me.
Now I wonder if her betrayal was in hiding our son.
I can see now why she would do that, can see her reasoning.
The thought that she had to hide our own son from me hurts, but now I understand the dangers she was facing.
I can imagine what Selena might have done to assure she’d marry me, to assure I’d have no other heirs.
I never heard of Kary. I searched for her and never found her.
Until that day, when her daughter was on a boat above our court. ”
I can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose the woman he loved. “I’m truly sorry.”
He shakes his head. “I’m glad my children survived. Despite everything, they survived. So something good came out of it.”
“Something more than wonderful.”
“Indeed. I want to meet them.” He looks down. “When the time is right.”
We spend a few moments in silence.
As I’m sitting there, something suddenly shifts inside me, as if a weight is lifted, or a bond cut.
I transcend quickly to the surface and back, and feel no pull, no thrall. Nothing. All the weight of worry and anxiety gets lifted off me. I can transcend! This is such amazing news.
Did they succeed? Did they kill the Witch King?
I wonder if the sea water will be unnecessary, but decide it’s better to take it.
At least I learned something important, but I also learned that Lidiane’s life is in danger. My chest tightens as I consider that living near the shore is likely too dangerous for her.
Then, a bell made of a shell rings on the wall. The king swims up, opens the door, brings a large bag made of some kind of animal skin, and passes it to me.
“This is the water. Regular sea water will help too, but this is better. The poisoning should be gone in a week, but keep washing your body with sea water for at least a month.”
I nod, pull some of the air from the breathable equipment, and then remove it.
“I have to go now,” I say. “I can transcend away.”
The king stares at me with wide eyes. “With no circle?”
I smile. “I’m a good transcender.”
In my mind’s eye, I see the Queen’s River and transcend to its bank. No pull. No Witch King calling me anywhere.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Can everything be that good? Can I hope again? Hope for the first time? I still carry the large bag, even though it might not be important now.
Using air magic, I float to the island and yell, “Lidiane!”
I’m so eager to see her, to touch her, to tell her everything I learned. If she lets me, I think I’ll keep holding her for the next few days, and won’t let go.
“Lidiane!”
There are people standing by the house. Four Nymph guards.
They obviously have some kind of deal with Marlak, and protect Lidiane too, even though they’re enemies of the Sea Court.
Something for me to mull over later. They wouldn’t have come to the surface for nothing.
My chest feels heavy again, and my body shivers with dread, shivers so much that makes my heart tremble.
The Nymphs’ faces are grim.
Panic surges through my veins, and I choke, “What’s wrong?”
“Your Highness.” One of the guards bows. I’m too distressed to wonder how they also know that. “The Sea Court. They came in a carriage pulled by dark moths, and took Lidiane. When we noticed it, they were already flying away.”
A hole opens up inside me. How come I didn’t feel it? Didn’t stop it? Why didn’t I stay here? I try to quiet my breathing, try to calm down my thoughts.
“The Sea Court? Are you sure?”
“We say royal guards.”
My entire body is trembling in anger, shame, regret. Then I remember the lock of hair that the Sea Court guards cut, and wonder if they did some kind of tracking spell. I brought them here, and spent too long underwater wasting time that wasn’t even needed.
“Did they leave anything? A note, something?”
“They did not.”
I want to scream, break something, explode. I want to turn back time and stay here, stay with her. Regret is tearing me apart, breaking me.
No, I have to think. This had to be the Sea Prince’s doing, not the Sea King’s. I gulp as much air as I can, create an air bubble around me, and transcend.
I’m back in that same room, but the king is no longer here.
Instead, five guards point tridents at me.