“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Then everyone who doubts you can see what the rest of us do?”
An involuntary smile crept onto Kai’s face. “And what do the rest of you see?”
“An amazing mer who cares about others more than she cares about herself. I…” Amerin dipped her chin and toyed with the hem of her fitted blouse. “Thank you, Your Highness. For looking out for me. I’m sorry that I fell apart.”
“You don’t need to thank me or apologize. You were afraid. You can’t control that.”
“You did. When I saw the Loyalists, I thought…” A small shudder overcame the other woman, and a single tear squeezed from the corner of her eye, trickling down her pale cheek. “I can’t do anything valuable. Nothing but style your hair and help you with clothing, things you’d learn to do on your own in time without me. Maybe they’re right. Maybe servants are useless. We do nothing more than things the high mers can learn to do on their own. We are absolutely disposable.”
“Hey. Hey.” As Amerin’s mood deflated, Kai stepped forward and took her by the shoulders. “You are not disposable. And you’re not worthless, either. You’re a good person, and there will always be a need for good people.” She paused a moment. “I learned that from Mr. Rogers. You’d like him, I think.”
“Mr. Who?”
“One day, we’ll go to the surface together, and I’ll show you old re-runs.” The shows in Atlantis weren’t as entertaining, most of them action flicks, detective noir-style mystery, period pieces, and Greek historical drama. The one hidden blessing was that reality television didn’t exist, as she couldn’t imagine the underwater version of Survivor. In her head, she dubbed it Shark Bait. Though something told her it would be rather similar to the surface show’s actual premise, a group of mers trapped on a tropical island in the middle of the Atlantic, given only the bare necessities to survive.
Kai snapped her thoughts back to the present, cursing her wandering mind. “I want to do something today. Are you up for heading out of the palace? I think I’m fed up with lying in bed.”
“Of course, Your Highness. What would you like to do?”
“Tell me what would you would like to do.”
“Me?” the handmaiden squeaked.
“Yes, you. We’ve done all the things I like. If I weren’t here in Atlantis, what would you do with your free time?”
Amerin hesitated for a moment, lips pressed firmly together. Within a few moments, her sad eyes brightened and elation spread over her face. “I can show you one of my favorite places, but you’ll want to wear sharkskin or scales. Going by coral glider isn’t the same. To really appreciate it, you have to swim there.”
“Sure. Let me change.”
After Kai squeezed into her favorite set of Gigas fish scales, they set out from the palace and passed beyond the Atlantian gate with a few Myrmidons as their escort. Two men led by Heracles hung back a respectful distance while Amerin and Kai swam ahead down a road paved by white stones.
“Where are we going?”
“The Fields of Gold. It’s one of my favorite places to go to when I want to think.”
“I’ve never been there.” Manu preferred to remain close to the dome, often taking her no more than a few miles beyond the city gates. “What are they?”
An impish smile livened Amerin’s round face. “You’ll see.”
No matter how many times Kai ventured beyond the city limits, the sight still took her breath away. Miles and miles of underwater terrain beyond the city dome had been aquascaped into carpets of algae, seagrass, and flowering corals covered in phosphorescent anemone. All of this was hidden beneath the murky cloud protecting Atlantis from human discovery, lit by solar lanterns providing the necessary light for growth.
They passed fields of kelp grazed by hippocampus livestock and sea cows resembling oversized manatees, traveling farther than Kai ever ventured with Manu.
“We’re almost there. It’s just over the ridge,” Amerin said.
“Race you.”
When they crested the ridge, Kai understood how the place came by its name. Hundreds, if not thousands, of gilded starfish glowed amidst clouds of fuzzy carpet algae, no doubt sifting through the soft fibers for food particles. Flicking her tail, she swam down the low hill to the golden field.
Amerin touched down onto a green patch first. “Watch your step if you use your legs. There are sink holes here from the sandworms. It’s safe to walk on the bubble algae. The barren places are where they’ve been digging.”
“Thank you for bringing me to your special place.”
“Our special place,” Amerin corrected her. “We used to visit the gardens as children. King Neptune would bring us here sometimes, and we’d play for hours among the starfish and collect a basket of them.”
“What did we do with them afterward?”
“Eat them, of course.”
Kai’s belly twisted inside out. Sheer willpower kept the horrified expression from her face. At least, she imagined it did until Amerin burst out laughing.
“You’ll get used to dining on Atlantian food again soon.”
“We…ate them?”
No matter how much she wanted Amerin to be teasing, a sinking feeling in her gut told her that was not the case.
“Have I steered you wrong yet when it comes to the food in the underwater realm?”
“No,” Kai said reluctantly, deciding to be adventurous. “I’ve eaten a lot of things without asking what the hell you’re feeding me. I regret asking about the whale milk cheese though.” Despite her disgust, it had been creamy and absolutely delicious melted over the baked oysters.
“Then trust me now.” Amerin plucked one of the golden stars from the seaweed and snapped the poor creature in half.
And Kai, having no other option, took the unfortunate animal without grimacing.
“Well…to memories.”
They tapped their starfish halves together and bit in.
Trusting Amerin turned out to be a good thing.
Between Kai and her new friend, they ate about a dozen of the tender, sweet and savory critters, scooping out the edible parts of the spongy insides and leaving what remained for ocean scavengers. Kai sprawled on her back in the seaweed and gazed at the illusory ceiling over the underwater realm. The magic glittered sometimes, resembling stars scattered in a midnight sky. Amerin sat cross-legged beside her while watching a colorful hermit crab hauling away a piece of star fish exoskeleton.
“Thank you for bringing me here.”
“You’re welcome. I was happy to.”
As she lay there contemplating her life, Kai wondered what made Amerin less valuable than the high mer in their fancy shell manors and glass homes. It seemed silly, treating a portion of their society as less, simply for being born to the wrong mothers, into the wrong families.
“Amerin?”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I truly enjoy being with you. Between you, Cosmas, and Manu, you’ve done the most to make me feel welcome here. I know it’s your job but…I do sincerely appreciate all you’ve done.” A few heartbeats passed before she added. “Being with you reminds me of my sister from the surface.”
“I do?”
“I know you’re not her, but when I’m with you…being away from them hurts a little less.” Kai blinked rapidly a few times, thankful for the water to disguise her tears. “I miss my family and I worry about them. I don’t know if it’s silly to worry about them when they’re safe on land, but I worry. I worry about what they’re doing now that I’m gone. What they must think about my disappearance. I just…” She sighed and dropped her head, hating that she’d ruined a special moment and feeling quite ridiculous. “Ignore me.”
“I don’t think you’re silly for worrying about the people who raised you. I only wish I could meet them. Your surface mother must be a wonderful person.”
Kai pushed up into a sitting position. “She is. She’s the only mother I can remember. Being here an
d enjoying life feels like a betrayal. Does it make me an awful daughter that I’m here moving on while they probably mourn me?”
Amerin’s lips pressed together in a taut line. “No, it doesn’t. You’re only in this predicament because of what happened to you as a child, and that isn’t your fault, Your Highness.”
“Kai.” When the handmaiden blinked and canted her head, Kailani took both of her hands. “Call me Kai. Not Princess Kai—just Kai. Please. I don’t want a servant. I want a friend. This evening with you was the most at home I’ve felt since reaching this city.”
“It helps that there are no explosions,” Amerin said, features solemn until a tiny grin snuck onto her face.
A tiny bubble of laughter escaped Kai despite the serious topic. “It certainly does. Come on. Want to help me collect some of these for later?”
“Yes!” Amerin clapped as she crawled to her hands and knees, gathering stars in the apron of her dress. “And some for Commander Manu as well.”
Kai flicked her tail and drifted off the ocean floor. “Why Manu?”
“No particular reason. I just figure he’d like a star.” The devilish glint in Amerin’s eyes set an uneasy knot in Kai’s belly. Something told her there was more to it, but the only way to discover why was to go along with her friend’s mischief.
21
Jumping the Shark
Shark riding wasn’t too unlike horse riding, though the ocean was more forgiving when a disobedient animal threw its rider. Instead of flopping from the saddle onto unyielding Texan ground, the shark’s wild ride sent her rolling off his back into the water with an inelegant splash.
Cosmas cracked up, deep belly laughs echoing across the open blue. It was fall now in the northern hemisphere, and he’d brought her up to the surface to practice beneath the clouds. She had no idea of their location in the Atlantic, but the sun shone warm and the water was pleasant. While she appreciated the sentiment, she did not care for his amusement.
“That’s not funny!”
“It was damned hilarious is what it was. You should be hoarse from that scream at the end.”
“You’re not much of a teacher if you’re going to laugh at me.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “You’re not much of a student when you disregard my instructions. You brought it on yourself.”
Despite how much she wanted to call him a slew of names, he was right. And now she had to leap back into the figurative and literal saddle somehow, so she could make a fool of herself again.
“Perseus! Get back over here.”
Obedient for his rider, the enormous shark cruised back to them and waited, huge maw gaping open.
“No treats for you until you’re good for the princess. Go easy on her, my friend. She knows no better.”
“I really don’t,” she said, sighing. “I don’t think I have the same intrinsic magical talent as the rest of you high mer.”
“You do. And it’ll be strongest in you, remember? You’re our queen, the only true direct descendant of Thalassa and Pontus.”
“Maybe I was lost for a reason, to save you all the trouble of making me into something I can’t be.” It meant to leave her in a teasing voice, but the catharsis of voicing her unspoken worries left her feeling raw and exposed.
Cosmas frowned as he bobbed on the surface, treading water easily by only kicking his feet in lazy movements. “Hey. None of that, Your Highness. That’s no way to look at it. No one excels their first try. I’ve been on sharks and hippocampi since I was able to crawl on dry land. It takes practice. What you see here”—he jumped into the leather saddle on Perseus’s back—“is the result of seven decades of work.”
“Seven decades? Gods. I’m so hopelessly behind I’ll never catch up.” Until then, she’d never considered Cosmas’s age.
“Your High—”
“Kai.” His brows rose. “Just call me Kai. No ‘Your Highness.’”
He nodded, but the disturbed expression on his face didn’t ease. “Kai it is. Still, whether it takes you seven decades or seven days to grasp the basics of maintaining your seat, you have time. Our people are long-lived. There’s no rush here.”
That wasn’t what Aegaeon had said. Kai pushed her sopping hair away from her face. “How can I rule as a proper queen or stop the Gloom when I can’t convince a shark to obey me?”
“Perseus is a bit of a blowhole. It would have been kinder of me to bring Malleus or even Hecate. Both are headstrong and stubborn fish, but gentler on new riders. Come on.” He offered her a hand then helped her into the saddle in front of him. His arm fit around her waist with ease, a band of steel encased in tiger sharkskin.
Kai leaned against his chest and tipped her head back, peering over one shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. And don’t allow my uncle to worry you about becoming an overnight warrior queen. All things take time, Kai.”
“I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“You must. The animal can sense your trepidation and your worries, and you pass this anxiety on to him. When you’re on a sea creature, your thoughts must be on the task ahead of you and nowhere else. He wants to listen and obey, but how can he when you’re distracted by other matters?”
“I guess.”
“There’s nothing to guess, Kai. Queen Ianthe didn’t become a legend in a day, and neither will you. What Aegaeon and Lago haven’t told you is that centuries of training created our beloved queen. Like you, she learned through trial and error, through practice, and through mistakes.”
“Did you know her?”
“I did. I swear you remind me so much of her. She was as beautiful inside as she was outside. No one could meet her without becoming enchanted by her wit or her humor. Or her courage. She’d put herself between a Gloombeast and one of her citizens without a second thought. Any citizen,” he added, when she raised a skeptical brow.
“Even a servant?”
“Especially a servant. I heard her once tell my father the way we treat our most helpless is a reflection of our entire kingdom. So be kinder to yourself.”
She nodded.
“Breathe.” He splayed his palm against her stomach. If he was Manu, it would have incited little flutters. Cosmas’s touch did nothing. “Breathe deep and close your eyes.”
Despite the rising doubt, she closed her eyes and became aware of Cosmas edging back, away, and finally off the shark’s back.
“You aren’t one rider and one shark. You’re one mind. One being. Feel the smooth glide through the water, the waves cresting over your fins.”
“I don’t have fins right now,” she muttered.
“His fins are your fins,” Cosmas corrected her.
Perseus slid through the water, gradually descending until the white-capped ocean waves rose from her hips to her chest. She opened her eyes and stole a glance to her left to see Cosmas dutifully swimming alongside the shark with powerful strokes. Whether the beast sensed her determination or her frustration, he didn’t rear and throw her again.
Hours later when they returned to Atlantis on the majestic beast, Kai’s aching thighs barely allowed her to walk into the city. Cosmas laughed at her again, though it was a good-natured chuckle as he slipped one arm around her waist. She couldn’t help but laugh along.
“That was fun. Despite all of my bitching and moaning, I loved it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” A snap of his fingers leeched the water from their garments and hair. Every droplet merely pulled away and dropped to the floor. She marveled over it, fascinated by the simplest spells. “I have another great talent if you’re interested, one far superior to my teaching skills.”
“Yeah?”
“Not bragging, but I was once told I could have had a lucrative career as a masseur.”
He spoke the magic words. Kai’s core clenched, not in anticipation of having his hands on her, but because her body remembered too well how much she’d wanted Manu to explore its every inch. She stumbled fo
r a step, but Cosmas’s strong arm tightened around her.
Stupid, traitorous body, finding attraction towards the wrong man. She cursed it inwardly but put on a smile. “Not this evening, I don’t think. I’d like to get to bed early. Read a little perhaps, now that the language isn’t gibberish to me anymore.”
“Oh.” He masked his fleeting disappointment behind a kind smile. She adored him all the more when he didn’t pressure her. If there was one thing Atlantian men had in their favor, it was their ability to take “no” for an answer. “Let me walk you to the palace then.”
The moment she reached her private suite, she shut the door behind her and leaned her back against it, eyes closed. Amerin popped up from where she sprawled across the divan with a book.
“Is everything okay, Kai?”
“Just peachy.”
Far from it. Given Cosmas’s perfect qualities, she’d resigned herself to accepting him as her mate. How sad. She was soon to be engaged to one man, and absolutely smitten with another. To make matters worse, they were the best of friends.
Amerin’s skeptical gaze followed her across the room. “You don’t look peachy. Did Commander Cosmas upset you?”
“No. I upset me. I—ugh, never mind. It’s stupid.”
“What’s stupid?”
“Nothing. I’m tired from riding in the sun all day,” she lied. One afternoon beneath the sky hadn’t been enough, but she hesitated to ask for more favors from Cosmas. He didn’t seem to be the sort, but her experience with men on the surface told her he’d eventually want something in return, and she wasn’t quite ready for that.
Or maybe she was. Maybe a romp with him was exactly what she needed to fuck Manu out of her mind. The sooner she stopped dreaming about the hunky warrior, the sooner she could embrace a future as Queen of Atlantis with Cosmas at her side.
Manu had been gone for three days and was scheduled to be absent for many more, leaving behind Cosmas as an adequate substitute for her training. Still, a jolt of guilt shot through her every time he reached for her hand or twined their fingers.
Return to Atlantis: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 1) Page 15
