by Neha Yazmin
“Think about it this way,” he said. “People that are extremely talented—musicians, singers, dancers, poets, clever thinkers, geniuses—they only come along once or twice a century, do they not? But their brothers and sisters aren’t like them, are they? In the same way, every now and then, someone is born with Ooshma’s or the First Queen’s powers. Like you were born with Eena’s.
“I’m certain that none of your sisters have the abilities that you do, though the sea folk will want to take them all the same.”
The thought was a scary one and left Aaryana speechless for several seconds. “Why didn’t you want to tell me about this?” she asked eventually. She tried to keep accusation out of her voice—Wyett hadn’t known about her heritage before today.
“I’m not supposed to know,” he replied, “and those that do know, aren’t supposed to tell anyone. If everyone knew that some people might possess the First Queen’s power, or a fraction of it, they’d be hunting them down. It would be the Nidiyan hunt all over again. Secrecy means protection.”
“So, how do you know about this when no one’s supposed to?”
“Well, that takes us back to me being in denial—”
“About which godling you descended from!” Aaryana gasped, realisation dawning on her quick and hard. “It’s the First Queen, isn’t it? You’re a descendant of the First Queen!”
The Combat Master was waiting for them in the Stone Ring. Of course, he was. Rudro would have come here every night in hopes of meeting with Myraa and Princess Malin, if a lucky twist of fate hadn’t handed her the Sea Princess’s tale on a platter today. Her heart was still racing from being in Parth’s room for such a long time.
She had leaped up from the bed when Parth assured her that she’d find out for herself whether or not the Sea Prince became King. “I will read it right now,” she’d said, hugging the frail book to her chest. “You probably want to start getting ready for dinner, Your Highness.”
“Indeed,” was all he said, eyes fixed on her face.
She had more or less ran out of his chambers after giving him a quick curtsy, not letting him have enough time to change his mind about the book. The thought of the trouble she’d find herself in with the Queen for her absence barely made her wince as she went to her room, donned her black cloak, and hurried out of the castle.
She found the youngest Princess where they’d agreed to meet, dressed as a boy, of course. Her stiff nod told Malin that she had the book and they headed for the stadium in silence. It was still light, still stiflingly hot, but Malin seemed to be feeling just as reckless as Myraa with regards being seen or followed. It was a relief that no one was walking towards the Stone Ring and the entrance to the arena was deserted. Myraa and Malin were certain that they’d slinked inside unnoticed.
The Combat Master had probably been more careful in his trip to the Ring. He looked like he wanted to rebuke them for coming here before it became completely dark.
Before he could say anything, Malin said, “Ah, Rudro. It’s good that you’re already here. Lady Myraa has the first edition.”
The Princess looked at Myraa as she pulled the old text out from under her cloak.
“Good work,” Rudro said with a nod. “I hope you made a very good excuse—”
“We did what we had to do,” Malin cut in. “Now that we have the book, I’m anxious to read it.”
Myraa could see that the Princess was trying hard to not look at her. Trying hard to not think about her mother’s letter to Princess Aaryana. She couldn’t deny Rudro the chance to become privy to the contents of this book, but she didn’t want him to know that this tale had significance for her sister.
When the Combat Master nodded at her, Malin turned to Myraa and asked for the book. Myraa obliged and took a seat on the stone bench. Rudro and Malin copied her.
The Princess opened to the first page and began reciting from it:
“Did you hear about the Princess of the sea?
From her Prince of the Sea she did flee.
Her lullabies were such that she
Could lull great men to sleep,
She married no mortal but had children a plenty,
And never looked back at the ever-searching sea.
As she was laid to rest at the bed of the sea,
She told her people not to weep.
‘I’ll come to you,’ said she,
‘I’ll come to you if you need.’”
As Malin started reading the story, Myraa mulled over the second half of the poetic epigraph, getting more and more confused. The line about the Sea Princess being laid to rest at the bed of sea suggested that she’d died, just as the Sea Prince had come to suspect. But if she had died, how was she able to assure her people that she’d come to them if they needed her?
Was she still alive somewhere? Somewhere her husband couldn’t find her? Somewhere in the sea?
Nodding sombrely, Wyett admitted, “My mother’s side of the family dates back to the First Queen.”
“You’re a descendant of the First Queen,” Aaryana whispered, “and therefore of Ooshma, and more importantly, of the fire angel. Two godlings.”
“Yes.” He blinked slowly.
“Is that why the Fresdan curse hasn’t affected your family as much as it has the others?”
He seemed surprised that she’d made the connection. “I believe so. My mother’s... her blood... it must have acted like a... buffer against the curse.”
“And you’re gifted!” she realised with a gasp.
“I am.”
That’s why he knew what he shouldn’t. Why he hadn’t been completely blown away by her flesh healing right before his very eyes. Why he seemed so calm about her lineage. He was familiar with… magic.
“And though it has been centuries since the First Queen died,” Wyett continued, “the rule still remains, and applies to you and me: The gifted descendants of Ooshma can’t have children with the gifted descendants of Eena or Aanug.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply.
“I’m a gifted descendant of the First Queen, who was far more powerful than any of Ooshma’s descendants, because she had the blood of two godlings. You’re a gifted descendant of Eena, the Queen of the Deep.”
“The two of us can’t marry,” Aaryana whispered unintentionally, mouth running dry.
“The two of us can’t marry,” he reiterated. “Now, isn’t that something to be in denial of?”
The story seemed to end abruptly. Even though the words ‘the end’ were written on the bottom of the last page, and there didn’t seem to be any pages ripped out after it, it felt as though there was more to come.
The book didn’t follow the Sea Princess into old age, but it did say that she gave up her immortality when she came above water. So, she probably did end up dying. And the epigraph had already informed the reader of her being laid to rest at the bed of the sea...
Myraa took the book from Malin and looked closely at the final page. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“What do you mean?” Rudro and Malin asked simultaneously.
“Why doesn’t the story say anything about the Sea Prince?” Myraa shook her head as she flipped through the delicate pages of the book, searching for anything on the Sea Princess’s husband.
The Sea Princess had enjoyed a very colourful life, had many lovers, and many children. There hadn’t been an evil human Prince that wanted to use her gifts for his own agenda; in fact, there hadn’t been any human villains in the tale. The Sea Princess had lived in peace and was revered by her people—and seemingly oblivious to the husband that was looking for her.
“It did mention the Sea Prince,” Malin said as she grabbed Myraa’s frantic hands to still them. Rudro carefully pulled the fragile book from Myraa’s reach. “In the beginning,” Malin continued. “It talked about how the Sea Prince was infatuated with the Sea Princess, and his ambitions to rule the sea—”
“Not that part,” Myraa almost snapped in exa
speration. “The part where he leaves the ocean to find her and take her back.”
“What are you talking about?” Rudro rose from the bench and started pacing. “The book doesn’t mention the Sea Princess’s husband once she leaves the sea. Yes, he probably did search for her, but he obviously didn’t figure out that she’d come above water to escape him forever. He’d made her life hell.”
Yes, his obsession with her and his hunger for power had only grown after their marriage. He had even tried to convince her to go up against the Sea Goddess. That was what tipped the scales for the Sea Princess. She realised that her husband wanted to use her power to take the Throne from her mother. She had no choice but to leave the sea forever.
Myraa stood and marched up to the Combat Master. She blocked his path, forcing him to stop walking the length of Princess Aaryana’s compartment. She had always hated it when he paced during one of the Princess’s duels. Or when he stood rigid as a plank and worked his jaw while he watched his favourite student fight in the Ring. It was particularly infuriating to watch right this minute.
Rudro frowned at her but held his tongue. When Malin joined them, Myraa told them about what the Sea Prince did when his wife left him.
“Where did you get all that from?” Malin asked, her eyebrows knitted together. She looked suspicious.
“Parth told me,” she replied with a challenge in her tone.
“When did you speak to Parth? Where did he hear this from?” Rudro asked and turned around; it looked as though he was about to start pacing again.
“It doesn’t matter when I spoke to him; what matters is what he said. And if you start wearing away the stone floor with your pacing, Rudro, I swear I will break your legs!”
Rudro halted at the same time that Malin rebuked her with, “Lady Myraa, there’s no need for that!”
Sighing, Rudro repeated his question, to which Myraa said, “I don’t know where Parth heard that part, but he led me to believe that it was in this book.”
“Maybe he made it up?” Malin suggested, shrugging.
“It didn’t feel as though he did.”
“Perhaps that’s what he guessed about the Sea Prince,” Rudro wondered out loud. “I mean, it’s obvious the Prince would have wanted to get his wife back, the way he was infatuated with her.”
“And the next two editions of the Sea Princess’s tale do have the character that wants the Sea Princess for himself,” Malin reminded them all. “You know, the evil Prince that they kill in the end.”
“Yes, but why didn’t the very first version have that human Prince?” Myraa asked before answering her own question. “Because there was no evil human Prince that wanted to use her to conquer the world. The people that changed the story added that character so that everyone would forget about the evil Prince from the sea. You know what this means, don’t you?”
Malin and Rudro exchanged confused looks.
Myraa made an exasperated noise. “It means that Parth is right in guessing that the Sea Prince left the ocean to find his wife,” she announced.
The other two sucked in a breath, finally realising what Myraa was getting at.
“And if she was real, if she was a higher sea folk, if she was the daughter of the Sea Goddess, and if she was married to an evil Prince that was obsessed with power and with her—”
“Then he probably did leave the waters to take her back,” Malin said with a gasp.
“That means,” said Rudro, “we have a powerful, evil higher sea folk living amongst us—”
“And,” cut in Myraa, “he wants to rule the world.”
EPILOGUE
Aaryana didn’t know about denial, but she did feel like laughing, laughing a mirthless, sarcastic, and miserable laugh. It wasn’t funny at all, two people opening their hearts to each other and learning moments later that they couldn’t be together.
It was reminiscent of a dream she’d had back in Adgar, about a certain Combat Master. But that hadn’t been real; this was. Rudro hadn’t spoken of his feelings for her, whatever they might be; Wyett had laid himself bare. Aaryana had done the same. All for nothing. Her chest caved in with disappointment.
Yes, denial was better than this slow imploding of her heart.
Try as she might, Aaryana couldn’t forget what she had just learned. The Crown Prince of Roshdan had indirectly admitted to having a secret power inherited from the First Queen.
“Tell me what your gift is,” she said; there was nothing else to say anymore. “Tell me what power you have.”
Wyett did one better and showed her. He stuck out his hand behind him, the way he would to his servants to let them know that he wanted the object they were carrying for him. His fingers were curled as though to take hold of the hilt of a sword. For a moment, Aaryana wondered if he was calling for such a weapon, that his power was moving objects with his mind.
His gift was more spectacular, more potent.
The fire behind him began to climb higher and higher into the air, the flames arcing and spiralling as they soared towards the sky. Then, the peak of the fire went from resembling a small mountain to the top of a fountain, and the flames began pouring like waterfalls on all sides. A fountain of flames, indeed.
Breath held, Aaryana watched as the fire took various forms—a flaming sword, a Crown of waves, a Throne with wings—until it was slithering like snakes, hissing and coiling and reaching skyward. So mesmerised was she, that it barely registered with her when Wyett brought his hand and held it before her, cupped like he was hoping to capture droplets of rain.
He had caught a ball of fire instead.
A ball of eternal fire.
The apple-sized fireball floated a couple of inches above his palm, its heat warming her face, its light making Wyett’s green eyes sparkle.
“Fire,” Aaryana breathed. It was all she could say.
She saw him nod. “I can’t conjure the fire out of nothing,” he told her quietly. “But if a fire is lit, I can make it bend to my will. I can make it grow. I can keep it from devouring. And I can snuff it out.
“The First Queen had this ability; she’d inherited it from her father. I think she could conjure it, too. I can only control it once it’s been lit.”
“Like from a match or a candle?” she asked.
He nodded.
“To burn a sea-bear!” she realised. She could picture him shooting a ball of fire at the beast and making the flames char him to ash. “Or half a forest!”
“Or an arrow aiming for your heart,” he whispered.
Her lips parted in awe. On the night of the harvest festival, Wyett had melted Rozlene’s arrow with eternal fire before it could hit Aaryana in the chest. He must have used the flame of one of the lanterns. She knew there had been a bright light beyond her closed lids before everything went dark!
“That’s unbelievable,” she said. “You can control eternal fire.”
End of Book 2.
Read Book 3 now.
If you think this series deserves to be enjoyed by others, please rate this book.
Look out for Curse to the Kingdom, a free novelette set in the world of this trilogy, which can be read at any time!
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