by Skye Malone
Though that sort of made me wonder about him in general.
I shook the thought off. His life was none of my business. For that matter, whether or not he liked me was irrelevant too. I didn’t think about Zeke that way. And not because he wasn’t attractive – God knew Zeke was attractive – but because he was part of this world, a world I’d never planned on joining and that I fully intended to leave as soon as possible. And because there was Noah to consider, even if I wasn’t really confident about in what terms. He’d kissed me, yes. I liked him a lot. But I wasn’t sure I could claim we were dating. I mean, I’d like to. I wanted to. In my book, a kiss like that pretty much put you in the category of dating a guy. But I also wasn’t certain what Noah thought and I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. After all, that kiss could have meant less to him than it had to me. He could have just been caught up in the moment or whatever. But regardless, I wasn’t going to just forget him and go checking out some other guy now that I was down here. It’d only been a day, for pity’s sake. That was ridiculous.
And Zeke had never given a single sign he thought of me as anything other than some girl he was helping. At best, he was my friend and nothing more.
Not that it even mattered anyway.
Feeling like my mind was steadily becoming a pretzel, I kept myself from looking at any more courtiers as I followed Ina back to her room.
Chapter Seven
Zeke
It took me a moment after Chloe and Ina disappeared through the door to want to move.
And a few moments beyond that to gather my thoughts enough to swim up toward the royal suite.
I wished I could claim seeing Jirral had been a waste of time. It would’ve been easier. And while, yes, most of it had been useless, that part about the Sylphaen…
Shaking my head, I continued upward along the face of the mountain toward the entrances to the top floors. The cult couldn’t reach us here. All the psychotic beliefs and purifying crusades in the world wouldn’t get them past the soldiers surrounding Nyciena.
Though adding a few more guards couldn’t hurt.
Not that I was about to tell Jirral that.
Servants bowed and leaves of fejeria swayed as I passed. The veil around the palace deadened any sense of the surrounding water and cast a silvery sheen on the mountainside. Up above, I spotted Dad’s guards near the opening to his floors – a good sign that he was there and not off holding another audience with whichever nobles had come to town today.
“Prince Zekerian!”
I slowed and glanced back at the shout from below.
Kyne hovered by one of the windows. When he saw me stop, he pushed away from the opening and swam after me.
“We have preliminary results of the tests, highness,” he said. “Do you have a moment?”
I nodded. “What’d you find out?”
“The mixture is strange. Mostly neiphiandine, but with supplementary agents that appear designed to make it stronger, longer-lasting, and even less likely to be affected or overcome by stresses to the system.”
I grimaced. Those Sylphaen bastards wanted to sacrifice her. I’d call that a stress to her system. Why they needed to make sure she stayed in dehaian form while that happened, though…
“How long-lasting?” I asked, pushing the thought aside.
“It’s difficult to say. It would depend upon the young lady’s metabolism, her body chemistry, factors of that sort. But that brings up something else strange. In addition to this, there are other components to the drug. We haven’t yet determined their purpose, but in our tests, they seem to act as suppressants of some kind. It may be that they were intended to keep her body from flushing out the drug, or there may have been another intent behind their inclusion. We will need to run additional tests to be–”
“Yeah,” I interrupted. “Just… whatever you need to do to help her.”
Kyne bowed. “Thank you, highness.”
I nodded. Taking the motion as a dismissal, he turned and disappeared behind the fejeria of another window.
Drawing a deep breath, I kept going toward the soldiers above me. We needed more guards. More anything to keep those bastards from having a chance at whatever it was they wanted.
The soldiers moved aside when I reached them and the dark walls of the upper floor hallway closed around me as I continued onward. Compared to the lower levels, or even the nearby floors that held our own apartments, the décor up here seemed more subdued. The marble and gold accenting were gone, replaced by deep brown stone. The appearance was deceptive, however. Gold inlay traced wire-thin lines through the rock, picking out designs of all the territories of Yvaria, though the patterns only became clear when you passed and the light caught them a certain way. Tiny gemstones did the same, speckling every square inch of the corridor in a display that, as you swam along it, began to look like a child’s fantasy vision of a jewel mine. Bowls of translucent opal hung from the ceiling, holding flames that made the walls sparkle, and starbursts of larger gems surrounded them.
Dad knew what it was to impress, and leave no one who visited with any doubt of just how much wealth and territory he controlled.
Two more guards hovered outside the door of Dad’s personal audience chamber – the place in which all the nobles tirelessly bargained and clamored to be received, though only the elite few ever were.
“Is he available?” I asked them.
“Dinner has just arrived,” one replied. “Allow me to see if he wishes company.”
“Thanks.”
The man turned and slipped through the fejeria leaves.
A moment passed.
“–and I’m telling you two-person teams are enough. We don’t need to waste resources chasing my brother’s delusions, understand?”
I glanced over. At the far end of the corridor, near the opening to the rest of the castle, Ren swam out into the hall from one of Dad’s study rooms. A soldier followed, bearing the same tense and obedient look on his face that all the guards adopted when my brother was around.
“Yes, sir,” the man answered with a nod.
Ren turned and headed back inside.
I scowled, furious at his words despite my relief he hadn’t noticed me. I didn’t need another argument right now. Not when it was obvious what he’d say to the idea of even more guards against the Sylphaen.
The fejeria rustled as the guard returned.
“He will see you, highness,” the man said.
I nodded and swam by him.
On a cushioned seat behind a broad table, Dad was scanning over a collection of reports, his brow wrinkled with displeasure. A silver tray of food rested nearby, most of it already gone, and additional stacks of paper-thin, bleached seaweed lay on the table, the writing on them indecipherable from where I stood.
“Thank you for seeing me, Father,” I said, bowing uncomfortably.
He didn’t look away from the reports in his hand. “I have officials from Ryaira coming in ten minutes to discuss their ongoing border dispute with Teariad. What did you need to ask me about?”
“The Sylphaen. I–”
“Your brother is sending people out within the hour, Zeke. We’ve already settled this.”
“I know, but I’d like to request additional guards around the palace.”
He glanced up at me. “Why?”
I hesitated. I couldn’t bring up Jirral. Dad would dismiss any idea that came from him out of hand.
Not that I’d blame him. Ordinarily, anyway.
“As a precaution,” I said. “If the Sylphaen are back, there’s no guarantee they haven’t gotten inside the borders already. I want to make certain the capital is protected.”
Dad paused. “We will be safe here, Zeke. I know you and he have difficulties, but Ren is more attentive to our intelligence network than you give him credit for. Before you came home, he’d already put the palace guard on alert about potential Vetorian spies and taken measures t
o secure any leaks in the border. Those measures will serve against anyone, Sylphaen or not.”
“Father, I–”
“Zeke, it will be sufficient.” He sighed. “You should have listened to your brother and come home, especially in light of how you were attacked. I appreciate that you wish to help this girl, but no one is worth the safety of a member of the royal family. You and Niall both, I would have expected you to understand that.”
I worked hard to keep from scowling, and not just because of the way the words stung. What should I have done? I’d been the only one who knew what Chloe looked like, who’d recognize her friends, or who’d seen the bastards after her. The guards could have hunted forever to find her, only to have the Sylphaen get away with Chloe ¬in the meantime.
Dad set the reports aside. “Son, we will find the ones responsible, and regardless, they will not endanger us here. And whether they are trying to resurrect that dead cult or not, rest assured I will see them punished for what they did to you.”
I couldn’t stop the grimace this time. I knew what Dad’s version of ‘punished’ looked like. I’d rather it never happened again. And in the meantime, I didn’t want my request being dismissed as some trauma over being grabbed by the Sylphaen.
“It’s not about that. I’m fine. But these guys are–”
“Enough.” He shook his head, his brow furrowing as though something bothered him. “Increasing the guard further will only serve to frighten the populace and create an impression that we doubt Yvaria’s strength. I will not–”
His brow furrowed again. A cough escaped him and he tapped a fist to his chest, as though trying to dislodge something in his throat.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
Grimacing, he nodded. “Fine, I just–”
The cough came again, harder. His hand grasped the edge of the table as he doubled over.
I hesitated, nearly two decades worth of training that forbid me from touching the king holding me paralyzed. “Hey,” I called to the guards outside, not taking my eyes from him. I made myself swim closer. “Are you sure you–”
He choked, tumbling from the seat.
I rushed to him, weaving around the table fast. Grabbing his arms, I tried to help him up from the floor. His hands clamped down, digging hard into my forearms as he looked up at me.
His skin was splotchy. Blue and purple in turns from veins breaking inside. Blood vessels had burst in his eyes, staining them red, and his chest spasmed as he fought to breathe. His mouth was moving, forming words I couldn’t hear, and fear subsumed every other expression on his face.
“Help!” I yelled.
I looked to the door as the guards rushed in.
“Get a physician!”
Their eyes went wide and one of them spun fast, racing from the room.
Dad convulsed, his hands clenching on my arms, and I turned back to see his bloodied eyes go wide. He gasped, pain tightening his face as his gaze went past me to the ceiling with a look of terror.
Which faded. Melted away, becoming a sort of hideous confusion. He trembled, his brow drawing down, while something almost like sorrow drifted through his eyes.
And then it evaporated like smoke, leaving nothing.
“Dad?” I tried.
My fingers fumbled for his pulse. I couldn’t find it. Hurriedly, I lowered him to the floor and then braced my hands on his chest. My palms shoved down hard, over and over. I watched his face, hoping for any reaction.
None came.
Physicians appeared beside me. Guards pulled me away. Kyne and his assistants surrounded Dad till I couldn’t see anything but his tail anymore.
It didn’t move. Nothing changed. Kyne shouted orders, and I couldn’t hear the words over the rushing in my ears.
I stared, trembling. I couldn’t believe this. I just… It didn’t make sense.
Dad was gone.
Chapter Eight
Chloe
“So what’s Kansas like?” Ina asked, hovering by a shelf near the ceiling of her spacious bedroom. She flipped open the lid to a stone box and glanced down to me curiously.
Sitting on the broad windowsill with plant leaves swaying behind me, I shrugged. “Flat, dry, though the western part is more like that than the eastern. My town is pretty small, so it’s mostly just farmers who live there.”
She returned her gaze to the box, and took out a pair of earrings. For a moment, she scrutinized them before finally raising them to her ear and studying her reflection in the mirror attached to the wall nearby. “What do you do for fun?”
I shrugged again. “Watch movies. Play video games. Hang out with friends.”
“Huh. That ever get boring?”
“Sometimes, I guess.”
She nodded thoughtfully and returned the earrings to the box.
My brow furrowed. It’d been a few minutes since we arrived at her enormous apartment, but Ina showed no sign of having further plans. Idly drifting near the ceiling, she seemed more interested in investigating her jewelry.
And asking me random questions about where I’d come from.
“Anything else you want to know?” I hazarded.
She glanced to me again. Her face twisted with consternation, and then she folded the latest earrings in her hand and sank through the water to take a seat at my side.
“I just… we don’t spend much time with them, you know? Humans. Oh, we hang out and have fun. But we don’t live like them. It’s just so odd to think about.”
She shook her head like she was trying to wrap her mind around it, and then she exhaled, refocusing. “So tell me this. You said you never knew about the dehaian stuff till recently, right? So what’s that like? Never changing like us? Always being in one form? How does that feel?”
I hesitated. “Normal.”
She waited.
I wasn’t sure how else to respond. “I mean, this isn’t really an option, so…”
“It just seems like it’d be so strange. Like, sometimes I wonder how humans stand it, not being able to move around the ocean. Being stuck on land like that.”
I shrugged.
She sighed. “Yeah. Normal.” She shook her head again. “And so weird.”
Drawing a breath, she turned her attention to the jewelry in her palm. Large emerald studs lay beside long ear cuffs of pale gold. Delicate chains looped down the length of the metal, with more emeralds in glistening settings running freely along them. Lifting one of the cuffs, she held it to my ear.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “You should definitely keep these. They’ll look incredible on you.”
I blinked. A smile twitched her lip as she put them in my hand.
“Up here, come on,” she said, swimming toward the mirror above us.
Still feeling shocked, I followed.
“So, these are totally protected from water pressure here in Nyciena,” Ina continued as I stopped in front of the mirror. “Just be careful not to take them outside the veil. They don’t have any treatments on them like our supplies do, and they’re too delicate for our natural magic to work on them either, so they–”
Her brow furrowed.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, looking uncertain. Turning, she swam out of the room.
I hesitated, and then set the earrings on the shelf. I followed her through the apartment and out through the leaves of the front door.
“Hey guys?” she called to the guards. “Is everything alright?”
The soldiers glanced at each other. “I believe so, your highness,” one told her.
“Could you go make sure? I just–”
“Help!”
We froze, Zeke’s cry echoing from a level above us. Shouting followed, and immediately two of the guards by Ina’s apartment took off, racing for the upper floor.
I started after them, only to realize Ina wasn’t with me. Looking back, I spotted her by the doorway
, her face immobile with shock. The other guards hovered beside her, clearly torn between watching me and protecting their princess. For a heartbeat, Ina didn’t move, and then suddenly she kicked hard in the water, shooting past me and up through the main corridor like a rocket.
Gasping, I chased her, the guards coming right behind.
The upper level of the palace was a zoo. Dehaians filled the hallway, and I could hear Zeke yelling at the end of it, his words lost in the din around me. At the archway, guards shouted orders to lock down the city, while servants cried out questions of what was going on.
I swam after the sound of Zeke’s voice. People buffeted me, pushing by me in both directions, while others raced past overhead, following instructions all their own.
From a room at my side, Ren emerged into the chaos, and immediately I could tell something was wrong. His face was ashen, his eyes vacant, and he clutched his stomach like it pained him.
“Hey!” I yelled to the dehaians around me. “Hey, he needs help!”
I grabbed Ren’s arms. His face tight, he looked at me, his hands still pressed to his middle.
“You…” he wheezed. “You did this…”
I stared as he doubled over and collapsed against the doorframe.
Guards appeared, shoving me aside as they tried to help him.
Ina screamed at the end of the hall.
I took off, pushing past people and trying to follow the sound. I could hear Physician Kyne ordering people back, and as I came closer, I saw Zeke, his arms wrapped around Ina as they both looked through a large doorway on the other side of the hall.
A guard blocked my path. “Stay back,” he ordered.
“What happened?”
The man ignored me, his attention taken by others trying to get past. I turned back to Zeke.
He looked like he’d been hit with a two-by-four. One hand rubbing Ina’s shoulder, he stared into the other room, his brow twitching down as though he was trying to make sense of what he saw.
