I doubted my stepmother had even blinked.
“I will see you the day after tomorrow. We have the procession, remember?”
He looked unenthusiastic, to say the least. I was pretty sure he was dreading it. I knew how he felt, though I was dragging my fins for another reason. Most of the Mers competing would be dressed to the nines, in their armor or formal evening wear.
Meanwhile, I was wearing a dress that was two sizes too small, one of the few things my stepmother actually provided me with, for some reason. One well-made dress a year, in addition to my uniform. She hadn’t provided this year’s dress as of yet, and since I’d filled out a bit . . . well, there would be more of me on display than planned.
I groaned, wishing for the hundredth time that I was handy with a needle and thread. Thankfully, Lila was. She was doing her best to make my clothes work for me during the Trials. I was paying her in fresh oysters, and if she found a pearl, she got to keep it.
Of course, she said I didn’t have to pay her. But I did. We might be best friends, but she was trying to create a miracle out of thin water. She’d been at it for weeks already.
As one of the many housemaids, Lila worked tirelessly all day. Now, she was most likely huddled in her chamber, squinting at a few of my old childhood dresses and trying to cover my newly-acquired curves.
Newly acquired (and massively inconvenient) curves.
Not just inconvenient because of the dress either. Inconvenient because of the way boys had started staring. At first, I’d thought I had seaweed stuck to my scales, but Lila had explained that it was a chemical reaction.
Nature, she called it. I called it something else.
And thirdly, my new curves were inconvenient because there was suddenly a little bit more of me. There was more to get stabbed or struck or, Neptune forbid, harpooned during the upcoming battles.
I was a slightly bigger target than I had been a year ago. I was maturing at last, apparently. I knew Lila was right. It was natural, if ill-timed.
I waved and Beazil skulked away, looking forlorn. I knew he wasn’t looking forward to this. But there was no backing out.
I had no choice but to enter. As my familiar, he did too.
Besides, if I were a world-famous Spark someday, he would benefit as well. He’d be welcome anywhere, despite his size and the sheer number of razor sharp teeth in his mouth. He’d be protected from overzealous Mers who were frightened by his appearance. As it was, Beazil had to be cautious. He had to stay out of sight in populated areas of the Queendom. There were hunters, Mer and human, who prided themselves on catching and killing a great white.
When I won, he would be protected.
And most of all, we’d both be well-fed. I sighed dreamily, imaging tray upon tray of delicious food. Food prepared by a skilled chef, not hastily eaten raw with no seasoning! When I wasn’t serving the Royals, I could loll around like my shark, stuffing my face. He’d be brought huge nets full of shrimp. He wouldn’t even have to lift a fin!
I’d remind him of all of that tomorrow, I decided as I swam away. I stared at the stunning house before me as I cleared the gate. It rose organically from the seabed, artfully covered in brightly colored corals, sparkling quartz, and other pretty stones. Ornate oversized shells rose from the spires.
The structure was Mer-made but the door was human-made. It was what made the palace so extraordinary.
Massive thick double doors taken from a steamship wreck. The ship had sunk a hundred years ago. In fact, the interior of the palace was practically a two-legger museum, with all the artifacts they had collected.
Not that I was actually allowed inside the house, except to work.
I hurried out of sight of the windows, fearing that I’d be seen. If Thalia or Stepmother caught sight of me, I wouldn’t even have a chance to visit with Lila. The moment they laid eyes on me, I would be called to do any number of frivolous and unpleasant tasks.
I heaved a sigh of relief as I turned the bend and the servants’ quarters came into view. I swam straight through the coral archway and up to the topmost level. The rooms were smaller, and for the most part, the youngest and newest lower-ranked servants were housed here.
Them. Plus me and Lila.
I didn’t mind though. I liked my tiny room with the low ceilings. It was cozy. And since I was relatively small, it didn’t feel all that cramped.
Besides, Lila was right next door. We’d both been put up here years ago, and we never left, even though she was probably one of the most valuable servants they had. She was my closest friend, other than Beazil. I thanked Triton for her every single day.
I dropped my net bag on the bed and hurried to visit my friend.
“Come in!” she called out in response to my soft rap at her door. Like my door, hers was only made of fragile reeds. There were sturdy planks crossing it at intervals to hold the whole thing together.
I opened the door to see her sitting just as I’d imagined. Her silvery lavender head was bent over her work, close to the faint light coming through the small window. The windows were deliberately kept too narrow for any Mer to swim out of. I’d still managed it a few times, particularly when I was small.
“Doesn’t that hurt your eyes?”
She shook her head without looking up.
“I do most of it by feel, anyway. And I’m nearly done.” She tied off a thread and bit it with her teeth, resembling something strange and wonderful. Lila had the face of a young woman but the nearly white hair of an ancient Mer. Her eyes were a lovely soft purple, and her smile was so sweet, I always wanted to hug her.
Of course, she usually had some bit of sewing in her hands, so you risked getting stuck by a pin or needle if you surprised her with a hug.
For me, it had always been worth the risk.
I gasped as she rose and held the cloth in front of her. It was familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why at first. It was beyond my wildest imaginings. There were panels of blue and green throughout, patterned in a way that looked deliberate.
It was my dress from last year, but it wasn’t. It had been taken apart and remade along with the fabric from much smaller dresses from my childhood. Things I wore years ago. There was even some of the black ribbon trim from the dress I wore to my father’s funeral when I was two-thirds smaller.
I felt my eyes well up with tears. Lila knew me so well. She knew why I’d saved all of my old things, especially from before he died.
With that ribbon, it would be as if he was with me when I joined the procession tomorrow night.
“And there’s a surprise!”
I reached out and ran a finger down the front, gasping as Lila detached the long skirt, leaving a handsome tunic. I was stunned.
“I could actually fight in this.”
She smiled, knowing she had pleased me.
“I know. That was the idea.”
“It’s incredible. Amazing. You are beyond talented. I can’t thank you enough!”
I squeezed her, ignoring the pin that poked my flank.
“I think you just did.”
She looked flushed with pride when I finally let her go.
“Oh, I almost forgot!”
I ran back to my room, pulling the remaining oysters from my net. I held them up and Lila clapped her hands.
“You didn’t have to!”
“Yes, I did. And I wanted to anyway.”
She accepted them with a rueful smile. Servants weren’t paid or fed particularly well. We bartered for everything. Mostly, we traded skills and salvaged goods, but anything was up for negotiation. My specialty was finding food. I was always hungry and had grown up here, so I was a natural at foraging.
And since Lila couldn’t swim all that fast, she wasn’t inclined to go roaming. In fact, she was the sort who would get caught by a predator or a fisherman’s net.
That’s why I begged her to stay put and brought her treats whenever I could. I worried about her constantly. I waved to her pufferfish, Cori
, who inflated herself in greeting. They were well suited. Even Cori preferred to stay close to home.
I heard a commotion as servants changed shifts below.
“Oops, I’d better go.”
“I wanted to see you in this!”
I nodded. I knew from just looking that it would fit me perfectly. And the blues and greens were so lovely, I knew it would flatter me as well. Not that I was a great beauty, but I knew I couldn’t ask for better.
“It will have to wait.”
“If only I could make you a helmet. I wish we knew a metalsmith!”
I shook my head. It was impossible. She couldn’t sew a helmet. It had to be forged or salvaged or taken from the two-leggers. Apparently, they wore headgear for a variety of sports. Mers only wore them for survival.
“You’ve done so much for me. More than anyone.”
I gave her another quick hug and retreated to my room, where I threw on my drab uniform. I was a maid, like Lila, though her talent with a needle set her apart. Her abilities were natural (nimble little fingers) as well as magical (her embroidery designs sometimes moved and glowed.) As a result, she didn’t do much other than make and repair clothing and other woven goods for the household. She could have worked for any Mer in the Queendom. I suspected she stayed because of me.
Meanwhile, I was the one who was desperate to leave. I was always assigned the least appealing jobs in the house. Any task that involved crawling or had an unpleasant stench was given to me.
So technically, I was special too.
In my case, what set me apart was how much the two mistresses of the house hated me. Not simply disliked. Not disapproved of. They seemed to genuinely loathe me, giving me the impression they wished I didn’t even exist.
I was never able to understand why. I was just a little girl when we had met. I was nothing but nice to them, even after I’d been banished to the servants’ quarters.
Well, mostly nice anyway.
It just didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t wealthy, beautiful, or talented in some other way. I wasn’t magical. I certainly wasn’t a threat to their glory. All I had were my wits and my fins. And Beazil, of course.
I sighed, mentally preparing myself to get through the night. I might just have my fins, but it would be enough.
It was enough to survive the Trials. It had to be.
Thankfully, I knew I would make Messenger, if nothing else, so my days as a housemaid were coming to an end. I had to leave, even if it meant leaving Lila until I was established. Then I’d come back for her. We’d already sworn to each other that we would start over together somewhere else. She would have a shop, and we’d share a house nearby. My family house, if I could manage to restore it.
I rushed out of my room, and Lila waved goodbye, still clutching her oysters.
“Don’t work too hard!”
I snorted. She knew as well as I did that they never let me stop working for a second when it was my shift. They took a perverse satisfaction in making sure they got as much labor out of me as possible.
Which was ironic, since as a ‘family member’, I wasn’t even paid. Room, board, and one dress a year. That was it.
“That’s a laugh.”
She gave me a sorrowful look.
“I think they plan to keep you up all night working. I heard them talking about it.”
“That figures. After tomorrow, though, they can’t make me work again until after the Trials. And if I do well . . .”
She squeezed my hand. She was just past the age of required participation. She was better off though. Lila would never have been able to finish the race or hurt another Mer, let alone survive the more brutal contests.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy for me either, but I was determined to at least try. I figured if someone tried to stab me, I’d be motivated enough to fight back.
“They won’t ever be able to make you lift a finger again.”
“Right. Hopefully. If I do well.”
She grabbed my hand and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“You will, Tri. I know you will.”
I swam off, trying to make myself believe that Lila’s words were true.
Chapter 4
“Katriana! Come here immediately! These pearls have not been untangled!”
I winced at the shrill sound of Lissentia’s voice. My stepmother was calling me again. She’d been on me like algae on rocks since before dinner the night before.
Lila had been right—they’d kept me up much of the night last night and working the rest of the next day into the wee hours of dawn. I’d managed a handful of hours tucked under a chair in a hallway each night, and that was it.
But I wasn’t tired. I was invigorated. This was it. I’d never be anyone’s servant again.
Except as a Spark who served the Royals and protected the sea.
My fingers were stiff from polishing Thalia’s armor, and I’d barely slept for the second night in a row. I moved quickly but refused to run. I had my dignity.
Waiting on your own sister and stepmother hand and fin was unpalatable, to say the least. Serving food on the table you once ate at with your father was even worse.
And of course, she flaunted him in front of me whenever she could. She loved telling Thalia how proud he would be of her, loudly, and usually when I was in earshot. She told her how much she resembled him, how impressed he would be with her lessons. Lessons I’d never gotten because I’d been serving them.
Not that I minded hard work. There was no shame in a job well done. And it served as a distraction from . . . well, everything else.
But today, it was over. Today, I was free.
In a couple of hours, anyway.
I swam into Lissentia’s chambers, only to find Thalia sitting at her dressing table, admiring herself. Oh, yes, she spent hours doing that.
You could never say that she didn’t have a heart. She did. And she loved herself wholeheartedly with it.
She truly adored herself, I had to give her that. It was too bad she didn’t seem to care about anyone else.
“I need you to do my hair for the procession. I have to be there soon.”
“It doesn’t start for hours.”
Thalia pulled a face in the mirror.
“Really, must you always be so unpleasant? It is so hard to find good help these days.”
I smiled sweetly. Too sweetly, but Thalia was too self-preoccupied to notice.
“I’ll do your hair.”
I took up a comb and ran it roughly through her hair.
“Ow!”
She leapt up, swishing her tail peevishly. We faced off, me with a comb and her with her wickedly long fingernails.
I knew she wanted to scratch me. If my nails had been much longer, I would have done the same.
“Girls! Enough!”
Her mother exhaled.
“You must be there early if you are to meet the Prince. His mother the Queen has forbidden him to enter, but he will be there to observe.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Thalia sounded so meek I nearly laughed. I put the comb down and turned to them.
“I have to get ready. I will see you there, dear sister.”
My smile was not meant to be friendly. We would be in battle against each other soon. And I was done taking orders from either of them.
It was true that many Mers spent their whole lives in service. And for someone as skilled as Lila, it was not a bad life. But for me . . . I wanted to swim. To seek. To walk on land. To prove myself and help Merkind.
To do all of that, I only had to do one thing. I had to win.
I flipped over and swam out a window, something Lissentia strictly forbade servants to do. It was considered quite rude to swim through a Mer’s window, which was precisely why I did it.
I grinned at the outraged sounds of shock behind me. I didn’t return to my quarters. I kept swimming toward the rock border and through it to the open sea beyond. I swam quickly to the cave and gathered my weapo
ns. And then I swam back toward my stepmother’s palace.
Just outside the protective walls was another large rock formation, this one natural. Lila and Beazil would be waiting for me there. She should have my costume and my meager possessions wrapped and ready for me.
Once I swam through that window, I was on my own. There was no going back. I would sleep with the other Mers who were competing in whatever housing had been provided. I had no idea what to expect, but I did know that only average and poor Mers would be there, along with any who had traveled far distances to partake in the Trials.
The Nobility would be chosen for all the Kingdoms and Queendoms worldwide. It was not just our region. Every young Mer in the world was here.
I felt the shackles of servitude fall away. Yes, the Trials were dangerous. Yes, they would be hard. Yes, the odds were against me.
If I failed, I would have to find work right away. That wasn’t always easy for a young Mer, particularly one whose only skills were swimming fast and using a spear against imaginary enemies.
If I lost, there was a chance I would starve. I’d considered that but I doubted it. I was an expert scavenger. But you never knew. In the cold months, it was harder to find food. And the ocean’s bounty was less every year. Pollution was taking a toll on the myriad of marine life that lived in all the world’s waters.
I would not fail. I could not.
I saw pale lavender hair and a wagging arm and my worries fell away for a moment. Tonight was the start of the Trials. I’d been waiting for this chance my entire life.
My chance to redeem myself.
Beazil lifted his head and wagged his fins slightly, his way of letting me know he was glad to see me. In the laziest way possible, of course.
“What took you so long?”
“They kept me working non-stop. What else is new?”
“Here! Your costume, quickly!”
Lila fussed at me, already reaching for my uniform.
“But the ceremony doesn’t start for an hour!”
“You have to be there now! Look!”
The Mermaid Trials Page 3
