“Don’t hurt him,” I said, realizing how ridiculous a statement it was as soon as I said it.
Niel sounded like he was strangling when he answered. Fern shot him a dark look. “We’ll try to ask him nicely when we suggest he go home and lock himself in before he eats the prize cattle without knowing whether his favorite mermaid is safe.”
Sadie rolled her eyes and swam closer, pulling me in for a hug. “Don’t be gone too long. Just a hunch, but I’m betting Thomas is going to be a real bear in the morning when he wakes and thinks he abandoned you when you needed him most.”
I gave a sharp nod, glancing towards the dark silhouette of the forest that had swallowed Thomas’ beast seconds before. Without another word I dove, leaving my friends behind and returning to finish a war.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“You don’t belong.”
The harsh words floated back to me over the waves when I arrived back. Everyone was right where I’d left them. The Council, Dael, and Mirra were in a huddle, concealed from sight in the deep eel grass. Waiting in small groups around them were the guards and First Lieutenant Liia, waiting for the Council to decide their next move.
Mirra returned Leta’s glare with one of her own, her mouth a flat line and her eyes nearly black with anger.
I turned to look at my sister in alarm as Leta sneered at her.
I opened my mouth to protest, my own temper rising.
Dael was faster, moving forward in her defense.
“We need her skills as a warrior. She’s worth three of our best guards on a bad day and you know it. How can you be so blind?”
Leta’s lips curled in derision. “She’s a Seascrill. How do we know she isn’t behind the entire attack? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the traitor in our midst. After all, she isn’t Tarian.”
Dael growled. “Blood doesn’t make her a citizen of Tarus, family does. She is royalty,” he began.
“She is not,” several members of the Council chimed in.
Mirra stiffened in anger, her eyes dark with betrayal. It had to be difficult to want to save a bunch of people that hated you. “I know a secret way in. It will not be easy to get past the guards the Rebellion has posted. You know they’re expecting us. It’s a suicide mission any other way.”
Leta’s eyes narrowed. She was on the verge of stubborn refusal, but in the end, her rage over the loss of what she considered her city won out over her distrust of Mirra. There was no way we could successfully storm the castle through the main entrance. Just getting into the city without someone sounding the alarm was going to be tough enough.
“Tell us how, and we’ll take it from there,” Leta tried.
Mirra laughed outright. “Oh, I don’t think so. But…I’ll show you.”
Silence reigned awkwardly as the two warriors, young and old, stared each other down.
With a growl, Leta spoke through gritted teeth, “Fine! As if we have a choice here. But I just want you to know the Council takes serious excep—”
Mirra waved her hand rudely and turned away, ignoring the elderly councilwoman’s outrage.
Dael spoke up, looking grim. “The time for talk is over. We need to do this now while they are still trying to regroup and tighten up their forces.” He turned to face Mirra.
“Show us, Your Highness,” he said grimly.
We followed a mismatched procession of old and young, experienced troops mingling with those who hadn’t seen a battlefield in their lifetime. We bypassed the entrance that remained unguarded, staying low and out of sight when we moved along below the windows that offered a view into—and out of—the apartments of the castle during the day. Though it was darker now, there was no sense in letting them ponder too many shadows passing by that didn’t belong. On the back side of Tarus, substantial boulders formed a wall of rock against which the rear of Tarus rested. It looked impenetrable.
Mirra seemed unconcerned as she angled dead center of the tangle of sharp rock. She stopped, floating in place, and waited for the rest of us to gather. With an unreadable glance in my direction, and ignoring the members of the Council entirely, she turned towards the wall and reached out a slim six-fingered hand. The digits were fine boned and delicate for such a fierce warrior. My admiration for my older sister grew. She placed her hand, palm-side down, on a small oblong rock that appeared flat when compared to its neighbors, but that was all that distinguished it. She hesitated, and then she gave a shove. Almost immediately, an entire section of rock slid back, revealing a man-sized tunnel. It was utterly dark in that hole, and I sighed, expelling a froth of frustrated bubbles from my lips.
Mirra never paused. Holding a slim finger to her lips to call for silence, she disappeared down the inky passage. One at a time we all followed. The tunnel itself was probably only a hundred feet long, tops. But the absolute absence of any light, along with wondering what was on the other end, made it seem much longer. I expected to angle down. Instead, we climbed steadily into the tunnel. I had barely registered that it was growing brighter above me when I broke the surface of a small pool inside the castle. I looked up and realized I could just make out the domed ceiling of Tarus far above my head. We had come out in one of the smaller turrets in the upper reach of the castle. The lip surrounding the pool was narrow, only a couple of feet wide. Crouched on the edge was Mirra, her eyes fierce as once more she held a finger to her lips to stall any words I might utter.
When we were all accounted for and free of the water, Mirra leaned in to speak. “We must be quiet. This comes out in a small alley between the turret next to it. They will have the parapet that runs around it well guarded.” She caught Liia’s eye, indicating that she would go left, and Liia should go right. The blonde lieutenant gave an answering nod. Mirra turned and reached behind, pressing a small red brick in the wall that appeared identical to all the others. Soundlessly, a small section of the wall slid back. One at a time we followed her out, drawing our weapons as we went.
Mirra stopped and looked back at us, holding a hand up to still our movement. Her gaze paused on me before moving to meet Liia’s on the other end of our long line. She held up three fingers, then two, and finally, one. We stormed through into the open, coming at the startled guards from both sides of the turret. We picked our shadowy targets in the dark, firing at them before they could blink and recover to sound any warnings. But we were only lucky for so long, as one of the rebel guards was finally able to get out a quick shout before I brought him down with a swing of my staff. The blast of blue fire lifted him clean off his feet and slammed him into the stone wall with a sickening thud. And then we were running. We fired as we went, taking the steps down inside the castle two at a time and removing any more guards we found.
We entered the apartments just as fast, catching more of the rebels, emerging from our beds, and totally unprepared. As we’d hoped, we had the element of surprise on our side, coming at them from the top when they’d been expecting any attacks to come through the front door below.
I stood with Dael and Mirra, staring at the destruction we’d wrought when it was all done. Leta stepped into the room and looked around, frowning. “Where is their commander? I don’t see who was leading them.”
“That’s because he—or she—isn’t here. Apparently, the fearless leader of the Draco Rebellion didn’t deem fit to attend their own party. I wonder why that is? Maybe we surprised them before the leader could arrive,” Dael murmured doubtfully.
I spoke up, voicing the suspicions I’d been having for a while. “Maybe they aren’t here because they know we’d recognize him or her, even with a mask. They aren’t ready to show us who they really are.”
Leta nodded, hissing, “The traitor in our midst.”
At least she was no longer looking at Mirra as if it might be her.
Collecting the rebel troops and finding an enclosure within the castle large enough to house them all took some doing. Mirra and Dael sent several other details into the city itself to do a sweep and roun
d up any other wandering rebels and bring them along. By the time the dust had settled, so to speak, it was morning and we were dead on our feet. The Council members themselves, unused to such rigors in particular, looked done in. Leta dismissed us all to find beds and get some sleep. For once, nobody argued.
“We’ll reconvene and hold a meeting this evening in the library at 7:00. The Draco Rebellion must be stopped, once and for all. We need a plan.”
Together, Mirra and I stumbled into our apartment, frowning in disgust at signs the rebels had been making themselves at home. The place was a wreck. But though we hadn’t eaten in way too long, food wasn’t what we needed most. Dael retired to his own room. Mirra and I closed the door to ours. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, too exhausted to even register, when Mirra joined me seconds later.
#
I had the strangest feeling of déjà vu when Mirra and I walked into the Tarus Council meeting together that evening. Dael alone stood up, a smile of welcome on his face as he eyed Mirra. She didn’t return his greeting. Instead, she tilted her chin up and had a stare down with the other members of the Council, all glaring at her with stubborn disapproval. “She is not invited,” Leta started, her voice dripping with disdain.
I snarled back before she could, “She probably saved your life, and certainly we would not be here at all if not for her showing us the way in. We’d probably be dead.”
The Council leader sniffed, her nose high. “That makes her an effective soldier, not a member of the Council.”
“I’m not a member yet, either. Not officially,” I added.
“You are the queen-elect. It’s the same thing,” she argued. “Like your Onlander friends, she is an outsider, and has no business hearing Tarus Council business. She will be informed later concerning what it is necessary for her to know.”
My temper spiked, and I reached out to hold Mirra firmly in place when, tight-lipped, she would have backed away from the room. “Has it occurred to any of you that those antiquated, outdated laws have landed all of Tarus in its current predicament? The people aren’t happy. The old ways might have worked once, a long time ago. But change is coming to Deep Lake, and you can either learn to work with it and embrace it, or fold underneath the feet of progress…”
I would have said more, but a sudden commotion in the doorway made us whirl about and stare in alarm. Two guards had arrived. Struggling between them in cuffs was a young Seascrill man in his early twenties.
Councilwoman Leta turned, her expression calculating rather than surprised when she saw him. “Good. Put him over there. I’d like to talk to him. Let’s see what he knows.”
She’d apparently forgotten her argument with Mirra. The prisoner had her interest.
They thrust him into a seat, where he immediately seemed to pull in on himself, hunching forward and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. His fists clenched and straightened, the six webbed fingers on each hand forming claws on the top of the table when he did.
Leta stepped forward. “What’s your name?” she asked briskly.
He hunched further, his mouth a mutinous line.
“Who are you fighting under? Give me the name of the Seascrill who is leading you.”
A smirk.
The Head of Tarus Council frowned in frustration, her voice rising. “If you don’t talk, it will not go well for you. Our Commander Shade won’t go as easy on you as I am.”
A snicker.
“If you don’t…” she began.
All at once, the young man looked up, his eyes filled with derision. “I’m not saying a thing. And you know nothing about what the Draco Rebellion is about. You still think it’s just a bunch of foreigners trying to take your city over, to take Tarus. You don’t have a clue about who we really are. As for our leader? The joke is on you…” he giggled.
A sudden thought occurred to me. “He’s not a Seascrill, is he? He’s Tarian.”
His eyes jerked to mine in surprise, and I knew I’d nailed it. I’d also pissed him off.
“Tru is coming for you most of all, lady. All of you who sit on the throne so confident you can control us all. We have rights, or we soon will have. Tarus Council is going down, and then it will be up to the people.”
She scoffed, “What, Seascrill laws?”
“Make my point, old woman. The Mer-folk of Deep Lake will run the show, not you.”
The members of Tarus Council gasped at his cheek. Leta’s eyes blazed bright green. But she said nothing.
And she’d gained less. We needed to make a move on the Rebellion before they gathered forces and recruited more allies to fight alongside them. I glanced at Mirra and Dael, both staring at him in open speculation. Mirra cleared her throat, her eyes cold as she leaned in close, invading his space and causing him to lean back as far as his chair would allow.
“Well, if you can’t help us, I suppose that’s it, then. We’ll just have to raid Misen Caverns, and check every room and passage until we find them. We’ll take every man, woman, and child prisoner. Maybe they will be more forthcoming when they lose their homes.”
“This isn’t about them. They aren’t involved in this. Please. My sisters are there. They are just kids…” he implored, his eyes wild.
Mirra shrugged and stood back, not saying a word.
He ground his teeth, his eyes spitting sparks of hatred. “You are a traitor to your people, Mirra. Do you even know who you are anymore?”
Still, she resisted speaking, waiting him out. Finally, he seemed to fold in on himself all at once, shuddering. “I can’t tell you more about Tru. He’s always masked. But they aren’t in Misen Caverns anyhow. You’d be wasting your time.”
“So tell us where they are,” Mirra demanded, unsmiling.
“They are in Addius Cave,” he confessed, reluctantly.
The Council leader jerked in disbelief. “Preposterous. Why on earth would they go there?”
“Tru said we had to move, that the caverns weren’t defensible enough. He said you wouldn’t look in Addius Cave since your troops have already left, leaving it empty and available. They are holding a meeting there tonight, regrouping for their next move. Please, just leave my family alone. They have nothing to do with this,” he begged.
Mirra shrugged. “It’s not up to me. As has been pointed out to me one too many times, I’m not in charge.”
Councilwoman Leta didn’t miss the dig. She turned to Mirra, giving her a grudging nod.
“Well then, I think we shouldn’t waste any more time. What think you, Dael?”
“I think we should go now, while surprise is still on our side.”
#
Addius Cave should have been deserted. Instead, from the concealment of a large rocky outcropping several hundred yards distant, we watched a young group of men and women. Three Seascrill, accompanied by two Sylvans, swam down and into the cave. All five were well armed and looked like they meant business.
That was okay. So did we.
Pinna had joined us, protesting when Dael suggested she stay behind with the Council to wait for our return.
“I’ve spent too much time on the sidelines as it is, waiting for others to take responsibility for my future. If I want it to count for something, it’s time I took charge of it. That starts here and now. I’ve had the same training as all the rest of you. I can help.”
As she’d said the words, her eyes had been on me. I wondered if I was having an adverse influence on Pinna’s courage. I’d seen her on the battlefield. It was like watching Barbie fight off G.I. Joe with a nail file.
I caught her frightened eyes as we hid for several more minutes. She used brave words, but my baby sister was no warrior.
We waited to see if the Rebellion had any later arrivals before we advanced on the cave entrance.
In silence, and slowly in order so as not to stir up a current, we followed the rebels into the short tunnel leading into the main cave. A few of us were able to surface on the lee side of a large boulder in the mai
n pool, unseen by the rebels gathered there. The murmur of a small crowd of voices reached our ears as we listened as the rest of our force gathered in the water below us. The Draco rebels were in the main cavern where the meeting was obviously being held.
Voices drifted back to us, and we made out a few words.
“He’s promised us a voice. They will finally hear our words,” came the murmur, high and young.
“How do we know the new reality will be any different?”
“Tru promised…” a young woman spoke, her voice earnest with hope.
“Tru is a Tarian. Can he be trusted to have our best interests at heart?”
“A little late for second thoughts now, don’t you think?” This from an older voice, farther back and less distinct.
I met Mirra’s troubled eyes. I wondered if Mirra ever questioned what side she was fighting on. Despite any arguments we’d made to the contrary, Mirra was still half Seascrill.
Something about their conversation bothered me, and I had the feeling I was missing something important. But I had no time to wonder what, as Dael and Leta together gave the signal with an abrupt downward slash of hands. We poured from the pool in a rush, firing our hand bows filled with darts guaranteed to knock them silly for a good while. The suddenness of our attack allowed us to take out several targets before they recovered their wits and could think to fire back.
We had all taken cover before they began returning fire at us. We were evenly matched in numbers, but while our hand guns held darts that would tranquilize our targets, their guns were loaded with razored tips. We wouldn’t be getting up again if they hit us.
Still, Shade had trained his guards well, and our accuracy carried the day as the rebels went down beneath our prowess. We were fortunate to lose no one, though several did not go unscathed and bore multiple wounds that would need tending.
When it was over, we stood on the damp cavern floor littered with fallen rebels. I was just grateful most of them would wake up at least.
Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2) Page 69
