A deep, sinister laugh booms from Queen Amari as she rises from the throne. Her voice trails off before she looks down her nose at Zahra. “I have another who says you have. Bring her in!” All of our heads turn to the back just as another female is led through the middle aisle though she remains free of any legionary’s hold.
“Darya?” Zahra says quietly, shock widening her eyes as she stares at the female.Her sister. “What are you doing? What did you say?”
“I told Her Majesty the truth of what I saw last month. You, fucking that mortal man on the edge of the beach and then letting him go!”
Snickers of disgust and hissing sounds ring out, the mob moving closer to Zahra before the legionaries push them back with their spears. Commanders in the legion have smaller tridents fashioned after my mother’s, while everyone else carries spears, both are made of different colored sea glass.
“What do you have to say to that, Zahra?” At the queen’s words, everyone’s eyes shift to the green-haired siren, waiting for her to confirm or deny. I’m not sure either answer will change her fate.
“It is true,” she growls, hanging her head low as her body struggles to maintain its floating.
“You think the life of this mortal man is equal to ours?” my mother asks, her head tilting to the side. When her questiongoes unanswered, the legionaries pull back Zahra’s arms more harshly, her grunt of pain causing a ringing in my ears.
“I think it’s unfair to punish him for the crime of two hundred years ago. I think he did notaskto be a victim to our song, and therefore, he does not deserve to die for it.” Faster than Zahra—let alone those holding her—can react, my mother darts down the dais and backhands her so severely that her head snaps to the side, the sound echoing out over the room.
“We are trapped down here, unable to enjoy the land we were promised,becauseof his kind. His ancestors, whether they be blood to that wretched king or not, started the war when they denied us what should have rightfully been ours. You dishonor our own past queens with your self-righteous pity on those who deservenone.”
“Youdishonor our ancestors by pursuing vengeance that you are not owed,” Zahra says quietly—though the words might as well have been a scream with how they echo in the following silence. If there wereanychance that my mother would let Zahra go with only a warning, something I have never seen happen, then those words changed the trajectory of her fate. The queen stares at Zahra, her hardened gaze relentless before she softens her features. Backing up, she turns to those gathered.
“Do you see the delusions she is under? To think that we should showmercyto the men who attacked us all those years ago? I was there! Where wasourmercy?” Her voice booms off of the palace pillars and walls.
Zahra slumps between the guards, unable to hold herself up anymore.
“One day, this Spell will fall, and when it does, we will take what is ours. What should havealwaysbeen ours. For we are beings of two worlds, something no other creature can say in Olymazi!” The crowd cheers, pumping their fists in the air and swimming around each other in chaotic swirls that temporarilycloud the space in bubbles. My mother revels in the way they lap up her words, in how they believe without a doubt that they areowedmore than what they have. I don’t know what to believe.
According to our history books, The War Of Five Kingdoms started when the Mortal Kingdom betrayed my grandmother and tricked her into thinking that they would make her daughter—my mother—their future queen, wed to their crown prince. Princess Amari Malika was only twenty-seven when the resulting war started, young by our standards with a siren’s lifespan averaging three hundred and fifty years. Our aging slows down at twenty-two years, which means my mother was barely on the cusp of adulthood when she was forced to fight in the war caused by the Mortal Kingdom.
Queen Amari bangs her trident on the dais, the clanging sound resonating in the air and causing me to wince. The congregation stops their wild movements immediately, vicious eyes all turning to face the throne.
“Zahra, you are accused of treason by disobeying a direct order from your queen. You put this queendom at risk for your own selfish and misguided morals. You have been turned in by a witness to your crime, and thus, we have evidence to proceed with your punishment.”
I count to ten, willing ice to fill my veins and begging with the gods to help keep my face neutral in the wake of what is to come.
“I am a fair queen, my dear subjects. I do not want to hinder you as they do above. I do not want totakefrom anyone that does not deserve it. I simply want what I was promised—what you beautiful beings and your ancestors werepromised!” she bellows, her voice taking on a magical cadence though our abilities don’t work on other sirens. I canfeelthe power of the queen as she delivers her final remarks. “And this betrayer”—she points to Zahra with her trident—“would risk you all in the name of saving amortal man. Does that seem like someone we want inour midst?” The question is rhetorical, yet the crowd shouts out their answer all the same.
“No!”
“Is this someone we want near our precious offspring?”
“No!” their screams grow more frenzied. Though my gills draw water in for oxygen, I still feel my throat constrict.
“Is she someone who deserves to stay alive after her treachery?”
“No!”
“Allegra, come here.” My sister moves down the dais and to our mother’s side quickly, her delphinidae, Mashaka, right behind her. “As the future queen, I believe you should show everyone what we do to those who betray their own kind.” Allegra’s hungry smile somehow transforms to one of begrudging pity. She almost looks convincing too, like she really doesn’t want to do this but knows she has to. As I struggle to keep my composure flat and unresponsive, Allegra battles to keep the murderous glee inside her from showing. Her only tell is the grip she has on her silver trident. The weapon, smaller than my mother’s but larger than any of the commanders’, seems to vibrate with her energy. Three opal gemstones lay flat across the front, while dark blue eelgrass is wrapped around the trident’s long body, trailing off like fluttering ribbons at the end. An addition Allegra added on herself.
The legionaries holding Zahra swim out to her sides, extending her arms so that she resembles a cross. She manages to lift her head to look at my sister. The crowd surrounds Zahra in a crescent shape, their colorful hair floating all around them so at odds with the menacing darkness threatening this moment. Allegra casually swings her trident side to side as she stares Zahra down, her cold eyes unforgiving and calculating.
“I have no regrets about what I’ve done,” Zahra heaves out between her teeth. “And you—”
My body jerks involuntarily when her words are cut off as the trident pierces her heart. Allegra drives it farther into her, the legionaries straining to keep their hold on Zahra from the force.
“Traitorous bitch,” Allegra seethes before ripping the trident out, a squelching sound following. Blood eddies with the water, my eyes frozen on watching how slowly it blends in.
“Take her body and cast it off Tula Ledge. Let the creatures of the deep have her,” my mother commands with a flick of her wrist. The legionaries turn, dragging Zahra’s lifeless form behind them as they head to the door.
Mirth starts to sound again in the throne room, as if nothing happened at all. My mother swims back up the dais, taking her seat on her throne of bones and leaning back—completely at ease.
