“He’s half-human,” I said.
“So?”
I lifted my gaze to the queen. “I knew someone. She had a baby with a man—but it was stillborn.”
“Adaro was not expected to live past infancy.” Medusa closed her eyes, a heaviness about her. It seemed as though it cost her a great effort to speak her next words. “His body was born wanting to be human, but he is cursed with a mermaid’s venom. When the tide pulls strongest, his body will attempt to complete a transformation. He must seek the protection of land until the venom transforms him back to a merman.”
A silence hardened between us like ice.
“When the pull is strongest,” said Meela weakly. “You mean, during king tides?”
The queen dropped her gaze.
Meela whirled to me, her pulse so strong I felt it on the current.
My mind raced back through time, making other connections. His disappearances. His hatred of humans. What about our failed assassination attempts?
“Your Majesty, is this why he’s resistant to iron?”
“I presume his human genes have to do with it. He discovered it when he was captured by those sailors. He had, of course, spent his youth under the assumption that it would affect him the same as anyone else.”
Maybe he couldn’t be killed as a merman—but did this mean what I thought?
“So when he’s in human form …” I said.
“He is vulnerable,” said the queen, barely a whisper.
All this time, we had assumed he was invincible.
This was how we would kill King Adaro.
Behind us, activity stirred in the entrance. I turned to find the guards who had taken us from our cells.
“You have what you need to make peace in the Pacific,” said Medusa. “Now you will be escorted back to the Ice Channel. I implore you not to attempt to enter the Atlantic again.”
“Wait,” I said, feeling like I was trying to shove a giant boulder around in my brain. “What about Adaro’s armies? What about the labour camp?”
“I have nothing to gain by helping you further,” said Medusa. “I will not be burdened by this.”
“You can’t ignore what’s happening,” said Meela. “When the Atlantic is being invaded, you’re going to regret—”
“That is enough!” Medusa rose from her throne, stretching to her full and considerable length. Her eyes shone red, her dreadlocks resembling snakes more than ever.
A hand seized my arm. I whipped around to find the guards closing around Meela and me. I raised my hands in surrender.
“These maids are not permitted to stay in my city,” said Medusa. “Take them to the Ice Channel.”
They dragged us to the door. I twisted to face the queen, panicked.
“No! Wait!”
Sure, we knew how to kill Adaro, but we were no closer to getting to him. He still had an enormous army, and we had no way of stopping it.
We had one last piece of information to bargain with. It was our one option. Letting Medusa have the serpent was better than not getting her help at all.
“Control is passed by blood,” I shouted from the door. “You can be its master if you kill him.”
Queen Medusa raised a hand, and the guards stopped. Meela shot me a blazing glare. Her lip curled, like she was ready to bite.
