“Liar!” Yemi barked.
“Lirik!” Minevra’s voice sounded from the palace below. “?‘Not a moment past moonrise,’?” she snapped.
Yemi froze. Any sudden movements, and Minevra was likely to bring what existed of the palace guard down on her head. A worried Lirik looked from Yemi to her mother and back before Yemi flicked the spear off again.
Lirik’s shoulders relaxed, though it was hard to tell if it was in relief or disappointment. “You have the night,” she said quietly. “Think about it.”
Yemi followed her with her eyes down to where Minevra floated testily in front of an entrance. The old woman glowered back up at her until Lirik passed and disappeared inside.
It was possible Lirik was being honest. It was clear that Minevra had all but shackled her to this city. But there was no amount of headfuckery that Yemi could tolerate as innocent.
“Your quarters have been prepared,” Minevra said, biting each syllable.
Yemi took a deep breath and descended. Minevra placed herself in front of the entrance and eyed Yemi’s spear until she handed it over to Horus again. When she moved, it was grudgingly, but she escorted Yemi back up the hallway. Lirik was gone.
“I need to speak with the queen again,” Yemi insisted.
“That isn’t possible.”
“I’m sure it is.”
Minevra spun on her with a measured tone but an intense tightness about her face. “I want to make two things very clear to you, Yemaya of the Land. The first is that you are not welcome here. You have no rights, no privileges, nopowerwithin these walls. You remain by the grace of Her Majesty. The second is thatI run this city. And if you come near my daughter again, that grace will not be enough to protect you. Are weimmaculatelyclear?”
Yemi bit her tongue to keep from smiling as she stared Minevra down. What was the ancient steward of a dead city to a queen with a penchant for violence? She envisioned at least a half-dozen waysHorus could be relieved of the use of his hands and teeth as he loomed over her.
It would have been satisfying, but not smart. And if she wasn’t leaving with an army at her back, she was at least going to leave with answers. Helene had them.
“Authority.” Yemi grinned, just not with her eyes. “I have noauthorityhere. I think we both know I have power.”
Minevra said nothing, but her lips pressed together even tighter.
“Nowwe’re clear,” Yemi added.
Minevra signaled to Horus that they were moving again and turned to lead. The guards in the halls kept their watchful gaze over Yemi as she passed. Lirik was still nowhere to be seen. Undoubtedly she’d divulged information her mother would have insisted stay private. Yemi felt she owed it to her to throw Minevra off the scent.
“You know,” she said pleasantly, well aware of the irritation she was causing. “In Ixia, when we host our royal friends, we feast, we tour the grounds, and we put on an exhibition of our country’s greatest warriors in a series of games.”
“Charming,” Minevra deadpanned.
“I hope so. Now that I’ve toured the grounds, I can’t help but notice what’s missing. I imagine your military might is something you’d normally hide. I am, after all, an unknown entity. You could understandably question my motives in wanting to see what Abyssa is capable of in terms of combat. But I wonder if that’s truly it, or if the matter is much simpler.”
They came to a door at the end of a hall, and Minevra moved aside to let her in, saying nothing, but her eyes had darkened to storm clouds. Her hands remained clasped and tense in front of her. A single twitch in the right direction, and Yemi knew the might of the palace guard would descend on her. She went on anyway.
“Now, the queen refused me her aid. Forgive me if this is insulting, but could it be that there are no military assets to begin with?”
“Assume what you’d like,” Minevra snapped.
“I will.” Yemi smiled politely. “Her Majesty could’ve dismissed meon perfectly valid grounds of not possessing an army. Instead, she refused me out of pride. She wanted me to believe she had a choice in the matter, when in reality, she does not. Which makes me think that the exodus Abyssa has sufferedincludedHer Majesty’s military, making this the last Mer territory I should have visited.”
“The monarchy has been split among the world’s seas, yes, settled in places not as easily hidden as we are here,” Minevra explained, not that she felt she needed to, judging by her tone. “Her Majesty gave her siblings the protection she could provide, knowing that if they ever needed to be called back to defend this place, they would return in force to fight for it.”
“Are you sure about that?” Yemi replied coyly. There was no way someone as easily threatened as Queen Helene would simply bequeath her entire military to disparate ends of the world. They’d abandoned her to rot along with the city.
Minevra was not amused and simply hovered wordlessly in the doorway as Yemi examined the stateliness of her room. All but one wall of the hexagonal room was decorated in mosaics, not unlike the hallways of her own home. Yemi wondered idly about which civilization had done it first, some man “blessed” by Ursla to bring the culture here, or the Mer themselves whispering art into sailors’ ears. A garden hung from the ceiling, and small luminous fish darted between the fronds and vines. The far wall functioned as a window, a thick sheet of bleached blue coral perforated with a million diamond-shaped holes the width of a finger overlooking the eastern side of the city.
Minevra dipped her head in a gesture of departure and waning respect before turning to leave. “Do speak up before you intend to leave. We will have someone escort you to the city’s exit to make sure you don’t lose your way.”
15
