I was in motion before I realized it, my legs kicking behind me as I eagerly swam toward the village. I thought Prentis would try to stop me, or offer a word of caution, but he said nothing as he fell in next to me, Einar and Cascada right behind us. Excitement bubbled inside me as we reached the village, but before we could pass through the arched stone gate, two merfolk bearing tridents swam forward, stopping our progression.
“Lord Prentis,” the one on the left purred. Her ruby eyes gleamed with carnal hunger, and I raised my eyebrows as she gave him a blatant once-over. Hair the color of autumn leaves floated around her pale face and shoulders, only just covering her small breasts. Her milk-white torso flowed into the flame-red scales of her mermaid tail, which twitched in a manner that was somehow both eager and ominous. “It’s been far too long since your last visit.”
“Miriel,” Prentis said, inclining his head. Was it just me, or had his cheeks turned pink? “Oranis.” He acknowledged the other one, a male with sea moss-colored hair and a matching tail. “My companions and I are on our way to the temple. We’d appreciate it if you’d allow us safe passage through your village.”
“Certainly,” Miriel said. “What have you brought us as tribute?”
Prentis removed the pack he’d strapped onto his back, and withdrew an ivory tooth as long as his forearm. “A kraken tooth,” he said, offering it to her. “I battled one of the sea creatures earlier.”
The two merfolk exchanged glances, reluctantly impressed. “That’s must have been quite a battle,” Oranis said as Miriel accepted the gift. “Our queen will love to hear it.”
“I will happily tell her the tale, and anything else she wishes to know, after we’ve completed our visit to the temple—”
“I don’t think Queen Lethta will be pleased if she hears you and your company waltzed through her village without paying homage to her first,” Miriel said. Her ruby eyes narrowed as she looked first me over, then Einar. “Speaking of your company, who are your friends?”
“My name is Adara,” I told her, a little tired of being a spectator to this conversation. “And this is my companion, Einar.”
“Companion indeed.” A contemplative glint entered Miriel’s eyes before she turned away with a provocative swish of her tail. “Come along, now. The queen has already been alerted to your arrival. We don’t want to keep her waiting.”
“So,” I murmured as we followed the two merfolk into the village. “How many times have the two of you…”
“Don’t,” Prentis muttered. “It was a mistake, and not one I’m keen on repeating.”
He refused to meet my gaze, and I wondered how much of that was true. Based on the curious and lustful glances Miriel kept shooting us over her shoulder when she thought we weren’t looking, I didn't think she felt the same. And given what Prentis had already told me, and the sexual fluidity of water fae, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he had lovers scattered throughout the water realm.
Still, I found it hard to focus on any of that as we swam through the city. It appeared that the mermaids had repurposed an ancient city that the ocean had claimed, shoring up the seamoss-covered walls with shell and coral where they needed repair. A few bricks and cobbles still remained from the paved streets that had once existed, but the mermaids had let these go to the wayside since they had no need of pavement. Instead, they used lanterns powered by some type of glowing orb to mark the paths that wound through the city. The city streets were bustling with merfolk going about their day, and patrolled by merfolk riding giant seahorses, which I had to try very hard not to stop and gawk at.
The two merfolk led us into a grand building in the center of the city that looked to have been a manor house in its former life. It surprised me to see that the marble columns and floors were mostly intact, though the furniture had long rotted away, replaced instead by ocean-friendly pieces made from coral, shell, and rock.
I scarcely had time to take it all in before we were whisked into a receiving hall, where a mermaid with long, teal hair encrusted with shells and starfish waited in the center of a giant clamshell throne. Oranis and Miriel bowed swiftly, and I nearly did the same before I remembered that I was royalty in my own right.
“Your Majesty,” Oranis said. “This is Lord Prentis, as you know, and his companions, Lady Cascada, Lady Adara, and Einar. They request safe passage through our kingdom to the Sea Temple, and as per the treaty, have brought this gift as tribute.”
He presented the kraken tooth to the queen, who reached for it with long, talon-tipped fingers. Her citronella eyes glittered with delight as she turned the tooth this way and that, holding it up to the glowing orbs that lit the room.
“This is an excellent gift,” she declared. “Our smith will be able to fashion a fearsome weapon from this. How is it you came by a tooth in such perfect condition?”
“I wrested it from the beast during battle,” Prentis said proudly. “It pulled a passenger from my ship overboard, so we had to attempt a rescue. I would never attack a kraken unprovoked.”
“Of course not,” the queen drawled. Her gaze trailed over us, lingering on me for a moment before coming to rest on Einar. “I appreciate this gift very much, Prentis, but it appears you’ve brought me something else, something I want far more.”
I stiffened as a sense of foreboding rose within me. “And what would that be?” Prentis asked cautiously.
The queen’s smile widened. “Why, that would be the dragon, of course.”
25
Einar
“The dragon,” I repeated as the mermaid queen’s avaricious gaze bore into mine. “You do realize I’m standing right here, yes?”
“Yes,” Queen Lethta agreed. “You are, which is a marvel in and of itself. I don’t believe a dragon has ever visited us before. I daresay this is a historic event.”
“Einar isn’t for sale,” Adara said. Her entire body bristled as she stepped in front of me, and I couldn’t help feeling pleased at the surge of possessiveness I felt through the bond. “He’s a person, not an object for you to treat with.”
The queen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she said with a delicate shrug of her bare shoulders. “But your dragon is the price if you want safe passage through my kingdom.”
Adara whirled on Prentis, fury blazing in her cornflower-blue eyes. “Why didn’t you mention the mermaids required a tribute as well?” she hissed, grabbing his arm hard enough to bruise. “If I’d known this was a possibility, I wouldn’t have brought Einar at all!”
