“Well—” He glanced at Al, who gave an odd sort of grimacing nod that said;May as well tell her if she knows so much. Kai sighed. “Yes. Yes, the Empress believes they’ve been drowning anyone who trespasses on what they consider their territory.”
Eda gave a low, thoughtful hum, thin lips pursed against a rueful smile.
“And what is it you think they’ll do tome, sweet?”
She pulsed her gills at him, but Kai refused to be charmed. She would not humour her way into this trip, not now that he understood what was at stake.
“That’s not the point, Eda. You may not be susceptible to drowning, but if theyarecapable of such atrocities, I have a duty to keep you out of harm’s way.”
“My duty predates yours, boy.”
Forcing back the groan that rattled at his clenched teeth, Kai set a gentle hand on her shoulder, and at the answering flash of determination in her stare, he steeled himself.
“Your duty has lapsed,” he told her. “The council islongretired, Eda. You’re an Elder no longer.”
Her gaze sharpened, lips thinning.
“I will always beyourelder, Kai Cumhaill, and don’t you forget it.”
“Eda—”
But Kai was saved from further argument when Al cleared his throat; both Kai and Eda whipped around, their hands still clasped as tight as two wires, knotted and tugging one another to the point of snapping.
“She has a point, Kai.”
Eda crowed with delight, and Kai dropped her hand to pinch away the tension building behind his brow. It did not help. Beneath his own palm, he caught the pitying look Al threw his way before he went on.
“We already know that a ruling monarch isn’t typical for most Merrow clans,” he said, “and we have no idea what their customs are.”
Al shot an imploring look at Os, who gave one curt nod and added, “It may be that they still prescribe to a Council of Elders, as we once did. If that’s the case, having Eda present herself as your advisor would most certainly go over better.”
“Power in numbers,” the old woman chimed in brightly, mood suddenly much improved. “Sure, they can’t drown us all, can they?”
At that, Al chuckled and offered her his arm, then led the old woman through the gate to the awaiting carriage. Kai dropped his hand from his brow to watch them go, his mouth half-agape.
“Am I the bloody King, or not?” He asked of no one in particular, then called after them, “We’ve decided then, have we?”
“The more the Merrow-er,” Eda trilled.
Os stifled the briefest snort of laughter.
Merry as the others may have been, Kai could not help but withdraw on the short, downhill ride through the winding streets of the Imperial City. It was not only Eda’s presence that unnerved him, although the unexpected concern for her safety certainly piled on to his heap of anxieties. But the whole truth—
The whole truth was that he could not help but suspect that every decision he made led to catastrophe. He had taken up his father’s mantle, and it had led him to Avette. He had trusted Avette to fight for him, for his people, and it had cost him his entire kingdom. He had tried to recover his home, and it had lost him Adeline. He had thought coming here was a compromise he could live with, but it had only led him to this moment—the moment that saw him boarding a ship to negotiate cohabitation with a clan of supposed murderers. One bad decision after the other, the worst of them left to fester for close to six hundred years. Somewhere in his blundering weaving of the fates entrusted to him, a thread had snagged—and now the entire ancient tapestry was unravelling in his hands, moth-eaten and disintegrating faster than he could mend it.
Kai was not cut out for this, and yet he had no choice.
He had to keep trying.
TheArabidae’screw were near silent on the passage to Isa’s Graveyard. A sombre air settled like a shroud over the great ship, and though the Merrow passengers could only guess at the dangers they faced beneath the waves, the oppressive gloom was quick to claim them too. They spoke not a word to one another over the slow hours drifting beneath the crystal clear skies, the blue so bright and cheery it nearly seemed to mock them. Kaiswore he felt a strange weight to the salt air, felt it pressing at him harder and harder the farther they sailed from the shore until he thought his knees might buckle with the pressure. It was out of necessity that he gripped the ship’s edge, needing that support beneath his own weight as he stared wordlessly out at the endless ocean. Standing quietly at his sides, he suspected the others were doing the very same thing.
After a time, they approached a long line of wooden buoys that bobbed in eerie unison like ghostly sentries on the tide. Beyond the boundary they’d marked, the surface of the water was smooth; unnervingly so, as though not even the wind dared to pass into the Graveyard.
The ship gave an ominous groan beneath their feet, and Kai just about leapt from his own skin. He reached instinctively for Eda, and seeing her steadied, turned to the crew with his heart hammering somewhere around his gills.
“No farther,” the Captain said, his gruff hush carrying in the silence. He stared out at the glassy waters above the Graveyard, then tore his eyes away to fix Kai with a stiff nod. “We’ll await your return until dusk.”
And not a moment longer.The words not spoken rang clearer than those he’d said aloud.
