Son of a Mermaid (10 page)

He drew a slow, deep breath and shook his head. His voice was low as he said, “It would suck if I wasn’t allowed to see you again, you know, because of this.”

Kae reluctantly pulled away from his hands and tried to focus her jumbled thoughts. She had no idea what a “Band-aid” was, but it didn’t sound like it would fix the real problem.

She wasn’t supposed to talk to even
talk
to this boy. She certainly shouldn’t be this far from the ocean, alone with him, touching him… And yet, she didn’t want to be anywhere else. She wanted to stay with this boy forever. Suddenly, she felt as if her heart would shatter into a million pieces if he didn’t feel the same about her. The intensity of her feelings scared her.

“I think… I think I’d better go home now,” she whispered, shifting her eyes away from his and looking pointedly at the blood that kept dripping down her arm. She undid the button and slid the jeans off, leaving them in a pile in the middle of the street. “I need to go,” she said again, her voice stronger, more resolute. She walked swiftly up the street toward the ocean, leaving Shea standing alone in the road, the fallen bicycle at his feet.

“I thought you wanted your stone?” he called after her.

Kae didn’t look back.

***

Shea stared after her retreating form, wondering what he’d done wrong.

The whole morning had been kind of surreal in so many ways, and yet when he was with Kae, he felt like he was real. Normal. More normal than he’d ever felt back home in Oklahoma.

What is it about that girl?
He scratched his head distractedly as he continued to stare down the now empty street, Kae’s tall figure well past the point where he could even see her. Suddenly someone appeared on the horizon.
She’s coming back!
His stomach balled into an excited knot of anticipation, until he realized it was merely Hailey walking toward him.

“Hey,” she called to him. “What are you doing?” She pointed at the bike, still lying on its side, droplets of blood spattered on the ground around it. “Did you wipe out?”

Shea shook his head as he reached for the fallen bicycle. “Nah. You just missed Kae. I was giving her lessons.”

Hailey bent to pick up the discarded jeans, the ones Kae had left in a denim puddle near his feet. She held them up by the waist and raised an eyebrow. “What kind of lessons?”

He snatched the pants from her hands and draped them over the handlebars. “Bike riding. She was in her bathing suit so I lent her some pants.”

Hailey crossed her arms over her chest. “C’mon. You said she was our age.”

“My age.”

“Whatever.” Hailey rolled her eyes. “So why doesn’t she already know how to ride a bike?”

Shea paused, some of the weirdness of the situation creeping back into his consciousness. “I… I’m not sure,” he admitted, thinking about the way she’d asked him to zip her jeans for her because she didn’t know how.
Was that some kind of line?
He now wondered. He shoved one hand in his pocket as he thought, the medallion rock smooth under his fingers. As he rubbed the stone, he remembered more of the strange things that Kae had said.

Who is she?

And when will I see her again?

Kae hoped she could sneak into their cottage unseen. She didn’t want to explain where she’d been all morning, or talk about it at all until she’d had a chance to sort through her feelings. And find the healing mud to cover her wound. The blood was already seeping through the leaves of seaweed she’d tied around her arm.

She also needed to decide if she wanted to see the human boy again.
Maybe it would be safer to stay away from Windmill Point.

As she drew nearer the grounds of the castle, she saw busy servants swimming everywhere, creating a chaotic scene where there had been only tranquility earlier in the day.

The King’s entourage had arrived.

Kae sighed, sending a stream of bubbles rising to the surface. She’d be put to work as soon as her mother and the Princess found her.

She veered off the main path and into the gardens, looking for a quiet place to think and some fresh loam to use on her elbow in lieu of the healing mud. Suddenly, she heard voices floating through the manicured patch of kelp. The King and his daughter were on the other side of the hedge, arguing!

Kae froze, her tailfin rigid as stone. Quickly, she scraped mud from the garden bed and pressed it to her wound, stemming the blood before its scent could give her away.

“I would think,” she heard the King say, “you’d be busy preparing for the arrival of your fiancé, or at least eager to see your chambers again. And yet here I find you moping in the gardens. This castle used to be your favorite place.”

Kae heard the Princess exhale a huge huff of bubbles, and a school of tiny yellow sunfish came darting through the hedge, right past Kae’s nose. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her surprised cry. She listened as the Princess said, “There are too many soldiers already. I thought the peace negotiations would bring an end to the tension. Instead, it’s brought them closer to home.”

“Prince Demyan is only doing his duty, protecting your cousin from threat. Once the treaty is signed and the marriage ceremony is complete, everything will return to normal.”

Princess Brynn sounded startled. “I… I thought you scheduled the wedding for winter.” Kae thought the way the princess pronounced “wedding” made it sound like a deadly disease or some dreaded event. She realized for the first time that maybe the princess wasn’t altogether happy about her engagement.

Her tone was apparently not lost on her father. “Your
wedding
will be held in the Southern Adluo court over the Winter Solstice, and you will do your duty to your clan.” His voice softened as he added, “You know I had no real choice in the matter, Brynneliana. I had to stop the bloodshed. It was one of Prince Demyan’s few demands. He insisted – and I concur – that we need to bind the clans together again with more than words.”

“I know we Aequoreans are farmers, not fighters,” Princess Brynn was saying. “We’re no match for the Adluo soldiers, who train to kill or be killed. But… I do not trust those Adluos. I fear nothing we offer will appease them.”

The King chuckled. “You forget that you also have Adluo blood swimming through your veins. Your own mother, Neptune bless her, came from the South so long ago.” The King paused. Brynn remained silent. “Falling in love with a drylander was never part of my plan for you, even if this treaty hadn’t been made with the Adluos,” he added. “Royal marriages are meant to be political, not romantic.”

“But you loved my mother,” Kae heard Brynn counter. Kae had never met the Queen, who had died giving birth to her daughter many years before Kae was even born. King Koios had never remarried, the rumor being that he had been so in love with his wife that no one could replace her.

“I
learned
to love her very much,” the King agreed. “When your grandfather first arranged my marriage to your mother, so many moons ago, I too had misgivings. It’s natural to fear the unknown. But I did my duty for the clan, and was rewarded with love and friendship, as you will be. Your cousin Theo is young, and has many years before him to grow into the leader his father once was. You can help him, and help all of us find peace.”

The trumpeting of a conch horn interrupted anything more Brynn might have said. “I must attend this meeting with the Adluo delegation,” the King said, his voice fading as he swam out of the garden toward the castle. “This Solstice celebration is your engagement party, announcing to the world that the Atlantic will soon become one ocean.”

Kae heard the Princess say, “The Atlantic
is
only one ocean,” but the King was already too far away to catch her words. Strange noises came from the other side of the hedge, now that the princess was alone. Kae wondered if Princess Brynn could be…crying? She thought only humans did that sort of thing. Kae was about to swim over the barrier to offer comfort, when a screech sounded from the direction of the castle.

“I told you the salad greens should be absolutely fresh!” Princess Winona’s high-pitched wail drifted from the kitchen windows and carried into the garden as she reprimanded the kitchen servants. Even though Winona had been the first-born child, her younger brother Koios had inherited the throne after the death of their father.

Winona
was not born with the Mark of Poseidon upon her. Instead of Queen of the Aequoreans, Winona would forever remain an aging Princess. “You’d think she’d get over it after a few hundred years,” Kae whispered to herself with a shake of her head.

“There you are!” Princess Winona cried. Kae looked up, eyes wide, frightened to be caught spying. She saw she was still alone in her hedgerow, and let out a small sigh of relief. On the other side of the barrier, Winona was saying, “I’ve been looking all over for you, Brynneliana!”

“I’m sorry, Auntie,” Brynn answered. “Did you need me for something?”

“I need you to come with me to plan the Solstice ceremony. It’s your engagement party, after all,” said Winona.

“I’m giving you and father the rest of my life, into a marriage I do not want, to my six-year-old cousin. Can I not have a few more days for myself?”

“Soon you’ll be a Queen,” Winona said. “You must start acting like one, not like some…some…some petulant lovesick guppy!”

Kae gasped and quickly covered her mouth again.

“It is obvious you still miss your drylander…friend,” Winona added, lowering her voice. “Tales of your affair have even reached the Adluo courts. The delegates asked about a drylander child? I assured them that no such abomination exists, nor would an Aequorean princess ever swim to such depths. Now, come with me to meet the representatives, and make your own reassurances. And perhaps, my dear, you should finally take off that ring.”

“I’ll come with you and play nice with the delegation,” Brynn said, her voice devoid of emotion. “But my choice of jewelry is none of your business.”

Kae watched the two Aequorean princesses swim slowly toward the castle. Kae lowered her hand from her face, and took in a deep breath of the salty water. “How can she stand it all?” she muttered to herself, seeing the slump of Princess Brynn’s shoulders, thinking of the sad tone of her voice. “I could never marry a merman I didn’t love. To think, she always has to sacrifice her own happiness. For politics!”

From behind Kae, a deep voice said, “It’s lucky you’re not a Princess then.”

Kae whirled around to see her father hovering there on the path beside her. “Father! I… I was just…”

“Spare me whatever tale you’re trying to weave,” Lybio said with a dismissive gesture. His face looked stern, and Kae felt her cheeks burning under his gaze. “How long were you spying on the Princess?”

“I’m not spying,” Kae protested, crossing her arms against her stomach, making sure to keep one hand over her wounded elbow. “I was tending the gardens when the royal family decided to argue in the next hedgerow. I didn’t know what to do, so I hid.”

“Oh really,” said Lybio, raising one eyebrow. “And what know you of Princess Brynn’s son?”

Kae felt the color drain from her face. The rumors were true?
The Princess has a son who’s half drylander?
“Nothing. I know nothing about drylander babies.”

Lybio chuckled. “He’s no longer a babe in arms, my child. He was born in the same lunar cycle as you.” He took her elbow with his large hand and steered her down the garden row, toward the castle.

“So there is a child,” Kae whispered as she swam beside her father, eyes widening. “Is he in danger? I heard that Demyan killed his own uncle and aunt in order to claim the title of Regent to his young cousin.” She glanced up at her father, seeing the grim expression on his face.

“I have heard that told as well, and fear it is no rumor.” Lybio exhaled sharply. “These are dangerous times, despite the talk of peaceful negotiations.” He stopped and turned to face her. “I may need your help, my daughter.”

“Me?” Kae heard her voice squeak with anxiety, and covered her mouth with her hand. She took a calming breath before asking, “What can I do?”

“Come with me now,” Lybio said as he began to swim. “King Koios would like to have a word with you about your new drylander friend.”

Kae’s body suddenly felt cold. “What does the King want to know about Shea?”

“Everything.” Lybio took his daughter by the hand, and led her into the Summer Palace of the Aequorean King.