Son of a Mermaid (18 page)

They followed Gregor down the darkened path that led between the servant quarters. No glowing green lanterns lit this alleyway, but Shea found that his eyes adjusted easily to the darkness. When he thought they were far enough from where they’d left their captors, he asked where they were headed.

“I’m taking you back to Windmill Point where you’ll be safe,” Gregor whispered as he peered around the next corner. “I made a promise to your grandmother, Shea.”

“My grandmother?” Shea grabbed Gregor’s arm. “What does my grandmother have to do with any of this?”

The older merman turned toward Shea, a sad smile on his face. “Martha’s a good woman. She’s already endured so much loss, I couldn’t let her lose you as well.”

“Did you have something to do with her other losses?” Kae’s tone was sharp.

Gregor shook his head. “Not directly. I was sent to Windmill Point years ago as a spy, by Prince Demyan’s uncle, the last true King of the Southern Ocean. Shea’s birth was but a rumor that the King wanted to confirm or deny.”

“You’re…a spy?” Shea narrowed his eyes, still unable to reconcile the bent old man on his porch rocker with the muscled merman before him.

Gregor nodded. “I received word this week that I was to take you prisoner. I decided I couldn’t be complicit with the Prince’s plans.”

“You were sent to…capture me?”

Gregor looked down at the gently swirling sand below his tailfin. “Fifteen years is a long time to spend in your world,” he said. “The MacNamaras were very kind to me when I moved to Windmill Point. I came to regard your grandfather as a friend, even if he was merely a drylander.”

“But…”

“I was shocked,” Gregor continued without emotion, “when Prince Demyan told me he’d orchestrated the MacNamara deaths.” He looked Shea in the eye. “You were supposed to die as well.”

Shea stared back at the merman. “Were you supposed to kill me?”

Gregor shrugged. “I was only supposed to bring you before the Prince. But I suspected that your fate would be no better than your grandfather’s.”

“My grandfather’s death was an accident. It was a hurricane that killed him,” Shea said quickly. “No one controls the weather.”

Gregor’s mouth set into a firm line. “Prince Demyan has ways, Shea. No one is safe. Too many innocents have already died, both merman and drylander.” Motioning for them to follow him, Gregor swam forward. “We must hurry back to the docks at Windmill Point.”

“No.” Shea folded his arms across his chest. Kae stayed by his side. “We can’t leave my mom and the King at the mercy of that evil Prince. We’ve got to stop him.”

Gregor swam back, shaking his head. “You’re a drylander boy, barely a man even by merman standards.”

“They say Prince Demyan is barely of age as well,” Kae countered.

“Yes, but he’s been trained in the arts of war since he moment he was born. What can you hope to do against a ruthless soldier like Demyan?” Gregor shook his head. “You’ve only just learned to swim.”

“I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Shea firmly, “but we have to try.” He looked to Kae for support.

“He’s right,” Kae told Gregor. “Prince Demyan practically told us that he’s planning something terrible for the King and wants to take over the Atlantic. We need to warn King Koios!”

Gregor sighed softly, a small stream of bubbles rising slowly upward. “I should expect no less. But I had to try, for your grandmother’s sake.”

“Gramma will be fine,” Shea argued. “She’s safe in Windmill Point. It’s the King who’s in danger.”

Kae still stared at Gregor. “So, you’ve been living as a drylander in Windmill Point? How did you stay in touch with the Prince? With a
transmutare
stone?”

Gregor cast his eyes downward, swishing his powerful tail in the sand. “I reported back to my captain in person prior to every Summer Solstice.”

“You had to journey alone to the Southern Ocean?” Kae shook her head. “That’s a long way to travel to make a report.”

“It’s a long way when there is nothing of interest to tell,” said Gregor with a wry smile. “For the first ten years, I was sure the rumors of a child were false. As I got to know the family better, I realized there was a second son, and I wasn’t sure which one was the Princess’s beloved.”

“My dad,” whispered Shea.

“Thomas never visited Cape Cod, except for the funeral of his father and brother. Adluo soldiers followed him home.”

“That Prince guy really caused a tornado in order to kill my father?” The disbelief in Shea’s voice was soon replaced by anger. “Why would he do such a thing?”

“Prince Demyan cares only for his own power and glory. He’ll stop at nothing, especially if he finds out you bear the Mark.” Gregor looked back over his shoulder. “Now, we must get going, before my old comrades awaken and sound the alarm.”

“How did you know, though?” Kae persisted, swimming close by his side. “How did you know about him being the Aequorean heir?”

“I saw the Mark on his back one day when he was fishing, down on the docks with that drylander girl,” Gregor admitted. “The same day I was ordered to capture him. It would be one thing to capture a drylander pawn, but quite another to anger the gods themselves.”

Shea reached out and grabbed Gregor’s arm. “Your gods will surely be angered if the Prince succeeds with his plans tonight. How can we warn the King?”

Kae’s eyes suddenly lit up. “We can sneak in through the kitchens! It’s always hectic in there, but especially during a feast. We’ll find my mom or my dad and get a message to the King through them.”

“Lead the way,” said Shea. He saw the hesitant look on Gregor’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Look at me,” Gregor said, spreading his arms wide. “Even after so long on land, I still look like an Adluo soldier, not a kitchen servant.”

“He’s right,” agreed Kae.

“I’ll escort you as far as the kitchens,” Gregor compromised. “But I don’t want to risk capture. I’ve already committed treason by helping you escape, and the penalty for treason is immediate death.”

Kae gasped, her eyes wide. She threw her arms around the older merman to hug him. “Thank you for freeing us,” she said. “I never expected such sacrifice from an Adluo.”

Gregor smiled sadly. “There’s been too much killing. And I feel I owe this young Prince a debt for my unwitting betrayal of his family. We are all ready for peace, Adluo and Aequorean alike.”

“Yes,” nodded Kae, her face serious.

“I’ll keep Griffin and the boys from sounding the alarm about your escape,” Gregor said. “But you will need to be careful not to let Prince Demyan catch you again. He won’t be so pleasant to deal with the second time around.”

“Lead the way,” said Shea. She nodded and swam to the left, toward the back entrance of the kitchens.

***

The hustle and bustle of the busy royal kitchen during a Solstice Feast was in high gear. Apron-clad mermaids zoomed back and forth through the sparkling marble kitchen, preparing elaborate trays of tiny hors d'oeuvres and finger foods. Another group of merfolk waited in a line to carry the silver bowls and trays out to the waiting guests.

The mermaids all worked swiftly, like a well-oiled machine, barely talking to one another. Shea wondered where the hum of noise was coming from, until the kitchen doors swung open and let in the full roar of the boisterous celebration in the outer room.

Kae held on to Shea’s hand, pulling him along the wall of the kitchen as they tried to edge their way around the crowd of servants without getting in anyone’s way. “You there! Kae!” barked one of the older mermaids, shaking a large shining butcher’s knife in Kae’s direction. “You and that boy! Get in line with the others to take the food out to the Great Hall.”

Kae bowed her head quickly in the mermaid’s direction. “Right away, Mariella.” Kae squeezed Shea’s hand. “Stay close to me,” she whispered. “We’ll carry trays in together, and then exit the other end of the Great Hall.”

“Okay,” he whispered back, glancing around uneasily. He followed behind Kae as she took her place in the line of servers. Glancing at the cooks ahead of them, he winced as he watched a mermaid slice the tentacles off several jellyfish. Several other jellyfish lay tangled in a net on the table next to the chopping block, their scared thoughts a low buzz in the corner of Shea’s mind, like a fly he couldn’t swat.

The doors leading in to the Great Hall pushed open, the sounds of laughter wafting into the kitchen along the current. Shea peered through the doors as one server held it wide open for another. He saw guests gathered at round tables, their bright and various colors clashing merrily. Buffet tables laden with different seaweeds and sushis ran the length of the far wall. Young mermaids swished through the crowds with large silver platters piled high with delicacies, placing trays on each of the tables for the partiers to pick from. The door slowly swung shut.

“So who all is out there at the feast?” Shea whispered in Kae’s ear.

She turned her head to look at him. “Remember all the merfolk cheering in the courtyard?” He nodded. “All of them. Everyone is welcome at the Solstice banquet, from the royal families down to the farmers. That’s why most of the servers in here are young. Everyone of age gets to partake in the feast, even the servants.”

“Wow.” Shea tried to imagine how big the room must be to hold everyone. He could only see a small bit of it through the door. The doors pushed inward again, and a mermaid carrying an empty crystal bowl swam past the line of waiting servers, straight up to where Mariella wielded her knife. “We’re running low on the Eucheuma seeds, Mariella,” the girl said. “The Pacific prince said there were more somewhere?”

Mariella nodded her head toward some wooden crates by the back door. “In one of those boxes,” she told the girl. “I hope this doesn’t lead to trouble.”

Shea nudged Kae again. “What does she mean? Trouble? Is this something to do with Prince Demyan?”

Kae shook her head. “Eucheuma are fermented seeds from the Fiji Islands in the Pacific. The elders like to consume them because it helps them relax, but if they have too many they get a little…funny.”

“Funny?” Shea eyed the blue and green seeds as the mermaid headed back into the Great Hall with her full bowl.

“Intoxicated. One time some of the Arctic mermen ate too many, and got caught up in the nets of a fishing trawler and started fighting with the humans on board. To end the conflict, King Koios actually sank the boat. The human fishermen were rescued, but luckily no one believed their stories about crazed mermen attacking their ship.”

“So why serve them at all?”

Kae shrugged. “It’s tradition, I guess.”

The noise drifting into the kitchen from the Great Hall died suddenly. An eerie silence spread, as cooks and servers alike stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to stare toward the swinging doors. After several hushed moments, one of the mermaid servers pushed through the doors.

“It’s King Koios!” she cried breathlessly. “He’s been poisoned!”

Chaos erupted in the previously organized kitchen, as the mermaids dropped what they were doing and swam toward the Great Hall to see what was going on. The anxious servants swept Shea and Kae along with them, spilling out into the Hall in time to see the unconscious King being carried away.

“Mom,” Kae breathed, watching Kira follow the King out the door.

“He’s still alive, praise Neptune,” the mermaid next to Kae was telling her friend. “Let’s hope the Healers can find a cure for the poison.”

“How do they know it was poison?” The other mermaid looked frightened. “Will the kitchen staff be blamed?”