Page 72 of The Kraken Games

“The photos were sold by a selkie named Wyatt McIver to the Tween Council of Towns. For a considerable sum of money. Wyatt also gave Luna’s full details to the council, suggesting she was someone who would potentially agree to spy on kraken kind.”

“Is she implicated?”

“No. It’s clear the selkie broke her phone’s code. He sent the photos from his boat the night she recounts losing her phone. We have the full feed of the messages. Since then, Miss Storm has been contacted by Tween officials, but after the first call, she blocked their number and has had no further contact.”

Razad huffed a sigh, pulling at his beard.

“It is as I said, she spoke the truth,” Kai burst out.

There was a long, ominous silence.

Finally, Shen said quietly, “Razad, you need to tell Kai what really happened fifteen years ago in these waters.”

Razad looked at him from under heavy brows, then sighed deeply. “You tell him, Shen.” He waved his stick at Kai’s uncle. “I have had enough for one day.”

Shen turned to Kai. “On 10 October in the year 48,535, a boat came close to the gates of Thedaka. At the time, Colonel Mashinka was in charge of our naval team.”

Kai’s eyes widened. Mashinka had been Razad’s older brother, the top naval officer of their clan, and highly revered. Mashinka had disappeared from public life around…fifteen years ago,Kai realized. Barely any whisper of him had beenheard after that. He’d died a few years later and received a full state funeral.

“On the night in question, without consulting the other elders, Mashinka ordered the kraken navy to break up the boat.” Shen paused. “Before we even knew what their purpose was in being so close to Thedaka.”

“How come this has never been spoken of?” Kai looked around at the assembled kraken. Razad shifted back into the shadows. Shen cleared his throat. “After the wrecking it was found that Colonel Mashinka was suffering from a form of dementia that clouded his judgment and made him prone to hasty and ill-considered decisions.”

Kai stared in disbelief. “And yet, he was allowed to keep heading up our naval fleet.”

“Not after this event, no. He was retired on medical grounds, and from there placed into care.”

“And the human deaths? Did anyone try to save Luna’s parents?” Kai’s voice cracked.

Shen did not answer. Kai thumped a fist against the rocky podium, tears of rage blurring his vision. “Did our navy try to save the children? Tell me!”

“Yes. One of the fleet’s nurses, who’d witnessed the event unfold, saved the baby. That nurse was Hana’s mother. She brought the baby back to her home, kept it alive by using ancient practices. That is how Hana knew there was truth in the story, because the baby lived with her for a short while when she was a teenager.”

“What about Luna, was she just left there to perish?”

“My understanding from Hana is that her mother went back to find the girl. But she had disappeared,” Shen said quietly.

“And Tomas? What happened after, did he stay in Thedaka?”

“Not for long.”

“Is he still alive?”

“He is.”

Kai breathed a ragged sigh of relief. “Thank the gods,” he murmured. “Where?”

“He resides with a Mer clan, well south of Motham city. Hana’s mother died of cancer soon after this event and we could not maintain the child in Thedaka without her nursing skill. Besides, keeping a human in our midst was simply too dangerous. What if humans with evil intent tried to find him? What if we nurtured him, and he betrayed our trust and gave our secrets to the human world? No, we could not risk raising him.”

“But you heard Luna, she is not a valley human. She’s survived her whole life in the Motham marshes. Not a single human has ever tried to find her.”

Razad stood now and waved his stick. “Untilyoulet her win the games. Now they are sniffing around like a pack of hounds.”

“Enough, sir.” Kai’s father suddenly stood. “You will not continue to blame my son.”

Kai blinked. His quiet father who never spoke out, the gentle scientist who spent his days in his research lab, was now puffed up to nearly double his size, flushed a vivid blue and glaring at Razad over the top of his gold-rimmed glasses.

“My son, yourgrandson, will not be vilified for the injustice that we perpetrated in the first place. No more of it, sir. It ends here. Today.”

---