Page 47 of A Magic Deep & Drowning

Sighing, Thade placed the little spear down and laced his long fingers together, leveling her with a hard look. At his shoulder, the bubble with her voice floated, taunting her.

“Don’t eat, then,” he said. “It is all the same to me. Do you know why I invited you to sup with me?”

He didn’t seem to expect a response as he toyed with the stem of a pearl goblet, bored. Even if she wanted to tell him that she did not care for his reasons, her voice was not at her disposal. Instead, she bore her gaze into the stone table until her eyes swam.

Thade scraped seaweed onto his spear, ate his meal in silence until he gave a heavy sigh. “Look at that herring on your plate,” he said at last. “To you it is a little fish, one of thousands, perhaps millions. You probably ate fish like that every day when you lived your soft and pampered life on land. Did you never wonder how it came to be on your plate? What had to come to pass so that you might have a moment of pleasure upon your tongue?” He gave another weary sigh and pushed his own plate away from him.

“I believe in justice,” he continued, “but not in the way my mother does. To her, justice is when the scales are balanced, when the battlefields are level. But there can be no justice without understanding. The guilty party must be made to grasp their crimes. Otherwise, how do we go forward? By all means, let the scales tip, but let both sides understandwhythey are tipped.”

He was quiet again, and she chanced a look at him. His attention was faraway, somewhere in the depths of his goblet as he slowly swirled it. “So, Clara van Wieren, I would ask you if you understand why you are here? Truly?”

There was no malice in the question, but Clara had no interest in giving Thade an excuse to lecture her further. She was here because she was part of a deal made before she wasborn, and her life was the final payment. She was here, she assumed, because justice was easier served against a single girl than against an entire empire.

“Let us return to the herring on your plate. Before we made the bargain with the humans, herring were so plentiful that you could dip your spear into the water and skewer three at once. They were the axis upon which our world turned. On the occasion of a marriage, the bridegroom was responsible for bringing no less than seven braces to the family of his bride. It was largely symbolic, of course, but important nonetheless. When a child was born, the family celebrated by stringing the polished bones of herring with shells and hanging them on their threshold so that all who passed could hear the joyous tinkling sound.

“Even with these practices, there was no shortage of herring. But in a matter of only a generation, they were fished to the point of extinction. Now they are so precious that they are reserved only for high feasts. Losing our land and resources is not just a wound to our pride and dignity, but to our very way of life.”

Clara began to warm; not because of the dry clothes, or from becoming acclimated to the room, but because the blood in her cheeks was growing hot as Thade’s words found their mark. “Young merfolk need not just their mother’s milk to thrive, but also kelp. And for the kelp to grow, it needs sunlight and space. But as the docks expanded and the port continued to be built up, the kelp forests died back.” He gave a hard swallow, the closest thing to emotion Clara had seen from him thus far. “I doubt I need to spell out the result of this, even to you.”

Thade slipped into a contemplative silence. His words had teeth, and they sank into her conscience, filling her with guilt. If there had been any chance of Clara taking a bite from the fish, it now dwindled to nothing as she stared at it, her stomachknotting itself tighter and tighter until she felt light-headed. It was not just fear from being seated across from this mercurial creature who might decide to pierce her through with a spear at any moment, but the growing realization that she was not as innocent and blameless as she had been led to believe.

Pushing back from his seat, Thade suddenly rose. “I will leave you to your thoughts and your supper. A guard will escort you back to your chamber when you are ready.”

Clara felt hollow, but managed a short nod, her gaze still pinned to the plate heaped with fish and seaweed before her. A moment went by, and Clara thought that Thade had gone, when his voice came from behind her. “I cannot fault you for your ignorance,” he said quietly. “It is not a lesson I relish teaching, but it is a lesson that must be taught regardless. For in ignorance, the same sins will forever be repeated. Good night.”

And with that, he left.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

To say that Clara awoke to a slithering in the darkness would not be quite true, for it would assume that she had been asleep to begin with. Instead, she had been drifting between consciousness and exhaustion, her mind too full of dead fish and dried seabeds.

But there was definitely a slithering.

Struggling to her elbows, she would have let out a curse that would have made even Inka blush, only to find that she was still without her voice. A strangled gasp was all that escaped her throat as she realized there was something in the small dark chamber with her.

She groped for something, anything, to protect herself with. But her fingers met only the cold rock of the floor, so, feeling like a scared little child, she huddled in the furthest corner, arms wrapped around her knees. It was her dream of her mother locking her in the dark cabinet, except this time, the slithering sound was not just the manifestation of her fears. It was real, and it was here.

“There you are. You needn’t be afraid,” said a voice that was both soft and slippery, and did nothing to put Clara’s fears to rest.

There was a sound of bare feet moving closer, and then the glowing algae came back to life, illuminating the chamber ina hazy green glow. Forcing herself to look at the source of the voice, Clara raised her head.

Two red slit eyes peered back at her, framed with a tangled mane of black hair. Pallid skin and a long neck incised with gills. It was the creature that had visited Maurits in the grotto. Clara relaxed, but only a little. Despite her strange features, there was an impossible beauty that radiated from the creature, and Clara very much wanted to trust her, to follow her where she might bid her. It was the same sort of hazy feeling that had come over her the first time Maurits had tried to lure her into his boat.

The creature—who had a name that Clara could not remember—began moving about the room, humming a haunting tune. Her legs were long and slender, and Clara quickly cut her gaze away when she realized that she was not clothed.

When the creature—Neese, her name was Neese—had made a full inspection of Clara’s prison, she gave a little hum that said she was not impressed. “Maurits has gotten into a lot of trouble on your behalf.” There was no accusation in her tone, only a bland statement of fact.

“You mustn’t be too cross with him though,” she continued, after receiving no response. “Everything he has done has been with you in mind, even some of his stupider forays. He seeks only to reconcile your people to the truth and mitigate his mother’s wrath.”

A cold comfort, given her position now. Everyone was very concerned with her knowing the truth, but no one seemed to care what happened to her once she knew it.

“You are to stand trial, I understand.”

Clara wanted to ask her what the trial would entail, what her judgment would be, and if it was death, would it be painful? Would she quietly slip into the arms of the water like poorlittle Fenna and simply go to sleep, never to awaken? But then, she didn’t know what truly had happened to Fenna, what her last moments had been like. All Clara had seen were gentle ripples. Whatever had transpired beneath the surface could have been much more violent. Fenna’s spirit would certainly have her think as much.

“I have already risked life and limb by visiting Maurits, and to no avail. You though,” Neese said, moving closer and peering at her, “Thade has tethered you with magic, but it is clumsy.” She slowly circled Clara. “He does not think very highly of you, or else he would have bound you more strongly and posted guards outside your door. You’re very quiet, aren’t you?”

Clara just stared at her. Understanding lit Neese’s red eyes. “Ah! Thade has played the same little trick on you as he has on Maurits. I don’t pity Maurits the loss of his voice—if anything, it is a welcome reprieve not to have to hear his every passing fancy and thought. But you... well, you are only a human. It does not seem to be in good sport.”

---