Page 1 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
Chapter One
Maisie
“Isentence you to die…”
My fingers felt numb from how tightly I held to the railing. Watching from my place on the balcony high above the arena at the coral-made stage below. The crown that had been placed on my head by the queen an hour before this moment, though wiry and adorned with very few jewels, suddenly felt too heavy. Its weight a thing that threatened to drag me down into an abyss of despair, as the sack was pulled from the criminal’s head to reveal the identity of the merman underneath.
Elias Blackfin.
The infamous Black Blade.
If they hadn’t said his name, I still would have recognized him, even from this height. Even with his dark skin mottled and swollen bruises, even without the obsidian rings adorning his fingers, even as he now wore the gray rags of a criminal, his presence was dominating, commanding.
From across the space that separated us, Elias looked up, dark eyes finding my own amidst the crush of mer filling the stadium, and he smiled.
My next breath stuck to the back of my throat.
There was a reason he had looked up at me and no one else, a menacing danger in the curve of his too-sensual lips. A danger that I could read all too well.
You owe me, Princess.
A sudden cheer trembled the waters of the arena. I tore my gaze from his to look at the merpeople of the kingdom of Thalassar, jumping from their seats and cheering at the prospect of death. The words they shouted spun through the violent riptide of waves in my mind, threatening to overwhelm me.
“Finally!”
“Kill the Black Blade!”
“Off with his head!”
My gut clenched. Nausea roiled over me and I tasted bile rising in the back of my throat. This scene was familiar to me. The victim, officials, their swinging axe. I’d witnessed it a thousand times before. But this… the cheering, the jeers, it was all new. Back home in Lagoona, deaths were mourned, fueling our hatred for the capital city, Eremaea, and the royals of Thalassar who resided here. Here they relished in the death of a mer.
Because we, yes, myself included, for I wasn’t the true Princess of Thalassar, meant nothing to them.
The weight of jewelry and silks adorning my body suddenly pressed too hotly. Like the finery itself was speaking to me in vicious whispers, begging my frigid body to move. To dosomething.My fingers dug into the rail, and I felt my painted nails crack. I ignored the stinging pain. I doubled over and the dainty little crown toppled and spun down to the waters below.
A gentle hand pressed against my lower back.
“Are you alright, Princess?”
I half turned to look at the merman who spoke. Brown eyes met my own, and I could see the severity in those depths. Prince Kai kept his hand placed lightly on my back, and I wished his warm touch could help anchor me. Instead, it just gave me a harrowing sense of dread.
“This is barbaric,” I ground out from between tightly clenched teeth. I wondered if Prince Kai thought these actions to be just as vicious as I did, but shook the notion off. He was a royal himself. Surely this was not a new occurrence to him. Even the kingdom of Draconi held their own executions, and I knew they were more brutal than to just suffer at the swing of an axe. I’d heard in whisperings that criminals in Draconi suffered death by dragon.
I jerked away from him, pressing my body tighter against the rail, as far away from him as the confines of the balcony space would allow. He looked at me, a brief expression of hurt passing over his elegant features, before he set his gaze back to the scene below, expression hardening.
Behind him, Captain Saber was studying me with apprehensive, aquamarine eyes. Looking at him made me equally ill, so I turned back down in time to see the guard haul Elias forward violently, and bend him over to expose the back of his neck. The cheers became a deafening roar now, vibrating the waters. The tendrils of Elias’ dark hair floated up, like tiny wisps of a shadowy curtain parting to reveal his face. Broken, bruised, his eyes still held mine from down there.
The executioner swung the axe in a few test tries that had me seeing blood. I was familiar with the swing of a merman who didn’t care who he killed. I’d seen that carelessness before. Like they did this for sport or worse still, like they just wanted to get this nuisance over with before they could go back home to their lives, unencumbered by the scum of Thalassar.
He lifted the axe high over his head now, strong, muscular arms cording and bunching up with the strain.
And those dark eyes were still on me. They weren’t begging, pleading, butdemanding. A sharp, dark reminder of what I owed him for all he had done for me since we’d met. He wanted to be saved, and only I had the power to save him.
Princess Odele Malabella Oriana of Thalassar, future ruling queen. Though in reality, I was Maisie Fauna, orphan of the back water pond of Lagoona, waitress at Tides’ Tavern. No one knew that truth except a few of the royals that sat by my side on this balcony. The queen, king, and Captain Saber. They knew I wore her mask, and that I was just a figure for the mer to look at. I held no real power. I was nothing. Nobody.
But themerdidn’t know that.
And it was high time I tried to make a change.
