Page 52 of Depths
“Any side, really,” Gita replied as she wrinkled her nose. “They taste like …”
“Boots?” I supplied.
“Saw boiled boots for sale in a tavern once. Never tried them. Now, I never will,” Gita replied as she clipped the ornate cuffs onto the fins that my earth walker mind couldn’t help but call wings. “If they taste like octopus, they’re trash.”
Sahar laughed thoroughly as I spread my wings and swam to the looking glass to gaze at the filigree. My wing tips looked like they’d been dipped in golden scrollwork. And the cuffs themselves weren’t heavy at all. I hardly felt them as I fluttered my wings, testing them out.
“Your mages spelled them for me,” Gita explained before I could even ask.
“I love them.” I smiled at her. “Thank you, that was clever.” It was wonderful to know they wouldn’t throw me off balance as I swam tonight.
Gita gave a brisk nod, but her eyes darted to Sahar, silently letting me know there was more to the story. I turned to my dearest advisor with a sigh. “What other spells did you request?” Suddenly, the pretty ornamentation felt a bit more like a chain.
Sahar gave a shrug that was far too casual as she swam closer and stared into the looking glass while she altered her hair from orange to a crimson red. “Nothing, Your Majesty.” She waited until Gita bowed and swam out of my room. “Just a few little repulsion spells for attacks and the like.”
“You think there will be more?” I asked, my stomach clenching at the thought. I’d been foolishly hoping that sea witch wouldn’t dare come here to a populated city.
“Probably not,” Sahar said, without a bit of confidence. “But I can’t take full responsibility for the idea …” Her gaze drifted to my door, which was flanked by Felipe and Ugo. Ugo stared off to the side, watching the servant’s door Gita had disappeared through. But Felipe’s eyes met mine. His expression was unapologetic and fierce.
I narrowed my eyes at him, both annoyed and a tiny bit thrilled that he’d been part of this plan for me. I dismissed the fact that my safety was his entire job, because, well, because I wanted to dismiss it. My cheeks flushed at the idea that he’d helped craft my cuffs, his hands shaping them as he imagined fitting them on me …
Sahar’s hand came to my shoulder and pulled my attention back from the whirlpool of imagination that had nearly dragged me under.
“Now … we should discuss a few things about tonight. First of all, Humberto’s reward. I’ll have the plaque ready for you just before dinner. There are also several key figures you’ll meet tonight. This is about gathering allies …”
I blew out a breath and expelled all lingering thoughts of Felipe. I put all my attention on Sahar and nodded. Because, after a human sacrifice, allies were number two on my list of royal needs.
* * *
The pre-dinner cocktailhour stretched into two because the line of people to meet me seemed endless. Unfortunately, my glass of bubble was not bottomless—or perhaps fortunately, or I’d never have been able to answer questions like the following seriously:
“Why do humans always hide from water? Is rain painful for them?”
“Why do some humans wrinkle their nose when they stare out at the ocean?”
“Is fruit addictive? I’ve heard the sugars in it are addictive.”
“Do human feet fall off and regrow like teeth? Don’t they get worn out from all that walking?”
I attempted to explain walking with a smile on my face, equating it to swimming.
“But all that rubbing! Surely their skin falls off?”
Mateo was swimming clumsily by, brushing back his silver hair, when that question was asked, and his head turned. His eyes met mine over the shoulder of the squi-shifter who’d asked the question, and the sparkle of amusement in his gaze nearly broke me. I had to look away first and then use every single ounce of self-control to refrain from mentioning that some things could be rubbed quite vigorously without falling off. In fact, rubbing was highly recommended. Especially if it was done by Mateo’s hand.
Mateo’s loud snort told me he was thinking exactly the same thing. He attempted to swim off when the man in front of me was startled by the noise and turned to look at him, but Mateo ended up bumping into a mermaid and knocking over her cup of fermented bubble. He still didn’t have full control of his tail.
I ended up repeating awkwardly hilarious conversations like that several times because it turned out quite a few citizens of Reef City had never been on land. Between their prejudices against sky breathers, fear, and Mayi’s strict decrees, travel had been discouraged. The only time many of them had ventured to shore was when a mermaid or siren woman who’d lured a sailor into playing in the water gave birth to a half-human child. Often, these infants weren’t born with the magic to breathe underwater. Orphans were placed on the shores of Rasle where the princess there assigned them to a human family. There was an ache in nearly every eye when I asked about their visits topside. I could only imagine what it would be like, to have a child and then be forced to part with them forever.
But I shoved down any sympathy that arose for Mayi. If she’d been heartbroken over me, it had been long ago. And she’d destroyed whatever humanity she’d had left before she met me. My mother wasn’t like these sea people. She’d been a monster.
When I suggested to several people that it might be beneficial for them to venture to Evaness when we set up trade agreements with other guilds, several of them seemed delighted. However, those people fascinated by sky breathers, full of questions about life on land or eager to trade with humans, were few and far between in comparison with those who were skeptical, hostile, suspicious.
Their questions were far more pointed.
“Will you restrict those idiotic ships from travel and force humans to pay to rent a seat on our whales?” I had to explain that humans couldn’t stand long durations underwater without underwater breathing spells. That led to a subtopic about humans potentially not wanting to be wet for the duration of their travels, ruining their clothing, and the preposterous human fear of shark attacks. That painful experience was followed by:
“Are we only going to be able to trade at seaport markets? What about inland? How will we trust that our goods will fetch a fair price if some human takes them?”
