Page 54 of Waves
Or… had they been turned human just like that girl the other night?
Was Raj still nearby?
My hands came up to my forehead and my nails dug at my scalp. The awful possibilities were endless, and I was spiraling through every one of them. In a breathy tone laced with despair, I asked, “Is someone searching the surface of the water for bodies?”
Immediately, Didero and Ugo answered in unison. “Yes,” both my guard and the mayor confirmed.
It might have meant both had sent parties searching among the waves or simply that they were both aware. I didn’t ask further, just began to pace once more. To await Sahar’s return.My adviser had gone out to organize everyone and had promised to return with news. But it had been hours.
Glancing out the window, I noticed a shadow falling across the water, a chill creeping through the already frigid sea. And then, like a giant gust of wind, I saw a rolling current outside the window send floating seaweed tumbling past in a tangled jumble.
“What isthat?” I asked, striding closer to the window.
Ugo immediately swam into my path, pushing me to the left, his orange tail swishing as he put himself between me and whatever was going on outside.
Mayor Didero carefully wound around us and went to stand at the sill, where her flickering purple orb in the window sputtered as another giant current flowed past, this time dragging several fish with it, their bodies tumbling tail over head and back again, as out of control as a tumbleweed in Evaness.
When the mayor turned around, her lips pressed together in hesitant regret. “Majesty, we’re going to have to start the next tournament event soon.”
“What?” My jaw dropped and I immediately shook my head in denial. Was she mad? “We can’t. We’ll have to delay. Two men are missing!”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. You see, we contracted with an island man for the tournament. He agreed to come. But he can only stay long enough for the event before he needs to leave again. They…the island people have a different conception of time than we do. An entirely different metabolism and purpose and value system…” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I’m botching this explanation. I wasn’t even supposed to discuss it, since you aren’t supposed to know any details about the Syzgos events beforehand. But…” Didero trailed off, staring down at the purple orb on the sill, lavender streaks lighting her features as she sought out a better explanation.
“What she means is island people spend most of their time sleeping,” Ugo chimed in, his brow furrowed in consternation. “And we can’t delay because he might fall asleep again. If he does, then Kremos will be stuck with another island.”
“Wait…what?”
This time it was Paavo who spoke from his post by the door. “They sleep for a hundred years at a time. And when they wake, they’re angry. They erupt.”
Shock burst apart my stomach as I pieced these poor explanations together. “You mean…you invited a livingvolcanofor this event?”
All of them nodded and I felt like spewing lava myself.
Chapter 23
Avia
Outside the mayor’s abode, past the cave-like entrance, moonlight laced the water in delicate swoops as the sea bristled with anticipation. The oxygen in my lungs contracted from the cold but also from an eerie dread.
It felt wrong to start this event while there were still two missing men and a million unknowns. But it would also have been wrong to delay and condemn this town to an eruption.
I’d wanted to simply send the island man back north where he’d come from. Forget the entire thing. Cancel the tournament as I’d wanted to do after Julian’s death.
“We can’t let a few deserters derail the entire event. I know it hurts. It’s outrageous and disappointing that they simply left with no word. But we can’t control their actions any more than we can control the moon in the sky,” Sahar had argued.
And so, I was here, swimming toward the tournament.
The problem was she couldn’t prove to me they were deserters. No one could. And my misgivings might have been simply paranoia, but they lived and breathed inside my head as real as any of the fish wriggling through the water around me.
For a moment, I had a tiny bit of sympathy for my birth mother’s madness. Life with a crown would be a million times simpler if I stopped caring.
Had that been the start of her descent into cruelty?
Was that a normal path for monarchs?
Was it one I was destined to follow?
My mind meandered down a lonely road, one where my life was filled with suspicion and enemies.
