Page 88 of A Sea So Cruel
With every terrible thought, Asta cracked a knuckle, and eventually they stopped. With one final pop, the tension in her chest dissipated and she could breathe again. Kaid, noting Asta’s fidgeting hands, moved closer to her.
“Son!” King Aerik called for Kaid, speeding in their direction. “Your mother. She’s asked to borrow your trident.”
Kaid stared at the golden staff in his hand, confused. “It’s not mine. It’s the royal sirens.”
Aerik chuckled. “There is no denying that it calls to you. And although it will work in any royal siren’s hands, it seems destined to be its most powerful in yours.”
Then why are you taking it elsewhere?Asta thought, but did not intervene.
Kaid handed over the trident, his hold lingering on the metal before his father pulled it away. Even with her limited knowledge in magical affairs, Asta could see that the trident had chosen Kaid above all else.
Asta followed Aerik, Kaid swimming up beside them. Kaid’s father darted out of the castle, meeting with Arielle at the gates where she took the trident from her bonded.
Queen Arielle raised the gleaming pitchfork far above her head, aiming it at the sky beyond the sea. The golden metal began glowing, the water around them charged with a strange feeling Asta had never experienced, heavy with magic.
Above the water, Asta could see the sky darkening, laying an eerie gray blanket over the castle and surrounding coral. The surface of the water became so choppy that she couldn’t make out anything above, only the faint light of a stormy sky. Around the underwater fortress, massive water funnels started to form,pulling sand from the seafloor up with them. The funnels hovered in place, as if on guard for the arrival of the finfolk troops.
King Aerik handed the comb and mirror to Asta. “Keep them safe. You will know when the time is right.” Asta nodded, somewhat confused by his ambiguity, tucking the relics into her satchel and securing the latch. “Now go get some rest. We don’t have long, but the scouts will alert us.”
Asta turned to leave but the sight of Thurs zooming past caught her attention. She then noticed the flashes of emerald surrounding the castle, the entire herd on patrol. Asta flagged down her kelpie, the temperamental mare stopping before her.
“You don’t need to be here. This isn’t your war.” Asta ran a hand down the bridge of the kelpie’s nose. “Go to shore and be safe. Keep your herd safe.”
Thurs whinnied, nudging Asta’s hand away. She stomped a hoof into the pearlescent tiles of the balcony in protest. Asta knew the kelpies would not leave her even though it was for the good of the herd. Asta was the leader of northern kelpies, tamer of the alpha. They would fight fiercely beside her until the very end, whatever that end may be.
Thurs swam off, assisting the siren soldiers in their patrol as hundreds of emerald water horses joined in.
Kaid pulled Asta away and back into the castle. They needed to prepare.
Chapter 51
Kaid stirred on the sofa where he had fallen asleep, opening his eyes to faint light creeping in between the pillars. It should have been dawn by then, but the impending storm above had darkened the skies so much that it was impossible to tell exactly what time of day it was.
He felt the room shake before he heard the explosive boom from somewhere outside of the castle, followed by shouting. Asta sat straight up on the chaise she had been napping on, startled by the rumbling.
The door to the sitting room flung open and a siren scout shouted “Finfolk battalion approaching!” before rushing away.Kaid grabbed his sword, feeling empty without the trident, but he knew that his mother was the better wielder for the time-being. She needed to control their surroundings and had a plan, likely one she’d thought over for many years while she was searching for the lost trident.
Asta double-checked the latches on her satchel, holding a longsword and short sword, and swam through the door and into the havoc.
The front lines swam past the reef where they clashed with the finfolk, the sound of metal-on-metal slicing through the water and echoing off the castle walls behind them. Since they were royalty, Kaid, Asta, and his parents waited on the balcony inside of the gates. As badly as he wanted to dive into battle, he knew that they only fought in hand-to-hand if completely necessary.
Wretched morphling groupers weaved between the battle, taking out sirens as they went—most of the time swallowing them whole. There must have been a call for volunteers to make the morph—to give the finfolk the upperhand in brute force.
Kaid could hardly distinguish Soren’s shouts of instruction over the clamorous mob, telling the Naltanians to feed from the groupers in order to defeat them.
On the other hand, it seemed as though the rest of the sea was on the siren’s side. Selkies charged through lines of finfolk, knocking them off balance and giving their siren opponents the advantage. Sharks clamped onto enemy shoulders and fins. Kaid’s stomach churned when he witnessed a dolphin playing with a finfolk’s decapitated head.
“They’re getting closer,” Asta whispered. “I love you, Kaidian.”
His full name. He hated how official it sounded; how final it sounded. He turned to her, kissing her deeply then gripping the nape of her neck. “Whatever happens today, Asta, wewillhave ahappy ending. If we get separated, you make sure you come back to me, okay?”
“Okay,” his blonde princess nodded, the whites of her eyes reddened.
Arielle swung the trident around her, commanding all elements in the water. The stagnant water funnels moved, quickly reaching the battle grounds and pulling hoards of finfolk to the surface. If they went above water when it wasn’t their time to mate or birth, they would not survive. The funnels were picking off entire troops at a time, but so many remained.
Strong currents started whipping past them, shoving the finfolk troops back. Although the currents were not depleting the number of enemy soldiers, they were at least giving the siren warriors enough time to collect themselves between attacks.
Asta shouted indistinguishable words and pointed ahead to something behind the front lines. Kaid narrowed his eyes, locking in on what Asta saw. Within the secondary line, three figures broke through and were emerging toward the battle—Maren, Svanhild, and Queen Yrsa herself.
