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“Allura,” said my mother, her frown creasing her face. “You’re late.”
Chapter 2
Ikept my head bowed, grateful my rolling eyes were hidden. I didn’t want to get swatted. “I apologize, Queen Amaria.”
My mother heaved a sigh, and I looked up. “Allura, when will you learn to stay here, where you are needed?”
“I am not needed, Mother, as long as you are here.”
She shook her head and my father ran a hand through his beard, hiding his smile. “Allura knows her duties, Amaria.”
Mother lightly smacked her scepter against the throne. “Trenton, you know how she is.”
He leaned closer to her. “Exactly like you were, if I recall correctly.”
“Nevertheless,” she said, as her cheeks tinged red. “She needs to be here. Go, Allura. Get ready. You are to attend to the merpeople in the sick ward soon.”
I bowed to them both, and Father ginned at me, then leaned closer to my mother, whispering into her ear. I swam off, glad to not see any more of their flirting, heading to my room. Could I accept my birthright as queen? Yes, but once I said those words, there was no going back. I’d have exactly one year, down to the second, to assume the role of queen. If I didn’t, the entire underwater nation would be in danger. Animals would ignore our barriers. Our magic would dwindle to nothing. Food would become soggy, inedible. All the lights would disappear.
It was a big deal. Everything would depend on me.
I pulled open my door, a thin stone with carvings of sea creatures, and headed inside. Everything under the sea was made with stone, since metal rusts and wood bloats. Nothing like having a warmer day and not being able to leave because your door was glued to the wall.
Not that it’s happened to me. Recently.
I sighed, flinging myself into my seaweed hammock. “Squiggles? Are you there?”
A small voice from a tangle of seaweed in the corner answered me. “Allura?”
Before I answered, the small blue-ringed octopus emerged from the seaweed, floating over to me. He settled next to me on the hammock, and I patted his head without hesitating, immune to his poisonous bite. Not that he had bitten me in years.
I had found him years ago, trying to escape a bowl humans cruelly stuffed him into. I shook my head. The anger I felt that day. One of his tentacles had been cut in half. After saving him, I found out some humans were trying to cover their weapons in his poison. How dare they take such a small, innocent creature and leave him injured in a bowl like that, floating in his own blood?
“Have you left your seaweed today?”
Squiggles shuddered. “It’s safer.”
I chuckled, settling back with my hands behind my head. “And more boring.”
My poor pet octopus shuddered again. Day to day, I found him hiding in the seaweed in my room, scared to venture even from that tiny corner. At least now he came to me when I was in here; before, he wouldn’t leave for anything, not even food.
A knock sounded at the door. Squiggles shot back to his seaweed, and I huffed out a breath, unhappy about the interruption.
Lazily, I swung my tail over the side of my hammock and swam to the door. I opened it to a grinning Nerus. He put an arm on my doorway, leaning toward me. “Hey, Princess Allura. Are you ready to go?”
“No,” I said, crossing my arms.
The other guard shoved Nerus out of the way, bowing to me. Nerus rubbed his ribs, swimming back to us in a flash. “Princess Allura, myself and Nerus were tasked with escorting you to the sick ward.”
“What is your name, guard?” I said with contempt, looking down my nose at him. His shoulder only trembled slightly, and secretly I grinned. If the guards couldn’t tolerate me, how could they tolerate a human coming at them with a harpoon?
“Gal, Princess.” His voice didn’t waver once, and my opinion of him increased a notch.
“Rise, soldier.” He obeyed me, and I studied him. He was older than Nerus by more than a handful of years, a bit of gray showing at his temples. But his muscles were well worked. I crossed my arms. “I don’t want to go.”
Gal looked uncomfortable while Nerus snorted. “Queen Amaria told us you are to go without any exceptions,” said Gal. He stared at me apologetically. Now I understood why he was sent with Nerus.
“Fine. I’ll be ready in a minute.” I slammed the door in their faces.
