Page 48 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

“I’ll help you undress,” she said, her voice gentle and sweet.

She reminded me of Nam and my heart squeezed.

“I can do it myself.” I peeled off the soft pants and shirt. Would my new ones feel the same or would they have the rough scratchy texture like the clothes from Russo?

I had no shame being naked in front of people. Back in Jeju, we took baths in the low stream inside the cavern together. I dipped my toes into the water. Hotter than I expected, but bearable.

I sank in, closing my eyes, enjoying the warmth. She poured water over my hair, careful not to get it in my eyes. She seemed so kind, perhaps she would answer my questions.

“What do you know about the Seaborn?”

The servant’s hands stilled for a moment. “You don’t know?”

“Nobody’s told me.”

I opened my mouth to tell her I knew very little of our world since I’d been a prisoner prying oysters all my life, but I shut my thoughts down instead.

“You don’t need to be told, girl.” She worked a comb through my wet hair, before she spoke again. “There used to be a whole race of you. They lived in Jeju. They breathe underwater, stay down as long as they liked. And healed almost any wound too.”

Her statement confirmed why Jina, Minha, and I had stayed underwater without drowning when Mac pushed us into the sea.

Her voice went softer. “They even had a kingdom at the bottom of the sea. Your people dove for oysters to trade with the other kingdoms.”

Healed? If she’s truly Seaborn, she’ll survive. So that was what the queen meant. The reason why she cut me and Jina.

“They spoke to the creatures—whales, dolphins, even the oclego.”

“Oclego?” I didn’t mean to raise my voice.

“Yes.” She worked quickly, efficiently, scrubbing my back and arms. “On land the Seaborn looked like anyone else. But in the water, they had tails, like fish, strong enough to outswim even ships.”

I didn’t grow a tail. Perhaps that part was fabricated.

“What happened to them?”

The scrubbing paused. “A race that could live in the sea and on land, who could heal from wounds, who the ocean creatures obeyed… the other kingdoms decided that was too much power for anyone to hold. So they ended your kind.”

“Ended?” I swallowed.

I knew what the word meant. I just had to know for sure.

She nodded. “Across all seven seas, they gathered all the Seaborn in the span of one season. They called it cleansing the waters.”

The room had gone cold, not from the temperature.

“All of them?” I whispered.

How could people do such horrible things?

“Almost. You’re here.” She tapped my shoulders gingerly as if to say, I’m glad you’re alive. “The Seaborn didn’t go down easily without a fight. They have an innate gift for battle. Fast reflexes, perfect aim, but even that wasn’t enough to defeat the conquerors.”

That’s how I knew how to fight Russo and Barron. The reason Theron never asked where I’d learned to fight like a warrior, because he already knew.

“That’s what the histories say, anyway.” She worked soap through my hair with gentle fingers. “But histories are written by the kingdoms that did the killing. I’m certain many details are missing.”

“Well, at least they didn’t leave their wrongdoing part out.” Unless they were covering up something else.

“They made sure every kingdom knew they could be next without pointing fingers at any specific king or queen.”