AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gill glared at Nemo. “Nemes, you see way too much good in merfolk, especially the ones who don’t deserve it.”
Fin grabbed my hand and stroked it. “I want to hear your story.”
Even Gill stared at me, suddenly interested in what I had to say.
My hands clenched into fists, and my nails dug into my palms as I recounted everything that had happened. By the end of my tale, I couldn’t control my emotions. All the fear, hatred, anger, and betrayal stung like the cut of a knife and rushed out in hot, bitter tears.
Nemo pulled me onto his lap and cuddled me. I held him tightly, sobbing. Terrified to let go. Terrified over what was going to happen with the pirates. Terrified to think about what would happen to my father, my sister, the merfolk, and Tritonia.
“I never liked that guppy,” said Gill.
I glanced at him.
“I saw him beat soldiers,” Gill went on. “Bully them into silence. Torture enemies. Wouldn’t put it past him to do all this.”
Fin supported Gill’s story with a nod.
I put a hand to my mouth. Torture was against my father’s rules. Triton and my grandfather both believed in upholding the rights of prisoners by giving them fair trials and storing them in reasonable accommodations, not dirty, dark, rank prison cells. We were a peaceful race, not savages like some of the human and shifter clans. But I wasn’t surprised by Gill’s admission. The sting of the commander’s betrayal dug even deeper into my heart, as if it had been pierced by a swordfish’s upper jaw.
Gill shrugged and returned to watching the forest pass by. “When I told the generals, they accused me of making up lies about a senior-ranked official and put me on cleaning duties.”
“You never told us that,” Nemo said.
Again, Gill shrugged.
No wonder he didn’t like merfolk of authority. The nerve of them to punish him for telling the truth. This was why I hated politics and snotty nobles. They thought they were better than everyone else. Once I saved my father from Faraall’s evil grasp, I was going to attend the next war council, where I’d have a word with them about how Gill had been treated. If I heard any more stories like his, so help me sea god, there’d be hell to pay.
“I’m sorry the generals treated you like that,” I mumbled.
He stared at me as if my words surprised him.
His hard countenance softened a little. The disdain behind his eyes vanished. Hopefully, he would begin to see me and the royals in a new light, and not as the guppies he’d believed we were.
Nemo ruffled Gill’s dark hair and gave him a big hug.
“Princess,” said Fin.
Sea god! A delicious shiver trickled through me every time he called me by my title. I could lie there beside him, listening to him say my name all day long.
“What can we do to help our great king?” he asked.
For a moment there, I was lost in his crystal-blue eyes. I sat up straight, snapping out of a daze. But even then, I found it hard to look away from his beautiful gaze. His eyes were mesmerizing…they reminded me of home and filled me with a deep longing for the ocean.
“The Sea Witch will remove the spell from my father if I give her the pearl of Aluria,” I replied, staring at my hands, lost as to how I was even going to steal it from my father, and unsure if I wanted to.
What was worse? My father under a spell? Or all the powers the sea god had granted my father—and all the merkings before him—in the hands of an evil witch? That kind of power in her possession would be deadly. What might she do to the merfolk? Turn our waters into a barren wasteland? Use us as slaves? Right now, my father kept her in check, but without his powers, he would be defenseless.
Fin squeezed my hands. “We must not let that happen, Princess.”
I nodded, on the brink of tears again. Shellfish, I was such a baby!
“Don’t cry, Princess.” Nemo gave me one of his warm, uplifting cuddles again, and I melted into him. “There’s always a way. In fact—”
His voice was so cheerful I wondered if anything ever got him down.
“I know one,” he finished.
“What?” I shifted to face him.
