Page 40

Arden grinned, lifting her own hand. “Triada be with you.”

She waited for her contact to stride back into the water, saw the flash of her teal tail as she dove once the depths permitted. After she mounted Ora, they rose into the air then headed back toward land.

Wind Rider . Arden had to smile at the name Kiyana had given her—one that had made Seidon laugh when she’d reported it.

He’d declared it perfect and had started using it too, as her official rank.

She’d asked if perhaps Wind Rider could outrank High Guardian in whatever military system he was making up as he went along, so that Papa couldn’t order her home, but Seidon had only chuckled and shaken his head at that one.

“Let’s call it a different branch entirely,” he’d said. “You’re our air fleet.”

She’d had to snort a laugh. “Fleet?”

“Hey, there’s more than one hawk, and they’re all helping now, aren’t they?”

In that relay communication, yes. But no other hawk would let Arden on its back—she’d tried—and Ora wouldn’t let any other human near her. Well, she’d allow Seidon and Papa and Storm to say hello and give her a pat of greeting, but one word about mounting, and she was gone.

For good reason. Arden knew well it was difficult enough for the bird to make such long flights carrying her, and she was lighter than any of those over-eager men. Did they honestly think she could fly around with them on board?

By the time the Banks passed beneath them and the mainland loomed, Arden was sore from the long flight, and she could imagine that Ora was in desperate need of a rest too. They landed where they always did, in a sheltered clearing near the lagoon where no one was around to watch them.

She dismounted, then moved to Ora’s head, resting her own against it for a moment. “Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ora rubbed her beak on Arden’s cheek in farewell.

She didn’t waste time before returning to the palace. It was as late as she’d thought it would be when she got back, which was later than she really wanted on this full day. Maybe she could skip her training session with Storm?

A huff of laughter emerged at the thought. If she didn’t show up at promptly two o’clock, her cousin would hunt her down and drag her to the arena forcibly. He took his charge to protect and train her far too seriously.

The palace Guard all knew her by now and let her pass with a nod of greeting, a few even smiling and lifting a hand. She returned the waves but didn’t slow her pace. By her calculation, she had only thirty minutes to report to Seidon and present herself to Storm.

She didn’t have to ask where the king was this time of day. He would be in the favorite of his two offices, the one on the ground floor with the saltwater pool. It let him better feel the forces of both salt water and fresh, to govern storms and currents and tides.

Alexei stood outside the door, but as she approached, he didn’t shake his head or hold up a hand to indicate that Seidon had a guest or wasn’t to be disturbed. He smiled at her. “How was the sky today, Wind Rider?”

She grinned. “Brilliant and blue.”

The Guard opened the door for her. “Better hurry. Cutting it close today.”

“I know, I know.” She strode through the opening he made, which he closed again behind her.

As she’d expected, Seidon wasn’t at the desk that overlooked the wide windows. He was in the pool, looking for all the world like he was taking a nap, though she knew he wasn’t.

Still, a little poking was called for. “I tell you. Here I am, risking life and limb to gather intelligence, and some people are lounging around in a pool all day.” She strode over to the marble edge as she spoke, so she saw the flash of his smile, even though his eyes didn’t open.

His arm darted out of the water, but before she could process his intent, he’d grabbed hold of her ankle, given it a mighty tug, and pulled her into the pool—or perhaps sent his water up to tug her in as well and keep her from smacking her head on the side.

Her squeal of protest was drowned out by the surge of water over her head.

She came up spluttering. And laughing. And splashing Seidon in his face. “Child.”

His grin made no apology. “You should know better than to taunt me by now.”

But it was so much fun. Fun that they all needed, if only for a few seconds at a time. She splashed him again—or tried to, though this time he deflected the water in midair and sent it back to her. “All right, all right. Truce.”

Chuckling, he stood, the water running off him far more quickly than it should by nature. He held out a hand to her, levering her up with him. “Truce. I’ll even dry you off to prove it.”

She’d assumed he would—drilling in a wet leather “uniform” sounded horrible, and she knew he’d take pity on her. She climbed the shallow steps and stood dripping for a moment, arms outstretched, while he called all the water back off and sent it like a fountain into the pool.

“Still a nice trick,” she said with a smile.

Seidon winked and turned toward his desk. “All right. What did you get today?”

She unbuttoned the pocket with the crystals and put them on his desk, along with the pink one on which she’d recorded her own morning’s observations as she flew.

“I tracked some general movements for a while—though I couldn’t do much, not with the day’s flight plan.

But they were within sight of our course. ”

“Good.” He took the pink crystal and snapped it into a reader, projecting the images she’d recorded into one corner of the room. After increasing the speed, he watched it for a minute, nodded, then moved to the others, easing into his chair. “These are from Kiyana?”

“The white one has Mariana’s announcement of genocide. She’s gone public, thinking to recruit all the Unawakened to her cause. Calling the others terrorists. Kiyana says the queen has relinquished control of everything to her.”

Seidon’s jaw went tight, and he curled his fingers into his palm, where his mark stood white against the tan of his skin. He would be remembering Coral now, she knew. The way she’d pressed that warning into him the night of the ball.

He’d be wishing he’d been faster to act, not just to react. Wishing he’d found a way to stop or tear down the wall. Wishing he could do something to help the cousins who had helped him recruit Kiyana and the rest of the Underwater Underground.

Arden had given up weeks ago trying to reassure him.

It never did any good. So instead, she rested a hand on his shoulder.

“The green one has Finn’s broadcast, calling all Awakened to join the Black Tails or be killed.

The aqua one I’m not sure about. She didn’t specify what was on it. General intel, I assume.”

He nodded, reaching up to cover her fingers with his own. “Good work, Wind Rider.”

It always sounded like a joke when he said it. When anyone said it other than Kiyana. Which meant she couldn’t help but smile. “Have I earned a promotion yet? I think I want to be Wind Chaser. Or maybe Wind—”

“Ambitious, ambitious.” He reclaimed his hand and moved to click each of the other crystals into readers. “Let’s see what our friends in the UU have for us this week.”

She listened, but rather than watch, she wandered over to the map hovering in the corner. Reaching up, she used two fingers to shrink the model, to allow more of the data to show. Shrank it again, until she could see the island she’d visited that morning, a speck on the map.

Too far. It was still too far from the cities, especially from Usquerbis. But it was one of many small islands in a chain of them. A chain that stretched all the way to and across the Sunken Cities.

“No.” Seidon had snuck up behind her while she was too engrossed in the map to notice. He swiped the whole display into nothingness with one motion of his hand.

She squeaked her protest and spun to face him. “Si—it’s the only way. I know it would take a few days, but I could get there, if we island hopped.”

“And then what?” As always when they had this argument, his face was impassive, stern.

The king, not Si. He held his arms wide, inadvertently showcasing every toned muscle of his torso that she always tried—and failed—not to notice.

“Will you dive down, all on your own? Sneak through a gate in the dome? Find her, all on your own again? Set her free? And then what? Will the two of you somehow manage to decompress as you rise without getting caught?”

Arden folded her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “Stating all the things that make it impossible doesn’t change the fact that it’s still our best bet.”

“It’s not. Our best bet is finding a way through the wall and moving a whole force into mer territory.” He spun away, yanking his tunic off the hook he always hung it on while he was in the pool.

The frustration wasn’t really with her. She knew that. It was with his own failure to find a weakness in that blue, electric magic. He’d been swimming out to the wall nearly every day, trying to understand it. To defeat it.

It was defeating him though, she knew. Mentally. It even interfered with his sense of the waters beyond it. He could only catch currents, storms, tides after they’d crossed the threshold.

Too late to be effective. As evidenced by the crystal feed playing on mute on the surface of his desk.

One of Daryatla’s southern islands, being ripped apart by a hurricane he usually would have been able to weaken.

But the island was too close to the wall.

Though he’d known the storm was coming thanks to weather data, he hadn’t sensed it before it cleared the wall, and by then it had grown too strong.

She palmed that display off. “Why are you running this on repeat? It only upsets you. You’re only one man, Si—”