Page 71

B y the time they arrived back at the bustling palace, Seidon had their next steps planned out…

theoretically. The usually busy streets and corridors had ratcheted up to crowded, thanks to the orders they’d given yesterday, calling everyone to high alert.

Guardians, both Awakened and Unawakened, created a sea of blue along the marble and crystal, each regiment and division in its own shade.

Arden, her steps matching his as they strode toward his main office, nodded toward one of the wide banks of windows. “There comes the last of the High Guardians.”

He looked toward the road she indicated but couldn’t make out anything in particular on it. No reason, of course, to distrust Hawk Eyes. “Good. Let’s hope I can get the weather data compiled before he finds us.”

His wife—he’d never grow tired of calling her that even in his head—smirked at him. “What’s this? The mighty Sea King needing to rely on actual data instead of his own senses?”

She would only dare to tease him about the hindrance the wall had provided because she knew it was about to come down.

It made something warm and fizzy spread through him.

Hope . Hope that this could yet resolve without the mer’s war making its way to Daryatla.

“I would do it more often if the data were as dependable.”

She was laughing as they entered the office.

Rico waited inside, bending over a chart laid out on a table, along with the High Guardian from their southernmost regions, Xia.

Whatever they were discussing had them both involved enough that they did little more than glance up when the door opened, giving Seidon two equally absent nods.

His lips twitched. Suited him fine. He strode toward the corner of the room, where he still had the morning’s weather data displayed, the projected globe rotating on its axis, clouds racing over the surface.

Arden stayed at his side, her hands on her hips as she looked at the images. “Do you seriously never study these?”

He shrugged, lifting a hand to grab the projection and turn it to show him the part of the world he needed to see.

“Occasionally, to see what’s going on beyond where I can sense.

And of course, they’re useful for the people who need to plan.

But I can’t affect anything until I can sense it, so having advanced visual warning of something like a hurricane doesn’t really do me any good.

And they’ve still been tricky for me—too much wind. ”

Her lips quirked up, and he knew why. Now, though, with him controlling the water and Arden controlling the wind…what would they be able to do in the face of a hurricane?

“I’m not certain if we’re mad or brilliant with this plan,” she murmured, low enough that her father and Xia wouldn’t be able to hear.

Her eyes were riveted to the vast expanse of the far oceans, tracing them as the projection spun, watching the clouds build and move and then scatter again—the data from the last forty-eight hours, and a projection of the next few days as well.

“It sounded mad to my own ears, the first time my mother suggested I try to manipulate the weather. That I take the water from a region that was flooding and send it to where there was drought. And yet…”

“It worked.” Arden had the leisure of stating it as a fact—the only fact she’d ever known.

In her lifetime, she’d never experienced swamping coastal flooding or a crop-withering drought, because he’d gotten increasingly better at managing the weather over his empire in the hundred years before her birth.

What would they be able to achieve now, together?

He reached for her hand, gave her fingers a squeeze. “This will too.” He knew she was gazing right where he was on the projection—the chain of islands that were the closest landmarks to Usquerbis.

The islands so very close to the swirling storm building over the warm ocean waters to the west, near the equator.

The intercom on his desk buzzed. “Your Majesty, High Guardian Rodriguez should arrive within ten minutes, his conveyance was just spotted.”

Seidon moved to his desk. “Thank you, Alexei. Have the others here by the time he arrives, please.”

He sat, put the crystals he needed into his readers, and made himself focus on this next task rather than get distracted by all the unknowns, all the questions, all the uncertainties. He had hope, yes. He had faith.

But he still had to do the work, and for now, that meant tuning out not only Rico and Xia, but even Arden, who had gone to her father’s side and now spoke in low tones to the two High Guardians.

Seidon already knew what data he meant to compile, and he’d already written up drafts of various reports on the morning’s activities, ready to be updated with the facts.

What a relief that he could ignore the file called “Wall Experiment: Failure” and instead work from the one called “Wall Experiment: Complete Success.” He’d had a “Partial Success” file begun too but didn’t open it either.

It only took him a few minutes to add the specifics of the morning’s work, his chest still feeling tight whenever he thought back to the crackling electricity, to those moments when he hadn’t known if the failure would cascade or if the wall would reignite once Arden released the wind.

It wasn’t just relief that had surged through him then, nor was it what filled his chest now. It was gratitude. Pure, overwhelming gratitude.

They had a shot. They really had a shot of doing what they planned. Of bringing down the wall on their own timeframe, of being in position to surge over it from multiple directions. Of stopping the genocide. Of rescuing Jade.

It would require a few miracles, stretching their powers, and the mer behaving according to his best guesses…but he would trust that the Triada had a plan far greater and more precise than his own, and that ultimately his will would be done.

He would seek it. He would study. He would do the best he could do, praying at every moment that if he was wrong about something, the Triada would let him know.

Then they would act.

His other High Guardians filtered in, Rodriguez rounding out their numbers. Seidon stood to greet him with a smile, nodding a signal to Alexei to forbid any further interruptions.

Even as he shook the hand of the man he hadn’t seen in person in ten years, Seidon motioned toward the chairs he’d had brought in that morning in anticipation of this meeting. “Please, be seated, everyone.”

The five of them moved to take their seats, still chattering among themselves and greeting each other. Arden moved back to his side. His hand found its place on the small of her back.

“First things first. Allow me to introduce my wife—Queen Arden, daughter of our own Jericho Bleu. Those of you who just arrived in the city in the last day may be surprised to learn of our wedding, as we’ve been careful to keep word of it contained for now.”

“A wedding!” Pnina, who represented the northernmost regions of his realm, turned wide eyes between Rico and Arden. “What, did I not rate an invitation?”

Seidon grinned. “Once I convinced her to say yes, we didn’t waste time. For obvious reasons. Darling?”

He knew well that Arden didn’t like the way all eyes shifted to her. The muscles in her back went tense under his fingers, and he could all but feel the thoughts racing through her mind, wondering if they were judging her, finding her lacking.

They wouldn’t, even if they wanted to at first. Not when she did exactly as they’d discussed ahead of time.

She raised her hands, calling up the air in the room and sending it on a quick course around them, strong enough to draw shouts of surprise from the newly-arrived members, to ruffle hair and send a hat flying—all while leaving all of their own items still and undisturbed.

Ulri, from the western province abutting the deserts of the Sun People, took to his feet, eyes locked on Arden. “What is this?”

Arden closed her fist, and the wind halted. He knew well she didn’t have to use her hands any more than he did, but the visual was helpful now—to focus her through her nerves, and to make it clear who was wielding the wind.

“This,” Seidon said, leaning back to sit on the edge of his desk, “is a new gift of the Triada. Sky magic.”

Ulri’s fist clenched as well, and Seidon felt the pulse of it through the waters beneath them. But this youngest High Guardian didn’t take his eyes off Arden. “There is no such thing.”

“There was no such thing.” Seidon rubbed his thumb in a circle over a knot in Arden’s back, praying peace upon them all. “Until our Awakening Ceremony here. We are prepared to demonstrate again now, for you all, if you like.”

Another something they’d discussed in private. Much as he knew Arden didn’t want to be the center of their attention, she’d also agreed without objection to do whatever it took to make these most-trusted and powerful people in the empire join behind them.

They couldn’t afford division in their ranks now. Couldn’t risk crossing the wall without leaving unity behind them, and without Ulri specifically—one of the strongest of the Awakened, despite being only fifty years old—traveling with them into the mer’s territorial waters.

Pnina leaned forward, curiosity in her eyes more than doubt. “Please. I know I for one am quite interested to know why you introduce her as queen and not queen consort.”

Seidon let his gaze move to the place it always wanted to go anyway—to Arden’s face. Or her profile, anyway. “You won’t have to wonder for long. Arden is a queen in her own right.” He grinned when her cheeks flushed. “Though not accustomed to it yet.”

He straightened again, dropped a kiss onto her temple, and then moved to the four crystal bowls he’d had waiting for this very purpose. Four, one for each of the three High Guardians who were Awakened, and one for himself.