Page 37

37

Abyssal

“Y ou three! Come here,” the vile queen yapped, and although the command wasn’t directed at me, my insides coiled at the sound of her voice. “Our dear princess requires a respite. Escort her to the chamber we’ve readied for her arrival.”

My little captive squirmed, fighting against the insistent push of Queen Sagari’s foul, clawed hands. “Chamber? I—I don’t think…”

“If it’s permissible, I would like to accompany her,” I cut in, well aware I was speaking out of turn.

“ Stay put, puppet, ” the queen barked, throwing the command over her shoulder. Immediately, my body locked up, leaving me a prisoner beneath my flesh. “I still have words for you.”

The queen handed her granddaughter off to three overly eager pawns, and I could only watch as a mere spectator.

The pawns wrapped around my captive, and I burned the image of each of their faces into my memory. Particularly the one who grabbed her slender wrist with unnecessary force. Ah, yes—and the hapless oaf letting her tail drag. That was an oversight he would soon regret.

“Please, wait! I—” Frightened eyes searched around the pawns to find me, pleading for my intervention, yet bitterness filled me because there was nothing I could do. To me, the crown’s commands were absolute.

Stay put , puppet.

Thanks to the trident living inside me, I was at the mercy of that vile woman’s every whim.

“Do not worry, dear child,” Queen Sagari crooned in farewell as the men led their princess away. “The pawns will attend to your every need.”

As much as I disliked her phrasing, I didn’t dare speak out of turn again.

Ha —it seemed our princess didn’t like that phrasing, either. She let profanities fly, struggling fruitlessly against the pawns. Then I noticed she was still holding the weapon I’d fabricated for her, and my mind raced with the possibilities.

Perhaps she would seek retribution all on her own.

“Aracos.” I mentally called out to my familiar, and it was an instant comfort when his consciousness connected with mine.

His answering voice was as reassuring as my own heartbeat. “Master.”

Good —he was already nearby, hidden under a spell of concealment. Clever creature.

“Keep an eye on our little captive.”

As soon as the thought reached him, there was a shimmy of movement near the rocks above the throne room’s entrance. Magic rippled off his long, whiplike body, undetectable by all those not versed in our unique brand of magic. “Worry not, Master. Aracos will follow.”

Once her granddaughter was out of sight, Queen Sagari turned her attention back to me.

“You forget your place, puppet,” she spat, drifting back over to her throne. Her eyes narrowed, examining me with a critical gaze. “Interrupting your queen, time and again.”

I kept my expression carefully guarded. “My apologies. I only wished to offer my services to the princess.”

“Services?” She scoffed, and the arms of her throne groaned under her immense weight as she sank back into it. Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion when she threw her head back to stretch her neck. “You are nothing but a tool for me to use as I see fit. Remember that .”

“Of course,” I said obediently. I was well aware of my role here as a tool and a puppet. But being under her control hadn’t stopped me from finding ways to act of my own accord. I’d yet to encounter a tide I couldn’t eventually turn in my favor. “Is there something you require of me?”

Her lips distorted into the cruelest of smiles, and I readied my mind for whatever task she was about to assign.

“Actually, there is,” she said, lifting a single clawed nail. “I am amending my earlier command: You shall not hurt the princess unless it is to break her curse. Do whatever is necessary, maim her, inflict pain if you need to. You have one moon cycle to get it done, or I’ll have you cut that disgusting tail of hers off. ”

Ah, yes —there it was, the queen’s true nature was finally laid bare. I concentrated deeply, studying every word of the command with great attention.

Curses, by definition, were meant to inflict harm or punishment on an individual, were they not? Considering the spell had served to keep my little captive safe, far from this place until now, who was I to say that it was a curse at all?

Already, I could feel the tension of the magical strings binding me begin to loosen. Yes, that logic was sound enough.

Now that I’d targeted the loophole in my queen’s command, it was time to play the part of her puppet.

“Understood,” I said, masking my growing excitement. “I’ll make sure to break her curse in the most efficient way possible. Even if it means hurting the princess.”

I had no intention of causing more harm to her than I already had. No, my little captive was far too important.

I’d done everything in my power to prevent her from coming here, but fate had intervened. Now that she’d arrived, I’d be smart, cunning, and most of all, careful. The Undersea was a merciless place, after all. Even for a princess with her lineage.

She’d suffer enough without me hurting her as well.

“Good. Now go and get to work .”

My tentacles acted on their own, moving me away from the queen. When I reached the entrance, I froze over the threshold as one of the queen’s old commands plucked like a string, holding me back before I could enter the royal hallway.

You must crawl along the royal hallway, child, to remind you of your lowly existence.

There was a time when I held out hope that the ‘child’ she’d added to the command would cause it to fall away as I aged. Na?ve, wishful thinking.

To a queen well into her second century, nearly everyone was a child, no matter their age.

And even now, twenty years later, the command persisted. But I’d rather give up all of my magic than be forced to crawl along the hall like I’d done when I was a spawnling.

Before I could teleport across it, an annoying grunt sounded through the hall. Seconds later, a substantial mass flopped down into the royal hallway from above.

“Arghhh!” Fat tentacles flailed haphazardly as the body that landed struggled to roll back upright.

Ah . The Rook.

I had no idea how he’d managed to fit through the tunnels above, but it was no surprise that he’d ended up on his backside.

Always remain respectful in the Rook’s presence.

Respectful . Creatures such as him didn’t deserve respect. Once a hulking brute of a knight and the queen’s former paramour, time had reduced the Rook to nothing more than a geriatric, half-blind octopus.

As expected, it took him reaching the mouth of the throne room to realize I was there at all.

“Puppet,” he grunted, shoving me aside with a tentacle as he lumbered by. “Can’t believe my queen is wasting her time lying with a whelp like you.”

The mere thought of being subjected to the same treatment as one of the queen’s pawns made my tentacles recoil. No, even if I was her puppet, the pawns had always been her playthings. A fact for which I was immeasurably thankful.

I regained my composure in time to assess the silver scar running down his face. Seeing the aftermath of what my magic had done to him once it had finished stitching him back together was always a delight.

It was far from my best work, but the vague command ‘ Bring the Rook back to me alive ’ had provided me with ample room for creativity, letting me wait until the last possible moment to intervene before he bled to death.

How would he feel knowing not only that he had a granddaughter but that he’d attempted to assault her upon their very first meeting?

I knew better than to think that pampered slob would care at all.

My fist clenched around the pole of my trident as the Rook dragged himself past me, but I didn’t let my anger show.

Although the memory of how he’d tried to harm her never ceased making my blood boil.

He’d even ordered me to throw her at him, and although I wasn’t normally held to his commands, that vile queen had bid me to follow his every order while he was tasked to collect the spoils of the Atlantic.

Now that he’d failed his queen and his mission, the only command I was bound to regarding the Rook was to show him respect . So instead of teleporting away, I waited for him to drag his bloated body across the hall. Respectfully.

“Aracos. Where is she?”

“Safe, Master.” Immediately, a vision straight from my familiar’s eyes flashed into my mind—a curtain of finery draped along an arched passageway. The chambers were some of the nicer ones that branched from the royal hall. Despite my aversion to her being here, it brought me satisfaction that she could potentially be comfortable in her assigned chambers if she chose to be.

When the Rook’s grunts ceased, I closed my eyes, envisioning the passageway as I called upon my magic. When my eyes reopened, Aracos slipped through his veil to greet me. With a languid grace, the eel moved through the water, brushing his smooth skin across my shoulder blades.

I let my palm skim over his head in return. “You did well. Go and rest now.”

Aracos twisted, flicking my hand with the end of his bony tail. “You need rest, Master. Not Aracos. Your magic, it thins.”

That hadn’t stopped him from borrowing even more of my magic to keep himself concealed. No, that was an excuse. “You’re fond of our princess, aren’t you?”

He turned another circle around me as if reluctant to leave the door to her chamber. “Her magic smells like yours, Master.”

I chuckled because there was a good reason for that. “Best to keep that thought to yourself, Aracos. I doubt our princess would appreciate the comparison.”

Speaking of our princess… I parted the drape with the back of my knuckles.

There she was, curled up in the corner, her face resting in her hands. So different from the version of her I’d seen in the mirror.

Although I’d had a suspicion of what she might look like underneath her spells, I hadn’t expected her to be quite so beautiful. The vision I saw when I held her up to the mirror in my arms was bewitching in every sense of the word.

Slender, supple tentacles that fell from her waist like living jewelry. Eyes that were power itself. I’d been unable to look away, and even still, the image had barely flitted from my mind since.

My attraction to her was undeniable, even though I knew that feeling was dangerous. She didn’t belong down here. No sea witch did if they valued their life and their freedom.

They’d taken her to a room full of carved walls and luxury, one of the nicest in the entire Undersea, and she’d hidden herself away in the seagrass. My scared little mouse.

The drapes fell back into place as I pulled away.

“Master?”

“Keep an eye on our princess.” My magic stirred, flaring down my arms like cold flames.

Soon, I would go to her. But before that, I had something important to attend to.

With my destination in mind, I closed my eyes and let my magic overtake me.