Page 24 of Sea of Evil and Desire (The Deep Saga #1)
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Morgana
“K ILL THE MER. RECLAIM DROWNED GLORY.”
The blood was shimmering across the tavern wall, and a group of Drowned stood around it, leering. The letters glowed with the same eerie light as the words Edward and I had discovered in the room with the broken chandelier.
Edward had promised to take me to the Taberna when the storm globe showed clear weather. I had slept in my little cabin that night—for how long, I didn’t know—but a nagging feeling had awoken me. I’d found him in the bar, standing frozen as he surveyed the blood.
The writing shone against the stained wall behind the piano under the light of the anglerfish nets. Whoever was behind the graffiti was growing bolder—and they most likely resided on this boat.
“Reclaim the Drowned’s glory!” A fisherman in a battered blue sweater and faded slacks tucked into gumboots raised his rum bottle.
“Hear! Hear!” shouted a Drowned woman wearing a ripped full-skirted dress.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not risking the wrath of the Mer Prince,” a naval officer cried. “Don’t you remember what he did to José?”
“Gulliver was never the same after his run-in with the Mer!” a woman in modern clothes added, shaking her head at the bloody graffiti.
The Drowned looked at each other and began muttering in agreement. I glanced sideways at Edward. He was straightening the lapels of his porter’s uniform, his eyes moving from one person to the next as if he didn’t know what to make of it.
“Yes, kill the scoundrels that sunk our city.” Teachie and Rackham had appeared in the tavern behind us.
“Sunk our city?” I raised my brows at Edward.
“Legend says the Seven Mer Kingdoms combined their powers to sink the debaucherous city, though no one knows for sure. The newly Drowned took this as a call to arms, igniting the final great war—the Battle of Port Royal. Neither side triumphed, and now the Mer avoid those waters, known as the Wild West of the Ocean,” Edward muttered.
This support from the two most ferocious pirates on SS Jones’s Lady emboldened the Drowned.
“Kill the Mer. Reclaim Drowned glory!” the fisherman cried.
The tavern reverberated as the others joined in. They raised their rum bottles, eyes wild. “Kill the Mer. Reclaim Drowned—”
The rhythmic clomp of a wooden leg silenced the cries as the Captain entered the room.
“If you want to remain in my bar and drink my rum, there will be no killing anybody,” he snarled. His face looked younger as his brown eyes narrowed on each chanting Drowned— the Protector .
With a wave of his fist, the shimmering graffiti disappeared.
My mouth was agape, and Edward emitted a noise of wonder at my side. We stood staring at the stained wall as the Captain moved to the piano and took a seat. He began to play an upbeat jig.
The Drowned looked disgruntled, but slowly, they dispersed and found tables. Teachie and Rackham were the last ones to obey. They were still standing there bristling, eyes narrowed on the Captain, when Edward and I exited through the saloon doors.
“Do you know how abhorrent you look?” Edward grimaced.
A half-eaten fish was hanging from one of my webbed hands. I snatched another from the silvery school of them weaving around us.
The eerie war chat of the Drowned stayed with me as we followed the looming pillars of the stalagmite forest, climbing upward until we reached the warmer water. The heat vents shivered like nervous companions at our side, but we didn’t venture in.
Edward didn’t have webs, so I walked beside him. This made traveling considerably slower, but I was grateful to have him with me. Much to his disgust, I was using my aquatic speed and vision to capture and gorge on fish. There was more variety here, unlike the terrifying glowing creatures that hung around the tavern.
“How come you’re so sophisticated?” I wobbled a fish skeleton in his face before letting it float away.
“Whatever do you mean?” Edward mumbled, swatting the debris out of his path.
“How come you’re not like the other Drowned?” I used my webs to scoot in front of him and block his path. “I haven’t seen you lecherously drunk, I haven’t seen you having sex, and you don’t shun me like the others.”
The desolate rocky expanses of the deep had softened; we had passed a trembling kelp forest and a few sunken boats, and now, oceanic greenery was beginning to sprout from every corner.
“I’ve been here for over a hundred years, remember, and you only know me now.” His mouth thinned as he pushed past me through a rocky cavern.
“But you said you hadn’t—”
As we cleared the rock face, color in the form of vegetation manifested in every corner. I looked around in wonder as I breast-stroked to catch up with Edward again.
“I learned from an error.” His teeth were gritted.
“So you have slept with someone?” I pulled my finger from an anemone and gave him my full attention.
“When I first arrived here, I was confused and miserable, so like the others, I turned to the rum to diffuse my pain. In my vulnerable state, I had but one slipup. Afterward, I was riddled with guilt and thoughts of my living lover. I vowed never to do it again, and I haven’t.” His tone was icy. I could tell he wanted me to drop it, even without sensing his feelings.
“Are they still here, this person?” Another school of fish parted as we strolled through them.
“I’ve already shared more than I ought.” Edward batted the fish out of his path.
“Okay, but I swear I won’t—”
“Stop!” He grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me behind a large coral-encrusted mound streaming with clumps of seaweed.
“What are you doing?” I pulled away from him.
“Shhh, look.”
He parted the wavering fronds, and there they were: the Mer. Edward emitted a noise of condemnation, and I elbowed him. There were two of them gliding silently through the emerald water. The female’s hair was a white blonde. It snaked around her shoulder blades and down her back, thriving in the water.
“That’s Princess Glacies of the House of Niveus,” Edward whispered.
Princess Glacies’s slim torso was tinged blue and complemented by a tail of glittering black, its scales creeping up her torso to adorn parts of her breasts.
“She’s beautiful.” I swallowed.
Edward’s eyes followed her companion. I took in the strong-built merman swimming beside the princess. His skin was darker than her ivory sheen and had a green tinge rather than blue.
“That’s King Neptūnus V’s nephew. I don’t know his name. I’ve heard of the princess because there have been rumors that they are merging the kingdoms by marriage.”
The Mer’s skin shone in harmony with their surroundings, and they moved with a grace that was beyond human. They approached us quickly. Their large tails beat against the water, propelling them faster than my webs could have. Never in my life could I have imagined such wondrous beings existed. I stepped out from behind the mound as they glided above us, looking up at them in a trance.
“Morgana!” Edward hissed, lunging for my arm, but his fingers slipped against my sleek fur.
I raised my gaze to meet theirs, and the Mer stared down at me as they swam over. Princess Glacies had pale blue eyes—the color of icy seas—and the merman’s irises were an amber brown. I was on the verge of attempting communication when the muscular merman turned and spat right at me.
“Drowned scum!” The princess’s eyes flashed. Like with the Drowned, only bubbles left her mouth, but I heard her in my mind, her voice clear and cold as ice.
“Hey!” I called out, but they continued swimming. “Why did they do that?” My voice broke as I brushed the merman’s saliva from my arm. It shimmered silver on my fingertips.
“What did I tell you? The Mer hate us, and so it has been for thousands of years.” Edward rolled his eyes. “Not to mention that someone has been using their blood for paint! I’m surprised they didn’t attack us. They are dangerous . . . beautiful, yet terrible.” He stepped out from behind the seaweed-clad rock, where he had been crouching.
“And you think it all started with this Selkie, Siana, and Prince Kyano?” I asked, looking at the Mer’s glimmering tales as they sped away.
“Legend has it that there’s always been unrest between the Mer and Drowned, and the altercation between Manannán and Prince Kyano gave both parties the ammunition they needed.” He pointed. “Look, there’s Prince Aigéan! He’s supposed to be the cruelest of the lot.”
A third merman had joined the retreating Princess Glacies and her muscular comrade. The prince must have been about the same age as me, or so it looked from this distance. I couldn’t make out his features, but he had a tail of deep emerald, which melted into an inky crimson tip. His dark hair seemed to hold a seaweed crown—or perhaps I was imagining it because I knew he was the prince.
“There’s his dolphin, Pháos.” Edward’s eyes were wide in wonder, and I followed his gaze.
The dolphin’s nose and back were black but melted into gray, which became white on the creature’s belly. The prince stopped and turned to pat it as it floated by his side, and it let out a series of playful clicks.
“Holy shit,” I whispered as the dolphin zoomed around to his other side and looked right at me.
The prince turned, too. He had an angular jawline and dark hair billowing in the swell. His chest and right arm were covered in tattoos. I thought about the trembling pirate, José. I had seen him twitching in fear in the games room and the tavern whenever a fight broke out. He hadn’t quite recovered from whatever this prince had done to him.