I’m too mean to die. Besides, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Now that’s the Tempest I know and love. She darted out of the cell, turned left, and started swimming down the corridor. She wasn’t going all that fast, but still, there was no way for me to keep up, no matter how hard I tried. One, because she had a tail and I didn’t. And two, because swimming is one of those activities that uses the entire body. And since my entire body was completely messed up, it wasn’t like I could use it very well.
Oh, I could focus on the prize and ignore the pain—I’d done that many times before—but it wasn’t just the pain slowing me down. It was that my body really wouldn’t work right. Not my right hand, not my left foot, and not my diaphragm, which screamed in agony every time I performed a stroke.
Mahina was at the end of the hallway before she turned back to check on me, and I saw her usually bronze skin turn pale as she realized just how badly injured I was.
She started swimming back toward me, but I waved her away. Keep going—I’ll follow you. I’m just a little slow. It was an understatement and we both knew it, but I couldn’t let her be caught down here. Sabyn didn’t need her the way he needed me—he would just as likely kill her as toss her in the dungeon.
Mahina didn’t listen, of course. She just rolled her eyes at me and kept coming. You’re going to need to wrap your arms around me and let me swim us out of here. Can you do that?
I’m too heavy. I’ll slow you down.
You’re already slowing me down. Just let me get us out of the castle and then we’ll think of something else, okay? But we’re running out of time. We need to get moving.
I nodded, then gingerly did as she instructed, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and my legs around her waist so that she was pretty much giving me a piggyback ride. Or what mermaids liked to call a seahorse ride.
Are you ready? she asked as she pushed off from the floor with her powerful tail.
I nodded, though I wasn’t anywhere close to being ready. Holding my arms and legs in that position really hurt, plus any movement of my head made me feel like I was going to throw up all over again. I could only imagine what it was going to feel like being jostled along on Mahina’s back. But it beat the alternative, so I sucked in a breath and said, Let’s go.
She took off, streaking through the halls like Sabyn himself was on her tail. Down one corridor, up a ramp, across a room, through a secret passageway, up another ramp, down another corridor. On and on it went until we were finally in a part of the castle that I recognized. Unfortunately, it was the Council’s quarters, and I froze as one of Sabyn’s allies from our last big battle stepped out of a suite. He hadn’t seen us yet—he was too busy locking his door—but I knew it was only a matter of seconds before he did.
Reaching out my good hand, I blasted him with the biggest energy pulse I could muster. He didn’t even know what hit him. One second he was dropping his keys in his pocket and the next he was laid out cold in the hallway.
Mahina whooped. Nice aim, Tempest!
Not bad considering I can barely see, huh?
Not bad at all. She giggled. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. He’s been doing nothing but hassling people and seizing assets since the moment Sabyn appointed him to the Council.
Big surprise. But where are the others? What did Sabyn do with Hailana’s Council? I didn’t always get along with the group of them, but there were a few Councilors I had considered friends. I hated to think of something happening to them while I was at home, having birthday parties and hanging with my friends.
They’ve been exiled. Sabyn gave them the chance to leave or be executed. They took the path of least resistance.
Well, can you blame them? Sabyn’s a sociopath. I wouldn’t want to cross him if I were them.Mahina glanced at me over her shoulder. But you did cross him.
Yeah, and we can see how well that worked out for me, can’t we? I held up my mangled hand as evidence.
Better to fight than to run away like a bunch of cowards when a monster threatens the kingdom you’ve sworn to protect, she countered.
Sabyn didn’t make it sound like that was what happened, I told her. I know I shouldn’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth, but some of what he said made sense.
Like what?
Like after Hailana died, when I wasn’t here, people asked him to assume the crown.
Mahina didn’t answer, pretending to concentrate on taking a corner as quickly as possible. But my best friend was a certified genius who could multitask with the best of them. If she wasn’t answering, it was because Sabyn had told the truth and she was looking for a way to tell me.
It’s okay, I told her. I understand. Although I didn’t, not really. Had it been selfish of me to think I could be both mer and human? Yes. Had I been an idiot to run back and forth between Coral Straits and La Jolla like it was a recreational swim? Absolutely. But everyone in Coral Straits knew who Sabyn was. They knew he had been instrumental in the fight that had injured Hailana so badly and they knew he had teamed up with Tiamat in an effort to kill Kona and me. How could they have asked him to be their leader when they’d known I was coming back? They could have picked any random guy off the street and he would have been a better bet than Sabyn the Insane. I wanted to say all this to Mahina, but now wasn’t the time. And I wasn’t really sure it was my place, anyway. I didn’t want to sound like I was suffering from sour grapes, whining because they’d picked him as monarch over me.
Mahina made one more right turn, went down one more hallway, and then we were in the servants’ quarters. A left turn and a mad swim down three hundred of the busiest yards in the entire castle—I kept my face pressed into Mahina’s back the whole time in hopes that no one would recognize me—and we reached the servants’ entrance. We burst through the door and out into the city streets just as I heard someone ask, Hey, isn’t that Tempest? I used my new telepathic powers to try to shut down his access to anyone else. I had no idea if it worked, though, so I told Mahina, Shit! Someone recognized me!
I know. I know. She dodged around pedestrians, food carts, even sea-horse-drawn chariots as she raced from one street to the next. Just keep your head down and hang on.
Where are we going?
My family’s farm.
Isn’t that the first place they’ll think to look for me? I don’t want anything to happen to your family. Besides her parents, she had seven brothers and sisters whom she adored. I would never forgive myself if something happened to one of them because of me.
Don’t worry. We’re not staying.
Then what are we going to do?
Just trust me, okay? I know you’re used to making the decisions, and for good reason, but I’ve got this. I promise I won’t let you down.
I’m not worried about you letting me down, you idiot. You’ve already saved my life. I just don’t want you to get hurt because you helped me.
I won’t. But there are a lot worse things to get hurt for than your best friend.
She darted onto the street that ran in front of her house, but instead of going inside as I anticipated, she ducked around to the huge barn in back, where she and her father spent most of their time working on projects of one kind or another. We burst through the back door, caught her father in the middle of some experiment that required mixing a number of different-colored chemicals together.