Page 7 of In Rising Tides

Wood groaned from the wrecks, their boards still succumbing to the clutches of the sea. A hint of copper trailed along the current, probably from the rusted bolts still holding the ships together.

Drystan’s quiet voice caused her to flinch. It seemed so loud in the silence.

“Can you believe I once lived here?” Drystan muttered to the guard flanking him.

He had taken a leading position for their travel party, the emerald of his tail the only bright spot in her line of sight other than the trident he brandished.

The guard did not reply.

Lyra took notice of the mermen accompanying them. They didn’t appear to be from one specific territory. Hence, the variety in their tail colors.

The only thing they appeared to have in common was their high level of skill, if the way they had wielded their weapons on shore gave any indication.

Lyra wondered if these men had once served her father.

Had they played a part in Drystan’s rise to the throne?

His voice interrupted her thinking as he spoke louder, attempting conversation with the guard again.

“It’s not an enjoyable place to grow up, I can assure you, Captain. There’s a lack of power that comes from living in a place that serves you up to sobeks daily.”

The guard he attempted civility with slowed the propulsion of his bright-orange tail, bringing him to the guard at Lyra’s side and out of speaking range of Drystan.

“Switch me,” he ordered the silver-tailed guard at her side.

Lyra heard Drystan call him captain, so it was no surprise when the guard obeyed without question. As they exchanged positions, Lyra pressed her lips into a thin line to keep from laughing.

The captain wasn’t the only one disgusted at the so-called king’s presence.

What an interesting turn of events, Lyra thought. If they already hated their new king, it wouldn’t take too much for her to persuade them to her side.

Lyra cleared her throat and raised her shackled hands towards the guard.

“These hurt,” she said, forcing a meekness into her voice. “Can you take them off?”

“You’re lucky you’re only shackled and not gagged,” the captain said, pulling his venomous glare from Drystan to her.

Lyra’s eyes bulged. “Excuse me?”

He tightened his grip on her arm, and Lyra felt the prick of each of his talons pierce her flesh.

“Sirens should be sacrificed to Ennosidas, not paraded through the kingdom as a princess. We should have never rescued you from land.”

The guard opposite him increased the tightness of his hold as he muttered his agreement.

Her blood turned icy in her veins. She was trapped between two mermen who thoughthera monster.

She, a mere prisoner who had been used time and time again, with nothing of her own decisions to show for it.

Lyra wanted to injure him as he had bruised her with his opinion, but with her power still empty and her hands shackled, she resorted to the only weapon she had left.

Snarling her lip back, she let the vitriol spill from her lips, “Says the captain whose allegiance is as changing as the tides.”

He gave her a withering look and spoke between clenched teeth, “I served your father with honor. It’s not from my lack of duty he bore the consequences of?—”

“Captain Brine, that is enough,” Drystan’s voice cracked through the water between them like a whip, snapping their attention to the fury twisting his face. “Leave us. I will assist the wayward princess.”

Their gauntlets pulled against her skin as they ripped them out from beneath her arms, not once casting her a backward glance.