In the court, the Elders argued loudly with worried faces. Their voices bounced off the coral pillars, sharp with a panic that had been brewing for days.
"Where are Kai and Princess Cleo ?!" one shouted, his hands trembling.
"They've been gone two days and more fish have disappeared, the animals are running away from our kingdom !" another added, his eyes wide with a primal terror.
"The other kingdoms will soon hear of this, they will be restless. The ocean heart is supposed to be protecting us now that Annamira has been born again in Princess Clara. So why is it we still have to live in fear ?" The question cut through the room, hitting deep into the hearts of everyone present. If the prophecy was true, why were they still cowering in the dark ?
"What if the humans got them ?! What if history is repeating itself ?"
The mere mention of the "land walkers" sent a shiver through the council. They remembered the stories, the blood in the water, the screams that the currents couldn't wash away.
"Silence !" King Orion roared. The sound was like a tectonic shift, vibrating through the very water they breathed. Everyone stood up immediately bowing their heads, the room falling into a deathly, respectful hush.
King Orion didn't just speak, he commanded the space, his presence heavy with the weight of a crown. Alongside him walked Queen Haisly too. Her face was a mask of royal composure, but her fingers were white where she gripped her silken robes.
"We must send more guards ! No need to panic," King Orion said and sat down on his throne. His voice was steady, the voice of a ruler who would not let his kingdom crumble into chaos.
Just then, Kai burst in with the remaining guard. He just popped up in the middle of the court room holding the hurt guard close. The sight was a jagged blade to the heart of the court's peace. He quickly dropped to one knee, blood streaking his shoulder where a bullet had hit him, a strange, metallic wound that looked alien against his shimmering scales.
"What happened ? And where are the others ? Cleo ?" King Orion asked, his voice laced with worry and more. The King's composure cracked for a split second, the father eclipsing the ruler. Queen Haisly stood up too looking around for her daughter, her breath hitching in her throat as she searched the doorway for a face that wasn't there.
Kai's voice trembled. "Your Majesties, we followed the oil from the water and saw a ship, just like Princess Clara did. They were taking out fish. They had the things they use to capture them... Princess Cleo tried to stop them. We tried to stop her but she was stubborn. Now the land walkers have her."
Queen Haisly felt the world tilt. They have her daughter ? Images of iron cages and cold, dry air flooded her mind. She thought of the legends of what humans did to captured merfolk, the experiments, the displays, the slow fading of their magic.
"We tried to fight but we were outnumbered," Kai continued, his head hanging in shame. "They have these metal things they use to attack us... five of our guards are down. They killed them."
Gasps echoed through the court. The Elders shrank back, the stench of death following Kai into the room. The King stood up in fury, his eyes burning like blue fire, while Queen Haisly clutched her chest. Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. The thought of Cleo, her brave, stubborn girl, in the hands of those monsters made her knees weak.
"How far are they ?" Orion asked, his voice colder now, stripped of all warmth. It was the sound of a king preparing for war.
"It takes two days to swim there and since they're still moving, I'm sure it will take three now. But we can reach quicker if we use the teleportation spell. That's how I got here quicker," Kai responded and King Orion nodded. It's good that they're far from the palace but still it doesn't mean they're safe.
Every second Cleo spent on that ship was a second closer to a fate worse than death.
"GUARDS ! Lock the entire kingdom down. Get every mermaid inside. Make sure no one steps out of this barrier. Also, do not scare them !" The King's orders were absolute. He was a fortress, standing between his people and the horror of the surface.
A deep bell rang through the palace. The sound was low and mournful, a vibration that reached into the deepest trenches. Every mermaid, every fish, every one knew what this bell means so they went into hiding immediately. The vibrant streets of the kingdom turned into a ghost town in a second.
"We don't know what they brought this time, so we need to be more than prepared for this," King Orion said and the elders started to mumble in fear. Some of them saw what happened in the past while some of them weren't even born and only heard about it. But still, it was scary to think about it, to think about more of those humans attacking them.
Queen Haisly looked at her husband, her eyes glassy with tears she refused to let fall in front of the court. She knew the history better than anyone and the thought of Cleo becoming a part of those dark tales was almost too much to bear.
****
Clara's Chamber.
The bell rang, it was heard throughout the entire palace. Clara who just came back and settled on her bed, quickly stood up, heart pounding. The sound was heavy, vibrating through the water and shaking the very frame of her bed.
"What's happening ?!" she gasped.
"That's the palace bell, it means there's trouble," Mini said, his small fins trembling.
"I'll go and see," Clara said swimming towards the door. Her blood was already starting to simmer with a protective heat she didn't quite understand yet.
"Clara this bell means staying inside," Pebs said, trying to block her path, but Clara didn't care as she dashed out. The guards at the door tried to stop her, crossing their spears, but she looked them dead in the eye. She threatened to turn them into statues or worse so they let her go. Who wants to be a statue ? Fear of the Princess's rising power outweighed their orders.
She swam towards the throne hall. Without any care and along the way she saw the panicked fish, dolphins and mermaids. The kingdom was a blur of silver and blue as everyone scrambled for safety, but Clara moved against the current, her heart set on the center of the storm.