Chapter 23

“Take to the Rock of truth, Kai,” Razad barked once the women had left.

Kai swam to the Rock. Oh yeah, he would demand the truth now.

Razad turned on him bitterly, his voice full of anger. “What crazy insanity has gotten into you? By letting her win you have brought shame to kraken kind. Not only that, but you have given the valley humans a huge advantage by showing your weaknesses. Do you know what danger you have put us in, boy?”

Kai returned his grandfather’s gaze, his own eyes sparking. And then he spread his tentacles around him, in the warrior pose. There was no mistaking it. Even Razad blanched.

“I let Luna win because she told the truth. A truth that she needs answers to. That I need answers to. You have hidden a secret from myself and the citizens of Thedaka for fifteen years, sir. We have the right to know.”

His words were met with silence. Kai looked around the elders, and, meeting his father’s gaze, Kai sensed that he was proud of him. “Did our kraken leaders break the Treaty that was meant to stop violent acts? Acts like the one I bear proof of every single day?” He held up a scarred tentacle. “Noble ones, you owe it to our people, and to Luna, to tell the truth.”

As he spoke, a uniformed kraken, one of their Polika, entered and proceedings paused.

“We have the reports back from Tower Security, sir.” He addressed Razad.

“And?”

“The photos were sold by a selkie named Wyatt McIver to the Tween Council of Towns. For a considerable sum of money. Wyatt also gave Luna’s full details to the council, suggesting she was someone who would potentially agree to spy on kraken kind.”

“Is she implicated?”

“No. It’s clear the selkie broke her phone’s code. He sent the photos from his boat the night she recounts losing her phone. We have the full feed of the messages. Since then, Miss Storm has been contacted by Tween officials, but after the first call, she blocked their number and has had no further contact.”

Razad huffed a sigh, pulling at his beard.

“It is as I said, she spoke the truth,” Kai burst out.

There was a long, ominous silence.

Finally, Shen said quietly, “Razad, you need to tell Kai what really happened fifteen years ago in these waters.”

Razad looked at him from under heavy brows, then sighed deeply. “You tell him, Shen.” He waved his stick at Kai’s uncle. “I have had enough for one day.”

Shen turned to Kai. “On 10 October in the year 48,535, a boat came close to the gates of Thedaka. At the time, Colonel Mashinka was in charge of our naval team.”

Kai’s eyes widened. Mashinka had been Razad’s older brother, the top naval officer of their clan, and highly revered. Mashinka had disappeared from public life around… fifteen years ago, Kai realized. Barely any whisper of him had been heard after that. He’d died a few years later and received a full state funeral.

“On the night in question, without consulting the other elders, Mashinka ordered the kraken navy to break up the boat.” Shen paused. “Before we even knew what their purpose was in being so close to Thedaka.”

“How come this has never been spoken of?” Kai looked around at the assembled kraken. Razad shifted back into the shadows. Shen cleared his throat. “After the wrecking it was found that Colonel Mashinka was suffering from a form of dementia that clouded his judgment and made him prone to hasty and ill-considered decisions.”

Kai stared in disbelief. “And yet, he was allowed to keep heading up our naval fleet.”

“Not after this event, no. He was retired on medical grounds, and from there placed into care.”

“And the human deaths? Did anyone try to save Luna’s parents?” Kai’s voice cracked.

Shen did not answer. Kai thumped a fist against the rocky podium, tears of rage blurring his vision. “Did our navy try to save the children? Tell me!”

“Yes. One of the fleet’s nurses, who’d witnessed the event unfold, saved the baby. That nurse was Hana’s mother. She brought the baby back to her home, kept it alive by using ancient practices. That is how Hana knew there was truth in the story, because the baby lived with her for a short while when she was a teenager.”

“What about Luna, was she just left there to perish?”

“My understanding from Hana is that her mother went back to find the girl. But she had disappeared,” Shen said quietly.

“And Tomas? What happened after, did he stay in Thedaka?”

“Not for long.”

“Is he still alive?”

“He is.”

Kai breathed a ragged sigh of relief. “Thank the gods,” he murmured. “Where?”

“He resides with a Mer clan, well south of Motham city. Hana’s mother died of cancer soon after this event and we could not maintain the child in Thedaka without her nursing skill. Besides, keeping a human in our midst was simply too dangerous. What if humans with evil intent tried to find him? What if we nurtured him, and he betrayed our trust and gave our secrets to the human world? No, we could not risk raising him.”

“But you heard Luna, she is not a valley human. She’s survived her whole life in the Motham marshes. Not a single human has ever tried to find her.”

Razad stood now and waved his stick. “Until you let her win the games. Now they are sniffing around like a pack of hounds.”

“Enough, sir.” Kai’s father suddenly stood. “You will not continue to blame my son.”

Kai blinked. His quiet father who never spoke out, the gentle scientist who spent his days in his research lab, was now puffed up to nearly double his size, flushed a vivid blue and glaring at Razad over the top of his gold-rimmed glasses.

“My son, your grandson, will not be vilified for the injustice that we perpetrated in the first place. No more of it, sir. It ends here. Today.”

Razad hammered his staff on the rock floor. “He had carnal relations with a human, spilling his seed between her human thighs. And he allowed the fact to be broadcast to the world. What, you’d have him go unpunished?”

“Look at his scars, look at them.” His father’s rage was obvious now. “Don’t you think he’s been punished enough?”

Razad sat back, silently gripping his stick with a gnarly fist.

“That girl’s family has benefited Thedaka beyond measure.” Kai’s father’s voice shook with emotion. “Their tragic deaths were our gain. You know that as well as I do. The least we can do is allow this human to reunite with her one remaining kin.”

More glances were exchanged between the elders. Razad’s tentacles had turned flaccid, his shoulders sagged. Suddenly he looked old and frail.

“What are you talking about?” Kai looked from his father to his grandfather, bewildered. “How could Luna’s family dying benefit us?”

Razad said sternly, “You will know more when you reach Metan. And that time is not now.”

His father stood his ground, staring Razad down. “All I ask is that you have compassion for Luna Storm. And that you—we all—forgive Kai’s indiscretions. Hopefully then we will be able to heal and move on. Luna Storm has been a blessing to our clan. She has forced us to face up to this travesty of justice.”

There was a mumble from the assembled group that sounded to Kai like agreement.

“You have been heard, now sit,” Razad grunted. “We will have a show of tentacles. Will we disclose the whereabouts of the human’s brother? All tentacles for aye.” An array of limbs rose in the air. Their leader sat for long moments rubbing his beard. Finally, he growled, “Very well. The human shall be reunited with her brother. As long as she is sworn to silence on all that has transpired. Hana will escort her.”

“No!” All eyes turned to Kai again. “Let me escort Luna to meet Tomas.”

“You are foolishly infatuated with this human. No good can come of this.”

This time it was Shen who stood. Shen, who’d been furious with him a mere week ago, said, “Let him go with her—they have formed a bond. I am sure Kai has the sense to see this can go no further, but they have both been through a lot. Let them have a few more days together.”

Kai cast his uncle a grateful look.

Razad sat very still. Finally, he stared at his grandson from under drawn brows. “Very well. You may accompany her. But then this madness ends. You will sever all contact with the human. Purge her from your system.”

Kai stood silent. “Do you hear me?” Razad demanded.

“Yes sir,” Kai gritted out. “It won’t go any further. She doesn’t have feelings for me.” He couldn’t help the bitter note that crept into his voice.

“I’m talking about you renouncing your feelings for her. No pining. No trying to take on human form to sneak onto land to be with her. You will come back and attain Metan with a good kraken woman who will sire you many younglings. E ka leah?” Is that clear?

Kai bowed his head. He knew Lun would walk away without a backward glance. And he was ready for the pain. But let him have these last few days with her. Let him be the one to reunite her with her brother, to see happiness shape her lips into a smile.

“Al deg-ha,” he said quietly.

So be it.