Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

Sydney traipsed behind him, surrounded by the Orc pod on her journey through the maze of dungeon tunnels beneath the Nautilus. In monotonous routine, they carried on to another dungeon cell where the Silkie handmaidens again awaited to give Sydney her frigid bath and attend to her thereafter. Sydney endured the cold and harsh scrubbing they gave, telling herself that such momentary pain was nothing in compare to that which she knew her friends and family suffered.

Sydney forced herself to think of those same loved ones who had defied their captors despite their circumstance too. She would go to her grave remembering Yvla’s final stand. There was Owens too, inviting death for he and his father, all rather than give a singular lie that the Blackfin demanded. Much as Sydney had never imagined her former vice principal as being friendly, she drew strength from Ms. Morgan’s final proclamation too.

Long live the queen. Sydney thought then, gritting her teeth at the claw-like taunts of every brushstroke the Silkie handmaidens made to redden her skin. She made Ms. Morgan’s last words a constant in her mind as the handmaidens attended and finished their work of dressing and readying her for the continued act that she was the king’s favored daughter.

Long live the queen. Sydney repeated the defiant message on endless loop as Solomon and his Orcs led her through the maze of dungeon tunnels and then into the main arena of the Nautilus.

The king was waiting for her at the end of the tunnel, a violet curtain with the royal seal of New Pearlaya all that separated Darius and those with him from the clamoring crowd beyond. Sydney recognized the spite in Darius even from afar.

The two others waiting behind him held no such malice.

Rupert Bowrider frowned at Sydney’s approach, but he said nothing as Solomon and the other Orcs brought her forth.

Sydney did not bother to acknowledge her former friend and riding trainer either, her gaze drawn to the shackled and waifish prisoner that Rupert stood guard over. Mom. Sydney started forward and was then held back by the immediate pinch of Solomon’s tightening grip around her bicep. “Mom!” Sydney cried out when she could go no further.

“It’s all right, Sydney,” said Nattie. “You’re going to be all right.”

Sydney knew the truer answer when Solomon positioned her twenty feet from her mother’s arms.

The king gave a lazy wave in Sydney’s direction. “There she stands, my queen,” Darius spat the last. “Your daughter is alive and unharmed, as I promised you that she would be.”

Nattie’s face darkened. “Yes . . . yes, thank you for that.”

Thanking him? Sydney thought, repulsed by her mother’s words. Mom, what are you doing?

Darius nodded at Nattie’s acknowledgement. “Now, wife, for the final time, I beg you to give me the same peace of mind and end this madness . . . where is our son?” He quietly demanded. “Where is Jun?”

Nattie sagged. “Darius, I told you true already - I do not know where our son is. The last I saw of Jun was in the keeping of others I trust before I left our home upon the shore.”

All to come looking for me, Sydney sagged, her conscience noting the omission her mother made.

The king frowned at the queen’s answers. “And yet our son is not ashore,” he said to Nattie. “He is not in the home you made there either. Indeed, with credit to the Blackfin and his Violovar, our son is not at your self-proclaimed haven either. All of those other traitors to the crown you claim to have trusted at your precious zoo have all been delivered here.”

Not all of them, Sydney knew, remembering several notable absences from among those imprisoned during the trials. There was the elderly Wilda, the first Merrow outside of Sydney’s mother to reveal herself. She remembered her mother’s friend and fellow dolphin trainer, Barb, also. As Sydney reflected on all the faces that she had seen inside the Merrow cages, she breathed a momentary sigh of relief that she had seen neither of them among the others. They must have Jun with them, she thought. But where are they now? She wondered. If everyone else was brought here, what happened to Wilda, Barb, and Jun?

Sydney looked on her mother, then, watching the queen shake her head in answer of the king.

“If our son was not at our home, Darius,” said Nattie Gao, “If he was not at the zoo either, then I do not know where Jun is now. All as I have told you and the Blackfin over and again.”

Darius frowned. “Perhaps you did speak true in that regard, wife. But, while you may not know where Prince Jun is, let you search your mind further now and answer me true - where might Jun be going? Aye, where might these trusted and traitorous friends of yours be taking our sweet prince?”

“Far from here, I hope,” said Nattie, her chains clinking as she stood taller. “I would sooner have a stranger take both of my children to the moon if it kept them from you and all others like you.”

“Your children, aye, perhaps.” Darius stepped closer to her. “But one of them, at least, is not mine.” He glanced at Sydney before looking to the queen again. “Or will you maintain your denial of that lie also?”

“No,” said Nattie. “No, I have confessed to Sydney’s origins already.”

“In private, aye,” said the king. “But, will you confess to your treasonous guilt and the truth of Sydney’s father before the people? For I think it one thing to suffer the consequences for your own selfish actions, my queen. Quite another to watch a loved one suffer in your stead. So . . . which will it be? Confess to me now where my son is,” Darius sneered as he glanced in Sydney’s direction once more, “or else you force me to reveal the truth before the masses. Aye, to cast your daughter in front of all