Mermaid Tear (The Fated #2)

39 | Usurper

Silence encompassed the room following Rhode's whisper. The words seemed to dim the already shadowed archive to a chilling degree.

The siren herself dropped her gaze to the journal clutched in her arms, as if it could answer the questions spinning through all of them. Did Alekos kill his brother?

Did the current king assassinate Akaikos the day after a new heir was born?

Fates. If they were right, Alekos was the villain in Rhode's story. And the horrible thing was, Kain could imagine it. Where Rhode held all the attributes of a leader, she lacked the shadowed edges that would be required for Asha to have done the things she did. While that could be explained through her memory loss, the heart of the matter was Alekos did not lack those traits.

He displayed it in the expensive furnishings. In the guest tables that cost the same price as a food bank. The rooms full of art that could have aided thousands. It was in the packed slums, and in the city infamous for rebels.

It was in the foreign noble confident that flinging the king's name around could grant him the authority necessary for senseless execution.

The seed of possibility was there. Alekos liked fine things. He liked power, and he liked waving it in the faces of others. Someone of honest make would have released them the moment it became possible. With Kain's new potential status, all Alekos had to do was tell his advisors that due to the political strife in Cieon, they would be revisiting the issue at a later time. He could have made it a matter between nations as the accusation of a prince should have been.

Instead, he kept them contained. He flaunted knowledge and reminded them just how helpless they were before him. On how much they had to lose out on if the trial did not go the way they wanted.

A chill crept down Kain's spine. They had all been confident that once the truthsayer arrived, they would be allowed to leave. But, was that really the case? Or would Alekos find another excuse to confine them for political clout? How wonderful it would look if he was the one to hand the "lost" prince into Cieon's hands. They would owe him a favor. And in the impossible case that Kain became king as Alekos thought he would, Eol's crown would have a favor with Kain himself.

Suddenly, he wondered if the trial would truly be just.

That favor would weigh so much more if Alekos pardoned Kain of proved murder.

"You don't know that your son died."

Callias' words cut the tension, before dropping a new, heavier thought in their minds. Would Alekos have his newborn nephew killed? Was he that corrupt? It was more believable than Rhode killing her son, but still hard to digest.

"That's--" Rhode began.

"The casket was closed," Callias continued, voice soft and impossibly blank. "Melitta found the funeral records. She was uncertain about whether to show them to you, and figured she'd approach it after we knew more. She didn't want to bring you needless pain."

"I'm fine."

No one believed her.

"The casket was closed," he repeated. "The official reason was that it was for the sake of those present. Viewing the body of an infant could be shocking. Trumatic."

"What makes you think that's a lie?" Kain prompted after the man fell to silence.

Callias shut the book in his hands, his eyes never budging from the closed volume. "It's not tradition. Not in Reotak, and not here. There, priests are always allowed to bless the body before burial. They request a swift reincarnation from the gods' given the child's short rebirth. I've seen it. Here, in Eol, it's before cremation. The evidence is in the records, Isidor and I checked. There is no reason for this time to have been any different."