[FULL KELS SERIES] When Ande wakes up on the bottom of the ocean with a fish's tail, she's not sure what she did wrong. Getting sacrificed by her island is a likely bet, but why---and why her---is a mystery.
Out of her depth in an unfamiliar world...
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I would trade a finger to have my daggers back right now. One finger seems an almost trivial sacrifice against the risk of apparently imminent death that lurks around every corner as we enter the palace—library—through a back route. A massive fighting force left the city this morning. Never has the intent and value of that diversion been clearer to me. If all goes well, we could be in and out of here before the Alliance Kels are even a fifth of the way to the Gods' Teeth, giving our allies there days of time to make their escape from Alaga. I send a quick prayer to Rashi for their safety, too. Even if mine is almost certainly more at risk right now.
We still have three guards. Weaponless, we're escorted at spearpoint despite our cover story, towards the one person whose response to this situation will likely make or break our chances of survival. I project a silent plea into the water, like that will reach the scholar whose rooms we're headed for. I hope. I don't know my way around this place. But as far as our guards know, we carry information we were sent to find around the islands, on orders from Xivay that are otherwise confidential. The situation is designed in such a way that only one person can confirm or deny our claimed identities and business in Rapal. Our lives now rest in xir hands.
We stop in a room that definitely isn't personal. There's only one door. Two guards cross their spears across our escape path while the third posts herself at the doorway, watching outside. There's no sign yet of the messenger she sent off partway through our journey here. I hope Xivay is in. I hope xe's awake and willing to be disturbed from whatever xe's doing. I hope xe doesn't respond to the summons in a way that will already give away our game. Winona said xe should be prepared for something like this, but actually acting out that preparedness is more than half the battle.
We wait in that room for an excruciatingly long time before the vibration of a voice reaches me from somewhere outside. Yaz and the guards all perk up. Then a swish of moving water precedes two Kels into the room: the messenger, and a graying Shalda-Kel who looks like xe belongs at the bottom of Rapal's pinnacle, not the top. Xivay is a cheerful, pale-skinned squid Kel with a tail so translucent, I can see the ripple of its muscles when xe moves. Xir fins are see-through. Just completely transparent, save for a fringe of red, spiny-looking rays decorating their rounded edges. The spininess appears to be an illusion.
"Yes, don't trouble Arcas with this just yet," xe's signing to the messenger. "I will notify you if there is something worth relaying." Xe then turns to me and Yaz, smile bright with recognition that would fool me if I didn't know what I was looking for. "Welcome. My apologies for not coming out to meet you; I wasn't sure from the last relay message what day to anticipate you. The currents have been temperamental as of late. Did you have a hard journey?"
The messenger is quietly translating for the guards in the room, who lower their spears at the effusive display of familiarity. Xivay ignores them. I'm hard-pressed not to smile from the relief of an effective conspiracy, as one of Rapal's highest-ranking scholars chats with Yaz about ocean currents and asks to be reminded which island we were investigating. Yaz responds with the confidence of Winona's coaching. Rapal's scholars, as it turns out, have at least expressed interest before in scouring the island chain for eel-Kel writings, giving plausibility to our fictional investigations. The island we're using is even one Yaz has been to.
