War of the Ocean

Chapter 25

She was no longer a princess, that was all Arelena could think of while the guards began dragging her away. She knew that they were taking her down to her new home in a cell, but she didn't care. She let them drag her away, she would be closer to Soren that way, anyway.

But before they could drag her back into the palace, there was something of an explosion on the surface and a great big metal boulder came down to rest in the middle of the courtyard. The Mer panicked, swimming off in all directions. The guards holding Arelena exchanged a glance, clearly just as frightened as everyone else. But they couldn't just release her and bolt away, they had a duty to their king. Even though that king was really a monster. Speaking of "that king," Tristien reemerged from his palace to see what had caused all of the chaos. He looked one look at the metal boulder and narrowed his eyes before streaking up to the surface. A few of the guards followed him, but not the ones still holding Arelena captive.

She turned to them desperately, wanting to see what was going on above the ocean just as a great shadow fell over the palace. Looking up, she could see a dozen great shapes drifting on the ocean surface way above their heads. Human ships had come.

'Please, let me go and when this is all over, you'll be safe,' she begged the guards holding her. 'I won't tell my brother if you just let me go, I'll say the chaotic crowd split us up. Please!' To her surprise, the two mermen actually appeared to be considering her offer. One of them in particular seemed very close to accepting her offer until the second shot him a glare.

But they had been close to accepting her offer. Did she really have that much power?

And then she realised that she did.

As a siren, her voice was a weapon. She could convince sailors to sail straight into a reef with a single note but Tristien had always told her that her voice wouldn't work on the Mer. She'd even tested it out on him, only to find that he was right. But just then, when the guards had almost agreed to release her, she had unknowingly been using a little bit of that same power in her voice. Had Tristien knowingly lied? Or did he just not know if it could because he was immune to her power? If she could just use a little more...

Channelling more power into her voice, Arelena tried again.

'Let me go and I will make sure that Tristien doesn't hurt you for it,' she told them. 'Please, just let me go.' Without hesitation, the guards released her and she tore away, speeding up towards the surface. Although she let go of her hold on them as she left, neither guard followed. They didn't care if their king punished them later, they weren't going anywhere near the human ships if they could help it.

Her head broke through the waves and she came to the surface, several metres away from one of the ships at the back of the fleet. Gliding forward, she scanned from Tristien and his guards, spotting them by the ship at the head of the fleet. Although she continued to move towards them, she made sure to stay hidden behind the ships, not wanting them to see her. Of course she forgot about the humans on those ships, the ones who called out when they saw her.

'A mermaid!' They gasped. This captured her brother's attention because she saw him glance up at them humans, his eyes following theirs until they came to rest on her. The guards around him all narrowed their eyes, looking as though they were about to come for her. But he stopped them.

'Arelena,' Tristien called. 'Come here, darling sister.'

Slowly, cautiously, she obeyed. She knew she should swim as far away as she could, but something was stopping her; curiosity. Why were there humans here? Why did they shoot that metal boulder from their cannons? What did they want? Not only that, but why was Tristien confronting them? Why had he left the safety of his ocean palace? There had to be some kind of reason, one that she needed to find out.

'Arelena?'

She lifted her gaze to look up to the people on the ship, and the man who had just called her name. Kaiser. Stupid, stupid Kaiser. What was he doing? Didn't he realise how dangerous her brother was? And yet she couldn't help wondering if this was all for her. Why else would he sail an entire fleet out here if not for her? It didn't matter what his reasons were or how happy she was to see him, he would die if he stayed any longer. He had to go.

'Ah, you do know each other,' Tristien observed. 'Interesting. Now, is this the brother that defied me or the one that helped you?'

She glanced at him, half her mind wondering how he knew about all of that. Was he in contact with the human king? The rest of her focused on trying to get herself and Kaiser out of this situation.

'What does it matter, Tristien?' She asked eventually. 'Why do you care, you'll just kill him anyway won't you?'

'Yes, but at least I'll know whether to thank him or not before I do,' he replied but then paused to reconsider. 'On second thought, no. I'll make you kill him for me.'

Her kill Kaiser? Sweet, kind Kaiser? No, she couldn't. How dare he think she could make her do such a thing, he had no control over her. In fact, he never had, so why had she done such horrible things for him? Because she hadn't wished to die, but now, it wouldn't be so bad. She could live with the fact that he might kill her at any given moment.

'Summon your storm and sink his ship with your voice,' Tristien commanded her.

'Why would I do such a thing?' She asked, anger rising within her. 'I won't bend to your will anymore, brother.'

'You will kill him,' he replied calmly.

'No, I won't!' She cried. She wouldn't do anything he told her to anymore. She was done being his weapon.

But then his lips curled upwards, a twisted, sickening smile. He knew something that could convince her to, he still had something he could hold over her. But what? Arelena didn't want to know but she had a feeling that she was about to find out anyway. She watched as he opened his mouth and dreaded his words because she knew that they were the ones that would make her do it despite her unwillingness to do so.

'You will kill him because I still have Soren, remember?' Tristien reminded her. 'If you kill this human without a fight, I might just stop his execution. Who knows, I might even let him go free?' He paused, letting his words sink in. 'Or, I could kill the human myself and then go kill Soren. Your choice.'

But there wasn't much of a choice, her decision was obvious. It was Kaiser or Kaiser and Soren. If she lost one, she could survive as long as she had the other. If they were both to die, she would be drowned in her grief. Not only that, but if only Kaiser died, it wouldn't affect his kingdom so much because they would still have a king and his death wouldn't affect the Mer kingdom at all. On the other hand, if both were to die, the Mer would lose the one that keeps hope in their hearts, the one who might just cause them to rise up and rebel. If Soren died, there would be no hope of anyone facing Tristien, and the Mer who would have followed Soren would hate the humans for it would be a human who had caused it all.

Really, there was no choice.

'I'm sorry,' her voice broke, she could barely get the words out. But Kaiser understood well enough.

'No, Arelena,' he begged. 'You don't have to do this.'

'I love you,' She said. With that, she opened her mouth and sang.

And just when Arelena thought he couldn't control her anymore...