Silver Jungle

Chapter 15

"The Old King is dead!" The Dawon yowled. "I, Seth Lyov, claim the throne of the Silver King!" Zammi stood up and shouted, her voice echoing all around the basalt cove.

"You have no right to the throne! The Heir has been chosen for years!"

Seth's eyes glinted like flint, narrowing on Dani's mother. "Then I suppose this is a coup d'état." He growled. "Foolish of you not to notice that I had my whole pride here today. Arrogance makes you ignore the lower mages. You are blind to those you think lesser of you."

"I demand my throne!" a new voice screamed, and everyone looked over at the Selkie seat, where the orange eyed Selkie girl had been. She was standing now, her spotted flaxen hair rippling. A bolt of shock shot up Dani's spine. That woman was the next Silver King?

"I have worked for that throne for as long as I can remember! You will not just take it from me!" She howled in anger, her eyes burning.

"You don't get a choice, little pup!" Seth screamed. "I have claimed the throne! It is mine now!"

"You have killed our King to do it! That is treason!" She howled back, and Dani thought her canine teeth grew, sharpening and elongating.

"Lay down your claim to the throne, and I will be merciful to you." Seth hissed. "Let go to your earthly desires!"

"So that you can rob me blind of them? Never!" She screamed, and she snatched up the leathery material that had been covering her seat.

"Wait, that's the next Silver King?" Dani hissed at Dra. "I know that it's a Selkie, but I thought that was a girl." Certainly, the Selkie looked feminine to Dani.

"She is. It's too confusing to keep changing back between 'King' and 'Queen'." Dra whispered, her eyes glued to the scene in front of her. "We just decided on 'King'. Much easier." Dani vaguely remembered Zammi saying 'she' but hadn't corrected Dani when he'd used the masculine pronouns. But then again, Dra's dislike of her had been distracting.

"I am Amber Pearl of the Selkies! I am the Silver Heir! It is my right to sit on the throne!" She screamed, and it sounded like her throat was getting raw.

"You have no right but a promise of a dead man!" Seth howled, and his voice echoed in in the court, magnifying his presence. "The throne belongs to me!"

"That promise of that dead man is all it takes to become King!" Zammi shouted, standing up from her seat. "This is deranged and absurd! Stand down, or else!"

"Or else what, Zammi Coatl? What will you do to me? You've done nothing helpful or even active for the past twelve years! Before that, you would have joined us! You remember us, no? You remember our cause? Or have you forgotten what it's like to be young and want freedom?" Seth yowled, looking up at Zammi with hate in his eyes.

Dani suddenly stepped forward, and looked down at Seth, feeling his powers flare in anger. Seth looked up at him, and tipped his head. "Who do you-"

"Speak to my mother like that one more time, and I swear that you will not have a tongue to speak with." Dani hissed, standing next to Zammi.

Grinning, Seth leered up at him. "I take that as a challenge."
  ***
Dani didn't remember being yanked all the way to the bottom of the court, but he did remember the aching pain that accompanied it. It was the kind of pain that seeps into Dani's bones, splitting and hungry.

Immobilized, Dani felt his scales fade into his skin, but could do nothing about it. He was too weak.

In the distance, he could hear Zammi and Dra, but he couldn't distinguish anything they was saying. He was underwater, his mind clouded in the massive hurt that was his body.