Son of a Mermaid by Katie O'Sullivan

of kelp. The King and his daughter were on the other side of the hedge, arguing!
    Kae froze, her tailfin rigid as stone. Quickly, she scraped mud from the garden bed and pressed it to her wound, stemming the blood before its scent could give her away.
    “I would think,” she heard the King say, “you’d be busy preparing for the arrival of your fiancé, or at least eager to see your chambers again. And yet here I find you moping in the gardens. This castle used to be your favorite place.”
    Kae heard the Princess exhale a huge huff of bubbles, and a school of tiny yellow sunfish came darting through the hedge, right past Kae’s nose. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her surprised cry. She listened as the Princess said, “There are too many soldiers already. I thought the peace negotiations would bring an end to the tension. Instead, it’s brought them closer to home.”
    “Prince Demyan is only doing his duty, protecting your cousin from threat. Once the treaty is signed and the marriage ceremony is complete, everything will return to normal.”
    Princess Brynn sounded startled. “I… I thought you scheduled the wedding for winter.” Kae thought the way the princess pronounced “wedding” made it sound like a deadly disease or some dreaded event. She realized for the first time that maybe the princess wasn’t altogether happy about her engagement.
    Her tone was apparently not lost on her father. “Your wedding will be held in the Southern Adluo court over the Winter Solstice, and you will do your duty to your clan.” His voice softened as he added, “You know I had no real choice in the matter, Brynneliana. I had to stop the bloodshed. It was one of Prince Demyan’s few demands. He insisted – and I concur – that we need to bind the clans together again with more than words.”
    “I know we Aequoreans are farmers, not fighters,” Princess Brynn was saying. “We’re no match for the Adluo soldiers, who train to kill or be killed. But… I do not trust those Adluos. I fear nothing we offer will appease them.”
    The King chuckled. “You forget that you also have Adluo blood swimming through your veins. Your own mother, Neptune bless her, came from the South so long ago.” The King paused. Brynn remained silent. “Falling in love with a drylander was never part of my plan for you, even if this treaty hadn’t been made with the Adluos,” he added. “Royal marriages are meant to be political, not romantic.”
    “But you loved my mother,” Kae heard Brynn counter. Kae had never met the Queen, who had died giving birth to her daughter many years before Kae was even born. King Koios had never remarried, the rumor being that he had been so in love with his wife that no one could replace her.
    “I learned to love her very much,” the King agreed. “When your grandfather first arranged my marriage to your mother, so many moons ago, I too had misgivings. It’s natural to fear the unknown. But I did my duty for the clan, and was rewarded with love and friendship, as you will be. Your cousin Theo is young, and has many years before him to grow into the leader his father once was. You can help him, and help all of us find peace.”
    The trumpeting of a conch horn interrupted anything more Brynn might have said. “I must attend this meeting with the Adluo delegation,” the King said, his voice fading as he swam out of the garden toward the castle. “This Solstice celebration is your engagement party, announcing to the world that the Atlantic will soon become one ocean.”
    Kae heard the Princess say, “The Atlantic is only one ocean,” but the King was already too far away to catch her words. Strange noises came from the other side of the hedge, now that the princess was alone. Kae wondered if Princess Brynn could be…crying? She thought only humans did that sort of thing. Kae was about to swim over the barrier to offer comfort, when a screech sounded from the direction of the