Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga) (35 page)

‘But now that we have two men who can turn new mers, what does it matter? You could cross-breed all of the Marked families, producing more and more powerful mers. You could start fifteen more Marked families if you wish-
hundreds
even! Anna would have if she’d known how rare her gift was!’

‘Are you so sure that you speak for all of the Marked families?’ Vana asked quickly. ‘Perhaps they’re not as power hungry as you are, that they’re willing to give up their special standing and chance at the throne, for the possibility of producing a few powerful matches. I’ll remind you, that it is only your family and the Loveridge family, who have suffered of late. The other families are quite content with their lot.’

‘Because they don’t
know
any different,’ Eka countered. ‘I’m certain that they’d be open to the possibility of exchanging one entitlement for another. There are plenty coming in this week for Tristan’s memorial-why don’t we ask them
then
?’

‘Because there will be an engagement party, that’s why!’ Vana shot back. ‘And anyone who dares try to derail that will be seen as defying the queen!’

Ivyanne was surprised to hear that, but she supposed it made sense. She glanced over at Lincoln and saw that he was looking at her, smiling gently. Ivyanne couldn’t guess which was more pleasing to him-the idea of celebrating their love, or of having the queen stand up for him so vehemently. Beside him, Sherri was pouting. That gave Ivyanne an equal thrill.

‘It’s a foolish mistake,’ Eka snapped. ‘You would throw aside the chance to have hundreds of new, powerful mer families for
one
mermaids’ happiness?’

‘But we don’t
want
hundreds of Mer families!’ Ivyanne suddenly erupted, unable to bear another second of being discussed like she wasn’t even there. ‘There is a difference between cultivating our species, and expanding it to the point where we have no control over it. A very possible outcome of your proposition is chaos, and you cannot deny that. We are a tightly knit society-we have to be to keep our secret. Do we want to expand our population? Yes. But we do not want the issues that come with extreme expansion-war and intolerance, everybody working individually for their own selfish goals….You speak as though hundreds of kids like Ardhi would be a blessing-but our job is to keep nature balanced-
not
to over throw it! Personally, I don’t
want
to see eighty mermaid teens battling it out to see who can pull the most lightning out of the sky like one massive pissing contest! And that is what will happen if we turn our fight to survival into a race for supremacy!’ She pivoted to face Ardhi. ‘I care for you and I’m sorry but you stirred up some
hell
when you came into your powers. And that’s because you were working for a personal goal,
not
to benefit our kind.’ She glanced around at every face in the room, imploring them with her eyes to see reason. ‘There is nothing I won’t do to better our people, and if having a child with Ardhi would do that, then I would. However-’ she held up a finger. ‘I see no way for it to work that wouldn’t cause a mutiny. Am I relieved on a personal note? Yes. But the fact remains.’

A hush fell over the room.

‘I’m with her,’ Saraya was the first one to speak, smiling ruefully. ‘I just tried imagining my job if there were five thousand of us, and it made me want to chuck. I’m sorry I spoke at all-I had no idea it would cause this kind of bedlam.’

‘That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,’ Lincoln came to Ivyanne, kissing her on the cheek. ‘I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack for a second there, before you spoke up.’

Ivyanne snorted. ‘I think I still might.’

Her mother released her. ‘My daughter just demonstrated why the Court bloodline is ideal to rule our people, no firepower required.’ She said. ‘Eka, I understand your point of view, but your suggestion is just as fraught with trouble as our current system is. The moment Ivyanne is married and a child born of that match, things
will
calm down.’ She turned to Ardhi. ‘Like I said yesterday, I understand everything you went through, and I feel for you, and am apologetic of the part I played in your undoing. I’d like to say that encouraging Tristan was wrong, but the truth is that Ivyanne did love him-and if Lincoln hadn’t been turned, things would have been fine. Just as things will be fine now.’

‘Not for Ardhi, they won’t be,’ Eka said, running her hand over her son’s hair. ‘He’ll love your daughter forever, and suffer for it.’

‘Or perhaps he’ll move on, have a child with someone else-Sherri here even-and then his offspring could be a match for Ivyanne’s own one day. You never know. Everything can change in a second.’

‘Now I
really
feel uncomfortable,’ Sherri eyed Ardhi nervously before looking up at Link. ‘Can you take me back to work now? I’ve heard all I can handle for one morning.’

‘Sure,’ Lincoln left Ivyanne’s side. ‘I’m sorry about this. And I thought things were complicated when
I
was turned!’

‘Hold on,’ Ash suddenly said. ‘Ivyanne, can you escort them please?’

Ivyanne turned to her father. ‘What?’

Ash glared at Lincoln. ‘I’m not sure how I feel about this yet, but I don’t fancy the idea of Lincoln and this one spending too much time together without you. Even if flirting was a simple mistake, which it could have possibly been-two newly turned mers alone is a recipe for disaster.’

Lincoln looked crushed. ‘You don’t trust me not to cheat on your daughter?’

Ivyanne felt for Link. She knew he’d been so proud of how easily he’d won the king over that first day. Now Joakim’s tattling had undone all of his hard work. Still, she couldn’t deny that she felt a pang of gratitude for her father’s watchful eye.

‘Dad, please don’t,’ Ivyanne said quickly. ‘If I can’t trust him, I might as well kill myself now.’ She turned to Lincoln. You brought her in a boat?’

He nodded dumbly.

Ivyanne glanced at the ceiling. ‘Good. I have some things to take from my room to my new place, but I want to have some breakfast first. Can you and Sherri swim back and leave the boat for me?’

‘Sure,’ Lincoln glanced at Sherri. ‘You’ll be fine.’

She shrugged. ‘I trust you.’

‘Then it’s settled. If you want to come over when you finish tonight, that would be nice. But for now, I just want to sit, eat a big breakfast, and pretend the last twenty minutes haven’t happened.’ Ivyanne sat down in her seat once more.

‘Of course I’ll come over tonight,’ Lincoln said, kissing her cheek. ‘But if you want to accompany me now, I won’t mind. It would be lovely.’

‘Working all day? No thanks.’ Ivyanne looked over at Sherri. ‘Besides, it’s unnecessary. I’m her princess now too-she’s got no choice but to be respectful-which means keeping her hands to
herself.
’

‘Of course,’ Sherri whispered, bowing her head slightly.

Ivyanne smiled sweetly, glancing back up at Lincoln. ‘Then I’ll see you tonight.’

⁓

Ardhi had thought he was beyond the point of being shocked, but the revelations of that morning had shaken him. He hadn’t expected Sherri to show up with Lincoln-the plan had been for
Ardhi
to claim ‘accidentally’ changing her. He still didn’t know how she’d managed it, but he supposed it would do. He smirked, wondering how long it would be before Lincoln worked out that his newfound ‘gift’ was a farce. You couldn’t change what was already altered-they’d be scratching their heads over
that
one miracle for years.

His mother had knocked him for six too with her little tirade and grand breeding scheme. And although he’d agreed with her whole-heartedly, he’d had to at least attempt to shut her up, especially when he saw how horrified everyone else looked at the mere suggestion of his coupling with Ivyanne. Besides, he liked being the most powerful, and he was in no hurry for the other Marked families to interbreed and create mers to rival him -there were flaws in the system, yes, but at the moment they just weren’t his priority.

He smiled, thinking of how Ivyanne had handled the situation. It never ceased to amaze him with the coherent way she could break down every issue to its very cause. It was like her mind worked twice as fast as any other-which was precisely why he had to play his hand very carefully. He was powerful and sneaky-but she was smarter. She would make a terrific ruler one day.

Ardhi had thought the subject was closed for the day when both Ivyanne and his parents headed upstairs after the recently turned mers had left for the day. But he was wrong.

‘I don’t like it,’ Joakim said, draining the last of his glass of milk, still staring out the window. ‘Did you see the way she was looking at Lincoln?’

Ardhi looked up, interested. ‘That Sherri girl?’ he asked.

Ash Court nodded grimly. ‘Something about her rubs me the wrong way…’

‘I totally saw that,’ Saraya pointed out. ‘
Those
are the eyes I make when I’m trying to manipulate someone.’

‘You’re just being protective,’ Vana said softly, looking up from her computer. She’d been typing away all morning. ‘When they’re married, you’ll relax. Ivyanne trusts him.’

‘Ivyanne trusts everybody. She’s naïve.’ Ash glanced at Ardhi. ‘I wish your father hadn’t told me that. There are certain things a man doesn’t want to know about his future son-in-law. I respected Lincoln, and didn’t doubt his loyalty for a second. Now I’m not so sure-he seems to be as much of a potential player as Tristan was.’

‘That makes two of us,’ Ardhi was glad to admit. Finally, something was going his way! He’d forgotten that Ash had never liked the Loveridge family much, although why was unclear. ‘He wasn’t exactly pushing her off him, was he?’

‘No,’ Ash said stonily,‘he wasn’t.’

‘You’re making too much of this,’ Vana said to her husband, her tone light. ‘Ivyanne was passing time with Tristan then, remember?’

‘But Ivyanne had serious feelings for Tristan,’ Saraya said softly. ‘I sincerely hope that Lincoln doesn’t actually
care
for this Sherri girl.’

‘He very well could now, even if he didn’t then,’ the king said solemnly. ‘She’s his charge now. He’s
responsible
for her. It could muddy the waters.’

‘Well let’s just hope it doesn’t,’ Vana glanced at Ardhi quickly before looking away.

Ardhi had to fight back a smile. Vana was still clearly on edge about discussing Ivyanne’s love life in front of him. Was it possible that he intimidated the queen? Was she secretly afraid that despite everything she’d done to keep him out of power, Ivyanne might choose him in the end anyway?

‘I’ll give him a fair chance,’ Ash said, turning his back on the window. ‘But if he messes up again, if he causes my little girl a drop more of pain now that she’s finally given her heart to him, I
will
pull the plug on the entire engagement.’

Ardhi’s heart began to race with excitement.

‘But then what?’ Saraya asked.

Ardhi was suddenly very aware of three sets of eyes on him.

‘Then we’ll know who the worthiest candidate truly is,’ he heard Ash say gravely. ‘And I’ll do no less than
order
her to marry Ardhi.’

There they were. The words Ardhi needed to hear to rejuvenate his spirits.

‘I think I’m going to go for a shower,’ he said, not looking at anyone as he left the room, feeling the weight of his phone in his pocket as he jogged up the stairs. When he got to the empty bathroom, he leaned against the wall, and whipped his phone out. His mother had fetched some of his personal possessions for him the night before, in his old leather bag. When he got a chance, he’d have to retrieve his wallet from where he’d hidden it on Tristan’s boat.

‘Green flag,’
he texted Sherri.
‘Do everything within your power.’

After he’d sent that, he texted Adele.
‘Be ready-I may need you here very soon.’

Grinning, Ardhi sauntered into the bathroom, regarding his reflection with pleasure. Lincoln would fail because he was weak. Ardhi could practically feel Ivyanne’s tears on his shoulder already.

21.

When Adele’s phone went off early on Sunday morning, Tristan reluctantly rolled out of bed. He was never going to take a soft mattress for granted again. It had been three nights since he’d arrived on Norfolk and was already feeling a lot better.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and looked down at the little screen.

P: Be ready-I may need you very soon.

Tristan sighed and put the phone in his pocket, making his way into the bedroom he’d imprisoned Adele in since Friday afternoon. Aside from letting her up to do her business and eat some fruit and water, he’d barely paid her any attention, sleeping around the clock and monitoring Adele’s phone. Ardhi had started texting the night before from a number not saved as a contact, asking for weird things-like photos of the tree outside or something else random...obviously for proof that she hadn’t bolted. Tristan had responded on her behalf.

‘Good morning,’ Tristan said, going to her bedside and sitting on the side of the mattress. ‘How do you feel?’